Agreed but it’s just a funny what if since he was playing still. Even better , what if Aubrey was on last years team?
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Yeah, another shooter would have been great to have.
Agreed. They were a hugely talented team, but about as raw a basketball team as you’ll see. There was very little in the way of offensive structure. When they decided to try to work offence through Zion in the post in the 2nd half, it was painfully obvious that they had no idea how to even feed the post (and that’s not on the kids).
All I know is, if Texas Tech wins it all by going through MSU and Virginia, they would have beaten Kenpom’s 1-2-3-6 teams with Buffalo at 22. (As currently stands)
That is one hell of a run and has to be historical. I would assume there’s plenty of other similar runs, but off the top of my head only Michigan 2013 pops up as another tough total bracket.
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This is a topic I’ve been thinking about a lot during the tourney. I wonder whether the coaches who prioritize, and tend to get, the one-and-dones at least partly wish they could have a 5 or 6 player core that they could work with for a couple of years, and build into a true tourney force. Put another way, I’m sure that Coach K has to take a different approach coaching a team centered largely around Zion and Barrett, who he knows will only be on campus for 8 months, than he could take with a team centered around very good sophomores and juniors. Sure, he says that he tells the kids that they’re the most poised team in the tourney, etc., just to try to instill confidence. But, you know he doesn’t believe that’s true. It must drive him crazy, if only just a bit, to know that he’s always going to have at least a couple guys on the floor who only kinda, sorta know what they’re doing.
Honestly, it is just disgusting that this huge POS has a chance to win something after the bullshit he pulled last year (and for years before that) and never had to answer for.
Most people said it at the time, and it is blatantly clear that Engler was hired to protect both sports coaches. Just say stupid thing after stupid thing and have those cowards run and hide. Their media was just as pathetic in their attacks on them being exposed as complete frauds.
It is really amazing that this is mostly forgotten because the school uses the national irrelevance when convenient.
Current lawsuit with 3 former players going on, Cleaves brought back despite being a joke of a person, and his roommate Walton (the guy he supposedly doesn’t even know where he lives) and Payne had another rape charge in 2014 that magically went away.
Its just downright pathetic that this behavior gets rewarded, but that is the world we live in.
In a year and teams with scandals (paying players, off the court issues) it would be nice to see Virginia win it all.
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I thought Duke was supposed to be a great team but they sure didn’t look like one in the tournament. They struggled to put away the 16 seed, were downright lucky to escape the second round, were again pretty fortunate to win in the Sweet 16, and then lost. Despite the NBA Draft projections of half their guys, they were no 2018 Nova.
I don’t say that to cheapen what MSU did though. I hate that they’re in Final Four and can’t stand Izzo for a number of reasons, but making the Final Four is a big deal no matter who you play.
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I watched the Duke-Kansas game on an airplane, but that was some of the worst defense I’ve ever seen a top 10 team play.
I have to agree with pretty much all of this.
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On Simpson and Winston, only a handful of people would really know what happened. If Winston favored Michigan and told JB that and intended to sign and just genuinely wanted to change the visit date, then that would be a rare error by JB. Simpson was a good backup option and a good player, but Winston is better and was supposed to be better. Its hard not to imagine how good and better we’d be with him.
But, we’ll never know. I think JB passed on Tillman too and didn’t offer? That was a miscalculation too. But respect to Izzo, at least in terms of building a basketball team. He bested JB and Michigan this year. I think a lot of that was because of decisions made a few years ago on the recruiting trail.
Do you think if Ward doesn’t get hurt, that Tillman ever replaces him as a starter this year? That was probably the key to their season. Tillman playing 30 mins a game has been huge for them. Once Ward went out and with Tillman playing so well as his replacement, it was easy to make Ward a limited mins backup when he returned. Don’t think that ever would have been the case if he never got hurt since it’s hard to bench a 3 yr starter late into his junior year.
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I couldn’t bring myself to watch the Sparty v. Dukies game today. Sure, one was guaranteed to lose but at the same time one was guaranteed to win.
I spent my time in more productive ways, like finally getting around to making gifs.
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They weren’t a good defensive team but if this duke team played last years duke team I’d put my money on last years team for sure.
I just don’t know about Coach K and how good he is with these mostly one and done squads. He doesn’t seem to be able to bring them together into coherent wholes. I was concerned about just how good Duke was when they only beat Carolina by a point in the ACC semis, with Zion back and at full blast. I never thought Carolina was a great team this year and that really concerned me and made me think they might be pretty far from unbeatable.
This is how I see Izzo. Better with kids he can work through his system. If he’d gotten Jabari or some of the other 1 and dones he was in on over the years I think we would have seen choas like last year with Jackson and Ben Carter “in the zone”. Izzo should be doing what JB is doing which is targeting mid to high 4’s and coaching them up. Like he’s got now.
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It really is crazy how little unexpected attrition MSU has had to deal with. I can’t speak to all transfers as I’m sure there’s some I dont remember, but no one leaves MSU early to be a 2nd round pick. Except Deyonta Davis but he was the first pick of the 2nd round after being projected in the 1st by everyone, and Izzo had a tantrum about that one.
So I would love to see someone like Tillman or Winston leave early and leave MSU with an unexpected hole, but I highly doubt that considering Miles Bridges acted like he was about to come back for his 3rd year.
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Really, Winston leaving early shouldn’t be a shock if it happens. He just basically replicated Trey’s sophomore season.
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Except for that little POY thing and making the championship game.
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He’s about to make it, but the former I agree,
Honestly, Trey wouldn’t have gotten POY over Zion either. Take a look at Winston’s numbers and they’re pretty much identical to his. And Winston’s in the Final Four.
Anyway, my point is that you basically never expect a guy with a season like that to stay in school.