Speaking of shaky opening games

[jimsumner]

Yeah, and we had already played and defeated all the other teams in the Final Four, one of them TWICE!


But to be fair, we needed a fair bit of sheer luck to get by South Florida and Virginia Tech. We were clearly not firing on all cylinders.

Johnny Dawkins is really bummed that you don't remember which team he coaches.

[whereinthehellami]

Richmond was clearly the better team and only FT shooting made it a reasonable game. UK has real issues on offense due to that PG play and basically only scored by pounding it inside and crashing the boards. I’m pretty sure no 3-pointers were made the entire game by UK and no one could penetrate. Richmond is a very interesting team which should win the A10...

I agree with this. UK is very inexperienced and having a struggling PG is no bueno. Count me in as someone who enjoys a UK loss, Rupp Rafters was and is popcorn worthy right now.

[Stray Gator]

Johnny Dawkins is really bummed that you don't remember which team he coaches.

Especially since Johnny's team just defeated one of those teams that was in the 2019 Final Four.

[UrinalCake]

But to be fair, we needed a fair bit of sheer luck to get by [Central] Florida and Virginia Tech. We were clearly not firing on all cylinders.

Even the first round was closer than it should have been. And prior to that we needed a near miss at the buzzer to beat UNC, barely beat Syracuse, almost blew a home game to I think Wake, etc. We just weren’t playing well at the end of the season.

[mkirsh]

Yeah, and we had already played and defeated all the other teams in the Final Four, one of them TWICE!


But to be fair, we needed a fair bit of sheer luck to get by South Florida and Virginia Tech. We were clearly not firing on all cylinders.

Close games are part of it. UVA had three extremely close calls as well in the Clark to Diakite shot, the Guy free throws, and the Hunter 3 in OT on their route to the title. In single elimination getting a few breaks is almost required at some point to win it all.

[Stray Gator]

Close games are part of it. UVA had three extremely close calls as well in the Clark to Diakite shot, the Guy free throws, and the Hunter 3 in OT on their route to the title. In single elimination getting a few breaks is almost required at some point to win it all.

I'll always believe that Virginia's biggest break at the Final Four was Duke being knocked out in the regional final.

[weezie]

I'll always believe that Virginia's biggest break at the Final Four was Duke being knocked out in the regional final.

You couldn't be more correct. Come over here and buy me a beer. I'll get the second round.

[rsvman]

Close games are part of it. UVA had three extremely close calls as well in the Clark to Diakite shot, the Guy free throws, and the Hunter 3 in OT on their route to the title. In single elimination getting a few breaks is almost required at some point to win it all.

True, but you are missing the larger point, which was that we blew Kentucky off the court early on and looked like we would just blow through the season kicking butt and taking names. Relative to our early performance, a lot of the season was unexpectantly disappointing.