Sweet 16 Open Thread

I can't stand Wisconsin.......that is all

You can’t stand Wisconsin now? Wait until Ryan retires and they hire somebody like Tony Bennett. That would be some cringe worthy stuff right there.

Rondae Hollis-Jefferson is one of the best perimeter defenders in the country. Love what he did vs. LeVert earlier this year, Russell last week. Playing hurt in this second half, but still making plays.

Bigger, more athletic version of Tony Allen at the next level.

Have to give Arizona a lot of credit 3 early entrants to the draft the past 2 years, a couple transfers and they still have a lot of talent.

Miller is a top 5 recruiter for sure, and with the inevitable loss of 3-4 more studs off this existing team, he has already “reloaded” with 4 super signees for next year. Not to mention Leaf for 16 as well.

Miller is a top 5 recruiter for sure, and with the inevitable loss of 3-4 more studs off this existing team, he has already "reloaded" with 4 super signees for next year. Not to mention Leaf for 16 as well.

That’s why the idea of mass attrition being ‘unfair’ doesn’t carry much weight with me. That is why coaches are paid millions of dollars, to deal with situations such as these. Curious, are those among the ‘cheating is rampant’ faction of the opinion that Miller is dirty as well?

Anybody think Utah can give Duke a game? Not many people are talking about this game but it wouldn’t surprise me if Utah hangs around for a bit. Duke had a great matchup with SDSU who can’t shoot. Utah is different they can hit shots inside and out, they have played some good competition like Wichita St, Kansas, Arizona x2, I guess we can throw UCLA in the mix as well since they made the sweet sixteen. The biggest weapon Duke seems to have now is the development of Winslow, if Utah can keep his production down they have a great chance. I don’t really see them stopping Okafor so they have to look at other ways.

Miller is a top 5 recruiter for sure, and with the inevitable loss of 3-4 more studs off this existing team, he has already "reloaded" with 4 super signees for next year. Not to mention Leaf for 16 as well.

That’s why the idea of mass attrition being ‘unfair’ doesn’t carry much weight with me. That is why coaches are paid millions of dollars, to deal with situations such as these. Curious, are those among the ‘cheating is rampant’ faction of the opinion that Miller is dirty as well?

Totally agree with you about coaches being paid to deal with these situations. And that we shouldn’t be whining about it being unfair.
But this is something new to him, and it’s not like he recruited these players expecting them to leave early unlike a Kentucky, AZ, Duke, Kansas, etc. that expect their players to leave early.
Not trying to give him a pass here, it’s definitely not something that should happen to coaches on his level, but let’s see how long it takes the team to recover from the attrition and whether he makes the same mistakes again.
As long as next year isn’t like this year and they at least make NIT if not the NCAA, and we are back fighting for the B1G championship the next year, I think we can write off this year as an anomaly and bad luck.

Miller is a top 5 recruiter for sure, and with the inevitable loss of 3-4 more studs off this existing team, he has already "reloaded" with 4 super signees for next year. Not to mention Leaf for 16 as well.

That’s why the idea of mass attrition being ‘unfair’ doesn’t carry much weight with me. That is why coaches are paid millions of dollars, to deal with situations such as these. Curious, are those among the ‘cheating is rampant’ faction of the opinion that Miller is dirty as well?

Totally agree with you about coaches being paid to deal with these situations. And that we shouldn’t be whining about it being unfair.
But this is something new to him, and it’s not like he recruited these players expecting them to leave early unlike a Kentucky, AZ, Duke, Kansas, etc. that expect their players to leave early.
Not trying to give him a pass here, it’s definitely not something that should happen to coaches on his level, but let’s see how long it takes the team to recover from the attrition and whether he makes the same mistakes again.
As long as next year isn’t like this year and they at least make NIT if not the NCAA, and we are back fighting for the B1G championship the next year, I think we can write off this year as an anomaly and bad luck.

Agreed, he’s done enough to give him a pass for this year especially considering the injuries.

Curious, are those among the 'cheating is rampant' faction of the opinion that Miller is dirty as well?

This is not just rampant speculation: Absolutely.

Let’s just say Arizona is the preeminent Nike bball program across a very wide western swath of the US.

Man…Izzo out coached Kruger today. OU played through their gaurds early and than decided it was time to pound it and pound it into Thomas. I thought that was a huge strategical error.

Heild is the B12 POY and he needed to set the table far more, IMO. And at times, if you didn’t know any better, you’d think OU wasn’t aware that Valentine and Trice where MSU’s primary scorers. Heild sleeping on the in bounds and/or OU defenders going over pindowns on the baseline instead of chasing them over the screen. Nuts.

