alexrgct
RIP, Alex
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
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Tough to do in retrospect, but here is how I'm pretty sure I felt heading into each season (irrespective of what actually happened). This is in descending order of confidence:
2010- Obviously, losing Rene was going to be something the team had to get past, but you had Maya in her junior year after sweeping NPOY honors as a soph, and Tina looking fiercely dominant by the end of 2009. This felt like a repeat title, and it certainly ended up being one.
2004- Returning everyone from a national championship run tends to make you feel pretty good. Not having the Maya/Tina-type pair of aces, as well as number of close games that could have gone the other way in 2002-03, were the only reasons for any doubt at all.
2009- The team wasn't quite good enough without Kalana or Mel the previous season. There were a lot of pieces there, but the question was whether everything would come together. Still, there seemed to so many pieces, with a good mixture of youth and experience, that you felt like the team certainly had a chance to be special. (btw, this is post-EDD departure)
2011- Tina was gone, Kalana was gone, but you still had one of all-time greats in Maya Moore, and as long as you had her, you were going to contend.
2008- I was pretty excited about this team. Returned the key pieces of a team that made the Elite Eight the year before, plus added a game-changer in Maya Moore. Wasn't sure whether this team was going to win it all, but I did firmly believe they were headed for the Final Four.
2012- I figured this team to be a top six kind of squad heading into the season. A ton of question marks, but a ton of potential as well.
2005- Seemed like a pretty damn good team on paper if someone could step up and fill at least some of the leadership void resulting from Diana's and Maria's departures. Plus by that point, I figured Geno was a magician who could send any team to the Final Four.
2006- After a disastrous 2004-05 campaign by UConn standards, I was prepared for pretty much anything this season.
2007- Wasn't super optimistic. Team had nearly made the Final Four the previous year, but had graduated a bunch of experienced kids, and it seemed like the strength of the team was going to be underclassmen.
2003- Hey, I wasn't the only one. I knew D was a special player, but you can't lose four seniors who composed 2/3 of the top six WNBA draft picks and expect to seriously contend for anything meaningful, right? I mean, just look at the PG situation- going from Sue Bird to Maria Conlon????
So, here's the magic question- where would I rank this 2012-13 in terms of preseason confidence? Well, I'd say slightly above 2009. Seriously. Now, I didn't predict 39-0 with no team coming within single-digits of the Huskies, so this isn't to say that I believe this team is going to better than 2009. Just saying that right now, I feel better about ths squad than I did at this same point in 2008. The incoming class is sick. Kelly and Bria can be at least Kalana and Rene, respectively. Tina certainly had a ton of potential, but Stef, though not as athletic, can absolutely be a really, really good center this season. Maya the frosh may have been better than KML the frosh, but KML is still a monster. The bench is deeper. You could have any of the 11 kids on the floor at any point and have me excited. We're talking about returning the core of a team that made the Final Four despite some of its very best players being underclassmen AND adding what seems like an historically great recruiting class.
So basically, the only times the previous 10 seasons that I have been more confident about a team heading into the season was when UConn was returning the core of a team that had won the NC the previous year. That is all.
2010- Obviously, losing Rene was going to be something the team had to get past, but you had Maya in her junior year after sweeping NPOY honors as a soph, and Tina looking fiercely dominant by the end of 2009. This felt like a repeat title, and it certainly ended up being one.
2004- Returning everyone from a national championship run tends to make you feel pretty good. Not having the Maya/Tina-type pair of aces, as well as number of close games that could have gone the other way in 2002-03, were the only reasons for any doubt at all.
2009- The team wasn't quite good enough without Kalana or Mel the previous season. There were a lot of pieces there, but the question was whether everything would come together. Still, there seemed to so many pieces, with a good mixture of youth and experience, that you felt like the team certainly had a chance to be special. (btw, this is post-EDD departure)
2011- Tina was gone, Kalana was gone, but you still had one of all-time greats in Maya Moore, and as long as you had her, you were going to contend.
2008- I was pretty excited about this team. Returned the key pieces of a team that made the Elite Eight the year before, plus added a game-changer in Maya Moore. Wasn't sure whether this team was going to win it all, but I did firmly believe they were headed for the Final Four.
2012- I figured this team to be a top six kind of squad heading into the season. A ton of question marks, but a ton of potential as well.
2005- Seemed like a pretty damn good team on paper if someone could step up and fill at least some of the leadership void resulting from Diana's and Maria's departures. Plus by that point, I figured Geno was a magician who could send any team to the Final Four.
2006- After a disastrous 2004-05 campaign by UConn standards, I was prepared for pretty much anything this season.
2007- Wasn't super optimistic. Team had nearly made the Final Four the previous year, but had graduated a bunch of experienced kids, and it seemed like the strength of the team was going to be underclassmen.
2003- Hey, I wasn't the only one. I knew D was a special player, but you can't lose four seniors who composed 2/3 of the top six WNBA draft picks and expect to seriously contend for anything meaningful, right? I mean, just look at the PG situation- going from Sue Bird to Maria Conlon????
So, here's the magic question- where would I rank this 2012-13 in terms of preseason confidence? Well, I'd say slightly above 2009. Seriously. Now, I didn't predict 39-0 with no team coming within single-digits of the Huskies, so this isn't to say that I believe this team is going to better than 2009. Just saying that right now, I feel better about ths squad than I did at this same point in 2008. The incoming class is sick. Kelly and Bria can be at least Kalana and Rene, respectively. Tina certainly had a ton of potential, but Stef, though not as athletic, can absolutely be a really, really good center this season. Maya the frosh may have been better than KML the frosh, but KML is still a monster. The bench is deeper. You could have any of the 11 kids on the floor at any point and have me excited. We're talking about returning the core of a team that made the Final Four despite some of its very best players being underclassmen AND adding what seems like an historically great recruiting class.
So basically, the only times the previous 10 seasons that I have been more confident about a team heading into the season was when UConn was returning the core of a team that had won the NC the previous year. That is all.
