Three-Peat: Mainly a bet on the coaching staff

[superjohn]

I was wondering earlier today if we have enough to do it again. My conclusion: no idea.

IF Karaban returns, the 4 spot is better next year. On the flip side, we are objectively not as strong at the 1, 2, 3, or 5 given the departures of Newton, Spencer, Castle and Clingan.

Nevertheless, there still may be enough talent for the staff to put together another great team if guys like Stewart, Ball and McNeely really step up. Plenty of talent and depth for the best coaching staff in the country to work with. I just don't expect double digit wins constantly like we had with the 23-24 team.

Totally different players but I put McNeeley at Castle's level and the team will be deeper with impact players than this year's team and more athletic but the starting 5 for this year was ridiculous.

The biggest difference is Clingan, we've never had anyone like that and Tristen and Cam were hands down the best backcourt in the country. It was the smartest and best college basketball team I've ever seen.

 

[Umami Zen]

Totally different players but I put McNeeley at Castle's level and the team will be deeper with impact players than this year's team and more athletic but the starting 5 for this year was ridiculous.

The biggest difference is Clingan, we've never had anyone like that and Tristen and Cam were hands down the best backcourt in the country. It was the smartest and best college basketball team I've ever seen.

They were awesome. The shut down defense of Castle on the opponent's best perimeter player combined with Clingan patrolling the paint was spectacular. The rotations of help defense from the other guys-esp. Spencer- was stifling. Can't remember a UConn team with that defensive talent in a long time.

Think this year's team has the athleticism to be a top 10-15 D but I believe it will be our ability to outscore teams that will be our advantage.

 

[Bonamassa]

I see no reason that we can't win the NC 9 out of the next 10 years at a minimum.

 

[jibsey]

Our coaches will get the D out of them that they want and if they don’t give it they won’t get on the floor.

 

[UconnFanDC]

I'm optimistic we'll be good! I'll make a better determination in December/January then again in March

 

[gsmooth]

I was wondering earlier today if we have enough to do it again. My conclusion: no idea.

IF Karaban returns, the 4 spot is better next year. On the flip side, we are objectively not as strong at the 1, 2, 3, or 5 given the departures of Newton, Spencer, Castle and Clingan.

Nevertheless, there still may be enough talent for the staff to put together another great team if guys like Stewart, Ball and McNeely really step up. Plenty of talent and depth for the best coaching staff in the country to work with. I just don't expect double digit wins constantly like we had with the 23-24 team.

That's too much to expect. Both the 2023 and 2024 teams won the NCAAT in dominant fashion where Husky fans really didn't have to sweat it out. This just shows how great both of those teams were and that they were juggernauts that trampled the competition. I hope UConn fans have more patience this upcoming 24-25 season because the coaching staff will have their work cut out for them as far as optimizing line ups and minutes distribution. When March 2025 rolls around this team should be rolling, but it's not fair to expect them to win it all let alone dominate in doing so until we see them go through some growing pains.

 

[Horatio]

Mahaney for Spencer is the best like-for-like replacement we could have dreamed of. replacing a 5* frosh SF with another 5* frosh SF is a close second. the big drop-off is replacing Clingan and potentially Karaban.

Mahaney for Spencer is the best like-for-like replacement we could have dreamed of. replacing a 5* frosh SF with another 5* frosh SF is a close second. the big drop-off is replacing Clingan and potentially Karaban.

True but I was more so referring to having 3 tall starting guards and now going to a possible shorter line up that includes Diarra and Mahoney. That’ll make things different defensively. We just won with a 1,2, and 3 that listed at 6’5”, 6’6” and 6’4”.

 

[Hurleyman216]

I think a lot is going to hinge on how good Solo Ball and Nowell play. You need good guard play and we pretty much know what we’ll get from Diarra. I wouldn’t be shocked if Mahaney scores 16-18 pts/game and is our leading scorer (assuming AK leaves). We should certainly have enough on offense to compete, we’ll just have to see how long the defense takes to come together.

