Reminds me of January 2023

[uh-no]

Extended losing streak, too many fouls, huge free throw disparity, what we witnessed before January was fool's gold, conference coaches knew how to defend us.... and Hurley can't win a close game... most importantly, HURLEY CAN'T WIN A TOURNAMENT GAME

Let's not pretend otherwise, we've been here before, and many of the naysayers then are the same naysayers today. 22 months ago, before back to back titles

I believed then, and I believe today, the team will gell, chemistry will develop, and we're going to enjoy the season

That doesn't mean I expect a three peat. I'm not going to pretend I expected that first title, who did? But I expect to be enjoying March

Go Huskies

That team started the season 14-0, with several big time wins, and never dropped below 6th in the country in the dork rankings. This team has 0 wins against real competition and has currently dropped to 28th. There is no similarity here....this team is dreadful on the defensive end....and something is going to have to change real fast to turn this ship around.

 

[superjohn]

That team won the PK Invitational and rolled Oregon, Alabama, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, and Florida going undefeated in out of conference games. Clingan was already a revelation as he was MVP of the PK Invitational with Bill Walton slobbering all over him. We already knew we had a two headed monster at center. Newton had a couple of monster games under his belt already. We were scoring in the high 80's and holding our opponents to the high 50's. We had a really rough slide in early Big East play with our toughest road games all in a row but we already saw what the team could do with dominant play against a bunch of good teams.

We haven't beaten anyone yet and lost three in a row to less talented team, two of them with way less talent. I don't ever remember our defense looking this bad, (maybe in the late Ollie years) our player rotations aren't even close to figured out and our offense seems to just consist of jacking up threes.

 

[Mr. French]

If you can’t see the difference then so be it. You must be waiting for the magic turkey to appear at the door today. My 12 yo grandson could educate you on the subject. Take your names and Happy Thanksgiving

1 of the 5 most consistently negative posters chiming in!

 

[willie99]

Excellent post.

Back in January 2023, UConn's roster looked a lot like our roster now in the sense that there was little certainty entering the season. Sanogo was already a beast under the basket and we knew Andre Jackson was an exceptional defender and athletic freak X-factor.

However, the transfers were still a work in progress: Newton was panned here for his inconsistencies, Alleyne lost his starting job, Joey was cold. The homegrown impact underclassmen (Hawkins and Clingan) were still getting their feet under them.

People forget, UConn was BAD during this time. 2-6 bad.

This year, there are similar uncertainties across the roster: we know what Karaban brings, Diarra is Diarra and Samson is Samson. Tarris has shown flashes of brilliance, but he's got projectability and I'm super giddy about him. Mahaney is a career 37% three-pointer shooter, so he's been bad, but he's got Joey potential and more.

Then, there's the underclassmen. McNeeley has a shot to be our 2nd best player, Nowell can work his way into the starting PG role. There's potential there and both freshmen are just getting started in their development.

The sophomores barely played last year and now Ball is thrusted into a starting role. While he's scored double-digits in every game this year, he's working on his defensive rotations, but the effort is there, he just needs to work on his vision and situational awareness. I've liked what I've seen from Stewart as the first forward off the bench. There's versatility on offense and he's not going to shoot 18% from three all season and his defense will keep improving. Ross has the same three-point percentage, but he's like an over-eager puppy...he'll keep getting reps and maturing his game on both ends. Singare, Abraham too, the underclassmen group this year is DEEP and there's so much potential. It's only going to get better.

Per KenPom, UConn is 193rd in D1 experience. Memphis is 2nd, Dayton is 7th. Baylor is 14th. Texas is 22nd. Gonzaga is 17th. Xavier is 3rd. Butler is 25th. Bottom line, UConn is closing out the 2024 portion of their schedule against veteran and experienced teams so they are getting battle tested early...but like Hurley said in 2020, you better get us now, because it's coming.

Thank you

 

[Mr. French]

This is all I can think about.

I have been on the Boneyard almost daily since the late 90’s, usually lurking, handing out “likes.” It’s a bit of an addiction. Plenty of great times, plenty of bad times. In January of 2023 this place was so toxic, so hysterical (the un-funny kind) that I actually had to step away for a couple weeks.

There are already people in this thread saying “that team was different!” Every team is different. But some things never change.

Newton was a complete bust.
We didn’t have a point guard.
Jackson was literally a liability should never see the floor.
Hawkins was too streaky and was too weak, a matador on D.
Sanogo was undersized and could not guard bigger centers. Couldn’t even dunk!
Hurley might never win a tournament game.

