Best peak performance UConn team?

[Scoe]

What I mean is who is the best UConn team when they clicked on all cylinders, everyone is healthy the 3 ball is falling and guys who were ineligible or suspended would play on this team so that means AJ would be playing on the 2006 team team for instance and Nate Miles on the 2009 team.

Here are my teams.
1994
1999
2004
2006
2009
2023

When these teams were on their A game no one could come close to beating them even a possiblity some of these teams could’ve gone undefeated. I think 2004, 2006 and 2023 are the top 3. Again this is when these teams have the entire roster and clicking on all cylinders. The 1999 team didn’t use the 3 ball as frequently different times.

 

[Horatio]

Kemba and the Kembettes

 

[Horatio]

Exactly!!! They still got a banner though. That Final Four banner matters

 

[imno1]

Might be recency bias but no team played better in the tournament than this years team. I still rate our 2004 squad as our best ever

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

2023

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

2009 with a healthy Jerome Dyson either were undefeated or had one loss.

The best defensive team and was pretty much unstoppable in transition.

 

[storrsroars]

I don't know about "best", but I do think this year's squad was the most fun and entertaining come tourney time.

 

[Scoe]

2009 with a healthy Jerome Dyson either were undefeated or had one loss.

The best defensive team and was pretty much unstoppable in transition.

Now imagine Nate Miles on that team and Majok. Kemba would in the Shabazz role in 2011 and Austrie as the ole reliable floor general off the bench.

 

[superjohn]

2004 with Marcus Williams on the team. They had ridiculous size, shooting, depth, the best player in the country, and probably the best guard in the country.

2023 at it's best is pretty close though. Sanogo and Clingan is the best center duo we've ever had and with Hawk shooting 50% from three we were impossible to guard once it was rolling.

I don't know why Nate Miles and AJ Price are included when Nate never played a minute for UConn and AJ never played a minute on the 2006 team.

 

[uconngb]

2004. By a wide margin

 

[husky429]

2004. By a wide margin

'04 at their best is the answer. One of the best CBB teams in history IMO.

 

[InTheRed]

1996. Big east was unbelievable that year but the team went 16-2 in conference and won the big east tournament. Ricky moore was a freshman shutting down Iverson in the second half of the big east championship game. His injury in the ncaa tournament took away their shut down defender and led to them getting upset in the sweet 16.

 

[metsfan2323]

2023

Yup

 

[aburks41]

I agree with @husky429 that the 2004 team, at it’s peak, was the best UConn team and one of the best college teams ever. 04 team shot over 40% from 3 and averaged over 8 blocks per game. Unstoppable

 

[Tyler2Rings]

2004. By a wide margin

Agree 2004. But how can any team be a wide margin ahead of 2023 after the performance we just watched?

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

There’s no wrong answer but my reasoning for 09 over 04 is the frontline. Thabeet, Adrien, and Sticks were just impenetrable defensively.

Price, Dyson, Austrie, and Kemba was a crazy guard lineup to go with it. 04 had more front line depth. 09 had more guard depth.

09 had the better overall starting lineup (everyone had all conference player talent). 04 had the best top players, obviously.

 

[superjohn]

There’s no wrong answer but my reasoning for 09 over 04 is the frontline. Thabeet, Adrien, and Sticks were just impenetrable defensively.

Price, Dyson, Austrie, and Kemba was a crazy guard lineup to go with it. 04 had more front line depth. 09 had more guard depth.

09 had the better overall starting lineup (everyone had all conference player talent). 04 had the best top players, obviously.

You must be too young to have watched '04. Nobody was getting by Okafor and Boone. Then you had Charlie V and Hilton off the bench. You had the 2 time Big East defensive player of the year and 2 time national Defensive player of the year in Okafor in '03 and '04 and then Boone was Big East defensive player of the year in '05, Hilton in '06.

There were six first round picks on that team and Boone was the lowest draft selection at #23. There were 4 lottery picks.

Marcus Williams was the best passer we've ever had.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

2023 with 2004 as a not too distant second followed by 2009.

