The Offense and Recruiting

[James]

Right, that Florida team had such awful guard play. Maybe that's why they blitzed every team all season.
Hard to believe an actual UConn fan would wave away such an amazing tournament run, but here we are.

Yeah the team that went 36-3? What a cakewalk matchup. Not even sure how they got in the tourney

 

[selles]

Call it what you want. I'll remind you that our path in 2014 was as follows:

#9 St Joes - we were a brimah put-back and-1 away from losing that game.
#2 Villanova - we all knew at the time and know now 'nova was by far the weakest #2 seed in that tourney. They were much closer to a 5 than a 2. No Pros on that team BTW.
#3 Iowa State - Without their best player, Niang had a broken foot or something.
#4 Michigan State - Game held in Gampel... Sorry MSG.
#1 Florida - a team we had already beaten AND had awful guard play. Like our wet dream matchup for 'Bazz/Boat
#8 Kentucky - a team that had no guard play consisting of freshman that 'Bazz/Boat again ate alive

Point is this. I don't know why you are misconstruing the point I made. We won two 'ships. That's awesome, i went to Dallas to the 2014 game. But, as we move forward and get truly past the turmoil of the transition(recruiting, scholly reductions, etc) we should see the consistency and stability match the streaky ability of our team to play great tournament basketball.

Or, you can just freak out because I used the words fluke(which it kinda was).

Are you kidding? Michigan State was the popular pick to win it all when we played them. After we dispatched MSU, Florida was the popular pick to win it all. That was a very tough path to the title.

 

[caw]

You just described every single NCAA tournament ever. Very few teams win without escaping a last second win.

Just to see if I can:
Get a weak 16 seed in the first round
Get the 9 seed in the second round
Get the 5th seed in the third
Get the freaking tenth seed in the fourth and almost lose
Get the only non-1 seed in the final four, with an awful front court (luckily enough)
Almost lose while getting a few lucky calls to end the game

Your 1999 38-2 NC Huskies.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

Call it what you want. I'll remind you that our path in 2014 was as follows:

#9 St Joes - we were a brimah put-back and-1 away from losing that game.
#2 Villanova - we all knew at the time and know now 'nova was by far the weakest #2 seed in that tourney. They were much closer to a 5 than a 2. No Pros on that team BTW.
#3 Iowa State - Without their best player, Niang had a broken foot or something.
#4 Michigan State - Game held in Gampel... Sorry MSG.
#1 Florida - a team we had already beaten AND had awful guard play. Like our wet dream matchup for 'Bazz/Boat
#8 Kentucky - a team that had no guard play consisting of freshman that 'Bazz/Boat again ate alive

Point is this. I don't know why you are misconstruing the point I made. We won two 'ships. That's awesome, i went to Dallas to the 2014 game. But, as we move forward and get truly past the turmoil of the transition(recruiting, scholly reductions, etc) we should see the consistency and stability match the streaky ability of our team to play great tournament basketball.

Or, you can just freak out because I used the words fluke(which it kinda was).

Lol wow. Florida was unquestionably the best team in the country all year and Michigan State was many people's sleeper pick to win the whole thing. And not for nothing, but Kentucky was favored in that championship game. But yeah, real easy draw.

 

[bmayuc]

You just described every single NCAA tournament ever. Very few teams win without escaping a last second win.

Ugh, delicious homerism on the board today. Death to rational discussion and reasonable conclusions!

We've averaged 23-12 for the past 7 seasons, zero conference championships, and 1 tournament championship. Yea, we won 2 NCAA titles, too. I'm just saying, now that we're past the turmoil, coaching changes, transfers, NCAA penalties, graduation rates, and conference disasters, maybe we can have a more stable, consistent program.

What do you say, fellas?

 

[bmayuc]

Just to see if I can:
Get a weak 16 seed in the first round
Get the 9 seed in the second round
Get the 5th seed in the third
Get the freaking tenth seed in the fourth and almost lose
Get the only non-1 seed in the final four, with an awful front court (luckily enough)
Almost lose while getting a few lucky calls to end the game

Your 1999 38-2 NC Huskies.

Yes, 38-2. #1 seed. Thanks for making my point. Expected to win all those games.

