UConn #7 in The Athletic's Top-25 | Page 3 | The Boneyard

UConn #7 in The Athletic's Top-25

nomar said:

7. Connecticut​


We’re at the point now where you just assume Dan Hurley’s plan will work. He has nailed roster construction the last few years and built offensive and defensive schemes ideal for his talent. Adding shooting this spring with Mahaney and McNeeley was huge, and Karaban decided to return for a run at a three-peat. Hurley’s offense hums when the Huskies can hunt early 3s and they have optimal floor spacing. That’s not the specialty of sophomores Ball, Stewart and Ross. For UConn to hit its ceiling, Mahaney needs to play to his potential. Diarra is more of a complementary guard, and Mahaney basically replicated his freshman season this past year when it was expected he’d make a star’s leap. He replaces the off-the-dribble playmaking from Tristen Newton and Cam Spencer, and that’s why his success is so important. Hurley has again set it up so his centers can split time and give opponents two different looks. This roster doesn’t appear as talented as the last two, but underrating UConn early has also become a yearly tradition.

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If you told me that after losing all 5 starters, UConn would be #7 preseason, I would be shocked. And excited. Now, with Alex back...whoa.
 
These glory days are wonderful. We’re all up in arms about being preseason #7 after going back-to-back and losing 80% of our starting lineup. Really summarizes how amazing this run has been.

That said, #7 is too low and we’re easily a preseason top 3 squad
 
Husky68 said:
This years team will be better than previous two years. To start those years:

Jackson couldn't shoot, Karaban was a 2nd choice at power forward, SJ hurt, Hawkins couldn't dribble, Sanogo couldn't pass, Newton wasn't a point guard, Joey couldn't defend and Hassan turned the ball over and couldn't shoot.

Lost Jackson/Sanogo/Hawkins. Clingan gets hurt, too heavy, can't shoot fouls, misses bunnies; SC can't rebound and always fouls; Newton still the non point guard point guard; Spencer can't guard; Castle can't shoot; do we have to play Hassan, he'll kill the offense; Karaban can't guard big 4's.

This year have legit 9 deep (Ross, Singare, Abraham could push too). Lot of potential there and plenty of games to make it work with the coaching staff that gets it.

I want to see a final four with Karaban vs. Flagg. My money is on our guy/team.
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Both the 23 and 24 teams went on big winning streaks to start the season and won their MTE. Not sure how you would define being better than that.
 
The last thing that concerns me is all these "way way to early" prognostications. I could care less if Kansas is ranked #1. They had that ranking last season and look what happened. It will all play out on the court starting in November.

As for UConn, let Danny and company do their thing. Recruitment has been excellent. Portal pickups have been amazing. Luke will have his offense adapt to the talent available. No one last season, except for Seton Hall and Kansas (early on) could figure out how to defend it. I expect no less this coming season.

Hurley's teams play defense. The names may change but the defensive intensity will not.

And if the team plays with a little chip on their shoulders, good for them.
 
Only thing that concerns me at the moment is our depth at Center. Low on Singare, and idk if Samson/Reed can defend at a high level without fouling. The rest of the roster is bleeping gorgeous.
 
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nomar said:
I mentioned above that 72 of Ball's 115 shots were from 3. Stewart also took a very high percentage of 3s: 37 of his 78 shots. And although Ross only took 22 shots, half of them were from 3. So clearly that is their specialty, or they wouldn't have been allowed to do that.
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That's as much a team strategy as individual skills.

If you remove DC, SJ and SC from the stats, the rest of the team took more than half their shots from beyond the 3 point line.
 
We should be top 4 with Bama, KU, Houston. I think there’s a slight drop off to the next tier of Duke, Zags, ISU, UNC, Baylor, Zona
 
Solo started ice cold from 3 (6-29 in November), but steadily got better
  • 7-19 (37%) in Dec
  • Was mostly out of the rotation after that but 6-10 (60%) in Jan
  • 3-5 (60%) in Feb
  • Rough to end the season (1-8 in Mar + April)
I’d be surprised if he didn’t shoot at least 35% from three next year

Stewart is not a good three point shooter. His form is good so maybe it’ll get better with reps, but other than the Marquette BET game I didn’t love it when he took threes

Ross was recruited literally to be a shooter. He’ll make shots if he gets consistent minutes (assuming he’s adjusted to the college game)
 
duke does have high ceiling if coached well and the parts play their role.
 
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Incursio007 said:
These glory days are wonderful. We’re all up in arms about being preseason #7 after going back-to-back and losing 80% of our starting lineup. Really summarizes how amazing this run has been.

That said, #7 is too low and we’re easily a preseason top 3 squad
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Shows how spoiled and arrogant we are
 
I think it is a fair ranking. Again, it's going to come down to everybody on the team buying in, Hurley & staff developing players and guys producing. Stewart and Ball look like players, but now they have to go out and consistently give some double figure games. The new guys have to be ready to play right away and SJ has to learn how to stay on the court. I know Reed is there, too, but SJ"s athleticism could offshoot some of the intimidation Clingan provided just with his presence on the floor.
I like Diarra a lot, but I think there may be some growing pains with the loss of Newton. I think people are going to appreciate Tristen even more next year. He didn't have the quickest feet but he challenged on the defensive end, and he was a handful for opposing players on UConn's offensive end. His physicality helped wear some guys down. He absorbed a lot of contact, but he dished some out, too, on his drives.
 
40% for Ball seems aggressive. I’m hoping he diversifies his scoring package.

I could see Ball/Stewart/Ross all in the 34-38 range.

