UConn vs Michigan (Championship)

[RuffRuff]

at the top of the draft teams go for ceiling. teams have different evaluations of castle's offense but a few teams had all star ceiling evals including san antonio. this class is pretty guard rich so castle would be in the 2nd tier behind guys like peterson/acuff etc but on account of his two way ability, makeup and physicals he would still have a fairly high ceiling projection.

nba teams are pretty comfortable going on small sample size with a player if the guy has projectable physical ability. castle's got the small sample problem but he was dominant as a finisher and generating rim pressure in that sample and had elite physical attributes for the position.

also, shooting is seen as the skill most easy to improve upon up to a certain baseline level. the elite shooters are another matter but most players can improve to 35%ish which is good enough with castle's other elite attributes.

People are getting confused on this one - I am not saying what Steph isn't for the sake of knocking him as a player, love Steph. I'm saying it because his eval out of college had big concerns around his shooting and offensive upside. The NBA is offensive minded. The quality of this class is seen as drastically better than that class, and he went 4 in that class. If he was as great as all this hindsight eval is suggesting, he would have gone 1 in front of undersized guards like Reed Sheppard and total dud Zachary Risacher. I honestly think the entire first round in that draft would have potentially been pushed back 10 spots. It was a historically lousy draft. The first pick is already a bust.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

He wouldn't have gone top ten in this draft - case closed. His shooting was a major concern. They took a shooter in front of him. Are you related? I love the kid, but am not delusioned to his rap coming out after his first year, and how this draft is perceived. His high school class was all time bad.

This is still going?

 

[uconngb]

When have you seen UConn play any zone? Frankly I can't remember the last time they played any extended minutes of zone.

I doubt you'll see much if any zone D. Zones tend to give up offensive rebounds, which we don't want to do against Michigan.

No chance we will play zone....for the first time in the NC game??? I don't think so

 

[Iluvsuebird]

the last time that UCLA won the women's title was 1999. Who won the men's title that year?????

 

[superjohn]

This is still going?

We're going for our third national championship in four seasons tonight and he's still doing this.

It's beyond weird.

 

[noelle]

People are getting confused on this one - I am not saying what Steph isn't for the sake of knocking him as a player, love Steph. I'm saying it because his eval out of college had big concerns around his shooting and offensive upside. The NBA is offensive minded. The quality of this class is seen as drastically better than that class, and he went 4 in that class. If he was as great as all this hindsight eval is suggesting, he would have gone 1 in front of undersized guards like Reed Sheppard and total dud Zachary Risacher. I honestly think the entire first round in that draft would have potentially been pushed back 10 spots. It was a historically lousy draft. The first pick is already a bust.

i mean each team drafting ahead of spurs had a high ceiling eval on their picks. risacher and sarr were archetype picks with fairly rudimentary offensive skills but projectable role and physicals. reed is a guy with pretty elite shooting and sneaky athleticism. it's just a bet on the upside when there's lack of certainty.

basically my point is that despite castle's shortcomings spurs still had a high ceiling projection on him. it's just that the consensus was fractured and every team went with their own favorite bets.

 

[uconngb]

People are getting confused on this one - I am not saying what Steph isn't for the sake of knocking him as a player, love Steph. I'm saying it because his eval out of college had big concerns around his shooting and offensive upside. The NBA is offensive minded. The quality of this class is seen as drastically better than that class, and he went 4 in that class. If he was as great as all this hindsight eval is suggesting, he would have gone 1 in front of undersized guards like Reed Sheppard and total dud Zachary Risacher. I honestly think the entire first round in that draft would have potentially been pushed back 10 spots. It was a historically lousy draft. The first pick is already a bust.

Dude.....ENOUGH

We have a NC game tonight, STFU and let's go Huskies!!!!

 

[Mets1432]

IMO and maybe it's obvious, but this game has to be played in the 60's or low 70's for Uconn to have a chance.

We can't run up and down with Michigan. Duke beat this Michigan team 68-65. That should be the only gametape Uconn watches in prep for this game. How did Duke slow them down?

