Final Four Thread
- Thread starter Drew1208
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Miami is good. They are long, athletic, and to a man they play really hard. They are especially tough defensively.
Offensively, they are relatively unstructured and rely heavily on 3 point shooting and run outs. They have players who are good at slashing to the rim. UCONN had too much size and length all
over the floor for Miami when Miami had the ball. At the other end of the floor UCONN carved them up with screening, cutting, and inside-out ball movement and shot selection. Watching UCONN operate in this tournament it has been obvious that they are very well coached. They run a lot of really good stuff in the half court and with their set pieces after timeouts etc. I didn’t know much about them before the tournament, but what Hurley is doing there is certainly impressive.
UConn’s front court is incredible. I had no idea how good and Deep their team is.
Miami had to be on top of their game to beat them and unfortunately they were stone cold most of the game. Clearly UConn had something to do with that but Miami just couldn’t hit the ocean for most of the game
Yea, a friend of mine has never been to the state of Kansas and is somehow a Kansas fan. If Kansas decided to play their home game vs Texas Tech at PPG Paints Arena, it would draw 10K at least. UConn vs Butler isnt drawing more than 2K
When your entire roster is 4 star players with high end 4 star players it should be really easy to win a lot of games. And they are finally doing that.
And most of their roster is kids from Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, etc.. Sanogo played high school ball in NY / NJ and Hawkins is from Maryland. All their talent or most of it is a stone throw away. Hurley took advantage of it and recruited very well.
If Capel got 5 star Meleek Thomas and Alier Maluk with our current roster for example, kids in our own backyard, he would win big too. I guarantee it.
Recruiting makes coaching a lot easier when you have a roster full of real elite talent. Unless we want to go the Miami route and have a $5 million payroll to buy players every year like Larranga is doing.
I have to disagree. Kansas is certainly a blue blood, hell that’s where Naismith invented the game and they have both a rich history and plenty of recent success. But they don’t have anywhere near the reach with fans around the country that Duke, UNC or Kentucky have. Not even close. I’ve lived in Michigan for over 40 years and the only Kansas fan I’ve ever met is a neighbor who is an alum. No kids from this state go to KU, nobody wears KU merch, and no kid from this state aspires to attend or play a sport for KU. I can’t think of a Michigan born basketball player in my memory that went to KU. Hell not even my Jayhawk neighbor’s boys or his wife wear KU merch. But there has always been plenty of Duke, UNC and UK swag all over the place here.
No offense, but I think Vader's post below this one is a better take. I do agree that Hurley is really good, but it has much to do with snagging the best local players and when you have high end talent, the coach always looks pretty smart. The big east conference is still damn good, and the fertil recruiting grounds of NY and NJ provide great players for schools like UCONN. I would like to see what you would think about Capel, if he got a chance to coach Thomas, Maluk, and Cummings together with a couple others mixed in. Like I said Hurley is really good and deserves much credit, but, this Connecticut team is loaded with elite players, even the guys coming in off the bench are high level. I wish I still watched big east basketball, I could have made alot of money in my March madness poll. UCONN was a well kept secret to those who are not rabid college basketball fans and watch a ton of games.
Didn't Bilas pick them to win it? Seemed a trendy pick going into the dance...
Actually, basketball was invented in Springfield, MA in 1891 by James Naismith, a Canadian physical education instructor. Springfield is where the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is located. Doc Carlson is honored there. Just a side note.
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With all of that talent, UConn managed to lose 7 conference games, and finished 4th in the Big East.
Usually just a matter of peaking at the right time. I would have liked our chances had we played the tournament in early February, ha.
What I didn't know and many still don't is that UCONN lost 5 out of 6 from Dec.31st to Jan 18th. They had a few guys miss a few games in that stretch as well. They only lost 3 other games, and didn't lose a single game to a team outside the big east. Since that bad stretch they have been a dominant team.
