ou1980;731498 wrote:"Five players on the floor functioning as one single unit: team, team, team - no one more important that the other."
Except Shelvin Mack lol.
Seriously though, this Butler team basically embodies all those teams you've ever heard of that people describe-in any sport- of tough. They're just tough as hell, and they don't believe they're going to lose when they step out on to the floor; they know they're going to win. I think that's part of the reason that they look so composed and pull out so many close games, they always feel like they've got it under control.
I think Kemba will give us the best game we've seen to date, and that's saying a lot. I think he'll have somewhere around 35 only because I don't know who in the world is going to stop him (not sure anyone can when he's on), but I do know one thing. If the game doesn't go over about 75, I'll take Butler. If Uconn is hitting everything and they can get it over 75, they'll win. But if it's Butler's kind of game, they'll pull it out. Duke had enough weapons last year on the outside, plus Zoubek and the Plumlee's in the middle, that Butler couldn't defend everybody the way they like. Walker is a GREAT player, and Lamb is coming on strong, but I don't feel like Uconn has anywhere near the number of threats that Duke had last year. Of course, Butler is down a few players from last year's team as well, but that's also been kind of a blessing once they "figured it out" at around the halfway point of the season, because now this team isn't so much about Hayward as the star, and Mack/Howard as decent #2 or #3 options, but rather, all 5 players on the floor having to play their A game, and even guys of the bench like the Hahn kid tonight. And it's obviously working, winning 14 in a row coming in. I have no dog in the fight, but obviously I'd love to see the underdog win it, only because I know Uconn is going to have other years when they'll have serious chances to make runs to the Final 4 or beyond again, and that's a lot harder to count on at a midmajor in the Horizon League.