Now that your head is out of the oven, make your prediction | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Now that your head is out of the oven, make your prediction

My head was never in the oven - this was always going to be a work in progress. The Dayton game was embarrassing (although I admit I didn't watch it) - but we lost the other two games by a total of 3 points against tough officiating in Hawaii playing games before noon. We have a lot of talent and great coaches and a lot of games left to play. The BE season will toughen us up as it always does - I look at this like 2 years ago - not like last year. I expect a sweet 16 with this team - but beyond that it is too early to expect more.
 
Ceiling much higher today. Final Four in San Antonio for me. We all know how that turns out!

Thoughts leading to San Antonio conclusion:

I was dubious about Solo and Samsons ability to take coaching and level up. Am sky high about their “improvability” after TX.

Reed and Mahaney not fully acclimated yet, expect mid February for light bulbs to be fully on.

Can Ross accept being a defensive specialist (for now)?

Hopeful Nowell gets healthy by Jan 1

Liam goes crazy offensively more often as season progresses

Don’t know what to think about Stewart

Hass(11 assists) and Alex(21pts+10+ boards) play within themselves making everyone around
them better
 
HuskyWarrior611 said:
Very impressive Texas win! We looked like the better coached team out there.

Waiting for Gonzaga to see what’s what.
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Indeed the Gonzaga game will be most important to this program as they are a very good team, we play in Storrs South and we have Mahaney who always plays out vs them.

@Texas we led throughout which explains why Hurley did not go bananas with them holding us, grabbing shirts, I mean their defense at times was foul ridden but they got few called. Explains why they let Diarra shove a guy to the floor with no call.

Let’s see how we play vs Gonzaga before we judge the season bc Baylor-Texas-Gonzaga was always going to be the true test not Memphis-Colorado-Dayton.
 
JerseyAlum said:
Indeed the Gonzaga game will be most important to this program as they are a very good team, we play in Storrs South and we have Mahaney who always plays out vs them.

@Texas we led throughout which explains why Hurley did not go bananas with them holding us, grabbing shirts, I mean their defense at times was foul ridden but they got few called. Explains why they let Diarra shove a guy to the floor with no call
Let’s see how we play vs Gonzaga before we judge the season bc Baylor-Texas-Gonzaga was always going to be the true test not Memphis-Colorado-Dayton.
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Gonzaga will show where we are at this moment in time. Gotta win of course, but playing a game representative of how we’ve improved in the last 2 weeks is critical for “diagnostics”. Don’t want a stinker or an “ everything worked “ game, just a workmanlike effort showing where we are at against a top team.

We should have tons of data for Hurley et al to work on in the laboratory.
 
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I got UConn 15-6 the rest of way after the Texas win. That would put the team at 22-9 heading into the tournament. I'm thinking a win or two in the BE tournament would help. Sweet Sixteen team if they can get in.
 
Guard play will probably determine how far we go. In the past 4 years we've had 2 first round visits and 2 National Championships. The arrival of Tristen Newton was huge.
The development of Ball and Mahaney are critical.

Solo's minutes
2023 - 12 mpg
2024 - 28 mpg so far

Aidan's minutes
2022 - 31 mpg
2023 - 33 mpg
2024 - 16 mpg so far. This is Joey C territory. We need him to be better, like Cam Spencer altitude. Tall order.
 
Big East Champ x2 Still think we match up quite well with our BE brethren.
Out in the Elite 8 to a team that has a little too much athletically for our defensive vulnerabilities.
 
AllHusky said:
Ceiling much higher today. Final Four in San Antonio for me. We all know how that turns out!

Thoughts leading to San Antonio conclusion:

I was dubious about Solo and Samsons ability to take coaching and level up. Am sky high about their “improvability” after TX.

Reed and Mahaney not fully acclimated yet, expect mid February for light bulbs to be fully on.

Can Ross accept being a defensive specialist (for now)?

Hopeful Nowell gets healthy by Jan 1

Liam goes crazy offensively more often as season progresses

Don’t know what to think about Stewart

Hass(11 assists) and Alex(21pts+10+ boards) play within themselves making everyone around
them better
Expand ...
This is my +1. I think that this team will sniff the last two, and maybe offer something the last two never had: A freshman offensive phenom. Someone who has already shown that he wants to take over and he's pissed when he can't. I know we had a similar thing in senior TNewt but this kid will be way more visible.

In retrospect it's easy to see what we had with the last teams but at this point in the year we didn't know. We didn't know how great castle, Cam, DC or Hass would turn out. This team is different.
 
Jaydumo20 said:
Many of us watched in confusion, as some of our own relegated this team to the trash heap after Maui.
This staff teaches, and responds and every year our teams look markedly different in February than they do in November.

Where do you see this team headed now? And please try to leave out the obvious, universal, qualifier for every team in December: "they still have work to do"

Go
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Great 8.

Two straight seasons losing big chunks of the starting lineup takes time to adjust to.
 
