No offense @kendall, but which ones of the things we obsess over here are actual problems
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True! So true.
OOC scheduling is so far down the list.
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But itās also like, we havenāt even seen whichever philosophy/approach he employs fail yet to even critique lol. This discussion would make more sense a year from now if he were to schedule a cupcake non con and it burns us down the line.
Either strategy has their pros and cons. Scheduling a cupcake non con allows a team (especially a new one) to get some wins and build their confidence. For example, Vandy had one of the worst non conferences in the country this year. Didnāt stop them doing well in SEC (racking up top 10 wins and making the tourney). Meanwhile UVA had a very hard non con and ended up getting smoked by the worst ACC ever. Not saying they were equal situations, but they both had an entirely new team so it was kinda similar
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I just want to see us play good/fun games.
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Good games could mean a lot of close losses to good teams. Fun games could be running up the score on the Little Sisters of the Poor.
I donāt know what anything means anymore.
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Iām not sure why people are worried. Odom said he wants a challenging non-con. Given our current roster, Hampton will be very challenging.
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Last year our non conference was proly most challenging in the TB then interim Ron era.
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When has that ever stopped us before?
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The last season at each stop were quite good for where they were. Horvath and Akin were great combos, as were Funk and Akin/Dorius and Bamgboye and Clark.
Different styles but had the size.
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I want Phi Slamma Jama with great 3 point shooting added. If not great defense, I am still happy watching. Been hard run for entertainment under Bennett except for the fortuitous natty ever (which did add to that incredible rush over last 3 tournament games that one year).
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Good teams put themselves in position to get lucky. And coming out on the right side 3 times in a row showed the ability to consistently close out games
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@Jerome handled this perfectly. Not worth validating the comment with a defense.
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Great win. Appreciate it. But probabilities and math all support the comment. Strongly
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Iām at work so let me entertain it:
The math shows we scored more than our opponents both in each game and all 3 games combined. The probability that we won the national title is 100% because we did.
One could argue that all of this is predetermined and free will is an illusion, so that streak of games was the only outcome ever possible
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Changed to fortuitous. Since math not a good basis here. There was even a Prof Sabato analysis on it.
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But unexpected wins do bring greater pleasure. Releases endorphins that gives the brain great feelings of happiness. A reason gambling is popular as unexpected wins releases such endorphins. But whatever, donāt want to get into science now. But great 3 wins
Nattyās are pretty much always fortuitous and lucky. Thatās just the nature of a single-game elimination tourney. Even if there arenāt any crazy dramatics within the game, thereās still a ton of luck involved with matchups. Very, very few truly dominant championship runs the whole way (Uconn 2024, Villanova 2018). The best you can do is produce a top 5-10 caliber team from an efficiency perspective and hope you catch enough breaks. And Bennett did that for like 6 straight years before 2019 so he was putting us in position, he just didnāt catch those breaks until that run
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That team was also one of the most statistically dominant in the Kenpom era (if you like that kind of thing). Could also argue that we were incredibly unlucky to be in those close games to begin with.
Those arguments donāt really mean anything either way.
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