Brent Stover and Juliana Viani discuss conference differences

[mhshuskies]

Good discussion about how UCONN would "destroy" teams in other conferences, which ever one it is, ACC, Big Ten, SEC, any conference.

 

[dibster]

Link?

 

[mhshuskies]

Link?

Discussion during the second half of the Temple game.

 

[cohenzone]

For starters, the AAC has almost all mediocre to poor teams. But the difference between men's and women's hoops is that in women's hoops, just about every conference has nothing but mediocre to poor teams except for two or three, sometimes a few more near the top. It's why conference realignment hurts our women's team less than it does our men. Over the last few years, our teams pretty much obliterate every team we play from every conference we play. Each year there are a handful of teams that can compete with us. Even in our "down" years, the separation between Geno teams and other programs is so big that we are rarely not in the championship discussion.

Whether being in a weak conference will catch up to us remains to be seen. But if we are to be in the AAC, it's also possible that being in a league with UConn might help the other programs to improve and become competitive as happened in the Big East with Rutgers, USF, ND, West Virginia, BC and St. John's. Even teams like GTown and Pitt for a time got better. I think a few of the teams in the American look pretty well coached, so I hope we get to a point where we get some honest competition in the league where we aren't depending on non-conference games to provide all of the tests.

 

[JavaMan]

Good discussion about how UCONN would "destroy" teams in other conferences, which ever one it is, ACC, Big Ten, SEC, any conference.

Link?

Yep. That's what she said.

 

[PhillyCoach]

IMHO another reason Geno & CD/staff are winners is they don't cry about the AAC, they use it to their advantage. If you pick 3 good teams; ND, SC, and Maryland (in 3 good conferences) each of these teams probably play 8 to 10 tough teams during the entire season.
Geno plays his 7-8 really tough teams in the beginning of the season and then (give or take) one tough game in Jan. and Feb (SC).
Geno sizes up the best teams early and makes adjustments the rest of the season, sbased on playing the best. The January /February games are a final exam checkup before the tourney. Point- Geno uses the AAC to fine tune his starters and then bring along the bench for the current season (or almost as important) next season. See Gabby & Chong development from last year. Collier and Butler are the players being prepared for heavy duty time -- next year. Lou is like Nurse last year. She fits the best right now in the starting line-up. Gabby can start or come off the bench. If healthy, Chong can help a lot too. Collier is still developing and can help more than hurt, but is not quite there yet. Same with Butler.
Please forgive my speculation--It's just my opinion.
More than any other recent year IMO Geno is looking ahead. The AAC is perfect for this vision since he can play with the line-up without worry. IMHO Geno will coach 5 more years after this year (I hope) because he would like to have more wins than Pat Summit. However, It is not a driving force. Geno could walk away tomorrow and be more than satisfied. If things change and it's not as much fun, he will walk. IMO Geno is excited about the next few years because it seems it will be more competitive and he knows others think UConn will drop off without Stewie & MO. IMO he wants to prove the point again how he can win wid or widout those two. It's just the Philly in him.

 

[cohenzone]

IMO Geno is excited about the next few years because it seems it will be more competitive and he knows others think UConn will drop off without Stewie & MO. IMO he wants to prove the point again how he can win with or without those two. It's just the Philly in him.

It's hard to imagine many programs that woudn't expect a big drop off after losing those two. There has to be some drop-off, losing two world class players has to be felt. But the more KLS develops and gets stronger and more versatile, as she seems to be doing before our eyes, we might miss Mo more at first. But with veterans Nurse and Chong aboard, if Dangerfield is a good as advertised (and is Bent a sleeper?) and Geno and staff in place, our guards should be good enough to keep us close to the head of the class, especially if Morgan returns. I'm not dismissing Ekmark as a valuable guard reserve. She's shown some signs of her shooting reputation and has the experience to at least hold the fort while others are rested.

Going unbeaten in the league is still a real possibility, but going unscathed through a tough early schedule would be scary - to the women's hoop world. It's easy to forget that we really don't win it all every year. We don't?

 

[mhshuskies]

IMHO another reason Geno & CD/staff are winners is they don't cry about the AAC, they use it to their advantage. If you pick 3 good teams; ND, SC, and Maryland (in 3 good conferences) each of these teams probably play 8 to 10 tough teams during the entire season.
Geno plays his 7-8 really tough teams in the beginning of the season and then (give or take) one tough game in Jan. and Feb (SC).
Geno sizes up the best teams early and makes adjustments the rest of the season, sbased on playing the best. The January /February games are a final exam checkup before the tourney. Point- Geno uses the AAC to fine tune his starters and then bring along the bench for the current season (or almost as important) next season. See Gabby & Chong development from last year. Collier and Butler are the players being prepared for heavy duty time -- next year. Lou is like Nurse last year. She fits the best right now in the starting line-up. Gabby can start or come off the bench. If healthy, Chong can help a lot too. Collier is still developing and can help more than hurt, but is not quite there yet. Same with Butler.
Please forgive my speculation--It's just my opinion.
More than any other recent year IMO Geno is looking ahead. The AAC is perfect for this vision since he can play with the line-up without worry. IMHO Geno will coach 5 more years after this year (I hope) because he would like to have more wins than Pat Summit. However, It is not a driving force. Geno could walk away tomorrow and be more than satisfied. If things change and it's not as much fun, he will walk. IMO Geno is excited about the next few years because it seems it will be more competitive and he knows others think UConn will drop off without Stewie & MO. IMO he wants to prove the point again how he can win wid or widout those two. It's just the Philly in him.