The players are now different (mostly). The comments are the same. You want to know the funniest part? All those comments were essentially true at the time they were posted in 2023!

This is a process. It just might take longer than one season, this time.

Will we win the championship? No, unless Reed discovers a defensive monster inside himself, and even then it’s probably a long shot. Is this season completely lost? Too early to tell, it depends on how quickly they all adapt.

It was obvious before Maui that the team hadn’t figured out all the roles.

March is a long ways away.

Bang on.

Newton wasn’t a PG. Transfer didn’t fit with the roster.
Jackson was unusable on 1 side of the floor.
Hawkins got the current Ball treatment (no D, only shoots 3s).

Same people, same complaining, same lack of realization that things can be disappointing but not unfixable, same assumptions of development being linear.

Here’s the thing: questioning or showing frustration is 1 thing, and it’s valid as a fan.

But saying “in Hurley I trust” for 2.5 years+ then LITERALLY saying things like “Hurley blew it on roster construction, what is he seeing, he’s lost the season” etc. after 3 bad early season games is the polar opposite of “trust.”

 

[willie99]

That team won the PK Invitational and rolled Oregon, Alabama, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, and Florida going undefeated in out of conference games. Clingan was already a revelation as he was MVP of the PK Invitational with Bill Walton slobbering all over him. We already knew we had a two headed monster at center. Newton had a couple of monster games under his belt already. We were scoring in the high 80's and holding our opponents to the high 50's. We had a really rough slide in early Big East play with our toughest road games all in a row but we already saw what the team could do with dominant play against a bunch of good teams.

We haven't beaten anyone yet and lost three in a row to less talented team, two of them with way less talent. I don't ever remember our defense looking this bad, (maybe in the late Ollie years) our player rotations aren't even close to figured out and our offense seems to just consist of jacking up threes.

And yet, the naysayers were out in full force. Go figure

Doesn't change a thing I said

 

[InKembaITrust]

Extended losing streak, too many fouls, huge free throw disparity, what we witnessed before January was fool's gold, conference coaches knew how to defend us.... and Hurley can't win a close game... most importantly, HURLEY CAN'T WIN A TOURNAMENT GAME

Let's not pretend otherwise, we've been here before, and many of the naysayers then are the same naysayers today. 22 months ago, before back to back titles

I believed then, and I believe today, the team will gell, chemistry will develop, and we're going to enjoy the season

That doesn't mean I expect a three peat. I'm not going to pretend I expected that first title, who did? But I expect to be enjoying March

Go Huskies

Consistency and reliability from Stewart will be the X-factor this season. At this point, I think we know what we'll get from our starters. If he can somehow find a way to be a lockdown defender for us, (he has the physicality and athleticism to do it), then we'll go further than expected.

Mahaney needs to bring energy and 10 pts per game off the bench. Put him in the Joey Cali role and he'll be just fine.

Nowell should be absorbing the majority of Ross' minutes. I love Ross' hustle and athleticism, but he's a liability on the offensive end and was drastically overhyped by Hurley.

Feels like Hurley is giving seniority playing time and the benefit of the doubt early in the season, and rightfully so. I think we can all agree, Tarris needs to start over Samson, and Nowell should gradually absorb minutes from Diarra and Ross.

 

[CT2SC]

This is nothing like January of 23. That team had proven itself at the start of the season and hit a rough patch. This team hasn’t proven anything. In hindsight expectations were far too big for this team. Our team consists of one returning starter, two three year role players, four sophomores who barely played, two transfers, and three freshman. That has transition year written all over it. I’m not down on the team I’m just being realistic about what we are. Maybe the team will grow as we move through the year or maybe the roster composition is seriously flawed and we miss the tournament. No one knows at this point how the season will unfold but certainly the odds of missing the tournament appear much more likely than this team sniffing the Final Four.

 

[willie99]

My analogy is about all the crying naysayers making the same arguments now that they made then. The fact that the naysayers were even more ridiculous in January of 2023 doesn't change a thing for November of 2024

With hindsight, you know how stupid it was in January of 2023. I trust hindsight will give everyone 20/20 vision yet again

It is what it is

 

[TribecaHusk]

Reminds me more (potentially) of the 2014 team. They were awful before finding themselves and playing to their potential to win the championship. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and this team could still be good in April. But it’s got to improve its defense and right itself mentally

 

[shizzle787]

Reminds me more (potentially) of the 2014 team. They were awful before finding themselves and playing to their potential to win the championship. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and this team could still be good in April. But it’s got to improve its defense and right itself mentally

That team started 9-0.

