Unwrapping the rest of this UConn WCBB season...

[alexrgct]

This gift of a season is going to keep on giving, tight? Well, it's Christmas. As ThisJustIn knows, I had a blood clot in my leg, but I'm finally recovering. As a result, I'm looking forward to unwrapping the remainder of the season, starting with...

• ...with UConn in the midst of a 46-game winning streak, just like the Huskies were at to begin the 2014-15 season.
• ...except Game 47 would come against top-five-ranked UMD in NYC. That's much more formidable a road to #47 than UC-Davis.
• A win against UMD would change the season in a couple of ways. For one, uConn would shift to its AAC schedule and be in a good position to get to 55 wins in a row. As I've posted before, that would entail UConn would have a NYC-sized brag about its WCBB program, namely it would hold the three longest win streaks in the history of the sport (after 90 and 7t0). The other way the season would change? Well, the path to a would-be sixth undefeated season would become less challenging. There would be at least two games with USF, but otherwise, the only games against ranked opposition would be against South Carolina on 2/8. The next/last ranked opponent would be in the postseason, be it in Mohegan or at the NCAA Tourney venues.
• The penultimate regular season game? Senior Day on 2/27 against Tulane in Gampel. There, you will see Stewie's and Mo's names unveiled on the Huskies of Honor Wall. Who else's name is already there? Well, there are many, but three in particular are Stefanie Dolson, Bria Hartley, and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis. Throw in Stewie and Mo, and you have the entire starting five of the glorious 2o13-14 squad. And two days later, it's another game, in this case a home game, against ranked USF! A special pleasure for me is that I ave two tickets to both games and plan to take one of my kids to each. My daughter will love Senior Day, and my son will have his first non-exhibition game experience.
• After the rest of the regular season is unwrapped, we have a fun conference tournament at the casinos, an NCAA tourney that includes a local bracket, and a mentally/emotionally tantalizing path to an 11th national championship. That'll be pretty cool, huh?
• We could get to see whether Stewie and Mo go out on top, where they get drafted to the WNBA, and if either (dare we hope both???) make a convincing run at Team USA/Rio 2016.

Indeed, there's plenty to unwrap after all Let's all embrace the rest of this season; it contains a distinct presence of presents.

Cheers to all,

Alex

 

[cabbie191]

Glad to hear your leg is recovering. My brother has had to endure multiple surgeries on his legs related to his veins and arteries. Not fun.

 

[Sonny44]

This gift of a season is going to keep on giving, tight? Well, it's Christmas. As ThisJustIn knows, I had a blood clot in my leg, but I'm finally recovering. As a result, I'm looking forward to unwrapping the remainder of the season, starting with...

• ...with UConn in the midst of a 46-game winning streak, just like the Huskies were at to begin the 2014-15 season.
• ...except Game 47 would come against top-five-ranked UMD in NYC. That's much more formidable a road to #47 than UC-Davis.
• A win against UMD would change the season in a couple of ways. For one, uConn would shift to its AAC schedule and be in a good position to get to 55 wins in a row. As I've posted before, that would entail UConn would have a NYC-sized brag about its WCBB program, namely it would hold the three longest win streaks in the history of the sport (after 90 and 7t0). The other way the season would change? Well, the path to a would-be sixth undefeated season would become less challenging. There would be at least two games with USF, but otherwise, the only games against ranked opposition would be against South Carolina on 2/8. The next/last ranked opponent would be in the postseason, be it in Mohegan or at the NCAA Tourney venues.
• The penultimate regular season game? Senior Day on 2/27 against Tulane in Gampel. There, you will see Stewie's and Mo's names unveiled on the Huskies of Honor Wall. Who else's name is already there? Well, there are many, but three in particular are Stefanie Dolson, Bria Hartley, and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis. Throw in Stewie and Mo, and you have the entire starting five of the glorious 2o13-14 squad. And two days later, it's another game, in this case a home game, against ranked USF! A special pleasure for me is that I ave two tickets to both games and plan to take one of my kids to each. My daughter will love Senior Day, and my son will have his first non-exhibition game experience.
• After the rest of the regular season is unwrapped, we have a fun conference tournament at the casinos, an NCAA tourney that includes a local bracket, and a mentally/emotionally tantalizing path to an 11th national championship. That'll be pretty cool, huh?
• We could get to see whether Stewie and Mo go out on top, where they get drafted to the WNBA, and if either (dare we hope both???) make a convincing run at Team USA/Rio 2016.

