Which ones? I do not agree with this statement. UConn had the better players/roster all nine national championship seasons. I also believe UConn had the better players/roster in 1997, 2001, and 2008.
I don't agree. Some are arguable but -- I guess you can counter "UCONN won so that means they were better."
1-- 1995 ***- See 5 too- they go together - sort of. Not sure UCONN was favored in this 1995 contest for a reason. The other "players" more "talented?" Of course we beat them twice so it means we were better but I would have thought we were the underdog.
I'll yield on this but reluctantly. Tenn was a tremendous team and UCONN did struggle mightily in the E8. I'd be surprised if Tenn wasn't favored
but again I'll yield on this. Though 1995 was more of an invincible team. If we were better -
it was the coach a lot of it too making the sum greater than the individual parts.
2-- 2002-2003 team - we were 37-1 BUT when UCONN played Tenn 1st time in Hartford DT hit a half court shot end of 1st half, hit a shot at the buzzer to put game in OT. During the game Geno all but admitted defeat. I can remember being scared to death when we played Texas. Bottomline - I don't think we were favored in one or both of those games in the final four. That was a young team. I believe we had a huge lead in the E8 and had to hold on for dear life. We were upset by Nova last game of BE. Many young players. I really don't believe "we had the best roster." I believe the Texas team was projected to be very strong that year - then they disappointed until the end of the year when they got extremely hot.
3--- 2003-2004 team. I think this team more than the other two - you couldn't say we were best in terms of having the better players. Duke beat us at home. We had 4 losses. We were the last of the 1 seeds I think? But I know Duke was more of a favorite than UCONN and Beard I believe got POY. Even when season was over you had people such as Barkley say that Beard should be picked 1st. Beard was dynamic too. IMO we weren't the strongest that year.
4--- I don't believe we were better than ND. They beat us 3 times in 12-13 leading into that final four game.
5****As far as your 2nd point - part of the reason why I brought up 1995 was to describe the team as being invincible. While 2001 ND team wasn't invincible they whipped us in the first meeting by 16 points when UCONN had arguably it's most talented roster ever. That should tell us their "team" was damn awesome. We had to beat them IN OUR GYM on a buzzer beater from Bird. Going into matchup #3, previously we were ripped once, won on last second shot the 2nd time all the while leading into the final four we had lost two premiere all-americans and all-time great Husky players. Just as one can argue our 1995 "team" was stronger -- without our 2 great all-americans - our 2000-2001 wasn't better than ND. Their "team" similar to our 1995 team - was "better." If you want to argue the lead we had then you have to argue the lead Tenn had in 1995 and/or the 9 point lead Texas had in the 2nd half in 02-03.
6---As for the 2008 team sure we were favored. But we did lose two of our wings in which they were integral parts of defeating tara V's junk defense in our 1st meeting vs Stanford. We played them in November and she tried the junk defense and Kalana Greene beat it. Without Kalana Greene and Mel Thomas, and Britt Hunter being a shell of her former self from early in the year to where she wound up, we were flawed.
IMO from above one or two maybe three you can take exception to. Four would be a stretch but imo not more than that though.
