Cupcakes on 2014 schedule?

[huskiesouth]

The posts which describe some of the UCONN games this upcoming season as being against 'cupcakes' might want to consider the following.

As has been true for almost every season in the last 25 years, the Huskies will field a group which will be a mixture of a few highly-recruited and medium-recruited players coached by a staff which will help mold their individual talents into a very competitive team probably capable of a deep run into March/April.

It is my (very aged) memory that, at the conclusion of our last game in Texas, the coaching staff had on the floor the five players it believed would achieve the greatest success in the biggest game of the year - thankfully their assessment was correct and, simply put, we won.

Four of those five players are gone. Yes our team has great potential for a variety of reasons to develop into a consistent winner against high level teams, but without trying to rain on anyone's parade, IMHO the Huskies will have a lot to prove on the court before any opponent can be realistically described as a cupcake.

 

[UconnU]

I count 2 of 5?

The only real question mark is the 4 spot. We have essentially 2 all american hs players at the 2 and 3. I really hope OC comes back steong because we can certainly use another shooter. We lost 4 of our best 5 shooters. Teams are going to play off of us, if we cant hit shots were in trouble. I see alot of teams playing zone against us. Were certainly going to have to score more in transition bc replacing what we lost shooting wise is impossible.

 

[huskiesouth]

I count 2 of 5?

The only real question mark is the 4 spot. We have essentially 2 all american hs players at the 2 and 3. I really hope OC comes back steong because we can certainly use another shooter. We lost 4 of our best 5 shooters. Teams are going to play off of us, if we cant hit shots were in trouble. I see alot of teams playing zone against us.

Well I did say my memory is aged, but I thought we had SN, DD, LK, NG and RB on ths floor? And I agree about the outside shooting, hopefully OC will return to form and Dan Hurley will shoot up to the hype.

 

[huskyharry]

The OP is entirely correct that we have lost a lot of talent that played well together & success will depend upon how well the teams comes together over time.
Giffey and Kromah were versatile players who played with very good energy, scrapped for loose balls, covered wings well etc. It is not yet clear who will be able to fill those roles on next year's team.
We would all love to see OC improve his shooting but I think it is even more important that he bring those qualities that NG and LK provided.
Recovery from injury in general will also play a huge role in this teams success with AB, RP and OC all undergoing some degree of rehab in the off-season.

 

[johnhuskies95]

The OP is correct about 4 of those 5 players being gone. Only Boatright is back. Although I think that Brimah or Nolan would've been on the floor had the game not come down to free throws at that point.

 

[Scot-e]

A cupcake is a cupcake no matter how new our lineup is or wether we know if they will play at a high level. It is simply a statement of fact that those teams are put on the schedule so they can make some money (and many times have connections to UCONN) and so that we can cut our teeth on a few teams while we are learning how to play together.

They are cupcakes no matter the state of our team- they should be vanquished every year with aplum.