There was an interesting thread called "confessions of an arrogant UCONN fan". I'm not sure if this is going to come across as arrogant but here goes.
There are some seasons where there is no team (or teams) who are light years ahead of everyone else. Teams who have several losses throughout the year, and some of those losses are very surprising. Last season, I thought hands down the 2 best teams were UCONN and Baylor, with Duke at the top of the next level. After seeing a supposed final 4 team who's slogan this year is "Grind for 9" to play so poorly against a completely overmatched MTSU team (shades of Ball State) is an indication of just how huge the gap is between UCONN and the other top 10 teams.
MTSU brought back their best player (Rowe) but lost their next 2 leading scorers (14 + 16 PPG) and after that, the next leading scorer was under 5. While they won the Sun Belt last year, I don't think they are better this year, but I've not done very much analysis on them. For Tennessee to struggle like they did, it bodes very ill for their season.
This season, I think it's UCONN, and then maybe 2 or 3 levels below is Duke, then behind them is everyone else. I thought that Maryland was one of the top 6 teams this year. I didn't have PSU in my top 10. I think USF is probably a lot better than St Francis (PA).
My point (I think) is that after tonight's games, Tennessee is not as good as I thought. Same for Maryland. Did Thomas play herself off 1st team AA consideration? Hardly. But as a senior to come out and lay an egg in her first game of the season when her team struggled, is odd to me. I have a hard time imagining Stanford keeping it to within 20 vs. UCONN. But I do think teams like ND and maybe Stanford (and of course Duke) are better than teams like Tennessee due to the coaching. Muffet and Tara especially teach very fundamental basketball, and that seems to be something Tennessee is sorely lacking. If it's true that Holly has not taught her team any offense yet, then it's really hard to imagine what she's been doing with them so far.
I'm fascinated to see what will happen when you have Tennessee face off against UNC - a team that seems to have little offense vs. a team that seems to play little defense.
I am curious to see how Duke and Stanford and ND fare - as well as L'ville. Kentucky was competent against Marist, and Cal played well against LBSU. But I'm still surprised those games were so relatively close as well - Kentucky won by 15, Cal by about 20.
So yes, Tony, It will be very interesting to see what happens this season. Tennessee fans have a lot of reasons to be worried.
