2023 NCAA Tournament

[Matnum PI]

N'western, Denver, SU, BC. All 4 could win it all. Easily. Any given Saturday. All four are so capable I'm not so sure any of these games have favorites and underdogs. Each team has a story. But in terms of who should win, from where I'm sitting, all 4 are favorites.

[njbill]

Hope not.

Edit: this in response to sc's post.

[thedisciple516]

N'western, Denver, SU, BC. All 4 could win it all. Easily. Any given Saturday. All four are so capable I'm not so sure any of these games have favorites and underdogs. Each team has a story. But in terms of who should win, from where I'm sitting, all 4 are favorites.

Not sure about Denver. Syracuse, Northwestern and post-March BC are the clear top 3 in the country. Denver hasn't played anyone of Northwestern's caliber. BC is a completely different team than the one Denver beat earlier. It's possible Denver could prove me wrong but doubtful. They hold NW's offense in check but don't have enough offense of their own.

[Matnum PI]

I don't disagree. I'm not convinced that Denver will beat N'western. With this said, This Denver-N'western game could have easily been the finals. Based on their Ws and Ls, Denver's legit.

[Brownlax]

N'western, Denver, SU, BC. All 4 could win it all. Easily. Any given Saturday. All four are so capable I'm not so sure any of these games have favorites and underdogs. Each team has a story. But in terms of who should win, from where I'm sitting, all 4 are favorites.

Not sure about Denver. Syracuse, Northwestern and post-March BC are the clear top 3 in the country. Denver hasn't played anyone of Northwestern's caliber. BC is a completely different team than the one Denver beat earlier. It's possible Denver could prove me wrong but doubtful. They hold NW's offense in check but don't have enough offense of their own.

One thing that will effect the game is how well the refs call shooting space and 3 seconds on Denver.

[Sunnylax]

N'western, Denver, SU, BC. All 4 could win it all. Easily. Any given Saturday. All four are so capable I'm not so sure any of these games have favorites and underdogs. Each team has a story. But in terms of who should win, from where I'm sitting, all 4 are favorites.

Not sure about Denver. Syracuse, Northwestern and post-March BC are the clear top 3 in the country. Denver hasn't played anyone of Northwestern's caliber. BC is a completely different team than the one Denver beat earlier. It's possible Denver could prove me wrong but doubtful. They hold NW's offense in check but don't have enough offense of their own.

One thing that will effect the game is how well the refs call shooting space and 3 seconds on Denver.

if it's the same crew from Denver/Unc, there won't be any called.

[Seacoaster(1)]

N'western, Denver, SU, BC. All 4 could win it all. Easily. Any given Saturday. All four are so capable I'm not so sure any of these games have favorites and underdogs. Each team has a story. But in terms of who should win, from where I'm sitting, all 4 are favorites.

Not sure about Denver. Syracuse, Northwestern and post-March BC are the clear top 3 in the country. Denver hasn't played anyone of Northwestern's caliber. BC is a completely different team than the one Denver beat earlier. It's possible Denver could prove me wrong but doubtful. They hold NW's offense in check but don't have enough offense of their own.

One thing that will effect the game is how well the refs call shooting space and 3 seconds on Denver.

if it's the same crew from Denver/Unc, there won't be any called.

I thought that UNC earned at least two, maybe three or four, SS calls that weren't given. This says two things to me: Over the course of a game, Denver was very disciplined defending along the good hashes of the 8 meter area. And two converted FPSs might have made the difference in the game.

[Brownlax]

N'western, Denver, SU, BC. All 4 could win it all. Easily. Any given Saturday. All four are so capable I'm not so sure any of these games have favorites and underdogs. Each team has a story. But in terms of who should win, from where I'm sitting, all 4 are favorites.

Not sure about Denver. Syracuse, Northwestern and post-March BC are the clear top 3 in the country. Denver hasn't played anyone of Northwestern's caliber. BC is a completely different team than the one Denver beat earlier. It's possible Denver could prove me wrong but doubtful. They hold NW's offense in check but don't have enough offense of their own.

One thing that will effect the game is how well the refs call shooting space and 3 seconds on Denver.

if it's the same crew from Denver/Unc, there won't be any called.

I thought that UNC earned at least two, maybe three or four, SS calls that weren't given. This says two things to me: Over the course of a game, Denver was very disciplined defending along the good hashes of the 8 meter area. And two converted FPSs might have made the difference in the game.

