Grantland Big East Preview

[I Like Turtles]

Someone was hating on Uconn

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/9018/big-east-college-basketball-preview#more

 

[Huskies320]

Mark Titus is awesome. In case you don't know, look him up. He was a walk-on at Ohio State that started his own blog. Hilarious

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

LOL when a writer says the reason why this team (Cuse) is the best because they returned every player, then u can pretty much hit the X button at the top of ur window. In all seriousness he deeply underestimates the departure of Rick Jackson.

And...

If your going to say Uconn didnt beat teams that bowed out of the NCAA tournament early....Whats ur explanation for beating Kentucky twice, Texas on the road, Tennessee, Arizona (who dominated Duke) San Diego St...etc. The grantland bias is strong

 

[HuskyBballFan]

I think when you win 11 neutral floor games in a row (9 of which against top-25 teams), the "got hot at the right time" meme probably doesn't apply anymore. Calhoun said it best, I think at Big East Media Day, when asked if he thought he actually had the best team last year. His response was something like "If it wasn't us, who the heck was better?"

 

[Rico444]

Grantland is a site for hipsters, by hipsters. Of course they're going to go against the mainstream.

 

[Ricky1Moore]

Any preview that ignores coaching entirely is pretty weak... coaching is the reason Uconn wins in the clutch...

This preview doesn't bother me. I think Uconn might have some growing pains, maybe lose a few surprising games while they figure out exactly who they are... I'll take top 10 now knowing that their (ridiculous) talent will be building toward being top 4 in April. By then Calhoun would have found everyone's roles, and they'll do what Uconn does in March, win.

Of course, in the real polls, they are already top 5... Grantland was just trying to increase the readership, it probably worked.

 

[Nully]

Syracuse write-up: mentions 0 Syracuse players.
UConn write-up: mentions 1 UConn player.
Marquette write-up: mentions 2 Marquette players.
Cincinnati write-up: mentions 1 player.
Pitt write-up: mentions 1 player.

Five BE players total: Gates, Gibbs, Crowder were all mentioned in passing. Only DJO and Drummond got any attempt at extended analysis.

Bang-up job as usual, Grantland!

 

[bobbygt]

Grantland is a site for hipsters, by hipsters. Of course they're going to go against the mainstream.

Hipsters don't like sports!!!

OK- some of them like soccer.

 

[nomar]

His analysis is fair. It's just his opinion. And he says we're a top-10 team. And he doesn't rag on UConn or mention sanctions or anything. But oh boy, he didn't say we're the best team in the country. HATER ALERT, amiright?

The "Grantland sucks" posts are silly.

 

[Nully]

His analysis is fair. It's just his opinion. And he says we're a top-10 team. And he doesn't rag on UConn or mention sanctions or anything. But oh boy, he didn't say we're the best team in the country. HATER ALERT, amiright?

The "Grantland sucks" posts are silly.

How can Connecticut be the most overrated team in the league if we're a consensus #3-4 team in the nation, and he thinks we're in the Top 10, just not better than Syracuse. So in the BE we'd be 3rd? Odd.

And his analysis is just plain lazy. If his conclusions are anti-Connecticut, fine, but he uses very lazy logic in all of his write-ups, not just the Drummond and UConn ones.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

The "Grantland sucks" posts are silly.

Grantland does suck. I see posts that are better written, better researched, and more entertaining on the Boneyard almost daily. Grantland is presumptious and egocentric claptrap.

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

His analysis is fair. It's just his opinion. And he says we're a top-10 team. And he doesn't rag on UConn or mention sanctions or anything. But oh boy, he didn't say we're the best team in the country. HATER ALERT, amiright?

The "Grantland sucks" posts are silly.

right its his opinion, and we are giving ours. If he posted something that had actual facts and proof why cuse was the best other then, they return everyone and Uconn is overated because they lost 3 out of the last 4 regular season games to teams that flamed out early, then i wouldnt have a problem.

 

[Rico444]

His analysis is fair. It's just his opinion. And he says we're a top-10 team. And he doesn't rag on UConn or mention sanctions or anything. But oh boy, he didn't say we're the best team in the country. HATER ALERT, amiright?

The "Grantland sucks" posts are silly.

His logic is poor. He talks about how Uconn is being overrated this year because they finished 9th in the Big East last year. He basically calls the BET championship and the NCAA championships flukes. However, he ignores what Uconn did in the Nonconference -- A 12-0 record, including wins over Final Four team Kentucky, Michigan State, Tennessee, and Texas on the road. Then he says we don't have an enormous freshman class coming in because we only have one McDonald's All-American...first of all, we don't have any. Second, only one of our three recruits was eligible to be a McDonald's AA, and by all accounts he is our lowest ranked recruit. Just judging whether or not a recruit will have a major impact in college by if they're McDonald's All-Americans or not is pretty irresponsible.

I could handle if he had said Uconn isn't as good as Syracuse. I can't handle poor research supporting that opinion.

 

[nomar]

Thanks guys. I'll gladly eat crow once we go 37-3 or whatever you think we're going to go.

 

[Huskyfan990411]

When I read this statement I realized this guy is a hack:

"And what if I also told you that it added only one McDonald’s All-American recruit (so it’s not like it's reloading with top recruits like Kentucky always does)?"

So I guess Jeremy Lamb is no good since he was not a McD All American. All of those Kentucky McD's have really guaranteed championships for Kentucky as well.

