I disagree with the schedule of out of conference teams listed above in addition to inconference schedule of Big East Teams especially if they are going to be spaced as they were this year. That is too much pressure for the personnel to endure and leaves no room for injuries and unforcasted events that will not allow the opitimum team to be on the floor.
These recruits should not be looked at as the miracles to place UConn above other programs. In most cases these miracle recruits sit on the bench and languish away contributing very little. What happened to Ayanna Patterson and Amari Debarry? What a waste when these young women would be starters or backups in other programs. And, yet when they try to contribute, the results are less than satisfactory.
Couple of interesting factoids, Paige and Azzi have been missing in action for the last two years and when Azzi has been available, everyone thinks that every basket is going to go in and that is not the case. She is not a Caitlan Clark or a Maddy Siecrest who can do this in almost every game. And, who is to say that these two women can ever play effectively again and not have other injuries to their legs that will eliminate them for another year. Paige is becoming he greatest basketball player that never played. And, Carolyn may be theoretically finished. Did not anyone see her holding her head during the game with Ohio State while on the floor trying to play.
I would prefer an easier schedule that allows the team to come together and allow them to learn to play basketball the way Geno wants them to play. Beating these kids to ground with that schedule listed above does not necessarily prepare them for adversity as it breaks the team down.
I know that there those that have voiced approval of the schedule above and I think that there are some that who would like to see a more modest schedul. The kind of schedule above is for a team like of the Breanna Stewart years. Not now. They are not even close.
Veryolddog, you seem to mix a lot of frustration/exasperation in your post - unrealistic expectations towards recruits, languishing development of bench players, and potential physical limitations of current players going forward. A lot to unpack there. Exactly how do those issues correlate to a tough OOC schedule?
Are you insinuating - which I believe you are given your second sentence - that if some of the tough OOC games this year were replaced with patsies, then perhaps the injuries wouldn't have occurred, or recovery would have been sooner, or that practices with a limited roster would have been less restricted?
On the other hand, perhaps I am misunderstanding you. Rather than replace tough opponents with patsies, perhaps you are simply advocating for a smaller size schedule overall - say 28 games vice 31, and not for switching to weaker opponents. If so, although I would still advocate for the maximum number of games, I wouldn't be strongly opposed to a smaller schedule, provided that whatever OOC opponents were scheduled were also expected to be the most difficult.
Either way, I would contend that the toughness of this year's opponents did not contribute to the team wearing down this year. By mid-season UConn struggled with unranked conference opponents as well as with tougher opponents. As Geno noted throughout February, the home-then-away scheduling, an extremely limited bench, and (most importantly?) the decisions to severely restrict/limit practices, were the primary causal factors affecting the Huskies' performance on the court in the latter half of the season.
