1) It totally sucks missing out on the best basketball that gets played all year....
2) Rule #1: The most important factor is imposing your will and style on the game....
This Board tends to obsess about matching up with your opponents but the best results come from making your opponent play your game....
Notre Dame chose the pace of play and attacked within its skill level. The plan was to use a lateral quickness advantage to execute Notre Dame's most efficient offense within Kentucky's huge defense and outhustle the Cats for rebounds and loose balls. It worked for 35 minutes...ultimately size and talent triumphed especially when KY began to match the Irish intensity but a huge size, talent and depth gap was nearly overcome...
Wisconsin turned a physical defensive game with Arizona into an offensive firepower show in the second half....Arizona can win a defensive grinder with almost anybody but when it comes to scoring they are pedestrian...the Badgers on the otherhand can be an offensive machine...that second half was the most impressive offensive showing of the season exceeding Duke's last 8 minutes at Virginia in January and Nova's second half v. St. John's.
Louisville gets in your guard's grill and pounds away with Harrell...they did both against NC State...
Michigan goes to its top two or three scorers for enough offense and grinds you down....
3) Execution is vital....
ND executed perfectly on both ends until Grant went ball hog...Auguste got in foul trouble...and KY decided to attack the paint rather than settle...
Wisconsin...unreal execution....guys 6'9 and 7'0" shooting 10-12 from three and when the line was guarded the 6'9" guy drove and the 7"0" guy posted up....the rest of the team hit wide open shots when help defense arrived or cut to the bucket on overplays....execution baby...
NC State could not get Cat Barber running wild in the lane...goodbye Wolfpack...
4) SIXE matters.....(but is not determinative by itself)
It can be overcome through imposing your style (using quickness or spacing to spread out the bigger team)...it can be overcome with execution...it can be overcome with more energy and aggression....
But, really big and really good beats smaller and really good unless the execution and energy components go strongly in favor of the smaller guy...size wears down opponents and provides a margin of error...
5) Dribble penetration is deadly....
ND was able to attack KY off the bounce...even bad shots, misses and blocked shots turned into offensive rebound putbacks by Auguste and Connaughton because the KY monsters were out of position....
Louisville controlled the lane and beat NC St.
Even Arizona hung around despite the Wisconsin barrage by attacking the lane and getting fouled...
6) Experience matters....
KY made lots of mental errors which kept ND in the game...ultimately talent, size and depth prevailed but....almost a "miracle"
Wisconsin, Arizona, Louisville, Michigan St....been here before....
7) Its kind of a crap shoot...although an underdog generally needs to be good and project to within about a dozen points preferably 6-8 points to have a chance to win...
8) As to Villanova, I conclude that the beauty of the Board's internal food fights is that most points of view are both right and wrong....
Nova was good enough to still be playing if the execution and energy levels that showed up for most of 35 games was present....some matchups would have been difficult and beating Kentucky or Wisconsin in a title game was unlikely...but Nova can do much of what ND did (the Irish are more efficient on offense and have the dribble penetration advantage..the Cats are better on defense and have more depth)
For those that want more SIXE...you are correct...another 6'9" athlete that can play would have made a difference...
For those that want a breakdown guard...you are right...dribble penetration kills...
For those that believe we were good enough to beat NC State and get out of this region...you are right....execution and energy are sufficient to beat anybody but (perhaps) KY and Wisconsin...
For those who believe that Jay was correct in going down with the smaller lineup...I agree...he tried to make NC State play our game rather than use Reynolds and play their game....playing our game is the better strategy...we just did not execute or bring energy..
9) As to the future...it is bright...Brunson may add the breakdown guard element...the talent is there to make a run if we execute and bring energy...however, Nova is not Kentucky, Duke, NC, Kansas....there will always be one to three of them and a three or four other second tier elites Mich St., Louisville, Syracuse, AZ, Florida plus the great group of players at that time (Gonzaga, Wchita St. UVA, ND) that will challenge us no matter how good we are....keep doing what Nova is good at...keep pounding on the door...play with confidence and aggression and execute and it can be done....but convincing that extra 6"8-10 guy that fits our system that he is the missing piece might be the difference...
