***Official '22/'23 Defending Natl' Champion KU Men’s Basketball Repository Thread***

[cmh6476]

The Team:

https://kuathletics.com/sports/mbball/roster/

The Schedule:

https://kuathletics.com/sports/mbball/schedule/

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by Chief Pagan

FYP

Yawn.

Yeah, if they want regional, Wichita State or Creighton would be better options. If they're looking SEC besides Kentucky, I think Tennessee would be my choice.

[Pants]

Originally Posted by lawrenceRaider

Wow. What a video.

[lawrenceRaider]

Originally Posted by Pants

Wow. What a video.

THis championship just feels so much better than 2008. Don't get me wrong, '08 was fantastic. However, I expected to win that year.

This year things seemed to be falling wrong all year, but Bill got the team together and guys got healthy at just the right time and it all came together. I had zero expectations beyond winning a couple games in the tourney.

[DJay23]

Originally Posted by lawrenceRaider

THis championship just feels so much better than 2008. Don't get me wrong, '08 was fantastic. However, I expected to win that year.

This year things seemed to be falling wrong all year, but Bill got the team together and guys got healthy at just the right time and it all came together. I had zero expectations beyond winning a couple games in the tourney.

Same. This year was such a surprise. I was thinking Sweet Sixteen ceiling at the start of last season.

[BWillie]

Grady Dick is 6'8" on the official roster.
MJ Rice 6'5".
Zuby 6'9".
Udeh 6'11".
McCullar 6'6".

[Kiimo]

6'11 for Udeh is a welcome surprise, I'm not sure how much I trust that but *ahem, big if true

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by lawrenceRaider

THis championship just feels so much better than 2008. Don't get me wrong, '08 was fantastic. However, I expected to win that year.

This year things seemed to be falling wrong all year, but Bill got the team together and guys got healthy at just the right time and it all came together. I had zero expectations beyond winning a couple games in the tourney.

Yeah, it's nice when a team is playing with house money and this tournament highlighted teams getting hot at the right time and also being able to take advantage of their path to the NC game.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by lawrenceRaider

THis championship just feels so much better than 2008. Don't get me wrong, '08 was fantastic. However, I expected to win that year.

This year things seemed to be falling wrong all year, but Bill got the team together and guys got healthy at just the right time and it all came together. I had zero expectations beyond winning a couple games in the tourney.

Different, absolutely, but I’m not sure I can go with better. 2008 washed away a metric ****ton if bad mementoes. ****ing Steph Curry, the goddamned Handsjob ball washing and the refs that tried to charge UNC back in it. The UCLA crap the year before. ****ing Jarret Jack and Georgia Tech, Bucknell, Holy Cross and Bradley. Arizona, Syracuse, every shred of Roy leaving. All of it was like a river of shit being washed away. Not unlike the playoff run that culminated with the Super Bowl. The first one was big.

This one was a pleasant surprise, but I’m guessing it is how other schools feel when they win it. There were no stakes. No prospect of disappointment. It makes it easier to take in the unbridled joy as a fan, but it is different than getting one you’re supposed to win after 20 years of should have won.

Plus 08 was some of the best basketball I’d seen played. 2022 got hot and it was a hell of a lot of fun but 08 has a special place in my heart.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Yeah, it's nice when a team is playing with house money and this tournament highlighted teams getting hot at the right time and also being able to take advantage of their path to the NC game.

Yeah. It’s a different position to be in.

Even in 2012 when that team wasn’t very good I viewed that as TRob and Taylor dragging that team through rounds with sheer “**** you.”

I can’t think of another team that just got hot. I guess an argument could be made for 88 but i was small enough I couldn’t argue it effectively.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

Different, absolutely, but I’m not sure I can go with better. 2008 washed away a metric ****ton if bad mementoes. ****ing Steph Curry, the goddamned Handsjob ball washing and the refs that tried to charge UNC back in it. The UCLA crap the year before. ****ing Jarret Jack and Georgia Tech, Bucknell, Holy Cross and Bradley. Arizona, Syracuse, every shred of Roy leaving. All of it was like a river of shit being washed away. Not unlike the playoff run that culminated with the Super Bowl. The first one was big.

