5 sleeper teams in college basketball - USAToday

Mistachill

Mistachill

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http://www.usatoday.com/picture-gal...-sleeper-teams-in-college-basketball/1647503/

Virginia Commonwealth: VCU coach Shaka Smart was another mid-major coach who said no to leaving after being lured by bigger schools (mainly Illinois), choosing to continue making the Rams a force after a 2011 Final Four appearance and a Sweet 16 finish last season. VCU will get a chance to continue its presence on the national stage — switching from the Colonial Athletic Association to the more competitive Atlantic 10. Why this team could bust your bracket: Smart’s signature “havoc” defense, which led the nation in steals at 10.6 a game last season, can cause problems for any opponent. Plus, the Rams have serious depth, returning four top scorers and adding a potent freshman class.
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ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ



A sleeper? Was Butler a sleeper when they beat us? This means the writer thinks we are no better than a 40th ranked team, but by making us better last year than we were, he should have us as a team that earned recognition.

How can you sleep when every bball media piece talks about us being a top three in tha A10 and around 25th in the nation?

This article is a sleeper.
 
For all we have accomplished in recent years we still only have 1 Sweet Sixteen appearance in the history of our program. Of course, that happened to also be a Final Four and one of the greatest moments of my life, but I still see us as a sleeping giant in the basketball world. The awakening process has already started. We have made the NCAA tournament each of the last 2 years, won NCAA tournament games in each of the both of those years, and of course have a Final Four to our name. Two years is a good run though, if we can have the same success a third year in a row we start to go beyond that.
 
VCU Finance 2008 said:
For all we have accomplished in recent years we still only have 1 Sweet Sixteen appearance in the history of our program. Of course, that happened to also be a Final Four and one of the greatest moments of my life, but I still see us as a sleeping giant in the basketball world. The awakening process has already started. We have made the NCAA tournament each of the last 2 years, won NCAA tournament games in each of the both of those years, and of course have a Final Four to our name. Two years is a good run though, if we can have the same success a third year in a row we start to go beyond that.
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Is the sweet sixteen the qualifier for rising above the term sleeper???

Winning six tourney games in two previous years and returning all but one player from a team that lost by two in the third round to Indiana should be enough to say we are expected to do well this year. Shouldn't a team be NOT expected to do well to be a sleeper that year? The article points out our expected results based on LAST YEAR, then labels us an unknown or unexpected team???

Mularchy.
 
buckwheat said:
known/unknown, top 25/not top 25, major/mid-major, sleeper/high expectations

who cares. win basketball games.

good lord i am ready for this season to start.
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Yeah I'm basically on 'snooze' until next Thursday comes.
 
Newgate Prison said:
Is the sweet sixteen the qualifier for rising above the term sleeper???

Winning six tourney games in two previous years and returning all but one player from a team that lost by two in the third round to Indiana should be enough to say we are expected to do well this year. Shouldn't a team be NOT expected to do well to be a sleeper that year? The article points out our expected results based on LAST YEAR, then labels us an unknown or unexpected team???

Mularchy.
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No, there is no hard line for any of this stuff. Maybe people are thinking that we will do well this year, and maybe they are thinking that we will make the NCAA tournament. They might not be thinking that we will make it to the Sweet Sixteen or Elite Eight though, but we are certainly capable of doing so. We can still be a "sleeper" even if we aren't expected to be terrible. It is tough to write an article like this. If they picked legitimately terrible teams that no one cared about then no one would bother to read or share the article.
 
buckwheat said:
known/unknown, top 25/not top 25, major/mid-major, sleeper/high expectations

who cares. win basketball games.

good lord i am ready for this season to start.
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Yeah, why are we here? Stop caring about what anyone says.
 
SwiftyClown said:
Johnson....I don't count Touyo because I doubt he'll play this year.
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He is still a new guy and a freshmen. You never know which guys will end up stepping up. People were expecting big things from our freshmen class this year. Hopefully that still happens even though it has been cut in half.
 
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