i’ve heard it repeated throughout the season that we really weren’t healthy and didn’t play that well and that were a lot better now than we were when we played uconn the first time, and that uconn would be a desirable rematch/second round opponent. i dunno if you guys all live in a bubble or what, but uconn also isn’t the same team they were back in november. besides which, that game wasn’t particularly close or competitive in the first place.
win probability during our game with uconn:
they scored first and the game was never even tied after that.
btw, uconn also was not fully healthy, and was giving big minutes to guys who now play small roles for them. here’s our box score vs their latest box score:
vs
ball, johnson, and diarra were playing big minutes against us, and are now playing much smaller roles. stephon castle, the likely big east freshman of the year, didn’t even play.
then there’s uconn’s form vs our form:
vs
uconn will kick the fucking dog shit out of us in a rematch. we do not want to play them, and frankly, it’s kind of asinine that all of this “we want uconn!!!” talk has gone unchecked all year. we are maybe marginally better now than we were then, but on any given night we might also be way, way worse than we were then. uconn doesn’t have that issue. they are a legit title contender who brings it every single night. if we meet them in the second round they will make us long for our early season moral victory, as the rematch will be a bloodbath.
so please- stop it with all of this talk that says that we’re just soooo much better than we were on that night, and that uconn is ripe for the picking. they aren’t. they’ll kill us. stop asking for a rematch.