Thoughts and prayers. Macular degeneration is a bitch.
There were. Number of years we were given the benefit of the doubt in the Ollie years and demonstrated we we didn’t belong. 27 is fine to start. We will earn the rest
Respect is earned, we weren't a tournament team for several seasons and in the past two seasons we lost first round as a 7 seed and a 5 seed.
I'm talking about 11 and 14 and I remember the ESPN tourney shows with us getting dissed.
They were a #3 seed in 2011. The schedule and conference were a killer but 9 losses and 9-9 in the Big East. What seed do you think they should've gotten?
Oh I know. And they do, almost always, win. Kentucky too, even if the kids don't always prove as good as expected. But for everyone saying "UConn has open questions at key positions", not really. UConn has filled every spot with a proven veteran player or more than one. We have fewer "questions" than many of the teams on the list, including Villanova, who like Duke, also has to replace a HOF coach. We just aren't trendy and cool again yet.
You become “trendy and cool” by winning and making tournament runs. We haven’t done that really since 2014. Yeah we got a bit dissed that year. We were better than a 7. But extenuating circumstances like a new league that nobody could quite figure how to evaluate, and a lot of parity nationally that year ( remember Kentucky was an 8). There really was no dominant team.
Losing in the first round was a killer the past 2 years. Just one sweet 16 run in the past 2 years would've totally changed perception. Tournament success this season is a must.
Ok, and that's different than now for Villanova and Duke? Both just lost HOF coaches, that's a big caution sign. Duke has only Roach returning. Villanova is in better shape, especially if Moore returns, but it has some questions on top of coach. These polls are a mix of very bad guesswork and popularity, nothing more.
Doubtful
Duke has the best recruiting class in the country. Nova brings back 3 starters(4 with Moore), a top 10 recruit, and other talented players. It’s really not that difficult to understand.
Ok. So if UConn loses its best players this year and brings in a top 3 recruiting class (as we have) we will be top 10?
A couple of NCAA tournament wins would go a long way toward showing voters that UConn is legit. When you don't win any tourney games for years, it's easy for voters to consider the team irrelevant.
No, because our best recruit in that class would be tied for 4th at best in Dukes current recruiting class. Go look at how ridiculous their class is.
If you exclude Duke's top 3 recruits (#1, #2, and #4), their remaining class coming in is still better than our "top 3 class" next year.
It’s an absurd class. They clearly belong in the top 10 on talent alone. If we had these kids, we’d be crying top 5.
