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Message: [QUOTE="OttoMets, post: 1644082, member: 716"] I agree that luck plays a huge part (especially with the one-and-done format to decide the champion). And Boeheim's had both kinds. But I think we're too close to the situation to assess his luck relative to others. I also think it's too easy for all of us to blame luck and forget that these setbacks can be overcome (the week after Arinze got hurt, Tom Izzo got dealt a worse hand when his starting point guard ruptured his Achillies; they won their way to the Final Four). Taking it further, use your Calhoun example; he had a couple great teams who beat a great team (Duke) and a very good team (Tech - and UConn had to beat a great Duke team to get there). Butler was mediocre and so was UConn in 2011; they got lucky but they also won the games, something many teams -- SU included -- aren't always able to do. This is what we notice. But we also forget that Jerome Dyson hurt his knee against SU in 2009, which crippled probably the best team in the country. Bad luck. Another excellent UConn team somehow had to play George Mason at a regional final in DC in front of 17,000 hostile fans in 2006. Bad luck. One of their best teams drew an underseeded Mississippi State (coming off an SEC championship win over the great Kentucky team) in an SEC arena in 1996. Bad luck. There are probably more, but of course I don't follow conference-mates as closely as I do SU. It's all subjective (which is why I was surprised that you made such a bold declaration on the subject), but I do believe that anyone who's capable at his job over 40 years probably sees bad luck more or less canceled out by good luck. Given our rooting interest, it just might be difficult to see it. [/QUOTE]

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