After picking Gonzaga to be #1 - and defending that pick - Gregg
Doyel has changed his mind and now sees UConn as the one true power.
And certainly they are good. But as good as they are, and toss out the
fact that they would be in the ACC cellar with losses to Tech and UNC,
UConn has not yet convinced us that it can thrive in the halfcourt game, and we
have never had much faith in Taliek Brown as their point guard. When the
tournament gets into seriously conservative halfcourt basketball, we'll be
interested to see how they do. We'd also be curious about how they would defend
a team with really fine outside shooters. Man to man, we'd assume, but how
far out do you go? And when you do, do you leave Emeka Okafor all alone in the
middle? Why not, right? Time will tell.
Gregg also says that Duke and UNC lack guys who can take over the game, but
we've seen Redick do it for Duke offensively, and Ewing, and Deng will be there
before too long. UNC has Felton, who can more or less do what he pleases,
and McCants, who can, as he showed vs. UConn, go nuts when he decides it is
time.
So to make it brief, while we like Gregg, we're not buying this
argument. By every logical argument, UConn should win. But the great
problem with logic and basketball is that basketball doesn't always behave
logically. So let's wait and see.