Michigan choked it
- Thread starter bigboxes
- Start date
That air ball with about 10 seconds left was ridiculous. Down by one and you take a long three, with UCLA's only real big man already fouled out? Horrible decision.
Yeah, I thought they should have gone inside being down by one. If they converge on you then dish it to a trailer. Worst case, go to the line.
Really don’t know what Juwan Howard was thinking near the end of the game..
Really have to tip my hat to Mick Cronin leading UCLA to the final 4 from the play in game..
Clearly Pac 12 basketball was WAY under rated this year. I'm kind of wondering if not being able to partake in some of the other distractions on the west coast didn't help their focus this year.
And to do this without their best player, Chris Smith (lost due to ACL) 5 games into the season and their starting center, Hill for the 2nd half of the season was truly a great testament to his coaching ability. Lastly, Cronin lost two months before the season started the #1 PG in the country, Dashon Nix to the G League, a 5 star HS recruit.
This was the first UCLA team I can remember that did not have one 5 star recruit or one and done player on it’s roster in forever, goes to show you age and experience really mattered here.
SIAP - Michael Lewis, a former Nebraska basketball asst, is making a trip to the final 4, so we have that.
More like college basketball in general this year is pure garbage across the board.
Just much more parity and less one and done players, makes for much more competition and fun to be honest. There are so many good Basketball players and coaches we know very little about or see. Oral Roberts, Loyola of Chicago, Abilene, Oregon State and others we rarely see or hear about.
Kudos to all of them, no matter how big or small the school, named coach or not, they all come to play and have the dream of making it to the Final a four!
Yeah I think UCLA's made a great run with a pretty depleted roster, and the Bruins played really well in the middle portion of this game. But down the stretch it was more a case of Michigan crapping the bed.
Oh yeah - UCLA has some major talent, just no depth. That's what I meant by a depleted roster.
It was funny after UCLA beat Michigan State in the play-in game. Some MSU fans were lamenting how the Spartans got lit up by Jaime Jaquez, claiming that Jaquez "couldn't even start for us!"
Yeh, right. MSU started Joey Hauser and gave major minutes to Foster Loyer, but Jaquez would struggle to get playing time. Sure he would...
Losing Smith and Hill killed their height, they have none. The back up center NWuba playled sparingly and the other center should still be in HS, the kid graduated in December, was supposed to just practice and learn but when their co-starter center, Hill left the team, they had to use him. Just a great coaching job by Cronin and his staff, such a breath of fresh air from Alford!
Greatest college performance I ever saw was the big redhead against Memphis in the title game...21-22, 44pts.