ESPN Way Too Early Top 25: UConn #4 | Page 6 | The Boneyard

ESPN Way Too Early Top 25: UConn #4

Purdue's fans are horrible. When my brother and I went to the Final four in 2024. A lady came up to me in food line and said aren't you scared to be outnumbered so bad in fans. I just said WTF with my face. What I should have said was why would I when we are Champions. It was so nice routing them and being able to celebrate amongst all those Purdue fans who outnumbered us like 4 to 1. LOL!
Purdue fans have gotten pretty bad as of late. They act like they’re something special, but in reality they have a golf championship and a women’s basketball championship.
 
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I'm in the same boat. I like this team on paper but a lot of questions.

1. How will the PGs assimilate within the team?
2. Will Mullins be an instant impact like Castle or McNeeley?
3. Can the other freshmen play meaningful minutes?
4. Will Ball, Ross and Stewart improve on defense?
5. Will Hoss play with consistency?
6. Can Hoss stay out of foul trouble? 5.4 fouls per 40 at UConn vs 3.9 at Michigan.
7. Does Karaban return to sophomore form?

Good points.

I guess all teams have this but yes, we have some serious unknowns.

Now the on player position that I hope Reibe helps with is:

We need a shot blocker, a cleanup defender to stop offensive player that blows by out perimeter defenders. If we have one of those and yes, I agree with the top 5 projection.

That was the thing about Clingan, you just knew that no matter how “off“ we were on a particular night, that dude was looming there on defense like go ahead “try me.”

We have anything resembling thIs, then, yes, this team can be as lethal as any UConn team we’ve seen in quite some time if it all clicks.
 
Maybe she didn't know what it was like, going to a championship game. It had been 65 years for them.
They were very confident going into that game. Basically, they expected us to take the same approach as the vast majority of their opponents and double and triple team Edey which in turn would leave their perimeter shooters open. I think they were shocked by the way that game turned out, but to be fair, so was Painter.
 
Purdue's fans are horrible. When my brother and I went to the Final four in 2024. A lady came up to me in food line and said aren't you scared to be outnumbered so bad in fans. I just said WTF with my face. What I should of said was why would I when we are Champions. It was so nice routing them and being able to celebrate amongst all those Purdue fans who outnumbered us like 4 to 1. LOL!

A lady asked you if you felt outnumbered by their fans and that made you think they’re “horrible” as a group?
 
Seems like their undersized guards are considered more elite since that 2024 championship game. Still - I think Purdue is overrated based on their roster - gone is Edey, Ivey, and truly impactful players there.
 
Purdue's fans are horrible. When my brother and I went to the Final four in 2024. A lady came up to me in food line and said aren't you scared to be outnumbered so bad in fans. I just said WTF with my face. What I should of said was why would I when we are Champions. It was so nice routing them and being able to celebrate amongst all those Purdue fans who outnumbered us like 4 to 1. LOL!
They may be horrible, but I don't think that story indicates that they are horrible
 
A lady asked you if you felt outnumbered by their fans and that made you think they’re “horrible” as a group?

I've seen our fans absolutely feral berating a little kid from Texas when we played them in 2016-ish. I took the kid and his dad to my car. All fanbases have their fair share of turd burglars.
 
Purdue fans have gotten pretty bad as of late. They act like their something special, but in reality they have a golf championship and a women’s basketball championship.
I've told this once before. We're at the World of Beer in Myrtle Beach a few years ago wearing UConn gear as we were in town for the bowl game. The bartender comes down wearing a gold-adjacent half-zip with a weird "P" on it. I said to myself "Purdue guy". At the time, Purdue and UConn were the only undefeated teams left so threw out an olive branch. "Hey" I said pointing to my shirt "You and us 1 and 2!" The guy says "I prefer to think of it as just 1". No trace of irony. That will forever be Purdue fan to me.
 
They may be horrible, but I don't think that story indicates that they are horrible
Yeah it does. The Purdue fans there acted like they had won more Championships than us and felt entitled. They smug way the lady from Purdue said that to me was awful. Trust me if you were there you would of been totally put off by a comment like that. At least win one before acting like you are entitled similar to Duke fans do when in the final four.
 
A lady asked you if you felt outnumbered by their fans and that made you think they’re “horrible” as a group?
No she asked if I felt intimidated by their numbers and it was the way she said it like they were going to whip us so why are you even at this event. My brother was with me and he felt the same way with the way the woman approached me and said that. I only met other awful entitled Purdue fans when there. As I mentioned in another post they acted more entitled than Duke fans. Yuck!
 
Maybe she didn't know what it was like, going to a championship game. It had been 65 years for them.
Yeah even the guy that was with her had that expression of surprise when she made that comment. Like maybe you should keep you mouth shut until you win it.
 
Yeah it does. The Purdue fans there acted like they had won more Championships than us and felt entitled. They smug way the lady from Purdue said that to me was awful. Trust me if you were there you would of been totally put off by a comment like that. At least win one before acting like you are entitled similar to Duke fans do when in the final four.
You can't take this stuff too seriously. When we played Saint Bonnie's in a military appreciation game in Newark their fans were yapping quite a bit. This was the year that they got off to a pretty good start and they may have been undefeated or maybe just one loss or something. As we're walking out, they were pretty despondent. One guy said "I can't believe we lost to UConn. They are the worst team we've played so far this year." I looked up at him and said "Don't worry about it. The season is still young and I'm sure you'll lose to a lot of teams that are worse than us before it's over." After a moments pause even the Bonnie fans were laughing.
 
The difference is Pitino. The guy could take an all-felon team to the final-4. He has magic handling egos.
That's what makes them scary. If it was just some rando coach with a load of talented new players I could see not believing in them. Pitino can take a collection of good talent and make them great quickly, now he has a collection of great talent. If Hopkins is healthy they're the most talented roster top to bottom with an all-timer coaching them.

My only question for them would be how good will Darling be at this level at the point and can Ian Jackson play point. Big question because point is the most important position.
 
The difference is Pitino. The guy could take an all-felon team to the final-4. He has magic handling egos.
I know people knock him all the time but Self is a legitimate coach. It's not like him and Pitino are that far off in terms of career success.
 
I've told this once before. We're at the World of Beer in Myrtle Beach a few years ago wearing UConn gear as we were in town for the bowl game. The bartender comes down wearing a gold-adjacent half-zip with a weird "P" on it. I said to myself "Purdue guy". At the time, Purdue and UConn were the only undefeated teams left so threw out an olive branch. "Hey" I said pointing to my shirt "You and us 1 and 2!" The guy says "I prefer to think of it as just 1". No trace of irony. That will forever be Purdue fan to me.
You need to take a golf trip to Myrtle so you can return to the bar wearing some of your 2024 title merch
 
That's what makes them scary. If it was just some rando coach with a load of talented new players I could see not believing in them. Pitino can take a collection of good talent and make them great quickly, now he has a collection of great talent. If Hopkins is healthy they're the most talented roster top to bottom with an all-timer coaching them.

My only question for them would be how good will Darling be at this level at the point and can Ian Jackson play point. Big question because point is the most important position.
That’s a bunch of ifs. And if Pitino can do all of that, win a lot of games, and the BE he will be the same as many talented teams at that stage. He would have a shot to advance past the Round of 32 which he didn’t. What did Pitino this unbelievable coach do wrong against a 10 seed?
Last year all I heard was that Duke was the most talented and St. John’s was thrown into those conversations all year as they piled up wins with many being very close games.
Are they scary because they have a vaunted defense like last year? That was why they won.
You talk about them like they are going to win every game by 25.
 

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