 

[bmayuc]

Lol wow. Florida was unquestionably the best team in the country all year and Michigan State was many people's sleeper pick to win the whole thing. And not for nothing, but Kentucky was favored in that championship game. But yeah, real easy draw.

yes, we were the underdog to a #8 seed in the NCAA Tournament Final. That's flukey. Thank you for making my point.

 

[intlzncster]

never seen a fan try to break down why their favorite teams best accomplishments are actually flukes like I have ITT.

Well, if that's the way it's gonna be, I'm firmly putting all my chips in the lucky bin and hope for the best!

 

[intlzncster]

Are you kidding? Michigan State was the popular pick to win it all when we played them. After we dispatched MSU, Florida was the popular pick to win it all. That was a very tough path to the title.

Frankly, it might be one of the toughest paths to a title UCONN has ever had.

 

[superjohn]

Call it what you want. I'll remind you that our path in 2014 was as follows:

#9 St Joes - we were a brimah put-back and-1 away from losing that game.
#2 Villanova - we all knew at the time and know now 'nova was by far the weakest #2 seed in that tourney. They were much closer to a 5 than a 2. No Pros on that team BTW.
#3 Iowa State - Without their best player, Niang had a broken foot or something.
#4 Michigan State - Game held in Gampel... Sorry MSG.
#1 Florida - a team we had already beaten AND had awful guard play. Like our wet dream matchup for 'Bazz/Boat
#8 Kentucky - a team that had no guard play consisting of freshman that 'Bazz/Boat again ate alive

Point is this. I don't know why you are misconstruing the point I made. We won two 'ships. That's awesome, i went to Dallas to the 2014 game. But, as we move forward and get truly past the turmoil of the transition(recruiting, scholly reductions, etc) we should see the consistency and stability match the streaky ability of our team to play great tournament basketball.

Or, you can just freak out because I used the words fluke(which it kinda was).

Wow, this post is horrendous.

 

[intlzncster]

Ugh, delicious homerism on the board today. Death to rational discussion and reasonable conclusions!

We've averaged 23-12 for the past 7 seasons, zero conference championships, and 1 tournament championship. Yea, we won 2 NCAA titles, too. I'm just saying, now that we're past the turmoil, coaching changes, transfers, NCAA penalties, graduation rates, and conference disasters, maybe we can have a more stable, consistent program.

What do you say, fellas?

All the points of rational discussion and reasonable conclusions are being (well) made against the 'fluke' thing. Nobody is questioning your fandom. Nobody is saying we couldn't be more consistent in the regular season. But those championships weren't luck. They required a little bit, as all championship runs do, but those were the most devastating teams in the tournament, with the best player winning it all.

The greatest stroke of luck we received in those two tournaments was Louisville being on the other side of the bracket (and getting knocked out) in 2014. I just don't think we could beat them that year.

 

[superjohn]

never seen a fan try to break down why their favorite teams best accomplishments are actually flukes like I have ITT.

Dude is a moron, that was close to as tough a gauntlet you'll see a team have to through for a title.

 

[Palatine]

Part of this is the nature of college basketball. With one and dones and senior transfers, the landscape changes dramatically every year. At the elite level there are fewer and fewer four year players for everyone. That has a huge effect on continuity and consistency. It effects everyone but for what ever reason, it has really turned UConn into a roller coaster.

While I would love to see more consistency of high level play, it will be very difficult if the environment doesn't change. However, the NCAA should still be our floor. And the key is to be ready when our opportunities for greatness are there.

 

[johnhuskies95]

Not sure why posters are calling you out for telling it like it is. You are spot on.

Just because we won 2 national championships in the past 5 years does not mean the program has been close to dominant. We hit the jackpot in terms of Kemba and Shabazz... we can't keep counting on our guards to take over and produce like those types of guys, it's simply not sustainable. Part of the reason I think Boat and and Sterling have gotten unfair criticism from this board is because of their inability to live up to Kemba/Shabazz status, which is outrageous to expect.

The fact is, if KO can keep recruiting like he has been the past 2 years, we will have a shot at returning to dominance as early as next year. By dominance, I mean consistently in the high end of the top 25, national title contenders, and in the front runners for winning our league (especially if we're in the American).

Newsflash: you kind of need players like that to win a title. Call it a jackpot if you want.

Every time we've won a national championship we've had guys like that. In the last 10 years, '10 Duke and '08 Kansas are the only national championship teams that haven't had one of the 5 best players in the country on their team.

