First 2009 March Madness thread

[AeWingnut]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

Same thing people said the year they beat Illinois. When you have much better players across the board than your opponents, chances are that you'll win more than you'll lose. That's the case with UNC. They have better players than any team in the country top to bottom. It's that simple. They play enough defense. People are acting like they need to slow the game down and beat teams 50-48 if they want to win. That's just not true. Look at the team they won the title with a couple of years ago. Look at the Memphis and Kansas teams that played in the final last year. You have to be able to score the ball to win and they have the best offense in the country and play enough defense to get the job done. For me, the key is not how they play defense throughout the game but how they play it in stretches when it counts the most. There's no way this team is an early exit team.

it also helps to have officiating in your favor. Augustine looked at a UNC player funny and it's a foul (and fouls out within the first few minutes) Roger Powell gets the crap beat out of him and no whistle.

but I'll agree. it doesn't matter if you contest every shot if over half of them still go in. Illinois has very little offense.

If I knew in advance which games Ed Hightower was officiating I could pick the winner by who is better at the free throw line and who has better bench depth. Hightower loves attention and will blow the whistle early and often.