Ohio State vs. Florida For The Championship

[D-Dogg]

Conley will win this game for TOSU.

 

[FArting]

I'm picking Florida to win.

 

[Jersey Girl]

My bracket was fabulous until this stupid championship game. Sucks to go from winning by 25-ish at the elite 8 to losing the entire pool after the last game.

And that's why they call it gambling.

 

[azirish]

Florida played their best game of the tournament, hitting almost every open shot. Unlike against UCLA, the Gators hit their foul shots.

One thing this game did do is showcase how good Oden is. Florida rotated four guys on him and he still came close to fouling them all out.

 

[ma_falaa_50]

ye, oden was one bad shut your mouth. he thing all season was his lack of consistency.

it looked like he is going to be the hall of famer that evryone expected him to be.

 

[azirish]

ye, oden was one bad shut your mouth. he thing all season was his lack of consistency.

it looked like he is going to be the hall of famer that evryone expected him to be.

College refs tend to call fouls on big men a lot. Oden's problem at staying on the court was far more important than any consistency issues.

If he decides to stay in schoolf for another year, you could see some incredible numbers put up. He really expanded his game as the year went on.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

WTG Florida !!

:can'tstandanythingOhio:

 

[Southpaw]

UCLA has 2 McDonald's AA's on their roster, and one of them, Keefe, so far is a huge disappointment. Ben is certainly not an offensive genius but I would defy you to name one player on that roster who's an NBA player that he's hurt.

Afflalo tested the waters last year and everyone said the same thing, he's a great defender, very smart, very well coached, not athletic enough, not a good enough shooter. That's not Howland's fault, he's done a great job of getting a team with no stars this far.

You just can't make up for talent, Florida has 3 lottery picks, not much you can do about that. UCLA actively recruited both Noah and Horford, had they gotten either player maybe it's a different last 2 years.

Contrast him with say Roy Williams who I think had 8 McDonald's AA's on his team and didn't make the final 4, or Kansas who has 3 top 15 picks in the starting lineup and a 4th(Chalmers) who's a first rounder, and UCLA beat them.

UCLA is 9-2 in the last 2 years in the tourney,both losses to Florida.

Please name the 3 lottery picks. I will concede Corey Brewer. Who are the other 2?

 

[Dback Jon]

Please name the 3 lottery picks. I will concede Corey Brewer. Who are the other 2?

Noah and Horford.

 

[Southpaw]

Noah and Horford.

Horford maybe. Noah, no way.

 

[Russ Smith]

Please name the 3 lottery picks. I will concede Corey Brewer. Who are the other 2?

Horford for sure. Noah is bordering on being out of the lottery to be honest.
He cost himself a lot of money by staying in school and not getting better.

So I'll hedge and say 3 "potential" lottery picks.

I love Brewer, I hadn't heard the story about his dad before makes it easier to pull for the kid after he beat UCLA again.

They were the best team.

I do think with all the gushing over Oden's game people missed the point that Packer surprisingly made that was dead on. The key to the game was the TOSU was so scared of Oden getting in foul trouble, they ordered him to back off and play a one man zone. The result was Florida got open jumpers all night because Horford could get that foul line shot anytime he wanted and the pick and roll worked all night because Oden wouldn't hedge on it so anytime they wanted a 3 for Green, they ran that play.

Oden played great but that was the key to Florida's offense, they could get an open jumpshot anytime they wanted because of that.

 

[Russ Smith]

College refs tend to call fouls on big men a lot. Oden's problem at staying on the court was far more important than any consistency issues.

If he decides to stay in schoolf for another year, you could see some incredible numbers put up. He really expanded his game as the year went on.

On this rare occasion I agreed with Packer. For everything Oden did right last night, which was a lot, the key to that game was that TOSU was so scared of Oden getting in foul trouble they had him NOT come out on his man. The result was open jumpers all night for Horford, and on the pick and roll because Oden wouldn't hedge.

not his fault it was clear his coach ordered that, but it was the key to the game, they hoped Florida would miss those shots and they didn't.

 

[Southpaw]

Horford for sure. Noah is bordering on being out of the lottery to be honest.
He cost himself a lot of money by staying in school and not getting better.

So I'll hedge and say 3 "potential" lottery picks.

I love Brewer, I hadn't heard the story about his dad before makes it easier to pull for the kid after he beat UCLA again.

They were the best team.

I do think with all the gushing over Oden's game people missed the point that Packer surprisingly made that was dead on. The key to the game was the TOSU was so scared of Oden getting in foul trouble, they ordered him to back off and play a one man zone. The result was Florida got open jumpers all night because Horford could get that foul line shot anytime he wanted and the pick and roll worked all night because Oden wouldn't hedge on it so anytime they wanted a 3 for Green, they ran that play.

Oden played great but that was the key to Florida's offense, they could get an open jumpshot anytime they wanted because of that.

Noah isn't even 1st round. He is a poor man's Rony Turiaf. He has absolutely no offensive game. Has no concept of defense. Gets by on size and a little bit of athleticism. The guy is athletic but not BB athletic. He is out of control most of the time.

Florida conceded the inside game to Oden and took away the outside 3 point game ( 4-23 ). They put 4 different bodies on Oden like hack a Shaq. It worked. Matta is a terrible coach. If he was going to play Oden 35 minutes that team needed to outlet anf run. Another case of a Coach afraid to lose. He will never get another Oden in his career.

 

[Southpaw]

What is with the

M O P (Most Outstanding Player) instead of the MVP. Did Pat riley copyright the " MVP " achronym like the 3peat and people have to pay a fee to use it?