 

[ec33]

For the mojo:

I accidentally caught myself wearing Furman colors in Round 1 (honestly, I wasn't worried about mojo round 1 and was barely cognizant that Furman was purple). Reached for a light-blue hoodie the day of the UCLA game and decided to go with it.

Now I am stuck wearing "maize and blue" today (the only combo I have that can display both is a t-shirt and shorts) so it is going to be a chilly day out there today.

 

[GetTheFacts]

Couple of thoughts:

-The line in this game (Michigan -7.5) is pretty surprising to me...I have an extremely hard time believing that Yaxel is anywhere near 100% (best case maybe 60%?)
-Solo potentially being out/not playing a full workload might end up as a blessing. We don't need him clanking out-of-rythm 3's off the back iron and creating easy transition opportunities for Michigan. If we control the tempo, we can easily hang around.
-Reed needs to be extremely disciplined and stay out of foul trouble. Reibe will not be able to do anything against Mara or Johnson.
-We hit 10+ 3's and we'll have a chance to win.
-No long scoring droughts like in prior games.

 

[GetTheFacts]

IMO and maybe it's obvious, but this game has to be played in the 60's or low 70's for Uconn to have a chance.

We can't run up and down with Michigan. Duke beat this Michigan team 68-65. That should be the only gametape Uconn watches in prep for this game. How did Duke slow them down?

I think Iowa and Minnesota did a really good job as well. Both play at a slower pace like we do.

 

[cwh20]

the last time that UCLA won the women's title was 1999. Who won the men's title that year?????

Purdue beat Duke in 1999. I read that yesterday was UCLA’s first title.

 

[HCCForever]

Pretty cool that Charlie thanked the team for the opportunity. The brotherhood is real. Ray was talking about the brotherhood as well and how important it is for future generations of UConn players.

 

[controlfade]

He wouldn't have gone top ten in this draft - case closed. His shooting was a major concern. They took a shooter in front of him. Are you related? I love the kid, but am not delusioned to his rap coming out after his first year, and how this draft is perceived. His high school class was all time bad.

He would still go ahead of Yaxel in any draft—


Teams reach all the time—Houston took a shooter higher than anyone expected who wasn’t even good enough to be starting at Kentucky. That happens.


You’re completely off base trying to compare Castle as a freshman to Yaxel as a senior as pro prospects. Castle gets picked ahead every time—that’s not even debatable.


But you still haven’t answered the actual point and keep deflecting with this draft argument. Bottom line: Castle would guard him, and even a healthy Yaxel wouldn’t be an offensive concern.

 

[alexd]

 

[Iluvsuebird]

We should run the offense for whoever he is guarding. Wear his ass out defensively.

they will try to play more zone to protect him. Thus, our shooters will be key even more than usual.

 

[RuffRuff]

He would still go ahead of Yaxel in any draft—


Teams reach all the time—Houston took a shooter higher than anyone expected who wasn’t even good enough to be starting at Kentucky. That happens.


You’re completely off base trying to compare Castle as a freshman to Yaxel as a senior as pro prospects. Castle gets picked ahead every time—that’s not even debatable.


But you still haven’t answered the actual point and keep deflecting with this draft argument. Bottom line: Castle would guard him, and even a healthy Yaxel wouldn’t be an offensive concern.

Yes, freshman Castle would have had major issues with a Senior Yaxel, who has a significant size advantage on him and scores at all levels, passes well. You make it sound like Castle is a God. I'm not even sure there was a player like Yaxel in the entire field that year. Do you not realize how unique a player he is - he's basically an older Cooper Flagg. Sure Steph would slow him down, but he's not fully stopping the guy. You can blow your wad all you want on Steph, he's a great player, but Lord you are really making him to be something godlike. He blanketed Buie because the guy was tiny and on a limited team. He stuffed Shannon because the guy can't shoot. Not sure if Lundenberg has a weakness offensively at 6'9" other than maybe denying him the ball, and he has very good players surrounding him.

Are you going to argue to death that Steph is a better player than 25 Cooper Flagg too? Because by every metric, 26 Yaxel is a more highly rated player based on all around output.

