Gator Country

austingator · 02-09-2013, 06:23 PM

Experience is significant when it comes to the tourney and they certainly have that. Could definitely see them advancing far into the tourney especially with a high seed like they appear to be headed toward.

tilly · 02-09-2013, 06:31 PM

In the history of the ACC, no team has ever beaten UNC and Duke in the same season as badly as Miami has this year. That's amazing.

gtr2x · 02-09-2013, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by austingator

Experience is significant when it comes to the tourney and they certainly have that. Could definitely see them advancing far into the tourney especially with a high seed like they appear to be headed toward.

Agree on the importance of experience come tourney time. Canes have experience with a veteran team, but not tourney experience. Could get a little stage fright, never know. ACC tourney will be a good test. Good coach tho.

akaGatorhoops · 02-09-2013, 07:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gtr2x

Agree on the importance of experience come tourney time. Canes have experience with a veteran team, but not tourney experience. Could get a little stage fright, never know. ACC tourney will be a good test. Good coach tho.

This.
I see UM as a legit top 5 team, but losing earlier than they should.

rserina · 02-09-2013, 07:25 PM

I've never thought experience mattered much in the tournament. Maybe tournament experience, but not in general. It definitely helps during the regular season and especially in conference play when you need some maturity to deal with the ups and downs of a long schedule. In the postseason, though, I take talent and balance over experience any day of the week.

1gatorbear · 02-09-2013, 07:39 PM

They look as good as any team I've seen this year. I'm hoping they make the final four.

gtr2x · 02-09-2013, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rserina

In the postseason, though, I take talent and balance over experience any day of the week.

When you get to the final four everybody has talent, save the occasional Cinderella stories. There is no Ky type talent this yr, so I will take experienced talent.

dadx4 · 02-09-2013, 07:45 PM

I think so..

rserina · 02-09-2013, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gtr2x

When you get to the final four everybody has talent, save the occasional Cinderella stories. There is no Ky type talent this yr, so I will take experienced talent.

Well, you have to win four games before you get there and the surest path to winning those games is not having the most experienced team on the floor, but the most talented and balanced team. I am not inferring that tournament experience isn't useful. It is. But in general having played a bunch of games for NIT teams the past two seasons hardly gives you an appreciable leg up come March.

diamondted13 · 02-09-2013, 08:33 PM

rserina, did you ever envision Kadji developing the stretch 4 skill set? I assumed he was recruited by Billy to be a traditional 5. I saw him as a rawer version of Speights. The kid has really developed his ball-handling and shooting. It's crazy to see from a 6-11 kid.

Brodeur · 02-09-2013, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rserina

But in general having played a bunch of games for NIT teams the past two seasons hardly gives you an appreciable leg up come March.

That's a good point, they're older but don't have NCAA tournament experience. Its also a much different experience being the favored team with a target on your back, instead of the upstart underdog. We'll see how they handle being the former instead of the latter.

You also have to wonder, whats the difference in this team between this year and last year? The players are all the same, yet they went 19-12 last season before losing in the 2nd round of the NIT. Are things just clicking for them now? Did they visit a certain lab in town that's been in the news lately?

rserina · 02-09-2013, 08:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by diamondted13

rserina, did you ever envision Kadji developing the stretch 4 skill set? I assumed he was recruited by Billy to be a traditional 5. I saw him as a rawer version of Speights. The kid has really developed his ball-handling and shooting. It's crazy to see from a 6-11 kid.

Never saw that one coming, no. Happy for him, though. He was a great kid while here and Ramker really pimped him.

diamondted13 · 02-09-2013, 09:00 PM

Pardon my ignorance, but who's Ramker?

GatorAvatar · 02-09-2013, 09:07 PM

They have the potential to win it all...key word: potential. If everything lines up well, I see them winning the title. But I can also say the same about the Gators.

gatorbogey · 02-09-2013, 09:08 PM

miami does have good balance...and what i term as "developed talent" plus some good basic talent to work with to begin with.

i think they'll have a good mindset going into the tourney too. probably will play to prove themselves. seems like they've earned their way up the rankings - by winning, the ole fashion way of doing it.

rserina · 02-09-2013, 09:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by diamondted13

Pardon my ignorance, but who's Ramker?

Florida Rams coach, Kadji's AAU program. Big Florida guy (or at least he was).

NorthCaptivaGator · 02-09-2013, 09:17 PM

Kadji would have a red shirted here during his transfer year as he was recuperating from back surgery anyway. It would really be nice to have him but he simply needed a change of scenery. I'm happy for the kid, anybody having to go through back surgery at that age deserves success. Miami is good, that little arena they play in is a fun place to watch a game when it is rocking. Anyway, they are going to come down to selection Sunday and CBS is going to announce that the University of Miami has been banned from the tourney secondary to NCAA violations, well one can hope anyway, naw, not really, I would be excited to see them do well, Prove to the nation that the state of Florida has a lot of basketball talent

nbace · 02-09-2013, 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phideltdj

Right now they have as complete of a team as anyone. They are getting more credit for their ACC dominance when let's face it the ACC is probably worse than the SEC right now. They have no strong out of conference wins and some really bad losses to Florida Gulf Coast and Indiana State. The ACC only has one quality team to challenge them in Duke...maybe you could toss in NC state as well.

I don't know if the ACC is worse than the SEC....the bottom of both conferences are both pretty bad. However, Miami beat Michigan State in non-conference, which is certainly a quality out of conference win. It would be fun to see both UF and Miami in the Final Four.

gatorbogey · 02-09-2013, 09:23 PM

yeah, could have a couple of top seeds or 2-seeds from the state of florida. has that ever happened?

gatordavisl · 02-09-2013, 11:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by akaGatorhoops

Yes. But they r not a tourney tested team. I think they will lose earlier than they should.

This is a reasonable point, but the same could be said for many teams (both historically and this year). I think that right now, they have as good a chance of winning the NC as any other team. And of course, much depends upon the draw.