What tough games do those teams play? Certainly not in their own conferences. Other than those (nd, SC, MD) there are no tough teams in their conferences, certainly not any tougher than USF.

 

[PhillyCoach]

It's hard to imagine many programs that woudn't expect a big drop off after losing those two. There has to be some drop-off, losing two world class players has to be felt. But the more KLS develops and gets stronger and more versatile, as she seems to be doing before our eyes, we might miss Mo more at first. But with veterans Nurse and Chong aboard, if Dangerfield is a good as advertised (and is Bent a sleeper?) and Geno and staff in place, our guards should be good enough to keep us close to the head of the class, especially if Morgan returns. I'm not dismissing Ekmark as a valuable guard reserve. She's shown some signs of her shooting reputation and has the experience to at least hold the fort while others are rested.

Going unbeaten in the league is still a real possibility, but going unscathed through a tough early schedule would be scary - to the women's hoop world. It's easy to forget that we really don't win it all every year. We don't?

Hello Old member - I agree that there is a normal expectation for a drop-off next year. Right on!
Don't know if Geno would expect going unscathed throughout the next season. However, the bottom line I was getting to --was Geno knows UConn can compete at a high level without Stewie & MO. IMHO, that's why Geno is thinking about next season now and trying to prepare for it. It IS going to be tougher next year. He relishes the competition and believes in his system to put UConn into a position to compete for a title. We can all agree - it does not look like a run away year next year. Just some good ole UConn WBB.

 

[PhillyCoach]

What tough games do those teams play? Certainly not in their own conferences. Other than those (nd, SC, MD) there are no tough teams in their conferences, certainly not any tougher than USF.

Hey MHS - I made the assumption that playing 8 games during the entire season against top 25 ranked teams would be considered tough. Someone considers Kentucky, Ohio State, Duke, Miss ST. Tenn, Michigan State, and the others in the top 25 as a tougher game.
Am I wrong to assume that?

 

[mhshuskies]

Hey MHS - I made the assumption that playing 8 games during the entire season against top 25 ranked teams would be considered tough. Someone considers Kentucky, Ohio State, Duke, Miss ST. Tenn, Michigan State, and the others in the top 25 as a tougher game.
Am I wrong to assume that?

Not any tougher than USF.

 

[UcMiami]

You look at the top team in the ACC, the SEC, the Big 10, or the Big12 and they consistently year after year have MOVs or 25-30 points for the season. Uconn has 12 of the top 20 season MOVs and 10 of those are from the Big East and eight of those ten from when the BE was one of the strongest leagues in the country if not the strongest. The difference is that Uconn plays with consistency in every game during a season - maybe one every 2 or three years a Uconn team will throw a wobble like last years Stanford game, but it is rare. When a good team plays its A+ game against Uconn, Uconn wins by 10-20, and when they don't play their A+ game they get beaten by 20-40 points. And when Uconn plays mediocre teams the MOV starts at 30 and balloons from there. You look at any other great team - ND, SC, Baylor, MD, Stanford, and their seasons have 5 or more wobbles - they may not lose, but they have MOVs of 2 points against teams they should beat by 15, or 10 points against teams that they should beat by 30. That is why Uconn is all over the record MOV list and not because of the mediocrity of the AAC. Last years 40 point MOV was driven by the AAC, I'll grant, but it was just as much driven by the fact they beat ND by 18, SC by 25, Duke by 31, Texas by 51, and MD by 23 and ND by 10 in the FF. Cut those margins in half against good P5 teams and the MOV for the year would be significantly less and more in line with what other teams achieve.

 

[huskyd]

I'm reading these great analyses of today and tomorrow, and most agree that UConn will lose at some time. Yet I can't get my head around the prospect of the next loss. We all realize, I hope, that the Huskies haven't lost in forever and aren't likely to do so this year. If there's the actual prospect of losing AT SOME POINT, maybe we ought to include electric heart paddles in our next survival kit--or start working on obituaries.

 

[chrissaran]

Next year USF won't be the same without Williams and Jenkins. They may still be good, but not good enough to challenge UConn the way they have lately.

 

[easttexastrash]

Good discussion about how UCONN would "destroy" teams in other conferences, which ever one it is, ACC, Big Ten, SEC, any conference.

Good for whom?