"Easy Path"

[FfldCntyFan]

It happens. The final 4 is the goalpost 1st. Several coaches have said it.

I mean don't get me wrong. I think u would have beat them Miami with their A game anyway but they looked lethargic. SDSU OTOH definitely came to play and u guys beat them down.

Three consecutive games, three quality offenses (Arkansas, Gonzaga, Miami) had their worst performances of the year. I doubt that was coincidental.

Tell me, if someone claimed the Nova team from a few years back (Jay's second title) wasn't really a dominant team, they just got lucky with how their path to the title fell, how would you react?

 

[Waquoit]

Going in, the West looked like the bracket with the highest-metric teams. UConn was shipped out West instead of earning a 3-seed. Here's how Kenpom closed the season yesterday:

View attachment 86826We held the #1 offense to 58 points, and scored 76 against the #4 defense.

Props to Ken Pom for finally getting UConn right.

 

[superjohn]

Everyone trying to discredit us seconds after the win. We literally beat Bama. I genuinely think even if it had been a harder game the result would have been the same given a rematch.

Get over it, pundits. We won.

Not everyone. ESPN has been slobbering all over us. Seth Greenberg thinks we're an absolute juggernaut and more national championships are coming soon.

 

[Waquoit]

Most of the teams we beat looked pretty good in the game before us.

Every game was preceded by "these guys are going to be a tough out. UConn better be ready to play". Then, after getting destroyed the same group is saying "They only beat WCC teams".

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

So you guys would have smoked all 63 teams?

I think that's a preposterous conclusion that leads me to questioning your reading comprehension skills, and I certainly would not generalize that conclusion to encompass a broader swath of Villanova fans.

That doesn't mean that you do not offer a claim unworthy of consideration, only that I disagree or perhaps don't understand what you mean.

What specifically has given you the impression that you've accurately stated a majority/consensus/dominant point of view?

I'm interesting in reading what you have to offer.

That's the Uconn fan base I know!!

I'll take you at your word, though I'd welcome whatever discussion of your sample population you'd like to offer.

 

[jontaejones]

I think that's a preposterous conclusion that leads me to questioning your reading comprehension skills, and I certainly would not generalize that conclusion to encompass a broader swath of Villanova fans.

That doesn't mean that you do not offer a claim unworthy of consideration, only that I disagree or perhaps don't understand what you mean.

What specifically has given you the impression that you've accurately stated a majority/consensus/dominant point of view?

I'm interesting in reading what you have to offer.

I'll take you at your word, though I'd welcome whatever discussion of your sample population you'd like to offer.

His second statement implied that.

But I'm just joking around talking trash. Just like u guys.

As for the answer, Kansas Marquette and I think strangely Indiana would have been tough.

 

[90BSEE]

Maybe God likes us more.

 

[jontaejones]

Three consecutive games, three quality offenses (Arkansas, Gonzaga, Miami) had their worst performances of the year. I doubt that was coincidental.

Tell me, if someone claimed the Nova team from a few years back (Jay's second title) wasn't really a dominant team, they just got lucky with how their path to the title fell, how would you react?

That's not what I said.

I said that with another draw you would have gotten a game.

West Virginia gave us a game and almost beat us in 2018. It was VERY close. And several other teams could have beat us under the right conditions.

 

[uconndogs]

Three consecutive games, three quality offenses (Arkansas, Gonzaga, Miami) had their worst performances of the year. I doubt that was coincidental.

Tell me, if someone claimed the Nova team from a few years back (Jay's second title) wasn't really a dominant team, they just got lucky with how their path to the title fell, how would you react?

This is really the point. UCONN played exceptional and very consistent defense throughout the tournament. Opponents had not answer for UCONN's length and also the ability to closeout on the perimeter.

The other thing I'll say is six games and six wins all with the margin of victory in double figures. I don't know if it's been done before, but it was as dominant a performance as I've ever seen.

Folks can critique UCONN's path all they want, but everyone else had a six game path and only one team ran the table.

With the exception of the Miami game when they decided the semis were as far as the wanted to go........which proves that anything is possible to be posted on this site.........

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

His second statement implied that.

Nah, that's just what you inferred and then boosted beyond credibility.

But I'm just joking around talking trash. Just like u guys.

Which guys are "you guys?"

As for the answer, Kansas Marquette and I think strangely Indiana would have been tough.

I imagine that a good number of posters could come up with their own 3 or more teams who could have put up a game - win or lose - that would be closer than the "smoked" you suggested.

Thanks for responding.

 

[mrl2016]

 

[Palatine]

Where were these trolls when we were mowing down Michigan State, Florida and Kentucky?

You can only beat the teams you play.

 

[444JR]

Beat 7 of the top 21 teams in the final KenPom standings

 

[jontaejones]

Nah, that's just what you inferred and then boosted beyond credibility.

Which guys are "you guys?"

