Our congratulations go out to the Connecticut Huskies, champions of the 2023 NCAA Basketball world. UConn dominated this tournament and looked like the legitimate favorite in every round. As you might have read three weeks ago, we tabbed UConn as one of our top two teams and even recommended splitting your champion votes in your bracket pools. However, we did preface it by saying that if a Big Ten team was ever going to break through, this year’s Purdue team had the talent. We did talk at length about how the Big Ten and proteges of Coach Gene Keady (and Keady himself) had greatly underperform in the NCAA Tournaments, and we told you why–they are too half-court oriented and do not play pressure defense, rarely fast break, and have trouble guarding overly athletic opponents.
We will kick ourselves all summer thinking that we first began isolating on UConn in January as having the resume of a national champion, and then even on Bracketnomics Monday, we expounded on the championship virtues of this team, and yet we totally blew it on Tuesday. Remind us never to pick a Big Ten team to win the national championship.
That said, remember what happened the next year after Virginia lost to UMBC in the opening round as a #1 seed losing to a #16. Coach Tony Bennett changed his offense and altered his defense to put more pressure on the ball and attack the paint offensively with athletic players, and the Cavaliers won the national title the next year.
Of course, if Hunter Dickinson was to choose Purdue as his next team, could Matt Painter possibly miss out with the two best big men in the nation in his starting lineup?
We apologize for missing a couple of days here, including a complete preview of the national championship game and the NIT Final Four. Family issues have made it mandatory to devote time away from our hobby. Hopefully, by the start of the college football season, everything will be back to normal.
The PiRates now sail out to sea for the Summer. We will be back (hopefully) in August to begin our college football previews.