I have 8 SEC teams in my Sweet Sixteen Auburn vs Texas AM Ole Miss Florida Missouri Alabama Kentucky vs Tennessee....can't tell me this matchup wasn't planned...
I think the committee wanted to avoid an all SEC final so had to put Auburn and Florida against each other in the final four. However, they now will get a all SEC final four ie SEC tournament 2.
Can't wait. Already booked my flights and hotel for SF. Hope we get UConn, Maryland, and St John's. I want them all, haha. None of them have played an offense like ours this year. We are hot and just need to keep it going. We have better depth, balance, and length than all of them.
Florida earned their #1 seed and got a good draw in the West bracket. No complaints with that. Plenty of other things to question though. Auburn is the #1 overall seed, really, how/why?? They beat one of the other #1 seeds and lost to the other 2. They lost 3 of their last 4 games, I guess those didn’t count hey. Just don’t get all the hoopla about Houston. Good team but they lost to 2 SEC teams. UF beat both of them. Yeah, they ran through the Big 12 but it wasn’t all that this season. My argument is with them getting the #3 overall seed and the Midwest region. At worst, UF should’ve been in that slot. UF beat 2 of the other 3 #1 seeds and 2 #2’s, twice. Who else did that? Location is the issue, SF vs Indy makes a difference for the fans. Duke plays its opening round games in Raleigh, color me surprised, smh. What a joke! UF also plays in Raleigh. Lexington & Wichita got the other #1’s. It’s odd that one site got 2. Speaking of jokes, UNC getting in. Bubba flexed. Why are there no opening round sites in Florida? It was by design that a Auburn vs Florida final was avoided. The committee is just plain lazy, imho, they mailed it in. I really like this UF team, a lot. One big thing in their favor is they’re battle tested, just don’t see them wilting under the pressure. They actually got a very favorable draw, imho. Anything short of a Final 4 will be a disappointment. Been a while since that was the case.
Id have UK advancing to the elite 8 if I knew Butlers shoulder would hold up. He plays so physical though, I think its going to be a problem again.
I could be wrong, but I feel like our success in the tourney will come down to coaching. We know what we have in our players. The players are good enough to win it all. But preparing for teams you haven't seen before on short notice, scouting tendencies, looking for weaknesses, figuring out your strengths against them, and getting the players prepared to execute the plan is all about coaching. We'll find out just how good a coach Golden really is (I already think he is fantastic) , and how good of a staff we have, when he has the better team but is going against the likes of Hurley or Pitino who have more experience. Advanced scouting will be crucial. We know Oklahoma already, so we have a week to prepare for UConn and if Oklahoma beats them, we already know all about them, so this sets up really well for us getting to the Sweet 16 without much trouble. I hope he spends some time talking to Billy D about how best to handle the scouting side of things throughout the tournament. He would be a great resource.
I said it earlier here: I hoped to see Houston and Duke on the other side of bracket from us, and we got that. Nothing is even close to guaranteed, but those two scare me the most.
