Quick 2014 Recap | The Boneyard

Quick 2014 Recap

Waquoit

Waquoit

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One narrative that I'm seeing that needs to be quashed is that UConn wins in years when the top seeds lose and this somehow lessens their achievements. In 2014, the top seeds lost because Bazz and UConn beat them. The 2 seed in the East lost to UConn in the second round. In the Elite 8, UConn smacked MSU, the team everyone was picking to win pre-tourney. In the FF, they beat overall number 1 seed Florida. After the 1st round, UConn dominated that post-season.
 
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Waquoit said:
One narrative that I'm seeing that needs to be quashed is that UConn wins in years when the top seeds lose and this somehow lessens their achievements. In 2014, the top seeds lost because Bazz and UConn beat them. The 2 seed in the East lost to UConn in the second round. In the Elite 8, UConn, smacked MSU, the team everyone was picking to win pre-tourney. In the FF, they beat overall number 1 seed Florida. After the 1st round, UConn dominated that post-season.
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A championship is a championship. A tiny amount of fans even remember the specifics. Let the jealous haters say whatever they want.
 
I try to not pay attention to the haters, but totally agree. We beat the regular season and/or tournament champions of the A10, Big East, Big 12, Big 10 and SEC en route to a matchup with a bunch of future pros on Kentucky. It was a truly amazing run.
 
You can only take care of the opponent you have in front of you.. You don't get to choose who that opponent is. In our championship years--irrespective of our opponents who were frequently higher rated teams.. We just took care of business. Won.. And advanced.

I thought our region this year was the strongest of the four .. We stayed focused and won games.. And moved on.. Other 1/2/3 seeds did not. We made no excuses.. Didn't complain..

The four teams left have strong resumes. Respect the opponent.. Play your game.. Try to advance to Monday.. Its what we do.
 
WhereistheDove? said:
A championship is a championship. A tiny amount of fans even remember the specifics. Let the jealous haters say whatever they want.
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Yup. I dont care if we beat Brownies troop 146 from Yonkers.

The only people who ever question the strength of NCAA titles are people who can't win them (i.e. Syracuse ).

Cuse had plenty of opportunities to beat Brownies troop 146 from Yonkers. But the girls were real hot from 3 that day. Or the Best shooting Brownie troop in their league.
 
.-.
The haters can shut it. If the path is so easy, why didn’t their teams make it? Only one team can go 6/6 and those 6 are who they are. A championship is a championship, and is always ridiculously hard.
 
Yeah, we've gotten help in our championship runs, but so have a lot of other teams.

It's really the exception of teams that have to go through a gauntlet of chalk to get there.
 
Three straight games we beat the pretournament favorite, the postseason No. 1 and the preseason No. 1.
Also, I'd love to know how this narrative applies to 1999.
 
August_West said:
Yup. I dont care if we beat Brownies troop 146 from Yonkers.

The only people who ever question the strength of NCAA titles are people who can't win them (i.e. Syracuse ).

Cuse had plenty of opportunities to beat Brownies troop 146 from Yonkers. But the girls were real hot from 3 that day. Or the Best shooting Brownie troop in their league.
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Cuse also needs to remember that the ball getting stuck between the rim and backboard (if this doesn't qualify as luck nothing does) was the only reason they played Texas instead of us in the national semifinals.

We crushed them both times we played them that season.
 
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Waquoit said:
One narrative that I'm seeing that needs to be quashed is that UConn wins in years when the top seeds lose and this somehow lessens their achievements. In 2014, the top seeds lost because Bazz and UConn beat them. The 2 seed in the East lost to UConn in the second round. In the Elite 8, UConn, smacked MSU, the team everyone was picking to win pre-tourney. In the FF, they beat overall number 1 seed Florida. After the 1st round, UConn dominated that post-season.
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The narrative from who? Syracuse fans? Who gives a sh$t?
 
Umami Zen said:
You can only take care of the opponent you have in front of you.. You don't get to choose who that opponent is. In our championship years--irrespective of our opponents who were frequently higher rated teams.. We just took care of business. Won.. And advanced.

I thought our region this year was the strongest of the four .. We stayed focused and won games.. And moved on.. Other 1/2/3 seeds did not. We made no excuses.. Didn't complain..

The four teams left have strong resumes. Respect the opponent.. Play your game.. Try to advance to Monday.. Its what we do.
Expand ...
that's it right there. Respect all, fear none.
 
aceboon said:
saw a few tweets about it, this one from a UK beatwriter. As @Waquoit pointed out, the 2014 bracket "imploded" because UConn blew it up on their way to a title.

