Andy Katz (from espn chat) says, sweet 16 would be good

[aceboon]

It's a dead horse but dd not bothering lifting this offseason has hurt our growth. Have it on first hand all he did was play pick up

if true that's pretty disappointing and he is only hurting his own future pro prospects. I chalked it up to genetics but when you see how some of other thin framed guys have progressed with their bodies, Nolan, Lamb, Roscoe now with UNLV, DD sticks out as the only one who hasn't put on any noticeable muscle.

 

[Palatine]

A UConn basketball season starts at the Sweet Sixteen.

 

[breezy]

It's a dead horse but dd not bothering lifting this offseason has hurt our growth. Have it on first hand all he did was play pick up

How did the staff possibly allow him to not lift daily.

 

[ctchamps]

It's a dead horse but dd not bothering lifting this offseason has hurt our growth. Have it on first hand all he did was play pick up

Interesting because it was reported that he worked out a lot off season.

 

[mauconnfan]

Match ups are key……….for instance I don't like this weekends I'd rather play Cuse, Wisconsin and so many others who will be higher seeds that LVille……..

For our '14 version it's all about match ups Jerry is right………plus they have to shoot the ball as well as last night but dig in harder on D than they did last night…….shoot it like last night and play D like Cincy (every play) and they'll make us proud no matter!

 

[Wise2]

Match ups are key……….for instance I don't like this weekends I'd rather play Cuse, Wisconsin and so many others who will be higher seeds that LVille……..

For our '14 version it's all about match ups Jerry is right………plus they have to shoot the ball as well as last night but dig in harder on D than they did last night…….shoot it like last night and play D like Cincy (every play) and they'll make us proud no matter!

Exactly. The difference between the SMU game and last night was Bazz 3 point shooting. If he shot like that against SMU, we proably win that game. Likewise, if he shot poorly last night the outcome might have been different and we would be killing this team for not playing defense and letting Rutgers shoot almost 50%

 

[HuskyHawk]

I would not say nobody is very good, but I agree UConn can beat anyone. Right matchups and the team can make a run.

Nobody is good like 99 Duke and UConn, who would cut through this field, or even 04 UConn. Part of that is the change in the game and the number of one and done's. Kansas has loads of talent, but little experience. Wichita State is the opposite.

I sometimes think we under-appreciate the effect of our experience. Our best player is a senior, our second most talented player DD is a junior and two more seniors (Giff, Kromah) and a junior in Boat get major minutes. Three guys have NC rings.

 

[Jerry1714]

Match ups are key……….for instance I don't like this weekends I'd rather play Cuse, Wisconsin and so many others who will be higher seeds that LVille……..

For our '14 version it's all about match ups Jerry is right………plus they have to shoot the ball as well as last night but dig in harder on D than they did last night…….shoot it like last night and play D like Cincy (every play) and they'll make us proud no matter!

LVille is a team I would definitely love to avoid. Given we are in the same conference we would have to until the sweet 16 right?

As bad as UK can look I would prefer not to see them given their size and the fact they are #1 in offensive rebounding %. Texas too.

Cuse, Nova, St. Louis, Michigan yes please.

 

[Jerry1714]

Nobody is good like 99 Duke and UConn, who would cut through this field, or even 04 UConn. Part of that is the change in the game and the number of one and done's. Kansas has loads of talent, but little experience. Wichita State is the opposite.

I sometimes think we under-appreciate the effect of our experience. Our best player is a senior, our second most talented player DD is a junior and two more seniors (Giff, Kromah) and a junior in Boat get major minutes. Three guys have NC rings.

Definitely agree, but I do not think we see teams like that again under the current NBA entry rules, unless we get a rare team like Florida in 2007 who loves college and decides to come back and do it again.

Experience is huge, thats why teams like Florida and Wisky are dangerous

 

[DCUconnfan]

Granted this changes much more frequently than Lunardi's brackets, and while it's anybody's guess as to each and every game in the tournament, based on the current CBS bracketology ( http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/bracketology ) (5th seed in the East) I would be disappointed if we didn't make the Sweet 16. Tough teams, yes. But all teams we should be able to beat to get to 16, if not 8. So much comes down to how the bracket breaks down, however, so who knows.

*note this post is only relevant as of March 6th or up until CBS changes their brackets again

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

And you can expect something similar this year. Aside from Arizona, Florida and KU if they play as they can, nobody is very good. They can all be beat. UConn relies too much on oustide shooting, so the odds are they they will have a bad shooting game at some point.

We've been getting the bad shooting games out of the way recently perhaps?

 

[James]

Interesting because it was reported that he worked out a lot off season.

Daniels has not made it a priority , like how Giffey did in Germany. Or boat. Dd would lift , but weight training takes a lot if dedication. Can't just show up once a week.

 

[James]

if true that's pretty disappointing and he is only hurting his own future pro prospects. I chalked it up to genetics but when you see how some of other thin framed guys have progressed with their bodies, Nolan, Lamb, Roscoe now with UNLV, DD sticks out as the only one who hasn't put on any noticeable muscle.

