ADVERTISEMENT

***2024 NCAA Tournament Thread***

I tell ya, early on thst dude was a fukin beast....But UCONN adjusted. And I do think the pace of the game, and CLinigan's size, took its toll. Edey lloked gassed, and never seen him miss shots that short.

Really good coaching to play it that way. I wondered about his conditioning. As good as it is, what we were this year takes its toll over a full game. And Clingan isnt exactly that light in the shorts. Just a fantastic game plan by our staff.
 
  • Love
Reactions: Five Nattys
Speaking of Purdue, Zach Edey almost puts up 40/10 and they lost by 15pts, it seems he needs to become Wilt Chamberlain for them to have a chance. Purdue guards let them down against FDU last year, and this year in the most important game of their lives.
Took almost no 3s and still shot a worse percentage than the FDU game. UCONN's game plan was perfect, and their defense impeccable on the perimeter
 
Hitting uncontested jumpers in a "practice" setting is totally different. I have yet to see him take a single jump shot in 4 years. Not doubting he can hit jump shots----doubting he can do so in a game though. Might find out MOnday---Clinigan will be the only dude IMO he has yet to face in CBB that can match-up with him....
He made a 3 in a game this year.
 
I dunno, man...I get what you are saying. But if you told me PU would play their "A" game, as would UCONN---I am taking UCONN.

What I saw them do to a really good Illinois team was mindbogglin'...This wasn't a 30-0 run vs a 16 seed, or something. They did this vs a 3-seed, that won the B10 tourney. That's insane.

I think UCONN has to many weapons------on defense, for PU. And their action off their sets is insane.

PU is really good. Really good. And TBF, I think UCONN's "A" game is the only better than PU's.
Illinios' game plan was absolutely stupid though. They passed up wide open 3 point looks to drive at the hoop to get blocked over and over and just kept doing it.
 
I dunno----Guy was underrated athletically. This game was just to much for Loyer. To physical...to many athletes. I actually thought Braden was ok, tbh.

Felt PU did exactly what Hurley wanted them to do....I felt PU should have attacked the middle, with mid-range shots. They were not gonna get threes----but could had they attacked middle off the dribble, screens, etc....which would have sucked in the UCONN perimeter "D". And early on, that is what they did...But then UCONN forced them to drive the ball....and that just wasn't gonna work.
Smith did some but missed them. Why take long 2's though when you have Edey? I get what you're saying, but Purdue was going to take what UConn gave them which was one on one with Edey. The biggest difference in the game was the rebounding. That's where Purdue usually makes their money and UConn took that away.
 
Purdue fans arguing with a UVA fan about how their non-champion team compares to a champion team is pretty silly.

Champion > non-champion.

Congrats on a great season. Most of us were hoping you could pull it off.
You're acting like all champions are created equally. This UConn team is probably one of the top 5 in the last 20 years. Most other years Purdue wins it. This team was just a juggernaut.
 
The Women's Final broke the ceiling and outdrew the men's final by 22% (4MM). In context the women had an outlier player to watch while the men's rabtings were the lowest of all time.
 
You think Purdue's "A" game is better than UCONN's, "A" game?

Disagree. Big time disagree.
I saw another post somewhere that speculated that if you took out both big men...Uconn wins this game by 30. That is interesting becuase it IMO tells the story of the game. PU had the best center, UConn was better at every other position which gave them a lot of options.
 
You're acting like all champions are created equally. This UConn team is probably one of the top 5 in the last 20 years. Most other years Purdue wins it. This team was just a juggernaut.

This UConn team was absolutely fantastic. It’s also fair to say that not all champions are created equally, but that just unluck of the draw. They lost a few games so were beatable, but the way they played Monday they weren’t going to lose. You had a fantastic team that had a really great season that you fans can celebrate for years to come.

But to say that “most years Purdue wins it” is also a little silly. If it makes you feel better then okay, but it’s impossible to really argue. This is especially true in a tournament and sport as seemingly random as college basketball, where the best team rarely wins it. There’s no guarantee that you would have beaten Alabama if they had beaten UConn. You would have been favored for sure, but that isn’t a guarantee of anything. That’s the madness of the tournament. All you can hope for is that your team is one of the best and in a position to win enough times that someone breaks through. I think Painter is an excellent coach and a class act who can hopefully build off this and make more legitimate runs at it.

