Can a Paige-less UConn Run the Big East Table?

[visitingcock]

Just paid attention to your run of undefeated conference seasons. Like so much else UConn has accomplished - WOW!!

Looks like DePaul, Marquette and Creighton are pretty decent this year. About on the level of UCLA this year. Hopefully, Paige will be back in time for your conference wrap up. Assuming bad thing(s) against Louisville, Tennessee and/or Scar, that’s still a top eight, if not four, selection. (Yes, I know you could win all of those three)

Will the conference ownership continue without your superstar?

 

[Stymie]

They may drop one somewhere along the line.
Will continue to improve every game as the season progresses.
Will win the regular season title.
Will win the BE Tournament.
Will be peaking entering the dance.
Actually, I hope they enter the Tourney with less than a top seed.
That will really p*ss them off and give them all the motivation they need.
And BTW-all of this without seeing Paige again this year.
Think she’s done for the duration (sorry).

 

[Plebe]

Can we just take it one game at a time? Please?

 

[TCC Kid]

Just paid attention to your run of undefeated conference seasons. Like so much else UConn has accomplished - WOW!!

Looks like DePaul, Marquette and Creighton are pretty decent this year. About on the level of UCLA this year. Hopefully, Paige will be back in time for your conference wrap up. Assuming bad thing(s) against Louisville, Tennessee and/or Scar, that’s still a top eight, if not four, selection. (Yes, I know you could win all of those three)

Will the conference ownership continue without your superstar?

Uconn WILL run the New BE table again. You are seeing a team emotionally drained over the lost of Paige. The problem of ever having had Paige is: She can and does everything. She was/is the heart, strength, soul of this team.
Once everyone, including Geno figures this out and builds a team Without Paige, then you will see a rebirth of UCONN as Uconn should be. When Paige comes back her status will be the same it had been, her energy will lead the team to higher energy. But she ALONE will not again be called upon (Until the FF, or NC run) to carry the whole load alone.

This team, with the players Geno has, will be an NC contender in March/April. Mark this day, the day you learned who Uconn was and is, Our TEAM IS UCONN, GENO has us and YOU DON"T. (Visitingcock--we still love you)

 

[TCC Kid]

Can we just take it one game at a time? Please?

Plebe, you are on my short list of good guys on the BY. Knowledgable, informed, you know he game and the players. As a fan, after a few not so good days, isn't OK to cheer and Rah, rah, rah the potential of this team? If we call ourselves UConn fan they need us now. What da ya think??

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Can they, yes. Will they, no. Paige plays like Superwoman. The rest of the team are mere mortals.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

I don't necessarily see anyone other than DePaul challenging you. That said, I think it is hard to look forward.

I personally expect UConn to win the regular and conference championships in the Big East. I wouldn't be shocked if you go undefeated in the Big East, but I just can't call it.

 

[Inthepaint]

Would like to think so, but can't help the nagging feeling that there will be a stinker somewhere along the line.

 

[Stymie]

One more twisted ankle or strained calf in the next two weeks and the number of able players goes from critical to fatal.
Don’t think they’ll run the conference “table” ( which is unimportant to me), but should win that conference title and BE tournament.

 

[oldude]

Certainly the margin for error is smaller than it was. But assuming that some of the walking wounded return over the break, even without Paige, no other team in the conference has a comparable level of talent, and Geno will have the team ready to play.

It won’t always be pretty and the team will rely more on their defense to win games. But I do expect UConn to run the table in the BE, with 1 or 2 nailbiters along the way.

 

[oldude]

Just paid attention to your run of undefeated conference seasons. Like so much else UConn has accomplished - WOW!!

Looks like DePaul, Marquette and Creighton are pretty decent this year. About on the level of UCLA this year. Hopefully, Paige will be back in time for your conference wrap up. Assuming bad thing(s) against Louisville, Tennessee and/or Scar, that’s still a top eight, if not four, selection. (Yes, I know you could win all of those three)

Will the conference ownership continue without your superstar?

VC, just want to turn the tables here. Will your Gamecocks run the table in the SEC?

 

[SCyankee]

Just paid attention to your run of undefeated conference seasons. Like so much else UConn has accomplished - WOW!!

Looks like DePaul, Marquette and Creighton are pretty decent this year. About on the level of UCLA this year. Hopefully, Paige will be back in time for your conference wrap up. Assuming bad thing(s) against Louisville, Tennessee and/or Scar, that’s still a top eight, if not four, selection. (Yes, I know you could win all of those three)

Will the conference ownership continue without your superstar?

Could the Gamecocks run the SEC and the season without Boston for the remainder of the season and without your starting point guard and her backup for 6-8 weeks?

 

[eebmg]

Unless I am mistaken, no one in the BE has the post presence needed to be a real threat. I suppose if we have a really off shooting night, anything is possible

 

[visitingcock]

Could the Gamecocks run the SEC and the season without Boston for the remainder of the season and without your starting point guard and her backup for 6-8 weeks?

NO! Emphactially. Not without Boston. Without Destanni is also extremely questionable. We have survived a couple of tough games without Destanni but I don't think we could run the SEC table. (Our backup PG IS lost for the season. We are running on Plan C now with a 6-5 PG)

But there is a difference in running the table in the SEC and the Big East.

Without Boston or Destanni, we would be in great Jeopardy of losing to Tennessee (especially after Rae returns) and/or Key plus Georgia and Staiti to name only two. At the present time we will be playing 5 top 25 teams (though some like Kentucky are questionable to me) during the SEC season. Then perhaps 2 in the conference tournament.

