Sweet 16 or bust

[HooperScooper]

I'm sure I'll get both agreement and disagreement on this, but this team needs to get to the Sweet 16 this time as a 4 seed. No ands, ifs or buts.

2021 NCAA Tournament they were a 7 seed and lost to a 10. O.K., it happens.

2022 NCAA Tournament they were a 5 seed and lost to a 12. 2 years in a row they lost to a lower seed in their first game and looked like they weren't ready to play both times.

2023 they're a 4 seed playing a 13. They need to at least play to their seeding and get to the Sweet 16. No excuses this year.

 

[AntG168]

I'm sure I'll get both agreement and disagreement on this, but this team needs to get to the Sweet 16 this time as a 4 seed. No ands, ifs or buts.

2021 NCAA Tournament they were a 7 seed and lost to a 10. O.K., it happens.

2022 NCAA Tournament they were a 5 seed and lost to a 12. 2 years in a row they lost to a lower seed in their first game and looked like they weren't ready to play both times.

2023 they're a 4 seed playing a 13. They need to at least play to their seeding and get to the Sweet 16. No excuses this year.

The uncomfortable truth is at our best we are the best team in our region. We need to make a run

 

[Tucker]

100% agree

 

[businesslawyer]

I'm sure I'll get both agreement and disagreement on this, but this team needs to get to the Sweet 16 this time as a 4 seed. No ands, ifs or buts.

2021 NCAA Tournament they were a 7 seed and lost to a 10. O.K., it happens.

2022 NCAA Tournament they were a 5 seed and lost to a 12. 2 years in a row they lost to a lower seed in their first game and looked like they weren't ready to play both times.

2023 they're a 4 seed playing a 13. They need to at least play to their seeding and get to the Sweet 16. No excuses this year.

When you lose, there are always excuses. But we’re now in year 5. It’s great that we have been a better basketball team every year, but you don’t measure success by friggin NET rankings. You have to accomplish things. We haven’t come near winning a conference. We haven’t made a final of a conference tournament. You are correct — this team has to get to the second weekend.

 

[UCfor3]

Just win Friday and get the monkey off your back. Kids and coaches will hopefully will feel looser after that and then let it rip after that. This team is very confidence driven. Why I hated the end of the PC game.

 

[auror]

For getting to the Sweet 16, the draw is pretty reasonable. Iona is about the strength of a normal 13 seed, maybe a hair stronger (especially considering coach). But they're likely to be dealing with some level of distraction as well.

St. Mary's is a paper tiger. They beat a couple decent mid majors and Gonzaga at home, SDSU on a neutral court, and hung around with Houston. Their best win against a major conference team this season was Vanderbilt, long before they started playing decent. They got smoked by Gonzaga the last 2 times they played them.

VCU is an average to below average 12 seed by power rating. The A10 was bad this year. They may not have gotten into the field without the AQ. Stylistically they may be tough matchup for us, but they have to get through St. Mary's first anyways.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

When you lose, there are always excuses. But we’re now in year 5. It’s great that we have been a better basketball team every year, but you don’t measure success by friggin NET rankings. You are correct — this team has to get to the second weekend.

We have four post season wins in 5 years . Six losses
We’ve beaten
East Carolina
DePaul
Seton Hall
PC

People have the right to be scepical

 

[shizzle787]

Win Friday or Hurley’s seat is burning hot going into next year. Must get to the Sweet 16. Absolutely no excuses. We have been handed a favorable first weekend draw overall.

 

[uconngb]

Win Friday or Hurley’s seat is burning hot going into next year. Must get to the Sweet 16. Absolutely no excuses. We have been handed a favorable first weekend draw overall.

That about sums it up

 

[Excalibur]

No, not burning hot at all, but have a down regular season and it will start to get warm.

He lost the benefit of the doubt after being totally unprepared for the opening round game last year.

 

[Matt1010]

No, not burning hot at all, but have a down regular season and it will start to get warm.

He lost the benefit of the doubt after being totally unprepared for the opening round game last year.

Almost no amount of prep overcomes a team shooting 65% from 3 and 100% from the line. Holding that as a negative against DH is just silly.

 

[Ratso]

final 4

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

No, not burning hot at all, but have a down regular season and it will start to get warm.

He lost the benefit of the doubt after being totally unprepared for the opening round game last year.

I don’t think we’ll have bad regular seasons with Hurley as long as the talent is there.

