How bad this season has been

[Matrim55]

I think we're talking past each other here.

Nobody is saying "I would rather have gone 35-4 and lost in the Elite 8 than gone 32-9 and won the championship."

What I am saying is: in the future, going 35-3 heading into the Tournament is more likely to produce deep runs and championships than going 26-9 heading into the Tournament.

This really should not be that controversial.

Nobody's disagreeing with that. Sane people are disagreeing with you downplaying our two most recent titles by calling them flukes, or @UConnTrumbull pretending that Butler or Xavier have been more successful teams than us recently despite pretty easily uncovered evidence to the contrary.

You guys are so obsessed with over-inflating the accomplishments of other schools and minimizing our own accomplishments that you come off as trolls more often than not.

 

[uconnell]

I think we're talking past each other here.

Nobody is saying "I would rather have gone 35-4 and lost in the Elite 8 than gone 32-9 and won the championship."

What I am saying is: in the future, going 35-3 heading into the Tournament is more likely to produce deep runs and championships than going 26-9 heading into the Tournament.

This really should not be that controversial.

Don't get me wrong, I would love UConn to have a wining season and go onto win the NC. I would hope it's not either/or with this team. It makes the long winter more enjoyable and something to look forward to in the spring, along with spring football.
I love basketball and I want the best for our teams.

 

[Jaker]

Exactly right. Who cares about winning regular season conference championships? It's all about March and winning your conference tourney and then the grand prize.

Yup, especially after winning so many great Big East titles, I could care less about winning an American conference regular season title. We play for NC's in March!

 

[UConnTrumbull]

Nobody's disagreeing with that. Sane people are disagreeing with you downplaying our two most recent titles by calling them flukes, or @UConnTrumbull pretending that Butler or Xavier have been more successful teams than us recently despite pretty easily uncovered evidence to the contrary.

You guys are so obsessed with over-inflating the accomplishments of other schools and minimizing our own accomplishments that you come off as trolls more often than not.

My point is that this program should not go a near decade without a well-rounded regular season and postseason. Obviously I would love to continue our deep runs in March. But great regular seasons and deep runs in the tourney should not have to be mutually exclusive. It's not like we need to have 9-10 losses going into March every year.

 

[jibsey]

Everyone has to get a grip here. If we had Larrier it would have been a game changer for our season I'm convinced. We had enough to overcome Gilbert though it's been difficult with Vital's emergence but a 6'8' scoring and rebounding forward was the back breaker. Losing 12-15 points, 5 rebounds changed everything. As it is we are middle of the AAC this year.

 

[ctchamps]

Exactly right. Who cares about winning regular season conference championships? It's all about March and winning your conference tourney and then the grand prize.

If you have a veteran laden and talented team you go for regular season and conference championships as well as post season championships. But if you have consistent turnover from graduation or transfer and have to integrate new players into your system then you use the season to get better for the NCAA. And this has been the situation for UConn for quite some time.

 

[superjohn]

In 2 years when we go 35-4 but lose in the Elite 8 these posters will complain that Ollie can't get us over the hump in March.

They're miserable and clueless. Just enjoy watching a bunch of kids who clearly love the team improve over the course of games, months and years.

A 35-4 season would be wondeful, so would winning this s--tty conference.

 

[champs99and04]

I think we're talking past each other here.

Nobody is saying "I would rather have gone 35-4 and lost in the Elite 8 than gone 32-9 and won the championship."

What I am saying is: in the future, going 35-3 heading into the Tournament is more likely to produce deep runs and championships than going 26-9 heading into the Tournament.

This really should not be that controversial.

Isn't that a correlation and not causation type thing? If you have a great team you have a great team. The '14 team was no more likely to have won the tournament if they had won an additional three games.

The goal in college basketball should be to get better throughout the season. When you do that, wins naturally follow. It seems to me that you're doing the opposite.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Isn't that a correlation and not causation type thing? If you have a great team you have a great team. The '14 team was no more likely to have won the tournament if they had won an additional three games.

The goal in college basketball should be to get better throughout the season. When you do that, wins naturally follow. It seems to me that you're doing the opposite.

Well, there's another way to look at it.

There are a lot of people arguing that we shouldn't be alarmed by repeatedly mediocre regular seasons, asserting that we always perform well in March.

My assertion is: yes, we should be concerned, because more often than not, those teams are simply mediocre, and are not actually great teams waiting to perform at their potential.

Getting better throughout the season is nice, but sneaking into the Tournament, whatever momentum you may have, doesn't help when you end up paired with the #1 overall seed.

 

[champs99and04]

Well, there's another way to look at it.

There are a lot of people arguing that we shouldn't be alarmed by repeatedly mediocre regular seasons, asserting that we always perform well in March.

My assertion is: yes, we should be concerned, because more often than not, those teams are simply mediocre, and are not actually great teams waiting to perform at their potential.

Getting better throughout the season is nice, but sneaking into the Tournament, whatever momentum you may have, doesn't help when you end up paired with the #1 overall seed.

I agree with this to a point. Seeding is important, especially when it dictates location. I'm not sure we beat Michigan State in 2014 without MSG behind us (it's worth mentioning that we were under-seeded as a seven, which actually worked to our benefit that season but also blinds people to the fact that we were in the top 25 pretty much all year).

It's not really about momentum for me, though. It's about being better in March than you are in January. That means grasping schemes that are sometimes complex, tightening your game in subtle ways so that you're accentuating your value as a player, and condensing/optimizing your rotations to align with whatever a season worth of data is telling you.

I'll take being a six seed and losing by one point to a national powerhouse over being a three seed and not having a chance. Last years team wasn't good enough and so they more or less got blown out by Kansas. If we'd lost a 50/50 game, though, then it'd be tough for me to sit here and criticize the overall arch of progress - you'd bemoan the losses that put you in the position of having to play the #1 overall seed opening weekend, but you wouldn't ask for a different team.

For example, even this year, there are teams that can win the title and teams that cannot. Cincinnati is not winning the title. Neither is Baylor. Everybody knows this. Kentucky and Duke might, even though they'll likely be seeded anywhere from 2-6 on selection Sunday. I'll take being Kentucky or Duke in a year where we have some young players (obviously our talent isn't on that level, but in the AAC, we can win the conference tournament) over being say, Butler.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

Knowing we are considered a "bad loss" actually really makes me sad about this season.

 

[Pudge]

Haha ...

Mediocre years! We have two national championships - 2001 & 2014 - in the last handful. Meanwhile you have Kansas not winning in 29 and UCLA last won in 1995. DO you realize what 350 other programs hear when you say that? Go watch the UConn Women. They are your match.

 

[pnow15]

It ain't over til its over.