Sooo, Florida St. just beat NC State earlier today, which means there is a good chance Florida St. ends up ranked in the AP top 25 this week, as they were already on the cusp of top 25, receiving 5 votes. If that comes to fruition, all of UCONN's non-conference opponents this season, with the exception of Northeastern, would have been ranked in the AP top 25 at some point during the season. Princeton was ranked 24th in the first week of the AP poll and Tennessee was somewhere in the top 5 in the first week. Texas was ranked 3rd when we played them. Notre Dame, NC State, Duke, Iowa, and Maryland, and South Carolina are all currently ranked. As of today, Princeton would have the lowest net ranking of our non-conference opponents at 57 (again, not counting Northeastern). I'd be curious if there is any other team that can make this claim, but talk about a tough schedule! People already thought our schedule was crazy at the beginning of the year, and that was before Duke and Florida St. really established themselves as really good teams, not to mention the Big East has also been much stronger than people thought. In addition to all our non-conference foes, Marquette, Creighton, St Johns, and Villanova are all ranked or were ranked at some point in the season. Makes the fact that we are leading the nation in assists per game and fg % all the more impressive given the quality of our opponents, combined with the fact that Texas was pretty much our only game where we had our full roster available. Other than the Texas game, we have not had our full roster with Dorka and Azzi missing the most significant time. Yet, so far this season, we've been able to make a lot of really good teams look overwhelmed and lost at times. It feels like pretty much everyone returning has made tremendous leaps from last year (Azzi, Nika, Aaliyah, Dorka, Aubrey, Amari, and I'd throw Lou in there as well, as she seems to be have improved her shooting and her defense from her fairfield days). Caroline has just been hampered by injuries and is starting to get back to form. This team has really been inspiring in terms of their grit and fight.
Fun fact about Uconn's non-conference schedule
- Thread starter dcheng021
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Very true, especially about Lou, ironically. At Fairfield, she shot 45/41/80, and this year, against much tougher competition, she's shooting 50/51/96.
It's hard to know how to measure our schedule this year. A bit of a moving target. I guess this is why NET doesn't really include an SoS factor. It just gets more relevant later in the season, once schedules have settled themselves out.
UcMiami
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And with St Johns, Marquette, Villanova, and Creighton all ranked at some point you can add eight more games against such teams by the end of the regular season.
This year with so much high end talent transferring schools it has been really hard to evaluate teams - TN and Texas starting in the top five then dropping out of the top 25 is a prime example - and if current form is to be believed maybe they both climb back into the rankings.
This year with so much high end talent transferring schools it has been really hard to evaluate teams - TN and Texas starting in the top five then dropping out of the top 25 is a prime example - and if current form is to be believed maybe they both climb back into the rankings.
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You’re really right about this. Of course, it won’t change our SoS whether TN or TX turn their seasons around or not. A lot of us here thought the experts were overly optimistic about the portal patchwork teams. But it’s still kind of painful to watch. Right now, despite losing Tamari, TN looks better than TX, which still appears to be in disarray. I’m also worried about NC St losing to FSU as badly as they did. I don’t see them coming back from that any time soon.
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It's a testament to the Uconn staff and how they formulate, year after year, one of the toughest schedules in the country.
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Lou is likely playing against more difficult competition in practice than in games this year. After bumping heads with Nikka and others for several hours each day, she probably welcomes the games.
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Lou this year has a quality point guard setting her up, not to mention other quality shooters that the defense has to contend with. At Fairfield she was it, so she had to fight to get open to shoot. She was probably just as good a shooter last year, but I'm sure many of her attempts were rushed or on the move. Now, she is enjoying what a great D1 player is able to do when surrounded by other great players. At UConn she is able to display her talent, and that decision to come here has made her a national target for opponents. I'm sure she was always this good, but this shows how important the decision is when picking where to attend college. I don't know if she had any other offers, but she is at UConn now, and that decision was the best she could have made. Go Lou and go UConn.
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Excellent post. I couldn’t agree more. I made a similar suggestion about Lou over the summer when some thought she’d be a bust this year. But now I am surprised how well she fit into the program and how quickly. A few foul problems early on, but otherwise a seamless entry into the offense. Years from now, I imagine we’ll all be citing Lou as an example when people doubt a transfer can fit in here.