 

[ctbro1999]

Yes, freshman Castle would have had major issues with a Senior Yaxel, who has a significant size advantage on him and scores at all levels, passes well. You make it sound like Castle is a God. I'm not even sure there was a player like Yaxel in the entire field that year. Do you not realize how unique a player he is - he's basically an older Cooper Flagg. Sure Steph would slow him down, but he's not fully stopping the guy. You can blow your wad all you want on Steph, he's a great player, but Lord you are really making him to be something godlike. He blanketed Buie because the guy was tiny and on a limited team. He stuffed Shannon because the guy can't shoot. Not sure if Lundenberg has a weakness offensively at 6'9" other than maybe denying him the ball, and he has very good players surrounding him.

Are you going to argue to death that Steph is a better player than 25 Cooper Flagg too? Because by every metric, 26 Yaxel is a more highly rated player based on all around output.

Why the hell are you even comparing 23 year old Yaxel and at the time 19 year old Castle? Talk about stupid arguments.
Also, a 23 year old senior will almost never get drafted ahead of a 19 year old freshman with similar acumen as the NBA is all about upside and youth. That's why you almost never see true seniors go in the top 10 of a draft. Knecht, Edey went top 10 same draft as Castle, but you seem to be seriously misjudging what NBA teams prioritize.

 

[RuffRuff]

Why the hell are you even comparing 23 year old Yaxel and at the time 19 year old Castle? Talk about stupid arguments.
Also, a 23 year old senior will almost never get drafted ahead of a 19 year old freshman with similar acumen as the NBA is all about upside and youth. That's why you almost never see true seniors go in the top 10 of a draft. Knecht, Edey went top 10 same draft as Castle, but you seem to be seriously misjudging what NBA teams prioritize.

This started by comparing rosters of this UM team vs the 24 Uconn team player for player. Someone else brought it up, said it was either Uconn advantage or wash at every position, in very homer fashion. It seems a vast majority of those weighing in think that you can look at current day Castle in that comparison.

 

[Iluvsuebird]

Mara impacted so many shots last night it was ridiculous…the problem is UConn is going to put up 30-35 three pointers and he’s not a factor out beyond the arc. He could help neutralize Reed, but our game plan isn’t to “pound the paint” like Arizona. Our plan needs to be making them defend us for 20-25 seconds and getting a clean three and hitting 40% of them. We do that and we put up a lot of them and we win.

Mara does not have the beef to neutralize Bear. He will block some shots, but he wont stop Bear.

 

[controlfade]

Yes, freshman Castle would have had major issues with a Senior Yaxel, who has a significant size advantage on him and scores at all levels, passes well. You make it sound like Castle is a God. I'm not even sure there was a player like Yaxel in the entire field that year. Do you not realize how unique a player he is - he's basically an older Cooper Flagg. Sure Steph would slow him down, but he's not fully stopping the guy. You can blow your wad all you want on Steph, he's a great player, but Lord you are really making him to be something godlike. He blanketed Buie because the guy was tiny and on a limited team. He stuffed Shannon because the guy can't shoot. Not sure if Lundenberg has a weakness offensively at 6'9" other than maybe denying him the ball, and he has very good players surrounding him.

Are you going to argue to death that Steph is a better player than 25 Cooper Flagg too? Because by every metric, 26 Yaxel is a more highly rated player based on all around output.

the only one here with a hard on is you bro! you make every excuse possible to deflect how good defensively Castle was! LMFAO, Castle had nothing to do with shutting those 2 down

AGAIN YOU IGNORAMUS, I NEVER SAID FRESHMAN CASTLE WAS BETTER THAN SENIOR YAXEL!!!!!!! , YOU CANNOT BE THAT THICK HEADED

 

[Mike9904111]

When have you seen UConn play any zone? Frankly I can't remember the last time they played any extended minutes of zone.

I doubt you'll see much if any zone D. Zones tend to give up offensive rebounds, which we don't want to do against Michigan.

Just gave an easy answer to the statement posted and if we give up that many boards in the exact scenario I responded too with their bigs looking to go over the top and floating around the perimeter then we have issues.

I think back to the Xavier game in 2023.

