This has to be said.

[noeynox]

It's not because we got "hot at the right time". This seems to be the mantra on boards everywhere. No, it's because our TEAM was better than YOUR team. We took out some giants on our way to the title. The preseason number one in the final, overall number one seed, the President's pick. We ARE the BEST. Deal with it.

 

[BLUEDOGHOUSE]

Haterz...bring the most joy to any success story (UConn this year). Jealousy is a powerful emotion.

 

[Waquoit]

And it wasn't free throw shooting either.

 

[Kembacity]

It's not because we got "hot at the right time". This seems to be the mantra on boards everywhere. No, it's because our TEAM was better than YOUR team. We took out some giants on our way to the title. The preseason number one in the final, overall number one seed, the President's pick. We ARE the BEST. Deal with it.

Am I really the only person who doesn't see college basketball this way? This is what makes the sport amazing and the NBA inferior. In the NBA and all major sports with playoff series, you need to basically be the best, to win 4 over the other team thats good. The NCAA tourney is built for hot runs, for a solid team with a player going off to have the ability to beat a traditional powerhouse with a great and maybe #1 ranked team.

I dont see UConn as the best team this year, we weren't the best team when we lost 2 in Texas in a row for sure. We weren't "better" than Louisville this year. All that matters is that we executed and had a championship pedigree and gameplan which our guys carried out. We werent the best college basketball team this year, we were simply the toughest, and without a doubt the best on the night of April 7th

 

[Huskygamble19]

Am I really the only person who doesn't see college basketball this way? This is what makes the sport amazing and the NBA inferior. In the NBA and all major sports with playoff series, you need to basically be the best, to win 4 over the other team thats good. The NCAA tourney is built for hot runs, for a solid team with a player going off to have the ability to beat a traditional powerhouse with a great and maybe #1 ranked team.

I dont see UConn as the best team this year, we weren't the best team when we lost 2 in Texas in a row for sure. We weren't "better" than Louisville this year. All that matters is that we executed and had a championship pedigree and gameplan which our guys carried out. We werent the best college basketball team this year, we were simply the toughest, and without a doubt the best on the night of April 7th

I disagree with your assessment because in the start of the year anything can happen as it did with UCONN at Houston and SMU. They won with very slim margins over Maryland and BC. they were not that good of ateam back then, but with the proper coaching and work ethic they became the best they could be. They beat Florida twice and marched through M State and Iowa State. I would say that was the best team to do that.

 

[dogfan96]

Am I really the only person who doesn't see college basketball this way? This is what makes the sport amazing and the NBA inferior. In the NBA and all major sports with playoff series, you need to basically be the best, to win 4 over the other team thats good. The NCAA tourney is built for hot runs, for a solid team with a player going off to have the ability to beat a traditional powerhouse with a great and maybe #1 ranked team.

I dont see UConn as the best team this year, we weren't the best team when we lost 2 in Texas in a row for sure. We weren't "better" than Louisville this year. All that matters is that we executed and had a championship pedigree and gameplan which our guys carried out. We werent the best college basketball team this year, we were simply the toughest, and without a doubt the best on the night of April 7th

Yes we were better than Louisville.. bc when it was win or go home, we won. Every time. And we disposed of the team that beat them. Plus I saw 2 big ass trophies that say so.

 

[mauconnfan]

Am I really the only person who doesn't see college basketball this way? This is what makes the sport amazing and the NBA inferior. In the NBA and all major sports with playoff series, you need to basically be the best, to win 4 over the other team thats good. The NCAA tourney is built for hot runs, for a solid team with a player going off to have the ability to beat a traditional powerhouse with a great and maybe #1 ranked team.

I dont see UConn as the best team this year, we weren't the best team when we lost 2 in Texas in a row for sure. We weren't "better" than Louisville this year. All that matters is that we executed and had a championship pedigree and gameplan which our guys carried out. We werent the best college basketball team this year, we were simply the toughest, and without a doubt the best on the night of April 7th

Hate to tell you we were better than Louisville when it counted……I'm just guessing they would rather have that trophy that those huge wins over us…….we Beat UK when it counted and they didn't. UConn was better!

 

[amory]

the tournament isn't meant to decide the best team. I don't think there's really any way to decide who the "best" team is. there's too many teams and too many metrics.

the tournament decides who can go 6-0 against elite competition. it's incredibly hard to win, and takes talent, toughness, and more than a little luck. as a poster above said, that's what makes it great. in my opinion, it's the best event in sports.

It doesn't matter if we were the best team or just a very very good one. We got the trophy.

 

[BlueMAB]

We peaked at the right time. The team in March/April wasn't the same as the team in December/January. Which is true for every team in the country.

We were the best team all season? No. Florida and Wichita State can argue that back and forth. But ask Saracuse how important it is to be really good for a couple months. We were really good for a month, and we were the best team when it mattered the most. That's all that matters.

 

[Onions]

By the end of the year we had become the best "team" in the country - not the best individual players, not the most future NBA stars, simply the team that could beat anyone else (except Louisville). We could play Mich State, Iowa State, Florida and Kentucky next week and we would beat them all over again. Great guard play wins in the tourney and we had the 2 best. We had the most unstoppable offensive player, the most destructive defensive player, the best team D, the best defensive concept, great spot up 3 point shooters, a hard to match-up-with 4 - hell we had the best pep band too. Because of our unequaled free throw shooting and end of game poise we made 2 great coaches and the Squid just flat give up and cry "No Mas" before the game had ended, and I've never seen anything like that before. This was Uconn's potential since last September, and while it took the team a long time to realize that promise, there was nothing fluky or unexpected about it to anyone who was really watching. Luck always plays a part, but our team earned what ever luck they got, and more power to them.

