espn insider needed

[tabascojet]

little help with this full article...

Why Florida Gators are best regular season team - College Basketball - ESPN

if not for me then for HRUF, thanks.

 

[HawkeyesRuleURFace]

LOL!!!

 

[dp_broncos]

I have good news for the Florida Gators. From the opening of the season in November through to the conference tournaments being played this weekend, the Gators have performed at a higher level than any other team in the country. On a per-possession basis, the UF offense has been outstanding, and the defense in Gainesville has been even better. Billy Donovan's team rates as No. 1 in Ken Pomeroy rankings, and in Jeff Sagarin's "Predictor" metric, two rating systems of note. Lastly, Florida outscored the SEC by a higher per-possession margin than any major-conference team has recorded in the past six seasons. Take a bow, Coach.

Part of Florida's excellent performance has come from simple good fortune. SEC opponents shot just 27 percent on their 3-pointers against the Gators, and, while Scottie Wilbekin is an excellent perimeter defender, a number that low likely says more about fortuitous bounces than it does about defense. Nevertheless, this would be an outstanding D even if opponents had made a "normal" number of shots from beyond the arc. And with Erik Murphy hitting shots from both sides of the arc and Patric Young converting paint touches into points, UF has proven to be a remarkably efficient unit on a possession-by-possession basis. Or at least that's how it looks from my chair.

How is it that I could be labeling a team as the best in the country when it isn't even in the top 10 of the polls right now? And what does this title mean for the Gators' chances to win the national championship this season? Let's take a look.


Apparently I, along with laptops in the possession of Messrs. Pomeroy and Sagarin, am in the decided minority when I say that the Gators have been the highest-performing team in the nation. They are currently lagging behind in the polls, as I mentioned earlier, and my colleague Joe Lunardi -- who knows whereof he speaks when it comes to anticipating the NCAA selection committee's actions -- is projecting UF for a No. 3 seed. Why is there such a massive disconnect between what the performance metrics are saying and what the people who count -- pollsters and the NCAA men's basketball committee -- are seeing?

Start with the fact that Florida's historic scoring margin in SEC play was not matched by anything close to historic in terms of actual wins and losses. Winning 14 of 18 games is excellent, of course, but it's not as good as what Miami was able to do (15-3) in the measurably tougher ACC, much less what Gonzaga (16-0) accomplished in the weaker West Coast Conference.

If you're a Gators fan, you say this team is "due" to start winning some of these close games. UF's losses in SEC play came by 11, three, six and four points on the road to Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky, respectively. On the other hand, if you're a Gator skeptic, you say these guys just can't win on the road -- and that proves UF won't do much damage in the tournament.

One of these two positions is about to be "proven" by correct by the NCAA tournament, and Florida should know that it is by no means certain the decision will go the Gators' way. Just because I say UF has performed at a higher level than any other Division-I team doesn't mean Donovan's men will get to the Final Four, much less win the national championship (but it obviously isn't a bad thing, either).

Just look at recent history. Below I've listed my choices as the highest-performing teams in each of the past five seasons before the start of that season's NCAA tournament. Let's see how each one of these teams fared when it mattered most.

2011-12: Kentucky
This is not exactly ancient history, so I'll be very brief. John Calipari's team cruised to a 16-0 record in the SEC, and while the Wildcats lost the SEC tournament title game to Vanderbilt, they of course went on to win the national title in a field where they were very much the favorites. Chalk up one for the highest-performing team during the season.

2010-11: Texas
The Longhorns in 2010-11 were a great example of what a lot of people think this season's Gators will turn out to be, a team that looks fantastic on paper -- and paper only. Rick Barnes' team started Big 12 play that season playing defense incredibly -- maybe even historically -- well, but by mid-February the Horns' hit a wall, and UT lost three of its past five regular-season games. At the end of the season this was still a team that had outscored the Big 12 by 0.20 points per trip, but Kansas won the league outright (14-2 to UT's 13-3), and Texas was given a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament. The Longhorns lost 70-69 to Arizona in a controversial game in the Round of 32. Mark this down as one point for the skeptic.

2009-10: Duke
This is the example you like to point to this season if you're a Florida fan. In 2009-10, Duke outscored the strongest conference in the country by 0.18 points per possession. But, even though the Blue Devils were given a No. 1 seed by the selection committee, people just didn't buy that team as the tournament favorite. As you may remember, the skepticism was proven wrong. Duke won the national title, albeit by a very small margin.

2008-09: North Carolina
This Tar Heel team was everyone's consensus national title favorite for much of the season, with Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington all returning from a team that had reached the Final Four the previous season. In a season when the ACC was the No. 2 conference in the nation, UNC outscored their conference opponents by 0.15 points per trip. Of all the teams listed here, the Heels had by far the easiest NCAA tournament. No opponent finished within 12 points, as Roy Williams' team cruised to a national title.

2007-08: Kansas
Arguably the best team Bill Self has had in Lawrence, the 2007-08 Jayhawks went "just" 13-3 in Big 12 play even though they outscored opponents by a whopping 0.24 points per trip. As good as KU was that season, there was another team that was merely a hair below Self's team statistically: Memphis. In that season's national championship game, Kansas prevailed over the Tigers in overtime, thanks to Mario Chalmers' iconic 3-pointer at the end of regulation.

So there you have it. In four of the past five seasons the team in the position that Florida now occupies has won the national title. Then again, the team that some observers think Florida most closely resembles -- Texas in 2010-11 -- didn't even survive the tournament's first weekend. And unlike those four past national champions, this season's Gators won't be given a No. 1 seed to help smooth their path.

Suffice it to say, Donovan's team is much more likely to win it all than the casual fan has been led to believe. But dominance during the regular season doesn't automatically translate into NCAA tournament success. (For proof, Donovan can ask Rick Barnes.) If the Gators wants to prove their regular-season numbers are no fluke, they'll have to win a close game -- or, better yet, not get into them in the first place.

 

[tabascojet]

...

rep, thanks.

after today's epic collapse i think the the 2010 team that lost in the first round to byu was more talented.