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Better Team Always Win?


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I’ve been thinking a lot about this during this year’s tournament, and I thought it would be a good discussion.  Does the better team always win?  Is it as simple as, yes they won the game, or does it go deeper than that?  I’ve went back and forth in my head and don’t think it’s a simple answer.  What say you?

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Think what we just witnessed is pretty obvious. ANYBODY can win in just one game. A bad bounce, an injury, a big run, iffy call, bad game by best player, etc. 

  I would say the "better team always wins" is probably a little more apropos for the "best of" series in a tourney. It can help make up for the above mentioned situations. Still not always the better team, but I would say it happens much more than in the one and done. 

  Just my opinion. 

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Best team to illustrate this, and it pains me to say it, might be our 2002 team.

We beat Duke once, so with that win, maybe we win a 2 out of 3. No way we beat them in a best of 5 or best of 7, in my opinion 

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39 minutes ago, StLHoosier said:

I’ve been thinking a lot about this during this year’s tournament, and I thought it would be a good discussion.  Does the better team always win?  Is it as simple as, yes they won the game, or does it go deeper than that?  I’ve went back and forth in my head and don’t think it’s a simple answer.  What say you?

No the best teams does not always win and that is what is great about the NCAA tournament.  If it was like the NBA with a 7 game series where the best teams usually wins is not that entertaining to me.

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I guess what got me thinking about this is the run Loyola has been on.  IMO, they are a great team, not a bunch of great individuals.  One could argue that the teams that they’ve beaten should have been better teams, since they had more individual talent, but that doesn’t always constitute team success.

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3 minutes ago, StLHoosier said:

I guess what got me thinking about this is the run Loyola has been on.  IMO, they are a great team, not a bunch of great individuals.  One could argue that the teams that they’ve beaten should have been better teams, since they had more individual talent, but that doesn’t always constitute team success.

Fair statement.

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2 hours ago, StLHoosier said:

I guess what got me thinking about this is the run Loyola has been on.  IMO, they are a great team, not a bunch of great individuals.  One could argue that the teams that they’ve beaten should have been better teams, since they had more individual talent, but that doesn’t always constitute team success.

Agree that best individual talent is not the same thing as best team.

 

But it's pretty obvious that the best team often does not win.

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  One way to look at this......is even the better team has weaknesses.  If those vulnerabilities get exploited in a game(or a series for that matter) they will get beat.  Of course there are intangibles such as the officiating and injuries.  Usually the cream rises to the top......but not always.

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In a seven game series the better team usually wins. But it's extremely common for those series to go past the 4 games it takes to clinch - meaning the the better team losing happens frequently. 

With a single game elimination this is just going to happen, but that single factor is why I think the NCAA tournament is one of the most entertaining sporting events.

On a side note (please no hate mail), this is the reason why I can't get into soccer and hockey. Not only does the better team lose often, but there are many times in a game/match where one team will completely outplay the other team AND STILL LOSE. It drives me crazy. 

 

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13 hours ago, StLHoosier said:

I guess what got me thinking about this is the run Loyola has been on.  IMO, they are a great team, not a bunch of great individuals.  One could argue that the teams that they’ve beaten should have been better teams, since they had more individual talent, but that doesn’t always constitute team success.

And the strangest thing about college hoops (which is why I think it's probably the most difficult title to win besides a major in golf) is Loyola gets beat at home by Indiana St (we know what they did to us) and out of nowhere the buttons start clicking and regardless of how they got there....they are in a Final 4 ala George Mason. 

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Or even here locally. Look at the Pacers. Had teams with better talent but these guys playing together with a chip. Have exceeded all expectations after last summer trade. Wish we could have our own version of "freezing cold takes" and bring that thread back to life. 

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