Dream Season vs. '06

[Chin Diesel]

Taking a tangent from the JI Top 10.

Some real good match ups between what I feel are the two best non-championship yeams., 89-90 and 05-06.

Some basics on match ups. Scott Burrell vs. Rudy Gay on the wings with Lyman DePriest and Murray Williams vs Denham and Rashad also out there.

Tate George against Marcus Williams at the point.

Sellers, Dove and against Boone and Armstrong up front.

John Gwynn against Craig Austrie off the bench.

Even had a pair of freshmen who might have liked competing against each other - Toraino vs. Adrien.

I think overall I take 89-90 just because of their defensive versatility on the wings. I think I like George, Smitty, Burrell, DePriest, Dove and Murray taking away what Gay, Brown, Williams and Anderson could do.

05-06 has a bit of a better front court with Armstrong and Boone but Sellers had a way of not being out played.

94-95 is only other team I think could compete against 89-90 amongst non-title winning UConn teams.
I think people have forgotten how smothering the defense was on 89-90 and how versatile they were at all positions.

 

[the Q]

I would vote for the dream season solely because they didn’t lose to not even a mid major. They lost to A really really really good team on a fluke play at the end.

I think 2006 vs 2009 would be interesting though. Both lost cuse their front courts got beat up by teams that never should’ve been able to do that.

 

[LStudfellow]

Ok... time to spice up this debate with an opinion I have held for 13 years, but never put out here on this board because of how many of you will disagree with me... but hear me out.

The 2006 team is actually our 2nd most overrated team of the entire Calhoun era. Individually, one of our most talented teams ever. But the whole was not nearly as great as the sum of the parts. In fact, I submit that only the 2012 team turned out to be more overrated. Here is my reasoning:

Probably our most talented frontcourt, man for man, ever: Rudy Gay, senior Hilton Armstrong, Josh Boone, Denham Brown... heck, we had Jeff Adrien and also Ed Nelson, a former ACC Freshman of the Year now a senior, coming off the bench. Only one word to describe that group - Loaded.

Backcourt - Marcus Williams, who was probably the best passing point guard we have ever had... but never very good as a defender. Rashad Anderson, one of our 2 or 3 best 3-point shooters ever... but then also a significant dropoff to Craig Austrie (although he was a huge stop gap as the starter while Williams was suspended). Definitely NOT our best backcourt during the Calhoun era... and it really came back to bite us in that Big East tournament Quarter Final loss to Syracuse as well as a few other games, like the Sweet 16 game vs. Washington we probably should have lost as well.

Go back and look at how we finished that year - the loss to Syracuse, losing to #16 seed Albany for over 30 minutes in our first round game, struggling with Kentucky in the 2nd round, then luckily getting past Washington in the Sweet 16 after Rashad hit a 28-footer to force overtime when we had been down 4 with less than 15 seconds left. Then the loss to George Mason. Yes, it was a surprise... but not as big a surprise as everyone on here makes it out to be. We had not been playing great team ball for awhile, particularly on Defense. In fact, it was not a vintage Calhoun team in that regard at all. Too many on this board dismiss that. Sorry, but it was not only for one game or two we had not been playing our best. We had been playing well below our best for awhile at that point.

I see people say often when that year is discussed in different threads on here that only if we had beaten George Mason we would have won that title, and not had much trouble with the Florida team that eventually won it. I have always disagreed with that sentiment. That Florida team played much better team ball than we were at the time - and I have always felt they would have beaten us.

Yes, that 06 team had great individual talent, particularly in the front court. But our shortcomings in the backcourt, and lack of playing consistent, Calhoun-style lockdown man-to-man defense would have kept us from beating the team that was playing better all-around team ball at that time, Florida.

 

[SubbaBub]

1990. 2006 was infuriatingly soft.

 

[ToolzieFan]

Not many of our teams were more talented than our 2006 team, but the roster lacked balance. They could have used another ball handler or combo guard. I loved Denham and Rashad, but they were wings, not ball handlers or creators.

A.J. Price sure would have helped that team. I’m glad he was healthy enough to reach the 2009 Final Four at least.

 

[HooperScooper]

@LStudfellow, while I understand what you're saying, it's tough to say a team was overrated or under achieved that went 30-4 and lost in the Elite 8. That's pretty rough and means UConn must have had a lot of success if this is the 2nd most overrated team. I'd agree with @ToolzieFan that they lacked some balance and a 2nd ballhandler. The only losses before the Elite 8 were that stinker at Marquette to open the BE season, at #4 Villanova and against Syracuse in the BET. They seemed to be struggling down the stretch. Rough ending but 30-3 before that game is tough to criticize.

