Yes I agree it's a huge difference between this team and prior ones, which is why I don't agree with the people who compare this team to the 22-23 one. But Ruff insinuating that the only reason we steamrolled everyone that year was that we had a huge talent advantage is just ridiculous
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February General CBB Discussion Thread
- Thread starter Mr. French
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Totally - was beautiful to watch. We were also able to overwhelm those teams with better athletes/depth. We ran past them, transitioned. This year's team looks nothing like that team. I know many of us hoped they would, but it's not even slightly like that team. 23 and 24 were also much different teams.
One thing worth scrapping at this point is trying to model one Uconn team after a past successful team. It's pointless. Players are so unique individually, you can't really template it out.
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Funny enough, this UConn team reminds me of some of those Gonzaga teams over the years that put up lofty W/L totals in a weak conference, and had great coaching and often great execution when it mattered, but were usually missing those above the rim athletes.
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100% agree. 23 and 24 had shot blocks and steals from defensive standouts that initiated fast breaks and transition points. We have neither this year. Ross and Demery are the closest "athletes" to 23 and 24.
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Yup - they had kill shot capability, this team doesn't. This team is a bunch of grinders. It may actually be a good thing they've played so many close games as I would expect it to be the same in the tourney. Ross wouldn't have seen the floor on that 2023 team. The 23 team had a lot of diversity in their roster: lob artists, snipers, passers, size, low post locks. I don't know how long the ride will go, but I would expect it to look vastly different than either of those two years.
What I'm hoping is that Hurley finds a way to develop rosters a little closer to those two teams as it feels like he's moved away from some of the profile types for whatever reason.
That’s not a good thing based on Gonzaga FF record
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Reibe is solid, but this team would look very different with a Clingan level defender as the backup C
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Ones who win it all in year 2, he means…
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The 23 team had a Block% of 12.7% and a Steal% of 9.2%. The 24 team had a Block% of 14.2% and a Steal% of 9.3%.
This year's team has a Block% of 15.3% and Steal% 10.6%, we are getting more blocks and more steals than both championship teams.
I think they made a bunch of elite 8s, too. A few S16 losses. Half this board thinks we're getting sniped in round 2, so it depends how you look at it
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I'd consider a F4 a very good year, and validating for Hurley. It's a banner. I know we love our titles here, but this team winning a title would be against the odds. The eyeball test, roster test and metrics all support it. If Hurley could win the NC with this team, he'd be cemented as one of the best coaches of all time.
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Why doesn’t it seem like this is true?
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They don't turn it into offense/transition points.
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What’s intriguing is that we pushed Florida last year, the eventual champion with a team that was not as talented overall? But there are a lot of better teams to deal with this year. If we were to somehow stomp St. John’s the narrative might change.
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That result very much sits out there as one of the mysterious variables in the UConn/Hurley's tourney potential. Then you couple it with this early season's undermanned OOC results, and we have this element in play where UConn's coaching/system are hard to prepare for. How meaningful is it? Season has a Jeckyl & Hyde quality to it, who shows up in March?
If you look at that Florida box, some of the non typical stats that stand out: UConn had 14 offensive rebounds against one of the best rebounding teams in the country. We turned them over 12x to our 6, took 14 more shots than them. Those were super atypical stats for each team, not sure how repeatable they'd be.
I'm with you on that StJ's game - I think we know what we have there. That game will be for the BE crown at home, to cement a 1 seed. There is a lot riding on it. It's as good as a tourney game. If we can't show up there, I think it will say a lot about our March hopes.
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That, and a bit of nostalgia lol. The thing is, every year is different. There is no guarantee that the 2023 team wins the title this year if we had that exact line up today. I agree with you that there are more title contenders this year than in 2023 and 2024.
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Take a look at the one seeds that year - best overall seed was a team we toasted in November. Then a meh Kansas team with the same kids that kept Self's program back for two years in KJ Adams and DeJuan Harris, along with Gradey Dick and Jalen Wilson.
That was simply a bad field. It happens.
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I loved the 2023 team, but let's be honest. They had a pretty easy road in the tournament playing two home games in the first 2 rounds, an 8 seed and a 3 seed, and then two 5s in the Final 4. They took care of business in historic fashion so I will never take anything away, but the best team they played was a 3 seed Gonzaga.
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You can only play the teams that bracket up vs. you.
I hate this argument that people make because if all those other #1, #2, #3 teams were "so good", then they would have just won their damn games and faced us. But they didn't. So don't hold it against us!
(I know this isn't you specifically, just ranting about that tired argument)
Waquoit
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They did, didn't they? Bless their hearts.
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It's not really a "mysterious variable".
When things deviate for an team vs what they did "on average" during the year, a good portion of that is because we had a better scout, better preparation, and executed that scout better than the other team.
We were simply a couple made shots away from beating the eventual NC team. We had 9/10 execution of our excellent gameplan. And some of our players played their guts out in their potential last game as a Husky (e.g., Samson) for a team and coaching staff that they were 100% bought in to.
Waquoit
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You could say that about every team ever. Who actually had one besides 2023 UConn? Nater at UCLA?
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Can't deny that - I'm simply saying that between emotions and outliers scenarios, things happen in one game scenarios. You don't have to look much further than our game against Oklahoma, where we were the better team yet it was a one point game with under 4 minutes to go. It goes both ways. Are we saying Oklahoma was a great team? They shot awfully in that game too - 32% for the game.
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Mr. French
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Nostalgia clouds a lot of views around here.
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