Florida and Illinois are good but i would be utterly shocked if either even made the final four.
they are def behind Iowa St now for sure.
I wouldn't be. Both have flaws, but also have upside runs. If you don't think theyre making it, then I guess you're imagining a Final 4 of 4 one seeds?
Yup - starting our roster with Reibe next year really means we need to ensure whoever the 4 is, they can board.
Florida’s over-reliance on their front court and paint play is my main aversion to them being in the Final Four. The SEC, while a good conference, doesn’t present any similar challenge to their playstyle as far as I’m aware.
Wasn't somebody in this thread questioning whether they were definitely making the tournament?
Florida is good but their last 15 games the only teams they've beaten who are currently ranked are #17 Bama, #22 Tennessee, and #25 Vandy with losses to Missouri and Auburn. They also beat George Washington, St. Francis, Dartmouth, and Colgate during that stretch. The SEC has been really good at gaming the system. The BIg 12 and Big 10 are both clearly better than them if you use your eyeballs.
no, i could see Iowa St and Kansas making runs and i also think St Johns is extremely dangerous as well as Gonzaga being completely of the radar because they got the snot kicked out of them by Michigan and a bad loss at Portland
Almost feels like the Big 10 has a shot to finally get a title this year, but the Big 12 is really good too.
They have been pounding them though - and its a much better league schedule than we've played. So it's hard to call it both ways. Florida has a NC front court, and 4 man guard rotation where they'd need their two primary guards to play well. They had a chance to win at Cameron.
That's the most important thing, IMO. It's interesting reading the scenarios that people post about this team losing and that teaming winning, but in terms of UConn none of that matters if UConn doesn't address and fix their weaknesses and play consistently good defense.
Going back to your post about the 2023 Houston team losing to Miami, I have to give Seth Greenberg of ESPN a lot of credit. While everyone picked Houston to advance to the Final Four when the brackets came out and after the first 2 rounds were completed, he picked Miami to defeat Houston. He stated that the Houston's offense depends a lot on bullying and out toughing other teams for offensive rebounds and that Miami's Norchad Omier can take that away and Norchad did just that. Seth stated Miami has the offense to break down Houston's defense and boy did they ever in that game. They had a offensive rating of 126.7. When is the last time anyone has done that to a Houston defense. It's why I was very concerned when UConn had to play them in the Final Four. Miami was #6 in KenPom's offensive rating in 2023.
And in the NIL era, they have a big money supporter in Tilman Fertitta
Yet he has three NC returners back and 3 McD AA's and he's claiming they're broke.
Their loss of Shead was devastating to their chances in '24. We probably would have played them had that not happened.
Crushed, they would have easily gotten through Duke and NCSt with him. He was the heart and soul of that team.
Or at least the first #2 to also have a chance at avoiding them.
Baylor has two first round kids in their starting lineup and at home, could make a run of it.
Cameron Carr is also a first rounder, I think the frontcourt was the issue which is why he added Nnaji but he isn't good either
