I wouldn't say that having the most talent means nothing in college basketball. I mean, if that were the case, UNC wouldn't be blowing out all the teams who have faced them. Obviously MSU has a chance to beat them given the way they're playing and the fact that their confidence is at a sky-high level right now. Let's not, however, act like UNC isn't the overwhelming favorite to win it all (with good reason).
Contradict much? I mean, you act like UNC is 37-0 and never gets tested. If you're so dead-set on believing a talent advantage secures anything in college basketball why don't you ask Boston College or Maryland, who managed to beat UNC despite glaringly inferior in the talent department? Also, MSU's road to the Final Four and championship game is 10x more impressive than that of UNC. MSU beat the defending champions and two #1 seeds. What was UNC's most impressive Tourney win....what, beating a one-dimensional Oklahoma team? Nothing against Villanova either since they, like many others, overcame the talent advantage and managed to beat my Pitt squad with coaching and execution. Two components of the game MSU is notoriously proficient at. P.S. UNC probably loses to LSU had Lawson not played. You can call me crazy all you want but I watched that game, it was close at points in the second half and it stays dangerously close and ends in a possible upset if Lawson didn't play and go nuts for 20+ in the second half.
UNC has come out aggressively and is playing KILLER defense right now. MSU doesn't know what hit them right now. Hopefully, MSU makes adjustments and counters with a run of their own.
I never said MSU would win I just predicted it would be close. You even fumbled your own words, backtracked and admitted that was a possibility yourself.
Man, I would love to see Ellington do well in the pros, but I don't think he's big enough or athletic enough to do what he does in the NCAA against the bigger and stronger competition in the NBA
I'm not trying to take away anything from the Tar Heels... I was wrong and they're a deserving champion. With that said, I can't believe how not a single team from the Sweet 16 on could even play a C game, offensively, against these guys. Yes, UNC is playing better defense than they did in the regular season, but this isn't suffocating defense. It's Michigan State missing countless relatively open looks -- the exact same shots they buried against UConn and Louisville. It's MSU guards throwing it directly to a UNC defender without even looking. It's Oklahoma's guards playing as poorly as I've ever seen them play and missing about a dozen wide open treys. It's Villanova's guards forgetting that they know how to dribble. I really don't have anything against UNC -- they're actually the only Final Four team I picked correctly. It's just that usually, a national champion gets tested... and every UNC opponent suddenly just kills themselves with missed open shots and unforced errors. I get that experience counts, and that's definitely an edge for UNC against any team... but I've seen middle school teams show more poise and common sense than MSU tonight. This is pathetic.
I think that once 3 or 4 teams end up playing their D game against you, it's officially a trend and is something that is attributable to something you're doing right. UNC plays a great swarming defense that flusters you and dares you to shoot your way back into the game. UNC always gets out to an early lead and that leads to less poise and more wild play by the other team.
I wouldn't call it a great, swarming defense. But I would agree that UNC's hot offensive starts have played a factor and perhaps sped offenses out of their games. Still, as a hoops fan, it's disappointing that they didn't encounter one team with an ounce of maturity to slow the game down and run their normal offense, even after falling behind early. Hard to believe a mediocre LSU team was the only team to even give them a run. Louisville and Connecticut should each be ashamed of themselves -- how in the world they lost to this group baffles me. No poise, no common sense, no shooters, and no free throws. That's a bad, bad combination.
I think y'all hit on something here. Those fast starts by UNC don't just cause/ reflect an opponent that isn't showing poise, but it also causes an opponent to play outside of its comfort zone, and perhaps play at a pace that it's not comfortable with nor good at. Case in point- the last thing that MSU wanted tonight was to fall behind by 10-15 pts. early. Then, they had to try to play at a faster pace and try to catch up with the 3, two things they are not very good at. MSU needed to play an A+ game tonight, and for whatever reason, they imploded into a turnover machine in the first half.
I dont think MSU really got out of their comfort zone per se...MSU can run...they pushed the temp and ran in the UCONN game pretty well. The problem with getting down 10-15 early was UNC's offense is to deadly...MSU was never going to get enough stops on defense to mount a comeback. Would MSU liked to have slowed the game down? sure, just think UNC had way to many weapons, cant contain them all
I agree that a big part of the problem is that UNC has way too many weapons. But I'm don't think MSU is any more than an average running team. Sure they ran effectively on UConn, but that's more of Izzo's scheming than anything else to counter a team that has plenty of low post defense and shot blocking. Best way to avoid having to deal with Tabeet and Adrien was to push tempo and try to attack before the D could get back and set up, especially in the paint. Regardless, the better team easily won, and it's insane to see how the trail of wreckage UNC left in this tourney. Only trailed for 10 minutes total in 6 games? That speaks to how dominant they were the last few weeks. I wonder how people would compare them to the last UNC title team that beat Illinois. Which one do y'all feel was better?
It's basically the same strategy the Phoenix Suns have used over the last several years. It's very easy to get sucked into that kind of game, and teams that don't do it on a regular basis will start doing lots of stupid things. Of all the teams in the final 8 teams, MSU was probably least equipped for that kind of game.