Yeap . It's pretty obvious. he could easily get wirey strong. His inability to establish offense or defense rebounding position is sad. Maybe he didn't plan on banging down low his college career, that's speculative though .

 

[CTBasketball]

DD lifting lol.

 

[BoatShow]

Im still flabbergasted we haven't tried to force feed Amida and Phil in the post more often. I realize they are both offensive liabilities but in the rare instances we run plays for them we have had some success. Without them providing at least a tiny bit of offense its going to be damn near impossible to move beyond the sweet 16 unless we shoot 60% from three.

Actually saw this a bit last night, even DD had a few nice lowpost moves for buckets. RU's frontcourt leaves a lot to be desired though. The issue with feeding AB and Phil is that AB doesn't have the footwork (yet) and Phil has a bad case of "I'm gonna take a power dribble and load for a huge dunk even though I'm wide open and let the defense come to alter the shot." If DD sticks on the block and we find a way to feed AB and Phil for a combined 8 shots and 6 of them fall I'll be very happy.

 

[tzznandrew]

If DD sticks on the block and we find a way to feed AB and Phil for a combined 8 shots and 6 of them fall I'll be very happy.

That's shooting 75%. I'd be more than very happy. If they hit 4 of them, I'd be pretty happy.

 

[BoatShow]

LVille is a team I would definitely love to avoid. Given we are in the same conference we would have to until the sweet 16 right?

As bad as UK can look I would prefer not to see them given their size and the fact they are #1 in offensive rebounding %. Texas too.

Cuse, Nova, St. Louis, Michigan yes please.

We played Cincy in the round of 32 in '11. They count the play in games as round 1. Conference foes can meet in the round of 32 which is now considered the third round.

 

[BoatShow]

That's shooting 75%. I'd be more than very happy. If they hit 4 of them, I'd be pretty happy.

Well yeah but I'm talking like lobs or Boat/Bazz/Tsam driving drawing the defender and dishing.

 

[ctchamps]

Daniels has not made it a priority , like how Giffey did in Germany. Or boat. Dd would lift , but weight training takes a lot if dedication. Can't just show up once a week.

UConn hired a new conditioning staff. The football posters have been pointing out a supposed big difference in conditioning with the football players vs. last season. Are these conditioning trainers handling the bb players as well?

 

[CTBasketball]

UConn hired a new conditioning staff. The football posters have been pointing out a supposed big difference in conditioning with the football players vs. last season. Are these conditioning trainers handling the bb players as well?

Conditioning is completely different than strength training. DD needs to hit the gym 6 times a week and consume protein like he's on Jersey Shore. That will build mass.

 

[ctchamps]

Conditioning is completely different than strength training. DD needs to hit the gym 6 times a week and consume protein like he's on Jersey Shore. That will build mass.

Might be strength training hire. Someone from the SEC. Was just wondering if there was football/bb crossover.

 

[Husky Dad]

Whatever Andy Katz. I am shooting for better than Sweet 16. Even in that bogus Lunardi set up Florida is the only team I dont want to play and we already beat them. We are going to be fine. We were built for a run in the tournament.

 

[jfuchs91]

The field is pretty strong this year. Have you seen Florida? With a front court like they've got, there's no way we could ever beat a team like that.

Right?

 

[metsfan2323]

Are these conditioning trainers handling the bb players as well?

Based on press reports the answer is yes, he is designing routines for all of the sports programs. Obviously Ollie needs to throw his support behind the new guy.

 

[ctchamps]

Saturdays game will be a great litmus test to get an idea about UConn's chances.

 

[Jerry1714]

We played Cincy in the round of 32 in '11. They count the play in games as round 1. Conference foes can meet in the round of 32 which is now considered the third round.

Ah I thought that was just because there was 11 in and it would have been impossible for teams from the BE to not potentially meet that year in the round of 32

 

[ctchamps]

Based on press reports the answer is yes, he is designing routines for all of the sports programs. Obviously Ollie needs to throw his support behind the new guy.

That's great news. I'm sure KO will. There has definitely been an upgrade in how the AD is run.

 

[tzznandrew]

Ah I thought that was just because there was 11 in and it would have been impossible for teams from the BE to not potentially meet that year in the round of 32

That was why it happened. But they've since changed the rules to allow for earlier meetings. I think they'll still try to avoid it, by sliding teams down the S-Curve a little, but won't drop them a seed-line anymore.

But this won't nearly be as much of a problem, because the conference that caused the problem (the Big East, AKA the best basketball conference of all time, c. 2003-2013) is dead. It will be a while before you get 11 teams in the tournament from one conference, because the best teams from that conference are in 2 brand new conferences, and one other (pretty good for its age but overrated) basketball league

 

[CTBasketball]

I don't agree that we're built for the tournament, but yet again any team that lives and dies by the 3 can catch fire in March.

 

[CAHUSKY]

Yea I really don't understand posters harping on our lack of post offense.

Its not even really a lack of post offense. Its the complete lack of passing the ball inside to draw defenders away from our shooters. When we completely stop feeding the post the defense swarms the shooters which makes hitting shots exponentially more difficult.