Just make the free throws! That is really the only thing that gets me while watching the tigers..


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Sure, it's great to make three-point shots, but it always seems to come down to the same things for everyone............take care of the ball, play solid defense, and make free throws. I'm never sure we're going to do all three of those night in and night out. If we can do even TWO of those three, we're really tough to beat.

(02-25-2014 04:29 PM)CUSA_NEWS Wrote:  Thing is though teams as a whole this year are weak. Matchups would have been moreso an issue during the championship run year in '08 when teams were so tough and the level of play was so high that history was made.... all #1s made it to the final four.

That's not the way it was in 2008 at all. The reason the top four seeds made it to the Final Four is that they were head and shoulders above the rest (and the two that played for the title were better than the others, as evidenced by their 15 & 18-point wins.)

Did you know that our average margin of victory on the way to the NCAA Final Four was over 23 points? The lowest average margin among them was 15 points. There were a couple of close tournament games, but basically those four teams started out at the top in the preseason and ended up the same way.

(02-25-2014 05:37 PM)Hoots Wrote:  Sure, it's great to make three-point shots, but it always seems to come down to the same things for everyone............take care of the ball, play solid defense, and make free throws. I'm never sure we're going to do all three of those night in and night out. If we can do even TWO of those three, we're really tough to beat.

Yep. Statistically speaking, a 40% 3-point shooter has the same expected return (probability x payoff = .4 x 3) as a 60% free throw shooter shooting two -- and we have a couple close, but nobody on the team shoots a full 40% from three.

See here the thing though. This season is what college basketball is all about. There are good teams and there are some great players on those teams. This is actually a really deep draft. However, the fact that there is not 1 single unbeatable team this season means the NCAA's are WIDE OPEN.

There are about 20-30 teams capable of making good runs. Who's it gonna be???

I am more excited about the NCAA Tournament this season then I have been in years.

(02-25-2014 06:52 PM)Tigermaniac Wrote:  See here the thing though. This season is what college basketball is all about. There are good teams and there are some great players on those teams. This is actually a really deep draft. However, the fact that there is not 1 single unbeatable team this season means the NCAA's are WIDE OPEN.

There are about 20-30 teams capable of making good runs. Who's it gonna be???

I am more excited about the NCAA Tournament this season then I have been in years.

Take a look at Wichita St's record..........

(02-25-2014 06:52 PM)Tigermaniac Wrote:  See here the thing though. This season is what college basketball is all about. There are good teams and there are some great players on those teams. This is actually a really deep draft. However, the fact that there is not 1 single unbeatable team this season means the NCAA's are WIDE OPEN.

There are about 20-30 teams capable of making good runs. Who's it gonna be???

I am more excited about the NCAA Tournament this season then I have been in years.

Copy that. And we have the depth, the experience, the guards, the bigs, everything theoretically, to make some noise for the first time since we had 1st round draft picks playing for us. Problem is, unlike those teams, the expectation for this team is kinda like Jewish kids at Hannukkah spinning a dreidel.