UCONN picked 5th in preason AAC

[fatlucy]

UConn picked to finish 5th in AAC; Adams first team all-league, Gilbert top rookie

 

[Drumguy]

Seems reasonable given all of our prior years AAC performances and the uncertainties going into the year. Interesting to see how Wichita holds up to more consistent competition throughout the season. "You're not in Kansas anymore"!

 

[InKembaITrust]

I hope this lights an even bigger fire under Terry

 

[Kemba429]

Interesting how Cincy is ahead of WSU. I may be wrong but I thought WSU was in debate for top 5 in general this year.

 

[UCDaveD]

Rude and disrespectful.

 

[ConnZag3]

The coaches appear clueless about how good Wichita St. is. No disrespect to Cincinnati, who is clearly the 2nd best team, but Wichita St. will be the class of the AAC unless Shamet misses significant time with his preseason foot injury.

 

[UconnFanNVa]

I hope this lights an even bigger fire under Terry

Terry isnt even a thought there, he should be on a path to prove that he can be the player of the year!! If Terry is in that convo along with Jalen, and Alterique is ROY in the conference, no way we finish 5th in the AAC. We need to turn expectations into a something tangible though. I really hope this is the year we remind people of who we are!

 

[Kitaman]

Rude and disrespectful.

Perhaps but it ain't the voters fault.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I think UConn finishes no worse than 3rd. We finished 5th last year, playing with half a team. This lineup is much more complete unless we experience similar injuries. I don't understand why anyone thinks UCF will be good.

 

[Wordbomar]

I don't understand why anyone thinks UCF will be good.

They’ll be decent but they’re riding a hype wave by Tacko coming back to school and their NIT tourney run

 

[Austin316]

I like it. There is a huge gap between the haves and have nots this year. We have a lot of ground to catch up on.

Finishing 1-3 would surprise me
4-6 is likely given our wild-card status
7-last place Ollie is on the hot seat

Schedule-wise we have a heavy line up from the starting gates which is great for us. Should be a tough battle and will help us during conference play.

Overall the conference is top heavy. We should have at the bare minimum 2 top 25 teams at the start of the season. Cinci, WsU will be ranked. SMU might be up there. UCF kind of surprised me a bit getting picked 3rd. I guess they have a lot of returnees- I love tacos.... not buying into Tacko Fall tho.

The American looks much stronger this year than previous years in the top 6 spots. I'm excited!

 

[Travelman6]

5 is a great place to be. Not too much hype, not too much disrespect. A great place to start from so that they may fly under the radar. Judging from past finishes, this feels right. Of course I want Uconn to beat WSU, Cincy and SMU but being ranked behind those kind of teams is no shame at this point. Now go earn that respect (back) in 2017/2018!

edit: UCF being third suprises me. That is the kind of ranking that leads to (too much) hype which could lead to a disapointment and had Uconn been third, would make it much harder to fly under the radar. Flying under the radar is generally a good look for Uconn. Glad Uconn was not ranked at three, actually. Any way, obviously pre season rankings matter little in the end, I just care where they are in March.

 

[DonaldDraper]

Regardless of where the preseason votes lie, this needs to be a good season for the AAC and we should be rooting for scenarios that make this at least a 4 bid league. A rising tide will lift all boats. While the conference has dogged us for a while, great WSU and Cincy teams + a resurgent Uconn team and one other bid will dramatically help recruiting across the conference. Once we shake some of the stink off of this conference it can be a decent home for us. We don't have much a choice. The football team's performance is not begging for P5 competition so we need to develop what we have on the basketball side and make it a better league than the NBE.

 

[Travelman6]

SMU will be strong as usual and I think Temple will suprise some folks and have a solid bounce back season...(Memphis on the other hand)...

 

[LStudfellow]

I feel we should all LOVE the results of this vote. For what it's worth, ranked 5th pre-season is a fair spot - but knowing KO, he will use it to motivate himself and the team at every turn throughout this year.

On the one hand, I am certainly hoping that Coach Ollie continues to learn from last year's debacle. Along with AD David Benedict they have made the right changes in the off-season and we saw that bear some fruit starting with bringing in Kwintin Williams and running through the very productive September we had on the recruiting trail.

