Eh, I'm probably in the minority, but that team was talented enough and should have finished the regular season with a better record than 17-13. They were good enough to beat Florida on the road (Florida finished 11-5 with 3 losses to NCAA teams and 2 to NIT teams) and SMU/Cincinnati at home.
I dunno you might not be in the minority. People think Boat didn't make people better. I know why they say that, and while there's some truth to it, I don't think that's really the whole story.
Maybe they underachieved a bit. But that's not a roster of great players. And importantly they were super young. Which I think is why you saw that inconsistency you mentioned. Only good upperclassmen were Boat and I suppose Purvis. Omar was a shell of himself.
Again, I look at is as: how many of these guys other than Boat start on a decent (not great) UCONN team? Probably none. Maybe Hamilton if there's a hole somewhere.
If you put Bazz on that team instead of Boat, you might get two or three more wins imo.
They had the best player in AAC, Conference Defensive Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year. Lost five games by 3 points or less and another in OT by 4.
Yes, they had Boat.
But as we've all found out, Amida Brimah was not a great player. He was DPOY, based on blocks alone. Didn't have much else. Especially on O.
Hamilton was a good college player, but 1) in 2015 he was a frosh and 2) he couldn't shoot. It's tough to be counted on to be the a fulcrum in that scenario.