Indeed, there's plenty to unwrap after all Let's all embrace the rest of this season; it contains a distinct presence of presents.

Cheers to all,

Alex

Now you've got me even more psyched up as if I needed more.

 

[Jim R]

Thanks for the reminder....and one other "unwrapping" we expect will be "pretty cool", that of Natalie Butler....and this fan anxiously awaits her addition to a team that already looks pretty darn good this early in the season

 

[huskyd]

Thanks for the reminder....and one other "unwrapping" we expect will be "pretty cool", that of Natalie Butler....and this fan anxiously awaits her addition to a team that already looks pretty darn good this early in the season

Good point, Jim. Do you think that Morgan will have to come back next year to make sure she gets her name on the wall? Hope it's an incentive . . .

 

[Tonyc]

You know whats really killing me. We keep hearing excuses why teams are losing games and it almost always starts with injuries. Hey UConn has Butler and Chong on the bench and Stewie the other nite and UConn not only wins but is blowing out opponents. ?????? Now those of you concerned about next season be patient because with the the development of our underclassman this season I don't think we have anything to worry about next season. A lot of teams are willing to play UConn next season with the graduation of Stewie and Mojeff. Next season could be Genos greatest accomplishment and that would be another National Championship.

 

[RSHERMVIKES]

I am so looking forward to Natalie Butler being 100% and showing everyone how good she can be! Adding the BIG girl to the puzzle to get us to Championship #11 and beyond!

 

[Jim R]

Good point, Jim. Do you think that Morgan will have to come back next year to make sure she gets her name on the wall? Hope it's an incentive . . .

On the Wall? Yes. This year it appears she'll be one of the ten All Americans named....Geno's said over and over how valuable she is, and, it now.appears most of the press agree with him. Three out of ten from the Huskies? Since Stewie is everyone's POY this year, she almost doesn't count against us...it's kind of like...magic

 

[Samanthabrown3]

Sorry about your blood clot, Alex. Glad you're getting better. Follow doctor's orders!

 

[hjoerring]

Glad to hear that things are going as you would have them- both for yourself and the Team. Alexrgct, if this is your end-of-year assessment I might as well take out my real dark shades for your new year assessment.

 

[alexrgct]

Thanks to all for the well wishing. I'm definitely improving on the blood clot question and anticipate a manageable trip to Bryant Park and a fine dinner tomorrow night! I will take it easy Monday and look forward to seeing/meeting folks at Penn6. Hopefully, the painkillers will have me in the appropriate state of mobility by then!

 

[MilfordHusky]

Thanks to all for the well wishing. I'm definitely improving on the blood clot question and anticipate a manageable trip to Bryant Park and a fine dinner tomorrow night! I will take it easy Monday and look forward to seeing/meeting folks at Penn6. Hopefully, the painkillers will have me in the appropriate state of mobility by then!

I arrive at about 4 PM on Monday and need to drop my bag at the hotel in lower Manhattan. Let me know if I can help in any way.

Ken

 

[alexrgct]

On the Wall? Yes. This year it appears she'll be one of the ten All Americans named....Geno's said over and over how valuable she is, and, it now.appears most of the press agree with him. Three out of ten from the Huskies? Since Stewie is everyone's POY this year, she almost doesn't count against us...it's kind of like...magic

And this would be the fifth time three Huskies are named wbca AAs previous seasons: 2002 (cash, Bird, Diana), 2009 (Monty, Maya, Tina), 2014 (Stewie, Stef, Bria), and 2015 (KML, Stewie, Moriah). Now all we need is Morgan alongside Stewie and Mo to complete 2016. Btw, when Uconn has three wbca AAs on the team, it's meant a national championship four seasons out of four thus far.

Also agree adding Butler to th rotation is a gift. We beat ND by 10 when they didn't have Turner, so if both can play if there's a rematch, I'd still expect another Uconn victory...which I would take in any form over the Irish.