Now we need improvement in KO's actual coaching, starting with beginning-of-season preparation. We all know that this year's pre-conference schedule is quite challenging, and we can not afford to lose more than 50% of the marquee games... let alone the "gimme" games. In a more normal year being ready starting with Game 1 is a challenge - with 8 new faces and 3 more coming off of season-ending injuries, this year even moreso. We figure to struggle at times as we find the best combinations. At those times some combination of Adams, Vital, Larrier and Gilbert have got to overcome the struggles enough to make us win. In addition, Ollie needs to improve on his in-game coaching on some levels. Nothing new to most of us, as these things have been hashed out on different threads ad nauseam.

So, why should we love being picked 5th? Because one area that Ollie has proven to be great at since his playing days - he is at his best when you give him a chip to put on everyone's shoulders, including his own. We all agree that he did his best coaching job in his first 2 years as head coach. The 2012-2013 team had no business going 20-10, and particularly winning that last game against Providence with 3 integral guys out and playing with essentially 6 guys against a team in desperate need of a win to boost their NCAA tournament resume (that loss definitely was one of the things that sent them to the NIT). And then of course the 4th National Championship in 2013-2014. KO did a masterful job guiding Shabazz and Co. to channel their anger and frustration over the bogus APR ban into an inspired run into history.

The question is: can he inspire Jalen to feel like a smited, hungry dog the way Shabazz did? If no, then we might not even finish 5th. But if yes... and Larrier, Vital and Gilbert also use this "slight" as a proper motivational tool, then watch out... particularly come February, March and April.

All I can say is - thank you AAC coaches for adding one more perceived shot of disrespect that our boys and coaches can use for bulletin board material throughout this 2017-2018 campaign.

 

[RichZ]

Tacko Fall is a lock to be Tallest Man in Conference. But if I hear another color commentator mention that he's the 5th tallest human being on the planet, or whatever, I may take out a contract on him.

 

[superjohn]

Rude and disrespectful.

Wrong.

 

[don356]

I've read some takes of folks who've seen Cane Broome this summer/fall in Cincinnati, and they are extremely impressed by him. I guess both Cumberland and Evans have now been playing with him over a year, and with his quickness and ball handling they say it's going to be awful difficult to defend them. If their D is anywhere close to what it typically is, i can see how they will be ahead of WSt.

 

[August_West]

I've read some takes of folks who've seen Cane Broome this summer/fall in Cincinnati, and they are extremely impressed by him. I guess both Cumberland and Evans have now been playing with him over a year, and with his quickness and ball handling they say it's going to be awful difficult to defend them. If their D is anywhere close to what it typically is, i can see how they will be ahead of WSt.

Cumberland really impresses me. Just a nice player, and does it all. A winner.

 

[Slasher]

Interesting how Cincy is ahead of WSU. I may be wrong but I thought WSU was in debate for top 5 in general this year.

They are but if you look at the vote 1 point separated Cincy and WSU. It's 1A and 1B. Cincy will probably open top 15 with WSU top 10 in the AP.

 

[SouthBayHusky]

I think UConn finishes no worse than 3rd. We finished 5th last year, playing with half a team. This lineup is much more complete unless we experience similar injuries. I don't understand why anyone thinks UCF will be good.

We have never finished better than 5th, except for the year we won it all when finishing 3rd in the conference.

 

[UCweCONN]

Remember when the AAC was formed and we thought it would us and everyone else......?

 

[Wordbomar]

The three amigos of anti-UConn basketball back at it.... can’t wait to shut them up this year

 

[CL82]

I don't understand why anyone thinks UCF will be good.

 

[August_West]

The three amigos of anti-UConn basketball back at it.... can’t wait to shut them up this year

Its put up or shut up time, thats for sure.

Ive been one of KO's biggest supporters on here in the face of people panicking. But this year is it. We dont have to be all world but we need to be good and contend. And we need to stop rolling over for the top of the league teams. I can take losing road games at Wichita and at Cincinnati, but we need to hold serve at home and if someone steals one from us we need to steal back wins on the road against the top of the league.

There are no more excuses.