Big East schedule out today

[tcf15]

The schedule is up on the uconnhuskies.com site. Looks like another New Years Eve evening game, against a Big East School no less. I hate that.

If we had to play on New Years Eve, I'd rather have St. John's @ XL than playing Pitt @ Pitt.

 

[Gregory Koch]

On a more realistic note, I think this season is highly unpredictable. We've got some very talented freshmen in Daniels, Boatright, and Drummond, plus Shabazz, Roscoe Smith, and Jeremy Lamb returning. But it's still a young team. Our only seniors are our two walk-ons (and I could have sworn Bailey was a senior last year, but the roster says he's a senior now). Anyway, if the young players manage to play as a unit without Kemba holding them together like he did last year, we could repeat as national champs. If they can't, we'd be looking at an NIT bid. I don't think we're CBI bad mind you in any case (but frankly, we wouldn't make the CBI anyway since they like to invite mid-majors and they would not invite us even if we were available). But I think it's critical to see if this team can play as a unit despite inexperience. The first few games will show us. I don't think the first game they might lose even in a doomsday scenario is UCF at Atlantis (although they should beat CoC if they play them) but if they are playing poorly against Columbia and Maine and those guys and only winning because the opposition is terrible, then I think we're in trouble. If we beat them by 40+ points, we should be in business when we play the big boys. That being said, it's a young team, and we will have one or two off nights where we lose to a team we shouldn't lose to. I'm guessing Harvard in Atlantis could be one of those. Or possibly Harvard @ Gampel, but that's less likely, and even lesser likely if we play them at Atlantis first. Another possibility is the home date with West Virginia on January 9th, which might be a trap game if we look ahead to the crucial showdown in South Bend. The game at Providence is right before we host Pitt for our final game of the season. I could see a scenario where they get into a mentality like "If we beat Pitt, we win the conference, assuming we beat Providence first" and of course, they just take the victory over the Friars as a given and it turns out not to be. So I don't know how this team will perform this year. We'll know after a few games.

 

[BLUEDOGHOUSE]

Arkansas is very dangerous this year with Mike Anderson and what I consider a GREAT incoming recruiting class. Arkansas could be a nice sleeper in the NCAA's this year. @ Louisville 2/6 (I think that's the date) will be the first game UConn plays as a road dog. Vegas will probably put the line @ Louisville -41/2.

Certainly not 30-0. If the team is as good as expected, it is difficult to come up with 5 pre-BET losses.

It feels like they should go undefeated in their OOC. Where do they get losses?

FSU in the Battle for Atlantis?
Arkansas at home?
@ Tennessee?

There will certainly be WTF losses, but most of the teams (save UL and SU) that I would be worried about are only at home. ND, GTown, Nova are road games that will be tough, but if the team is as good as advertised, they should win some combination of 2-3 of the above road games.

25-5, if everyone is healthy feels reasonable. It assumes losses at UL, SU, and two of ND, GTown, and Nova, as well as one unexpected loss (maybe a home loss to UL or SU, or maybe our bi-annual loss to PC). It puts them at 13-5 in the BE.

I think that expecting anything above 27-3 is unreasonable.

Let me also say that I say these now, excited, expecting certain strides and health for the players. Obviously we should be prepared for some of those things to change and some games that seemed winnable may change for one reason (their poor play) or another (unexpected success from what was thought to be a weaker team).

 

[UConn4ever]

UConn’s game at Notre Dame on Jan. 14, which will be televised by espn2, will start at 11 a.m. in order to avoid bumping heads with NFL playoff games.

That makes sense I didnt even think of that

 

[bear]

