Not an NCAA tournament team

[zls44]

Now im not too upset about missing the game. Sounds like the boys had some jet lag. Trips out west do a number on teams sometimes. I think we`ll see them bounce back against the trees.

The hell?

They went to Oklahoma. Not California. The jet lag of one time zone? Really?

THEN YOU THINK THEY'LL BOUNCE BACK AFTER ACTUAL JET LAG?!?!?!?

 

[johnhuskies95]

Really? Are you serious, its NOT reasonable AT ALL to, maybe, just maybe, think this team can miss the tournament? Do you even watch basketball or do you just look at the point spread and compare the number of national titles each program has pregame? We lost to Tulsa at their place, and Tulsa isnt a bad team, but anyone that watched the game would say Tulsa was "average" as to what UConn has seen this season. That game was up for grabs, yet every time we did something "right/good", we immediately dollowed it up with something awful.

This team wont be going far, NOT because we, as fans, dont "support" them enough, but because they are fundamentally flawed in the way the players are composed. We have NO true and natural shooters, we have only a single true ball handler (who is already being asked to play out of his natural position; Boat), and no true second option (DHam started off fantastic but has been a TO machine the last few games, and Purvis, well... he has not been as advertised, he lacks natural basketball skills). So based on these observations that have held relatively steady throughout this entire season, I dont think its out of the question to say this team misses the tournament. The only way we get in is if we sweep the AAC tournament, yet judging from a team that cant string together 3 wins in this conference, that may be a long shot. Many also seem to forget the disrespect the Selection Committee showed the AAC last year where it was MUCH stronger overall, what makes anyone think this weaker top-to-bottom conference will be treated any different?

Calm down. WTF are you talking about? He never said that "maybe, just maybe this team will miss the tournament". He said it's "pretty bleak", which is what I disagreed with.

 

[3rdbass]

The parallels to this team and 09-10 team are striking. Good athletic teams with bad shooters and not great fundamentals. I see this as an NIT team unless something major changes. Well let's hope they can go on a run starting with Stanford.

 

[deedougie]

The parallels to this team and 09-10 team are striking. Good athletic teams with bad shooters and not great fundamentals. I see this as an NIT team unless something major changes. Well let's hope they can go on a run starting with Stanford.

If there is any time that UCONN needs to pull together one good game its against Stanford. It would be a quality out of conference win and would start a few week stretch where UCONN plays a bunch of crap (excluding Cincinatti) teams. They need to win almost every game (or at worse lose one of them): UCF and USF at home, @Cincy, @Houston, home to East Carolina and @ Tulane. The realistically need to be 16-6 or 15-7 heading into a rematch with Tulsa at home.

Revenge will be sweet!!!

 

[TheChamps990411]

The hell?

They went to Oklahoma. Not California. The jet lag of one time zone? Really?

THEN YOU THINK THEY'LL BOUNCE BACK AFTER ACTUAL JET LAG?!?!?!?

Off your meds? lol!

 

[amory]

No. It wasn't reasonable. Tulsa was favored to win the game. UConn's chances are not "pretty bleak".

And the fact that Tulsa, TULSA, was favored to beat us, doesn't tell you that our chances are bleak? Wake up dude.

This is not a team that will get an at-large bid. Our saving grace might end up being the tournament taking place in Hartford.

 

[1999.2004.2011]

We lost on the road to a team that made the NCAA tourney last year...not the end of the world. We have an exceptionally young team, and these games are going to happen.

I have full faith in Kevin Ollie and the coaching staff to develop this team throughout this season and going forward. It is incredibly difficult to replace two of the top three scorers when one of those players was the best in college basketball (Napier) and the second was a top 35 pick in the NBA draft (Daniels).