 

[polycom]

Outside of getting into the tourney, why would being like Syracuse be desirable?

 

[Tenspro2002]

Getting pretty tired of this idea that the recruiting in the past 3-4 years happened in a vacuum, as if everything was going along just fine and all the sudden the bottom fell out of our recruiting and we ended up with some holes.
Let's just forget that we were hit with recruiting sanctions, the dissolution of our conference, a completely bogus postseason ban, and the retirement of one of the best coaches in the history of the game.
And in the meantime, during this downtime, we won two g@#%#m national championships, which posters like you are more than happy to "yeah, but" all day. "Yeah, we won a title, but,... "
It's ridiculous, and it's embarrassing. A national title is the holy grail, something fans of this team waited seemingly an eternity for, and now we've made it seem routine. There are elite teams that have never sniffed the kind of run we've been on, all while dealing with absolutely everything the college basketball world could possibly throw at us.
But go ahead, tell us again about how deeply concerned you are.

I never said there weren't extenuating circumstances to explain the horrible recruiting, and I never applied qualifiers to those two championships. You're reading something that isn't there.

My point is very simple. If we have sub-par rosters and mediocre regular seasons like we have the past 5 years, we are not going to continue to win championships in the future. Period. Just because it worked out that way before, doesn't mean it's a reliable MO going forward. That's all.

Put another way: which of these hypothetical programs is more likely to win a championship over the next 5 years:
A) Conference champions, wire-to-wire Top 10, #1 or #2 seed every year
B) Up and down in conference, fringe Top 25, usually #5-8 seed

You can say "well, Kansas hasn't won a championship this decade, while we've won 2" and that would be correct. But in terms of predicting future performance, you go with the team that's highly ranked year in and year out. It's not more complicated than that.

That said, I fully expect that with recruiting on an upswing, we're not going to have to have this discussion in 3 years. With recruiting back to "normal", we should be able to reassert our status as a perennial contender, with great-to-dominant regular seasons that portend deep runs in the Tournament.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Call it what you want. I'll remind you that our path in 2014 was as follows:

#9 St Joes - we were a brimah put-back and-1 away from losing that game.
#2 Villanova - we all knew at the time and know now 'nova was by far the weakest #2 seed in that tourney. They were much closer to a 5 than a 2. No Pros on that team BTW.
#3 Iowa State - Without their best player, Niang had a broken foot or something.
#4 Michigan State - Game held in Gampel... Sorry MSG.
#1 Florida - a team we had already beaten AND had awful guard play. Like our wet dream matchup for 'Bazz/Boat
#8 Kentucky - a team that had no guard play consisting of freshman that 'Bazz/Boat again ate alive

Point is this. I don't know why you are misconstruing the point I made. We won two 'ships. That's awesome, i went to Dallas to the 2014 game. But, as we move forward and get truly past the turmoil of the transition(recruiting, scholly reductions, etc) we should see the consistency and stability match the streaky ability of our team to play great tournament basketball.

Or, you can just freak out because I used the words fluke(which it kinda was).

You could spin those results anyway you want to.Using words like fluke are always an indicator of lack of an actual objective fact.
These are the facts
We were a 7 seed and in the first round faced the hottest team and Conference Champs of a pretty good A10. Remember Dayton was a sweet 16 team that year.
They where hot and experienced. We had won nothing.
Nova was a soft 2 but Big East Champs, they had actually beaten us the year before.
We pretty much blew them out in the second half.
Next we played a terrific Iowa State team who had beaten North Carolina in their last game without their alleged star.
Then we played MSU Big Ten Champs and almost everyone's pick to win it all.
The crowd all though pro UConn was nowhere near the factor our guard play on defense was., breaking down the vaunted MSU guards
Next we played the undisputed best team and SEC champs and number 1 team in the country ,who we beat on our home court while they were allegedly short handed
We broke down there guards so effectly you could see the confidence being sucked out of them. They were a beaten team
The only break we got was against a overrated but red hot Ky team that if we didn't get in early foul trouble, would have been a blow out
Fluke we played the number 1 team ,the consensus pick, the hottest team in the A10,and actually a decent Nova team a 28-8 ISU team ,plus the great Ky juggernaut.
That's as tough a schedule as anyone has had to win it all.

