Final 4

[SBCatMan]

Don't really care one way or the other who wins. Pretty stark the difference in talent between the FF teams and UK's roster this year. Even with everyone healthy and 100%, I don't see how UK makes the FF this year. Not enough shooters, below average defensively (especially the wings) and, frankly, not basketball smart enough, imo.

Pope has a big job ahead of him in the next several weeks to build a roster that has a chance of a deep NCAA run. Talent evaluation is critical this offseason. He just HAS to get it right or he may be gone.

Watching the Regional finals and the first two games of the Finals shows me just how BIG of a job Pope faces. We are not even close. Even if all the stars aligned and we paid off the refs, we still would have had no chance. It is astonishing how we have fallen so far behind so quickly.

[WeWant9]

I think it mostly comes down to recruiting the needed talent to compete at this level. It was kind of interesting to look at this year's FF teams and how they did last year.

Arizona, last year was a 4 seed. 22-12. Lost in S16
Michigan, 5 seed. 25-9. Lost in S16
Illinois, 6 seed. 21-12. Lost 2nd rd
UConn, 8 seed, 23-10. Lost 2nd rd

Without doing a deep dive into rosters, I would say they all enhanced their overall talent either through hs recruiting, portal, or overseas; they also retained a few pieces to blend in with the new talent.