 

[Danzz]

Best team? There is no way to really know that. I do know we won another NCC and that makes the rest of it moot. We were the best team when it counted.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I think it was all dumb luck that UConn won. If you put 1,000 monkeys in front of keyboards, eventually one of them would write a Tale of Two Cities. That is what happened with UConn this year. Kentucky missed free throws. Florida had a cold shooting night. Michigan State was tired from beating mighty Virginia. Iowa State was missing its 3rd best player, or is he ISU's best now. By Friday he could be the best player in the history of the program. Villanova had a cold shooting night. St. Joe's should have beat us. All luck. The fact that no UConn opponent in the last 5 games had a lead over UConn in the final 12:38 of the second half was also lucky/flukey.

2011 was lucky too. As was 2004 and 1999, and the Final Four in 2009. The Elite 8 and Sweet 16 appearances were a combination of flukey and lucky, as were all the Big East titles. Ray, Rip, Donyell, Caron, Burrell, Villanueva, Boone, Okafor, Gordon, Price, Thabeet, Smitty and all the others that played in the NBA: luck/fluke with a little accident of history thrown in. The only thing that was a combination of skill and hard work was The Shot. Everything else was flukey luck.

 

[BrassBonanza]

If not UCONN than who? Really?

 

[J-dog]

Most college hoop fans that root for a specific team are going to play the 'what if' game… We've been on both sides of this equation… I really like the side we ended up on…

People can cry about us playing in MSG, but they can't say we had an easy path… Matter of fact, it would be hard to argue that any other team had a tougher collections of opponents that they had to go through than UCONN.

Bottom-line is we were the only team that won 6 games in a row in the final college basketball tournament that determines who is champ & there's no disputing that.

 

[phillionaire]

Greatness is not an accident

 

[Rico444]

Forget "getting hot." College kids are far from finished products. Where we were as a team two days ago is much different from where we were two months ago, and that's a result of our young guys developing their skills. I don't expect Ryan Boatright to come back next season and look like he did in December; I expect him to build off of what he did in March and April.

 

[Justin M]

Our talent matured at the right time and we came together. That wasn't an accident or some crazy coincidence, just exceptional coaching and the right players

 

[UConn990411]

Maybe UConn wasn't the best team this year from start to finish, but on the biggest stage they let up 54, 53 and 54 points to MSU, Florida and Kentucky.

There was nothing flukey about this run.

 

[intlzncster]

I disagree with your assessment because in the start of the year anything can happen as it did with UCONN at Houston and SMU. They won with very slim margins over Maryland and BC. they were not that good of ateam back then, but with the proper coaching and work ethic they became the best they could be. They beat Florida twice and marched through M State and Iowa State. I would say that was the best team to do that.

You are looking at things as static. What the tournament showed was that UCONN and to a lesser extent UK, grew as a team more than anyone else over the course of the season. Doesn't matter when that growth happens, just that it did. UCONN played the best ball of anyone in the tournament. It's supposed to measure who is the best at the end of the day, not at the beginning of the season. Any team that can run the gauntlet deserves the moniker "the best". UCONN was the best.

 

[Husky1972]

Love the way this get's over analyzed every year.

Bottom line: You play the 6 teams they put in front of you, and if you beat them all, they reward you with a trophy that says "Championship" on it.

This stuff about how this or that team had an easier bracket, played easy teams, a team with a major injury, one whose coach is leaving, etc. etc.

Yeah, Louisville was a tough matchup for us because of their guards and the hulk in the middle. But we didn't play them. Why? Because they ran into their own tough matchup. Oh, well.

So, they all analyze the whole tournament and look at woulda, coulda, shoulda, and what ifs.

Bottom line, beat the six teams they tell you to play and you earn the title "Champion".

Those of the other 64 teams that didn't earn the title and question who did win it are how they themselves ended up: Losers.

 

[CL82]

I dont see UConn as the best team this year, we weren't the best team when we lost 2 in Texas in a row for sure. We weren't "better" than Louisville this year. All that matters is that we executed and had a championship pedigree and gameplan which our guys carried out. We werent the best college basketball team this year, we were simply the toughest, and without a doubt the best on the night of April 7th

You know, you are right. It is so hard to judge who is best. It's not like everyone plays each other or no one ever has a bad night. The "best" arguement is necessarily subjective. It would be great if there was some objective way to decide who is the best team. Um I don't know, maybe we could take several metrics such as record, strength of schedule and such and come up with a list of the best, oh I don't know, 68 teams and let them play each other in a single elimination tournament. Then at the end of the season there would be a single champion. Yeah, that seems like it would work.

 

[DrewDog85]

The NCAA measures "greatness" by hosting a one and done 64 team tournament, the winner is crowned the best !! Nothing else matters, Greatness is not measured by potential, it is measured by accomplishments and thats why the NCAA tourney format is so successful.

 

[imno1]

Our talent matured at the right time and we came together. That wasn't an accident or some crazy coincidence, just exceptional coaching and the right players

^ this. plus i had to give Justin his first like. Welcome to the BY. I assume you have 2 cell phones and ran 50 before joining