ahhh, the eve of March Madness
So Kentucky and Kansas both lost yesterday. Both teams seem to struggle on the road and that will probably prove fatal for both teams in the national tournament. What's worse is that it's becoming apparent that Kentucky really has no half-court game. They're great in transition, great rebounders, and great on defense, but they simply don't perform consistently in a half-court set.
Some question Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim's stubborn use of the 2-3 zone and find it archaic in modern basketball and the 3-point shot, but his squad gets the job done. With the exception of Pitt, they've beaten every single Big East powerhouse and haven't lost a road game all year. They're good in transition but more importantly, have a solid half-court game yielding them the best field goal percentage in the country. They're averaging 52% for the year. 52%. No other ranked team has an average over 50%. And they're doing that in the Big East against teams like Villanova and Georgetown. They absolutely crushed Villanova yesterday and had 6 players scoring in the double digits and +60% field goal completion. Far and away they're the best team in the country, and have been since January, but have had to take a back seat to a few teams with better W-L records. My guess is that come Monday, Syracuse will be the #1 team in the land and for my money are the team to beat for the tournament.
Some question Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim's stubborn use of the 2-3 zone and find it archaic in modern basketball and the 3-point shot, but his squad gets the job done. With the exception of Pitt, they've beaten every single Big East powerhouse and haven't lost a road game all year. They're good in transition but more importantly, have a solid half-court game yielding them the best field goal percentage in the country. They're averaging 52% for the year. 52%. No other ranked team has an average over 50%. And they're doing that in the Big East against teams like Villanova and Georgetown. They absolutely crushed Villanova yesterday and had 6 players scoring in the double digits and +60% field goal completion. Far and away they're the best team in the country, and have been since January, but have had to take a back seat to a few teams with better W-L records. My guess is that come Monday, Syracuse will be the #1 team in the land and for my money are the team to beat for the tournament.