has a 16-4 Uconn team every been ranked outside the top 25?
yes, houston was a bad loss.
stanford and SMU are debatable.
UofL was a loss to a higher ranked team.
There are plenty of opportunities on the schedule coming up with Cincy (2x's), memphis, SMU, and UofL.
Then there is the AAC tourney which could give another crack at Cincy, Memphis, and UofL.
I can see 2-3 AAC teams on the Top 15 (probably in the 10-15 range).
You do have a good point, as far as this year is concerned with 4 remaining games against currently ranked teams and with UL in the AAC for its first, last and only season. There are enough quality games for this team to make a statement and get into and stay in the Top 25. Not enough IMO to get much higher than, say 12, where UL is currently ranked, if they were to run the table, though I think that's unlikely.
So if you add SMU to the mix, they'll probably have to go 3 and 2 in those 5 games (Ws at home against SMU, Memphis & Cincy with acceptable losses against UL and Cincy in their buildings) plus taking care of business winning all the other remaining AAC games to stick somewhere in the lower half of the Top 25.
I'm finding it hard to get a clear read on this team as far as how good they can be. A couple weeks ago, they looked like a Swiss Cheese team with some alarming holes. But now with both Brimah and Nolan showing solid improvement making teams have to guard the post, Bazz looking like one of the top 2 to 3 players...maybe I should expand that to top top 3 to 5...in all of college hoops, Daniels lighting it up from all over the floor assuming his ankle won't slow him down for any significant period of time, and getting solid contributions from Boatright, Giffey and Kromah most nights, this team could play above their ranking come tournament time.
Their lack of rebounding is still a concern, particularly if they go up against a physical team with a lot of size, especially up front. Their lack of backcourt size has me a tad concerned match-up wise as well. In some of their losses, they ran into teams that have long athletic guards that made it hard for Bazz & Boat to shoot over and get past. Though in some of their big wins they handled some big backcourts and even big frontcourts, so they seem capable of overcoming these factors.
I'm sure we all felt the 2011 team was extremely vulnerable even as late as the end of the conference regular season and that team ripped off 11 straight wins on their way to being the last team standing. Not necessarily feeling this team has all the pieces to come close to accomplishing that feat, but I would not be shocked if they go a round or two deeper than what many the will predict.
