A thunder dunk that would have put us up by 18 rattled out and the lead evaporated. That loss still stings. Screw UConn.
Repeats aren’t anything new in NCAABB. It’s special to us because we did it, but compared to UCLA it’s nothing. But I’d take a UCONN four peat over any SEC school who would be winning their first title. Our whole claim to fame is Football and Basketball National championships. That’s what I want to protect. If Bama got a basketball ring, that puts them closer to our overall level as a university. Same with Tennesssee. Also why we don’t want UK or Arkansas to win a Football championship.
Repeats aren't new--but the last team to complete that feat was Florida--so there is something special about being the last-especially that it has lasted this long with no one else be able to accomplish the feat. Plus, only 7 schools have repeats!
I get it, but it’s not special enough to make want to just be the last to repeat over seeing Bama join the ranks of football and basketball champions. That is a rarer club and one that directly impacts our bragging rights in the SEC.
I am sick of UConn. That 2014 loss to UConn in the Final4 still stings to this day! That 2014 Florida team was the #1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Gators were the first SEC team to go 18-0 in the Conference winning both the regular season SEC title and the SEC Tourney title (21-0 vs SEC teams). Forget UCLA of the 1960s & 1970s. It was a different era when certain schools could hog all of the top talent and "buy" all of their players. Florida's back to back NCAA Championships with the same starting five line-up was special. In 2006 & 2007, Florida won both the SEC Tourney & NCAA Tourney to go 18-0 in the post-season. Not even UConn could do that as the Huskies lost in the Big East Tournement ?last season. I am cheering for Alabama to take down UConn. If that happens, one can still say that in the 2014 season, Florida beat Alabama 2 out of 3 times - the lone loss occurred in OT in Tusculoosa, AL. If Alabama wins it all, then what does it say about Golden's Florida team? ...just a matter of time...
You are way overthinking this. If Alabama wins it all, nobody will say one word about UF or draw any inferences from it. Bama lost 11 games this year. Does each team that beat them have any bragging rights? No. We don't want any conference rivals that haven't won a chip to gain relevancy in basketball. We want UCONN to win today and Purdue to beat UCONN. We do not want to risk Bama getting a ring by beating UCONN. Outside of Florida fans, nobody really cares that we went back to back because it's been done before.
I can rest easy now. While I don't want UCONN to repeat, I definitely didn't want Bama joining us as basketball champs. Even if UCONN repeats, have they ever won a football championship? Baseball? Have they won basketball and football in the same year? Nope.
Oh well Murph.. It looks like Alabama went down hard against UConn, 86-72. The game was 56-56 but Alabama could not secure that one crucial rebound. UConn goes on a run and Alabama panicks by putting up dumb shot after dumb shot. I think the difference in the game was that UConn was able to get more paint points than Alabama, UConn outrebounded Alabama (37-29) and also UConn got to the free throw line a heck of a lot more than the Tide (14/18 vs 9/11). Alabama could not deal effectively against the 7-footer, Clinigan, and UConn's interior defense which forced numerous turnovers even when UA attempted to pass the ball. Next game, I will be cheering for the Purdue Boilermakers. Maybe the Boilermakers can counter UConn's 7-footer with their own 7'4" Zach Eddey & company!
