nelsonmuntz
Point Center
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2011
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This UConn team is good enough to win it all, and teams that are good enough to win it all do not come along very often. I am enjoying the ride, and will be disappointed if it does not end on the final weekend of the season.
This year's UConn team is not dominant, but it is very good. It has inside play, outside shooting, penetrators, rebounding, and good defense. Hurley will never be an X's and O's genius, but he has assembled and is coaching up a team that is deep, complements each other very well, and is playing at a very high level where the whole is more than the sum of its parts. There are coaches still playing that are better with late game adjustments, but there is more to coaching than just in-game adjustments. There are plenty of great game coaches who never made a Final Four. Game planning and getting players to play together as a team will go a long way. I started a thread in November where I compared this team to the Dream Season team of 89-90, and that comparison feels even more relevant now. This team just has the "it" that a team needs to make a deep March run.
This is a year where the other top teams, like Alabama, Kansas, Houston, and UCLA, seem very beatable. The media uses superlatives like "shocked the world" so often that it loses some of its meaning. How many people were truly "shocked" by Arizona's or Purdue's first round losses? Surprised maybe, but not shocked. None of these top teams are dominant, and the other teams that are left are all decent. A lot of crazy stuff can happen once the ref tosses the ball up to start the game. If chalk holds, UConn will have to play Kansas AND UCLA to make the Final Four, which is a tough path. Every time UConn has made a deep run, we have gotten some help in getting to the Final Four and National Championship by other top teams getting picked off by someone else. This feels like a Tournament where I think there is going to be quite a bit of that. We will see.
Going into the last two Tournaments, I think we all knew that there was a limited ceiling for UConn. Making a Final Four is always hard, but it is a realistic possibility with this team. So while a win is better than a loss, I am not going to get too excited over beating a low major like Iona. When UConn loses its next game, whatever this special season is comes to an end, and a team like this might not come along again for a while. I will not view it as a failure if UConn does not make the Final Four, but it will be a missed opportunity. I do not want this season to end.
This year's UConn team is not dominant, but it is very good. It has inside play, outside shooting, penetrators, rebounding, and good defense. Hurley will never be an X's and O's genius, but he has assembled and is coaching up a team that is deep, complements each other very well, and is playing at a very high level where the whole is more than the sum of its parts. There are coaches still playing that are better with late game adjustments, but there is more to coaching than just in-game adjustments. There are plenty of great game coaches who never made a Final Four. Game planning and getting players to play together as a team will go a long way. I started a thread in November where I compared this team to the Dream Season team of 89-90, and that comparison feels even more relevant now. This team just has the "it" that a team needs to make a deep March run.
This is a year where the other top teams, like Alabama, Kansas, Houston, and UCLA, seem very beatable. The media uses superlatives like "shocked the world" so often that it loses some of its meaning. How many people were truly "shocked" by Arizona's or Purdue's first round losses? Surprised maybe, but not shocked. None of these top teams are dominant, and the other teams that are left are all decent. A lot of crazy stuff can happen once the ref tosses the ball up to start the game. If chalk holds, UConn will have to play Kansas AND UCLA to make the Final Four, which is a tough path. Every time UConn has made a deep run, we have gotten some help in getting to the Final Four and National Championship by other top teams getting picked off by someone else. This feels like a Tournament where I think there is going to be quite a bit of that. We will see.
Going into the last two Tournaments, I think we all knew that there was a limited ceiling for UConn. Making a Final Four is always hard, but it is a realistic possibility with this team. So while a win is better than a loss, I am not going to get too excited over beating a low major like Iona. When UConn loses its next game, whatever this special season is comes to an end, and a team like this might not come along again for a while. I will not view it as a failure if UConn does not make the Final Four, but it will be a missed opportunity. I do not want this season to end.