Tuesday's Womens Championship

[Jimbo]

Right. If I didn't know better, I'd say they were two different teams and therefore the comparison falls apart completely.

You're right, they were two different teams. Oregon State had better players and a whole lot more size, enough to occasionally bother a UConn player trying to finish at the rim. If Syracuse had tried to play man-to-man the other night, they would have lost by 50.

The bottom line is that no team in the country this year had the ability to consistently slow UConn down this year by playing man-to-man. UConn started three players who had become almost unguardable by any individual defender at the college level. The only chance any team realistically had was to play zone, clog up the lane as best they could, and pray that UConn attempted and missed enough outside shots to give the other team a chance to outscore them. That strategy met with a little bit of success for portions of games early in the season, when Nurse was struggling for a bit with her outside shot and Samuelson hadn't yet fully adjusted to the college game. By the end of the year, probably nothing anybody tried to do against UConn defensively was going to matter. But you could almost see their eyes light up in the rare games when they saw a lot of man-to-man.

 

[David 76]

SU being in the final four was a total fluke.

 

[tzznandrew]

She clearly wasn't paying attention post DT.

Yet even in their "down" years they were strong.

2005: 3-seed, S16
2006: 2-seed, E8 (lost in OT as well)
2007: 1-seed, E8
2008: 1-seed, FF (and so on since...)

Again, 2005-2007 were down years for the women, but what qualifies as a down year is still pretty darn good. I'd wager the 3-seed, S16 is almost worst-case scenario for next year, and I wouldn't be against Geno in a single-elimination tournament, either.

 

[Scoe]

Which school has the best shot at a dual national championship? I would like to believe Uconn does, it will be tougher for the women of course without the big 3, and Hamilton declaring sucks but the guard play should be stronger assuming Purvis comes back. Both Men and Women making the FF is very possible though. Other teams I would say Maryland, Baylor and Texas.

 

[Eskapeesto]

Geno gets in a dig at BC

 

[David 76]

Which school has the best shot at a dual national championship? I would like to believe Uconn does, it will be tougher for the women of course without the big 3, and Hamilton declaring sucks but the guard play should be stronger assuming Purvis comes back. Both Men and Women making the FF is very possible though. Other teams I would say Maryland, Baylor and Texas.

I think the women have a better chance of an NC next year than the men. Let's hope for both.