A Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy: UConn and Michigan Vie for the Title
Who knew how much we would hate seeing the Big Ten compete for a championship
UConn Huskies v Michigan Wolverines
8:50 ET/7:50 GTZ.
HoustonBoiler: I'm on Team Meteor.
MaximumSam: There have been some meteors in the Midwest in the past few weeks. Just saying, could happen!
Just need to aim a little more towards Indy
Kind of...: The jokes write themselves, but the game has something to offer the neutral. On the one hand, Michigan just has the better, deeper roster...but Lendeborg's availability is an x-factor. Michigan's interior is incredibly disruptive on defense...but UConn has been shooting 3's well lately. UConn doesn't have an answer for Mara defensively...but if Karaban gets hot and Lendborg isn't 100% (he won't be) Michigan could be taxed on defense. Cadeau distributed the ball well Saturday night...but Demary and Ball are both 6'4" (Ball has health concerns, too).Michigan deserves to be the clear favorite. But we all know the evil wizardry of Dan Hurley. I watched Duke/Michigan in '92. Duke/UConn in '99. Syracuse/Kansas in '03. Kentucky/Kansas in '12. UConn/Kentucky in '14. Meteor games are old hat. I'll be watching.
BoilerUp89: Before I get into my thoughts on the game, I want to thank all of you for hanging out with us during this college basketball season. The community here is why we write previews (and the occasional article) and without all of you this would be a pointless exercise similar to the old BTPowerhouse shouting into the void. While things will naturally quite down some in the coming weeks, Ive got a few long-form article concepts rolling around and its only 6 months til we are writing season previews again. Anyway, thanks for a first successful season here at OTR.
Michigan is the better team but there are more than a few reasons to think UConn can pull this off. Matchup wise I like Karaban's ability to pull UM defenders to the 3 point line and open things up.
1) Ive been saying that about all of UConn's opponents for the past 3 games and it would have been 4 had UCLA been healthy. But while MSU forgot to play the first 10 minutes, Duke committed coaching malpractice, and Illinois couldn't buy a shot the Huskies kept moving on.
2) Yaxel is hurt. Thats not negligible.
3) Dan Hurley has never lost in the Sweet 16 or later.
4) UConn has never lost a championship game. Assholes.
5) The B1G has lost a billion championship games in a row.
A meteor would be nice, but failing that I'll accept a UConn win. Sure it means MaximumSam was right in our mid February writers' draft and I wont get credit for taking Michigan 3rd overall but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. For the greater good.
AlmaOtter: Seconding BU89's comments above. Thank you to all of you wonderful degens that hang out here. It's trite, but we've all got the same amount of time in a day. That you choose to spend a little bit of it here is an immense honor (and also speaks poorly of your critical thinking skills and overall judgement).
And an infinite supply of OTRbucks to MaximumSam, BU89, KindOf..., HoustonBoiler, and PerpetuallyAggreivedWildcat. You all have been putting out the best free Big Ten basketball coverage, snark, and shittalk anywhere on the goddamn World Wide Web. It's been an honor, gents. Same time next year?
