Agree - mid season is not the time for greatest or even comparisons - lets see the season play out. With that said ...
No question that 2000-2001 team with 5 Olympians as opposed to ONLY four in 2001-2 was probably the best collection of talent ever. The injuries, the FF meltdown, and probably the youth disqualify it from best ever team.
On the current team - what I have seen from Stewart in USA basketball and in college is a player that only seems to get really motivated when the games are really important. I think this is something that Geno and the coaches are working on and I see more intensity on a game by game basis this year and from start to finish of each game. Kaleena is having a difficult year with the injury but seems to be rounding back into form. Stef started really strong and then sort of plateaued and I am not sure why - she has made more bad passes over the last month than I can remember - but the effort is always there. Moriah is constant energy and very focused and has been all year, and Bria over the last month is pouring it on. I would say the last three do have that killer instinct - Stef with a smile, Moriah with a grin, but it is still there.
And I think part of the reason we don't recognize it in this team is actually on Geno and his coaching. Until the last few games he really put the brakes on the offense and defense in the second half for most of the season - called off pressure and trapping and slowed down the offense. He didn't do that against Temple, Cinci, and SMU. In those three games Uconn's break half by half was 49/44, 41/45, 54/48 and the opponents was 32/24, 11/18, 19/22. Up until those three games Uconn was scoring 8.3 points less in the second half - in those three only 2.3 fewer and less dramatically they were giving up 1.6 points more vs. just 0.6. But this is also probably the standard flow of a season with Geno ramping up the intensity and doing less experimenting and teaching as March approaches.
On the personality thing - DT was pretty unique - as were Diggins and a few other college players. I would say that Stef is also pretty unique but more off the court than on. But beyond those few, I'm not sure what people expect. And to some degree the NCAA has rules now that discourage being overly demonstrative on the court - taunting and popping the Jersey are both now technicals and I suspect some of DTs jawing on the court would now get a T.
