Style of play and objectivity

[brewcity77]

He does cheat, a coach told me, they have a bagman, no different than Sam Gilbert at UCLA, Herb Kohl for Al and others.  The Diamond Stone situation is all about Bob Stone  getting
paid as a consultant or paid differently for futures on his son.  We all know all of Bob Stones teams are decked out in Under Armour, going to Maryland, Kevin Planks alma mater, questionable
to say the least.  Sam Bowie visited 2 schools, MU and Kentucky, Kentucky paid him better.

Is Young Legends all decked out in Under Armour? Yeah. But that doesn't make it illegal. Yes, the shoe companies will outfit teams to different degrees (as Freeport recently mentioned) but just because the playing field isn't level for all AAU teams doesn't mean it isn't above board, strictly speaking.

I also don't think Maryland broke any rules to get Stone to College Park. Are there handshake deals, money in waiting, other things going on behind the scenes? Maybe, possibly, even likely. But these companies have become very good at getting around the NCAA rules and enticing players legally. Pretty sure the other big schools, Kentucky and UNC with Nike, UCLA and Kansas with adidas, SMU with Under Armour, all handle things in similar fashion.

[BCHoopster]

Is Young Legends all decked out in Under Armour? Yeah. But that doesn't make it illegal. Yes, the shoe companies will outfit teams to different degrees (as Freeport recently mentioned) but just because the playing field isn't level for all AAU teams doesn't mean it isn't above board, strictly speaking.

I also don't think Maryland broke any rules to get Stone to College Park. Are there handshake deals, money in waiting, other things going on behind the scenes? Maybe, possibly, even likely. But these companies have become very good at getting around the NCAA rules and enticing players legally. Pretty sure the other big schools, Kentucky and UNC with Nike, UCLA and Kansas with adidas, SMU with Under Armour, all handle things in similar fashion.

Average consulting fee is $25K

[CTWarrior]

Wisconsin faces a huge disadvantage Notre Dame didn't have, and that's a week of preparation. The Wildcats struggled in both of their second games this tournament (Cincy and ND). I also think the close call with the Irish will have Kentucky completely focused on this game.

I think there is something to this.  I think the ease with which Kentucky dispatched WV may have taken away some of their edge.  I have no hard data to back this up, but it seems to me that teams that trounce their opponents so badly that the Thu/Fri game is not in doubt by halftime have a natural letdown for the Sat/Sun game.  (e.g. when everybody thought Kansas would win the title after thrashing us in the semi in 2003)

[mu03eng]

Yeah, that's not accurate. The only short one of the bunch is Koenig.

Let me rephrase, because you guys are correct in total.  Hayes and Kaminsky are Wisconsin's 2nd and 3rd best 3pt shooters and are obviously tall.  However, when they are on the perimeter, they aren't spacing the floor for a big man because the big man is often the one shooting.  ND was able to space both wings with "traditional" wings who are tall, Pat Connington and Steve Vasturia (both 6-5).  This allowed their big man to play the post and force Kentucky to play in space.  Wisconsin won't have that same luxury.

Just as a point of reference, top 4 shooters for each school and heights.
ND:
Pat Connington      0.436   6-5
VJ Beachum           0.424   6-8
Steve Vasturia       0.409   6-5
Demetrius Jackson  0.409   6-1

Wisconsin:
Koenig    0.415   6-3
Hayes     0.403   6-7
Kaminsky 0.395   7-0
Gasser    0.377   6-3

[GGGG]

To be fair, you are going to have to include Dekker in that list for Wisconsin.  He is as much a threat to score from the outside as anyone.  And he's 6'9".

[BM1090]

Maybe I'm biased. In fact, I probably am biased, but I think to beat Kentucky you need to have great guards surrounded by shooters. ND has better shooters than UW and Jackson/Grant >>>>>>> Koenig and Gasser. Wisconsin obviously has a much better frontcourt but that's Kentucky's strength as well. We'll see.

[MUfan12]

To be fair, you are going to have to include Dekker in that list for Wisconsin.  He is as much a threat to score from the outside as anyone.  And he's 6'9".

And Dukan off the bench.

[mu03eng]

To be fair, you are going to have to include Dekker in that list for Wisconsin.  He is as much a threat to score from the outside as anyone.  And he's 6'9".

I'm not disagreeing with you but I just grabbed the top 4 guys for both teams and in the regular season Dekker didn't attempt enough 3s to show up on the ESPN stat sheet for 3pt%.  Dukan was 0.325.  Not sure what the rest of the depth on ND is like statistically and height-wise.

It would also need to be broken down by minutes played.

Given all that, I'll concede the point that Madison has height on their shooters that could impact the Kentucky game.

[JWags85]

I'm not disagreeing with you but I just grabbed the top 4 guys for both teams and in the regular season Dekker didn't attempt enough 3s to show up on the ESPN stat sheet for 3pt%.  Dukan was 0.325.  Not sure what the rest of the depth on ND is like statistically and height-wise.

And the 3s he did take, he was 30%.  Thats what was infuriating as someone pulling for Zona in that game.  Its one thing if Kaminsky torched you outside, you had a 30% shooter from deep go 5 for 6 in the second half.  The one of the knocks on Dekker's game has always been that he's not a great shooter.

Wisconsin was trailing Zona at half and went 10-12 from 3 in the second half.  I can't see another half of shooting like that from a team that isn't as good as ND from deep.  Kaminsky got into foul trouble against Zona and should have fouled out.  He'll have his hands even more full on Saturday.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

ND played the game of their lives, Kentucky went 9-9 in the last 12 minutes and kept ND scoreless the last 3 minutes of the game.  I think that was the scare game for Kentucky.

Plus ND is 18th (regular season) in the country as a team in 3pt% at 0.392 while Wisconsin is tied for 109th at 0.357.  They shoot nearly 5 % points lower.  They aren't a scrum 3 team but they aren't going to space like ND did and NDs primary shooters have height, Wisconsin does not.

It will be a good game I'm sure, but Kentucky's interior defense will likely stifle Kaminsky and Hayes forcing Wisconsin to win from the arc.  Plus with Kentucky's post depth they can take some fouls in the interior, Wisconsin can't as they have no depth there.  Can they win, sure, but I don't think it likely.

They were discussing this on WFAN this afternoon.  Notre Dame was the best offensive team Kentucky has faced all season and Wisconsin has a different offense than Notre Dame that shouldn't be a problem for Kentucky.