Did the Huskies perform above or below their talent level this year?

[Palatine]

This isn't an easy question. At least, I don't think this is easy to answer. It was a challenging season for multiple reasons. When you look at this year's squad would you say the whole was greater or lesser than the sum of its parts? Another way to look at it is did they overachieve or underachieve given their talent level?

 

[AntG168]

This isn't an easy question. At least, I don't think this is easy to answer. It was a challenging season for multiple reasons. When you look at this year's squad would you say the whole was greater or lesser than the sum of its parts? Another way to look at it is did they overachieve or underachieve given their talent level?

This team was built to compliment Bouk. So I think the more telling question is did Bouk perform below his talent level, and i think that answer is slightly. After the injury he wasn't the player he needed to be.

 

[husky429]

I don't like this question because "it depends" is my answer.

Overall, no they didn't outperform their talent.

If you only include the games Bouknight was healthy, then yes we outplayed our talent by a bit, but not a lot. Everyone is better with a scorer like him to open things up, generally. Without his extra shooting, we had 0 ability to make shots and looked awful. Even with him not 100% after injury we looked pretty good.

If you take out the tourney game? Then yes, by quite a bit.

If you take out the SJU game where Hurley decided to be the worst coach in America for 14 minutes and absolutely blow the game? Then we way outplayed our talent.

 

[Lefty2one]

They performed as expected. I didn't consider us a lock to make the tournament and we were a 7-seed. I'll take it. Continue to rebuild the program, continue to get better each year. This was a solid step in the right direction.

 

[Chosen]

I think they could have been better especially Cole and Gaffney. Maybe we could get free throws and making baskets within 20 feet of the basket.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

define 'talent.' if you included typo in ur preseason beliefs for our 'talent,' when he actually performed so far under the mania level for him here that it was ridiculous, then count me out of any honest analysis.

 

[WrenchFan69]

At their talent level pushing above it

 

[auror]

Agree that it depends. Did the other team play a 5 out offense with 4+ shooters? Then no. We under-performed. All other games? Heck yeah.

 

[3rdbass]

Below their talent level but I will say the Bouknight injury really impacted him. They should have at least won one game in the Tourney. Oh well at least we made the big dance.

 

[freescooter]

I thought we were a borderline tourney team. We made it but lost to a 10.

 

[August_West]

All bets were off after Bouk went down . We were an average team without him at best, and just fairly average with him back in obviously limited capacity upon return. I would’ve liked to see us with no Bouk injury though. We’re pretty good. Not Baylor or Gonzaga ballpark but pretty good.

 

[Palatine]

It was one of those seasons where they never really got contributions from everyone. There were way too many times where two or three guys wouldn't score or impact the game in any way. There were always some anchors in the box score.

That said, right at the end, after Bouk came back and before the de-hydration issue, they seemed to be coming together. THey were definitely rising. Then poof.!!! It was gone.

 

[nadavtheman]

This isn't an easy question

Agreed. I voted performed to talent level, hesitantly. Would have said below, but we did have two Covid pauses and Bouk injury so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt based on the circumstances. We were a solid team. The season would have looked a lot better if we had won the first Creighton game and/or won a tourney game.

 

[navery12]

If you look at the preseason expectations thread we finished exactly how we expected and asked for. I think at some point during the year expectations raised and we saw flashes of a higher ceiling, but I don't think that's a fair bar to judge off of

 

[Ratso]

I said below, I was expecting more from AJ & thought Akok was gonna be 100% healthy. and I thought Tyrese was the real deal robin.

but everything plateaued

 

[7774]

Above. Every player in our junior and senior classes is either a mid major transfer or a 3 star recruit. Our 2 most talented players played half the season and almost none of the season.

 

[SubbaBub]

Below. Should have beat MD and given Bama a game. Reg season should have won one of the bigger games.

 

[freescooter]

I thought we were a borderline tourney team. We made it but lost to a 10.

To finish my thought, we were probably a bit over seeded based on a run through what turned out to be a mediocre NBE. Oddly enough, Georgetown’s run contributed to our seeding. Made our victories over what wasn‘t a really good team seem more impressive. We were absolutely a tournament team but probably more like a 10-11 than a 7 I thought.

 

[GotNets?]

Okay, for anyone that says above - think about UCLA. Did we under or over perform compared to UCLA’s level of talent?

Jouzang v Bouk
Tyger v Cole
Riley v Sanogo
Juaquez v Whaley
Bernard v Martin

If you’re confused, that’s what outperforming looks like. You take a decent team and they go to the wire.

If a similarly talented team - but one that got back their best player - loses to a Maryland team, that’s called underperforming.

 

[auror]

If a similarly talented team - but one that got back their best player - loses to a Maryland team, that’s called underperforming.

If you judge the entire season's performance on the tournament, then sure.

 

[shizzle787]

We underperformed. Even without Bouknight, we had no excuse for losing to St. John's at home or Providence. That cost us two seed lines. This team should have been a Sweet 16 team.

 

[superjohn]

It was one of those seasons where they never really got contributions from everyone. There were way too many times where two or three guys wouldn't score or impact the game in any way. There were always some anchors in the box score.

That said, right at the end, after Bouk came back and before the de-hydration issue, they seemed to be coming together. THey were definitely rising. Then poof.!!! It was gone.

Bouknight wasn't himself after he was carried off the court and RJ wasn't himself after he broke his face. Think we would've won the Big East tournament and at least a game in the dance.

 

[willie99]

James Bouknight did not play like a lottery pick after his injury, so our talent was overrated

Not rocket science either