Lunardi Disses UCONN's 7

[tzznandrew]

I don't know why we have such a grievance culture here. We're always the victims of everything.

 

[superjohn]

It's revisionist history to say we knew how good the 2011 and 2014 teams were until they did what they did.

In 2011, you had pieces like this being put out by our own fanbase at the end of the regular season: Notre Dame 70, UConn 67: A very short March in the offing.

In 2014, they got smacked around by Louisville 3 times (sound familiar). They needed OT to get by St. Joe's in the first round.

To expect in 2021 for a Kemba/Shabazz repeat is unrealistic because what they both did is insane. Bouk also doesn't have to do it all himself, something I think he at times forgets out on the floor. He shouldn't have to carry the weight of those two on his back nor try to emulate unless absolutely necessary. He's got some guys around him who can help. Not saying anyone has shown they can be Niels Giffey, Ryan Boatright, or Jeremy Lamb...yet, but certainly guys like Cole, Sanogo, Tyrese, and even Polley for that one week in January have shown they have the ability.

At times this team looks like what we saw v. Georgetown or Xavier or @ Seton Hall and other times they look like 2nd Half Villanova, 1st Half @ Georgetown, and 1st Half @ Marquette.

I hope the team does find consistency this March and maybe they go on a run here.

I expected the '14 team to be a contender going into the season, had no clue the '11 team was going to be awesome. Had no clue Kemba was going to make that leap and the rest would follow, it was all a surprise to me starting in Maui.

 

[Inyatkin]

I don't know why we have such a grievance culture here. We're always the victims of everything.

You can't think that's unique to UConn fans. Every sports fandom does that

 

[Travelman6]

Their only problem was SMU and Louisville.

That was their kryptonite. They were 0-5 vs those two teams, 32-3 vs everyone else (and lost those other 3 games by a total of 11 points). They lost those 5 games by something like 14.6 points per game. None of those 6 teams in the tourney could copy the blueprint laid out by Lville or SMU but if UConn had come across either of those two teams it would be 0-6 instead of 0-5, thankfully they both lost early in the tourney (Lville to Kentucky in the sweet 16, if Lville wins that, I think they make the championship)

 

[jibsey]

You guys get way too worked up over what talking heads say. I’m pretty sure Seth Davis picked against UConn every game in 2014, and it clearly had no bearing on the outcome.

Lunardi isn’t even a basketball analyst - he’s a bracketologist, which legitimately might be the dumbest job title at a company filled with made-up job titles. He’s right around the bottom of the list of basketball opinions I care about.

This is a good UConn team with the potential to make a run, but they aren’t being disrespected nationally like some people on here are making them out to be. Skeptics have called attention to their lack of quality wins, which is a fair critique. But they also have a golden opportunity to change that in the next few weeks.

Bracketologist? So if you specialize after cosmetology school? Or he is certified to do bracket colonoscopies.

 

[UChusky916]

I don't know why we have such a grievance culture here. We're always the victims of everything.

Victimhood is becoming a huge problem in society. Having a need to feel oppressed and victimized is unfortunately becoming mainstream... social media promotes people to have a platform for their victimhood, and they get rewarded with "likes" and sympathy.
Unfortunately, victimhood is self-destructive and prevents people from learning and growing from mistakes/hardships.

While it MIGHT be good for the team to feel somewhat disrespected for "bulletin board" material... you'd hope that's not a main driver of motivation for our players or the team. Many of these guys could be playing their last college game, and for some, their last highly-competitive basketball game of their lives. That should be motivation enough.

In terms of our fans and posters here.... we love to highlight any perceived slight of the program in any way. I think much of the insecurity is from the wounds suffered during the AAC after 2014. The perception and reputation of the program took a big hit, rightfully so, and folks need to get over that. So what if folks criticize the program?

The reality is that this is our first year back in the NCAA tournament in 5 years. Aside from FSU, we don't have any great wins this year. I was sweating out whether or not we would get a 7 seed myself... so who cares is some guy thinks we didn't deserve it. Our roster is very green... we don't have a seasoned or experience group of guys. In fact, we have nearly NO postseason experience on the team. When push came to shove, we haven't performed in close games against good competition when each possession becomes a meaningful grind.

