We Have A Top 10 Team

[MTBingNinja]

Sweet Jesus, what can't we do?

Inside game
Outside game
Pretty good defense most of the time
Veterans
Youth
Depth and...

Andre jAcKSoN !!!

Wicked fun times comin'

Love it. Now we need to go out and beat some ranked opponents down the meat of the schedule to prove the Auburn win wasn’t a fluke.

 

[polycom]

We’ll know a lot more on March 1st, 2022. We should revisit this thread.

 

[freshler40]

We have not had post play like this in years. I almost forgot what good post players looked like. Adama is a game changer on both ends of the floor. The last time we had a big man that effects both ends of the floor was probably Thabeet.

Our other bigs like Whaley, Ako did a fine job even with Sanago on the bench. Fun game, wide open. When we start well we play loose and shoot better rather than climbing from behind.

 

[Dove]

Hawkins was amazing on offense. His development is sooooo vital for the team's success. Those late dishes down low. Whoa, boy!!

 

[freshler40]

What I liked tonight (and have seen progressing over the last couple weeks) is how connected this team seems to be, how much they trust and seem to enjoy playing with each other, and how vested they seem to be in the team's success and not just their own.

The team joy was contagious. There was a sense that we are peaking, gears and spokes in sync. This was one our best games in years. The balance and depth are showing and have to be a major concern for teams on our schedule. The full roster got to lick the ice cream.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Hawkins starting to figure a few things out on both ends. This could get very interesting

During the Calhoun era, it often was a case of whether an up and coming player (it was usually a freshman) could gel just a bit more before March came along in order to push the team to a higher level. I remember a few times thinking that if the NCAA tourney had been played just a month or two later that the Huskies would've gone to the FF and maybe even won it all instead of bowing out in earlier rounds.

I think Hawkins fits in this category. Time will tell.

 

[Brochacho]

Still 5-4 vs top 100 Kenpom teams. Like what I see but let’s do it against competent teams.

 

[dogpause]

They're the number 1 team in the country, and no one besides us has beaten them lmao

This should be on a t-shirt. Minus the LMAO, of course. We're going to hear it over and over.

 

[karstenkibbe]

This should be on a t-shirt. Minus the LMAO, of course. We're going to hear it over and over.

We should leave the t-shirt making to Syracuse. They’re really good at it, and we all know what happens when they make tees. Too bad they haven’t found a reason to produce a shirt this season.

 

[karstenkibbe]

The bench contributed 30 points last night. If the bench can continue to score about a third of our points, we will be very difficult to beat in the next few months.

 

[CL82]

Someone's gotta say it, so I'll be that guy: the last time we played a halfway decent team, we blew a double digit lead and almost lost at home. The game before that we lost to a team that has lost 4 of 6 since.

We may well be a top 10 team. Personally, I'll wait until we beat Creighton and Villanova to start crowing about it.

Edit: Holy crap. Like 10 people beat me to it while I was typing this post.

So by “almost lost”, you mean “we won.” Yes we did lose to Seton Hall, barely, but that was after we were coming off of a Covid pause. but I agree the OP is, probably intentionally, over reaching.

Still, good teams win the games they’re supposed to win. We’ve done that against Butler and Georgetown and looked great doing it. It does feel like this team is coming together at the right time. We definitely have a lot more work to do, but it’s silly not to enjoy this run.

 

[CL82]

I forgot there was a game tonight (been taking care of my sick wife all day).

Son of a...

Probably for the best…

[Cough, cough] “ Honeeeey? Can I have some water? Honeeey?”

“YES, YES, WATER, I GOT IT…AT HALFTIME!”

 

[CL82]

Even Polley and Hawkins had blocks.

Hawkins looked good all around. Hopefully the game is slowing down for him and he’s becoming more confident.

 

[storrsroars]

This should be on a t-shirt. Minus the LMAO, of course. We're going to hear it over and over.

Sounds too 'Cuse-y for my tastes.

Only words other than the name that should be on any UConn tee is # of NCs.

Edit: I see @karstenkibbe beat me to it.

 

[Ewekon]

I like that we are still somewhat flying under the radar. We play at DePaul next, which we should win, but after that, things are going to get harder. There is still plenty of basketball to be played. Im being very cautiously optimistic simply because it seems like we have had some bad luck over the last 5 plus years. Let’s hope we continue to improve, and please no injuries.

Road trip to the Chi? I'm down.

 

[microfich]

This thread:
We are...
If we...
Not yet...

Friends, we are proving our strengths vs. lower, mid and even some tournament worthy teams.
The improvement is there, especially Jackson, Adama and with RJ, Tyrese.
The 5-years are performing as expected: Whaley, Polley.
The X-factor is emerging: Hawkins and I can't emphasize that enough.

