After watching the final four teams, if ISU wants to reach the final four next year, they will have to play much better defense next an they did this year. The final four teams played with more intensity on defense than ISU did this past year. I also thought that the referees did not do Wisconsin any favors throughout the game.
Final four thoughts.
- Thread starter cyborg
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What I took out of it was talent trumps everything else, all other things being equal. Both teams played good defense and executed well offensively. The difference was the talented freshmen. I know stats re: McD's AA's on chamionship teams has been posted, and this game only emphasizes the point:
If we want to get to the elite level, Fred needs to start landing some 5-stars.
If we want to get to the elite level, Fred needs to start landing some 5-stars.
Duke and Kentucky are just mind numbingly boring to me as a fan. I think it's because their uniforms are practically identical too. If I didn't have personal hate and disdain for KU I'd probably throw them in there too.
Such an incredibly boring outcome any year one of those teams wins it. I was really pulling for Wisconsin but would have been pulling for just about any team other than KU/KU/Duke. I don't "HATE" Duke or UK like some, it's just soooooooooooooooo boring to see them win a title. I do hate KU. I do question if everything is on the up and up at UK but Cal has some history to make it questionable.
And yes I know Kentucky has incredibly athletes, but it's stupid to watch college basketball for the athletes, watch the NBA if that's what you care about. Outside of ISU, the reason to watch college basketball is the passion and the desire of the young players and UK/Duke winning titles with their pick of the top players is pretty much as uninteresting as televised basketball gets when you consider their talent sucks compared to watching an NBA game.
Such an incredibly boring outcome any year one of those teams wins it. I was really pulling for Wisconsin but would have been pulling for just about any team other than KU/KU/Duke. I don't "HATE" Duke or UK like some, it's just soooooooooooooooo boring to see them win a title. I do hate KU. I do question if everything is on the up and up at UK but Cal has some history to make it questionable.
And yes I know Kentucky has incredibly athletes, but it's stupid to watch college basketball for the athletes, watch the NBA if that's what you care about. Outside of ISU, the reason to watch college basketball is the passion and the desire of the young players and UK/Duke winning titles with their pick of the top players is pretty much as uninteresting as televised basketball gets when you consider their talent sucks compared to watching an NBA game.
We've been a pretty good to really good team the last couple of years. What I noticed is the huge gap between being that and being Final Four good, and another gap between being FF good and championship caliber good. That isn't to say that UConn type runs can't happen because the obviously do, but there is also a great deal of talent that kicks in and execution that takes place when those type of runs take place. It's not like the teams that go on those runs completely come out of nowhere. They all have extremely talented individuals and have shown the ability at some point to execute at an extremely high level. Getting hot at the right time is the biggest part of being a champion but there's a lot more to it than that.
This whole tournament was pretty humbling for me as a fan, from our loss to UAB to watching the level of ball being played by the teams that kept advancing. I'm not saying we can't or won't get there, but I do think we're farther away than I wanted to admit.
This whole tournament was pretty humbling for me as a fan, from our loss to UAB to watching the level of ball being played by the teams that kept advancing. I'm not saying we can't or won't get there, but I do think we're farther away than I wanted to admit.
Tanking the first game will cause that to happen.
People were just too hyped pre-season (causing a really decent and kind of true-to-form season to look bad).
We could have probably got Final Eight but that's about it.
Wisconsin had the best front line in the Tourney. Their front line out played Kentucky and Duke. Wisconsin's guards were good, but average. When Duke's front line got in foul trouble, their guards took over and Wisconsin did not have the ability to stop them. Duke won because their guards carried the team down the stretch.
I think that Duke kid is still trying to rake whomever is trying to defend him with his left arm. Somebody tell him that the game is over.
Eh, didn't Duke's players play with a lot of passion and desire? Watching Grayson Allen take over while the more heralded Duke freshmen were all on the bench in foul trouble was pretty amazing. Cool to see a young guy step up when his team was desperate.
More heralded than a McD's AA that won the slam dunk contest with a 37'' vertical? :twitcy:
Yeah it was really great to see that espn 5 star top 25 recruit come off the bench to help his other 5 star teammates.
Yes, the often forgotten, less heralded McD's all American. :twitcy:
I do agree with Tuco's sentiment though. Allen single handedly got Duke back in the game with the stretch around the 10-12 minute mark of the 2nd half and helped Jones to close it out. He was unstoppable. He'll be the next guy every non Duke fan will love to hate. I
I've watched PLENTY of boring basketball this year, but I didn't find last night boring at all.
I think he's pointing out they're the Elite Eight and Final Four... not Final Eight and Final Four.
There are a lot of players who can be unstoppable when they are allowed to do with his off hand what he did about three times on every drive to the basket last night. If the game was called anywhere near to the way it is supposed to be called and generally gets called for the no-name teams he would have had about 6 points and been sitting on the bench with the rest of his teammates who were in foul trouble.
And no, I'm not a Wisky fan.
The difference between ISU and the blue bloods isn't night and day like it was 20 years ago (Fred's senior year was a nice team, and they didn't hold a candle to 2 seed UNC), and this is certainly the most consistent that they've been for winning, but I still couldn't see how ISU could hang physically with pretty much all teams in the Elite 8.
It will be interesting to see if the ceiling is much higher over the next few years.
It will be interesting to see if the ceiling is much higher over the next few years.
I'm not taking anything away from Duke or Kentucky or their players. I'm saying to me, as a fan, watching them win a title is as boring as watching paint dry. I guess it's not really a debate, it's just the feeling of boredom I get watching these two teams with identical uniforms win titles with the top players.
If I want to watch the best athletes, well that starts a couple weeks from now. Outside of ISU, NCAA basketball is only exciting to me if I can cheer for some team climbing the mountain. Kentucky doesn't have great basketball players or a great team compared to the Spurs. An NCAA team that hasn't been there before, that's exciting to me. A team that really does have the best players in the world trying to be the greatest of all time (NBA dynasties), that's interesting to me.
College football isn't as extreme since the programs have to recruit so many elite players. Even Alabama with their classes, there are just too many players for it to ever get that boring where the half of the top 20 of every NFL draft is an Alabama player which is kind of what the top 5 or top 10 nba draft picks all playing on one team for just one year, that's what the NCAA has become with mainly those programs just dominating the top picks.
Not getting to know some of these guys in just one season adds to the insane boredom too, I liked watching Kaminsky gradually become a force. For a college player to truly be entertaining for me to watch on some random team he just has to be INCREDIBLY fun to watch in terms of doing acrobatic and wild things. Curry, Wade, Durant and Napier in their final NCAA seasons are about the only non-ISU players recently where I got excited to watch them because of their incredible skills compared to how excited I would be to watch several dozen NBA players in the playoffs. Even a now dominant guy like Anthony Davis was still a fledgling his one season compared to watching NBA guys of that year.
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I was going to include that in there and got distracted and forgot. Allen did get away with a push off on just about every one of his drives to the basket. Totally agree with what you're saying but since he was allowed to get away with it, he gets to be the hero.