[76lsjumb]

And, late in the game when there was no prayer, the Stanford players gave it their all, although it was against players that matched them more equally in experience and skill. 

I was intrigued by the assertion that Louisville's team at the end of the game matched Stanford's "more equally in experience and skill."  We must have different concepts of "experience." Our team at the end [consisting of 3 juniors, 1 soph, and 1 freshman] had a combined minutes played total [for this season] of 2351 minutes, while Louisville's team [consisting of 3 freshmen, 1 soph, and 1 junior] at the end had a combined total of 954 minutes.  You might be right about skill [and those are, indeed, impressive high school recruiting rankings you cited], although it's depressing to think that Louisville's extended bench is more skilled than three of our starters.  However, arguing that they were in any sense "equally matched" to our players at the end in terms of experience seems very questionable to me.

[76lsjumb]

And, late in the game when there was no prayer, the Stanford players gave it their all, although it was against players that matched them more equally in experience and skill. 

I was intrigued by the assertion that Louisville's team at the end of the game matched Stanford's "more equally in experience and skill."  We must have different concepts of "experience." Our team at the end [consisting of 3 juniors, 1 soph, and 1 freshman] had a combined minutes played total [for this season] of 2351 minutes, while Louisville's team [consisting of 3 freshmen, 1 soph, and 1 junior] at the end had a combined total of 954 minutes.  You might be right about skill [and those are, indeed, impressive high school recruiting rankings you cited], although it's depressing to think that Louisville's extended bench is more skilled than three of our starters.  However, arguing that they were in any sense "equally matched" to our players at the end in terms of experience seems very questionable to me.