Quote:
Originally Posted by Buehler445
I think there is an element of luck to it. If Remy played the whole season, his ... we'll call it "magic"...might have worn off. Let's face it, that level of energy is hard to sustain over a season, and it seems like KU had trouble summoning it when it mattered without Remy. Maybe this is an exception, but it's hard to tell. And the team most likely would have adjusted to his play and potentially (probably) developed some of the bad habits around it.
Such as it is, he came in with massive levels of **** off and it absolutely lit a fire under the team.
We've rolled into March with tremendously talented teams before only to watch other teams catch lightning in a bottle and get super hot to beat us.
I'll admit, it's fun as **** to have that team, even though we were a 1, it felt like an underdog story, at least comparatively.
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And to another point, people also judge last year's team way too much off of the last game. Yes, it sucks that we lost big, but it also sucks we were matched up with a future 10 time NBA All Star inside who we would have no answer for. If Drake would have beat them and we beat Drake, then the narrative is completely different this year. In some ways we were the complete opposite of UCLA, who went on a miracle run to the final four and were a trendy pick to win it all pre season and ended as a 4 seed. If UCLA loses to Michigan state in overtime in the first round, they would have never been picked that high and a 4 seed was fine. But because some things went their way, now this year is more of a disappointment.
In retrospect, the first round game last year was more indicative of this year's team. A midmajor team with a stretch 5 bombing threes, everything looks bleak, and yet we found a way to win after a career game on their end. That type of resilience was evident in the Creighton win especially, but we didn't just develop it this year, we were just too focused on the USC game to notice.