Reality check on WCBB opponents

[UcMiami]

I find many of the reactions to my OP to be interesting - I was not intending to be so obscure in my meanings which were pretty simple.
1. There are really no guarantees in sports
2. Uconn is a very good team, but not unbeatable.
3. There are some other teams that are very good this year, but none of them have a better resume than Uconn.
4. People who look at an 11 point win against the #4 ranked team (or an 18 point win against any team) and see 'disaster' are pretty ridiculous.

Finally sporting competitions are supposed to be fun and at least occasionally competitive. Uconn has had a few very dominant teams in the past, but even those teams did not play flawlessly. Tony and his 150 game winning streak projections are fun for their fanaticism but Stanford and St. John's and others have proven that on any given night ... It is human nature to be pretty silly, like the off season pundits who predicted the Patriots had a solid chance to go undefeated this past year, a prediction that didn't last the first 60 minutes of the season. Uconn will likely enter the NCAAs as the favorite team in the field but ask the Russians in ice hockey or the patriots in football, or last years Uconn team or ... how that looks in retrospect.

Uconn, Baylor, TN, and Duke to name just of few of the defeated favorites in WCBB have coaches and players who understand reality.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

As inevitable as it is, I believe it is unproductive to compare this UConn team against that UConn team. Having said that, and without trying to pin "Best Team" on them, when they are on their game our starting 5 plays the best total game of basketball I have ever seen.

 

[DefenseBB]

Devil's Advocate: Who's to say this team isn't Geno's "crowning achievement. Newsflash: as good as this program is, how many championships have been won without a Diana, Maya, or Stewie? One for sure, without looking it up is Rebecca's team. Point is almost all of the 11 championships had one of the 3 best women's basketball players in the history of the sport.

For the official record-DT-3, MM-2 and Stewie-4 won 9 of the 11, Shea/Svet/TASS won 2000 NC for the 2nd official title. 9+1+Rebecca=11

 

[Carnac]

So, we all worry a lot about how Uconn will do facing some of the other good teams when the NCAA comes and especially after such a 'disappointing' win as they had against Louisville!

Maybe a reminder of some other teams' feet of clay would be a good idea:
Mississippi State - the only other undefeated team:
Against unranked teams: beat LSU by 13, Alabama by 14, Syracuse by 11, ASU by 8, and UVA by 15
Against ranked teams: #21 Oklahoma State by 3, #9 Oregon by 11, #13 Missouri by 4, # 8 SC by 14, #11 TN by 19 and #20 Georgia by 24.

Baylor:
Unranked: Oklahoma by 9 and 22, WVU by 11
Ranked: Lost to #7 UCLA by 14, #21 OkSt by 13 and 42, #14 Stanford by 24 and #6 TX by 25 (they play at TX as their only other ranked game.)

Oregon is the only other top 10 team we haven't played and they have lost 4 times.

I think both Baylor and MsSt are good teams and I am sure they could beat Uconn on any given night, but ... Baylor has played a very easy schedule and most of the meat of the MsSt schedule was played at home.

And compared to Uconn who played the other 6 top ten teams and has only the scare at #6 TX by 4 and # 5 ND by 9, it is hard to get too upset about an 11 point win against #4 Louisville or two 18 point wins against unranked teams as their other 'scares'.

Good post, thanks UCM. May I also add that those other teams are very concerned about playing UConn as well. No doubt they were ALL watching Monday evening out of curiosity, as UConn smoked Louisville in the first quarter, holding them to only 6 points. I think it's a fair statement to say that they are more afraid of UConn than UConn is afraid of them.

They know UConn is not afraid of the bright lights and the BIG stage. UConn's yearly pre-conference schedule is proof positive that UConn no stranger to playing top 5 teams. Their current NCAA record road win streak proves they can win on the road. Other teams know that UConn has 4 players that can shoot the 3 or drive the lane with equal aplomb.

There's no one in their starting unit you can lay off of. The first two weekends, UConn fans will have bought up 90+% of the seats of the venues they'll play in. As the overall #1 seed, UConn will play the 64th seed in the tournament. A team that is just happy to be there, and who won't pack for more than 2 days, because they know they'll be headed home immediately after the game.

UConn's first real challenge won't come until the regional final. The last three games will be where the Huskies will have to really dig in, and be ready to play. All of the weak teams are gone after the first weekend. Realistically, I think there are only 3-4 teams that have a serious chance of beating UConn, Baylor, Mississippi State, Notre Dame and Texas. As UConn enters the post season, the thought going in is best said by Master Alfred E. Neuman: What, me worry?

 

[Sonny44]

Devil's Advocate: Who's to say this team isn't Geno's "crowning achievement. Newsflash: as good as this program is, how many championships have been won without a Diana, Maya, or Stewie? One for sure, without looking it up is Rebecca's team. Point is almost all of the 11 championships had one of the 3 best women's basketball players in the history of the sport.
This team obviously doesn't have that. Look at what they've accomplished TOGETHER the last two years. The 1000th win, the winning streak, final four, two year record of like 62-1. Looking back in hindsight, especially if they win the championship, it may be one of the best. 5 names on the wall?- Gabby, Kia, Pheesa, Lou, and Crystal. 2001-2 without DT- comparison.

I didn't say they haven't accomplished a lot.

 

[eebmg]

Uconn, Baylor, TN, and Duke to name just of few of the defeated favorites in WCBB have coaches and players who understand reality.

How did TN and Duke land on the same line as Uconn and Baylor?

Does the TN coach understand anything?