We are still without a second ball handler, you even saw it last night when lowly Gtown pressed. This is a major weakness.
We are about where we sensibly hoped to be. What's left is Hawkins's ceiling.

A dozen games plus the BE tourney remain to absorb Hawkins because he frankly is the difference in us winning a second weekend game in March.

 

[businesslawyer]

Auburn put in a pretty lackluster performance tonight against a sub-.500 Missouri squad (Kenpom 131). They were actually down with under 5 to play. Thankfully for us they pulled it off, but didn’t seem like the worldbeaters we are making them out to be.

Good God. They’re #1 based on a body of work of about 20 games, but they win a conference road game with more difficulty than you think they should and that’s a negative?

Do people stay up at night thinking about silly ways to minimize our accomplishments?

 

[Lefty2one]

This board is reactionary. Georgetown is a terrible defensive team and pretty bad all around. I think we had a dozen dunks tonight. Our guys were penetrating at will. We look like one of the best teams in the country when multiple players can penetrate but generally we can't do that against good defenses. We were also hitting our threes; it would be great if Hawkins could hit four triples off the bench every night.

I'm excited about the performance but we must maintain perspective. We'll still be prone to off nights and may struggle against better defensive teams. Point guard, playmaking, penetration, etc.

 

[businesslawyer]

We said coming into this year that this team had a lot of individual talent, but it was far from clear how the pieces would fit together and whether we could develop into a good team, with defined roles and a style of play, that everyone could execute and would make us better as a team. That process was clearly interfered with by injuries and the Covid shutdown.

But you can see it now. People are learning what they are expected to do and learning to do it. Do we still have to prove we can hold leads against ranked teams? Yes. But if you don’t think this team is a becoming a solid bet to make the second weekend and compete for our conference titles, you’re not watching. Yes, we won’t know if we can get it done until you’re past it looking back, but that’s always true.

 

[F101Voodoo]

I forgot there was a game tonight (been taking care of my sick wife all day).

Son of a...

I was doing the same. Watched the first half w/o sound missed virtually all of the second half but got it recorded so I will watch the game tonight. Wife tested Covid positive the other day, negative today. We tried watching but we both dozed off until an hour after the game. She is on heavy meds right now. Wife is a big UCONN fan also, she tried.

 

[Huskybass]

This board is reactionary. Georgetown is a terrible defensive team and pretty bad all around. I think we had a dozen dunks tonight. Our guys were penetrating at will. We look like one of the best teams in the country when multiple players can penetrate but generally we can't do that against good defenses. We were also hitting our threes; it would be great if Hawkins could hit four triples off the bench every night.

I'm excited about the performance but we must maintain perspective. We'll still be prone to off nights and may struggle against better defensive teams. Point guard, playmaking, penetration, etc.

I was at the game and I remember 7 dunks.
3 by Adama, 1 by Whaley, 1 by Jackson, 1 by Akok and 1 by Johnson. Certainlyy nowhere near a dozen. Anyone have the actual total ?

 

[Dove]

This board is reactionary. Georgetown is a terrible defensive team and pretty bad all around. I think we had a dozen dunks tonight. Our guys were penetrating at will. We look like one of the best teams in the country when multiple players can penetrate but generally we can't do that against good defenses. We were also hitting our threes; it would be great if Hawkins could hit four triples off the bench every night.

I'm excited about the performance but we must maintain perspective. We'll still be prone to off nights and may struggle against better defensive teams. Point guard, playmaking, penetration, etc.

Not reactionary in the least.

It wasn't until the Andre rim rattler that I thought we National Champions again.

 

[F101Voodoo]

We are much better this year, much.

This team really shares the ball and rarely gets caught at the end of the shot clock without a good look. As great as Bouk was, this team is balanced, cohesive and plays great D for the most part. Tonight we had 5 guys in double figures including Hawkins off the bench with 15. Our mix of talent and experience is way up. We now have 5 Warriors in RJ, Adama, AJ, Tyrese, and Whaley. 5 legit impact players. It's been a long time since we could say that.

Agree. Benn waiting for Hawkins to play with self confidence. I just knew he would eventually. I saw them as playing as a team even in Nov but still with rough edges. If they stay top ten ranked they should seed no lower than 5 in the big dance. Maybe better !,

Us fans can still disagree with Hurley’s coaching but that is our God given right as UCONN fans to be wrong (once in a while).

 

[aburks41]

Still 5-4 vs top 100 Kenpom teams. Like what I see but let’s do it against competent teams.

If we were fully healthy we win 3 of those 4 games.

 

[jibsey]

SJ blowing out Seton Hall at The Hall? That tells me some crazy stuff is likely to happen. It will likely happen to us by somebody. These BE teams have talent. We have to credit that with off nights we could have. But….Just get everyone to March fully healthy because our rebounding will keep us in every game.