Or maybe it’s just that the teams that beat UConn were just barely better than UConn…
There was pretty much a consensus that there was a gap between the top four and everyone else this season, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that UConn would beat everyone outside the top four and by a significant (i.e. double digit) margin. Obviously the exception was St. John’s, but that’s a good team that caught UConn on a bad night. It happens, but otherwise, UConn wasn’t going to see any close games other than Baylor, Notre Dame and Stanford.
In playing the other top four teams, in regulation UConn tied Notre Dame twice, on their court and a neutral court; UConn lost by 13 at home and won by 9 on the not-so-neutral XL Center. As VAUConnFan pointed out, and I think most of us would (very) begrudgingly concede, Notre Dame was the better team this year. Yet, if you look at the score at the end of regulation, 0-13+9+0 divided by four games puts UConn on average just one point behind Notre Dame for the season. Really, for all intents and purposes UConn and Notre Dame were equal.
The other loss was of course Baylor, and Baylor has been pretty much the consensus best team in the country from start to finish this year, and UConn only lost by 5 – in Waco. If, again begrudgingly, we concede that Baylor and Notre Dame were the best two teams in the country this season, throwing the five point loss to Baylor into the mix gives an average loss of less than two points to the top two teams – less than one basket. And adding the Stanford game actually puts UConn slightly above even.
Looking at it another way, coming into the tournament, UConn had beaten two of the three other top four (Notre Dame and Stanford) and lost to two (Baylor and Notre Dame again). Notre Dame beat one (UConn) and lost to two (UConn and Baylor). Baylor beat two (UConn and Notre Dame), and Stanford lost to one (UConn). There might be some separation from Baylor to Stanford, but really it was close enough among the top four that any one of them might beat any of the others on a given night.
Again as VAUConnFan pointed out, if that last rebound comes off the rim anywhere else, we’re not having these conversations – we’re talking about how Geno’s decision to go with the five guard lineup was genius and how Stef and Kiah and Heather are going to smother Brittney tonight. It was a close thing.
And that’s really the point. In what was supposed to be rebuilding year with only one senior and no All Americans, to play six games among the top four teams and to come out essentially even (at least in points) – to have won two of six games among the top four and been a basket or two away from winning four of six instead - and to have as legitimate shot at getting to the national championship game is really a very successful season. I don’t think that there is a “close game” issue.
