How dominant will UConn be in 2017-18?

[SCspur]

With all due respect, the Bulldogs defeating UConn in a physically and emotionally draining game, one that was basically their title game, is different than beating the Florida State Seminoles.

Shafer benched William for being out of it mentally. Kinda different than the UConn game.

I'm not buying the physically and emotionally drained excuse for Ms St., if anything they should have been even more prepared to face SC in the championship(a game that mattered 10x more then the semi) being that they already played two times in the season. Were they drained when they came to Columbia and lost? Or in the SEC tourney championship? No! So in a sense Ms St would have never been up to the task to actually defeat SC. The bulldogs are 0-11 agaisnt SC in the past couple of seasons.

 

[CocoHusky]

I'll be sure to put "Everybody except UConnCat" as a disclaimer in my future posts so that you won't feel targeted next time.

If that's the case can I get a disclaimer too, I just feel like I'm targeted enough in my non-BY life.
This has been a great dialogue, if we can all lighten up a bit it could be even greater.
And can someone wake me up when we find that "typical fan" we keep talking about- I would love to meet him or her.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

Were they drained when they came to Columbia and lost? Or in the SEC tourney championship?

Well, no. They hadn't 42 hours prior beaten a team with a 111-game winning streak as a 22-point underdog. They had just beaten Texas A&M in the SEC tourney and Alabama fours days prior to the other game.

I'm not suggesting SC only beat MSU because of the previous game, just that it made things a lot easier.

 

[intlzncster]

Unstoppable. They might be able to field 4 of 5 First Team AAs. If voting was done properly.

 

[triaddukefan]

 

[Nuyoika]

If SCar didn't win last year it would have been a shame. I'm glad Dawn pulled it out because I was beginning to doubt her abilities. I had SCar picked as one of the teams who could possibly win it all in pre-season ( I didnt even have my beloved Huskies in that list) but they stumbled a bit and didn't pass the eye test enough for me to be sure late in the season. Come March I really didn't have any particular front runner. I gave the Huskies as good a chance as anyone once they proved to me they were far better than I anticipated (I expected a 5 loss maybe E8 year, boy did they prove me wrong). That being said the 2016-2017 Huskies were damn good. MSU was no slouch either they just happened to hit a few bumps at an inopportune time (late in the season), up until then they were a bona fide #1 seed.

 

[CocoHusky]

As for 2013, UConn went through many more good teams that year than SC did this one. Sure Baylor got knocked out on the other side of the bracket but UConn was every bit as good as the Bears by the end of the tournament, if not better.

I'm not so sure about that :
UCONN margin of victory up until 2013 FF. +68 Idaho, +33 Vandy , +26 MD, + 30 Kentucky.
SC margin of victory up until 2017 FF: +50 UNC Ashville, +3 ASU, +42 Quinnipiac, +7 FSU.
2013 Baylor team beat UCONN @Uconn and the only other loss was to Stanford (Neutral site? ) . UCONN did trash Stanford at Stanford but well before facing Baylor (Dec 29 vs. Feb 18)
What would have suddenly made UCONN "as good as Baylor (if not better) by the end of tournament"? UCONN would go on to have 2 more losses after being beaten by Baylor.

 

[meyers7]

If you have spent a lot of time on this board during the past 5 years, and you two clearly qualify, then you are going to find lots of examples of UConn fans being over-confident and lacking humility. That's what happens when you win 4 consecutive championships and 100+ games in a row. I suspect the same would be true of the SC board were it to have UConn's success. That said, there are plenty of posters who were here during the dark years (2005-2007) and later watched Notre Dame eat UConn's lunch for serveral games. So yes, a lot of us do know what it means to lose and a lot of us do know what it means to be humbled and a lot of us do know the folly of being over-confident.

Some of us remember Iowa St 1999. That sucked really, really bad.

 

[SCGamecock]

View attachment 23648

Perfect. LOL.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Some of us remember Iowa St 1999. That sucked really, really bad.

Gag. I'd totally repressed that. For those too young to remember a low lights review.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

I'm not so sure about that :
UConn margin of victory up until 2013 FF. +68 Idaho, +33 Vandy , +26 MD, + 30 Kentucky.
SC margin of victory up until 2017 FF: +50 UNC Ashville, +3 ASU, +42 Quinnipiac, +7 FSU.

