2013-14 top 50

[aceboon]

Most players show minimal improvement over a summer.

Name me a couple of UConn players over the years who have shown great improvement over a summer?

Nolan showed substantial improvement from the guy that started out against AIC , while I don't expect him to come out dominating guys its reasonable to expect marked improvement from him. If you look at Nolan vs AIC compared to the Nolan from about the DePaul game on it was like two different players, he literally couldn't stay on the floor without hopping around and fouling guys, and he had no clue where to be on the floor on offense.

 

[phillionaire]

Most players show minimal improvement over a summer.

Name me a couple of UConn players over the years who have shown great improvement over a summer?

Kemba

 

[Husky68]

If we don't win it all next year "it's on Ollie"!

 

[champs99and04]

I think there are people who are underrating them next year and people who are overrating them. I think you're doing the latter. If a bunch of things happen in the offseason this team could be very good, but it depends on guys showing measured improvement, including some guys who haven't improved much over the last couple seasons. All I'm saying is there are teams starting the year with better raw materials so for a team that had to eke out wins over bad teams this year I'd slow down on saying they're going to be the best anything in the country just yet.

Who doesn't eke out some wins over bad teams though? Duke beat Wake Forest by five, Boston College by one, and lost to Maryland twice and Virginia once, both of whom played in the NIT.

Miami lost to Indiana State, Georgia Tech, and Wake Forest. UConn didn't lose to a single non-NCAA Tournament team with their entire roster healthy aside from St. Johns.

Michigan lost to Penn State, Wichita State lost to some pretty bad teams, Syracuse had their usual mid-season swoon, etc.

UConn only struggled with three bad teams: Quinnipiac, South Florida, and St. Johns. Many of the teams I listed struggled with multiple bad teams as well, and look at the seasons they had.

 

[msgordon]

no reason to temper our expectations, #26 is too low period. we would have been an 8-9 seed this year so somewhere between 29-36, and thats with some major health issues down the stretch. everyone except RJ returns...this is a top 15 team.

 

[Deleted member 3149]

Kemba

Kemba, shabazz, deandre, boat....just to name a few. Dumb comment by LeeOtis

 

[johnhuskies95]

Who doesn't eke out some wins over bad teams though? Duke beat Wake Forest by five, Boston College by one, and lost to Maryland twice and Virginia once, both of whom played in the NIT.

Miami lost to Indiana State, Georgia Tech, and Wake Forest. UConn didn't lose to a single non-NCAA Tournament team with their entire roster healthy aside from St. Johns.

Michigan lost to Penn State, Wichita State lost to some pretty bad teams, Syracuse had their usual mid-season swoon, etc.

UConn only struggled with three bad teams: Quinnipiac, South Florida, and St. Johns. Many of the teams I listed struggled with multiple bad teams as well, and look at the seasons they had.

Not to mention UConn was very close to beating a number of good teams, like New Mexico, NC State, Marquette, Pitt, and Georgetown. The argument goes both ways.

 

[3uconn]

Most players show minimal improvement over a summer.

Name me a couple of UConn players over the years who have shown great improvement over a summer?

This one is pretty obvious to me buddy. Unless you became a fan last year there was this player here two seasons ago and his name was Kemba Walker. Who thought he was going to be an All-American the next season? Nobody. He had the best single season in UConn history and he also go us out third national championship.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Not to mention UConn was very close to beating a number of good teams, like New Mexico, NC State, Marquette, Pitt, and Georgetown. The argument goes both ways.

No, that's not going both ways. I wasn't clear. I meant that, with a few exceptions, they didn't blow anyone out. Even the cupcakes. Every game felt like it was going to go down to the wire. They got some breaks at the end of close games, and they had some go the other way, but I just don't automatically assume that because people are a year older they're going to be whooping people and they're going to be some juggernaut.

Most of my optimism comes from the way DeAndre finished up. He looks like he can give us a legitimate, consistent scoring option and take some pressure off Napier. Omar shows that too. Boatright I don't know about. Giffey doubled his minutes but still seems way too tentative. Olander who knows. I'm excited about Nolan, and I think Facey is the one freshman that contributes. Is that a Final Four team? It seems like one capable of winning 4 games in March - again, mostly because of Shabazz - but it's also not one that I'd put up as a final four favorite or anything like that.

 

[johnhuskies95]

No, that's not going both ways. I wasn't clear. I meant that, with a few exceptions, they didn't blow anyone out. Even the cupcakes. Every game felt like it was going to go down to the wire. They got some breaks at the end of close games, and they had some go the other way, but I just don't automatically assume that because people are a year older they're going to be whooping people and they're going to be some juggernaut.

Most of my optimism comes from the way DeAndre finished up. He looks like he can give us a legitimate, consistent scoring option and take some pressure off Napier. Omar shows that too. Boatright I don't know about. Giffey doubled his minutes but still seems way too tentative. Olander who knows. I'm excited about Nolan, and I think Facey is the one freshman that contributes. Is that a Final Four team? It seems like one capable of winning 4 games in March - again, mostly because of Shabazz - but it's also not one that I'd put up as a final four favorite or anything like that.

I get what you're saying, but UConn went 6-6 in games decided by six points or less. It's not like they were getting really lucky by winning in a lot of close games. They were close in pretty much every loss this year, with a few exceptions. I think by virtue of having all five guys back next year(fingers crossed), they can win more of those close games and also have some more blowouts as well. That's the difference between being a 10 loss team that's unranked and a 6 loss team that's ranked in the top 5, at least in my opinion.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

If only we've ever succeeded when we started the season unranked. Too bad.

 

[huskiesnyc]

They updated the rankings and have UConn at 19 now

http://www.bracketologyexpert.com/2...top-50-march-29-2013-kentucky-louisville-1-2/

 

[Gurleyman]

Most players show minimal improvement over a summer.

Name me a couple of UConn players over the years who have shown great improvement over a summer?

Cliff Robinson, Phil Gamble, Chris Smith, Rod Sellers, Scott Burrell, Donyell Marshall, Donny Marshall, Kevin Ollie, Travis Knight, Rip Hamilton, Kevin Freeman, Jake Voskuhl, Caron Butler, Taliek Brown, Ben Gordon, Emeka Okafor, Rashad Anderson, Charlie Villanueva, Hilton Armstrong, Josh Boone, Rudy Gay, AJ Price, Jeff Adrien, Hasheem Thabeet, Stanley Robinson, Alex Oriakhi, Kemba Walker, Jeremy Lamb, Shabazz Napier. DeAndre Daniels

That's off the top of my head - forgive me the ones I neglected.