 

[Tonyc]

imo with Turner in the lineup that is one less guard we have to be chasing on the perimeter and if another big like Reimer is in another less guard to chase on the perimeter we will win by more. I don't expect ND either way to shoot the way they did against UConn in our first meeting. We will win by a lot more. We will also have our underclassman at a higher level if we meet again.

 

[alexrgct]

imo with Turner in the lineup that is one less guard we have to be chasing on the perimeter and if another big like Reimer is in another less guard to chase on the perimeter we will win by more. I don't expect ND either way to shoot the way they did against UConn in our first meeting. We will win by a lot more. We will also have our underclassman at a higher level if we meet again.

since we had a 22-point lead in the fourth quarter before easing up at the end of the game, your scenario is very plausible.

 

[Carnac]

You know whats really killing me. We keep hearing excuses why teams are losing games and it almost always starts with injuries. Hey UConn has Butler and Chong on the bench and Stewie the other nite and UConn not only wins but is blowing out opponents. ?????? Now those of you concerned about next season be patient because with the the development of our underclassman this season I don't think we have anything to worry about next season. A lot of teams are willing to play UConn next season with the graduation of Stewie and Mojeff. Next season could be Genos greatest accomplishment and that would be another National Championship.[/QUOTE]

Tonyc, I certainly hope you're feeling "prophetic" today!!! I think I can speak for all of UConn Nation, when I say that we certainly would have absolutely no problem if Geno is able to pull that off along with winning #11 this year. Why stop? Let's keep this thing going. We're on a roll here. Go Huskies.

 

[Carnac]

And this would be the fifth time three Huskies are named wbca AAs previous seasons: 2002 (cash, Bird, Diana), 2009 (Monty, Maya, Tina), 2014 (Stewie, Stef, Bria), and 2015 (KML, Stewie, Moriah). Now all we need is Morgan alongside Stewie and Mo to complete 2016. Btw, when Uconn has three wbca AAs on the team, it's meant a national championship four seasons out of four thus far.

Also agree adding Butler to the rotation is a gift. We beat ND by 10 when they didn't have Turner. If both play if there's a rematch, I'd still expect another Uconn victory...which I would take in any form over the Irish.

I with you on that Alex. While I don't "hate" Notre Dame, I don't have an affinity for their school (I do respect their academia), or any of their athletic programs.

I back the Huskies. I'll take a victory over ND anytime, anyway I can get it. Preferably against Muffet.

 

[Jim R]

And this would be the fifth time three Huskies are named wbca AAs previous seasons: 2002 (cash, Bird, Diana), 2009 (Monty, Maya, Tina), 2014 (Stewie, Stef, Bria), and 2015 (KML, Stewie, Moriah). Now all we need is Morgan alongside Stewie and Mo to complete 2016. Btw, when Uconn has three wbca AAs on the team, it's meant a national championship four seasons out of four thus far.

Also agree adding Butler to th rotation is a gift. We beat ND by 10 when they didn't have Turner, so if both can play if there's a rematch, I'd still expect another Uconn victory...which I would take in any form over the Irish.

...Four out of four.....I'll take those odds....re Irish rematch....with both the bigs in (their Turner and our Butler....I'd give you fifteen and ND) - and I have loads of respect for Muffet's coaching

 

[Tonyc]

Remember this when looking back at the ND game. I believe our goal was to stop Cable. We didn't have any idea that Mabrey2 was going to go off like she did. We made adjustments in the second half and she had 2 pts. With that said when we got things rolling in the second half we were up and pretty much maintained a 14 pt lead til the end when ND got it to 10. Don't forget we were without Butler and Chong. I say that only because every time UConn beats the pants off an opponent we hear about who was out and we never hear about who was out for UConn. If we have a re match with ND I think we win by a lot more for a couple of reasons. Our underclassman will not be thinking as much and reacting more and hopefully Butler and Chong are back and we have no more injuries. As I said before with Turner and maybe Reimer in that's less outside shooters and we can concentrate on more inside play and less outside play.

 

[trb123]

Taking stock

1. Lowering expectations for next season. Easier said than done. Alexrgct's post at the top makes it even harder.

2. Raising my opinion of Brenda Frese from F to C (there is no D). She had the guts to play us when others did not.

3. On Hold - what to make of Lady Vol's next season. Future uncertain. I do not even know if the Lady Vols and the Gentleman Vols teams will be there next year. Or will both be called the Vols?