Ranking college basketball’s best current programs: 16-20

[upstater]

I mentioned 2009, but our stays in 2011 and last year were not what we had become used to as Husky fans. That was my point.

We had teams in the top ten the majority of a season. Not so since 2009.

Eh, 2011 was legit. Should have been top 10. 23-0 outside the conference regular season was more than worthy.

I remember the ESPN bracket numbers that year. There were something like 50 million brackets made, and UConn was the #4 pick to win it all prior to the tournament. The fans were certainly watching.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Eh, 2011 was legit. Should have been top 10. 23-0 outside the conference regular season was more than worthy.

I remember the ESPN bracket numbers that year. There were something like 50 million brackets made, and UConn was the #4 pick to win it all prior to the tournament. The fans were certainly watching.

We were top 10 briefly in January (I remember our game vs. Nova was like #8 vs. #7), before deteriorating in Big East play.

I think the high esteem of bracketeers had more to do with our remarkable BET run than with any kind of respect we'd built up over what turned out to be a ho-hum regular season, particularly in conference.

 

[upstater]

We were top 10 briefly in January (I remember our game vs. Nova was like #8 vs. #7), before deteriorating in Big East play.

I the high esteem of bracketeers had more to do with our remarkable BET run than with any kind of respect we'd built up over what turned out to be a ho-hum regular season, particularly in conference.

Ho-hum in conference, but regular season was not ho-hum out of conference. They were undefeated. Lots of big wins.

 

[Huskies4ever]

Eh, 2011 was legit. Should have been top 10. 23-0 outside the conference regular season was more than worthy.

I remember the ESPN bracket numbers that year. There were something like 50 million brackets made, and UConn was the #4 pick to win it all prior to the tournament. The fans were certainly watching.

The post I was originally responding to, was concerning regular season top 25 polls. 2011 was legit, as we were number 1 when it mattered most. We were top 10 after Maui, and then continued to decline in the rankings as the season wore on. We limped into the Big East Tourney unranked (if I recall correctly), and then went on the magical 5 wins in 5 days with the best player in the country (sorry Jimmer). That's why people were picking us. 2010 and 2012 (especially), were big disappointments. Last season was wonderful, but nobody paid us attention with no postseason to play for. We would have had a better record had we stayed healthy, and I believe we would have made the sweet 16/elite eight had we been eligible. I'm looking forward to a season where we are top ten for a much longer stretch, maybe comparable to 2009 (obviously, not top four all season, but we can dream, right?). I can't wait for the season to start.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Ho-hum in conference, but regular season was not ho-hum out of conference. They were undefeated. Lots of big wins.

Absolutely, but come early March, we were a team that lost 4 of 5 down the stretch, with a meh 21-9 record, finished 9th in the conference, was at risk of dropping out of the rankings and being an unprotected seed in the Tournament.

In short, we were a pretty unremarkable team. And then we became extremely remarkable.

But I think the point is we haven't been wire-to-wire contenders since 2009, which is an awfully long time for a program that would like to consider itself top-10 or top-5 right now.

From 1994 to 2009, we went at most 3 years between being considered serious contenders for most of a regular season. We're working on 4.

 

[CL82]

Obviously way too low, but at least we made this list, unlike Goodman/ESPN...

What do we need to do to get some respect? Win 10 championships? I just hope KO can deliver one in the next 1-3 years to shut these people up.

I suspect we go up a notch come March. I'm not saying we will win the NC, because we're doomed of course, but we'll do some damage. Right now the opposition is selling uncertainty. New coach, new league, etc. By the end of the year these points will have much less traction and every year afterword even less.

 

[UConNation]

2009 and 2011 UConn was top 10.
2010 was that bad chemistry year and so was 2012.
I think we cracked top 10 early in the season last year before falling back.

We never got higher than 21 in any ranking last year.