I imagine that a good number of posters could come up with their own 3 or more teams who could have put up a game - win or lose - that would be closer than the "smoked" you suggested.

Thanks for responding.

Perhaps but I was still joking.

Seriously I was rooting for Uconn the whole time and I didn't say anything in this thread to the contrary

 

[gsmooth]

That's not what I said.

I said that with another draw you would have gotten a game.

West Virginia gave us a game and almost beat us in 2018. It was VERY close. And several other teams could have beat us under the right conditions.

sure there were teams that could beat Villanova in 2018, but certainly not likely to beat them. That Nova 2018 was a juggernaut.

 

[upstater]

So you guys would have smoked all 63 teams?

That's the Uconn fan base I know!!

I'm 100% confident they would have beaten every single team. It's pretty universally acknowledged that this UConn team was the most dominant in college basketball this season.

Again, outside of BE play, they are undefeated. They beat the #1 seed in the country. Easily. Handily.

 

[Magic32]

That's not what I said.

I said that with another draw you would have gotten a game.

West Virginia gave us a game and almost beat us in 2018. It was VERY close. And several other teams could have beat us under the right conditions.

Honestly no way of knowing how things would have worked out if we had a different draw because they all lost to the same "weaker" teams that we beat. I will say we beat every non-conference team in our path rather convincingly though.

 

[prankster]

I'm 100% confident they would have beaten every single team. It's pretty universally acknowledged that this UConn team was the most dominant in college basketball this season.

Again, outside of BE play, they are undefeated. They beat the #1 seed in the country. Easily. Handily.

Beat the #1 seed. By double digits. On a neutral court.

I don't know what else we could do.

 

[Ports21]

All I smell are salty tears. Who cares what they think

 

[Inyatkin]

Every time there was a team I started to worry about, they'd get knocked off. I worried about Tennessee after they handled Duke (I know, Rick Barnes), but they didn't last. I worried about K-State and their point guard. I worried about Michigan State having a clear path. They kept getting knocked off.
Meanwhile, our average margin of victory was 20 points per game. That's insane in any six-game stretch, let alone the actual NCAA tournament.

 

[CL82]

So you guys would have smoked all 63 teams?

That's the Uconn fan base I know!!

That’s an unknown, right? What we do know is, we beat everyone who was in front of us by double digits in one of the more impressive shows of tournament dominance in recent history.

 

[AllHusky]

The "fluke" is the 8 games in January. Not the path to the championship or our play in the tournament.

Perfect

 

[Jorgensen]

Looks to me like we consecutively beat 3 top 10 teams. Shun the nonbelievers!

 

[imno1]

Too many P5 teams were overrated all year. We beat some of the teams who were playing the best during the time it really mattered.

 

[RedStickHusky]

The tournament exposes conferences more than it does teams. Purdue for instance was a product of its conference.

Dauster is the one who asked the best question when people say the path was easy: "What team did you need them to play to convince yourself they were legit?"

No answer. If you say Alabaa, UConn played them. Houston was a shell of itself at the end. Kansas maybe is the only team that would have been interesting. Too bad Kansas lost to a team UConn annihilated.

We showed up for the Kansas game. They sent Arkansas. Texas got Miami to take their place. Who you gonna blame?

 

[RedStickHusky]

"Easy path" and "Blue Blood?" are distractions to sneak past the "dang, UConn is good" conversations.

 

[RedStickHusky]

So you guys would have smoked all 63 teams?

That's the Uconn fan base I know!!

I'd expect a nova fan to understand how brackets work.... By the only measure that matters, we did smoke the 67 teams that were not left standing.

 

[Mooch82]

You play who they put in front of you. This year was a win for the computers as UConn was never ranked worst than 6 in KenPom even after we lost 6 of 8 games in late Dec/Jan.

Also...yeah, we didn't beat any 1 or 2 seeds, you know why? Because the teams we played beat them!

After the first two rounds when we played who we were supposed to play...

Sweet 16: Beat 8 seed Arkansas, who just beat 1 seed Kansas
Elite 8: Beat 3 seed Gonzaga, who just beat 2 seed UCLA
Final 4: Beat 5 seed Miami, who just beat both 1 seed Houston and 2 seed Texas
Championship: Beat 5 seed SDSU who beat 1 overall seed Alabama in the Sweet 16 (who we also destroyed in the regular season)

What more do you want us to do????

 

[Waquoit]

We were in the Group of Death and prevailed easily. The FF was an uncompetitive joke. It's all trolling.

 

[uconndogs]

Looks to me like we consecutively beat 3 top 10 teams. Shun the nonbelievers!View attachment 86875

We went undefeated in out-of-conference play and from the rankings above convincingly beat #2, 3, 4 and 10 during the season and tournament. It's about as dominant a performance as any team has had in quite a while.

This whole "easy path" thing is foolish imho.