Amazing season by UConn | The Boneyard

Amazing season by UConn

Travelman6

Travelman6

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Fantastic run, but couldn't quite pull it off. That 5-point swing was the back breaker. It could have been 62-58, but instead, Michigan splashes a 3-pointer a few seconds later for 65-56, and that was just too much. Fouls really took UConn out of this game, too. 4 players each had 2 early in the first half.

Still, an amazing season. It should be one we can all look back on and smile about for years to come. It showed a lot of heart, and that dagger vs Duke is an all-time shot. Not the most talented team UConn has had, but they had a lot of heart and clawed their way to 34 wins. Heck of a career from Karaban, too; he should hold his head high, missed 3 that would have brought it to 1 by AK was a huge bummer, wanted that for him..

UConn will be back!
 
Travelman6 said:
Fantastic run, but couldn't quite pull it off. That 5-point swing was the back breaker. It could have been 62-58, but instead, Michigan splashes a 3-pointer a few seconds later for 65-56, and that was just too much. Fouls really took UConn out of this game, too. 4 players each had 2 early in the first half.

Still, an amazing season. It should be one we can all look back on and smile about for years to come. It showed a lot of heart, and that dagger vs Duke is an all-time shot. Not the most talented team UConn has had, but they had a lot of heart and clawed their way to 34 wins. Heck of a career from Karaban, too; he should hold his head high, missed 3 that would have brought it to 1 by AK was a huge bummer, wanted that for him..

UConn will be back!
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Grwat season just wish it was not 8 to 5 in the end
 
This team had all of the pieces to be a national champion. The question was execution. Inconsistent play was a problem. But I agree 100% with the OP. This was an amazing season! An emotional roller coaster, but a true joy to watch this team accomplish what they were able to accomplish!
 
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A solid season. It stinks to be just a little short, but it was a great year and better than almost every other team's season. Now we turn to the football program. Go turn some heads Candle and company!
 
This has been one of my favorite seasons. Our grit in the tournament kept us winning even though our talent was not as strong as some of the other teams. Guys like Reed, Karaban and Mullins standing out just makes me smile. I was at the Duke game in DC and it will go down as the best game I have ever attended.

I thought they hung in against a very talented Michigan team. We were physical and we played the game our way and held them under 70 points. A few buckets more or a call or two that goes our way and we have another Natty.

I am excited for next year!
 
uconntoatl said:
A great season that surpassed some of my mid-season reservations about this team.

Had their chances last night!

The big enigma for me was this team’s 3 point shooting. Didn’t think it would be something to worry about at the start of the year but reared its head again in the 2nd half
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The announcers even thought that Tim was off. I think both teams combined for like 3-24 on that side.
 
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34-6 is an excellent year and what a fantastic Tournament run. Beat #1 ranked team in Tournament and lose to another #1 ranked team by 6 in NC game. I thought Hurley had his best coaching year this year with a roster that was injury plagued throughout many games and compromised in the Tournament.

Almost stole a game from Michigan in NC game with 5 minutes to go except for a few bad bounces of the ball-untimely misses. A new season begins this week-Roster reconstruction and portal decisions. Thanks to our departing seniors/grads for an outstanding year. You have many things to be proud of on and off the court.
 
Extremely proud of them, never thought they could pull it together to make this run. Hurley is a lunatic, but he the best coach in the country right now.
 
Like I posted in another thread, if someone had told me we'd be playing in the title game with a chance to win with 30 seconds left, I would have taken it without a 2nd thought. Unlike our last title team, we were not the best team this year (or like the '23 team where we were the best tourney team). But we still gave the best team all they could handle even with a B- game at best. No shame to end up 2nd best this season.
TBH, talent-wise I think we were closer to last year's team than the 23 or 24 title teams. But Hurley and co milked all that they could out of this year's roster. There was no juice left to squeeze, and we laid it all on the table.
 
This was a weird year.

First we started playing well, even while shorthanded, in the nonconference.

Then we were decidedly mediocre during BE play, even while winning, and the season felt like a slog. Expectations were fairly muted coming into the Tournament.

Then we got the job done against Furman, UCLA, MSU. Still not amazing, but yeoman efforts buoyed by championship DNA.

Then the Boozer Beater, which was incredible on its own and also let us feel like "wait a sec, we could actually do this."

Then another gritty win against Illinois and we're right there.

All in all a great finish for a perplexing team.
 
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Wouldn't say Amazing. But a great season and wonderful run to the championship game. Felt like the Syracuse-John Wallace run in 1996 where they beat Kansas to get to the FF and then lost to the formidable Kentucky team in the finals (not sure why this of all examples came to my head).
 