 

[RichCTBB]

We’ve got the guys where, as long as the team defense continues at a high level, we will always be a tough out come March. Even shooting poorly from 3, we blew teams out in the NCAAT by shutting them down, and then getting them all twisted up with our cutting edge offensive sets. I don’t know if the offense or defense will start clicking first next year, but when they round Hurley corner and start to peak in February, everyone will be saying, ‘oh no, not again.’

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I know this situation well as a Tampa bay Rays fan:
Granted, the Rays haven't won a world series, but their roster building, through trades and farm system has been at the top of mlb for 2 decades.
They would trade for guys that would have you scratching your head only for those guys to become stars (Randy Arozerena, glasnow, ben zobrist etc.)
It became a thing where people said "if the Rays want one of your guys, hold onto them"

Other than when they play the Yankees I seldom pay attention to the Ray's but will state without question that for a little more than a decade and a half they have done 'more with less' at a very high level.

I did catch some of last night's game, one thing that clearly stood out is that they do have a lot of fight in them.

 

[B1GEast]

The end of this season reminded me of Thanos at the end of Infinity war. He snapped his fingers and they went away. The thought of a repeat title and watching it all as a fan was exhausting and exhilarating.

But we know they're all coming for us.

 

[Poe]

All teams are losing and trying to replace personnel, so it’s really not surprising that this team can still be a top 5 team even after losing 4/5 starters.

 

[jibsey]

The coaching staff has great ingredients. They throw it into the cauldron, stir it up and we’ll see what kind of magic potion comes out. I for one cant wait to see what happens. Why do we have to wait so long?
We need insider spies at practices and scrimmages with real eyes on reporting to give us clues along the way. Do we have them on The Yard?

 

[Ricker]

But how optimistic are you really? If you are the athletic director do you lay out $2-$3million to insure this year's bonuses with the risk of coming up with a total waste? Do you insure now with a guess about Karaban because you get better odds? Do you wait for Alex's decision which might increase cost but also increase successful probability? Keep in mind the bonuses include regular season title, Big East tourney, and other bonus events. (Maybe winning Maui, making ncaa field, etc) Probably a high probability of collecting $400k to $1 million but high risk on the rest.

 

[Tyler2Rings]

I see no reason that we can't win the NC 9 out of the next 10 years at a minimum.

We will run out of clever mottos.

"Screaming to seventeen" doesn't have quite the same ring as "mix for six"

 

[OkaForPrez]

You're right, he did pick Purdue.

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He was pot committed to the "bit" at that point. After the carnage week where by poll logic standards we should have been #1, he decided the best way to sort out that mess was to look at total resume to that point, and Purdue's Maui performance led him to hitch his wagon to them. That brought criticism, and he dug in. I applaud the consistency of approach, but criticize his failure to look at the nuance of injuries over the course of building those resumes.

Anywho, too many characters on opinions from last year. Parrish isn't a POS, he's just a paid talking head who picked a lane.

 

[HuskyHawk]

If you give CBS Sports any credence, UConn has "reloaded" for next season by acquiring the 45th and 80th best available players in the portal. To this they have added the #9 best freshman.

There's an argument that an awful lot of of teams have "reloaded" with higher-rated personnel. Yet the euphoria in this forum is such that it's been suggested that our second five would probably rank in the Top 25.

The truth, I believe, is that we have not come close to replacing the loss of Clingan, Castle, Newton, Spencer and probably Karaban, either individually or collectively. If you told me that we could have any one of these players back, there is no one on next year's roster I would not trade for him.

But here's the good news -- and the hope. We probably have the team our coaching staff wants. No doubt we could have recruited higher from the portal. Instead we recruited the pieces we wanted to build the team we wanted. Now it's up to the coaching staff to mold that team.

