The case for FSU being the best team we've played.

[Blue Huskie]

Even though we've had closer games, those were in large part to the opposition shooting out of their minds. This FSU team has athletic quick players who rebound VERY well. Their success is not reliant on shooting a high number of 3's against even the best teams to be competitive. I think they should be ranked much higher. I'm surprised they lost to Florida but that was a case of FL kind of shooting out of their minds. Although they are also good.

 

[Wbbfan1]

I'd choose Notre Dame as the best team played this year, with FSU a distant second. FSU doesn't have th fire power to beat UConn or Notre Dame. Now if FSU had managed only 10-12 TO's instead of 26 might think differently. Also they only had 7 Assists and with the guards they have, they should have more. Should be a 3 or 4 seed in the tournament.

 

[Blue Huskie]

I'd choose Notre Dame as the best team played this year, with FSU a distant second. FSU doesn't have th fire power to beat UConn or Notre Dame. Now if FSU had managed only 10-12 TO's instead of 26 might think differently. Also they only had 7 Assists and with the guards they have, they should have more. Should be a 3 or 4 seed in the tournament.

I think they do if ND doesn't hit threes. Just can't get too far behind. And they have the kind of quick athletic guards that can create and don't rely as much on ball movement although they are capable.

 

[huskyd]

This was lock-down defense without respite. UConn had a player in every FSU pocket. The Huskies played man to man and ground the Semi-noles to Quarter-noles. If this doesn't put to rest the question of whether or not UConn can defend anyone anywhere on the court, nothing will. Making a few more bunnies, and the Huskies easily score 80+.

 

[EricLA]

I tend to disagree - I think ND even without 2 of their starters is the best team UCONN has played this year. Sue S. also needs to teach her team some offense. There were snippets of it, but way too much dribbling around by Romero who would try to make something happen, but more often than not, she turned the ball over.

IMHO one of FSU's biggest problems is that of most teams - lack of team offense. It's mainly why there were so many TO's by FSU. The announcers can mention as often as they like that FSU needs to take better care of the ball, but believe it or not, that involves passing the ball. When you have one player (mainly Romero) dribbling all over the place and pressing into the UCONN defense to probe for weaknesses, sooner or later, other UCONN players will swarm, double team, trap, etc, and cause turnovers.

Sue's team plays decent offense at times, but mostly it's still offense from the last decade. I will say her team plays as hard defense as any team I've seen UCONN play this year. But please - coaches of top teams - go read a book or talk to an expert on how to run some offense that involves passing. It's sad and embarrassing for the game that so few seem to have a clue.

I also wanted to point out that in almost ever quarter, FSU "led" UCONN (except for the 1st quarter). They came out hard in every quarter and battled UCONN tooth and nail. then there would be a 3-4 minute span where UCONN would thoroughly outplay them and outscore them by 6 or 8 and BAM - the lead was padded...

 

[Sonny44]

Even though we've had closer games, those were in large part to the opposition shooting out of their minds. This FSU team has athletic quick players who rebound VERY well. Their success is not reliant on shooting a high number of 3's against even the best teams to be competitive. I think they should be ranked much higher. I'm surprised they lost to Florida but that was a case of FL kind of shooting out of their minds. Although they are also good.

I too was impressed by FS; took a while to wear them down.

 

[BroadwayVa]

I'd choose Notre Dame as the best team played this year, with FSU a distant second. FSU doesn't have th fire power to beat UConn or Notre Dame. Now if FSU had managed only 10-12 TO's instead of 26 might think differently. Also they only had 7 Assists and with the guards they have, they should have more. Should be a 3 or 4 seed in the tournament.

Florida State U was the second best team on the floor at the Casino's basketball floor. A very good team, well coached. But, to ME, not the best team or even the second best team Uconn has played so far this year.
I'd say a close tie between DePaul and ND--ND will be the better team (of these two) by years end.
I have 35 cents I'm willing to wastefully gamble on Florida State U being in the top 4 by years end--I'll take odds on them not being there
Good teams need back up players, good bit of experience against top teams, and lots of luck in the 6 games of the NCAA (if they are lucky enough to play all 6) (spoken a while back by Geno) It kind of boils down as to who you draw to play getting thru those 6.

