Was this the most surprising UCONN championship run ? | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Was this the most surprising UCONN championship run ?

superjohn said:
I thought 2011 was most surprising. I didn't even think we would be a good team heading into the season. I had no clue Kemba would make the jump he did and be the best player in the country and pretty much the rest of the team was all kids I knew nothing about.

I thought this team was going to be really good but they obviously exceeded expectations.
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I was thinking more about surprising as of February, not the beginning of the season. If we're talking preseason expectations, I agree with you.
 
I would say based on the start of the season, that 2011 and 2014 were both a lot more surprising. Hard to say which was more. We were a hot mess in 2011 - off a bad NIT season, lost everyone but Kemba (who wasn’t the Kemba we know yet), missed on our top recruiting targets. But then Kemba had 43 against Vermont and Maui brought the bar way up.

In 2014, JC was gone, off probation, no front court whatsoever to speak of, and we had Bazz. At no point in that entire season did I think we had title potential. Was worried about a bid mostly and hoping the Florida win would carry weight. Even in the first 10 minutes of the Florida final four game I was hoping we didn’t have an epically embarrassing loss because it felt like we were getting run out of the gym.

I think my answer would be 2011 at the start of the season, and then flip flop to 2014 from Thanksgiving on - with this team third. I thought in the 2014 preseason that we could be a top 25 team with Bazz and Boat, but I thought the 2011 team was going nowhere.
 
A surprise only if looking at preseason rankings. Definitely not a surprise once we saw the product on the floor during the OOC slate. This may have been one of the more dominant championship teams UConn has had. 17-0 OOC with a 24+ margin of victory. In the 31 wins this year their average margin of victory was 20+ points.
 
UCTitleTown said:
And didn't some players bail the year we got banned? Yet we came back and won soon after.
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Yup. Roscoe and Oriaki are two that transferred out off the top of my head. Not sure if there were more.

Think Andre was considering coming back before it.
 
HuskyWarrior611 said:
Yup. Roscoe and Oriaki are two that transferred out off the top of my head. Not sure if there were more.

Think Andre was considering coming back before it.
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Yes, no post-season definitely impacted Drummond's decision. The crazy thing is Oriakhi lost playing time to Drummond, and decides to transfer and then Drummond goes pro. There was plenty of playing time available for Oriakhi, but I believe he made the post-season his last year. Never was a player as hyped as Drummond who had so little impact. Talk when he came was of a repeat national championship.
 
Just after the brackets were announced didn't UConn have the 4th or 5th best odds to win it all? So not that surprising.
 
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Maybe a better question is, did the January slide help? It certainly helped us fly under the radar. Probably until we crushed Gonzaga. At that point the college basketball world accepted we were likely to win.

Another question. Does SDSU win if we somehow lose to Miami. Or if Texas beats Miami and we lose to Texas..... SDSU may actually win. Match-ups are always critical but they got within 5 with 5 to go. That was as close as anyone got late in the game.
 
NDakotaHusky said:
Maybe a better question is, did the January slide help? It certainly helped us fly under the radar. Probably until we crushed Gonzaga. At that point the college basketball world accepted we were likely to win.

Another question. Does SDSU win if we somehow lose to Miami. Or if Texas beats Miami and we lose to Texas..... SDSU may actually win. Match-ups are always critical but they got within 5 with 5 to go. That was as close as anyone got late in the game.
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It helped. We learned how to utilize Andre in advance of March. And I’m sure as far as Xs and Os go, there were a lot more adjustments made that helped the team deal with every kind of strategy teams could throw at us. And apparently it triggered more effort and better play from Newton.

IMO, any of the other 3 teams easily could’ve beaten one another.
 
HooperScooper said:
Just after the brackets were announced didn't UConn have the 4th or 5th best odds to win it all? So not that surprising.
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The only thing that made this year surprising is that we survived the randomness of the tournament. We entered the tournament #4 in kenpom and were #1 by the elite 8. We were the betting favorite in every tournament game we played.
 
Marat said:
In 1999, we had a veteran terrific team that was ranked #1 for part of the season, and only Duke stood in the way. But it was the 1st one so it was shocking to actually be on top of the mountain.

In 2004, we knew the team was stacked and was not suprising at all to win it .

In 2011, I guess you could say it was surprising to others but once the team won the BET 5 in 5 days, then you could anticipate the run.

In 2014, yes that was surprising - didn't expect to win it all .