On a more realistic note, I think this season is highly unpredictable. We've got some very talented freshmen in Daniels, Boatright, and Drummond, plus Shabazz, Roscoe Smith, and Jeremy Lamb returning. But it's still a young team. Our only seniors are our two walk-ons (and I could have sworn Bailey was a senior last year, but the roster says he's a senior now). Anyway, if the young players manage to play as a unit without Kemba holding them together like he did last year, we could repeat as national champs. If they can't, we'd be looking at an NIT bid. I don't think we're CBI bad mind you in any case (but frankly, we wouldn't make the CBI anyway since they like to invite mid-majors and they would not invite us even if we were available). But I think it's critical to see if this team can play as a unit despite inexperience. The first few games will show us. I don't think the first game they might lose even in a doomsday scenario is UCF at Atlantis (although they should beat CoC if they play them) but if they are playing poorly against Columbia and Maine and those guys and only winning because the opposition is terrible, then I think we're in trouble. If we beat them by 40+ points, we should be in business when we play the big boys. That being said, it's a young team, and we will have one or two off nights where we lose to a team we shouldn't lose to. I'm guessing Harvard in Atlantis could be one of those. Or possibly Harvard @ Gampel, but that's less likely, and even lesser likely if we play them at Atlantis first. Another possibility is the home date with West Virginia on January 9th, which might be a trap game if we look ahead to the crucial showdown in South Bend. The game at Providence is right before we host Pitt for our final game of the season. I could see a scenario where they get into a mentality like "If we beat Pitt, we win the conference, assuming we beat Providence first" and of course, they just take the victory over the Friars as a given and it turns out not to be. So I don't know how this team will perform this year. We'll know after a few games.​

UConn Class of 2014, currently on medical leave. I run a blog chronicling every UConn game I go to at Gregory's Gallery of UConn Games. It is currently on hiatus due to my medical issues though.

GO HUSKIES!

What?

 

[tcf15]

But I think it's critical to see if this team can play as a unit despite inexperience. The first few games will show us. I don't think the first game they might lose even in a doomsday scenario is UCF at Atlantis (although they should beat CoC if they play them) but if they are playing poorly against Columbia and Maine and those guys and only winning because the opposition is terrible, then I think we're in trouble. If we beat them by 40+ points, we should be in business when we play the big boys..

Inexperience? I don't know if you remember but we are pretty much returning the entire team. Granted, we lose the best player to ever don a Husky uniform, but the addition of Boatright, Daniels & Drummond plus the freshmen to sophomore transition should be able to make up a decent portion of what Kemba gave to this team. I do agree with you that Kemba's leadership could be sorely missed, but I am banking on the captains being more than adequate this year. Kemba didn't only win us a National Championship, but he instilled the leadership and the values of hard work onto his teammates, and I believe that torch will be carried by Oriakhi, Shabazz and the returning team.

Last year, we struggled a few times with teams that we should have crushed, and we turned out just fine. The point of the easy early schedule, IMO, is to fine tune the line-up and get all the kinks out in time for the Big East schedule. Wouldn't be surprised if we do struggle with a couple of those early games, but we shouldn't be in danger of losing any of them.

 

[Kitaman]

looks like the season starts in mid-January. The BE will humble us once again for those thinking undefeated. The good thing about the schedule is that it allows time for the Kemba adjustment.

 

[ctchamps]

It really is hard to know how a team that depended so much on one player will react without that player. This team has four players who played significant minutes returning. Two other players played a significant role for this team.

Four other players who should be significant for the team haven't played one college minute. I wouldn't say the team is inexperienced. But it is young.

So who knows for sure how this team responds. I love Shabazz. Some of the best team offense was when Shabazz was the 1 g and Kemba was the off guard. I expect Shabazz to have a great career. I'm excited to see him run the offense this season and be the primary 1g. But there is no proof until the season starts if he will be as effective without Kemba in the lineup.

 

[ZenConn]

I'll help you out! I don't expect this team to go much over .500 and won't even make the NIT's.

We're so DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED!

 

[zls44]

Rutgers back to back?

 

[Siv]

I like the fact that there are 14 games on national TV and none on ESPNU

 

[ConnHuskBask]

The home schedule pretty much sucks, except for the fact we have Syracuse and Pitt at Gampel.

Seriously our only OOC BCS home game is Arkansas? I know we don't pick who we play in the Big East/SEC Challenge, but come on, nobody else out there would want to play the National champs in a last minute made for tv game?

 

[Waquoit]

People claiming our team is a shoe-in for the NCAA title game and predicting we go 30-0 to start the season is scaring me.

I much prefer the low expectations and pleasant surprises of last season.

Forget it. How many games are there where UConn won't be favored? Maybe four? They will be favored in their 1st 16 games minimum. This team needs to win and develop. Not that easy, I wouldn't think.