 

[HuskiesDogs]

Depaul has my vote and a better coach ND is ND so I expect great performance from them

 

[Nostical]

FSU played very well in spurts. They will get better as the year goes by.

 

[wire chief]

This was lock-down defense without respite. UConn had a player in every FSU pocket. The Huskies played man to man and ground the Semi-noles to Quarter-noles. If this doesn't put to rest the question of whether or not UConn can defend anyone anywhere on the court, nothing will. Making a few more bunnies, and the Huskies easily score 80+.

Quarter-noles...nice play on words.

 

[vtcwbuff]

Turnovers killed FSU. UConn scored 30 points off turnovers. They dominated the boards but a lot of their rebounds were given right back to UConn. I haven't watched the video yet, but watching live UConn looked awful under the net. I can't remember the last time a UConn team was -13 in rebound margin.

 

[DobbsRover2]

FSU's season's stats kind of paint the picture for them, though last night's numbers are obviously not the usual, but the Seminoles otherwise haven't played the kind of teams that are at the top of the ACC. For those who think ACC play is so grueling though, note that the best schedule-rating service Massey has FSU's SOS currently at a strong #15 but falling back to #34 at the end of the regular season. Part of the reason for that is there are a bunch of puffs like Mercer, Murray State, and Jacksonville coming up along with those two Clemson "slugfests," but even discounting the Tigers, the ACC is not that fearsome.

Anyway, FSU's strengths and flaws are quite evident from the stats and last night's game. And the problem for them is that they can't shoot the ball well or much from the arc, so teams will pack in on them and maybe go zone a lot, but that helps the Seminoles get offensive rebounds, which is one of their big highlight areas. They have more turnovers than assists, though their tepid assist numbers may be partly due to a lot of baskets coming off offensive rebounds and put backs. They are a good rebounding team, and there may be some similarities to the old UTenn teams back in the days when the Vols had a coach.

 

[Huskies Rule]

Sue S. also needs to teach her team some offense. There were snippets of it, but way too much dribbling around by Romero who would try to make something happen...

IMHO one of FSU's biggest problems is that of most teams - lack of team offense. It's mainly why there were so many TO's by FSU. The announcers can mention as often as they like that FSU needs to take better care of the ball, but believe it or not, that involves passing the ball. When you have one player (mainly Romero) dribbling all over the place and pressing into the UCONN defense to probe for weaknesses, sooner or later, other UCONN players will swarm, double team, trap, etc, and cause turnovers.

Sue's team plays decent offense at times, but mostly it's still offense from the last decade. I will say her team plays as hard defense as any team I've seen UCONN play this year. But please - coaches of top teams - go read a book or talk to an expert on how to run some offense that involves passing. It's sad and embarrassing for the game that so few seem to have a clue.

Eric- That's such a great point that I rarely, if ever, hear discussed. At UConn, we obviously have a lot of incredibly talented basketball players, but with the abundance of top talent spread throughout WCBB, I think what has separated UConn (and Notre Dame) from all the pretenders and wannabes, in large part, may very well be the ability to run a great passing offense. Not necessarily set plays for individuals but moving and passing relentlessly, with less dribbling, not slowing the offense down by putting the ball on the floor all the time. And that I attribute to Geno's insistence that he wants to recruit kids who are great and willing passers.

Not sure if ND is the 2nd best team we've played so far, but little doubt McGraw does run the 2nd best offensive schemes, after UConn.

(Having coached a long long time ago, I have to say that teaching great offense is very difficult and hard work, while teaching defense to kids who are willing to play with heart and effort is a comparative piece of cake.)

 

[j66kicker]

Eric- That's such a great point that I rarely, if ever, hear discussed. At UConn, we obviously have a lot of incredibly talented basketball players, but with the abundance of top talent spread throughout WCBB, I think what has separated UConn (and Notre Dame) from all the pretenders and wannabes, in large part, may very well be the ability to run a great passing offense. Not necessarily set plays for individuals but moving and passing relentlessly, with less dribbling, not slowing the offense down by putting the ball on the floor all the time. And that I attribute to Geno's insistence that he wants to recruit kids who are great and willing passers.