UConn will face a much easier path in the Big East, though I do not disparage DePaul and a couple of other teams that are better than some SEC bottom dwellers.

I actually think UConn can do it. Will be tough, but I think it CAN be done.

 

[SCyankee]

NO! Emphactially. Not without Boston. Without Destanni is also extremely questionable. We have survived a couple of tough games without Destanni but I don't think we could run the SEC table. (Our backup PG IS lost for the season. We are running on Plan C now with a 6-5 PG)

But there is a difference in running the table in the SEC and the Big East.

Without Boston or Destanni, we would be in great Jeopardy of losing to Tennessee (especially after Rae returns) and/or Key plus Georgia and Staiti to name only two. At the present time we will be playing 5 top 25 teams (though some like Kentucky are questionable to me) during the SEC season. Then perhaps 2 in the conference tournament.

UConn will face a much easier path in the Big East, though I do not disparage DePaul and a couple of other teams that are better than some SEC bottom dwellers.

I actually think UConn can do it. Will be tough, but I think it CAN be done.

I completely agree with you. I don't think PB will be back this season. Losing NM almost simultaneously is a bigger problem than most people realize. God forbid EW gets injured.

 

[veryolddog]

Pure speculation on my part, but the Louisville game will provide a lot of information as to how this team will be without Paige. UCLA brought out a lot of unknows about the UConn players and what they can do. This week with practice sessions by the coaching staff will give them an opporunity to see what they can do against a very good team with some preparation. A lot of answers to a quite a few questions raised in this thread will be given as to their potential within the Big East.

 

[oldhusky]

It seems to me there are far more questions than just Paige. If everyone else was back and we were just missing Paige, I think we could go undefeated in the conference. We really don't know with certainty if Aubrey will play this year or not. Azzi and Nika are very much unknowns as well. It is one thing when someone suffers a common injury and the date of return is more well known. It is quite another when it is more along the lines of we don't know why this is still bothering her, so we will try to give it a few weeks off and then reassess the situation.

It doesn't mean after a few weeks we are good to go, it is more like we think this will help, but we really don't know, and we will evaluate again at that time. At least that is how I read the limited information we are given. Four questions on four injured players will need to be answered.

If all of those are answered positively with Paige back late in the season, our championship hopes may only slightly be less than when we started the season. If none of those players are available for significant parts of the conference season, I think it will be hard to avoid a conference loss against the better Big East teams.

 

[visitingcock]

Marquette and DePaul back to back on the 29th and 31st are gonna be big!

In my opinion, those are more important than Louisville.

 

[hoopsfan22]

I would temper expectations for the Louisville game. Basketball took a back seat this week to studying and final exams. It would be nice to get Azzi and/or Nika back after the holiday break.

 

[Urshurak]

Possible, but doubtful. Shooting woes are destroying them currently. Unless Azzi comes back and starts lighting it up, just not enough offense to run the slate. Probably a loss or two to Marquette or DePaul. Seton hall has the Moxy, but they're WILDLY inconsistent. They give UConn a tough game and then lose to Prairie View division 4 prep school that only dresses 4 players.

 

[npignatjr]

Could the Gamecocks run the SEC and the season without Boston for the remainder of the season and without your starting point guard and her backup for 6-8 weeks?

Very possible, UConn lost the best player in the country playing the most important position.

 

[visitingcock]

Very possible, UConn lost the best player in the country playing the most important position.

Well:

Your post is a bit ambiguous. As the sentence is written, one can take several meanings.

If you meant "it is very possible [that] UConn lost the best player in the country playing the most important position" that would be a true statement. and I would agree that it is very possible.

If you meant "it is very possible that South Carolina [could run the the SEC but] UConn [cannot because it] lost the best player in the country playing the most important position" that would create room for two arguments. First, one could argue that Boston is the best player in the country. Second, one could argue that post is the most important position.

Nevertheless, I did not create this thread to argue or to talk about SCar and Boston.

To the original question: Yes, I think UConn can run the Big East table.

 

[UcMiami]

I certainly think they can win through the BigEast schedule even without returning players, but whether they actually do it is more problematic. The margin of error is very small and they don't have a single healthy player who has the experience of putting the team on her back and winning when things aren't going right. Getting Muhl, Griffin, and Fudd back healthy would give more comfort and more margin for error, but all three players are dealing with what have been long term issues so when and if they return is wide open.

Bottom line - I think the conference win streak ends this season.

 

[visitingcock]

They may drop one somewhere along the line.
Will continue to improve every game as the season progresses.
Will win the regular season title.
Will win the BE Tournament.
Will be peaking entering the dance.
Actually, I hope they enter the Tourney with less than a top seed.
That will really p*ss them off and give them all the motivation they need.
And BTW-all of this without seeing Paige again this year.
Think she’s done for the duration (sorry).

I think UConn can and will sweep through the Big East (with a couple of scares along the way)
I think she'll be back for the conference tournament and maybe a small handful of games before.
I think they'll enter the NCAA tournament with Paige as a five loss, two seed. and an outside shot as a one.

The tea leaves get murky after that.

 

[oldude]

I think UConn can and will sweep through the Big East (with a couple of scares along the way)
I think she'll be back for the conference tournament and maybe a small handful of games before.
I think they'll enter the NCAA tournament with Paige as a five loss, two seed. and an outside shot as a one.

The tea leaves get murky after that.

I predict that UConn will lose the season series to SC two games to one….