Next Five Games

[huskies20]

12/28 vs. Nova
12/31 @ Xavier
1/4 @ Prov
1/7 vs Creighton
1/11 @ Marq

They were talking about this on The Field of 68 After Dark that this is our toughest stretch of the season.

As much as I want to go 5-0 my gut is saying 4-1, but our depth and energy in last 10 minutes means it’s doable.

Either way, going to be a fun 3 weeks. Let’s get it done boys.

 

[UConnSwag11]

12/28 vs. Nova
12/31 @ Xavier
1/4 @ Prov
1/7 vs Creighton
1/11 @ Marq

They were talking about this on The Field of 68 After Dark that this is our toughest stretch of the season.

As much as I want to go 5-0 my gut is saying 4-1, but our depth and energy in last 10 minutes means it’s doable.

Either way, going to be a fun 3 weeks. Let’s get it done boys.

At Xavier and at PC will be our toughest games IMO followed by at Marquette. I’m near kid about those. Xavier will be fighting to win the conference and will have their best home court advantage of the season, NYE. PC has the best homecourt in the conference and will want to prove that last year wasn’t a fluke.

After what we went through against GTown at home, I’m hoping the teams and fans don’t expect any gimmes here on out

 

[August_West]

Not one automatic gimme in that bunch, Georgetown was supposed to be the gimme at home before this part of schedule and look how that went. Great win nonetheless, but it illustrates what league play brings that OOC doesn't. It's going to be fun watching us take it on, but we have 3 road games against upper half of league teams who all want a shot at us, and our two home games are against the preseason top of league picks.

We are every teams resume builder from here on out. We will be every teams best win of the season if they get us. This will only help us in March no matter what our record coming out of this stretch is.

 

[selles]

Not one automatic gimme in that bunch, Georgetown was supposed to be the gimme at home before this part of schedule and look how that went. Great win nonetheless, but it illustrates what league play brings that OOC doesn't. It's going to be fun watching us take it on, but we have 3 road games against upper half of league teams who all want a shot at us, and our two home games are against the preseason top of league picks.

We are every teams resume builder from here on out. We will be every teams best win of the season if they get us. This will only help us in March no matter what our record coming out of this stretch is.

Someone noted that the last team to open with this many double-digit victories was 2009 UNC. After going 13-0 out of conference that UNC team started 0-2 in conference and ultimately lost 4 games (including the semis of the conference tournament) before again demolishing everyone in the NCAA tournament by double digits. Worth keeping that in the back of our minds. Conference games are indeed a different beast.

 

[jibsey]

So after what I saw with the way Georgetown played I think our schedule is survive and advance with few gimmes, and I know we have a great team with depth. BE teams are better than most give credit for regardless of rankings Or not. Probably going to be several losses which is fine as long as we can correct issues before March. Main focus is just keep everyone in one piece.

 

[dogpause]

It seems like our strength is our ability to push the pace, forcing every opponent to play at our speed for an entire game, to have to defend every player every second, and to have to work hard for shots. Few teams can play at our pace, and even fewer can do it for 40 minutes with a high caliber lineup on the floor. The key is to push it for 40 minutes.

Georgetown was able to play fast, but not for 40 minutes. Also, we slowed up at times rather than forcing the tempo. The first 11 teams we played couldn't make it past 20 minutes, resulting in us never trailing in the second half. If we play at Hurley Speed for the entire game, we'll be very tough to beat.

 

[NJHoops]

They kind of approached their OOC schedule in chunks: the 3 games without Dre and Jordan, 2 relatively easy games to work in those two, the 3 games at the PKI, the 2 higher level follow-up games (Oklahoma State, Florida), fun against LIU.

Now, each conference game is its own thing, no looking back or ahead. Throw overall rankings out the window. We’ve seen it already just two games in. Marquette got ranked, lost to PC. Xavier struggled with Seton Hall. Villanova found their footing against St. John’s. Creighton gets Kalkbrenner back.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

All of those teams are going to come at us as if their life depends on it.

I hope the Huskies have the mental fortitude to handle it as much as the literal gameplan.

 

[bluestreak]

Didn't we lose 4 out of 5 to end the 2014 reg season? Or maybe that was 2011.
I feel better if we are fully battle tested before tourney time. Win the BE tournament and go to the dance with a resume good enough to get us a 1 or 2 seed. Before then we don't have to sweat a smattering of losses.
Personally my biggest fear is going into the dance undefeated. Keeps me awake at night.

 

[August_West]

Providence finding their stride Bryce Hopkins looks great, Nova undefeated with Whitmore, and Kalkbrenner returning for Creighton (which totally changes their team). All those teams need to make up for less than stellar starts .

This is gonna be a really heavy lift.

 

[formerlurker]

In my opinion Marquette will be our toughest game. They blew out Baylor in November and have a win against Creighton. They also have close losses to Miss State, Purdue and Wisconsin all by 5 points or less. Tough squad.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

12/28 vs. Nova
12/31 @ Xavier
1/4 @ Prov
1/7 vs Creighton
1/11 @ Marq

They were talking about this on The Field of 68 After Dark that this is our toughest stretch of the season.

As much as I want to go 5-0 my gut is saying 4-1, but our depth and energy in last 10 minutes means it’s doable.

Either way, going to be a fun 3 weeks. Let’s get it done boys.

This is almost like a mini NCAA tournament stretch. All of those teams certainly think they are tournament teams, and most if not all are correct!

 

[dennismenace]

All of those teams are going to come at us as if their life depends on it.

