Lunardi Bracketology - July 29

[AntG168]

I can't believe it only took four months for UConn fans to forget about Vital. SMH

Forget about vital? I vouched for Vital when 3/4 of the board was calling him a punk. It’s not a knock on Vital. He was the leader, the soul, and the captain but he wasn’t “by far” the best player by seasons end. He and Bouk were a two headed monster. How on earth you see that as a knock against Vital is beyond me

 

[UofCT]

CV led UConn in mins, points, rebounds, steals, PER, free throw %, and probably a lot more advanced stats I don’t feel like looking up. You’re wrong. I’m right.

 

[AntG168]

CV led UConn in mins, points, rebounds, steals, PER, free throw %, and probably a lot more advanced stats I don’t feel like looking up. You’re wrong. I’m right.

Sure. If you watched a game and came away thinking CV was “far better” than Bouk there’s nothing I can say. At the end of the day they were both fantastic. And we don’t finish they eat we did if one was absent. I am and have been the biggest CV fan on this board since he’s been here. He’s a legend. The End

 

[Huskyforlife]

Bouknight will replace vitals production, the difference is the monumental shift in talent level. Being a 10 seed would be very disappointing, it would likely mean something unexpected went wrong.

 

[LurkSoHard]

CV led UConn in mins, points, rebounds, steals, PER, free throw %, and probably a lot more advanced stats I don’t feel like looking up. You’re wrong. I’m right.

He's saying by the end of the season Bouknight was right there with CV in terms of importance to the team. You used season long stats to refute that, which doesn't disprove his point. He's not wrong, and your points don't have to be mutually exclusive. You can say CV was far and away the best player when looking at the entire season, while still acknowledging by the end of the year Bouknight was right there with him.

 

[UofCT]

He's saying by the end of the season Bouknight was right there with CV in terms of importance to the team. You used season long stats to refute that, which doesn't disprove his point. He's not wrong, and your points don't have to be mutually exclusive. You can say CV was far and away the best player when looking at the entire season, while still acknowledging by the end of the year Bouknight was right there with him.

The CV disrespect is bananas

 

[AntG168]

The CV disrespect is bananas

How is it a disrespect to CV? You are reaching

 

[caw]

The CV disrespect is bananas

Offensively Vital and Bouk were pretty close in conference, and it shouldn’t be a big deal to say they were a two headed attack. Their raw/per40/per100 stats back this up. Even their ORat are pretty close 113.5 to 112.1. Advanced stats have them pretty close on TS%, eFG%,TRB% (Bouk has an advantage at ORB%), USG%, OWS. They plus Isaiah Whaley are the only ones over 1.0 OWS.



Defensively Vital was much better, eye test and almost every metric agrees. He was easily the teams best defender with Whaley coming in #2 on DWS, though they flip on DRtg.

 

[Samoo]

That’s your opinion

My 10 year old says that all the time.

 

[BlueDogs]

It's as similar to it's original conference as any other major conference.

Except for the ones that went to big time conferences. Funny that G-Town, Nova and the Johnies were the schools that kept Penn State out in the 80s Which would have anchored the conference indefinitely, and here we are with Nova ruling the Catholic basketball roost with Rutgers in the BIG and Syracuse, Pitt and BC in the ACC. This conference is so wrong for us it’s insane, yet through incompetence we find ourselves congratulating and celebrating our rebirth.

 

[UofCT]

My 10 year old says that all the time.

Must be a smart kid

 

[Hurleyman216]

The loss of CV will hurt but this team is loaded and has a staff that actually coaches. Remember how awful and young we were going to be last year after losing our best player in Jalen Adams? I expect another large step in the right direction as a team if we get to play this season.

 

[CL82]

The CV disrespect is bananas

Absolutely! Of course it also largely doesn’t exist, outside of your mind.

 

[mauconnfan]

Exactly. Vital was by far our best player and most productive player and now he's gone. We have a team full of freshman and sophomores, we have zero post season experience on the roster, zero NCAA tournament minutes played, and if you combine the records of all of our returning players it would be sub 500. (I think)

It is not realistic to go from NIT hopeful to a top 25 team after losing your best player. Can it be done? Let's hope!

He was great but to think we can't make up for him is not correct. He may have led in a lot of stats but he was also one of the reasons we were dreadful in the middle of the schedule. We lost a lot more impact players than CV when JC was coaching and were all concerned about replacing them but stayed on top of the Big East year after year. And the thought we have no post season experience how would he have lended a hand in that?

Kid was a really good player, there's a next really good player waiting and maybe even better overall. That's what a good program does.

 

[CL82]

The thing that I think about Christian is that he was a senior who looked to be ready to put the team on his back and carry them to the post season. He was doing all the right things and his shot to get it done got taken away from him. It's a shame. Not a huge deal in light of the overall picture, but still kind of a bummer.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

That’s your opinion

Stop it lol
You think last seasons team was more talented than this one? Come on man.

The loss of CV will sting a bit more than people are anticipating I think, at least to start the season.
But the talent debate of last years team vs this year’s team... it’s not close. And that can be supported with individual player numbers and recruiting rankings as well.

 

[UofCT]

Stop it lol
You think last seasons team was more talented than this one? Come on man.

The loss of CV will sting a bit more than people are anticipating I think, at least to start the season.
But the talent debate of last years team vs this year’s team... it’s not close. And that can be supported with individual player numbers and recruiting rankings as well.

More talented, better players, etc etc. The CV loss will sting despite what people on this thread think. We have no experience on this roster. If we end up an 10 or 11 seed I will be thrilled. It is not realistic, imo, to expect anything higher than that.

 

[mauconnfan]

More talented, better players, etc etc. The CV loss will sting despite what people on this thread think. We have no experience on this roster. If we end up an 10 or 11 seed I will be thrilled. It is not realistic, imo, to expect anything higher than that.

That’s fair no doubt. His loss will sting even more if Cole isn’t close to as good as some think as well as some improvement from Gaffney. But with Sanogo, Jackson growing up as the season progresses and chemistry evolves there’s potential to get more.

 

[Edward Sargent]

The thing that I think about Christian is that he was a senior who looked to be ready to put the team on his back and carry them to the post season. He was doing all the right things and his shot to get it done got taken away from him. It's a shame. Not a huge deal in light of the overall picture, but still kind of a bummer.

It is and you and I feel for him, but he isn't hanging his head, he is I imagine out there making business decisions as to his best path forward. He's a smart guy - he'll do well