On the other hand... has this team reached their ceiling? Not even close. Let's see how dialed-in Hurley has these guys.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

What??? The 2014 team won some big games, several against ranked opponents and being ranked themselves most of the season. Forget about the Florida game at Gampel???

Their only problem was SMU and Louisville.

I didn’t peg them for a NT entering the tournament, but definitely thought they could make a run.

Yes, I think this team is more talented than our 2014 team. I loved our 2014 team, and thought we could make noise, but that team got very hot and played above their level a bit I think. Never thought about Elite 8 or Final Four, especially after the Louisville loss.

My only point is that if you asked me at the beginning of March to put money on this roster or our 2014 roster to win the championship, I’d go with this roster.

Having said that, I think this team has like a 10% chance of going to the Final Four.

A bit of a side point here, but I think our fanbase underrates how difficult it is to win a national championship, because we’ve had so many great teams AND have been quite fortunate. It’s all about getting hot, having fortunate matchups and elite on court leadership.

 

[johnhuskies95]

While I agree with you, I think Kemba and Bazz had weapons who were consistent. You knew what you were going to get.

Polley if he is on is great, but that is not very often. TMartin hasn't been on in a while. Gaffney took a couple steps back and Cole is hurt. This UConn team doesn't know what they will get out of everyone. Much different than in '11 or '14.

DeAndre Daniels basically defined the word inconsistent. One of the best difficult-shot makers UConn’s ever had but he had off games regularly. Same thing with Boat for stretches that year.

 

[Kiddddddd34]

Myb the late runs cloud my memory a little bit but it seems to me, even during the regular season those years they had an certain ability to close out close games, whether at the line or with key buckets. I know we've improved alot since the USC win but the last few minutes of gameplay were horrendous and very well couldve led to a blown game. Pair that with the two creighton games. It does say something about our mental toughness down the stretch.

 

[Deadrody]

100%. The rosters aren’t even close.

Boat, Giffey, Daniels, Lamb, Bazz....this list goes on.

You're all thinking of things after a championship. Up thread, they called this team's offensive options "inconsistent". There's a reason those teams were not highly seeded, a good part of it was - offensive inconsistency. Lamb and Bazz were freshmen in 2011. To claim you were confident they would help carry the team to 11 straight wins is nonsense. Daniels was the definition of inconsistent and stepped his game WAY up in the tournament. What both of those teams DID have was defense, and that is the one aspect of their game this team has really working right now.

 

[Deadrody]

You guys get way too worked up over what talking heads say. I’m pretty sure Seth Davis picked against UConn every game in 2014, and it clearly had no bearing on the outcome.

Lunardi isn’t even a basketball analyst - he’s a bracketologist, which legitimately might be the dumbest job title at a company filled with made-up job titles. He’s right around the bottom of the list of basketball opinions I care about.

This is a good UConn team with the potential to make a run, but they aren’t being disrespected nationally like some people on here are making them out to be. Skeptics have called attention to their lack of quality wins, which is a fair critique. But they also have a golden opportunity to change that in the next few weeks.

Meh. I don't think this thread is about "OMG they're disrespecting us", so much as "OMG Lunardi is an IDIOT"

 

[Marat]

You're all thinking of things after a championship. Up thread, they called this team's offensive options "inconsistent". There's a reason those teams were not highly seeded, a good part of it was - offensive inconsistency. Lamb and Bazz were freshmen in 2011. To claim you were confident they would help carry the team to 11 straight wins is nonsense. Daniels was the definition of inconsistent and stepped his game WAY up in the tournament. What both of those teams DID have was defense, and that is the one aspect of their game this team has really working right now.

This is right on.
This team has a foundation to make a run - solid defense, star guard, offensive rebounding, and developing young center , and a solid supporting cast. if they can step it up and become consistent, then we will see a run. That is the question.