I’m hoping Mahaney gets back to his freshman year splits, hopefully close to 40% from 3.
 
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Ultimately I think we’re going to have a GREAT 3 point shooting team this year. Don’t ask me how I base that but it’s just a feeling.

BTW, the post above this…the guy is a Commanders fan. Nuff said.
 
I'm expecting big things from Solo. Last season he put a lot of pressure on himself to make noise in very limited minutes. The talent is there. His defense and ball security will determine if he starts. I'm more worried where the rebounding is going to come from. Can we really expect 18+ boards per game from the guard rotation? We only had 15 from the bigs with 12 coming from DC/AK. SJ's production in this area needs to improve a lot.
 
If I had to ask for something, it would not be of the team but of the fans. Let’s not get crazy if we don’t look like national champions out of the gate. There is a lot of newness to integrate into the system and it’s a complex system as the coaches describe it. I think Hurley will address this so glad we’re not number 1.
Having Alex will prove to be a big deal.
 
jibsey said:
If I had to ask for something, it would not be of the team but of the fans. Let’s not get crazy if we don’t look like national champions out of the gate. There is a lot of newness to integrate into the system and it’s a complex system as the coaches describe it. I think Hurley will address this so glad we’re not number 1.
Having Alex will prove to be a big deal.
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Agree on both points. This team has a lot of talent but needs to understand how it will work together. I would love to see them have a strong start (OOC where many teams will be doing the same roster configurations), slugfest through the BE, then get rolling in February as the lineups are understood and you've seen this team vs many different opponents.

Having that coach on the court in Alex is going to give confidence and calm to a team looking to figure this out. My expectation is we are at the minimum of a top half 2# seed with 5 losses going into the tournament

If anyone can get this team spun up in the spring, it's Hurley.
 
businesslawyer said:
Without commenting on the imperfections in the analysis, I think #7 is much more realistic than #1. Compete for your conference championship, get the trophy, and then see where you are when the tourney starts.

I don't see us being quite as good, in the aggregate, at the 1 through 4 as we were the last two years, and even if we are we're not going to be anywhere near as good in the middle as we've gotten used to.
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Pretty much agree. Keep saying we’re not the best. Statistically they’ll eventually be correct. We can’t win this thing every year, can we?
 
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Waquoit said:
Creighton is always the preseason favorite. For all the good that it does them when it counts.
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As a Creighton fan, I disagree with Cody Mitchell (whoever he is). After what UConn did last year, they should be preseason favorites even if they returned no starters. And I don't see anyone on our team replacing Alexander or Scheierman.

And that's bit of an exaggeration, Waquoit. Creighton was picked preseason favorites ONCE since the joining the BE (this was two years ago, when they finished third). Last year they were picked second and finished second (in a tie). I think every other year, Creighton finished higher than their preseason projection.

That being said, yes, clearly UConn has been underestimated that past two preseasons -- especially last year.
 
By the way, I don't know where else to put this, but hats off to Dan Hurley. When he was hired, I thought it was a pretty good hire, but nowhere near a home run. His Rhode Island teams and his first couple UConn teams were always gritty and tough and you knew you were in for a rock fight. But if your team could make enough buckets, and if your team play good D itself, you had a good chance to win. I didn't necessarily see cohesive team play (e.g., the Bouknight team). But then...WHAM! Hurley did a complete 180 offensively, resulting in perhaps the most dramatic coaching makeover in college basketball history. (Is there a comparison?) The last two years, and especially this past year, the players all move, pass, and create as a single unit -- it was beautiful to watch. One can say this philosophy was always in him, but he just didn't have the players. But is that really true? I think that narrative actually undervalues Hurley's willingness to change and adapt. Coaches are a notoriously stubborn breed.
 
Waquoit said:
Creighton is always the preseason favorite. For all the good that it does them when it counts.
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I saw a creighton fan reply to a post on twitter somewhere and he said "we beat you guys so it doesn't matter" ahh yes claiming one regular season victory as superior to back to back nattys. makes sense.
 
tzznandrew said:
I don't think this is unreasonable. I think we're one of the better teams out there.

I think Kansas as a consensus #1 is wild. Self obviously can coach, but the team doesn't feel like it is going to cohere.... I guess we'll see...
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Neither does Duke. They just overhauled their whole model of the last 15 years to “ get older and tougher” Lost a bunch of 5 stars to portal in process, but why does anyone think Scheyer has the coaching chops to get that whole model to coalesce for a title run in one season even WITH Flagg? Any trace of evidence over last couple years that warrants THAT?!
 
BEFAN said:
As a Creighton fan, I disagree with Cody Mitchell (whoever he is). After what UConn did last year, they should be preseason favorites even if they returned no starters. And I don't see anyone on our team replacing Alexander or Scheierman.

And that's bit of an exaggeration, Waquoit. Creighton was picked preseason favorites ONCE since the joining the BE (this was two years ago, when they finished third). Last year they were picked second and finished second (in a tie). I think every other year, Creighton finished higher than their preseason projection.

That being said, yes, clearly UConn has been underestimated that past two preseasons -- especially last year.
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Twitter users on both sides are silly on that platform. That is what I take from pretty much every interaction on there.

Creighton should be very good again. A top 2-3 BE team easily. I do love the stuff Creighton runs overall but way too reliant on the three the past two years. Especially last year with the Kalk pick/roll not looking as good as it was with Nembhard two years ago. I think they did a very good job of replacing Alexander and Scheierman but need more consistency from the Ashworth this year.
 
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