Ok, a few thoughts on the UD game:

There was an effort to get the ball into the paint (finally!) Denver had nobody that could stop Wooden or Q, and I got to see a bit more of what Wooden could do. He showed a nice touch but this time added a bit of physical to his normal finesse. The offense then worked like we all have known it could. Things began to open up all over the floor. There were quality shots put up by our team all night. Very few "hope for the best" heaves - though there were a few.

Denver is everything that we must fight from becoming. They have never seen a 3 they don't like. As we all know too well, when those 3's are falling, you can win on most nights. When they aren't falling (which eventually they won't), then, as Ivan Drago says, "You will lose".

KD certainly is getting back into it, and I think we truly have gotten a best case scenario out of the injury. The team is playing a different type of game than it did when most of the O went through him. There are usually 4 scoring options at all times on the floor.

Sturns is becoming a super duper player.

Now..........lets talk about what we all know we are concerned about. .....long term success. I honestly haven't seen defense that makes me think we do what it takes to go next level. I saw some nice flashes in the second half, but they had many of those 3's in the first half were lightly guarded. This is the time when most of us have gotten burned by thinking past teams were "special". I think the smarter fans are being cautiously hopeful, but not willing to go all in emotionally. It is just such a let down each year to get your hopes up and then to have them dashed with an early confernce tourney exit and a .500 record.