This 2023 team - given the previous 2 ncaa endings, Hurley, and mediocre mid-season swoon, it was surprising. The experts said there isn't dominant team, and they were wrong. You can argue that this championship run was even more surprising than our other runs, due to how dominant this team became vs non conference opponents.
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The 2011 with Cardiac Kemba
 
2011, we finished 9th in the big east. We actually had to compete in the BE tournament play in game. No time during the season would one think that we had a chance of winning the national championship . 2014, we had a core of players that played in the 2011 NC. 2023 not a big surprise. Even during the skid everyone knew That the talent was there. There were no match iOS that this team couldn’t handle.
 
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superjohn said:
I thought 2011 was most surprising. I didn't even think we would be a good team heading into the season. I had no clue Kemba would make the jump he did and be the best player in the country and pretty much the rest of the team was all kids I knew nothing about.

I thought this team was going to be really good but they obviously exceeded expectations.
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You make a good point that it depends at what point you’re making the decision. At the start of the season there were a lot of questions marks for 2011, by the end of the big east tournament, it seemed like it was inevitable. To me this season seems like 2011 redux in many ways. Both years we won a big early season tournament, and had a midseason in conference swoon, only to win it all at the end.
 
I wouldn't say the most surprising. I'd still have to say, 2011. This team showed us dominance in the beginning. Everyone fan and non, had Uconn as a final 4 team. Even the 2011 team's early success didn't have that effect were people were thinking NC.
 
2014 for sure. We were absolutely undressed by Louisville twice to end the season and struggled so mightily offensively against their pressure. Never would have guessed that both Bazz and Boat would turn into literal demons offensively and defensively and embarrass all of the guards that they encountered. I mean, Boat's defense literally ruined Wilbekin, Appling, and the douchier Harrison brother.
 
Khal Drogo said:
2011, we finished 9th in the big east. We actually had to compete in the BE tournament play in game. No time during the season would one think that we had a chance of winning the national championship . 2014, we had a core of players that played in the 2011 NC. 2023 not a big surprise. Even during the skid everyone knew That the talent was there. There were no match iOS that this team couldn’t handle.
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Absolutely
 
I would say 2014 was a huge surprised... followed by 2011.

2011 came out of nowhere. 9th place in the Big East - Read that again! 9TH!!!!! the bang - 5 days 5 wins and an epic NCAA run

But 2014 is a close second. A year full of upheaval. A new coach, a new league, subpar performance in the regular season/league tournament.... followed by a smack in the face with a 4th NCAA Championship. That was shocking for sure


2023 will go down as a surprise only to the ignorant non Big East basketball fan. Everyone knew this UConn team had potential. If anything, the reason a lot of us were pissed is because we perceived them playing below their potential midway across the season. But they bounced back big time. Even the pundits knew UConn was a championship caliber team
 
Not any more. We are the best program in college basketball. Alabama football has 6 championships since 99, we have 5 in basketball. That’s where we are right now.
 
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Not sure which overall run was most surprising, but I will say that the regional final against Michigan State in 2014 was the most unexpected win I can ever remember the program getting in the tournament. MSU was on an absolute tear, and I guess I foolishly underestimated the home court advantage we had at MSG. But I had almost zero expectation that Baz and Boat could get us up that mountain. (My son was a little kid then, and wow did he see a different side of Dad in that postgame celebration!)
 
This championship was not surprising. This season overall was surprising because it seemed the team, with 3 returning players, should not have clicked so quickly. The PK tournament may have been a little surprising at that point. Once it got going though, it was clear we were the best team.

Our January schedule was more difficult than any team’s path in this entire tournament, except maybe Miami. Outside of the St Johns game, and the end of the Hall game, we were just a great team playing other great teams. There could have easily been 3 Big East teams in the Final Four.
 
My initial reaction was 2014 ( and not even close) cause what were we even doing there bring a 7 seed. But if I think back to 2011 pre season, even before Maui and putting up 50 on Kentucky in the first half, beating MSU etc. The Team was basically Kemba and a bunch of Freshmen and I’m sure my expectations then were not very high. You could at least make the argument at that point 2011 was more surprising. I’d still go with 2014 though.
 