Based on how the season went , it was a great one and almost special. The team achieved beyond our expectations after seeing them vs Creighton/Marquette and BET Finals. Getting to the Elite 8 was our expectation based on seed and that was exceeded. I guess it was a roller coaster ride all the way to the finish. Our season was better than 99.5% of other college basketball teams.
 
ctbro1999 said:
Like I posted in another thread, if someone had told me we'd be playing in the title game with a chance to win with 30 seconds left, I would have taken it without a 2nd thought. Unlike our last title team, we were not the best team this year (or like the '23 team where we were the best tourney team). But we still gave the best team all they could handle even with a B- game at best. No shame to end up 2nd best this season.
TBH, talent-wise I think we were closer to last year's team than the 23 or 24 title teams. But Hurley and co milked all that they could out of this year's roster. There was no juice left to squeeze, and we laid it all on the table.
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I take nothing away from the '23 team, but they had a very soft bracket. They got a 5 in St. Mary's who had to play a road game in Albany against us in the 2nd round. An 8 and 3 seed in the Regionals. And two 5 seeds in the Final 4.

Compare that to what we went through this year with 2 of the best teams in the country in 1 seeds Duke and Michigan, a very good 3 seed in Michigan St, a solid 3 seed in Illinois.

I think this year's team would have won the title if they had 2023's draw. I don't think they would have blown teams out, because that was not this team's identity.
 
It's an amazing season, no caveats. I know it's title or bust for some people, but that's not realistic. We can't ever get to a place where we say a Final Four is a "yeah but" kind of year.

Every team has ups and downs. Michigan is not hanging their heads because they lost to Wisconsin and had a close call to Penn St. That's what happens in a long season.
 
Inyatkin said:
It's an amazing season, no caveats. I know it's title or bust for some people, but that's not realistic. We can't ever get to a place where we say a Final Four is a "yeah but" kind of year.

Every team has ups and downs. Michigan is not hanging their heads because they lost to Wisconsin and had a close call to Penn St. That's what happens in a long season.
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I think every other fan base would without hesitation take a deal of "3 title game appearances in 4 years" even without any guarantee of a title....even DOOK fans. DOOK hasn't appeared in a title game since 2015 (last time they won a title). I don't even think they have ever appeared in 3 out of 4 title games.
Since the Wooden era, Kentucky is the only other team that has appeared in the title game 3 out of 4 years.
 
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ctbro1999 said:
I think every other fan base would without hesitation take a deal of "3 title game appearances in 4 years" even without any guarantee of a title....even DOOK fans. DOOK hasn't appeared in a title game since 2015 (last time they won a title). I don't even think they have ever appeared in 3 out of 4 title games.
Since the Wooden era, Kentucky is the only other team that has appeared in the title game 3 out of 4 years.
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Duke did it in Grant Hill's four years.
 
Definitely a successful season despite the ups and downs that made it maddening at times. Just goes to show how hard it really is to win one of these things (never mind 6!!) as we were right there with the consensus top team in the country despite not having our A or B game and getting royally jobbed by Breeding & Co.

Team showed a lot of heart and guts in the tourney and that’s a huge testimony to coaching and hopefully continued advertisement to get guys in that we need to sustain this crazy run.

Was a very fun tournament as I think they exceeded expectations.
 
I agree that was an amazing season. You make the elite 8, you had a great year. A final 4 is absolutely amazing. Ive never been more proud of a Uconn team. When it counted most, they showed heart and were relentless. This year is Danny's finest tournament coaching that he's ever done. Last year against Florida might be the single best game hes ever coached. Ultimately the loss comes to a team that will be considered a top 3 team in the last 10 years. Phenomenal season for sure.

In today's ring culture society, anything short is disappointing. The 1990 team is less remembered, and so is the 2009 team. Uconn greats Ray, Smith, Donyell never got to play in a final 4. Im sure those guys would do anything to sniff the air of a final 4.

It sure was a roller-coaster year. Playing without some starters in the non conference against some teams that were either not truly themselves yet (FL and ILL), injured (Kansas). But then we also beat BYU and almost beat AZ. By the end of December the resume shows a top 3 team.

In conference play, the final record was great. The inconsistency all year long was maddening. Perimeter D, Free throws, outside shooting, rebounding, turnovers, and fouling too much as a result of getting beat off the dribble. Every game you would see several of these issues come up. We were way too talented of a team to have so many issues come up all the time. Nonetheless we won nearly every game, barely winning against some really awful teams.

With the regular season champinship and everything on the line, we choked against a really bad Marquette team. With the Big East tournament on the line, we get blown out by SJ. When it mattered most, we just didnt show up. From January to March, Uconn looked like a team ranked outside the top 25, especially from the eye test.

And then came creme de la creme of Hurley's coaching career. He had called it maybe the 7th best season in Uconn history. Sure, on paper you can call it that. But it was so much more than that. Including the greatest shot and comeback we will ever see in tournament history. A season, like 1990, that I will never ever forget.
 
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