The folly of not playing the Huskies during the regular season

[pppggg]

It’s appears to me that some of the top schools don’t want to play the Huskies during the regular season for fear of losing. IMO that is a big mistake.

There are only 7 or 8 schools other than the UCONN that have a legitimate chance to win the NC. The Huskies play a brand of offense and defense that can’t be matched by any other school. Facing a team like UCONN in a one and done situation is a daunting task.

A regular season loss to the Huskies is basically meaningless as far as the regular season ranking go. It would be smarter to play the Huskies once or twice during the regular season than to face them cold on the tournament. At least your team would have some idea want they were facing and you could make some adjustments going prior to the NCAA’s.

Memo to UNC, Duke, ND etc. If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. You don’t do that ducking tough teams.

 

[VAUConnFan]

I do not believe any of the top teams duck UConn for fear of losing. It is more likely due to contractual obligations and scheduling conflicts. I may have also heard/read somewhere that Coach Auriemma, after a few years, decides he would like to schedule other teams.

 

[meyers7]

I do not believe any of the top teams duck UConn for fear of losing. It is more likely due to contractual obligations and scheduling conflicts. I may have also heard/read somewhere that Coach Auriemma, after a few years, decides he would like to schedule other teams.

Agree, playing the same teams over and over does tend to get a little boring. Need more good teams to choose from though.

 

[UcMiami]

Stanford is a great example of that over the years - Tara has lost big to Uconn early and come back with a better plan in the second game - doesn't always work and maybe some of it was injury related, but...
The more varied your experience of running your offense against good defenses and running your defense against good offenses, the easier it is to identify problems and weaknesses and the better your players listen.
I think Baylor probably stopped listening to Kim leading into Louisville, Uconn stopped listening to Geno before that BC loss in the BE tournament in DTs time but luckily had a second chance and a couple of weeks to get it back together again.
ND had a beautiful offense this year, but they had never played a defense remotely close to Uconn's and Uconn had a great defense but they had never seen as good an offense as NDs. Both teams would have been better prepared for the NC if they had played each other during the year. (Natalie being out I do think changed the 'inevitability' of the result.)

 

[Icebear]

Not having a game with UCONN this year hurt ND and Muffet because they did not have a standard by which to measure the Huskies accurately and to be prepared for how good the team was. All they knew was that they were better than everyone else.

 

[alexrgct]

Agree, playing the same teams over and over does tend to get a little boring. Need more good teams to choose from though.

Yes- this is what happened with UNC after 2007. Duke and Stanford continue to play UConn. Texas A&M was just a one-shot home & home kind of a deal and wasn't expected to be an ongoing series. Notre Dame wasn't ducking UConn and is instead presumably scheduled to play UConn next season. Louisville is a possibility and TBD. Baylor has been playing UConn for four seasons and I *think* will continue to do so.

To me, the biggest issue is Tennessee, but reportedly there are a lot of issues there that aren't related exclusively to fear of losing.

Who exactly is ducking Uconn, in particular for fear of losing?

 

[UcMiami]

I think the UNC issue was competitiveness. And the issue is to try and balance OOC geographically and conference wise. It is easier to evaluate an opponent in the NCAA if you have at least played a few teams in their league so you can watch how they played someone you played.

With five major conferences and only an OOC of 9 plus in season tournament games you can't balance out at 2 games each but this year it was:
2 ACC (Duke, MD)
2 Big10 (Ohio St in HOF, PSU)
3 Pac (Cal at MSG, Stanford, Oregon)
1 Big12 (Baylor)

With the AAC being so geographically diverse the west coast is really the only area that Uconn doesn't visit in conference. Adding USCar this year gets a SEC team back on the schedule and replacing MD with ND keeps the ACC at two. DePaul might be seen as a substitute for a Big10 team. And UC Davis adds a second west coast though not a Pac team.

 

[HoopsFan21]

Not having a game with UCONN this year hurt ND and Muffet because they did not have a standard by which to measure the Huskies accurately and to be prepared for how good the team was. All they knew was that they were better than everyone else.

Muffet said as much after the game that she knew they were good but didn't realize how good.

 

[UcMiami]

Muffet said as much after the game that she knew they were good but didn't realize how good.

And many coaches after a thrashing say ... you just can't duplicate the speed and intensity in practice. With a U of Charleston or an SMU, OK, I can understand that - with the big programs ... that is their problem - it isn't 'can't', it is more like 'don't' or 'will not'. Uconn chooses to practice like that so they can play like that. And when their bench can't provide enough competition, they like other teams bring in male practice players to relieve some of the pressure of going 2 hours flat out.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Not having a game with UCONN this year hurt ND and Muffet because they did not have a standard by which to measure the Huskies accurately and to be prepared for how good the team was. All they knew was that they were better than everyone else.

Yup, dead on. Kayla in a pregame locker room door interview said she thought not playing UConn was an advantage for them because UConn would not understand who they were up against. Sorta silly because ND's game was still their game, but they had not experienced the speed of UConn's game and the defensive intensity. UConn delivered the first punch and ND was off the rest of the night.

Turned out UConn was the symphony and ND was the marching band. Had our deep shooters been on the score may have eclipsed last year's rout.

 

[msf22b]

Turned out UConn was the symphony and ND was the marching band. Had our deep shooters been on the score may have eclipsed last year's rout.

I've been musing about that for days trying to figure out if we would have won by 30 or 40?

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

And many coaches after a thrashing say ... you just can't duplicate the speed and intensity in practice. With a U of Charleston or an SMU, OK, I can understand that - with the big programs ... that is their problem - it isn't 'can't', it is more like 'don't' or 'will not'. Uconn chooses to practice like that so they can play like that. And when their bench can't provide enough competition, they like other teams bring in male practice players to relieve some of the pressure of going 2 hours flat out.

No, most programs can't. They don't have the personnel, even the big programs. Even with the male practice players, because while they may have the speed, etc. they often don't have the specific skill-set. UConn is very, very difficult to prepare for.

Many coaches (and even Geno once) make a similar comment about Rutgers, particularly when RU was at its best. Very difficult to prepare for because you cannot duplicate the speed, quickness, athleticism, etc. in practice.

The problem I see is that the very players you are trying to prepare to face such stiff competition can't also be the "stand in" for the competition.

 

[uconnfan68]

It’s appears to me that some of the top schools don’t want to play the Huskies during the regular season for fear of losing. IMO that is a big mistake.

There are only 7 or 8 schools other than the UCONN that have a legitimate chance to win the NC. The Huskies play a brand of offense and defense that can’t be matched by any other school. Facing a team like UCONN in a one and done situation is a daunting task.

A regular season loss to the Huskies is basically meaningless as far as the regular season ranking go. It would be smarter to play the Huskies once or twice during the regular season than to face them cold on the tournament. At least your team would have some idea want they were facing and you could make some adjustments going prior to the NCAA’s.

Memo to UNC, Duke, ND etc. If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. You don’t do that ducking tough teams.

Not any more... you just pretend they don't exist. Sooner or later no one will go to UConn. The AAC needs a really big overhaul to keep up.