vs. #1 Gonzaga

His points matter if Bowden or Schofield are slumping. Hope he can find some consistency.

 

(best pre-tournament shot. Last year we only needed to beat a 14-seed, an 11, a 7, and a 9 to make the final four. The draw obviously massively impacts things. I think the 2008 team that spent time at #1 probably had a worse chance at making a final four than the 2000, 2007, 2010, or 2018 because the path was much tougher)

 

If the seed number was that prescriptive to quality, we wouldn't have had those high of seeds to face. Low seeds being left doesn't necessarily mean those are worse teams or better matchups. The upsets did speak to the relative parity in the bracket, and that's not a good thing if you are the 2 seed.

 

I would've rather faced Michigan State than Kansas to go to the Final Four in 2010 ten out of ten times. If we had made it to the Elite Eight this time around, I would've rather played Kansas State than either Kentucky or Virginia ten out of ten times. Obviously, the seeding isn't perfect, and there are some teams that are underseeded, but we've also been in a couple regions where the best team just plain had a bad game in the early rounds.

And some of it is matchups that go beyond the seeding. Our 2008 team was much better than the 2007 team, but the 2007 team had a better chance against Ohio State and Memphis than the 2008 team had against Louisville and UNC, because we had the outside shooting to really threaten Ohio State, and Louisville had the length to totally shut down our best weapons.