 

[Husky68]

He has a point. Bouk is fun to watch but do you have the same confidence that he can lead a team to a championship? I did with Bazz and Kemba.

I hope I am wrong.

Can you say you had the same confidence that Kemba and Bazz could lead UConn to the championship "before they actually did it". I had more confidence in the post Emeka/Gordon team that lost to George Mason and the Caron team that lost to Maryland.

UConn is as good as any 7 seed relative to the field as could be expected. Have an Arizona 3 drop or Amida not get a late offensive rebound, score and make free throw and UConn is only one championship ahead of Fruit U.

Play smart, coach smart, and play your roles as well as you can and UConn will be in a position to beat any of these teams. Oh, and make free throws.

 

[Dean Wormer]

A lot of revisionist history going on about the '11 and especially the '14 teams. I don't remember any great certainty that we'd win the whole thing, more like the opposite. But a few lucky bounces, a team starts to gel and boom, things can change quickly. Let's hope it happens again.

 

[tzznandrew]

Going into the NCAAs, 2011 was a 3 seed and one of the most popular picks to win the title.

2014, on the other hand, was not. We had some hope that if we got to MSG we might be able to get to the Final Four, but anyone who confident that UConn team was going to win the title was crazy. They had just gotten clobbered by Louisville.

Still, the 7 was an under-seed IMO and they were clearly a better team than this team, particularly as they had beaten the overall #1 in Florida.

 

[bendm]

with all espn's layoffs idk how lunardi has managed to cling to the raft when he demonstrates his incompetence year after year

 

[Waquoit]

Meh. I don't think this thread is about "OMG they're disrespecting us", so much as "OMG Lunardi is an IDIOT"

Lunardi is dumping on UConn to cover his butt. What does Kemba and Bazz have to do with getting a 7 seed for crying out loud?

 

[BParkDog]

 

[HuskyHawk]

All these comparisons to 11 and 14 are useless. Those teams played a lot of games. I also don't recall Kemba and Bazz missing significant time. This team is a talented enigma. It could put up a clunker at any time or beat just about anybody if the shots are falling and the intensity on D is high. Talking about big wins in 2014, well this team didn't get to play those games. We didn't even get our second shot at Villanova. So we really don't know what the hell they are going to do or fail to do. The sample size is just too small. What should be intriguing is that we repeatedly got down by double figures, sometimes deep double figures and came back to win, on a few occasions, win big. That's an indication of what the team can do at peak, it can create a 30 point differential in a half. We have insane spurtability.

 

[auror]

with all espn's layoffs idk how lunardi has managed to cling to the raft when he demonstrates his incompetence year after year

When I say "Lunardi" you know exactly who I mean and you know exactly what he does.
When I link something from Lunardi, there's a good chance you click.

The same is not true for most basketball fans if I say Palm, Decourcy, Gasaway, Brennan, etc.

 

[UConnRock]

View attachment 65899

ESPN talking heads will always bash and down play the Big East because of the BE Fox affiliation. ESPN is going to hype their teams

 

[tzznandrew]

When I say "Lunardi" you know exactly who I mean and you know exactly what he does.
When I link something from Lunardi, there's a good chance you click.

The same is not true for most basketball fans if I say Palm, Decourcy, Gasaway, Brennan, etc.

Further, I can't imagine he costs that much. It's not his full-time job. Frankly, he's a great investment. He's got people yelling about him on a message board.

 

[auggie22]

Actually I did have a lot of faith in Bazz although admittedly not a championship but at least in an Elite 8 berth.

I didn’t expect to get by MSU. After that game it was clear we were winning it all. Still remember the jab step 30 footer that he hit where it barely grazed the net. The rest of the game was a formality. Hope Bouk has one of those games where the script is completely flipped.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

We are upset because Lunardi thinks we should have been a 9 instead of a 7? Who cares? Lunardi's relevance expires every year at 6 pm on Selection Sunday.

 

[tzznandrew]

ESPN talking heads will always bash and down play the Big East because of the BE Fox affiliation. ESPN is going to hype their teams

I can find evidence again and again of this just not being true. It's not hard.