Most Frustrating Seasons

[MyDorona]

I disagree with the fail of the 05-06 season being about over ranked top recruits. Rudy Gay was the only top 25 recruit on that team. Hilton Armstrong was a developed player. Rashard Anderson, Denom Brown, and Josh Boone were all former champions and were that mid tier 30 to 60 recruit they built their program on. Gay scored 20 points in that game and carried them in second half. The team also featured blue collar hard worker freshman Jeff Adrien who was not a top recruit and who had a great game, and would later go to Final 4 With Thabeet.
They played that game against GM in DC in front of crowd that was going bananas every time Gm made a basket. GM played out of their minds in the second half shooting 70% on contested 3s, and contested shots from their bigs with Armstrong and Boone in their face. This game is an example of why in NBA plays a series and not one game. For this one game GM was just better. They beat UConn.

Neither I- or the original poster I agreed with- posited that the 05-06 failure was because of "over ranked top recruits." Rather, we seem to agree that it was due to a team of highly-recruited prep stars [Gay (T10), Anderson (T20), Denham (T35), Marcus (T50)]- who were extremely talented but incapable/ unwilling of playing the brand of team basketball that fueled UConn's run to a NC in 1999 and 2004. I would argue this extends back to the 04-05 team, with T5 recruit Villanueva as its de facto captain. That brand of basketball was not winning big games, and it was something Calhoun eventually moved away from.

 

[Inyatkin]

Calhoun didn't "turn down" five-star recruits; he simply recruited a different type of player after the 2006 debacle. With the exception of maybe Drummond- a local kid and a generational talent- he began to once again recruit guys who were projected to stick around beyond a year or two. He alluded to this many times after 2006, and this article I found would tend to support his philosophy:

"But the best teams almost always have experience. Some of the best teams I've had, like my '99 (national championship) team that went 34-2, that was because some of my best players came back (instead of turning pro)...Experience makes a difference. There are subtle things you see on game tape that you don't see in the box score. Older guys are smarter, and make better decisions. If you watch Kentucky, John (Calipari) does a great job coaching them but they're all kids. That eventually shows."

Former UConn coach Jim Calhoun says experience key in NCAA tournament

The longtime Connecticut coach said that this year's Final Four shows the value of experience in the era of one-and-done.

www.usatoday.com

Calhoun's recruitment of Brandon Knight, a top-ranked player who everyone knew was in college for one year, seems to rebut this. He was also after a bunch of other top point guards that year. Calhoun said a lot of things over the years, but he never stopped recruiting the best players. No one would.

 

[HeGotGame]

Wondering how the Yard feels about that question. I was doing some research and came across the year after our first national Championship 1999-00. We were pre season #1 but we finished 25-10, 10-6 , Big East and lost in the second round. El-Amin, Mouring, Freeman, Voshul, Edmond Saunders who was a stud out of Waterbury and the highly over rated Ajou Deng ( wish we got his brother). Maybe it was a stretch to have that high of a pre season ranking but I just remember being frustrated with that team. I was trying to figure out at least for me the most disappointing seasons. I think it is between this year and that year.

Not sure this year is in the top 10