 

[ThabeetDown]

2009 is the correct answer.

 

[the Q]

I’m tempted to say 94-95 or 95-96.

that track meet with UCLA was tough. But they hung in all the way.

and 96 tourney hurt...but man, that team was also really good.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Everyone knows nothing will ever be as good as anything that came before it. OBVIOUSLY. Especially while talking sports

 

[superjohn]

Not many of our teams were more talented than our 2006 team, but the roster lacked balance. They could have used another ball handler or combo guard. I loved Denham and Rashad, but they were wings, not ball handlers or creators.

A.J. Price sure would have helped that team. I’m glad he was healthy enough to reach the 2009 Final Four at least.

There's zero doubt in my mind the 2006 team wins it all if they had AJ Price. The team wasn't always focused with guys playing for their nba draft status but what did them in is they just didn't have the guard play. Marcus Williams was the only real ballhandler and passer on the entire team.

 

[superjohn]

Taking a tangent from the JI Top 10.

Some real good match ups between what I feel are the two best non-championship yeams., 89-90 and 05-06.

Some basics on match ups. Scott Burrell vs. Rudy Gay on the wings with Lyman DePriest and Murray Williams vs Denham and Rashad also out there.

Tate George against Marcus Williams at the point.

Sellers, Dove and against Boone and Armstrong up front.

John Gwynn against Craig Austrie off the bench.

Even had a pair of freshmen who might have liked competing against each other - Toraino vs. Adrien.

I think overall I take 89-90 just because of their defensive versatility on the wings. I think I like George, Smitty, Burrell, DePriest, Dove and Murray taking away what Gay, Brown, Williams and Anderson could do.

05-06 has a bit of a better front court with Armstrong and Boone but Sellers had a way of not being out played.

94-95 is only other team I think could compete against 89-90 amongst non-title winning UConn teams.
I think people have forgotten how smothering the defense was on 89-90 and how versatile they were at all positions.

89-90, Henefeld is probably the most underrated player we've ever had. That guy could do everything. I remember being so sad when he had to go back to Israel.

 

[ucp990411]

Taking a tangent from the JI Top 10.

Some real good match ups between what I feel are the two best non-championship yeams., 89-90 and 05-06.

Some basics on match ups. Scott Burrell vs. Rudy Gay on the wings with Lyman DePriest and Murray Williams vs Denham and Rashad also out there.

Tate George against Marcus Williams at the point.

Sellers, Dove and against Boone and Armstrong up front.

John Gwynn against Craig Austrie off the bench.

Even had a pair of freshmen who might have liked competing against each other - Toraino vs. Adrien.

I think overall I take 89-90 just because of their defensive versatility on the wings. I think I like George, Smitty, Burrell, DePriest, Dove and Murray taking away what Gay, Brown, Williams and Anderson could do.

05-06 has a bit of a better front court with Armstrong and Boone but Sellers had a way of not being out played.

94-95 is only other team I think could compete against 89-90 amongst non-title winning UConn teams.
I think people have forgotten how smothering the defense was on 89-90 and how versatile they were at all positions.

I certainly have not forgotten

 

[Waquoit]

I think this is a perfect example of why comparing teams by individual match-ups is tricky. The DS team's whole was greater than the sum of it's parts. 2006's was far less. So when comparing team-by-team, I think the DS squad would eat the 2006 team for lunch. The 1990 team's press was so great because it didn't end after the first trap was broken. What is anyone on that 2006 team besides Williams gonna do under that pressure besides cough it up?

 

[storrsroars]

Ok... time to spice up this debate with an opinion I have held for 13 years, but never put out here on this board because of how many of you will disagree with me... but hear me out.

The 2006 team is actually our 2nd most overrated team of the entire Calhoun era. Individually, one of our most talented teams ever. But the whole was not nearly as great as the sum of the parts. In fact, I submit that only the 2012 team turned out to be more overrated. Here is my reasoning:

Probably our most talented frontcourt, man for man, ever: Rudy Gay, senior Hilton Armstrong, Josh Boone, Denham Brown... heck, we had Jeff Adrien and also Ed Nelson, a former ACC Freshman of the Year now a senior, coming off the bench. Only one word to describe that group - Loaded.