 

[nathan]

Please name the 3 lottery picks. I will concede Corey Brewer. Who are the other 2?

Would rather have someone like Roy Hibbert, Hasheem Thabeet, or Spencer Hawes? They're all projected lottery picks. Noah isn't going to be a stud PF, but I'd definitely bet on him having a better career than any of those players.

 

[Russ Smith]

Noah isn't even 1st round. He is a poor man's Rony Turiaf. He has absolutely no offensive game. Has no concept of defense. Gets by on size and a little bit of athleticism. The guy is athletic but not BB athletic. He is out of control most of the time.

Florida conceded the inside game to Oden and took away the outside 3 point game ( 4-23 ). They put 4 different bodies on Oden like hack a Shaq. It worked. Matta is a terrible coach. If he was going to play Oden 35 minutes that team needed to outlet anf run. Another case of a Coach afraid to lose. He will never get another Oden in his career.

I'm not a huge Noah fan but to say he's not first round you have to name a
lot of kids who will go ahead of him and when you try, you find out pretty quickly there just aren't that many.

he can't shoot, he's weak, he's annoying as hell, but he's got enough talent to get drafted in the first round probably no lower than 15?

He's the one kid on Florida I don't like because he's so cocky, but I do think he's a first round lock.

 

[Southpaw]

I'm not a huge Oden fan but to say he's not first round you have to name a
lot of kids who will go ahead of him and when you try, you find out pretty quickly there just aren't that many.

he can't shoot, he's weak, he's annoying as hell, but he's got enough talent to get drafted in the first round probably no lower than 15?

He's the one kid on Florida I don't like because he's so cocky, but I do think he's a first round lock.

Did you mean to say " Noah fan " ?

If Noah is lottery or 1st half of draft , then this is a terrible year for draft picks, and that may well be the case.

 

[ma_falaa_50]

what are you guys talking about. Oden's defensive plan got exposed. He never steps out of the paint. I saw his game a bunch of times in college and to be honest i thought he can played defense the way he usually does and camp out in the paint. any you guys here of the 3 second rule. Oden camps out in the paint. the thing is oden finally played bigs that can shoot with range. Most big men in the nba can shoot with range. I dnt think the fouls oden gets from refs are ticky tac fouls. I understand if you get into foul trouble in one or 2 games in the tourney but he had foul troubles in all but the championship gam and you guys said he played conservative.

 

[Russ Smith]

Did you mean to say " Noah fan " ?

If Noah is lottery or 1st half of draft , then this is a terrible year for draft picks, and that may well be the case.

yes brain fart typed oden instead of Noah.

Supposed to be a good year.

 

[azirish]

Earlier in the season, Oden had troubles with the pick and roll because he's not quick enough to guard really quick players. Nor can most bigs.

It was notable that the Gators with two of the quickest bigs in the country still gave up layups. It shows just how hard it is to defend both outside shooting and drives to the basket. Coming out to stop the shooter opens up the paint, which is why Amare's shooting is changing the Suns style.

There is a certain element of context to consider. Oden is a freshman whose wrist injury seriously reduced his off season condititioning last summer. If he was senior and in 100% condition, it would make more sense to pick on his defense. Defensive usually takes longer to learn.

Not that it would matter, but Oden would need to be in much beter condition to play Suns basketball. He's awfully athletic for a guy his size, but better conditioning would do a lot to improve his quickness.

 

[bko32]

Did you mean to say " Noah fan " ?

If Noah is lottery or 1st half of draft , then this is a terrible year for draft picks, and that may well be the case.

Actually, this draft is supposed to be pretty deep. The thing with Noah is he has really good athleticism for his size. NBA GM's will almost always choose a big guy with upside over a smaller player with a proven track record. Think of Robert Swift, Desagana Diop, Mouhamed Sene, Shawn Bradley, Darko Milicic etc. These guys were all lottery picks because they were big, raw with supposed "upside."

Noah fits this big, raw, upside mold. NBA GM's see Noah as a guy that they can mold into a good player because he has athleticism that not many guys his size have. As much as I don't like Noah, the reality is that he will get drafted in the first round, possibly even with a lottery pick, albeit late lottery.

 

[Skkorpion]

Would rather have someone like Roy Hibbert, Hasheem Thabeet, or Spencer Hawes? They're all projected lottery picks. Noah isn't going to be a stud PF, but I'd definitely bet on him having a better career than any of those players.

What's wrong with Roy Hibbert? He gets a little better and stronger each year. Noah just gets more demonstrative.

 

[Southpaw]

What's wrong with Roy Hibbert? He gets a little better and stronger each year. Noah just gets more demonstrative.

Noah does have a tendency to flail out of control. Looks like he is wearing roller skates on an ice pond.

 

[Russ Smith]

What's wrong with Roy Hibbert? He gets a little better and stronger each year. Noah just gets more demonstrative.

Hibbert is good but he plays like Robert Parish in his 40's, I think scouts are concerned he won't be able to keep up with the NBA pace. They've done a great job developing him though I remember seeing him early in his career and thought he was a total stiff.

 

[Southpaw]

Hibbert is good but he plays like Robert Parish in his 40's, I think scouts are concerned he won't be able to keep up with the NBA pace. They've done a great job developing him though I remember seeing him early in his career and thought he was a total stiff.

What pace is that? There are only about 4 teams that play up tempo ball. The rest do nothing but challenge the time line and set up in a half court slow motion passing game. Very few centers can or do run in the NBA. NBA is a guard forward game. All a team needs is a body in the middle who can block a shot as the off man.