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Message: [QUOTE="champs99and04, post: 5225818, member: 488"] While the FT/3PT rates provided by the OP and others ITT do accurately portray OU's personnel, I want to emphasize, having watched this team a few times, that some of it is a function of play style. This team is fiercely committed to playing a four or five out type game and rarely deviates from it even when things start to spiral. All five guys on the floor, save for maybe the center depending on who's out there, can put the ball on the floor, pass, and finish. The level of skill and shot making offered by the likes of Kobe Elvis and Brycen Goodine is hardly on par with the Celtics, but it is enough to worry a team like UConn that's struggled guarding in space. I actually think the Fears kid might be a tad overrated given how much he benefits from that system. I also can't be the only one wondering if the injury to Godwin might've paved the way for a better player - or maybe better fit - to get some minutes. Wague's at 19 MPG in his last four, which happens to coincide with their best stretch of play since December. He's a surprisingly adept passer who offers more playmaking on the short roll than their other bigs, and defensively he at least appears to move more crisply than Godwin. But coaches usually know more with these things, and I'd imagine their rebounding craters when he's on the floor. What a weird team though. Four of the guys in their top nine have played for at least three different schools, and seven of their top eight are in their final year of eligibility. Save for Fears, their best six players have played in a combined 29 college seasons. That's insane. It's such a weird mish mosh of castoffs that you kind of want to root for them despite being horrified at what's happened to the sport you grew up with. You'd think with that much experience it would be a grizzled, blue collar team that wants to muscle you and drag younger teams around in their chamber of hell, but they really don't play that way. It's more a finesse group of slightly undersized, slightly lacking athletically 3 & D wannabes that lacks in bulk and occasionally discipline. I think putting them through the meat grinder that is UConn's web of backscreens split actions could leave them exposed on the backline and outnumbered on the boards. On paper, this is a game UConn would have been favored to win by double digits, at least, prior to the season, and in some ways, it seems like they still should now. It's a friendly draw, IMO, for UConn. This team is probably slightly overseeded and might not be in the tournament at all in a year with a stronger bubble. They have almost certainly overachieved by making the dance at all, and you have to trust that the coach knows that. Has he been spending his week crunching UConn film or filling out job applications? Because I can assure you his job at OU isn't going to get any easier next year when his top eight players are gone. But is it a friendly draw for OU as well? Hurley's UConn teams have bowed out to weak opponents in the first round in both tournament appearances that didn't end with a title. They've lost this season to Colorado, Dayton, and Seton Hall among others. You have to wonder, about where these teams are psychologically. Oklahoma blitzed through the nonconference schedule to a 13-0 record, defeating teams like Arizona, Louisville, and Michigan in the process (by the way, if you're doubting whether the SEC really is that good this season, do yourself a favor and look at OU's results - it is) and climbing as high as 12th in the polls. The NCAA Tournament was supposed to be a breath of fresh air, a liberation from the gauntlet of SEC play. Instead, it's staring at Florida, a team that dominated them in their lone match-up this season and capped a five game stretch that saw the Sooners outscored by an astounding 95 points, even if it can survive the 2x defending champs. Do they have the bandwidth for that? Does UConn? All I can say is nothing would surprise me about this one. [/QUOTE]

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