MSU seemed to stick to their plan far better than OU did and at the end of the day, they earned the chance to play for a FF.

Trice is playing out of his mind right now…hard pressed to think of a guard in the tournament who is playing better.

All I can say is Dekker, wow. Incredible game by him. Two best games of his career back to back. Wisconsin is a great team. Arizona is really good but they couldn’t overcome the 3 pt disparity. Dekker is really elevating his draft stock. He looks like a lottery pick now. Assuming they play Kentucky, that should be a great game. I think Cauley-Stein can slow down Kaminsky.

10-12 from 3 in the second half for Wisconsin. And many were contested. That is unsustainable, but if they can come close to that against UK, they could actually win.

Man, I thought ND had them save the last 2 possessions before the final look by Grant.

The possession with about 1:30 to go, having Grant just dribble the entire possession and shoot a 3 was not ideal and the 2nd to last possession was not the same kind of motion we saw from ND for most of the previous 39 minutes. Not blaming Brey or Grant…but I think you nerd to run your best play there and do what you do, space the floor and find the open shooter/cutter. They were able to leverage the UK defense all night because of UK’s poor fundamentals and that allowed Auguste to eat them alive. Unfortunately, those last 2 possessions didn’t offer Auguste a chance to make a play off a drop off pass or an offensive board because the possessions didn’t stress UK’s D in any way(like they had for much of the game).

People will say ND played out their minds…I disagree…if you told me they would go 4/13 from 3 and only lose by 2, I would have not believed it. Frankly, ND had some really clean 3’s they missed that they usually make AND they went 1/2 each of their last 3 trips at the FT line.

Credit UK for sticking it out…ND tightened up a little the last 3 minutes.

Watching both E8 games today, I have no doubt Wiscy can beat UK without playing out of it’s mind. I’m not saying I expect Wiscy to win but I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if they did and I am seriously considering putting a decent amount of coin on Wiscy getting points.

I think UK beats Wisconsin rather easily. Their offense is much more isolation heavy with their straight post ups to Kaminsky and Hayes - and I think Stein and Towns will limit Kaminsky. Only way they keep it close is another crazy game from 3.

UK’s PnR D is awful and Wiscy will go PnR and if Dekker keeps up playing well, it makes that them even more difficult to guard when factor in Hayes…who, was just ok yesterday.

Wiscy is better defensively…and I don’t think they’ll mix up the ISO stuff…similr to what they did in the 2nd half vs Arizona yesterday. UK has the length and athleticism but I think they make a lot of errors on D that Wisconsin can expose.

I don’t think they need a crazy game from 3 and I don’t think they will tighten up like ND in the last 3 mins of the game.

Certainly, UK can win by 10+ if Wiscy doesn’t play well…but I think the game will be a good one.

I do agree that Towns in particular seemed lost on PnR defense vs ND. That being said, I just don’t think Wisconsin has any guard/wing that can force UK to make a tough choice in the mold that Grant and Jackson are able to. Simply too slow and unathletic. Dekker is their best bet, but I think he’s a bit overrated as well, just having a good stretch

Fair enough…in a one game playoff, anything can happen…my hope is for a good, well played game. Gonna root for the BT in this one though.

I do agree that Towns in particular seemed lost on PnR defense vs ND. That being said, I just don't think Wisconsin has any guard/wing that can force UK to make a tough choice in the mold that Grant and Jackson are able to. Simply too slow and unathletic. Dekker is their best bet, but I think he's a bit overrated as well, just having a good stretch
thats why he went off last night right? you're so dumb he's better than anyone on Michigan
I do agree that Towns in particular seemed lost on PnR defense vs ND. That being said, I just don't think Wisconsin has any guard/wing that can force UK to make a tough choice in the mold that Grant and Jackson are able to. Simply too slow and unathletic. Dekker is their best bet, but I think he's a bit overrated as well, just having a good stretch
thats why he went off last night right? you're so dumb he's better than anyone on Michigan

I’m dumb? Wow…he went off last night so that indicates he’s great now? you have really sound reasoning there buddy. He’s better than anyone on UM - that might hold some weight if it weren’t for the fact that we were a bad team…return to your Sunday drinking and enjoy

Curious, are those among the 'cheating is rampant' faction of the opinion that Miller is dirty as well?

This is not just rampant speculation: Absolutely.

Let’s just say Arizona is the preeminent Nike bball program across a very wide western swath of the US.

Unless you can provide concrete evidence then it is nothing but rampant speculation and slander.

This attitude that everybody cheats but us and that nobody deals with attrition except us is borderline pathetic. Please, let me know when someone reputable has actual proof that whatever team people are accusing of cheating is actually cheating and not, you know, simply recruiting at a high level.