 

[ecasadoSBU]

A little premature to count Connecticut out of the NCAA. Still a lot of basketball left and Connecticut has plenty of opportunities to pull things together. It has happened before and it can happened again. Teams grow as the season progresses so lets not count Conencticut out

 

[storrsroars]

A little premature to count Connecticut out of the NCAA. Still a lot of basketball left and Connecticut has plenty of opportunities to pull things together. It has happened before and it can happened again. Teams grow as the season progresses so lets not count Conencticut out

9-6 with no signature wins and a couple of bad losses. Middling RPI/SOS. It's simply not an NCAA resume, nor are there opportunities to gain a signature win the rest of the way. Even if they fix their issues and go 12-3 and end up 21-9, they're a bubble team.

IMO, it's win the AAC tourney or go home. At least make the finals.

 

[Bonehead]

No. It wasn't reasonable. Tulsa was favored to win the game. UConn's chances are not "pretty bleak".

You guys crack me up with this Favored to win the game - +1

What about the games UConn lost when they were favored? Or we arent factoring those into play?

 

[Jaker]

9-6 with no signature wins and a couple of bad losses. Middling RPI/SOS. It's simply not an NCAA resume, nor are there opportunities to gain a signature win the rest of the way. Even if they fix their issues and go 12-3 and end up 21-9, they're a bubble team.

IMO, it's win the AAC tourney or go home. At least make the finals.

Luckily, there are not a lot of good teams in college hoops this year and the committee will be hard pressed to find 64 worthy teams.

 

[Jerry1714]

9-6 with no signature wins and a couple of bad losses. Middling RPI/SOS. It's simply not an NCAA resume, nor are there opportunities to gain a signature win the rest of the way. Even if they fix their issues and go 12-3 and end up 21-9, they're a bubble team.

IMO, it's win the AAC tourney or go home. At least make the finals.

What do you define as a signature win? 2 games versus SMU (RPI 23), at Stanford, at Temple and at Cincy (all in the 30s RPI), are these not good wins?

Is a win over Dayton, 17th RPI and on the verge of being ranked again, not a good win?

21-9 gives them an RPI in the 30s, and then there is the AAC tournament to improve on that even more. That is a tournament team.

People are saying they need to find 64 teams, no they do not, they need to find 68! I am at a loss if some people even follow this sport outside of UConn.

 

[storrsroars]

What do you define as a signature win? 2 games versus SMU (RPI 23), at Stanford, at Temple and at Cincy (all in the 30s RPI), are these not good wins?

Is a win over Dayton, 17th RPI and on the verge of being ranked again, not a good win?

21-9 gives them an RPI in the 30s, and then there is the AAC tournament to improve on that even more. That is a tournament team.

People are saying they need to find 64 teams, no they do not, they need to find 68! I am at a loss if some people even follow this sport outside of UConn.

Did not SMU miss the Dance last year?

You mention SMU twice, Stanford, Temple and Cincy. And I said we'd lose three more (which you seem to have quoted). I'd expect those three losses to come in those five games.

Which would leave UConn is looking about the same or worse than SMU last year.

 

[Jerry1714]

Did not SMU miss the Dance last year?

You mention SMU twice, Stanford, Temple and Cincy. And I said we'd lose three more (which you seem to have quoted). I'd expect those three losses to come in those five games.

Which would leave UConn is looking about the same or worse than SMU last year.

No it would not. In fact UConn would have a much much better resume then SMU did last year.

SMU had an RPI in the 50s, a SOS in the 130s and NCSOS over 300.

UConn's RPI would be in the low 30s, NCSOS in the 40s and SOS in the 50-60s probably, and with the conference tournament to improve on it.

 

[pnow15]

The opera ain't over till the fat lady sings. So, please leave your girlfriends home.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

What do you define as a signature win? 2 games versus SMU (RPI 23), at Stanford, at Temple and at Cincy (all in the 30s RPI), are these not good wins?

Is a win over Dayton, 17th RPI and on the verge of being ranked again, not a good win?

21-9 gives them an RPI in the 30s, and then there is the AAC tournament to improve on that even more. That is a tournament team.

People are saying they need to find 64 teams, no they do not, they need to find 68! I am at a loss if some people even follow this sport outside of UConn.

