Tony, I love you and of course, your enthusiasm but I do want you to reconsider beating "every team including ND by 20+), considering that we played a few teams this year that we beat by less than 20 points. Maybe not much less, but less and we even had an 11 point win against Baylor so your boast is maybe a little over the top. I can't think of any scenario where we don't win but I, myself, wouldn't guarantee 20+ wins as we advance.
Maybe Notre Dame would have had even more attention showered on them if when they had gotten past the Huskies and played in the title game, they managed to win. Their issues are with themselves, not with the Huskies. That old expression, you can't win the BIG ONE! The only national championship that they have is the one where they played an injury depleted UConn team(losing two All-Americans) that blew a big half time lead to get them to the title game and then managed to win that one. In the years following that, Notre Dame acts like they weren't getting any talent! I can't imagine too many universities more highly respected educationally and they can't get talented women's basketball players to attend their university???? That's bull! They just weren't good enough to get over the hump. Geno had much more serious issues for the first how many years at UConn when first and foremost, the facilities sucked. Secondly they hadn't had a winning season in forever and thirdly, UConn was considered a regional school, not a national one. Geno sucked it up and gradually (okay, maybe not so gradually) got them to become a national power. Someone wrote that poor Muffett couldn't get top players to come to Notre Dame until recently and so that's why she hasn't been able to compete before with the Huskies. What bullc**p! She's had tools from the get go that Geno would have died for when he first came to Storrs and yet we hear that whining about "no one wants to come play for me" crap?????? Shameful!
I agree with your basic premise but when you stated that "Hartley is in statistical categories with Moore and Taurasi" in the same sentence, almost as if they were equals, well, that's silly! Hartley has had an exceptional senior season after a pretty disastrous one last year and I and many others couldn't be happier but she is no where near the player that Diana and Maya are, if that's what you're suggesting. I agree the loss of Stef Dolson, in particular, is going to be very difficult to overcome next year but they are getting a really good recruiting class. As for our team, I think Morgan will be back better than ever and KML will be healthy and Kia is only going to get better. That leaves Breanna and unless there's some sort of health issue, she's going to be a monster. She's going to be stronger and even better, which is hard to believe. I'm confident that with the excellent recruiting class (which may even include A'ja)the depth of talent will come in handy too, at least early on. It sounds as if Kia Nurse is going to come in ready to contribute right away with all the experience she's getting on the Canadian nation team and that she's phenomenal. Later in the season, based on who's playing well, Geno will probably cut back to using seven, maybe eight players. I'm inclined to think that just about all the better teams are going to lose talent as well with the possible exception of North Carolina who should be pretty formidable. Again, having Breanna makes a massive difference. Remember how Diana elevated the play of everyone else in her junior and senior years to give the Huskies titles??? I'm pretty confident we can expect Breanna to do likewise, with a much better supporting cast than Diana had.
You are actually distorting reality a little bit because when you compare the UConn-Tennessee mark to the recent history of UConn-Notre Dame, it's not a fair comparison. The UConn-Tennessee mark was over a number of years, 5 or possible 6 while 6 of the 7 Notre Dame wins were in two seasons. UConn "dominated" Tennessee over a far longer time with both teams having an ever changing lineup while the core of the Notre Dame team that dominated UConn was Skylar Duggins and their two senior stars from this year. Not nearly as impressive and even then, Notre Dame couldn't win the big win. That wasn't the case in the years of UConn's dominance of Tennessee.
Hadn't thought of that and honestly do not know the answer to that.
ND is a full member of the ACC regarding voting on all conference matters. It gets a special arrangement in football, and cannot play for the ACC championship, but shares some bowl games.
Don't know if we'll be "better", but most likely good enough, barring injuries and such. Loosing Dolson and Hartley will be very hard to replace. Really we won't. However, having Stewart and Jefferson as Juniors, getting a healthy AA KML back, that trifecta right there will make it difficult for anyone to beat us. Add in, hopefully, Tuck, and then you only need a couple of the rest, Stokes, Chong, Banks, Williams, Ekmark, Nurse, Edwards, to be decent/serviceable, and we have a real good shot at another NC.
No you're confused, it's the Internet where it has to be true.
I wasn't equating Hartley with those other two legends, no one may ever reach that lofty status, however, it would be silly to deny how good she has been during her career and to think Jefferson et al will just easily pick up the slack next year. I think she's top 10 all-time for scoring, and there are a couple of statistical categories (i.e. XXX number of points, XXX rebounds, and XXX assists for example) of which only Hartley, Moore, and Taurasi are a part that you always hear about during UConn telecasts. That was all I was saying.
We're pretty juggernauty this year. I don't know if we'll be quite as good next year. Hard to lose 2 AA's and be better. But I am more than willing to be wrong.
Duke-Carolina rivalry goes way beyond the winning percentage against the other. You cant compare UCONN-ND or UCONN-TN to it at all. Maybe if you dont live or never lived in this state, you wouldnt understand how deep it is. Just look at my avatar... and maybe you can get an idea.
Ask the ND fans who were at the ACC Tourney. they got to witness the rivalry at its best up close. Ask the same ND fans whose fans were behind them in full force during the title game.
Thanks for conceding that much – over here many of us hope that Connecticut would have at least a little chance of winning.
Next years offense runs through Moriah, and Stewie, which will cause many openings for the best shooter in the game KML. Stewie has almost as many assists as Stef with a few less turnovers, so you would expect Stewie in the high post , with Kiah down low. Stewie at the high post presents nightmares for opposing coaches, a true triple threat. The ability to knock down the jump shot, drive to the rim, or make a bounce pass to a cutter, or open shooter. Stewie also sets a good screen for Moriah, and her driving layups.
Well, I've been thinking about this.
But Muppet was incorrect on one thing. They have not learned how to beat UCONN. They won some close games that could have gone either way with one different bounce of the ball. In the most recent game UCONN BEAT nd by being able to elevate their game. nd has never shown the ability to do that.