 

[Inyatkin]

I never said there weren't extenuating circumstances to explain the horrible recruiting,

It's implied. And it's not just this post.
And really, horrible recruiting? The last two years we pulled in Adams and Hamilton, among others. Go ahead and knock the Brimah class but we got some useful pieces that year. Omar Calhoun was a good get.
UMass has horrible recruiting. Rutgers has horrible recruiting. Even at our low point, we don't, but the fact that you use that word speaks volumes.

 

[Gringo]

Ugh, delicious homerism on the board today. Death to rational discussion and reasonable conclusions!

We've averaged 23-12 for the past 7 seasons, zero conference championships, and 1 tournament championship. Yea, we won 2 NCAA titles, too. I'm just saying, now that we're past the turmoil, coaching changes, transfers, NCAA penalties, graduation rates, and conference disasters, maybe we can have a more stable, consistent program.

What do you say, fellas?

Your post is absurd. Go back to the favorites to win the NCAA tournament prior to the tournament beginning. UConn beat 3 of the top 10 favorites including #1 and #2.

http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2014/03/odds_to_win_national_title_in.html

 

[HuskyBballFan]

yes, we were the underdog to a #8 seed in the NCAA Tournament Final. That's flukey. Thank you for making my point.

We beat the presumed best team in the country in the semifinals by 10 points. If their guard play was so shaky as you tried to point out before, then why didn't that matter in their other 35 games that year?

 

[bmayuc]

Wow, this post is horrendous.

How many real legitimate NBA players did we play through?

#9 St. Joes - Zero
#2 Nova - Zero
#3 Iowa State - Zero (Niang, marginal, hurt)
#4 MSU - some?(Appling - marginal, was hurt... Adreian Payne - marginal... Gary Harris - Marginal... Denzel Valentine - TBD)
#1 Florida - 1?(Scotty Wilbekin - marginal?)
#8 Kentucky - 1(Julius Randle- Good player, was hurt... HarrisonX2 - Marginal...James Young... marginal/TBD)

So to emphasize again, we ran into exactly zero consensus 1st, 2nd, or 3rd team All-Americans, only 1 player with any decent NBA career/talent.

AGAIN, I'M NOT HATING ON WINNING THE SHIP. Just saying that it was a flukey run! we had a great player than carried other good/ok players. But that is flukey!

 

[bmayuc]

2004 championship run:
1) 16 seed
2) DePaul
3) Vandy
4) Alabama (complete mismatch, game was over at halftime)


We beat the presumed best team in the country in the semifinals by 10 points. If their guard play was so shaky as you tried to point out before, then why didn't that matter in their other 35 games that year?

Ok I'll play. Look at their record. 40 games, only 7 against ranked teams and they went 4-3. The lost to teams with good guards, period. They played in the SEC, they had 1 shooter and won with physicality.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013–14_Florida_Gators_men's_basketball_team

 

[Inyatkin]

How many real legitimate NBA players did we play through?

#9 St. Joes - Zero
#2 Nova - Zero
#3 Iowa State - Zero (Niang, marginal, hurt)
#4 MSU - some?(Appling - marginal, was hurt... Adreian Payne - marginal... Gary Harris - Marginal... Denzel Valentine - TBD)
#1 Florida - 1?(Scotty Wilbekin - marginal?)
#8 Kentucky - 1(Julius Randle- Good player, was hurt... HarrisonX2 - Marginal...James Young... marginal/TBD)

So to emphasize again, we ran into exactly zero consensus 1st, 2nd, or 3rd team All-Americans, only 1 player with any decent NBA career/talent.

AGAIN, I'M NOT HATING ON WINNING THE SHIP. Just saying that it was a flukey run! we had a great player than carried other good/ok players. But that is flukey!

Probably time for you to change the subject now

 

[HuskyBballFan]

Ok I'll play. Look at their record. 40 games, only 7 against ranked teams and they went 4-3. The lost to teams with good guards, period. They played in the SEC, they had 1 shooter and won with physicality.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013–14_Florida_Gators_men's_basketball_team

And despite all their "flaws" they were the #1 overall seed in the tournament. Which by definition means we couldn't have drawn a tougher opponent in that particular game.

 

[superjohn]

How many real legitimate NBA players did we play through?