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If they can argue convincingly why Kentucky, or someone else, couldn't just as easily have swooped in I'd love to hear it. Maybe they just weren't that good
 
.-.
Waquoit said:
One narrative that I'm seeing that needs to be quashed is that UConn wins in years when the top seeds lose and this somehow lessens their achievements. In 2014, the top seeds lost because Bazz and UConn beat them. The 2 seed in the East lost to UConn in the second round. In the Elite 8, UConn smacked MSU, the team everyone was picking to win pre-tourney. In the FF, they beat overall number 1 seed Florida. After the 1st round, UConn dominated that post-season.
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It's a false narrative that can be claimed...unsuccessfully...against any mid-lower seed. When ironically, the Tournament is specifically set up to give the best teams/higher seeds an easier path to the Final 4.

Be that as it may:

In 1999, #3 UConn (1W) beat, #24 New Mexico, #20 Iowa, #14 Ohio State, and #1 Duke.

In 2004, #7 UConn (2W) beat, #6 Duke and #14 Georgia Tech (Who beat UConn during the regular season)

In 2011, #9 UConn (3W) beat #6 San Diego State, #17 Arizona, and #11 Kentucky.

In 2014 #18 UConn (7E) beat #6 Villanova, #9 Iowa State, #11 Michigan State, and #1 Florida.

UConn's "worst championship team" had the hardest path to the hardware. OTOH and as others have said, You can only play who is on the schedule.
 
And #11 Michigan State doesn't give it full justice. They were ranked that low because they lost a few games earlier when they had players out with injury. They were at full strength for the dance and had just won the Big 10 tournament. Everyone was picking them to win.
 
Waquoit said:
One narrative that I'm seeing that needs to be quashed is that UConn wins in years when the top seeds lose and this somehow lessens their achievements. In 2014, the top seeds lost because Bazz and UConn beat them. The 2 seed in the East lost to UConn in the second round. In the Elite 8, UConn smacked MSU, the team everyone was picking to win pre-tourney. In the FF, they beat overall number 1 seed Florida. After the 1st round, UConn dominated that post-season.
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Havent you heard? Uconn has won 4 titles through pure luck. Theyve never had to beat Duke, Kentucky, Michigan St, Florida.
 
Husky25 said:
It's a false narrative that can be claimed...unsuccessfully...against any mid-lower seed. When ironically, the Tournament is specifically set up to give the best teams/higher seeds an easier path to the Final 4.

Be that as it may:

In 1999, #3 UConn (1W) beat, #24 New Mexico, #20 Iowa, #14 Ohio State, and #1 Duke.

In 2004, #7 UConn (2W) beat, #6 Duke and #14 Georgia Tech (Who beat UConn during the regular season)

In 2011, #9 UConn (3W) beat #6 San Diego State, #17 Arizona, and #11 Kentucky.

In 2014 #18 UConn (7E) beat #6 Villanova, #9 Iowa State, #11 Michigan State, and #1 Florida.

UConn's "worst championship team" had the hardest path to the hardware. OTOH and as others have said, You can only play who is on the schedule.
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It will be pretty cool that, if we end up winning, we will have done so as the #1, #2, #3, and now #4 seed in the West.
 
The best team doesn’t always win single-elimination tournaments such as this one. But the most deserving team almost always does.

Aside from the St. Joe’s game that could’ve gone either way, that 2014 UConn team completely outplayed every opponent they went up against in the NCAA tourney.
 
August_West said:
Yup. I dont care if we beat Brownies troop 146 from Yonkers.

The only people who ever question the strength of NCAA titles are people who can't win them (i.e. Syracuse ).

Cuse had plenty of opportunities to beat Brownies troop 146 from Yonkers. But the girls were real hot from 3 that day. Or the Best shooting Brownie troop in their league.
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Don't sleep on Yonkers Brownie Troop 146. They are viscious, knee biting children.
 
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80shusky said:
Don't sleep on Yonkers Brownie Troop 146. They are viscious, knee biting children.
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Bernice is on some sort of horse hormone though.
 
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This year does have a fair amount of parallels to 2011–from the nonconference performance and early season going from unranked to highly ranked, then losing steam during the conference schedule, then regaining momentum at the end of the season, and the makeup of the final 4. 2011 FF we played 4-seed Kentucky in the semi and the other side of the bracket was 2 mid majors (8-seed butler playing 11-seed VCU).

Also, that season we were also dooooooommed
 
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