will win. First of all for both of the reasons that Dan posted. Playing a team of their national reputation will give us focus. I'm not a guy who buys much of this "they are dissing us" stuff you here so much these days, but we should be motivated by the lack of respect from the gurus. Only Mark Bradley, who picks us to win three, OMG, is picking us. But, he is a good BB guy and has seen us at our best.
What I, and the team can hang their hats on, imo, is the fact that we played the Zags, ranked #2 in the country, dead even for the last thirty minutes. Other than a terrible first ten minutes, and CMF not doubling Whilcher from the getgo, we win that game. And that was before JJ was a huge factor and KG was still not recovered. We have also played the #1 team in the country virtually to a draw for about three of the four quarters we played them. And one of those games we were without our best big guy. Except for a couple poor decisions late and some bad ft shooting, which helped UK make their run, we were close to pulling off the upset of the year. Those games were not flukes. they are what we are capable of when we are focused. Throw in LSU, who some are calling one of the more talented teams in the dance, and we have arguably played very well vs three of the most talented teams in the dance already. We just didn't play a complete game in any of them.
We have been slowly building to the point where we are right now all year. The injuries, fitful development of CM into the player we wanted, and jelling of our roles and lineup have all come together at the right time imo. We are a veteran team playing with confidence. We play D well enough to keep us in a game with anyone. If we take care of the ball and 2-3 of JJ, KG or Nemi are shooting well we are very tough to handle.
Izzo is a hell of a coach, but his teams have exited early a number of times to lower seeds. CMF is good as well and with five days to prepare will have a sound plan. I like the dogs by 4-6 pts.
What I, and the team can hang their hats on, imo, is the fact that we played the Zags, ranked #2 in the country, dead even for the last thirty minutes. Other than a terrible first ten minutes, and CMF not doubling Whilcher from the getgo, we win that game. And that was before JJ was a huge factor and KG was still not recovered. We have also played the #1 team in the country virtually to a draw for about three of the four quarters we played them. And one of those games we were without our best big guy. Except for a couple poor decisions late and some bad ft shooting, which helped UK make their run, we were close to pulling off the upset of the year. Those games were not flukes. they are what we are capable of when we are focused. Throw in LSU, who some are calling one of the more talented teams in the dance, and we have arguably played very well vs three of the most talented teams in the dance already. We just didn't play a complete game in any of them.
We have been slowly building to the point where we are right now all year. The injuries, fitful development of CM into the player we wanted, and jelling of our roles and lineup have all come together at the right time imo. We are a veteran team playing with confidence. We play D well enough to keep us in a game with anyone. If we take care of the ball and 2-3 of JJ, KG or Nemi are shooting well we are very tough to handle.
Izzo is a hell of a coach, but his teams have exited early a number of times to lower seeds. CMF is good as well and with five days to prepare will have a sound plan. I like the dogs by 4-6 pts.
