POLL: Biggest favorites going into a season?

[alexrgct]

Let me state the obvious: some of these teams did not, in fact, win a national championship. Try not to let the actual season result cloud your judgement here.

Entering a season, who was the biggest favorite to win it all? My criteria are below. Yours may be different, obviously.

• Previous season result- being the defending champs is a big deal.
• Who's leaving, who's returning, and of those returning, are any likely to make jumps (e.g., a sophomore leap)?
• Quality of entering class.
• Quality of the rest of the field.

Given that, here are the candidates I've considered below:

Tennessee 1997-98: after a mediocre regular 1996-97 season, the LVs got Kelly Jolly back in time for a tourney run, put it all together, and won a surprise NC. With the core of the 1997 team returning, and a stellar recruiting class coming in (including Tamika Catchings and Sameka Randall), the LVs seemed poised to win the NC again.

UConn 2000-01: UConn was great in 1999-2000. You return two of three best players in the nation from that season, the TASS Force are now juniors, everyone else who played critical minutes is back too, and you're bringing in some kid by the name of Diana Taurasi, only the #1 high school player in the nation. How could they lose?

UConn 2003-04: it wasn't an utterly dominant run in 2002-03, but it was an impressive one that culminated in another championship for UConn. Everyone was back, D was going to be a senior, the freshmen were going to be sophomores...I mean, it seemed a given that UConn would repeat, right?

UConn 2009-10: yes, UConn lost First Team AA PG Renee Montgomery, but when you go 39-0, don't have anyone come within 10 points of you, return one of the all-time greats in the history of WCBB, and just watched your tantalizingly talented post absolutely blow up in the NCAA tourney, repeating still seemed pretty likely.

Baylor 2012-13: you go 40-0 in 2011-12. You return essentially everyone. You've got one of the most dominant players in the game's history, whose unique height and wingspan make game-planning for your team different from any other, and you've got another star in Odyssey Sims. Slam dunk to repeat, right?

UConn 2013-14: UConn seemed a mortal lock to be no worse than #2 heading into 2012-13. Injuries, chemistry issues, and guard play relegated UConn to #3 heading into the tourney. UConn then went on a dominant run and took the title as if the previous 33 games didn't happen. Kelly Faris is a significant loss, but the team returns an embarrassment of talent, including a number of kids poised to improve significantly. Meanwhile, the rest of the field doesn't contain any other obvious threats to to hang with UConn. A championship in 2013-14 seems inevitable...or does it?

Notwithstanding the actual result, who was the biggest favorite heading into a season?

 

[meyers7]

Gotta go with 2000-2001, Geno had even guaranteed it. But 2013-2014 is pretty close.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

I'll go with Baylor this past season.

The rest of the WBB world views UConn as a possible winner every year (except maybe the Orange folks y'all don't like), and I know at least twice thinking you were a shoo-in myself.

But so many folks were so convinced that Baylor would just keep rolling, and with the Griner effect, etc., I think that this may have been one of the greatest surprises (that they didn't win) simply because they were considered such a sure thing.

 

[wire chief]

Years from now we look at 2013-14 as the greatest ever!

 

[jplotinus]

I'm wondering why 2001-2 wasn't put on that list. We knew we were not only loaded for bear, but also had a chip firmly on shoulder.

 

[alexrgct]

2001-02 had question marks. Certainly, they were a favorite heading into the season, but they had something to prove. The starting five was obviously very talented, but the question was how good they could be once they had time to gel. Depth was also a question what with the departures of Svet, Shea, KJ, and Kelly. Would Uconn have it, and would it be needed? Certainly, in hindsight, that was as fine a WCBB team as there's ever been, but I don't think that was a sure thing in June of 2001.

 

[ed4ourgirls]

Baylor 2012/13 was the overwhelming favorite, but UConn (many thought) had the
talent to compete with them.

For 2013/14 UConn is the overwhelming favorite, but there doesn't seem to be anyone
else who is good enough to hang with the returning champs.

I'll go with 2013/14 UConn.