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The Final Four


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2 minutes ago, NCHoosier32 said:

this is how i felt.  i don't get the hate for Gonzaga at all.  i just didn't want to see an undefeated team.  

They're just a lot like ND football imo.  They rarely ever play any elite teams until the tournament so they're almost always overrated.  

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1 minute ago, dbmhoosier said:

They're just a lot like ND football imo.  They rarely ever play any elite teams until the tournament so they're almost always overrated.  

not a debate for this board, but that's simply not true about ND football.  i know IU football fans are tired of hearing about ND, but they play as many top ranked as any other team in the nation.  all power conference teams play cream puffs outside of conference and have their share of weak in conference teams.  

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7 minutes ago, dbmhoosier said:

They're just a lot like ND football imo.  They rarely ever play any elite teams until the tournament so they're almost always overrated.  

Meh.  Bad comparison.  In a normal year, the 'Zags play a difficult non-con schedule.  Besides, they made it to the championship game.

 

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10 minutes ago, rico said:

Meh.  Bad comparison.  In a normal year, the 'Zags play a difficult non-con schedule.  Besides, they made it to the championship game.

 

They kind of do that because they have to.  They are a good team, BUT, their conference is full of teams that would be considered cupcakes if they were on our preconference schedule.  So in any given year, about 2/3 of their schedule is really weak.

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8 minutes ago, IUCrazy2 said:

They kind of do that because they have to.  They are a good team, BUT, their conference is full of teams that would be considered cupcakes if they were on our preconference schedule.  So in any given year, about 2/3 of their schedule is really weak.

Thanks for pointing that out to me.  LOL  Gonzaga is like the old UNLV.

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2 minutes ago, rico said:

Thanks for pointing that out to me.  LOL  Gonzaga is like the old UNLV.

That is probably a really good comparison honestly.  They are a really good team that gets to put it in autopilot every year from late December until March.  I think that effects them when they get deeper into the tournament.

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9 minutes ago, 5fouls said:

Let's not discount the impact of the pressure of trying to go undefeated had on last night's game.  

To me, it it looked like it was the first time that Gonzaga had played a team that was better than them and it took them a while to adapt to that. There was definitely an athleticism gap... those guards for Baylor were nearly impossible to defend.

I think if they played several times, Gonzaga would win some of the games (not 50% though)...

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Gonzaga got punched in the mouth from the opening tip, weren't ready for it, didn't know how to  react, and never recovered. 

Besides the onslaught of 3 point makes, one thing that can't be overlooked is the number of second chance plays Baylor got right at the start of the game. Vidal was a beast inside and his rebounding prevented Gonzaga from getting out and running, and getting a jump on Baylor. 

I don't think Gonzaga would have beat Baylor 3 times out of 10, had they played that many games. The Bears' outside shooting may not be as prolific as it was last night on a regular basis, but their defense would. If Baylor wouldn't shoot that well, you could say the same about Suggs, who carried the Zags. Baylor's defense made Timme and Kispert look like ordinary players, and Nembhart and Ayiyi looked lost.

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8 hours ago, Sea Turtle said:

We need dudes. Grown ass men. Because that's what Baylor has. That's what we would have looked like under Sampson eventually.

On a side note, how many times did Timmee stroke his stache tonight?

He did it once in the first half that I remember. Down 17 he makes a dunk and does his 'Look at me' schtick. I knew right then that his head wasn't in the right place and they just expected to win.

 

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48 minutes ago, rico said:

Meh.  Bad comparison.  In a normal year, the 'Zags play a difficult non-con schedule.  Besides, they made it to the championship game.

There were so many upsets, I do not even know who the best team they played in the tournament prior to the championship - Creighton? UCLA? USC? Oklahoma? Norfolk State? 

Probably UCLA... when your toughest opponent is a double digit seed first four...

By comparison Baylor went through: Wisc ~=< Oklahoma, Villanova > Creighton, Ark > USC, Hous > UCLA...

They are really good team, but not an historically great team. 

I am not a hater, either - I was more-or-less for Gonzaga (I did not care that much). With Woodson on, I am ready to turn the page on the '76 team and create the new legacies.

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Gonzaga wouldn't have gone undefeated playing in the BIG or the Big 12 conferences, but that's not to discount what they did. They had a great year and are a really good team.

Baylor was a beast last night, they have one of the most complete teams I have ever seen in college ball. It was fun to watch them play.

Edited by Officer Obie
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Just now, Officer Obie said:

Gonzaga wouldn't have gone undefeated playing in the BIG or the Big 12 conferences, but that's not to discount what they did. They had a great year and are a really good team.

Baylor was a beast last night, they have one of the most complete teams I have ever seen in college ball. It was fun to watch them play last night.

Baylor was just a beast period - last night, previous game... I think if they had not had the Covid problems, they would have been the team threatening the undefeated season.

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4 minutes ago, GaloisGroupe said:

There were so many upsets, I do not even know who the best team they played in the tournament prior to the championship - Creighton? UCLA? USC? Oklahoma? Norfolk State? 

Probably UCLA... when your toughest opponent is a double digit seed first four...

By comparison Baylor went through: Wisc ~=< Oklahoma, Villanova > Creighton, Ark > USC, Hous > UCLA...

They are really good team, but not an historically great team. 

I am not a hater, either - I was more-or-less for Gonzaga (I did not care that much). With Woodson on, I am ready to turn the page on the '76 team and create the new legacies.

The tournament unfolds like it does after the 1st game.  I see no significance as to the route a team "takes" to the title game other than creating discussion.  It is what it is.  I think we would all agree that the 'Zags were one of the 4 best teams this year.  They just fell one game short of achieving the ultimate prize and now the CBB world is looking for an answer for their short coming.  When in reality what they did this year hadn't been done since 1979...losing the championship game as an undefeated team.

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Few should have just given the same simple speech RMK did at the half in 1976 when IU was down by 6...

"You want to be known as one of the great teams ever? You have 20 minutes to prove it."

IU scored a record 57 points in the 2nd half...No other team has scored that many in a half in a final game in either half...

And that was without Bobby Wilkerson ;) 

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Gonzaga has a nice offensive system but I’m not crazy about their D.  They give up a ton of open looks.  You could see that with UCLA.  There they seemed to strategically funnel UCLA into mid range shots but last night they gave up a lot of threes. 

Can’t take anything away from Baylor. Had some shades of Crean where they’d weave around up top until somebody had the advantage to get downhill.  But they had better spacing than Crean typically did and they’d use the drive for a ton of kick outs.  And their shooters were money.   It was highly effective so you can’t take anything away from them.  There’s more than one way to skin a cat.  That’s stylistically not my favorite offense but when you have the right pieces, you can win a ton of different ways.  

Edited by BobSaccamanno
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1 hour ago, BobSaccamanno said:

Gonzaga has a nice offensive system but I’m not crazy about their D.  They give up a ton of open looks.  You could see that with UCLA.  There they seemed to strategically funnel UCLA into mid range shots but last night they gave up a lot of threes. 

Can’t take anything away from Baylor. Had some shades of Crean where they’d weave around up top until somebody had the advantage to get downhill.  But they had better spacing than Crean typically did and they’d use the drive for a ton of kick outs.  And their shooters were money.   It was highly effective so you can’t take anything away from them.  There’s more than one way to skin a cat.  That’s stylistically not my favorite offense but when you have the right pieces, you can win a ton of different ways.  

And the refs let them play.  Advantage to Baylor on that.  It was a rough game and Gonzaga was not ready to get punched in the mouth like they did.  They never recovered from the first 5 minutes of that game.  Baylor was just more aggressive all over the court.

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