Not sure if ND is the 2nd best team we've played so far, but little doubt McGraw does run the 2nd best offensive schemes, after UConn.

(Having coached a long long time ago, I have to say that teaching great offense is very difficult and hard work, while teaching defense to kids who are willing to play with heart and effort is a comparative piece of cake.)

I saw a brief SportsCenter clip on the FSU game late last night. It started with a couple Stewie blocks - they called it "Breanna Stewart's block party." Then they showed a sequence where Moriah started the play bringing the ball up - she dribbled one time and then there were 8 passes in rapid succession until the ball found its way into the net. It was a beautiful thing and it was nice to see it recognized and highlighted as such.

 

[UcMiami]

FSU is a very good defensive team, and not bad offensively. They held Uconn to 17 points off their season average and the lowest output (by six) of any team this year.
Their biggest strength is their rebounding - can't remember a game when Uconn was so outclassed on the boards - FSU got over 50% more rebounds than Uconn and held a 14-3 lead on the offensive end. I can't remember a game when Uconn only got three offensive boards either. The down side to the offensive rebounding is giving up fast breaks, but there weren't that many for Uconn off of rebounds - most came off of steals.

Offensively they came into this game shooting 48.3% on the year - a very respectable shooting percentage, good for #10 in the country at this point and it hasn't come against a terrible schedule - better than most of the teams in front of them. The three point shooting isn't as good, but two of their starters are at .400 or better, and they have a third at .364 so it isn't dreadful. Uconn was consciously forcing them away from three point shots.

Turnovers were the biggest issue - they came into last night with an A/TO of 1.06, which is bleh, they exited the game at 0.93 which is bad. If they can tighten that up, they can compete with most teams. Brown entered the game at 2.85 and Romero at 1.5 so it isn't a lost cause - the two had 4 assists and 13 turnovers against Uconn - a dreadful night against a very persistent defense and one of the best in the country at forcing turnovers (#39) and getting steals (#4.)

It is often difficult to really judge a team based on their play against Uconn. The coaches (and the fans based on the recent boneyard threads) were very unhappy with the defense in the previous three games and spent the last two practices focused on defense. The results against FSU were an improvement by everyone's reactions, and most suspect the defense would be better should we play any of the previous three teams again. It will be interesting to see how the ACC unfolds - I still think ND is the cream of that conference, but FSU could cause some problems for them.

 

[Ron and Vida]

I'd choose Notre Dame as the best team played this year, with FSU a distant second. FSU doesn't have th fire power to beat UConn or Notre Dame. Now if FSU had managed only 10-12 TO's instead of 26 might think differently. Also they only had 7 Assists and with the guards they have, they should have more. Should be a 3 or 4 seed in the tournament.

ND vsFSU Feb 22 on ESPN2

 

[Dillon77]

Eric- That's such a great point that I rarely, if ever, hear discussed. At UConn, we obviously have a lot of incredibly talented basketball players, but with the abundance of top talent spread throughout WCBB, I think what has separated UConn (and Notre Dame) from all the pretenders and wannabes, in large part, may very well be the ability to run a great passing offense. Not necessarily set plays for individuals but moving and passing relentlessly, with less dribbling, not slowing the offense down by putting the ball on the floor all the time. And that I attribute to Geno's insistence that he wants to recruit kids who are great and willing passers.

Not sure if ND is the 2nd best team we've played so far, but little doubt McGraw does run the 2nd best offensive schemes, after UConn.

(Having coached a long long time ago, I have to say that teaching great offense is very difficult and hard work, while teaching defense to kids who are willing to play with heart and effort is a comparative piece of cake.)

Great posts. Completely agree that there have been very few teams I've seen this year that have a consistently functioning half-court set offense...UConn, DePaul, Princeton and Notre Dame. For instance, ND went to TCU on Saturday and scored 18 field goals in the first half...17 of which were assisted (8 by Mabrey1). The TCU commentator -- a former player who was pretty knowledgable -- was not used to seeing this kind of distribution. Watching some of the other teams' offenses is painful to watch (you can guess the suspects...).