I guess there’s a lot of those types of arguments on this board, especially after the NCAA Tournament, and I should have just let this one play out on its own.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sparty_57
But to say that “most years Purdue wins it” is also a little silly. If it makes you feel better then okay, but it’s impossible to really argue. This is especially true in a tournament and sport as seemingly random as college basketball, where the best team rarely wins it. There’s no guarantee that you would have beaten Alabama if they had beaten UConn. You would have been favored for sure, but that isn’t a guarantee of anything. That’s the madness of the tournament. All you can hope for is that your team is one of the best and in a position to win enough times that someone breaks through.
Agreed. Every year is different. We had a generational talent in the middle but there’s no way of knowing if we’d have beaten other champs or even Bama. They played us to a 6 point game in December and we had to come back late to beat them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FaithPlusOne
This UConn team was absolutely fantastic. It’s also fair to say that not all champions are created equally, but that just unluck of the draw. They lost a few games so were beatable, but the way they played Monday they weren’t going to lose. You had a fantastic team that had a really great season that you fans can celebrate for years to come.
Agree 100%
But to say that “most years Purdue wins it” is also a little silly. If it makes you feel better then okay, but it’s impossible to really argue. This is especially true in a tournament and sport as seemingly random as college basketball, where the best team rarely wins it. There’s no guarantee that you would have beaten Alabama if they had beaten UConn. You would have been favored for sure, but that isn’t a guarantee of anything. That’s the madness of the tournament. All you can hope for is that your team is one of the best and in a position to win enough times that someone breaks through. I think Painter is an excellent coach and a class act who can hopefully build off this and make more legitimate runs at it.
My statement about Purdue winning it in other years was based on Kenpom rankings. They were rated higher than many of the other teams that won it all. That's all I was trying to say.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FaithPlusOne
You're acting like all champions are created equally. This UConn team is probably one of the top 5 in the last 20 years. Most other years Purdue wins it. This team was just a juggernaut.
I won’t say most years Purdue wins it, maybe half of the years. I do know for sure that 2019 Virginia got lucky that it never played a top team on the way to the national title, they played Texas Tech in the championship game. UVA wouldnt have beaten this year’s UConn, not even that year’s Duke/MSU. Hence why UVA won a title after losing to 16 seed but Purdue couldn’t, sometimes you need a little bit luck to go your way.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Boilermaker03
I wish people would stop giving that dude hits. He critiques coaches with the power of hindsight. With that backdrop, all coaches are trash at various times.

It's just stupid clickbait rhetoric that has become brutally pervasive in society and has drifted into mainstream media too.

And my vitriol has nothing to do with Purdue being his latest target. I thought it was stupid when he went after several other HOF coaches the last couple of months.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Boilermaker03
I wish people would stop giving that dude hits. He critiques coaches with the power of hindsight. With that backdrop, all coaches are trash at various times.

It's just stupid clickbait rhetoric that has become brutally pervasive in society and has drifted into mainstream media too.

And my vitriol has nothing to do with Purdue being his latest target. I thought it was stupid when he went after several other HOF coaches the last couple of months.

He's obnoxious, but he knows the game. It's hard to argue with a lot of his points. The main thing I disagree with is putting all the blame on the coaches. It's up to the players to execute.
 
He's obnoxious, but he knows the game. It's hard to argue with a lot of his points. The main thing I disagree with is putting all the blame on the coaches. It's up to the players to execute.
Hell, a lot of the blame that he gives the coaches for game management should go to them for recruiting. There was no scheme Painter could employ the other night that was going to get our slow, short guards open threes against UConn's length and athleticism.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ExitFlagger
Hell, a lot of the blame that he gives the coaches for game management should go to them for recruiting. There was no scheme Painter could employ the other night that was going to get our slow, short guards open threes against UConn's length and athleticism.

That guy only rants about defense though, for some reason.
 
ADVERTISEMENT