C'mon, be honest, though. Those are nice (or, in this case, necessary) wins for the resume, but they're not "signature wins." A signature win would have been Duke or Texas.

 

[Greathusky]

Unless we win the league tournament, our chances for the dance are so variable at this point. It comes down to the number of upsets in the league tournaments. The less upsets, the better our chances.

 

[Jerry1714]

C'mon, be honest, though. Those are nice (or, in this case, necessary) wins for the resume, but they're not "signature wins." A signature win would have been Duke or Texas.

Texas? Their RPI is 35 and they have 0 Top 50 wins. Cincy is 37. Tulsa is 34. Dayton is 20.

If you said West Virginia I would give it to you, but come on.

 

[champs99and04]

C'mon, be honest, though. Those are nice (or, in this case, necessary) wins for the resume, but they're not "signature wins." A signature win would have been Duke or Texas.

I would think that beating Dayton on a neutral court would be considered more impressive than beating Texas at home at this juncture. Swap the results, and Dayton is sitting at 15-1 and Texas is a spiraling 11-5 squad. I think you're point is right, though.

Incidentally, playing teams like Tulsa is exactly the type of game I dread with this team. They aren't a big enough name to demand our peak performance (not that this team can summon one at will) but good enough to beat us. I bet they'll play a lot better on Saturday, even if they don't win.

 

[joober jones]

I love UConn Basketball more than I love myself, yet what is it with this fanbase/board? Why is it whenever someone chooses to show even the slightest sign of displeasure with what he has seen, everyone's response is to gang up on them and attack their level of fandom, as if it makes them "better" fans in any way. When bad performances occur, there must be room for criticism, or else things will not improve. The behavior of some fans on this board reminds me of the Conservatives on Fox News: Obama "The U.S. needs to disassociate itself from the Middle East", Fox Analyst "Obama clearly doesnt love America, these are the words of a traitor."

The OP posted literally one line of text and everyone is burying him for it, and the best part? What he said is 100% reasonable based on the things seen from this team by any RATIONAL individual. Grow up guys.

I like the argument you're making here, but for the love of God, please never even come close to equating Obama and UConn in any way, shape or form. I know you weren't attempting to do so, but still...

 

[Scot-e]

I hate to say it but with a loss to Tulsa tonight, our chances of making the tournament as an at large bid are looking pretty bleak

Ur a little biatch.

 

[whaler11]

People are saying they need to find 64 teams, no they do not, they need to find 68! I am at a loss if some people even follow this sport outside of UConn.

They don't so the relative nature of
bids is lost on them.

It's a lot of change - it's a new dynamic where the 8th and 9th best leagues can get multiple at large bids on top of their AQ.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Texas? Their RPI is 35 and they have 0 Top 50 wins. Cincy is 37. Tulsa is 34. Dayton is 20.

If you said West Virginia I would give it to you, but come on.

Okay, Duke would have been a signature win. Better? West Virginia would not be. West Virginia would have been a nice neutral court win over a good team. Maybe I'm not being expansive enough in my definition, but there don't appear to be signature wins available on the schedule at this juncture. There are wins that help the resume in the eyes of the committee.

 

[Jerry1714]

Okay, Duke would have been a signature win. Better? West Virginia would not be. West Virginia would have been a nice neutral court win over a good team. Maybe I'm not being expansive enough in my definition, but there don't appear to be signature wins available on the schedule at this juncture. There are wins that help the resume in the eyes of the committee.

If WVU would not have been a signature win then I have no clue what you define as a signature win, none.

 

[RipCity]

The most important thing is having someone become a very serious scoring threat rather than a complimentary player (think Lamb freshman year). Not every team has someone emerge, and this might not happen for us. If it doesn't, I don't care about making the tournament, because we wouldn't make it past the first round.

There's so much more basketball to play though. February always seems the longest. We could be a totally different team by the time we play our conference tournament. Let's hope we evolve, and be thankful we have a coach that's up to the challenge.