(03-31-2014 05:15 AM)KnightLight Wrote: There's a reason why its called March Madness:
It's because the NCAA's is a 3 week tournament...which basically doesn't have much to do with the regular season...as its just a one and done tournament...and upsets happen quite frequently.
UCONN last won a national title when they were just .500 in conf play...but they got hot at the right time of the year.
That's why the TV networks are paying the NCAA Billions of $$ for TV rights...as the TOURNAMENT is the attraction...vs if these were "Playoffs" like in the NBA, were teams had to win 3 out of 5 or even 4 out of 7...odds are, most of the better teams would win series...vs the one and done format.
Please don't take this as an attack, but seeding and matchups are everything. The regular season counts a lot. Having an easier road in the NCAAT means everything. UConn had hugely talented teams with NBA hall of famers like Ray Allen, and teams with 7 first round draft picks like in 2006, all bow out because they didn't take care of business in the regular season. UConn lost 4 Elite 8s to teams that eventually won the championship (Maryland, Duke, UCLA, UNC). In short, the reg season is hugely important.
I happen to think UConn had an excellent regular season this year. Lost just 1 game OOC despite scheduling Florida, Maryland, Indiana, Harvard, Stanford, Washington. In 2011, everyone mentions UConn's 9-9 conference record, but people tend to forget the 24-0 record otherwise. They were 13-0 in the OOC against teams like Wichita St, Kentucky, Michigan St., Texas, etc. The difference was that in the BE, the refs didn't call fouls on Kemba's drives to the hoop. His shooting % dropped from high 40%s to high 30%s. That was a difference of 10 points a game.
Suddenly the postseason comes, and we get back the Kemba we saw during the 13-0 run. It made a world of difference. I assure you that the BE was such a brutal rough and tough league that all sorts of weird anomalies pop up, and you see this through the years with teams like Pitt floundering in the NCAAs, or Syracuse winning it all once out of the BE crucible, or Seton Hall advancing to the championship, 10 loss Villanova winning it all. The BE was kooky in that way.