 

[willie99]

I'm not talking about the team or teams

I'm talking about the board

I understand and appreciate that every team and every season is unique

The dust in the wind fanatics are not unique, they're predictable and consistent. They show up and get loudest when things get toughest

 

[Mots010]

This is nothing like January of 23. That team had proven itself at the start of the season and hit a rough patch. This team hasn’t proven anything. In hindsight expectations were far too big for this team. Our team consists of one returning starter, two three year role players, four sophomores who barely played, two transfers, and three freshman. That has transition year written all over it. I’m not down on the team I’m just being realistic about what we are. Maybe the team will grow as we move through the year or maybe the roster composition is seriously flawed and we miss the tournament. No one knows at this point how the season will unfold but certainly the odds of missing the tournament appear much more likely than this team sniffing the Final Four.

While I agree that team had largely proven itself in the early season, I do think the mechanism of our issues in January 2023 are similar. During that swoon, seemingly out of nowhere, we lost our ability to stop teams from getting to the rim. Our defensive rotations completely fell apart, and the free throw discrepancy was abnormally large. Our luck factor went way down and teams gained confidence, hitting crazy shots from all over the court. We were getting our butts kicked every night. It looked just like what we’re seeing right now…even if I have way less confidence that we have to ability to turn it around this season.

January 2023 was INSANE. It literally looked like we forgot how to play basketball for a month.

 

[CT2SC]

My analogy is about all the crying naysayers making the same arguments now that they made then. The fact that the naysayers were even more ridiculous in January of 2023 doesn't change a thing for November of 2024

With hindsight, you know how stupid it was in January of 2023. I trust hindsight will give everyone 20/20 vision yet again

It is what it is

I didn’t lose faith in Jan 23. There were some freaky losses in there (i.e leading SH an entire game and losing on last 2nd shot etc), and a tough road stretch. This Dayton loss exposed some flaws in a team that hasn’t won a game against any real competition. I think they’ll improve, but this time I really think our expectations were way off from what the team is capable of becoming. A 10-6 Big East record (which feels optimistic though still within reach) and 2-1 in our upcoming 3 game stretch (super optimistic) puts us at 18-10 in a pretty mid BE conference this season. Is that good enough for a bid or would we need to win BET to get in? Obviously a lot of season left to be played but 3 losses has us in a place where we urgently need to turn things around. Our margin for error is shrinking quickly.

 

[zls44]

The Baylor-Texas-Gonzaga stretch is a huge opportunity. Really need to go at least 2-1.

Are you serious? I'm praying they get Baylor and dont lose the other two by 30.

 

[AllHusky]

No other team in UConn history has faced what this team is facing. Athletic competition doesn’t build character, it shows it. As we make our comments and criticisms, let’s remember it is a reflection of our character also. As we gain experience the deficit shown by the KenPom age stat will lessen. Hang in there Yard!

 

[Iluvsuebird]

I don't understand why we were so bad in Maui. We have Karaban. We have Diarra. Mahaney was a high level player for a St. Mary's team that won games in the NCAA tournament the last two years and were both top 25 teams. We are weak at the 5 obviously but McNeeley is a really good player too, and Ball looks really improved and Stewart is solid. I understand losing to Memphis as they look like a possible top 20 team but Colorado stinks and even though we lost to Dayton, they are not 20 points better than us. If we had lost by a possession, I would have been disappointed but would understand as they played UNC and Iowa State to the brink.

Did you watch the games? No defense. No go to star on offense. Irresponsible fouling. That’s why we lost 3 times.

 

[Kowalski]

That team started the season 14-0, with several big time wins, and never dropped below 6th in the country in the dork rankings. This team has 0 wins against real competition and has currently dropped to 28th. There is no similarity here....this team is dreadful on the defensive end....and something is going to have to change real fast to turn this ship around.

Ok it’s not the same but the point is that year’s team hit the skids & lost 5 out of 6 over a stretch of the BE season. And fell to 24th in the AP poll at the end of January.

Another big difference is we’re still in November & Uconn has a mostly inexperienced roster that was overhauled over this last off season.

 

[bigknight3]

This is way, way worse. The team is reeling. They are in free fall. And forget the there was no time to fix it excuse. Adjustments have to be made in real time. During the games. We should have been getting better not coming apart.

Dayton shot 47% from three and that's the worst a team has shot from three against us all tournament. Dayton had a 50-40-90 night against our defense. Our offense has gotten worse as the opponents got worse.