South Carolina barely beat a pedestrian ASU team that I would put a bit lower than the Kentucky team UConn throttled. SC beat a good FSU team that's probably in line with the Louisville team UConn crushed. Maryland was a top-15 team UConn defeated. And then there is Notre Dame vs Mississippi State.

What would have suddenly made UConn "as good as Baylor (if not better) by the end of tournament"?

Breanna Stewart's development?

Baylor, UConn, and ND were easily the three best teams in the country going by all the metrics. UConn was close to Baylor prior to the tourney. Stewart going from sometimes impact player/sometimes invisible to just about as good as anyone made UConn great.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Just checked in on the poll results. Yup, that certainly looks like the expectation level that Geno ruefully admits "we created."

 

[BroadwayVa]

Making an observation is celebrating? Who is celebrating?

Sure, I celebrated the night of.. but then SC won the championship (miraculously according to several of you) and I had an actual reason to celebrate.

Today I'm just stating the obvious.

I could SWEAR that your OBSERVATION was a celebration---I suppose onc can see a celebratory observation--
From the first week of games last fall--I never accepted an NC--final four I spoke of often--. There, up to the final 4, there was no guarantee USC or UConn would be among them--hurray for both--MANY on the UConn Side predicted 4 maybe 5 losses--and more than some expected an during the season loss to USC. For more than some Uconn fans this team, without backup players, depth, without a true experience PG, with out a player over 6-3 and two posts 5-11 and 6 -1--even a celebrating USC/Miss fan could see how far this team exceeded it's potential.

If this team was not amazing in what it had accomplished in your view--you don't understand the game. It is fair to gloat on Uconn losses--they are so few these past 5 years--Uconn fans have --believe it or not --been through a few seasons of drought.

When any team get to the final game--per Geno (he's been there so often, he's learned)--it takes luck (the way the teams fall out leading up to the FF) and experience in the FF--and of course top talent. It would appear --all of this fell in the right places for USC this year.

Miss St did not beat the team that beat them by 60---they beat a team --the experts said would not make the FF. Ho-Hum

 

[BroadwayVa]

I'd like to piggy back off of this lol

I thought the mascot for USC was a Gamecock---now you are saying--piggies back???

 

[UConnCat]

It shouldn't be a mystery to you when the most zealous of said fanbase typically end up replying to every post that guest posters make. If recalling how I was laughed at and disregarded for making an observation a year ago and relating that to the results of this year's game is rooting out and shaming zealous fans then I'm guilty... sure.

I'll be sure to put "Everybody except UConnCat" as a disclaimer in my future posts so that you won't feel targeted next time.

As I said, I didn't feel targeted so no disclaimer necessary. I'm just here defending the Boneyard, including the more extreme partisans among us.

"Laughed at and disregarded . . . a year ago?" Hmmm . . . A thick skin and short memory are keys to longevity on the Boneyard.

 

[BroadwayVa]

I love how much respect some UConn fans have for Mississippi State NOW all of a sudden.. I remember when the Huskies beat them by 60 points in the tournament and I was almost laughed off The Boneyard for suggesting that the margin of victory would be MUCH smaller if UConn and Mississippi State met again next year. Fast forward a year and not only was the margin of victory smaller.. but UConn actually ended up losing.

It's amazing how humbling ending up on the losing end just ONCE can be.

You are correct Uconn fans NOW have a bit of respect for Ms St---they won, it's a heck of a lot better, and morally correct, to congratulate the winner. Of course there are some like me that : mutter under my breath--just wait--til we meet again. But in the mean time--we congratulate the winner and move on--to bigger and better NC-FF's--\

Now that USC is the National Champs--and loaded with experience and transfers--against a truly unknown quantity on the Uconn team--what is your MOV for USC for the next USC/UConn game?? Should be easy for you. You can fast forward a year since that seems your ability to predict a year hence or does that only work in retrospect???
But put me down for a MOV of 40 min the next time Uconn gets to play Ms St.

 

[BroadwayVa]

As I said, I didn't feel targeted so no disclaimer necessary. I'm just here defending the Boneyard, including the more extreme partisans among us.

"Laughed at and disregarded . . . a year ago?" Hmmm . . . A thick skin and short memory are keys to longevity on the Boneyard.

'

Prerequisite for the boneyard?? Thick skin--bad memory??

I got half of that nailed.

