2015 NCAA Tournament thread

I'm not talking about the high school hype, I'm talking about the evidence of my own eyes in this tournament. Wisconsin had the best (Kaminsky) and third-best (Dekker) players on the floor last night (Towns in between 'em). They posed problems the McDonald's All-American posse could not solve.

 

When you get out rebounded by 12 at that level,it's not about talent. It's about skill. Wisconsin players have learned more skills. Cauley-Stein and Kaminsky are the same age, who is the more polished player, now? Harrison is easily frustrated becuase when what he knows how to do doesn't work he lacks options.

Calipari didn't do a very good job teaching skills to these players, he just acquired the best players

 

I wonder if it'll be the high school hotshots themselves who destroy the Calipari model? Kids with one-and-done talent levels might start figuring out they're better off being the very best player at some other power program than one of Kentucky's cast of thousands, because they'll get to play much more in their one or two seasons in school. Ulis and Booker are going to better players than the Harrisons down the road, but their development is limited by the fact there's only 200 minutes of PT to go around.

 

The Calipari Model only has a couple more years before scandal erupts anyway.

 

Duke has more one-and-dones than Kentucky.

 

F Tark and F UNLV.

 

Yes. Including Scottie Wilbekin, last year. He was talk of the tournament, then put up a 4 pt dud against UConn.

 

That was a wonderful two year stretch. In 1990 I loved UNLV's dominance. Yet by 1991 I was also happy to see the Duke upset. Of course the fact I was a diehard Kansas fan growing up had nothing to do with hoping to avoid UNLV in the final.

 

New mathings needed.

What we found is that Kentucky has been slightly better, relative to its opposition, than Indiana was. Kentucky’s SRS is 29.05, meaning it would beat an average team on a neutral floor by about 29 points. Indiana’s estimated SRS is 27.49. Though that’s just an estimate, we can be fairly confident — about 90% sure — that Kentucky is the more dominant team.(Again, these are estimates only relative to the average team each season — the question of which team would win head-to-head is an entirely different one.)

This Year’s Kentucky Team Is More Dominant Than Indiana’s Undefeated 1976 Squad | FiveThirtyEight

But never fear. It's all explained in mathings!

Once Duke Won, Kentucky Wasn’t Favored To Go Undefeated | FiveThirtyEight

 

And Wisconsin got it done without David Tyree. Super.

 

Wisconsin didn't play a perfect game against an overwhelming better team. Two relatively comparable teams played and the team that worked harder and was better prepared beat the other. Kentucky was beaten by a better team Saturday

 

Maybe I believed the UK hype too much, but I figured Wisconsin would have to be near perfect and have a few breaks go their way. Instead, Wisconsin had its tournament high in turnovers (10), and the breaks on bad or missed calls favored Kentucky by 6-8 points. And yet, Wisconsin still won. Maybe it's a lifetime of being in Wisconsin, but it's hard to come to the conclusion that this is one of the best teams in the land and is very deserving of its position in the championship game. But I have concluded that Wisconsin is not just a good team, but approaching a great team.