See Red

Murray took over down the stretch.

If he can make it out of the first round, he’ll be more successful than Cal in the last half decade.

I think it’s more that Caitlin Clark is a huge draw and some combination of UConn and Purdue aren't draws, it seemed a near certainty UConn was winning that game handily, and it started way too late. UConn’s weird in that they’ve been dominant in college basketball as far as championships but don’t feel dominant because they’re not as consistent as a Duke or whatever. They had the down years in the AAC, they’ve won as a 7-seed. They don’t get a ton of coverage because they’re not hated or have a huge fan base. I was hoping maybe this year would make them more hated, since that’s a big part of the fun of winning a lot, but I don’t know that it’s happened since this team was actually fun to watch with how they play. And then Purdue basketball with Edey is just not fun to watch. All-time great player but it makes for boring basketball.

Nothing riles him up like UConn apparently. Pretty sure neither of these championships count to him because they aren’t winning close games.

The way they completely neutered Purdue’s offense and abused Edey on the other end was a coaching masterclass. Edey got off to a great start but from about 6 minutes left in the first until Clingan up his 4th foul and Johnson fouled out, he was pretty ineffective and frustrated. And by that point the game was well out of reach and UConn only cared about preventing threes. Also, the premise of your post is dumb. Seems to me it would be better never having to play from behind. There’s more to coaching than rah rah halftime speeches and even then, the number of times UConn would go into the half in a close-ish game and then put on the afterburners was impressive all the same. And the adversity was losing the best three players off of their dominant championship team and proceeding to turn the backups into an even more dominant team.

Can’t believe this team, man. An unreal run these last two years! A coaching masterclass by Hurley!

UConn should be really good next year with Bueckers coming back and a pretty stacked class coming in. Plus not being decimated by injuries, hopefully. Unrelated but I’ve seen some rumors Cal is leaving Kentucky for Arkansas.

I’m not usually in the sports are rigged camp but that ticky tack call against UConn to pretty much seal the deal and get the golden goose into the championship game is sketchy as :censored:.

Don’t know if I’d call them healthy. They have six players out for the season with injuries. They’ve looked spent at the end of their last two games because they only play seven, iirc. They’ve had some :censored:ty injury the luck the last handful of years, but at least Bueckers is healthy this season. Either way, the year ends in a 4 which means UConn’s winning the Men’s and Women’s tournaments, as they did in ‘04 and ‘14.

Edey playing 38 and 39 minutes in the last two games is pretty incredible. For someone his size, his conditioning is pretty nuts. That said, him having three total fouls in that 77 minutes is absurd. The officials have absolutely zero clue how to officiate someone of his size.

Turned off the late game early to watch basketball but enjoyed what I saw today. Hopefully ESPN’s broadcasts aren’t “spread” this, “over-under” that, “live odds” blah blah blah like it was with the XFL last year that made it nearly unwatchable.

Not sure I’ve seen a 30-0 run before like UConn just had. This team’s insane when they get rolling. Illinois strategy of attacking Clingan, which they only veered from when the game had grown out of reach, was pretty ill-advised.

Are the rosters mostly the same as last season or did they redistribute the players? Curious how much these XFL vs USFL games say about the leagues last year.

Yeah, UConn looks better than last year and last year’s team was a buzzsaw. Alabama knocks out UNC!

I think the league has said the rate of concussions on kickoffs is 2x any other play. I imagine non-head injuries are more common as well. I’m good with this change, as long as onside kicks never become 4th and whatever where you run an actual play.