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Message: [QUOTE="BfromCT, post: 4910792, member: 10542"] Now that the Big East tournament is over with the expected results, albeit with considerably more difficulty due to the nose injury to Aaliyah Edwards, we must now think about the NCAA tournament. To my mind, the Huskies, a likely three seed, are a Sweet Sixteen level team. This is due, as we all recognize, to the plethora of injuries suffered. This year’s UConn team probably has the shortest bench of any squad for the past thirty years. Realistically, the team has had a five and one half player rotation for much of the season, although the break out performance of Ice Brady in the Big East tournament gives grounds for optimism. With just one more player, say, Aubrey Griffin, the team’s ceiling would probably be higher. For the Huskies to hope to win at the round of sixteen and advance, four factors have to fall into place and not necessarily in the order presented. First, the starters must stay out of foul trouble because there is little bench. Second, Paige has to put on Caitlin Clark quality games. She must average around thirty points per game for the team to advance. She was 27+ for the Big East tournament. Third, Edwards, assuming she is 100%, must be able to hit jump shots for that is the only way to move opposing bigs away from the basket and open up the lane. Fourth, the team has to hit its 3-pointers, something that has been lacking for most of the second half of the season, although the squad was on target for the BE championship game. The Huskies will need to drain around ten long shots per game to be competitive against high quality opponents like all those on the 1 and 2 lines of the bracket. The unknown factor at this time is the seeding. If we believe Charlie Creme, UConn will be a 3 seed in the Portland 3 region. No. 1 is Stanford and no. 2 LSU. If, and it is a big if, LSU is the 2 seed in UConn’s region, the Huskies will have an extremely tough time because the team does not match up well against LSU. We shall see. [/QUOTE]

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