why dont 16 seeds play like princeton???

[Jasonrob44]

I want to state first that I absolutely bleed orange after growing up in Rome, however I am a very proud FGCU student tonight. I felt that we could keep this game around 20 points, and absolutely was not expecting to be so close at the half. It's fun to go to a small mid major school that is happy to just be in the tournament. This will not be the las that you hear from FGCU as the meat of this team are sophomores and juniors. Could be a scary team to face next season. If this team were a 15 or higher seed they could have made another Cinderella run. Go Cuse!

 

[CaptainJ]

I remember Albany leading UConn a decent way into the second half back in the day and wishing for them to be the first. I dont remember the pace the Great Danes had though. It's going to happen, provided the economy doesnt collapse under $19,000,000,000,000 and growing debt, and we still have our bread and circus for awhile longer. Hard to picture what those zeros really equate to, isn't it? Also hard to understand why we allow the federal reserve(not american) to lend every dollar to our government at interest, rather than have congress do it's duty to print our money. Anyhow, no Great Danes to potentially save us this year, carry on, as if nothing really matters.

 

[RandygoCuse]

exactly. so to try to make up for the talent difference you gotta play a disciplined slow and methodical game. shorten the game and try to frustrate the 1 seed.

another thing i would tell my team if i coached a 16 seed is dont go for offensive rebounds. as soon as we put up a shot race back on defense. dont give up any run outs or fast breaks.

this. Although I would add that I would shoot a lot of threes too.

 

[Newhouser]

UNC takes a lot of crap on this board, and I am not a fan of the Heels or Roy. However, they can score in so many ways and when they decide to they can defend for 3 or 4 possessions in a row and that is all they need. To beat them you can't have empty trips and you better have a lot of bigs who can rebound. If every team plays up to their best level - UNC wins, against anyone.

 

[jdubs30]

I see what you're saying Corduroy -- a lot of these 16 seeds are filled with upperclassmen who've been with the program for 3-4 years with the same coach who's instilled his philosophy. So for the last 3-4 years your offseason stuff, practices, walk-throughs, game-planning, etc has been about how he wants you to play. To all of a sudden to tell a team that in the biggest games of their lives, with everyone watching, that we will play a way we never have before-- that just seems like a tall task for any player, it also could really hurt their confidence--it shows them that the coach doesn't believe enough in his style that's he's drilled them into them to use it in their biggest game ever.

What makes you think they'd be efficient at it too? If you're a team that wants to go as fast as possible no matter what, it might be due to some deficienices you have in your half court offense. So now you're playing UNC or UVA or Kansas and you decide to slow the pace and get into your half court offense? I feel like it'd end up being a bigger blowout. Yes, posssessions are limited, but to me losing 69-38 playing a completely different style than your own is worse than losing 105-79 using your style. You stick with what got you there. UVA tried to slow the pace vs. UNC in the ACCT title game and look how that turned out for them.

Not all 16 seeds play like Princeton, but the ones that do will have the best chance. I agree, most 16 seeds that like the uptempo pace will not have a shot vs. 1 seeds, because you're trying to beat them at your own game; literally their only shot is get ridiculously hot from deep. A team that plays similar to Princeton all year and is used to that type of game could have a shot, but this isn't a "fake it till you make it" thing for an uptempo team trying to keep the game in the 50s