Andy Katz AAC 2018-19 Preview | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Andy Katz AAC 2018-19 Preview

This is bulletin board material for sure. Expectations within the program, from Coach Hurley down, will not tolerate an 8th place finish in the AAC. We are UConn dammit. The last 2 years were an anomoly - we get back to who we are starting now.

I know it's a partial rebuild, but the cupboard is far from entirely bare, and for 2019 and 2020 recruiting, we can't finish 8th in the American anymore. It's just not an option. You hear about how competitive practices are, and how much effort and hardwork are being stressed more than in the past few years. That can be the difference, with the talent we have, between 8th place and top 4, which is enough to get back into the dance and confirm the narrative that UConn is on the short road back, so everybody better get ready.
 
kobe said:
TIL UConn has never finished better than 12-6 in the AAC and Cincinnati has never finished worse than 12-6. #Trolling
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Yet uconn has 7 tournament wins in 2 NCAA appearances with a national championship while Cincy has 3 wins and no sweet sixteen in that time despite making the tournament every year.

#trolling
 
Chief00 said:
Cliff was obviously really good, but I think you are overrating Phil.
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Yeah, I think of Phil as a good shooter that couldn’t really create off the dribble. We could have used him in recent years but he wasn’t a real game changer. Nonetheless, he did get on the covers of magazines and stuff, so he was pretty good and scored some points.
 
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We have sucked badly for several years. Really badly

How many is several? 5, 6, 7?
I don't think so, a couple? yeah

I have no care where folks rank us in the conference
I feel that strongly that UConn will be top 4 - minimum - by the end of the year
 
I'm glad we are ranked low. It's motivation for the guys to prove him wrong. We are going yo have to earn that respect again, after the last couple years.
 
Butch said:
This conference don't look all that bad. It's quite amazing how fast USF and UCF made names for themselves in college athletics. USF feared UCF joining the AAC; guess that's been justified.
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The conference strength and even how many we get in will be determined by 12/31/18
The early season is critical. The problem the AAC has is most of the teams with talent lack experience. In early season experienced teams have a big advantage.
Even with that ,I’m predicting no worse than 4th place.
 
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Hoophound said:
Yeah, I think of Phil as a good shooter that couldn’t really create off the dribble. We could have used him in recent years but he wasn’t a real game changer. Nonetheless, he did get on the covers of magazines and stuff, so he was pretty good and scored some points.
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He wasn’t a great defender either but he was a quiet nice guy. I played against him several times even 2 on 2 - nothing stood out. In contrast, Earl could really explode when he wanted to, Jimmy O’Brien was the best passer I ever played with and Cliff had pro written all over him if he could unlearn the off court stuff Earl taugh him. Just Chief keeping it real.
 
Cinncinnati to win the league:

LOL LOL LOL

JMHO take Cicinnati out of the top 3.

Almost as overrated as Michigan State is on the national level (with all the preseason top 10- 15 picks by the "experts").
 
HuskyHawk said:
Irrelevant to what will happen in 2018 and beyond. Those were the Ollie years. They did come with a National Championship.
Who was that team that was high fiving as we hit the winning shot.
In 2016
Chief00 said:
Cliff was obviously really good, but I think you are overrating Phil.
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I think your unestimating how good the Big East East 1984-87
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Chief00 said:
Cliff was obviously really good, but I think you are overrating Phil.
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Really he scored 25 hitting 5 threes
In the win over Ohio State with Cliff in Foul trouble to win the NIT
I believe he was the NIT MVP
Really who on this years team would be a better option at the 3 or 2?
 
AZHuskiePop said:
Really he scored 25 hitting 5 threes
In the win over Ohio State with Cliff in Foul trouble to win the NIT
I believe he was the NIT MVP
Really who on this years team would be a better option at the 3 or 2?
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He played really well in that game. Maybe he didn’t try real hard in pickup games - yet let’s not overstate things - did he get drafted? And I believe there were more rounds then?
 
kobe said:
TIL UConn has never finished better than 12-6 in the AAC and Cincinnati has never finished worse than 12-6. #Trolling
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After my brilliant defense of Cinn in the all time basketball tourney . I owe you this:
Not only did our former coach have more wins in the NCAA tourney than all the other teams combined winning in 2014
But we also won the AAC championship in 2016
Something about the other team high fiving as we tied the game and won in the next OT
who was that team?
 
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Burnsbros23 said:
We had a horrible coach.

If Gilbert is Healthy we have the best back court in the league.

If Hurley can coach we’re a top 4 Team in the league.
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Gilbert’s health is the biggest x-factor and it’s not even close. With an incompetent coach but a healthy Alterique, we looked like a tournament team to start last season.

If he can stay healthy I’d project 22-24 wins, whereas if he’s out I think we’ll finish with 16-18 wins.
 
AZHuskiePop said:
Calhoun inherited Cliff Robinson
Phil Gamble
Tate George
Steve Pikell
Gary Besselink
Jeff King
The problem was the Big East was load with better talent
Those were awesome years .
Georgetown
Cuse
Nova
Pitt
Seton Hall
and even PC were good
Cliff, Phil, Besselink would all be staters
Phil & Cliff would be all League
The only guy(s) from this years team that would break into that
starting lineup would be JA and maybe Gilbert
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Right on most of them, but George and Pikiell were his first freshman class. Not sure he recruited them or if they were Perno commits.
 
