Level of play

[superjohn]

I don't know if the overall level of play is worse than most years but I know I've never seen so many teams struggle to break a press, panic when trapped or even not be able to make a simple inbounds pass. The tournament is still fun to watch because you never know what to expect but when you switch over from this to an NBA game they look like two different sports. A ten point lead with a minute left is no longer safe in the college game. It's just something you never expect with high level college teams.

 

[champs99and04]

I actually thought Virginia did a good job with the press for the most part. A couple turnovers, but they also burned it a couple times for layups.

They lost that game on the other end. Syracuse nearly put up 50 in the second half.

 

[superjohn]

I actually thought Virginia did a good job with the press for the most part. A couple turnovers, but they also burned it a couple times for layups.

They lost that game on the other end. Syracuse nearly put up 50 in the second half.

But that's exactly what the press was meant to do. Syracuse has no half court offense and Virginia has no fastbreak offense. As soon as Syracuse started pressing, Virginia freaked out and kept trying to play faster and Bennett was shell shocked and didn't call a timeout. The press punched Virginia in the mouth and they crumbled, it got Syracuse's offense in to high gear and the game was over. I give credit to Boeheim and Cuse players but Bennett was awful.

 

[caw]

But that's exactly what the press was meant to do. Syracuse has no half court offense and Virginia has no fastbreak offense. As soon as Syracuse started pressing, Virginia freaked out and kept trying to play faster and Bennett was shell shocked and didn't call a timeout. The press punched Virginia in the mouth and they crumbled, it got Syracuse's offense in to high gear and the game was over. I give credit to Boeheim and Cuse players but Bennett was awful.

It wasn't even a particularly good press.