How dominant will UConn be in 2017-18?

[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"

 

[cbraarj]

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

Would have loved to see it though,lol.

 

[CocoHusky]

Would have loved to see it though,lol.

Not me, beat down Louisville, collect the trophy and go home. Wish BG well in the pros start the Stewie era.

 

[oldude]

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.

Actually if you go back and look at Stewie's stats for Nov-Dec of her freshman year, she had big games against weaker teams (Charleston, Marist, Colgate, Oakland, etc.) and less than impressive games against ranked teams (TX A&M, MD, PSU, Stanford).

Once the Big East conference schedule started she continued to be inconsistent. Once the Big Dance started, Stewie emerged from a phone booth with her Supergirl cape on and dominated everybody.

 

[Carnac]

There are still some posters that are concerned if Dangerfield will make a "significant" sophomore leap this year. Maybe this will help. This is an excerpt from an article by Jim Fuller on Monday (July 17) about Dangerfield -

UConn’s Crystal Dangerfield will called on to be one of the leaders for the U.S. team at the FIBA U19 World Cup.

"The pursuit of another gold medal while representing her country is enough to get Crystal Dangerfield fired up for the upcoming FIBA U19 World Cup. However, the event which begins Saturday in Italy, also provides the rising sophomore a bit of a dress rehearsal of some of the things she may be asked to do in her second season at UConn. With a season under her belt, Dangerfield is drawing positive reviews for the confidence she displayed during pickup games with her teammates, giving every indication that lessons were learned during her inconsistent freshman season.

Dangerfield’s leadership role with the Huskies is still to be determined, but there is no question that she will be asked to point the way for the U19 team as the U.S. goes after its seventh straight gold medal. Dangerfield is the only member of the squad who played on the gold-medal winning U19 squad in 2015.

With a highly-touted freshman class featuring national high school player of the year Megan Walker, guard Mikayla Coombs and sweet-shooting wing players Andra Espinoza-Hunter and Lexi Gordon as well as post players Batouly Camara and Azura’ Stevens being eligible, it’s quite possible the Huskies will press and trap more than they have in recent seasons. That would be just fine with Dangerfield.

“I think the team that we have here this year, I feel like we can really run teams,” Dangerfield said. “We can have a whole five to come in (off the bench) if necessary, so I think working hard during these summer sessions is helpful. Sometimes we don’t like it but we need it."

I wonder if Geno would consider an experiment with running a full court press featuring 5 in, 5 out every 3 minutes of the first quarter during the 2 exhibition games, to see how effective it would be. I'd be interested in seeing it.

 

[TitleTown]

I would be very interested to hear the reasoning from the 4 people that picked UConn not to win the National Championship this year.

 

[CocoHusky]

I would be very interested to hear the reasoning from the 4 people that picked UConn not to win the National Championship this year.

I would bet none of the four would put money on what they voted for.

 

[Carnac]

I was thinking of taking the trek up the 405 from San Diego and seeing the UCLA game, too. Do you Boneyarders ever meet up at games or does everyone prefer to remain anonymous?

Unfortunately, UConn does not come west often enough (to suit me). UCLA (Westwood) is in my backyard. I will be at the game. The only other time I've seen them in person was when they came west in November 2014.
It would be nice if the Boneyard faithful that will be attending this game can meet someplace inside Pauley Pavilion before the game, or during halftime. There will be a lot of UConn fans in attendance.

I was surprised at the large number of Husky fans (proudly dressed to the nines in their UConn gear) at both games (UC Davis and Stanford) in 2014. It's always nice to meet and greet other Husky fans, and put some faces with some handles. I have yet to have the pleasure of attending a game at Gampel. That remains on my short bucket list.

As the game date approaches, perhaps we can designate a meeting place inside the arena for the UConn fans attending the game.

 

[j66kicker]

Unfortunately, UConn does not come west too often (to suit me). UCLA (Westwood) is in my backyard. I will be at the game. The only other time I've seen them in person was when they came west in November 2014.
It would be nice if the Boneyard faithful that will be attending this game can meet someplace inside Pauley Pavilion before the game, or during halftime. Get a chance to meet and greet other UConn fans, and put some faces with some handles. I have yet to have the pleasure of attending a game at Gampel. That remains on my short bucket list.

As the game date approaches, perhaps we can designate a meeting place inside the arena for the UConn contingent attending the game.

I will be there. As time gets nearer let's decide on a meet-up.

 

[oldude]

Unfortunately, UConn does not come west often enough (to suit me).

In the famous words of Horace Greeley, "Go East young man!"

.....Maybe I got that wrong....

 

[UConnCat]

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...

White Knight. Yes! Thanks for that.