2014 easily. We barely beat St Joes. There was not a single point on that season that anyone thought we'd win a natty. That same isnt true for 2011 and 2023
 
No. 2014 was more surprising.
And 2011.
Then this season. Because we were looking past this year, eyeing the team Hurley was building for 23/24. THAT was going to be our shot at glory. No one knew that Karaban was going to be a deadeye shot. No one expected Hawkins improvement (thanks, Rip!) Or that Adama would go from good to great. Donovan? He was going to be a project. Then the portal happened. And everything changed.
After the PKI, nothing was surprising except our string of crap games in the conference. That was surprising. And it's still a bit befuddling.
I think though, that after that nasty losing streak, the fact that we recovered and surpassed our early season strength may have taken the rest of the CBB world by surprise.
 
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This team wasn't a surprise once we saw them play. Even early on when many we telling us to slow our roll we're thinking "Look how good we play. Who's better?"
 
Personally, I think this one might be the most remarkable. We had so many new pieces to fit together. Karaban had more experience with the team, but we had two new starters, and a few new bench players - all of whom are great but it was no easy feat to pull them all together. Great coaching job. Of course, the trio of Sanogo, Jackson and Hawkins have played with each other for 2 years is an extremely strong core around which to build a team.
 
businesslawyer said:
Clearly not as surprising as 2014. Hard to distinguish between '11 and this year. In both years we went undefeated OOC, struggled in conference and were seeded at a level where making the Final Four was not shocking but there were other teams with a better chance of going all the way than us.

The '11 team played far more competitive games in the tournament, three of which could have easily gone the other way, but there was faith in that team being able to win a close game because of Kemba and the Big East tournament, whereas when SD State cut it to 5 this year I can't have been the only fan beyond nervous because I didn't want to see us have to make good decisions down the stretch.
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This is a great point. The Achilles heel of this team was close games in crunch time with multiple close losses.

Remarkably, the ONLY games they won the entire season by less than double digits are below and I wouldn't even necessarily consider these "close" games perhaps with exception of the PC BET which got close after blowing a big lead.

9 vs Seton Hall
9 @ St. John's
8 vs Villanova
8 vs Creighton
7 vs Providence (BET)
6 @ Georgetown

Certainly a way to circumvent your biggest weakness is to just blow everyone out, which is what we did. Part of me would like to have seen how we would have responded against say against a Kansas in a close game late.

Alas, we'll never know and more importantly it really doesn't even matter.
 
We need to distinguish WHEN we were surprised or not.

By Big East tournament, 2011 was still surreal but I wasn’t shocked. 2014 was the least expected, even in-season, but I thought we were a 4/5 that year and had a terrible matchup with Louisville that made us look worse. But I also knew that each individual game, Shabazz could take over.

Before those seasons? It’s gotta rank 2011 then 2023 next. I knew we’d be good, solid, I didn’t expect our offense to be this good though.
 
From a standpoint of our fan’s expectations think about this: At BE Tournament time 2011 our fan base was emotionally down and was so disgusted that many were not going to bother even attending the BE Tournament. A pick me up (and classic) post by Maker’s Muppet made fun of us all to shame some who had given up. We go win the next 11 games in a row to the strongest competition overall that I can even remember. And that was the old ridiculously strong BE conference where Marquette was a middling team who beat us at the Civic Center.
 
'99-The year before they were 1 win away from the final four I believe. RIP & the crew continued to grow. It was either going to be Duke or UConn. They were easily the 2 best teams in the land. (2nd least surprising for me)

'04-Best UConn team period. Only back spasms and foul trouble could stop Okafor, Gordon & company. (least surprising)

'11- Surprising, but early on they proved they could take out anybody on any given night. The run through the BE tourney was special. Kemba was just so great that year and had some supporting pieces in Lamb, Oriakhi, a young Shabazz. (2nd most surprising for me)

'14-Watching this team struggle man... I had little hope that they would make it to the 2nd weekend let alone win it all. Brimah's putback and foul shot make let the Shabazz show cometh. Boat turned the corner and really grew up in the tournament and Giffey did his thing. That and the defense by it's two star guards putting the Kentucky twins on their heals... well Phil Nolan can now say I was a starter on a national championship. (for me, easily the most surprising)

'23-We knew we had pieces. All the new guys were the question mark. Ended up like being a great Christmas morning when you're a kid. As each guy played and we could see what he could do, it was like "Whoa, cool I like this.". Even Naheim Alleyne (who won me over by playing hard non-stop through that awful slump) was like that gift you didn't ask for but in the end it was really cool. (Middle of the pack for me as far as a surprise)
onade
If you read this, you may have guessed I just down a few Arnold Palmers made with some Mike's Hard Lemonade. It's Spring Break at the school I work at.
 
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