Gwmayhem,  good point about Maryland competing in 2 conferences(the ACC and then the Big 10) where its almost impossible to dominate year in and year out because of how deep the conferences are. Unfortunately for Maryland, Big 10 basketball has seemed to have gotten a lot stronger since they joined. That can be good in a sense because you get so many opportunities to beat highly rated teams, but it can be bad because fans will complain about you finishing in 8th place, earning just a 10 seed and getting blown out in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament.

I think the expectations for Maryland are somewhat justified because of the facilities, history and being in a recruiting hotbed. I believe a young and hungry coaches like Nate Oates, Shaka Smart or Will Wade(who know how to "play the game")  would have Maryland in a similar spot to where Gary Williams had the program for about a 15 year period from the early 90's through the mid 2000's where you would expect a top 15 team that wins multiple games in the NCAA tournament. Those guys would have had Hunter Dickinson committing to Maryland during his sophomore year at DeMatha!!

The problem for Gary Williams(and maybe Turgeon to a lesser extent) is he was constantly able to recruit a lot of under-the-radar guys and turn them into studs who could compete with and knock off The Duke's and North Carolina's. The 2002 National Championship team was led by a bunch of guys like that. Eventually, Gary Williams couldn't really pull that off anymore, and he needed to "play the game." We know Gary Williams isn't one to hold his tongue, I believe he straight up said, "We Couldn't Get Rudy Gay Because We Didn't Pay His AAU Coach"!!  

About Hunter Dickinson, I think the Maryland site interviewed the wrong guy about Hunter Dickinson, the AAU coach is the guy causing most of the problems, not DeMatha's head coach!! It's usually the AAU coaches who cause these types of issues. It gets worse for Maryland because Dickinson(and coach Juwan Howard) have seemed to develop a personal issue with Maryland over Dickinson's recruitment, and they have taken it out on them in the 3 dominant wins over Maryland this past season!!

Mentzinger, thanks for posting that. The article also mentions that Abilene Christian earned 74 MILLION when they lost to Kentucky by 35 in the 1st round of the 2019 NCAA tournament. GW is in a multiple bid league and are in a great location in terms of a powerful city and a recruiting hotbed, so they aren't that far away(despite what we've seen in recent years!! LOL) from achieving great success. Did GW ever mention how much money they generated from NCAA appearances. I'm not sure GW could earn as much as Abilene Christian(unless GW made the Final 4) because most people have heard of GW, unlike Abilene Christian. 
 

Dude, you mean the same team that 12 seed Georgetown beat by 25 just 2 weeks ago? Mark Few is a very good coach but to suggest that this was some sort of great victory is pure nonsense. Gonzaga was supposed to win and win big. 

If Gonzaga does win it all, it will be Coach Few's first national championship.  Given the fact that there's an active coach out there who has won five national championships, applying the "America's greatest coach" moniker to Few is of course, ridiculous.

I can't get over the job Juwan Howard has done.  Michigan became the first team in NCAA history this season to win three consecutive games over nationally ranked opponents by 19+ points earlier this year.  But the team's best work, playing without arguably their best player, came yesterday in a complete dismantling of Florida State.  Despite FSU's size advantage, Michigan feasted on points in the paint, something that the "great" Leonard Hamilton did not see coming.  It's fun watching teams who legitimately have 6-7 players who can beat you.  Makes it very hard to game plan based on shutting down 1 or 2 guys.   
 

FQ, amazing stat.

America's greatest Coach, Mark Few, back to the Final 4 again.

Just among active coaches, Coach K has led Duke to 12 Final 4's, Roy Williams has been to 9, Tom Izzo and the Spartans have gone 8 times, Rick Pitino has made 7 trips, John Calipari has led teams to 6 appearances, and Jim Boeheim has taken the Orangemen to 5.  

But congratulations though to "America's Greatest Coach" on his second trip. 

I would not perceive the Memphis team who lost in the finals or the recent Gonzaga teams to be little guys or Cinderella stories.  Those teams compete right alongside the big guys for recruits.  Kudos to them that they are able to do it coming from smaller conferences.  As for Butler, that was a major Cinderella story, over consecutive seasons no less.

DC Native wrote:

And Gonzaga just signed their first 5 star recruit ever, so they might be even better next year! But as long as they stay in the WCC, I will root for them.

Pretty sure Jalen Suggs was considered one of the top 5 or 10 recruits on the country.  Definitely 5 star.

My mistake. They just signed their highest rated player ever, but he is their second 5 star, the other being Suggs last year.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/college-basketball-recruiting-hunter-sallis-commits-to-gonzaga-as-bulldogs-land-five-star-guard/amp/

But Brian, that was a Power Memorial player. Game last night was intense. It seemed that UCLA couldn't miss a shot.  I was taught that a layup is the best percentage shot, which G was making. But UCLA was making shots from everywhere. Scary.

I hope everyone watched that UCLA - Gonzaga game.  Quite possibly the greatest college basketball game ever. 

Zags, who have the highest 2pt FG% in modern history, shot over 70% on twos; UCLA shot over 55% on twos and 47% from three.  Highest combined shooting % in a final 4 since Villanova upset Georgetown.

First OT final 4 game in 23 years.  First game with both teams scoring 90 since UNLV’s heyday in the early 90s. 

But what really stood out for me was just how well UCLA played.  Basically a perfect game from them.  The crazy thing is they did most of it with contested mid range jumpers.  Tyger Campbell, who had struggled for almost two months with his shot, hit contested mid range after mid range; and non-shooter Cody Riley drained 3 or 4 late.  Plus Juzang and Jaquez hitting contested buckets all game.

On the other end, Zags did what they do.  For most of the game, every single shot they took was a layup or three.  Incredible.  (They added a couple of 4 foot floaters toward the end, but didn’t take a single mid-range shot all game).

Then, late in the game you had Suggs with one of the great plays in history - blocking a dunk at the rim, chasing down the rebound, and then throwing a Shanta Rogers-style 40 foot bounce pass for the dunk.  And Timme stepping up and taking a charge, with 4 fouls and 1 second left to send it to OT. 

And then of course, the greatest shot since Laettner, maybe even better than that (and much tougher than Kris Jenkins’ open tourney winner). 

It was truly a great game. 

One thing, though, Kisbert’s been a bit off the whole tourney.  They need him to step up to Baylor.  He almost cost them the game yesterday.