PENN ST

[hoopfan515]

Penn State looked awfully good last night. They are well coached and don't make a lot of mistakes. They have great guard play and we will have to take care of the basketball. Lucas is a gamer. Penn State can put up a lot of points and are fun to watch.

Like last year, I think our Sweet 16 game might turn out to be a tougher one than our elite 8 opponent?

 

[hoopfan515]

Kentucky hasn't looked as sharp as they did earlier in the season. I think the loss to TENN at the end of the season might have taken some of the wind out of their sails. Maybe they'll turn things back around this week. I sure hope not.

 

[ASweet3781]

I agree with you 100%. I think Penn State could be a tougher opponent than either KY/Gonzaga

 

[Scotter]

I like Penn State. They play better basketball than Kentucky, but they would not be a tougher opponent than Kentucky. Penn State is indicative of the rest of the Big 10. The conference plays some of the best basketball to watch because there are a lot of teams that play a fundamentally sound style and the league isn't as athletic or physical as other power conferences. There also isn't an elite team in the conference, which actually perpetuates some sloppy play because there is not an elite team that it takes a perfect game against to win.

UConn would have to have a very bad game for Penn State to be a threat because Penn State can't matchup athletically. Kentucky on the other hand can cause UConn to have bad game because they can matchup athletically and cause chaos that could elite to UConn making mistakes, and because they can matchup athletically Kentucky just needs a magic night where shots go in that normally don't. That happens in basketball. Still Kentucky isn't that much more of a threat and they do have to get by Gonzaga first. Kentucky would probably win at least 9 out of 10 games with Gonzaga, but Kentucky is small enough for Gonzaga to have a chance.

 

[alexrgct]

Both Massey and Sagarin have Kentucky and Penn State ranked very close. RPI, which focuses heavily on SOS, has them ranked more significantly apart. The difference is that, despite identical records, UK's SOS is ranked 24 whereas PSU's is ranked 62.

Penn State, to their credit, has no total WTF losses; five teams accounted for their six losses, of whom four made the tourney (though none made it past the second round). However, they have absolutely no signature wins either.

In short, they haven't faced any team the caliber of UConn- not even close. This is to their detriment, and it may be what spurred them (other than the payday) to agree to a two-year home and home with UConn in the future.

UK, meanwhile, has a couple of signature wins (Duke and Tennessee), as well as some WTF losses or just bad losses (Tennessee really kicked their butts the second time they played, MTU is a bad loss, etc). They also played ND close in South Bend. What they don't have is a ton of positive momentum heading into the business end of the tourney, as the first two rounds clearly demonstrated. However, if they do make it to the E8, they know that everything leading up to that point doesn't matter anymore, and if they give UConn their best game, they have a shot at getting to Denver. If UConn is in the E8, they need to be prepared to meet that intensity.

 

[DobbsRover2]

13 years ago, the UConn men beat Gonzaga in a tough Elite 8 game on their way to their first NC. Might be a nice time for the two schools to meet up again in the 4th game, though this time on the East coast instead of in Phoenix.