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Blue Blood said:
Big East Champ x2 Still think we match up quite well with our BE brethren.
Out in the Elite 8 to a team that has a little too much athletically for our defensive vulnerabilities.
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I'd be more worried about a good shooting team than one who is just simply athletic.
 
Field is wide open this year - anything can happen. Predictions right now are ridiculous. Injuries, development, gelling time all make it silly to try and project out, unless you’re that goof Lunardi.

I will say this - the team with the most upside is Duke. If Scheyer can figure out how to coach, that is the team I want to avoid come March. He’s already made some adjustments finally giving Evans minutes, who went off against Auburn. They’ve punted Foster to the bench for James, which was smart as he brings seniority and toughness. And they’re using Brown a lot for defense, often at the sake of the frosh 5. He generally locked up Broome in their matchup and a really good defender.

Also like Auburn. I give Pearl credit, as he goes out plays a helluva tough schedule. Between the OOC and SEC, as long as they stay healthy I think it will pay dividends come March as a battle tested team. Also think losing that stinger to Yale last year will make them come out tougher come March.
 
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Still think this team will be a title contender as we approach March. Floor is Sweet 16.

Will we be a title favorite by March? Idk. But we'll be in that category of teams that the title favorite does not want to see in their region.
 
JerseyAlum said:
Indeed the Gonzaga game will be most important to this program as they are a very good team, we play in Storrs South and we have Mahaney who always plays out vs them.

@Texas we led throughout which explains why Hurley did not go bananas with them holding us, grabbing shirts, I mean their defense at times was foul ridden but they got few called. Explains why they let Diarra shove a guy to the floor with no call.
Let’s see how we play vs Gonzaga before we judge the season bc Baylor-Texas-Gonzaga was always going to be the true test not Memphis-Colorado-Dayton.
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The next game is always the most important
 
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J187Money said:
My head was never in the oven - this was always going to be a work in progress. The Dayton game was embarrassing (although I admit I didn't watch it) - but we lost the other two games by a total of 3 points against tough officiating in Hawaii playing games before noon. We have a lot of talent and great coaches and a lot of games left to play. The BE season will toughen us up as it always does - I look at this like 2 years ago - not like last year. I expect a sweet 16 with this team - but beyond that it is too early to expect more.
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Excellent post. Totally agree on everything.
 
Head wasn’t in the oven but after those 3 losses it was a bit depressing. It’s funny that Memphis and Dayton (who handled us easily) are not ranked in the top 25 even today.
 
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What if your head was never in the oven?

My predictions are the same as they were before the season started and the same as they were after Maui

We will be one of the best teams in the country come March, we will be a second weekend team which means we're in the mix for a threepeat, there will be bumps in the road although I had and have no idea where those bumps will be until we hit them

Enjoy the ride, we're special and we're lucky

Count your blessings and smile



And winning it all is never easy, it's OK if we don't. We have more rings than anyone is entitled to have. And I too want more, but you have to play the games
 
I stay out of predictions I think realistically a 4-5 seed team, the fans of the 1 seeded teams will be sweating it out on selection Sunday hoping we’re not in their bracket.
 
Don't know what we are yet. Think we could easily be a 1-3 seed when all is said and done and be a contender. That would require tightening some things up and figuring out what the hell our bench is after Reed. I think that could very well happen. But it's tough to gauge as we beat Baylor without essentially two of their starters (yes, I know we didn't have AK) and Texas was a terribly coached team.

I think we could also be a 5-6 seed because our guard play is inconsistent, our defense has been total swiss cheese at times, and the depth we thought we had is actually not there.

I'm leaning more towards paragraph one.
 
HuskyHawk said:
As @BFieldHusky said, 2nd weekend team. From there it's matchups and who gets hot, who is playing well. I do not see a run like the last two years. Not saying they can't win a title, just that if they did, it sure wouldn't look like the last two.
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I think I agree but, to be fair, did we see a big run coming in 2023?

Yes, we went 9-2 down the stretch, but aside from a home blowout win over Marquette, those were generally not against great teams, and we still couldn't win the close game or win the big one (1-possession losses at Creighton and vs. Marquette in the BET semis).

Then we struggled early against Iona before rampaging through the final 5.5 games of the Tournament. Maybe the argument is that in 2023 we at least saw glimpses of that ceiling going 14-0 including beating future #1 overall Alabama, while this team hasn't? I guess.

But in some cases, you can't see it coming until you do.
 
Tenspro2002 said:
I think I agree but, to be fair, did we see a big run coming in 2023?

Yes, we went 9-2 down the stretch, but aside from a home blowout win over Marquette, those were generally not against great teams, and we still couldn't win the close game or win the big one (1-possession losses at Creighton and vs. Marquette in the BET semis).

Then we struggled early against Iona before rampaging through the final 5.5 games of the Tournament. Maybe the argument is that in 2023 we at least saw glimpses of that ceiling going 14-0 including beating future #1 overall Alabama, while this team hasn't? I guess.

But in some cases, you can't see it coming until you do.
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I thought that team was winning a championship before the season started. So I wasn't really surprised. Marquette was really good in that Big East final. Certainly the way they made it look easy was a bit surprising.
 
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