- Joined
- Aug 27, 2011
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These are the exact feelings I had when JC retired. I thought to myself "it could be all over for UCONN". No hall of fame coach-crappy conference and look what happened.I think the concern is that our recent success is not sustainable and probably will never happen again. Catching lightning in a bottle is hard enough once. We did it twice in 4 years. Kemba and Shabazz are unique and we may never get another player like them again. You cant really rely on losing 8 or 9 games only to get hot down the stretch and have it all click and storm through the NCAA tourney.
We won two national titles and that's amazing, but they were otherwise very average seasons. Down years for a traditional power like Duke, Ky, Kansas etc. We have won more titles than anyone in the last 20 years, but we have also had a lot more down seasons too. Not since 2008-09 have we have a dominant type regular season. Now 2 years into the dreaded AAC and were sitting on a 14-8 conference record. Looking ahead it could be another few years until we have another, so it could be a decade or more between those seasons. That's a very long time for a program like ours. We were a #1 or #2 something crazy like 8 out of 10 years or something.
So sure our recruiting has been ok, but we really need to step it up a notch. The AAC certainly isn't helping, but we've seen players sign with programs in similar conference so that isn't the only excuse. We need to start getting some impact players. I love Brimah and Facey and both have great potential, but we cant rely entirely on those type of guys.
Also it cant be overlooked that the coach developing those 3-3.5/4 star guys into stars was none other than Jim Calhoun, who was probably the greatest college basketball coach ever at developing players. Ollie may be great also, but its doubtful he will match what JC was able to do in that respect.
It's true that it may never happen again but that can be said for every team outside Uk (who in my opinion is on the verge of ruining the college game).
The year we won with Kemba and Bazz there was very little hope of a NC until the post season. At UCONN it is a matter of slowly getting the right pieces in place- getting upperclassmen leadership from several players and having great chemistry. Obviously this does not just happen- it takes several years for key players to join the team and existing players to develop. I would have been thrilled just to be ranked this year with what we lost from last years team.
I do want see improvement from our existing players before the season is over- it's important moving forward- that was my expectation for this year- and so far they have not lived up to that expectation- but there is still time to see some light at the end of the tunnel for the likes of OC, RP, Dan Hurley, SCJ and AB. If we add one more big man and/or SG/PG in next years class we are on a "typical" UCONN track for improvement in the next few seasons.
otential needs to be kinetic when new man sets foot on campus