Backcourt - Marcus Williams, who was probably the best passing point guard we have ever had... but never very good as a defender. Rashad Anderson, one of our 2 or 3 best 3-point shooters ever... but then also a significant dropoff to Craig Austrie (although he was a huge stop gap as the starter while Williams was suspended). Definitely NOT our best backcourt during the Calhoun era... and it really came back to bite us in that Big East tournament Quarter Final loss to Syracuse as well as a few other games, like the Sweet 16 game vs. Washington we probably should have lost as well.

Go back and look at how we finished that year - the loss to Syracuse, losing to #16 seed Albany for over 30 minutes in our first round game, struggling with Kentucky in the 2nd round, then luckily getting past Washington in the Sweet 16 after Rashad hit a 28-footer to force overtime when we had been down 4 with less than 15 seconds left. Then the loss to George Mason. Yes, it was a surprise... but not as big a surprise as everyone on here makes it out to be. We had not been playing great team ball for awhile, particularly on Defense. In fact, it was not a vintage Calhoun team in that regard at all. Too many on this board dismiss that. Sorry, but it was not only for one game or two we had not been playing our best. We had been playing well below our best for awhile at that point.

I see people say often when that year is discussed in different threads on here that only if we had beaten George Mason we would have won that title, and not had much trouble with the Florida team that eventually won it. I have always disagreed with that sentiment. That Florida team played much better team ball than we were at the time - and I have always felt they would have beaten us.

Yes, that 06 team had great individual talent, particularly in the front court. But our shortcomings in the backcourt, and lack of playing consistent, Calhoun-style lockdown man-to-man defense would have kept us from beating the team that was playing better all-around team ball at that time, Florida.

There was beaucoup talent and there were some good character/hustle guys on the '06 team like Marcus, Adrien and even CV at times, but overall I never thought they played as hard as the better UConn teams. And I always felt the Gay's recruitment was fishy.

 

[superjohn]

There was beaucoup talent and there were some good character/hustle guys on the '06 team like Marcus, Adrien and even CV at times, but overall I never thought they played as hard as the better UConn teams. And I always felt the Gay's recruitment was fishy.

Villanueva wasn't on the '06 team. Nothing fishy about Gay's recruitment. It's something that should've been against the rules but wasn't and everyone did it.

 

[storrsroars]

Villanueva wasn't on the '06 team. Nothing fishy about Gay's recruitment. It's something that should've been against the rules but wasn't and everyone did it.

Well, I really didn't like the team the year CV and Gay did play together either. I was recalling the NC State game when CV fought for the final UConn points while Gay fell down on the other end letting Hodge blow right by. My mistake. Both of Gay's years, the team = less than the sum of its parts.

And regarding the recruiting, obviously "everybody" didn't include Gary Williams.

 

[LStudfellow]

@LStudfellow, while I understand what you're saying, it's tough to say a team was overrated or under achieved that went 30-4 and lost in the Elite 8. That's pretty rough and means UConn must have had a lot of success if this is the 2nd most overrated team. I'd agree with @ToolzieFan that they lacked some balance and a 2nd ballhandler. The only losses before the Elite 8 were that stinker at Marquette to open the BE season, at #4 Villanova and against Syracuse in the BET. They seemed to be struggling down the stretch. Rough ending but 30-3 before that game is tough to criticize.

Ok - maybe "the 2nd most overrated team of the Calhoun era" is a bit of a stretch. But for someone who has been a member for 5 1/2 years and first found this board during the 2010-2011 season, I can say that I have read dozens of posts that have said the 06 team was our best to not win a National Title. And yeah, they had a heck of a lot of individual talent, but they never reached their full potential.

And in the end, although they had a gaudy record and did share the Big East regular season title, they lost in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament and then played poorly throughout the NCAA Tournament.

The best UConn team to not make it to the Final Four? Not from what I witnessed. Overrated? Yes, and in all of our post season games when it mattered, by quite a bit. They should have beaten both Syracuse and George Mason when it counted, but they didn't... and furthermore they looked uninspired in the 3 post season games that they did win.

I will also say I agree mostly with @superjohn about how that team would have fared with a healthy AJ Price. Not sure they would have "no doubt" won, but they definitely would have been the odds-on favorite... and I, like all of you, would have loved to have seen that team go to battle in the 2006 NCAA Tournament.

 

[CTBasketball]

Ok... time to spice up this debate with an opinion I have held for 13 years, but never put out here on this board because of how many of you will disagree with me... but hear me out.

