| To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (258) | 4/8/2014 12:03:24 AM | | From: Bonefish | | | | two factors. calamari told his guys to take it down the middle like they did against wisconsin. uconn packed it in. it backfired on kentucky. then the poor free throw shooting. those were enough to doom kentucky.
good thing uconn didnt have to play louisville again. |
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| To: Bonefish who wrote (259) | 4/8/2014 1:28:45 AM | | From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell | | | | Louisville was the one school that could stay with the UConn guards. As we say every year, it all comes down to match-ups. Napier and Boatwright made Kentucky start their offense 35 feet from the basket. They tired them out. Napier said after the game how Ollie made them run until they almost passed out in preseason, and how Kentucky seemed gassed and bent over while UConn was still running upright. He also said how they have competitive free-throw shooting contests every practice. Recall UConn set a tournament record for highest free-throw shooting percentage for teams playing at least three games. Kentucky missed more free throws than UConn attempted, but UConn's game plan was to contest every shot in the paint knowing they had the advantage. In sum, their coaching and preparation was flawless down the stretch, with a true leader in Napier to make them believe.
- Jeff
P.S. Talked to my son. He was already at the team's hotel partying, lol. |
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| To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (260) | 4/8/2014 6:48:16 AM | | From: Bill | | | | | It looked to me that they wanted it more. It was a sloppy game, but UConn stepped it up at both ends when they needed to. Congrats. |
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| To: Kevin Podsiadlik who wrote (263) | 4/8/2014 4:30:21 PM | | From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell | | | | Defense wins championships. Offense determines by what score. You couldn't possibly get through the regular season in one piece if you guarded teams 40 feet from the basket the way UConn did this tournament. If you want to claim this is what makes the regular season meaningless and the tournament a crapshoot, so be it. But, like any sport, the only fair way to crown a champion is square one team off against another in as fair a way as possible. March Madness does that better than any other format. UConn shut down the offenses of Michigan St, Florida, and Kentucky. It's not how you start, it's how you finish.
- Jeff |
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| To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (264) | 4/8/2014 4:42:44 PM | | From: Robert F. Newton | | | | Congrats to UConn!!!! It's amazing to think back and see how close they were in getting knocked out in Round 1 against St. Joe's. Their guard play was second to none and their defense was stifling. Napier's draft stock definitely rose due to the tournament.
My only advise to Kevin Ollie and Napier is to invest the time in a public speaking class. They were painful to listen to after games. |
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