 

[MD#12Fan]

For the official record-DT-3, MM-2 and Stewie-4 won 9 of the 11, Shea/Svet/TASS won 2000 NC for the 2nd official title. 9+1+Rebecca=11

Thanks for that. So, 9 out of 11 with a superstar. Not a great player, but a superstar. And Lobo.
My statement is: This team (last year and this year, post the big 3) could be the "crowning achievement" in the annals of UConn basketball history. Consider the idea, if only to feel really good for a minute.

 

[MD#12Fan]

I didn't say they haven't accomplished a lot.

I didn't say they accomplished a lot. I said this could be the program's historical "crowning achievement" if they go on to win the NC. (knock on wood)

 

[Los24]

Actually, I wasn't being silly. Let's parse your 3 team selection-

'01-02 Was TASS +DT and yes, that was a great team. They played 6 top 25 opponents, 4 in the top 10 (#3,8,3,2). Beat #20 BC in BigEast Final, played 4 ranked teams in NCAA (#24,15,6 #2-Oklahoma in Final by 12 pts). They had 4 games decided by 15 or less (unranked VT by 9)...Beat a total of 10 Ranked team; 5 Top 10.

'08-09 Was Maya's Junior year. I would argue this team is the weakest of your three and probably behind this years team. They played 5 Ranked opponents during their reg season-only 3 in the top 10 at the time of playing (#2, #4, #6). The BigEast was a cake walk with only Louisville being good at #7 in the final. A few anomolies there were 6 games decided by <15 points and only 1 was against a ranked team (@ND by 10) and 4 others were at home so they did not dominate the lesser ones as much as I would have expected.
Their NCAA tournament was interesting in that they played 5 ranked teams from the last poll-#22,#13,#19,#2,#7 (which was Louisville for the 3rd time). Very good team. Beat 10 Ranked teams, 5 in Top 10 (Louisville 3 times)

'15-16 Stewie/Tuck/Mo and this team faced 13 ranked opponents (4 in the NCAA), 6 in the top 10 at the time of playing them. Closest game was 12 against #2 SC and only one other game at 16 points. Truly dominating.

'17-18 This year's team has played 8 top 25 teams so far with USF coming up. 5 of these in the top 10 (#5,3,9,7,4). ND by 9 and @ Texas by 4. In the AAC, I suspect USF again for a total of 10 top 25 teams for pre-NCAA tournament. Add in 4 ranked teams in the tourney and that is 14 Ranked opponents, more than any others on this list.

My point is take a step back and look at the full scope, not your memory nor your quick view of the scores. Last to consider is the evolution of the game in these past 16 years since 2002. The talent is spread among more teams, with better coaching.

Thanks for putting specific teams out for a full review.

My take is 2016-17 as #1, 2002 as #2. This years team has a chance for top 5 and maybe top 3....

What's interesting is this (core) team for the most part lost 1 game (OT last second) in almost 2 years. The big 3 lost (in junior year) to Stanford albeit it was not final 4 in March. If they run the table this year with an undefeated season I do not see how people would not consider them "AMONG" the greatest teams. What is funny is that most fans on the board also argue this team should have (potential) 4 - 6 AA, the NPOY (2 candidates) and the DPOY (2 candidates) . That is a lot of fire power for a not so great team...LOL.

 

[Los24]

Wait- their win over UCONN was not a one-off? (I am guessing that means a one time deal).
So you think if UCONN had played Mississippi State let’s say, 3 times, MSU would have continued to beat UCONN? I think very few would agree with you. And honestly, if MSU was that good, why didn’t they beat SC? South Carolina, your anointed “best team in the nation” well, UCONN managed to beat them, so MSS should have had no problem with SC. Oh wait- beating UCONN took too much out of them. Huh?
Have you watched MSU play this year? You really think they are better than UCONN? I guess time will tell.

Just to jump in your convo.... SC won so they are crowned champion but the best team does not always win otherwise there would be no such things as upsets. MSST won and were the better team that day, but many folks (not just UConn fans) expected an easy win. Not sure that would have been the case if it was not a one off win. How did they do in previous years against UConn? They have not established any kind of winning against a team such as UConn, but I think they have shown that they were a quality team and continue to be one.

I think they sort of had the UConn affect on UConn in the FF last year. What I mean is that UConn often wins some games against teams because they are not used to the style of play, we recognize that many teams often get blitzed and game over in Q1. I think UConn was blitzed by the style and aggression by MSST. To UConn's credit it was not game over in Q1 and they fought back.

I for one want to play MSST in March. I love to see UConn respond to a team that punched them in the mouth, that took away a great ending of the season and ended the streak. I would not be concerned about losing only because if we did lose then we (UConn) did not deserve it.

 

[DefenseBB]

What's interesting is this (core) team for the most part lost 1 game (OT last second) in almost 2 years. The big 3 lost (in junior year) to Stanford albeit it was not final 4 in March. If they run the table this year with an undefeated season I do not see how people would not consider them "AMONG" the greatest teams. What is funny is that most fans on the board also argue this team should have (potential) 4 - 6 AA, the NPOY (2 candidates) and the DPOY (2 candidates) . That is a lot of fire power for a not so great team...LOL.

I can’t “Like” your observation enough. To me the talent is as deep and distributed as I can remember across 10 teams. While injuries and inconsistent development plague a few teams (ND, SC, Tenn, Stanford), WCBB is showing better depth so UConn should be proud with this domination.

I don’t get the naysayers on this teams excellence. 3 All Americans last year, Kia is serving this year, budding AA in both Crystal Dangerfield and Z. This team has played better competition in both more and better ranked than the other noted UConn teams. I just scratch my head.