Dynasty

[CL82]

I really don’t know if they can. It isn’t just basketball, it’s inner strength. Somehow, we find kids with IQ, skill coachability and most importantly, incredible work ethic. It is talent identification far beyond anything we’ve seen before. It’s like our coaches have some sort of special test they give players to see if they have the right makeup.

Agree, it is one part personnel identification, but the other part is very, very sophisticated X's and O's. In essence we run 10 basic sets with each set having four or five variations available to it. That is incredibly hard to plan against. That's where I think the rest of college basketball needs to adapt.

 

[gsmooth]

Agree, it is one part personnel identification, but the other part is very, very sophisticated X's and O's. In essence we run 10 basic sets with each set having four or five variations available to it. That is incredibly hard to plan against. That's where I think the rest of college basketball needs to adapt.

And it's very difficult to learn. You can't be a low basketball IQ and run those sets. Last September, when Hurley was asked in front of a bunch of reporters how Castle was doing, he said he was doing okay, but that he needed to learn the offense better and the defensive scheme better. Castle's basketball IQ is high and he was more than up to the task, but he still had to learn it. It helps that Newton, Karaban, Clingan, and Diarra were returnees that could help him and Spencer learn.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

And it's very difficult to learn. You can't be a low basketball IQ and run those sets. Last September, when Hurley was asked in front of a bunch of reporters how Castle was doing, he said he was doing okay, but that he needed to learn the offense better and the defensive scheme better. Castle's basketball IQ is high and he was more than up to the task, but he still had to learn it. It helps that Newton, Karaban, Clingan, and Diarra were returnees that could help him and Spencer learn.

This.

A major part of what made our offense so difficult to defend this past season was that the players on the court were making decisions on the fly based on their positioning, the defense's positioning and how their teammates would going to react as the play develops. Everyone on the court needed to understand in detail how to act, what the read was and how to react if someone read something different than what he should have.

The returning freshmen (who some are automatically placing behind a couple very new names) will have a tremendous leg up as they already have a year in the system.

 

[superjohn]

Ask Florida how that worked out after their back-to-back.

UCLA was a dynasty. Celtics and Yankees had their own dynasties. UConn women - dynasty. UConn men - two years away from first round losses.

UConn is nothing like Florida.

 

[tzznandrew]

UConn is nothing like Florida.

Florida missed the NCAAT the two years after their back-to-back. They weren't ranked in the preseason poll the next year, and basically skirted the fringe of the poll for two years, topping out at #18 in 2009, but being ranked a total of 7 weeks out of the potential 38. Florida had little history before those back-to-backs, and have been only a good program since (5 E8s, 1 FF).

The programs aren't comparable, either historically or in terms of expectations and talent going into the season after their back-to-back.