Georgetown Post Game Thread

[RuffRuff]

And you think we defeated teams in those years that were comparable to Michigan, Arizona, Houston, etc., this year? I think this year's team is better than last year's, so we wouldn't lose to this year's equivalent of Florida, but I find it hard to imagine us making it to the FF.

The way I see this year is there is Michigan - and they're not that good that they will auto run it through the tournament, they'll be challenged. So who knows what can happen. We'd likely not see them till a semi or final anyway, which would be success as far as I see it.

Then there is that group of 7-9 teams that all feels like they are within a small deviation, that includes AZ. AZ has some brawn, but have come to agree that the shooting may be a problem in the tournament, especially if Peat isn't 100%. A ton of their success will be about matchups and who shows up that night in a one game format. This is where Hurley clearly has an advantage.

UM....AZ, Duke, Houston, UConn, ISU, Kansas, Florida, Illinois, Texas Tech ---- GAP ----- Purdue, Nebraska, Bama, Arkansas.

I'm just hoping we hold onto a 1, get a 4/5 seed in the S16 and then see where the chips fall in the Elite 8 for what will be the kind of team we'd have to get through anyway to get to the F4.

Expecting - Elite 8
Happy With - F4
Finals - Ecstatic
NC - Over the Moon

 

[Waquoit]

Florida in 14 was definitely equivalent. They were on like a 30-game winning streak.

After losing to UConn.

 

[amishboy]

Yeah, about that 24-2 record, here’s an interesting opinion from the Athletic:

Should the Big East oust Val Ackerman? Her teams keep getting the shaft in the polls, and more importantly, by recent selection committees. Feels like the conference needs a better promoter of the brand, given the league has won four of the last nine national titles. — Phil T.

Unfortunately for Val, the Big East has not given her much to market recently. This season is arguably the league’s nadir, as only four of the 11 teams have a better overall record than 13-12. One of those four, Seton Hall, may not even get to the NCAA Tournament, as the Pirates notched just one notable nonconference result (beating NC State in Maui) and have not separated themselves in the Big East standings.

The Big East’s lack of success in the nonconference was jarring and ultimately rendered many Big East games as largely useless for building an NCAA Tournament resume. Here’s the ugly data. In nonconference Quad 1 and 2 games, the Big East went 53-101, a winning percentage of just 34.4 percent. Against Q1 foes, that mark was 16-65 (19.8 percent). Compare that to the next-worst P5 conference in each category: the Big Ten went 114-155 vs. Q1 and Q2 opponents (42.4 percent) and 51-119 vs. Q1 foes (30.0 percent).

To your point, the league has produced some top-flight squads. Jay Wright’s Villanova, Dan Hurley’s UConn, and Rick Pitino’s St. John’s were/are all fantastic programs. Marquette had a really nice run under Shaka Smart until this season. But the bottom of the conference has been horrible for years, and the middle has taken a sizable step back in the last couple of seasons, as well. The conference commissioner can only do so much. At some point, the league’s programs have to win more games against other conferences.

OUCH!

 

[amishboy]

Florida in 14 was definitely equivalent. They were on like a 30-game winning streak. San Diego St. in 11 had a guy named Kawhi Leonard who was pretty good.

Sorry, I had a feeling when I posted this that I didnt express things very clearly. No, I wasn't referring to Florida in 2014. I just meant that, unlike last year when we lost to Florida, if it had been this year’s team playing them, we would have won. [Yeah, way too convoluted and not that important. I’ll show myself out.]

 

[80shusky]

Are you sure that "humility" was the word that you had in mind? Because my post was closer to "we're not good enough," so I'm not sure humility is needed.

And, yes, generally only 2 losses would be a great record, but I'm concerned that the BE is pretty bad this year, and yet we have rarely looked dominant this year, especially compared to, say, Michigan (which in recent weeks has beaten Purdue and Michigan State on the road).

This is all fair.

 

[Donyell 360]

Im just going to say it, my first thought when someone mentions McNeeley, is he underachieved here.

Name a UConn freshman who overachieved.

 

[HW611]

Name a UConn freshman who overachieved.

All time?

Josh Boone
Clingan
2011 freshmen
Brimah

 

[Donyell 360]

All time?

Josh Boone
Clingan
2011 freshmen
Brimah

I didn't recall Josh Boone having a particularly special freshman year. I looked up his stats: 5.9 pts/5.8 rbs/1.7 blk. Compare that to Clingan 6.9/5.6/1.8. They were both decent as freshman but overachieved? My pick for best freshman all-time is Nadav. He came out of nowhere and dominated as a freshmen (but he was like 24 years old so not sure that should count). But other than that I can't recall any UConn freshmen being significantly better than McNeeley. We may see more of it in this new era but my point is that McNeeley was pretty good and we should appreciate what he gave us in his one year with the team.

 

[Stew Crew]

I didn't recall Josh Boone having a particularly special freshman year. I looked up his stats: 5.9 pts/5.8 rbs/1.7 blk. Compare that to Clingan 6.9/5.6/1.8. They were both decent as freshman but overachieved? My pick for best freshman all-time is Nadav. He came out of nowhere and dominated as a freshmen (but he was like 24 years old so not sure that should count). But other than that I can't recall any UConn freshmen being significantly better than McNeeley. We may see more of it in this new era but my point is that McNeeley was pretty good and we should appreciate what he gave us in his one year with the team.

