Something I've Never Seen

When the Big Blue Nation folklorists begin to recount yarns of past teams this one will occupy a space of its own.  I, for one, have never seen a team at any school begin the year and end the regular season so poorly only to see the light and turn into a championship contender, seemingly overnight.  After the Florida game in the SEC tournament I began to hold out hope that we would not be embarrassed but I did pick them to beat Wichita State and lose in the next round to Louisville.  I believe that had I realized at that time how good The Shockers were I might have changed that pick but I reasoned that the caliber of their schedule was suspect.  I was wrong.  Nothing new with that.  What I have seen from this mostly freshmen team is a team that never loses its poise even when they allow the opponent to put them in a deep hole.  They don't try to come back all at once, they just begin to take care of business.

I thought they had a pretty decent chance of winning today even without Willie but, again, I did not realize how powerful the Michigan offense was.  What glorious surprises we've seen come from those guys.  Alex Poythress is threatening to become the "beast" that Coach Cal always said he could be.  He is playing above the rim and with abandon.  And Marcus "Who".  I knew he was on the team but knew little about him.  His playing time this year has been minimal to say the least.  He seems to be one of those guys who is always in the right place.  Dakari Johnson has developed into a true post man capable of taking the ball to the hoop against other bigs.  Randle is getting to play farther out and is righteous when he drives to the goal while having developed into a fine assist man when necessary.  All of these things have opened up the floor and given the Harrisons space to rock and roll.  They are still half a step slow but now they are playing with confidence and no hang-dog looks.  Nothing but confidence.  James Young, deadly.  Hawkins comes in and gives quality minutes even if he doesn't quite have the offensive punch of the Harrisons.  What has happened is that Coach Cal has way more arrows in the quiver.

And Coach Cal!!  If this doesn't shut up the talking heads who said he couldn't coach then they are totally hopeless and should be ignored from this moment on.  I thought Dick Vitale was going to have a stroke gushing about it.

Right now the Cats are playing as good if not better than anyone in the tournament and have a very good shot at bringing a 9th banner to Rupp.

I've seen lots of great college teams but never one that has turned the season on its ear the way this team has.  They are a team for the ages.