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Message: [QUOTE="HakAttack, post: 200524, member: 1010"] Last year, Kansas was 29-2 in the regular season and lost in the Elite 8. OSU was also 29-2 in the regular season and lost in the Sweet 16. OSU was #1 or #2 practically all of last year. The year before that in 09-10' Kansas was 29-2 again, and was probably the equivalent to this year's Kentucky team, the juggernaut that was going to run away with it all. Who remembers Ali Farokhmanesh? My point is this: there are NO sure things in March. People are running around talking about how "Kentucky's the only true national championship contender." They're wrong. Although success in the regular season doesn't always predicate success in the NCAA tournament, IMO there are a few things going in our favor right now. [LIST] [*]We've shot about as bad from the field since ND as any team could over this stretch of games, and we're still undefeated since then. [*]This team doesn't have the air of "we're unbeatable, we're the best" like Kentucky may have perhaps. This humility speaks well to me. [*]Our defense is tighter than a vice, and we're far and away the best team in the country at forcing turnovers and converting opponent's mistakes. [*]We're a seven cylinder team (Dion, Scoop, Fab, Kris, CJ, Triche, J-South) only firing about four cylinders now. But we're STILL WINNING. [*]We have a shot to finish 17-1 in BE play, with what many would consider a team that's greater than the sum of it's parts. No other SU team has finished 17-1 in conference play. [/LIST] Two last points that give me great confidence. [LIST] [*]We lost OUR BEST DEFENDER from last year in RJ and OUR DEFENSE IS BETTER this year. That's all I need to know heading into March. Offense can dip and ebb and flow from game to game. But you can't just "turn it on" on the defensive end as a basketball team. That doesn't happen. [*]We've won every style of game you can win this year, track meets, grind it out affairs, hack fests, ref jobs. You name it. This is the most unflappable Syracuse basketball team I've ever seen. [/LIST] If you looked at the season this team's had so far, blind, and didn't know individual game results, and could only evaluate this team based on percentages, etc, you'd think we'd be 21-8, not 28-1. That to me says this team's a lot better than we think it is. Warts and all, we've lost one game all season. Sky's still the limit. Sit back and relax. [/QUOTE]

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