I hope the Huskies have the mental fortitude to handle it as much as the literal gameplan.

Great post. The Huskies will have to match their opponent's ferocity and intensity at a minimum. There is plenty of tape for opponents to scrutinize now so the pluses and minuses of this team have been revealed.

We saw some of that mental fortitude when Joey C. came right at Georgetown and was not going to let us lose. Hopefully that becomes contagious.

A key is the 40 minutes ten toes in and unity with each other. Even if they fall behind in the early parts of a game they can believe that the last 10 minutes will belong to them because of depth. Emotionalism can be a blessing but in the end it is going to be an attitude of imposing their will against each team they face. Our opponents need to know they are going to get into a fight.

Let the rock fights begin!

 

[elmcityboy]

In my opinion Marquette will be our toughest game. They blew out Baylor in November and have a win against Creighton. They also have close losses to Miss State, Purdue and Wisconsin all by 5 points or less. Tough squad.

this might come back to bite me, but i am not really worried about marquette for whatever reason. we have played them well the last few years and i actually think it's a decent match-up -- they don't have speed at the guard position, which was problematic vs georgetown, and they have no one to guard sanogo on the other end. providence just destroyed them on the glass.

i would like to think we have a good chance in all of these games, but it's really hard to win on the road. as long as we can beat pc, nova, and creighton i will be happy.

 

[superjohn]

Probably going to be several losses

I highly doubt it.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

We'll have a target on our backs for the entirety of the season. Every opponent will view the game against us as their super bowl.

Let's face it, we're UConn again!

 

[AdamaNation]

So after what I saw with the way Georgetown played I think our schedule is survive and advance with few gimmes, and I know we have a great team with depth. BE teams are better than most give credit for regardless of rankings Or not. Probably going to be several losses which is fine as long as we can correct issues before March. Main focus is just keep everyone in one piece.

Just no bad losses. We will be fine. We went 9-9 in 2011 undefeated out of conference in 3 tournaments.

 

[huskeynut]

It's the Big East. It's a fight every night. No quarter given.

UConn has to run the gauntlet.

 

[HuskyHawk]

This is why I thought it was crazy to think we'd be undefeated longer than Purdue. Purdue just played New Orleans, and has Florida A&M next, followed by Rutgers at home. We have a really tough stretch here.

 

[storrsroars]

I can deal with a loss to any of the above, except PeeCee.

 

[Kolumbo]

It seems like our strength is our ability to push the pace, forcing every opponent to play at our speed for an entire game, to have to defend every player every second, and to have to work hard for shots. Few teams can play at our pace, and even fewer can do it for 40 minutes with a high caliber lineup on the floor. The key is to push it for 40 minutes.

Georgetown was able to play fast, but not for 40 minutes. Also, we slowed up at times rather than forcing the tempo. The first 11 teams we played couldn't make it past 20 minutes, resulting in us never trailing in the second half. If we play at Hurley Speed for the entire game, we'll be very tough to beat.

The stretch to start the 2nd half against Georgetown was brutal. Shots weren't falling, lots of stoppage, just no flow to the game at all. Then it seemed like Joey C came in and ignited the game. They can't let the game get bogged down to a crawl. For a period the offense looked like last year's version where they passed the ball around and would come up empty. Ram it down their throats!!

 

[navery12]

This is why I thought it was crazy to think we'd be undefeated longer than Purdue. Purdue just played New Orleans, and has Florida A&M next, followed by Rutgers at home. We have a really tough stretch here.

But that's not really an accurate comparison of the schedules, because if you continue with Purdue's schedule through this full 5 game stretch we're looking at for UConn they go on the road against good Ohio State and Penn State teams. Ohio State is favored over Purdue on KenPom right now. Both teams have tough stretches coming up

 

[HuskyHawk]

But that's not really an accurate comparison of the schedules, because if you continue with Purdue's schedule through this full 5 game stretch we're looking at for UConn they go on the road against good Ohio State and Penn State teams. Ohio State is favored over Purdue on KenPom right now. Both teams have tough stretches coming up

Simply looking at who would lose first. We have 3 potential losses before they have one.

 

[housekeys]

There are things we can control, and things we can't. I am not worried about the things we can control. It is the intangible things that concern me most. Things we can't control:

1) Injuries - can render our depth much less effective. It can also screw up any chemistry that we have built to date.

2) Officials - are human, make many mistakes, some critical and homer-ism is to be expected. They also dictate the style of play. In the BE rocks are allowed.

Luckily both of the above applies to our opponents as well, so we can't use this as an excuse. Our opponents are playing with house money (see GT - they lose, and gain respect). We just need to make sure we play to our potential, and things should come out right.

 

[dogpause]

There are things we can control, and things we can't. I am not worried about the things we can control. It is the intangible things that concern me most. Things we can't control:

1) Injuries - can render our depth much less effective. It can also screw up any chemistry that we have built to date.

2) Officials - are human, make many mistakes, some critical and homer-ism is to be expected. They also dictate the style of play. In the BE rocks are allowed.

Luckily both of the above applies to our opponents as well, so we can't use this as an excuse. Our opponents are playing with house money (see GT - they lose, and gain respect). We just need to make sure we play to our potential, and things should come out right.

Good point, there are indeed things we can't control. Luckily, our depth works in our favor for dealing with both injuries and bad officiating. We've been very good as far as playing tough defense without fouling, but it sure is nice to know that we have twice as many fouls to commit at most every position. This is especially valuable at the 5, where teams will have to defend Sanogo and Clingan.