The 2006 team is actually our 2nd most overrated team of the entire Calhoun era. Individually, one of our most talented teams ever. But the whole was not nearly as great as the sum of the parts. In fact, I submit that only the 2012 team turned out to be more overrated. Here is my reasoning:

Probably our most talented frontcourt, man for man, ever: Rudy Gay, senior Hilton Armstrong, Josh Boone, Denham Brown... heck, we had Jeff Adrien and also Ed Nelson, a former ACC Freshman of the Year now a senior, coming off the bench. Only one word to describe that group - Loaded.

Backcourt - Marcus Williams, who was probably the best passing point guard we have ever had... but never very good as a defender. Rashad Anderson, one of our 2 or 3 best 3-point shooters ever... but then also a significant dropoff to Craig Austrie (although he was a huge stop gap as the starter while Williams was suspended). Definitely NOT our best backcourt during the Calhoun era... and it really came back to bite us in that Big East tournament Quarter Final loss to Syracuse as well as a few other games, like the Sweet 16 game vs. Washington we probably should have lost as well.

Go back and look at how we finished that year - the loss to Syracuse, losing to #16 seed Albany for over 30 minutes in our first round game, struggling with Kentucky in the 2nd round, then luckily getting past Washington in the Sweet 16 after Rashad hit a 28-footer to force overtime when we had been down 4 with less than 15 seconds left. Then the loss to George Mason. Yes, it was a surprise... but not as big a surprise as everyone on here makes it out to be. We had not been playing great team ball for awhile, particularly on Defense. In fact, it was not a vintage Calhoun team in that regard at all. Too many on this board dismiss that. Sorry, but it was not only for one game or two we had not been playing our best. We had been playing well below our best for awhile at that point.

I see people say often when that year is discussed in different threads on here that only if we had beaten George Mason we would have won that title, and not had much trouble with the Florida team that eventually won it. I have always disagreed with that sentiment. That Florida team played much better team ball than we were at the time - and I have always felt they would have beaten us.

Yes, that 06 team had great individual talent, particularly in the front court. But our shortcomings in the backcourt, and lack of playing consistent, Calhoun-style lockdown man-to-man defense would have kept us from beating the team that was playing better all-around team ball at that time, Florida.

Gerry McNamara got lucky. That team steamrolled everyone. They just hit a slump at the wrong time.

 

[Vuce]

2006 on paper is better than 1990. But if I was going to pick I’d take the DS team. They were kinda opposites of each other. 2006 was really the pick not only in the conference but nationally a lot of pundits expected them to be there at the end. 1990, not picked to do anything in conference after coming off a disappointing 1988-89 season and losing their best 2 players. Chemistry wise that 2006 team just seem to never be able to get on the same page no matter what JC tried. The NCAA tournament for our 2006 team was so frustrating as we almost lost to Albany, Kentucky and Washington before finally losing to Mason. 1990 was the total opposite rolling through the first two rounds then playing back to back classic games. Expectations have a lot to do with both of them as just about everyone thought 2006 should and would be there at the end. 1990 was like a snowball that kept building beyond anyone’s expectations. Good stuff!

 

[LStudfellow]

Gerry McNamara got lucky. That team steamrolled everyone. They just hit a slump at the wrong time.

Sorry, but your revisionist history of what happened to the 06 team at the end does not jive with what actually happened.

"Steamrolled everyone"... until about mid-February. Then no, they didn't "steamroll" anyone. From then through their last 11 games you could consider only one win as a "steamrolling" when we beat Villanova at home by 14, and even that was within 8 with 6 minutes to go. And we did not "steamroll" anyone in either tournament when it counted through 5 games against teams that were all ranked significantly lower than us. Heck, we were losing to #16 Albany well into the 2nd half... some "steamrolling" that was.

Not only is that sentence in your post factually incorrect, but your other 2 statements are false as well. McNamara's late 3 to send that 2006 Big East Tournament Quarterfinal game into overtime was actually not that difficult a shot, because we did not D him up well. Unfortunately, just another example of our less-than-stellar defense we played much of that year, particularly in the last 6 weeks of the season. The BE Tournament 8th seed outplayed us for much of that game and deserved to beat us.

And no, we weren't slumping... we had been trending downward for over a month by the time we lost in the Elite 8.

I'll say it again - That Florida team that won the National Title that year would have kicked our asses in the Final 4. But we did not even deserve to get there, which is why we lost to George Mason in the first place.