Can UConn lose games and still win an NC?

[Bayareahusky]

It is funny, you'd like to answer this question of NC possibilities and reference the men's tournament but you cannot. UConn last year, Marquette in 77, NCState in 83, and Villanova in 85 all had 8-10 losses I believe.....but with the women it is rare that you get a winner with more than 4 losses.....

I am still rooting for our gals..... I know they are going to learn from BU and ND and kick some ass the rest of the year.

 

[VAUConnFan]

Tiffany Hayes, KML, Bria, Kelly, probably Stef, possibly the other freshmen all have pro potential or better.

We also have the BE DPOY this year.

Hopefully, there is no misunderstanding here. I feel that the 2003 team had size in the post and a very good defender.

 

[easttexastrash]

Tennessee won a championship with 10+ losses one year. A great coach can get a team to learn from its losses and pull it together at the right time.

Of course UCONN can win it all. UCONN, Baylor, ND and Stanford all have the tools to win the NC. I just depends on a few breaks here and there. The top 4 teams are so close this year that it would not surprise me to see any of them win it.

I think the key will be KML. She looked very much like a freshman at the end of both the Baylor and ND games. She went 0-6 at the end of the Baylor game and had some costly turnovers late against ND on Saturday.

I don't anticipate that Stokes will make enough strides to be a factor in the event that UCONN plays Baylor again. BG is on such another level that Stokes will need a couple of years to be able to match up in the paint.

 

[alexrgct]

Tennessee won a championship with 10+ losses one year. A great coach can get a team to learn from its losses and pull it together at the right time.

Of course UCONN can win it all. UCONN, Baylor, ND and Stanford all have the tools to win the NC. I just depends on a few breaks here and there. The top 4 teams are so close this year that it would not surprise me to see any of them win it.

I think the key will be KML. She looked very much like a freshman at the end of both the Baylor and ND games. She went 0-6 at the end of the Baylor game and had some costly turnovers late against ND on Saturday.

I don't anticipate that Stokes will make enough strides to be a factor in the event that UCONN plays Baylor again. BG is on such another level that Stokes will need a couple of years to be able to match up in the paint.

The 10-loss LV team was 1997. I believe their PG was injured most of the year and came back in time for the tourney. Still, quite a turnaround for Pat, Chamique, and the rest of the LVs. They beat UConn in the Elite 8 after Shea Raph got injured. Very good UConn team that year- lost opportunity.

But even besides that outlier, Pat has done a great job of getting her teams to rebound (NPI) from regular season losses. She had the Three Meeks juggernaut in 1998, but otherwise, the other seven championship seasons had two or more losses.

Agree with pretty much everything you said other than I'm going to go ahead and make Baylor the clear favorite. I know you probably don't want to jinx them at this point.