AZHuskiePop said:
After my brilliant defense of Cinn in the all time basketball tourney . I owe you this:
Not only did our former coach have more wins in the NCAA tourney than all the other teams combined winning in 2014
But we also won the AAC championship in 2016
Something about the other team high fiving as we tied the game and won in the next OT
who was that team?
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Top 3 Mike F moment

 
I always take these with a grain of salt. Most of these guys no very little about the teams. They look at numbers.....not worth debating to me. In a few months we will have an idea of how good the team can/will be.
 
Chief00 said:
He played really well in that game. Maybe he didn’t try real hard in pickup games - yet let’s not overstate things - did he get drafted? And I believe there were more rounds then?
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Your most disappointing post ever . Were you even born when he played .
He shot 40% from the three . He hit many clutch shots including one to beat top 10 Georgetown at the HCC . He would start at the three this year in a heartbeat and dominate against much weaker competition in a league that’s laughable compared to the mid 80’s Big East.
His numbers were against a group of teams that was possibly the toughest top to bottom in basketball history and
that produced 7 HOF coaches .
He averaged in double figures all four years . 15 a game as a junior.
He was not among the top 54 players drafted but for reference Cliffy a future NBA all star and 6th man award winner went 36th. But he was good enough to be invited to the Philly camp but was undersized at the four on that level . He did however have a long overseas pro career.
We’re talking about a guy on the list of the top 50 greatest Huskies of all time
who scored 1300 career points.
You owe him a sincere apology. I don’t think JC would be happy with your put down one of his most hard nose guys. Especially one so instrumental in putting UConn on a National Stage.
Without his NIT performance UConn history changes dramatically.
Would Smith come here without that Championship maybe but maybe not..
Sorry to be so hard on a fellow UConn fan but you got the old man angry.
 
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Scrutiner said:
Right on most of them, but George and Pikiell were his first freshman class. Not sure he recruited them or if they were Perno commits.
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That’s a good question but in retrospect a moot point.
JC was’t named head coach until a (very late )May 15, pretty late for the following year recruitment especially in those days.
His bio mentions Gwynn , Murray Williams, and Lyman Depriest ( amaziningly top 75 recruit) as his early recruits . But nothing about George or Pikell I would suspect both
were originally Perno recruits who didn’t de commit but they were there no the less
Amazingly Pikell contributed more as a freshman than his later post shoulder surgery years.
 
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lange10 said:
Gilbert’s health is the biggest x-factor and it’s not even close. With an incompetent coach but a healthy Alterique, we looked like a tournament team to start last season.
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I think that was overdone. We weren't barnstorming anybody. We beat a very young and inexperienced Oregon team early (by 8). We were close at the half to MSU, but 1) they were playing like crap of their own accord and 2) were not as good as advertised last year.

We didn't beat anybody else of note. And got stomped by Providence preseason.

I thought we were NIT bound unless we drastically improved.
 
intlzncster said:
I think that was overdone. We weren't barnstorming anybody. We beat a very young and inexperienced Oregon team early (by 8). We were close at the half to MSU, but 1) they were playing like crap of their own accord and 2) were not as good as advertised last year.

We didn't beat anybody else of note. And got stomped by Providence preseason.

I thought we were NIT bound unless we drastically improved.
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Regardless, we looked vastly better with Alterique on the court vs. when he went down again for the year.
 
lange10 said:
Regardless, we looked vastly better with Alterique on the court vs. when he went down again for the year.
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True, we did look much better, but the context is, without out him, we looked like absolute dog snow. Not a high bar.
 
intlzncster said:
I think that was overdone. We weren't barnstorming anybody. We beat a very young and inexperienced Oregon team early (by 8). We were close at the half to MSU, but 1) they were playing like crap of their own accord and 2) were not as good as advertised last year.

We didn't beat anybody else of note. And got stomped by Providence preseason.

I thought we were NIT bound unless we drastically improved.
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Please don’t underestimate Gilbert especially on the defensive end. Defense covers a lot of errors . I rewatched the MSU game about 5 times and Gilbert was in their heads.
We’re still in the game with 10 minutes to go
I think it’s even witin single digits with a few minutes left .
That’s a team that won 30 games although they were probably overrated .
Gilbert is a rare find with the potential to join the pantheon of great UConn defensive players.
But given we had so many new players last year and played our toughest schedule in years
Just a simple look forward and even being biased the NIT was optimistic.
19-21 wins last year and we were a lock. But I don’t think achievable even with Gilbert.
I looked at the up coming schedule at a point we’re we won a couple of games and
guys were jumping back on an surprisingly we would have been favored in only 4-5 of the remaining 15-16 games . That was a sobering look .
That’s why this year with 10 returning players and a weaker AAC , 21-23 games is very probable. Top 3-4 in AAC is also likely barring key injuries. Those aren’t even bold assessments.
Whether that’s enough to get in depends as much on our opponents success as ours so most experienced forecasters are not thrilled with predicting things outside of their immediate control. Multiply all our games by our opponents games and you can see it becomes random . So I won’t bother to predict the NCAA
But if Gilberts addition gets you from 20- 21 range to the 23-24 range that could be the difference.
 
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