There needs to be a lot of soul searching.

I didn't know what your talking about. This is exactly the same as the losing steak two years ago.

Both teams had flaws that were exposed and need time to address the flaws and overcome them as a team.

The added issue is that the games were back to back 3 straight days. There was no time to work on their issues.

Trust me Hurley and the team don't need your post to realize soul searching and work as a team in practice will be be needed.

 

[HCCForever]

Is it conditioning at this point? Jet Lag, Time Zone? McNeeley 0-9 in 30 minutes?

Or perhaps 3 games in 3 days. We won't see this format again until the Big East tournament. Hopefully, we play 3 games in the BET.

 

[tjhusky]

I didn't know what your talking about. This is exactly the same as the losing steak two years ago.

Both teams had flaws that were exposed and need time to address the flaws and overcome them as a team.

The added issue is that the games were back to back 3 straight days. There was no time to work on their issues.

Trust me Hurley and the team don't need your post to realize soul searching and work as a team in practice will be be needed.

This

 

[Gurleyman]

Or perhaps 3 games in 3 days. We won't see this format again until the Big East tournament. Hopefully, we play 3 games in the BET.

and the thing about that tournament is that you play someone you’ve already played twice. So you know personnel, scouting reports, etc., and a walkthrough for a reminder is all you need. In these tournaments, you can’t have a practice to prepare for an opponent. You just have to play. It’s the same format for both teams - but it’s different than any other game the rest of the year.

Ironically, during our swoon in January of 2023, I felt like the Alabama and Iowa State wins lost their luster a little bit for that reason - feeling like we just took advantage of an unusual format and maybe got wins we wouldn’t have otherwise gotten. But we got things straightened out and looked more like that team again. This time, we have to try to not look like that team again.

 

[uconnfan68]

Is it conditioning at this point? Jet Lag, Time Zone? McNeeley 0-9 in 30 minutes?

They’re being forced to settle for contested shots because they really can’t create on their own, and the passing has been abysmal. I’m certain lots of coaches watched lots of film on us, and found ways to exploit our plans. Now we need changes.

 

[Hurleyman216]

Our offense is complex and we will get better and better every week. However, it seems right now we are far too reliant on Diarra and Samson. Diarra is going to need to play 25-30 mins/game, but he’s not capable of getting a bucket at will. It seems like our season is going to hinge on how quickly McNeeley can become consistent on both ends and how long Reed will be able to stay on the floor. I’m fully expecting the defense to improve which hopefully leads to some more uptempo play. If we’re gonna be playing 10 guys we need to run and get out in transition to wear teams down when we can (this also is a strength of Samson who isn’t as good in the half court sets). We will improve, the question is can we do it quick enough to get a couple decent OOC wins to avoid a complete disaster of a season.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Doesn’t remind me of that at all. That team dominated the out of conference then ran into Big East teams that adjusted. This team still hasn’t shown it beat anything but the worst teams in the country. Doesn’t mean the staff and players can’t figure things, out, but it’s nothing like it was then.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Take a breath. We did not look “lost” our first four games.

Sure. We played Jr. High level teams. And yes, Hurley said we played terribly.

 

[willie99]

Doesn’t remind me of that at all. That team dominated the out of conference then ran into Big East teams that adjusted. This team still hasn’t shown it beat anything but the worst teams in the country. Doesn’t mean the staff and players can’t figure things, out, but it’s nothing like it was then.

Again, it's about the board and the arguments naysayers were making. And the naysayers can't say they knew a turn around was coming in 2023, because they crucified the team (despite that amazing start, go figure)

The biggest difference between now and then is nobody is still saying HURLEY CAN'T WIN A TOURNAMENT GAME. Never mind January of 2023, naysayers were saying this in March of 2023. It's like Seth Davis is posting on this board

 

[HuskyHawk]

Again, it's about the board and the arguments naysayers were making. And the naysayers can't say they knew a turn around was coming, because they crucified the team (despite that amazing start, go figure)

Don’t know about those people but I think my take on it was correct. We had issues covering the rim when hedging. The 3-4 weren’t doing that job well enough. Teams exploited it. We had issues with teams doubling Adama and ignoring Jackson. It was a learning experience that won us a NC. We moved Adama out of the post and let him get the ball facing the basket. That enabled him to feed a wide open Ajax for baseline dunks. eventually they couldn’t double him. Alex and Ajax cleaned up the defensive rim coverage. Guards improved at keeping the man in front of them.