And multiple 3 seconds that were never called.

[Lax101]

Hate to disappoint everyone but I think BC is favored in this game. Their tough man defense which is playing better than ever matches up well with Cuse, just like UNC's man defense matched up well with Cuse in the ACC semi-final. Cuse cant change much on defense - their zone is what it is and I think BC will find a way to score 14 plus goals. The X factor is the heart and grit of BC. They are mentally tougher, grittier and more disciplined than Cuse. Oh, coaching favors BC as well. Should be very exciting game but I give slight edge to BC.

[Seacoaster(1)]

Hate to disappoint everyone but I think BC is favored in this game. Their tough man defense which is playing better than ever matches up well with Cuse, just like UNC's man defense matched up well with Cuse in the ACC semi-final. Cuse cant change much on defense - their zone is what it is and I think BC will find a way to score 14 plus goals. The X factor is the heart and grit of BC. They are mentally tougher, grittier and more disciplined than Cuse. Oh, coaching favors BC as well. Should be very exciting game but I give slight edge to BC.

I don't think you are disappointing anyone. I think it is pretty much the consensus that BC is riding pretty high, having beaten Syracuse in Syracuse, won the ACC tournament for the first time, and demolished a decent Notre Dame team.

The team is astonishingly battle tested. Some wonky person can total it up, but the number of NCAA playoff games that just the current roster has been involved in must be remarkably high. And the coaching staff is among, we have to say it aloud, the very, very best. In particular, AWW's ability to convey her confidence to the players on the field, who own and make that confidence their own, is almost otherworldly.

I'd make BC a two to three goal favorite here, and I'm a Syracuse fan.

[wlaxphan20]

Hate to disappoint everyone but I think BC is favored in this game. Their tough man defense which is playing better than ever matches up well with Cuse, just like UNC's man defense matched up well with Cuse in the ACC semi-final. Cuse cant change much on defense - their zone is what it is and I think BC will find a way to score 14 plus goals. The X factor is the heart and grit of BC. They are mentally tougher, grittier and more disciplined than Cuse. Oh, coaching favors BC as well. Should be very exciting game but I give slight edge to BC.

I don't think you are disappointing anyone. I think it is pretty much the consensus that BC is riding pretty high, having beaten Syracuse in Syracuse, won the ACC tournament for the first time, and demolished a decent Notre Dame team.

The team is astonishingly battle tested. Some wonky person can total it up, but the number of NCAA playoff games that just the current roster has been involved in must be remarkably high. And the coaching staff is among, we have to say it aloud, the very, very best. In particular, AWW's ability to convey her confidence to the players on the field, who own and make that confidence their own, is almost otherworldly.

I'd make BC a two to three goal favorite here, and I'm a Syracuse fan.

I agree. And this BC team seems to be on a somewhat similar trajectory to the 2021 team. Spent the early part of the season finding their identity and showing up in May a completely different team, seemingly lighting the match at the right time.

[thedisciple516]

Hate to disappoint everyone but I think BC is favored in this game. Their tough man defense which is playing better than ever matches up well with Cuse, just like UNC's man defense matched up well with Cuse in the ACC semi-final. Cuse cant change much on defense - their zone is what it is and I think BC will find a way to score 14 plus goals. The X factor is the heart and grit of BC. They are mentally tougher, grittier and more disciplined than Cuse. Oh, coaching favors BC as well. Should be very exciting game but I give slight edge to BC.

I don't think you are disappointing anyone. I think it is pretty much the consensus that BC is riding pretty high, having beaten Syracuse in Syracuse, won the ACC tournament for the first time, and demolished a decent Notre Dame team.

The team is astonishingly battle tested. Some wonky person can total it up, but the number of NCAA playoff games that just the current roster has been involved in must be remarkably high. And the coaching staff is among, we have to say it aloud, the very, very best. In particular, AWW's ability to convey her confidence to the players on the field, who own and make that confidence their own, is almost otherworldly.

I'd make BC a two to three goal favorite here, and I'm a Syracuse fan.

I agree. And this BC team seems to be on a somewhat similar trajectory to the 2021 team. Spent the early part of the season finding their identity and showing up in May a completely different team, seemingly lighting the match at the right time.

The only thing is that Syracuse is going to have a massive motivation advantage in this one after what Boston College did to them in their last game.

These are two evenly matched teams and something small and possibly psychological will be the difference. SU's desire for revenge might be it.