Realistic goals for the season

[McLovin]

My expectations are:

Top 3 in big east
Big east tournament finals
Sweet 16
2 NBA draft picks in 23

But I’d like to see:

Win PK85
Win Big East
Win BET
Win NCAA
NCAA Player Of The Year (Sanogo)
3 first round draft picks (Sanogo, Hawkins and Jackson) in 23

 

[ctchamps]

Not having to replace a tv because a shoe or foot accidentally went through the screen!

 

[Travelman6]

Realistic:
25 wins (+2 over last year)
Top 3 BE finish
semi-finals BET
Sweet 16
Beat Nova at least once
Beat freakin' Creighton at least once
No losses to bottom 3 of the BE
No more than 1 blow out loss
Beat all cupcakes by double digits (10+ points), even 20+ is realistic.
Top 20-25 start to finish, maybe coming close to Top 10 at some point.
Have someone get a national award for something.

Dream while still being pretty realistic
30 wins
#1 BE
Finals in BET
Final Four berth and dream run (even losing in the FF, we'd be over the moon and ready for the next year).
Beat either Nova or Creighton twice and 4-1 overall for the year (counting BET)
3 or less losses in BE
No blow out losses
Top 10 for most of the year
2 national awards
Hurley gets coach of the year award.

 

[Scrappy3]

Championship or bust.

 

[Com'rGordon]

I'm so sick of losing to Creighton

 

[REB1094]

I'm so sick of losing to Creighton

That RJ Cole free throw is going to haunt us until we beat them

 

[AZHuskiePop]

1. 24-win regular season
2. Top 3 finish in the Big East
3. Semifinal or better finish in BET
4. Sweet 16 or better tournament run

Making the sweet 16 has a lot to do with seed and upsets
Second Round games
8/9 vs 1
7/10 vs 2
6/11 vs 3
5/12 vs 4
We we lucky to get a 5 seed in 2011
We got a fairly soft 2 in 2014 as a 7
We got the number 1 seed in the tourney as a 9 in 2016 and lost
If That team got a 5 or even a 6 they probably make the sweet 16

 

[HuskyHawk]

Lofty goals: National title. WIn Big East regular season and tournament.

Realistic goals to strive for: Elite Eight. Win one of BE regular season or tournament.

Satisfied with: Sweet Sixteen. Top 3 finish in BE regular season, Big East tourny finals.

Minimum expectations: Win a game in the tournament. Top 4 BE finish and BET semis.

This^^^^ Exactly this.

Talent wise, looking at upside, this team is as good as our last NC team. Whether they put it together and live up to that, remains to be seen. That minimum line would be highly disappointing.

 

[Blue Idiaco]

Aspirational goal: to come out of the season feeling the coach has a plan, can develop freshmen and can win meaningful games at this level

 

[CTBasketball]

Personally I think we’re going to be a lot better than last year. More guard-oriented offense, and if Hawkins/Jackson can take it to the next level we can be very dangerous.

I want to think we can finish top 3 in the Big East (I don’t like our schedule), and win at MSG. Then from there get to at least the Elite 8.

But the early-season tournament + Florida/OK ST games, if we falter even slightly, will hurt our seeding. Need to take care of business there.

 

[shizzle787]

Personally I think we’re going to be a lot better than last year. More guard-oriented offense, and if Hawkins/Jackson can take it to the next level we can be very dangerous.

I want to think we can finish top 3 in the Big East (I don’t like our schedule), and win at MSG. Then from there get to at least the Elite 8.

But the early-season tournament + Florida/OK ST games, if we falter even slightly, will hurt our seeding. Need to take care of business there.

The last sentence is why we can’t afford to schedule like chumps. The Big East gets a lot of respect with the media but not as much as the ACC or B1G. The BE had a great year last year, but the #4 team in the league got an 9 seed in the tourney. Providence won the league and got a 4 seed.

 

[wheelerdog]

After the last 2 seasons, the most important thing is not choking in the ncaa tournament.

This is the only thing that matters

 

[Huskyforlife]

Third or higher in the Big East.
S16 in NCAA tournament.
Beat Creighton.
Get Jackson or Hawkins drafted.

People who are saying national title need to re read the thread title. We want to win another natty, but one school does that per year, realistic goals are setting a bare minimum for success.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

I'm so sick of losing to Creighton

Post/handle

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

In year 5, these 5 items represent Head Coach Dan Hurley's top challenges :

Winning record in games decided by 5 or fewer points

Win a true road game against P5 competition (This year it'd be Florida)

Beat Creighton at least once

Reach BE Tournament Final

Win at least 1 NCAA Tournament game

Hurley's growing edge
They are realistic goals
Go Coach and go UConn

 

[mussels]

In year 5, these 5 items represent Head Coach Dan Hurley's top challenges :

Winning record in games decided by 5 or fewer points

This one really resonates with me. If we can do this everything else will take care of itself.

In the past two years we have had good teams, but were 4 -10 in games decided by 5 or fewer points. In the last three years, it was 8-17

 

[alphasigko]

Elite 8 or Final Four

 

[Tenspro2002]

Realistic goals (I'm defining as like 75th percentile outcome):

• Top 25 for the vast majority of the year, including from mid-January onward, with a surge into the 10-15 range at some point
• #2 or better in the Big East, including an even record against other top 4 teams (i.e. not getting swept by Creighton etc.)
• BET finals appearance
• #4/5 seed
• Sweet 16 appearance and show we belong against the #1 seed
• Either bring all key pieces back or get someone drafted in the 1st round (i.e. nobody leaving early just to go to Europe or 2nd round/undrafted)

 

[Samoo]

Lofty goals: National title. WIn Big East regular season and tournament.

Realistic goals to strive for: Elite Eight. Win one of BE regular season or tournament.

Satisfied with: Sweet Sixteen. Top 3 finish in BE regular season, Big East tourny finals.

Minimum expectations: Win a game in the tournament. Top 4 BE finish and BET semis.

Nice - these should be UConn's annual goals.

 

[jibsey]

Goal is to win it all but.. that your tourney is a crapshoot. Good and great teams upset a lot.

 

[WrenchFan69]

I'd like to win between 1 and 4 trophies this year not including the PK85

 

[80shusky]

I'm up on this team and some of the talent we have. I could see Sanogo, Hawkins and Andre having a strong season along with Newton. Some interesting upside from Karaban, Clingan, and Samson Johnson could make things interesting. Would love to see Johnson break out a little bit and be productive. With that however I'm trying to be reasonable. A 20+ win season, good run in the BET are great. Getting that first round win in the NCAAs however is necessary to move on.