Fish,
Fish,
Arkansas did try to push tempo. GA played zone against them and took their time on offense. It is much easier to slow a team down than it is to speed one up.
GA just played great over the SEC tournament. Vegaswatch.net had a great stat - If you had bet $10 on the GA money line against Ole Miss, taken the winnings and bet GA on the ML against KY, and kept rolling the winnings - that $10 would have turned into $1,725 after the ARK game- equivilant futures price of +17125. Futures price on GA before the tournament was only GA +5000 - the point is sometimes teams catch lightning in a bottle and there is nothing the other team can do about it.
On Stansbury - you can't just judge a coach by tournament success.
Look GM in 2006 - Do you really think Laranaga (George Mason's coach) is a better coach than Jim Calhoun, Roy Williams, and Tom Izzo (all beaten by GM in 2006)? GM played great for two weeks and beat teams with far more talent, including beating more talented coaching.
Luck, desire, what is going on in player's personal lives, etc.. can all impact individual games or a short series of games. Over time talent and coaching will prevail. That is what is so great about the NCAA tournament - Smaller, less talented teams can get hot and upset the big boys. The best coaches consistently get their teams in position to win in the NCAA's - after that all those other factors can really change a team's fortunes.