I think players are just more skilled now too. Better 3 pt shooters. Sanogo and Karaban- our 4 and 5 guys could shoot 3s. And our guard trio was enormous and versatile between Jackson, Newton and Hawkins. Bigger than Rashad/Gordon/Taliek…. And certainly bigger than the 09 guards.
Bringing Clingan off the bench was just unfair.

Could be totally wrong, I’m pretty young and my memory only goes back to like the 07 team.

 

[caw]

There’s no wrong answer but my reasoning for 09 over 04 is the frontline. Thabeet, Adrien, and Sticks were just impenetrable defensively.

Price, Dyson, Austrie, and Kemba was a crazy guard lineup to go with it. 04 had more front line depth. 09 had more guard depth.

09 had the better overall starting lineup (everyone had all conference player talent). 04 had the best top players, obviously.

I disagree if you are going on the premise of best peak, because 2004 then gets Marcus Williams to shore up the backcourt depth issue.

I also think it's a bit odd to put Anderson and Brown in the frontcourt discussion. Though Sticks played some backup four, Anderson was a 2/3 and Brown was a 3/2. They did play together at times when Gordon, or Taliek was out.

Either way I'd put up 2004's Brown/Gordon/Anderson/Williams against 2009's Price/Dyson/Austrie/Kemba any day of the week.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

1996. Big east was unbelievable that year but the team went 16-2 in conference and won the big east tournament. Ricky moore was a freshman shutting down Iverson in the second half of the big east championship game. His injury in the ncaa tournament took away their shut down defender and led to them getting upset in the sweet 16.

That team was not as good as 1995 or 1994. When you look at lack of a bench you have to believe they overachieved. Or how good Ray and Doran were.
Having two freshman as your bench must of gave JC sleepless nights.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

You must be too young to have watched '04. Nobody was getting by Okafor and Boone. Then you had Charlie V and Hilton off the bench. You had the 2 time Big East defensive player of the year and 2 time national Defensive player of the year in Okafor in '03 and '04 and then Boone was Big East defensive player of the year in '05, Hilton in '06.

There were six first round picks on that team and Boone was the lowest draft selection at #23. There were 4 lottery picks.

Marcus Williams was the best passer we've ever had.

04 was the first season I watched every UConn game on both the men’s and women’s side. My dads side of the family would get together and watch all the games together. Special season to take in.

That frontline is crazy for sure. 04 Hilton wasn’t 06 Hilton but still good defensively. Charlie was an McD All American who was coming off the bench. Just nuts. Three of those guys weren’t playing on the court at the same time though.

Stix, Adrien, and Thabeet made it hell to try and get to the rim. Dyson healthy was probably the best perimeter defender in the conference let alone the team. He was like the guard version of Andre Jackson defensively with how hard he played matched with his athleticism.

09 guards were like 04 bigs. But maybe not because all the 04 big were NBA 1st rounders. Lol

Amazing stretch of ball for us. Hurley looks to have us on that path again.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

I disagree if you are going on the premise of best peak, because 2004 then gets Marcus Williams to shore up the backcourt depth issue.

I also think it's a bit odd to put Anderson and Brown in the frontcourt discussion. Though Sticks played some backup four, Anderson was a 2/3 and Brown was a 3/2. They did play together at times when Gordon, or Taliek was out.

Either way I'd put up 2004's Brown/Gordon/Anderson/Williams against 2009's Price/Dyson/Austrie/Kemba any day of the week.

I’m not arguing that too much when you throw Anderson in the mix. You see the avi. Lol

 

[businesslawyer]

2023 wouldn’t even be in my consideration. Yes, we looked great when we were rolling over all opposition, but how many teams did we beat that were real top ten teams? ‘Bama? In November? Marquette once out of three tries? Creighton one out of two?

Most of the other teams on your list beat national championship contenders again and again and again. Last year was great, and I love how that team developed, and we are national champions because we deserved to be. But we don’t have the basis that we have with the other teams on your list to know that they could overcome other great teams.

 

[Lynyrd]

2004 was so talented they won a tough Big East tournament with the best player in the country sitting out due to a bad back.