I have no problem with a writer saying UConn will not win the Big East this year but please at least put some work into actually finding legitimate reasons.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

When I read this statement I realized this guy is a hack:

"And what if I also told you that it added only one McDonald’s All-American recruit (so it’s not like it's reloading with top recruits like Kentucky always does)?"

So I guess Jeremy Lamb is no good since he was not a McD All American. All of those Kentucky McD's have really guaranteed championships for Kentucky as well.

I have no problem with a writer saying UConn will not win the Big East this year but please at least put some work into actually finding legitimate reasons.

Taking it even further, Uconn actually brought in zero McDonald's All-Americans. The author was probably assuming that Drummond was one just because he had actually heard of him.

 

[Waquoit]

I think when you win 11 neutral floor games in a row (9 of which against top-25 teams), the "got hot at the right time" meme probably doesn't apply anymore. Calhoun said it best, I think at Big East Media Day, when asked if he thought he actually had the best team last year. His response was something like "If it wasn't us, who the heck was better?"

Yeah, that "hot at the right time" snark is just BS. Couldn't you say that any Big Dance winner got hot at the right time, especially a team that also won it's conference tourny. But UConn beat good teams away from home, hit a wall that came from being a young team during a long season, then got it back again. No one deserved it more.

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

cause having a bunch of McDonalds AA's automatically means you'll have a successful season

 

[Deepster]

The "Grantland sucks" posts are silly.

We've talked about this before. What I don't like is that a LOT of the content there isn't really what I'd call journalism. They're message board quality posts by people who try to seem funny mirroring Simmons' style.

When I go to a "professional" website, I sort of expect professional quality. And lots of Grantland.com lacks that. I read the article linked in this thread and got about 3 paragraphs in. I have no doubt that I could have written a much better (and much funnier) Big East preview. And I suck.

 

[nomar]

We've talked about this before. What I don't like is that a LOT of the content there isn't really what I'd call journalism. They're message board quality posts by people who try to seem funny mirroring Simmons' style.

When I go to a "professional" website, I sort of expect professional quality. And lots of Grantland.com lacks that. I read the article linked in this thread and got about 3 paragraphs in. I have no doubt that I could have written a much better (and much funnier) Big East preview. And I suck.

You and everyone else is entitled to that opinion. My issue is that every time someone links to an article from Grantland, everyone who disagrees with it says "GRANTLAND SUCKS!". That's what I find silly. Just comment on the article. Or don't.

I'm not saying it's the place for the best sports analysis. It has its strengths and weaknesses. I also think that Boneyarders' dislike for it has a lot to do with its supposed anti-UConn bias. (Not you.)

 

[Nully]

You and everyone else is entitled to that opinion. My issue is that every time someone links to an article from Grantland, everyone who disagrees with it puts in the obligatory anti-Grantland bash. That's what I find silly. Just comment on the article. (Of course if there's a thread ABOUT Grantland itself, then it's a different matter.)

I'm not saying it's the place for the best sports analysis. It has its strengths and weaknesses. I also think that Boneyarders' dislike for it has a lot to do with its supposed anti-UConn bias. (Not you.)

Grantland is capable of putting out some good articles. They have in the past. There's no reason to dismiss all content from site X just because 80% of the content is crap.

But this preview is under-researched, factually flawed, cursory nonsense. And in that regard he doesn't give short shrift to just Connecticut, but to the entire league. Syracuse > Connecticut is a fairly reasonable conclusion to come to, but he doesn't get there in a logical manner.

 

[nomar]

It's not the world's greatest article but I don't see a lack of logic.

I think it's fair to conclude that Kemba > Drummond/Daniels/Boatright is more of a loss than Jackson > Christmas/Carter-Williams. Not in overall talent, of course, but in terms of crunch time performance. Jackson was a nice player but Kemba is irreplaceable.

I also think it's fair -- even if controversial -- to say that the team wasn't "great" last year but benefited from getting super-hot at the right time and having an extraordinary go-to player.

 

[Dogdeacon]

I think the article is really bad. Not as bad as the absurd Jack-O I get more pleasure rooting against UConn than for anything but close and along the same vein.

That said, I really like some of the articles on Grantland and I find a lot of their topics interesting. Others are swing and miss and you can usually tell by headlines if you aren't interested (soccer, reality tv) or stop reading pretty quick. But last week I listened to a great Chris Herren podcast/interview following up even better espn documentary "Unguarded". Here's a link to I think a very good article about an individual's reaction to the Penn State thing. I think this is way more interesting/relevant/thought provoking that 20 NYT, Washington Post, Boston Globe stories that simply recount the facts of the incident.
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7205085/growing-penn-state

 

[Waquoit]

Grantland is a site for hipsters, by hipsters. Of course they're going to go against the mainstream.

Not all hipsters are bad. Where else are we going find out about cool new stuff? Of course, nobody likes hipster douchbags.

 

[kemba]

I think when you win 11 neutral floor games in a row (9 of which against top-25 teams), the "got hot at the right time" meme probably doesn't apply anymore. Calhoun said it best, I think at Big East Media Day, when asked if he thought he actually had the best team last year. His response was something like "If it wasn't us, who the heck was better?"

This.

Maybe if the Big East tourney didn't happen, you could make the argument that we just had a nice run. Maybe. But when you won 6 straight in the NCAA's, 5 straight in the big east tourney, Maui, Texas at texas, etc., there's no more argument.