We're not going to three-peat by out-talenting the rest of the field one-on-one. We'll do it by piecing together the best team -- and that is mainly a bet on the coaching staff,

 

[HuskyHawk]

My view of how other fanbases will think about UConn's run in the distant future and the time period since anybody else won.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

The coaching staff has great ingredients. They throw it into the cauldron, stir it up and we’ll see what kind of magic potion comes out. I for one cant wait to see what happens. Why do we have to wait so long?
We need insider spies at practices and scrimmages with real eyes on reporting to give us clues along the way. Do we have them on The Yard?

Storrs Central should make some arrangements to have some subscription service practice live streams at agreed-upon times with the coaching staff and players… live stream things that wouldn’t be some sort of strategic disadvantage for our plays and schemes and what not…

There are probably enough fans like all of us that are starved for off-season activity that they could make some good NIL bank.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I see no reason that we can't win the NC 9 out of the next 10 years at a minimum.

You're going to have to explain that one year aberration to me.

 

[jibsey]

So I just looked at the box score from the title game and if Karaban does not return we have 0 starters back from that lineup. Stewart played 4 minutes, 0 points and Samson played 5 with 1 rebound and 4 points.
What everyone needs to understand here is that unlike last year where we drafted off Newton and Clingan this is essentially a brand new team. The 3 peat talk is crazy, not to say we can’t eventually become very good but if Hurley even makes the Final 8 it would be epic. To actually win the 3rd in a row would put him past Wooden who had the same guys 3 years minimum.

 

[husky429]

I was wondering earlier today if we have enough to do it again. My conclusion: no idea.

IF Karaban returns, the 4 spot is better next year. On the flip side, we are objectively not as strong at the 1, 2, 3, or 5 given the departures of Newton, Spencer, Castle and Clingan.

Nevertheless, there still may be enough talent for the staff to put together another great team if guys like Stewart, Ball and McNeely really step up. Plenty of talent and depth for the best coaching staff in the country to work with. I just don't expect double digit wins constantly like we had with the 23-24 team.

We will need to win differently. I don't know if this team will have 30-0 runs in them without a Castle/Clingan combo throttling opponents. But we may be deeper and be able to wear them down with pressure and transition offense.

 

[HuskyHawk]

So I just looked at the box score from the title game and if Karaban does not return we have 0 starters back from that lineup. Stewart played 4 minutes, 0 points and Samson played 5 with 1 rebound and 4 points.
What everyone needs to understand here is that unlike last year where we drafted off Newton and Clingan this is essentially a brand new team. The 3 peat talk is crazy, not to say we can’t eventually become very good but if Hurley even makes the Final 8 it would be epic. To actually win the 3rd in a row would put him past Wooden who had the same guys 3 years minimum.

I get that we aren't the favorite. At the moment that should be Kansas (and unlike last year, deservedly so). But I think we have a high degree of confidence that Stewart will emerge as a first round draft pick level player, Solo will step up as a major contributor, Reed will step in an provide physical rebounding and scoring, Samson will out athlete anybody and may improve on both ends. Add Diarra a known quantity and two very good freshman (and one deep bench guy) plus an experienced shooting guard and it's a top 15 team.

Can those guys execute what Dan wants to do? That's really the question. But I think he targeted specific guys that he thinks can do that.

 

[Matt1010]

Torvik has us ranked #6 with AK back and #14 without him. That sounds about right to me.

Kansas, Iowa State, Houston, and Zaga all have a ton of pieces returning and should be very good.

 

[Iluvsuebird]

Tristen Newton was unknown before UConn. Cam Spencer was a journeyman before UConn. They benefited by the awesome offensive sets that we have in place. The 2 foundational pieces that we lost are DC and Castle, because you cannot teach being 7’2” and Castle’s talent level. That said, i believe that we will get more offense from the center position, albeit not as good defense. And as it has been said in other threads, we have an outside chance at getting 3 perimeter dog defenders: Has, Nowell, and Solo. Are we going to be better? Probably not. Last 2 years was freaking special. But do we need to be better to win the natty? Not necessarily. All of this assumes Alex is gone. With him back, in the infamous words of Mr. T: “I pity the fool”!!!