This one was a pleasant surprise, but I’m guessing it is how other schools feel when they win it. There were no stakes. No prospect of disappointment. It makes it easier to take in the unbridled joy as a fan, but it is different than getting one you’re supposed to win after 20 years of should have won.

Plus 08 was some of the best basketball I’d seen played. 2022 got hot and it was a hell of a lot of fun but 08 has a special place in my heart.

That UNC Final Four game was ****ing magical, and of course after Self got the Elite Eight monkey off his back.

Definitely cases of higher stress/higher reward... 2008 meant more, but I probably enjoyed this one far more game to game. Even Providence was more or less "hey guys, maybe get your heads out of your ass" instead of the stress of the Davidson game and losing their grip on the Memphis game.

And before the comeback in the Memphis game, I had a deep sinking feeling..... down at halftime against UNC, I said **** it and grabbed a favorite beer that I was keeping cold for a possible victory and drank it in the 2nd half anyway.

[KC_Connection]

They're both different. The 2008 team was/is one of the best teams in college basketball history (beating some other great teams along the way in Davidson, UNC and Memphis) and was super rewarding as a result. It also contained the best moment of all of them (Mario's Miracle). The 2022 team obviously is nowhere near that, but its win/run was about fortuitous as it gets. The improbable nature of it kind of made it arguably more fun.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

Yeah. It’s a different position to be in.

Even in 2012 when that team wasn’t very good I viewed that as TRob and Taylor dragging that team through rounds with sheer “**** you.”

I can’t think of another team that just got hot. I guess an argument could be made for 88 but i was small enough I couldn’t argue it effectively.

Yeah, that team came to mind as a 'house money' team... and a few of those games were painful grinding games to watch, so once they made it through to the final, I opened a 22oz Boulevard Bourbon Barrel Quad and was going determined to feel good by the end of that one no matter what.

'04 was shorter lived, but I do remember everyone picking Pacific as the sexy upset that year, then everyone picking UAB, then everyone picking Georgia Tech... and they at least got it to OT. Not that they got hot of course, but at least that was a lower expectation year from what I remember.

And then '18 with that prick Grayson Allen's last second attempt bouncing around on the rim 400 times and then out was pretty damn glorious, as everyone expected Duke to advance.

[Chief Pagan]

Originally Posted by lawrenceRaider

THis championship just feels so much better than 2008. Don't get me wrong, '08 was fantastic. However, I expected to win that year.

This year things seemed to be falling wrong all year, but Bill got the team together and guys got healthy at just the right time and it all came together. I had zero expectations beyond winning a couple games in the tourney.

'97 taught me to never expect to win it all.

But surprises work both ways.

[Prison Bitch]

According to 538, they use ELO ratings a lot to determine sports analysis (just a version of your scoring martin adj for opponent quality). The two best 16 seeds in history both played Kansas

2018 Penn (lost by 16)
2008 Portland State (lost by 24)

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

According to 538, they use ELO ratings a lot to determine sports analysis (just a version of your scoring martin adj for opponent quality). The two best 16 seeds in history both played Kansas

2018 Penn (lost by 16)
2008 Portland State (lost by 24)

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

The committee couldn't have handed this team a worse matchup in the first round considering its style. Penn's statistical profile looks more like a 14 seed than a 16 and Penn is also one of the best teams in the country at guarding the three (teams only shoot 29.6% from 3PT and they are top 30 in the country in limiting 3PT attempts).

They could actually really use Udoka for this one.

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

You probably should be. Penn is the best #16 seed by KenPom in 6 years since UNC Asheville. That team only lost by seven to a #1 seeded Syracuse.

https://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/show...8#post13461578

I don't post these things for no reason.