 

[SCspur]

I thought the mascot for USC was a Gamecock---now you are saying--piggies back???

I bleed Garnet & Black not pink

 

[HoopsFan21]

I'm not so sure about that :
UConn margin of victory up until 2013 FF. +68 Idaho, +33 Vandy , +26 MD, + 30 Kentucky.
SC margin of victory up until 2017 FF: +50 UNC Ashville, +3 ASU, +42 Quinnipiac, +7 FSU.
2013 Baylor team beat UConn @UConn and the only other loss was to Stanford (Neutral site? ) . UConn did trash Stanford at Stanford but well before facing Baylor (Dec 29 vs. Feb 18)
What would have suddenly made UConn "as good as Baylor (if not better) by the end of tournament"? UConn would go on to have 2 more losses after being beaten by Baylor.

Stewie becoming Stewie. When the tournament started she was a completely different player than we saw the prior 2-3 months when she was in her freshman slump. Would that marked improvement in Stewie's performance been enough to overcome Baylor in the final? The world will never know.

 

[oldude]

Stewie becoming Stewie. When the tournament started she was a completely different player than we saw the prior 2-3 months when she was in her freshman slump. Would that marked improvement in Stewie's performance been enough to overcome Baylor in the final? The world will never know.

Agree with your assessment, although I might suggest that Stewie experienced a freshman learning curve rather than a slump.

 

[Alydar]

I'm not buying the physically and emotionally drained excuse for Ms St., if anything they should have been even more prepared to face SC in the championship(a game that mattered 10x more then the semi) being that they already played two times in the season. Were they drained when they came to Columbia and lost? Or in the SEC tourney championship? No! So in a sense Ms St would have never been up to the task to actually defeat SC. The bulldogs are 0-11 agaisnt SC in the past couple of seasons.

Emotional letdowns after major upset wins is common in all sports. Beating UConn is huge. Your suggestion that the opposite is true has no support. Here's how teams do after beating UConn in the FF semis:
2017 - Miss St lost
2012 - Notre Dame lost
2011 - Notre Dame lost
2008 - Stanford lost

You can add in that Stanford lost their next game after breaking UConn's last long win streak in 2015.

 

[SCGamecock]

As I said, I didn't feel targeted so no disclaimer necessary. I'm just here defending the Boneyard, including the more extreme partisans among us.

"Laughed at and disregarded . . . a year ago?" Hmmm . . . A thick skin and short memory are keys to longevity on the Boneyard.

You suggest I need a thick skin when you're the one white knighting all through this thread. Nobody here needed saving. The Boneyard didn't require "defending" because the Boneyard wasn't being attacked... nobody was. You felt it needed defending because it was a contrary opinion from a "guest"... you could've used your "thick skin" and ignored my post just like everybody else who's looking in on this thread.. instead, you wanted to play the almighty knight and to be "spared of lectures"...

Yeah, thick skin...

 

[cbraarj]

I'm not so sure about that :
UConn margin of victory up until 2013 FF. +68 Idaho, +33 Vandy , +26 MD, + 30 Kentucky.
SC margin of victory up until 2017 FF: +50 UNC Ashville, +3 ASU, +42 Quinnipiac, +7 FSU.
2013 Baylor team beat UConn @UConn and the only other loss was to Stanford (Neutral site? ) . UConn did trash Stanford at Stanford but well before facing Baylor (Dec 29 vs. Feb 18)
What would have suddenly made UConn "as good as Baylor (if not better) by the end of tournament"? UConn would go on to have 2 more losses after being beaten by Baylor.

The way Stewie was playing in the tournament in 2013! She was a non-factor in the Baylor game. I was at the game and IMO with the way Stewie ended the year. Uconn would have won the rematch!

 

[HoopsFan21]

Agree with your assessment, although I might suggest that Stewie experienced a freshman learning curve rather than a slump.

Well she started out hot. Didn't she set the record for most points in her first 10 UConn games or something like that? Once we got to the winter it seemed like she hit that wall like most freshmen where she looked out of sorts for a couple of months. It was a bit of a roller coaster season for Stewie.

 

[CocoHusky]

The way Stewie was playing in the tournament in 2013! She was a non-factor in the Baylor game. I was at the game and IMO with the way Stewie ended the year. UConn would have won the rematch!

Quite possible but as @HoopsFan21 so elequntly put it "we will never know"