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Message: [QUOTE="bballnut90, post: 2980175, member: 2117"] The last decade or so has been monopolized by UCONN, and for the first time in about 6 years it didn't take a miracle for the Huskies to go down. I don't think anyone was too shocked by tonight's outcome based on how the Huskies have played this year, but it also makes this season feel a lot more wide open than it has in a LONG time. Looking at the last 11 years, this was my general thought process for much of each season: 2018-it's going to take a miracle to knock off UCONN 2017-after the ND game in December, I thought it'd take a miracle to upset UCONN 2016-miracle to knock off UCONN. 4 #1 seeds had 1 combined loss that wasn't head to head entering the tournament. 0 parity. 2015-Stanford gave me a glimmer of hope, and then after the ND game I realized it would require another miracle to knock off UCONN. ND/UCONN for the 5th straight year in the tournament and 3/4 same Final Four teams as 2014. Zero parity. 2014-it's going to take a miracle to knock off UCONN, although I had hope for ND. Both teams went undefeated until the title game, the season felt very predictable. 2013-miracle to knock off Baylor. UCONN and ND were good but didn't think they had what it took to beat Baylor. These 3 teams were stellar but everyone else was light years behind. No one really gave any of these teams very difficult games IIRC besides the Stanford upset over Baylor when Sims was out. Season felt very predictable until the Louisville upset. 2012-miracle to knock off Baylor. All 4 one seeds made the Final Four, I didn't think anyone could give Baylor a good run. All 4 #1 seeds were clearly the 4 best teams in the country all year. 2011-this season felt very similar to how I feel now after UCONN lost in strikingly similar fashion to Stanford. Stanford had a couple of bad losses earlier in the year (like Baylor's loss to Stanford) and then played an outstanding game to beat UCONN convincingly. UCONN finished the regular season without any other losses but was challenged big time by Notre Dame and Baylor during the regular season. I thought all of UCONN, Baylor, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Stanford and A&M had great shots to win the title that year. UCONN/Baylor/Stanford led the way most of the year but it never felt like a team had a firm grasp on being #1. 2010-miracle to beat UCONN. Stanford was good but UCONN was handily better. 2009-miracle to beat UCONN 2008-felt a lot more open. Tennessee and UCONN led the way as favorites, but you couldn't count out teams like Maryland, Stanford, LSU, Rutgers, etc. Lots of really close competitive games throughout the season. In 3 of the seasons, miracles were granted in epic games, but it was at the expense of a somewhat dull regular season that wasn't very competitive. Looking at this year, you have a lot of teams that could beat a #1 team on any given night and then play like dirt the next: Connecticut-soundly beat Notre Dame, played awful against Baylor Baylor-beat UCONN, awful loss to Stanford and looked shaky against Arizona State Louisville-no true signature wins yet but they've had a handful of close calls and are undefeated Mississippi State-looked out of sorts in their Oregon loss, soundly beat Texas. Great game against Marquette but could've lost. Stanford-bad loss to Gonzaga, great wins over Baylor and Tennessee Notre Dame-they've looked great all year besides the awful showing vs. UCONN. Nearly was upset by Oregon State. Oregon State-lost to A&M (who lost tonight to South Carolina) and nearly beat Notre Dame Oregon-lost to Michigan State, nearly lost at home to Syracuse. Looked like a completely different team against Mississippi State Lots of season still left to be played, but IMO it's shaping up to be one of the least predictable seasons we've had in a long long time and I personally think it's going to make the rest of the season very exciting. [/QUOTE]

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