#9 St. Joes - Zero
#2 Nova - Zero
#3 Iowa State - Zero (Niang, marginal, hurt)
#4 MSU - some?(Appling - marginal, was hurt... Adreian Payne - marginal... Gary Harris - Marginal... Denzel Valentine - TBD)
#1 Florida - 1?(Scotty Wilbekin - marginal?)
#8 Kentucky - 1(Julius Randle- Good player, was hurt... HarrisonX2 - Marginal...James Young... marginal/TBD)

So to emphasize again, we ran into exactly zero consensus 1st, 2nd, or 3rd team All-Americans, only 1 player with any decent NBA career/talent.

AGAIN, I'M NOT HATING ON WINNING THE SHIP. Just saying that it was a flukey run! we had a great player than carried other good/ok players. But that is flukey!

Keep digging deeper, you sound so foolish.

 

[bmayuc]

The fact that all of you(apparently) think that a #7 seeded team that got a good draw winning a national championship is not flukey is pretty embarrassing, particularly that in an alternate universe where St. Joes grabs 1 rebound you would be talking about whether Kevin Ollie deserves another year to prove he can coach.

 

[Hi-Low]

How many real legitimate NBA players did we play through?

#9 St. Joes - Zero
#2 Nova - Zero
#3 Iowa State - Zero (Niang, marginal, hurt)
#4 MSU - some?(Appling - marginal, was hurt... Adreian Payne - marginal... Gary Harris - Marginal... Denzel Valentine - TBD)
#1 Florida - 1?(Scotty Wilbekin - marginal?)
#8 Kentucky - 1(Julius Randle- Good player, was hurt... HarrisonX2 - Marginal...James Young... marginal/TBD)

So to emphasize again, we ran into exactly zero consensus 1st, 2nd, or 3rd team All-Americans, only 1 player with any decent NBA career/talent.

AGAIN, I'M NOT HATING ON WINNING THE SHIP. Just saying that it was a flukey run! we had a great player than carried other good/ok players. But that is flukey!

We had more than a great player that carried us....Bazz/Boat/Daniels/Giff/Brimah pretty solid core & Boat's D during Tourney was awesome. I think we could have beaten anyone we played that year in the Tourney....trying to analyze the eventual pro level talent on Tourney foes in hindsight doesn't do the run justice.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

The fact that all of you(apparently) think that a #7 seeded team that got a good draw winning a national championship is not flukey is pretty embarrassing, particularly that in an alternate universe where St. Joes grabs 1 rebound you would be talking about whether Kevin Ollie deserves another year to prove he can coach.

I guess Duke got a pretty favorable draw last year.....they avoided the consensus #1 team in the country.

Something we were not lucky enough to do in 2014.

 

[johnhuskies95]

How many real legitimate NBA players did we play through?

#9 St. Joes - Zero
#2 Nova - Zero
#3 Iowa State - Zero (Niang, marginal, hurt)
#4 MSU - some?(Appling - marginal, was hurt... Adreian Payne - marginal... Gary Harris - Marginal... Denzel Valentine - TBD)
#1 Florida - 1?(Scotty Wilbekin - marginal?)
#8 Kentucky - 1(Julius Randle- Good player, was hurt... HarrisonX2 - Marginal...James Young... marginal/TBD)

So to emphasize again, we ran into exactly zero consensus 1st, 2nd, or 3rd team All-Americans, only 1 player with any decent NBA career/talent.

AGAIN, I'M NOT HATING ON WINNING THE SHIP. Just saying that it was a flukey run! we had a great player than carried other good/ok players. But that is flukey!

Keep moving those goalposts.

 

[Matrim55]

I guess Duke got a pretty favorable draw last year.....they avoided the consensus #1 team in the country.

Something we were not lucky enough to do in 2014.

Yup. Any way you slice it, it takes some luck to win a title.

Example? In 1996 we beat Mississippi State if Ricky doesn't get hurt, and probably cruise into the title game against UK (what a game that would have been). In 2009 I think we get past Michigan State with a healthy Dyson, and what happens in 2006 if AJ doesn't have that brain condition/serve a year's suspension for the laptop stuff? Every team in those four years got lucky with injuries/absences on our part.

In 2014 we got lucky with Niang - I think Iowa State would've beaten us if they were whole. We got lucky avoiding Louisville, who were a bad matchup for us. We got lucky against St. Joe's.

In other words, karma came back around. That's how titles are won.

PS - Part of why I hold '99 sacred is because it involved no luck. We were just the best team in the country that year, and if we'd played Duke for the title 10 times we'd have won 9 of them.