 

[LIuconn]

Hurley tends to get tight. I hope he's learned to be a bit more loose, as that definitely does trickle down to the team.
It's a big moment but he can't let the moment get the best of him again

 

[uconngb]

No, not burning hot at all, but have a down regular season and it will start to get warm.

He lost the benefit of the doubt after being totally unprepared for the opening round game last year.

Have to disagree…..first round loss this year would be the definition of plateau and disappointment

 

[uconngb]

Almost no amount of prep overcomes a team shooting 65% from 3 and 100% from the line. Holding that as a negative against DH is just silly.

How bout playing some defense???

 

[Excalibur]

Almost no amount of prep overcomes a team shooting 65% from 3 and 100% from the line. Holding that as a negative against DH is just silly.

They had one guy that could beat us, and we let him.

 

[auror]

They had one guy that could beat us, and we let him.

The other guys on the team went 7/10 from 3.

 

[husky429]

Almost no amount of prep overcomes a team shooting 65% from 3 and 100% from the line. Holding that as a negative against DH is just silly.

You don't think unpreparedness led to them shooting that well? Our defensive game plan an adjustments were terrible all night. It was embarassing. I expect it won't happen again.

 

[caw]

When you lose, there are always excuses. But we’re now in year 5. It’s great that we have been a better basketball team every year, but you don’t measure success by friggin NET rankings. You have to accomplish things. We haven’t come near winning a conference. We haven’t made a final of a conference tournament. You are correct — this team has to get to the second weekend.

I'd argue this is the first year that UConn made the NCAAT that there is no legitimate excuse, in regards to the possibility of losing in the first round.

2021 was just a funky year, higher seed, lower seed. Who knows, COVID messed with everything. I didn't think that UConn team was as good as their seed, but maybe that's just me. I'd cross this entire year off to be honest.

2022 Hawkins was out. That was a big difference to anyone paying attention. Not only was he the only decent scorer off the bench he was another long athlete to play defense.

2023 - no excuses here. No known injuries. No coaches missing games. No COVID illnesses.

This year is also Hurley's best team at UConn. Unless an injury/illness comes up in the next few days, there is no excuse for Hurley not winning the first round game and ditto for the second round. After that, crap shoot.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

We have four post season wins in 5 years . Six losses
We’ve beaten
East Carolina
DePaul
Seton Hall
PC

People have the right to be scepical

I was in edit mode , looking up the correct spelling of skeptical when the post disappeared I thought I lost it.
PS . Spelling with a c instead of a k is also acceptable but omitting the t isn’t .

 

[Avon]

They had one guy that could beat us, and we let him.

Bingo

 

[Huskyforlife]

You don't think unpreparedness led to them shooting that well? Our defensive game plan an adjustments were terrible all night. It was embarassing. I expect it won't happen again.

You probably went into this in more detail the night it happened, but do you have a quick summary of the adjustments or defensive schemes you woulda used to stop them? Cause my memory of that night was just average shooters not missing(7/10 as it’s been said), and Teddy roasting us on congested shots. Not sure how you can game plan to stop those things from happening?

 

[tzznandrew]

We have four post season wins in 5 years . Six losses
We’ve beaten
East Carolina
DePaul
Seton Hall
PC

People have the right to be scepical

They did go 1-0 to end the 2020 season, beating Tulane...

 

[husky429]

You probably went into this in more detail the night it happened, but do you have a quick summary of the adjustments or defensive schemes you woulda used to stop them? Cause my memory of that night was just average shooters not missing(7/10 as it’s been said), and Teddy roasting us on congested shots. Not sure how you can game plan to stop those things from happening?

I'd have to go back and watch the game. My philosophy in basketball is that it's ridiculous to act like you can stop everything. You can't... you choose your battles. Our general philosophy is to deny the 3 hard, which gives up some easy 2s, but is negated by a high IQ shotblocking 4, especially. But if I recall we didn't change anything to try to stop it vs NMSU. If a team is shooting lights out from 3, with some mid-major YMCA player going off for 30, I'm going over every single screen Teddy is involved in, doubling him, and letting the rest of the team figure out how to stop the others as best we can. Or use a 1-3-1 zone... something.

I don't know if the fault was poor execution, or poor coaching decisions... in all reality it was probably a bit of both.

I'm not one to point to a single game and blame the players and staff. I think it's the pattern of post-season letdowns that is the concern. At a certain point you just have to WIN... and I think this is the year we have to do it.