Overachieving is often a product of being put in the right situation. Josh Boone had the luxury of playing alongside Okafor his freshman year. Talk about sloppy seconds. Okafor would often get double teamed on the block. If he missed a shot, Boone was there to clean up and get the uncontested layup. He had almost as many offensive rebounds as defensive.

 

[HooperScooper]

I didn't recall Josh Boone having a particularly special freshman year. I looked up his stats: 5.9 pts/5.8 rbs/1.7 blk. Compare that to Clingan 6.9/5.6/1.8. They were both decent as freshman but overachieved? My pick for best freshman all-time is Nadav. He came out of nowhere and dominated as a freshmen (but he was like 24 years old so not sure that should count). But other than that I can't recall any UConn freshmen being significantly better than McNeeley. We may see more of it in this new era but my point is that McNeeley was pretty good and we should appreciate what he gave us in his one year with the team.

The feeling back then was that by just starting and having a significant role on a championship team Boone was better than his reputation coming in. He also was very good defensively and played the perfect role UConn needed with Okafor and Gordon being the big scorers. Remember he started over Villanueva who was a highly touted recruit coming in.

 

[superjohn]

I didn't recall Josh Boone having a particularly special freshman year. I looked up his stats: 5.9 pts/5.8 rbs/1.7 blk. Compare that to Clingan 6.9/5.6/1.8. They were both decent as freshman but overachieved? My pick for best freshman all-time is Nadav. He came out of nowhere and dominated as a freshmen (but he was like 24 years old so not sure that should count). But other than that I can't recall any UConn freshmen being significantly better than McNeeley. We may see more of it in this new era but my point is that McNeeley was pretty good and we should appreciate what he gave us in his one year with the team.

Clingan was incredible as a freshman but he had to share the center position with a junior star center and only played 13 minutes per game. Edey and Clingan had the best per 40 stats in the country.

 

[HW611]

The feeling back then was that by just starting and having a significant role on a championship team Boone was better than his reputation coming in. He also was very good defensively and played the perfect role UConn needed with Okafor and Gordon being the big scorers. Remember he started over Villanueva who was a highly touted recruit coming in.

Yup, beating out a McDonald’s All American alone was overachieving for Boone.

It wasn’t like Charlie was a bust either. Boone just played that well.

 

[Donyell 360]

Clingan was incredible as a freshman but he had to share the center position with a junior star center and only played 13 minutes per game. Edey and Clingan had the best per 40 stats in the country.

Granted, it is hard to tell just by looking at stat lines, whether a freshman was slow to develop or just was limited by an established star ahead of him in the rotation. My point is that in generally we aren't that hard on freshmen because we know they are young, still getting stronger and figuring out the college game speed.

I can also see how the expectations of a player coming in could skew whether the same stat line was considered expected or underachievement. I still maintain that McNeeley had a good year and met expectations. He did not underachieve. I think the team's underachievement is projected too much onto McNeeley. It wasn't his fault we struggled last year. He was our best player. I wouldn't say that about Mullins yet, but the potential is still there.

 

[Donyell 360]

Yup, beating out a McDonald’s All American alone was overachieving for Boone.

It wasn’t like Charlie was a bust either. Boone just played that well.

OK. That could be, I don't recall. It's a nice story but he wasn't really a major contributor to that 04 championship.

Getting back to the OP, what was the expectation for McNeeley? Was he supposed to be Carmelo Anthony? I just don't buy this narrative that McNeeley underachieved last year.

 

[HW611]

OK. That could be, I don't recall. It's a nice story but he wasn't really a major contributor to that 04 championship.

Getting back to the OP, what was the expectation for McNeeley? Was he supposed to be Carmelo Anthony? I just don't buy this narrative that McNeeley underachieved last year.

His per40 that year was 10/10 and 3 blocks.

I agree that it’s harsh to say McNeeley underachieved. He was on a bad roster and was asked to do way more than what he was supposed to do.

He got Jalen Adams’d pretty much.

 

[John]

His per40 that year was 10/10 and 3 blocks.

I agree that it’s harsh to say McNeeley underachieved. He was on a bad roster and was asked to do way more than what he was supposed to do.

He got Jalen Adams’d pretty much.

and he wasn't the same after his injury.

 

[Stew Crew]

His per40 that year was 10/10 and 3 blocks.

I agree that it’s harsh to say McNeeley underachieved. He was on a bad roster and was asked to do way more than what he was supposed to do.

He got Jalen Adams’d pretty much.

McNeeley wasn't the same player after the ankle sprain. Not sure he ever got back to 100%. His 3 pt% dropped from high 30s pre-injury to mid 20s post-injury from what I remember.

 

[HW611]

McNeeley wasn't the same player after the ankle sprain. Not sure he ever got back to 100%. His 3 pt% dropped from high 30s pre-injury to mid 20s post-injury from what I remember.

He also came back to a roster where Mahaney was almost out of the lineup and his PG was playing on one knee.

He was asked to do way too much at the end of the year.