Rough first half against a very similar style team. Went pretty much zone the entire 2nd half and dominated that half.

Xavier had two solid bigs in Nunge and Freemantle.

40ish% three point shooting.

Bigs that could step out and hit the 3.

And yes. We do use it sparingly.. no where did I say we had to play it or we would...

We are elite defensively. I trust the staff 100%. Just giving an answer to a statement and stating something we have indeed used in situations.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

This started by comparing rosters of this UM team vs the 24 Uconn team player for player. Someone else brought it up, said it was either Uconn advantage or wash at every position, in very homer fashion. It seems a vast majority of those weighing in think that you can look at current day Castle in that comparison.

I asked this earlier and either you missed it or you intentionally overlooked it.

Are you claiming that the Yaxel-Steph argument is comparing the best players from each team?

 

[Mike9904111]

IMO and maybe it's obvious, but this game has to be played in the 60's or low 70's for Uconn to have a chance.

We can't run up and down with Michigan. Duke beat this Michigan team 68-65. That should be the only gametape Uconn watches in prep for this game. How did Duke slow them down?

Duke played a 3/4 zone against them. Out rebounded them by 12-13 boards. Slowed the tempo. Gave them less possessions watched the after dark podcast on this game recently.

 

[Marat]

There was a reason for the comeback vs Duke and the game winning shot from Mullins. Its not to lose in the final. There is a higher power involved here.

 

[ctbro1999]

There was a reason for the comeback vs Duke and the game winning shot from Mullins. Its not to lose in the final. There is a higher power involved here.

I think about all the things that needed to break perfectly UConn's way in order for Mullins' shot to even happen. I'm not even gonna consider Duke's last possession right before the steal where they could have done a half dozen things to prevent us from winning. Foster getting called for an offensive foul as Duke was about to inbound the ball after a TO. Cam Boozer coughing up the ball in an unforced error which led to Solo getting the fast break layup (+1). Reed, a sub-60% FT shooter making all his FT's. Karaban hitting his only 3 of the game with just over a minute left.

I'd even wager if Silas had made both FTs (or made the 1st, missed the 2nd), we would have likely lost the game. But him missing the 1st, making the 2nd allowed us to set up the full court trap that led to the Mullins Miracle. I don't believe in God, but if there is a God, he must be a UConn fan.

 

[RuffRuff]

I asked this earlier and either you missed it or you intentionally overlooked it.

Are you claiming that the Yaxel-Steph argument is comparing the best players from each team?

No, it was comparing position for position, in this case the SF/3 for both teams and whoever wrote up the comparison said Yaxel/Castle was a wash.

 

[jfreeds]

Most people think that UConn needs to keep the game in the 60s. I just listened to Ray on the Dan Patrick show DP and he suggested that UConn should run some since that is the best time to take trailing threes before the defense sets up. And UConn cannot afford any scoring droughts against Michigan.

With all do respect to Ray, 2 of Michigan's three losses were extremely slow games - Duke #287 in temp and Purdue #330. The other loss was against Wisconsin who is not slow #100 but they shot 45% from three that game.

 

[UCTitleTown]

To me, if we win tonight, this will be either the #2 or #3 greatest championship based on expectations for the team. I'd put Kemba's 2011 1st due to the sheer unlikelihood, and maybe 1999 2nd for beating what Coach K. said was his best Duke team.

 

[UCTitleTown]

I think we match up well minus Yaxel. I love Silas v Cadeau and Mullins v Nimari. Morez is going to be gasping for air chasing Karaban around. And I’m still taking Reed over Mara. He’s got the length but not the strength. As I said The only matchup problem that scares me is Yaxel but hopefully he’ll be gimpy. We also have Ross and Stew to throw at him. Maybe that means less time with Ball and Mullins on the floor together.

Similar to tonight We need to hit at least a dozen 3s. Can’t get out rebounded and can’t turn the ball over giving them transition opportunities. Slow the pace to a crawl. Run our offense and make them defend for 20 seconds every possession. On top of all that we can’t foul so much.

Referees need to let the players play. Michigan is deeper and a tightly called game is an advantage to Michigan.