We Have A Top 10 Team

[RayIsTheGOAT]

I'm bought in, I think we can beat anyone in the country on a good night.
Having said that, I wouldn't be surprised to see us hit some roadblocks in February. The Big East is about to become a bloodbath. We play 5 ranked teams next month, plus Seton Hall and St John's who we already both went to OT with. Buckle up.

 

[UncleSpliff]

Every game we'll play is winnable.

Yes every game is winnable but we will be a dog in that game. Prob 3 - 4 points ish. That’s the only point I’m getting at. If we can win @ Nova we will shoot right up the rankings into top 10 territory.

 

[uconnfan68]

Seemed like a lot more

Even Polley and Hawkins had blocks.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

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.

Hahaha this board.

 

[storrsroars]

We’ve beaten Butler x2, St Johns and Georgetown on this little run. 3 of the bottom 5 teams in the BE. We’ve looked good the last 3, this isn’t meant to be a downer post. But the schedule is gonna get a lot tougher than these past games. If we beat the next two easier ones and Nova, then yes, we are undoubtedly a top 10 team. But these wins haven’t moved the dial much. Let’s be honest with ourselves.

While it's certainly true about the competition, this stretch has been important to get Hawkins more confidence, and get both Martin and Whaley untracked so they're all ready for tougher competition. Meaningful depth is what's going to get us past Nova, as they don't have any.

 

[storrsroars]

And we are missing a solid ball handler in Bouknight. Maybe we are better, but it's close as of now.

As good as Bouk was, he wasn't a particularly good ball handler, averaging 2.8 TOs to 1.8 AST last year, while Cole was 1.7 TOs to 4.8 AST in almost the same # of minutes.

 

[storrsroars]

Love seeing Whaley have his 2 best games this season in his last 2, he looks way more active and aggressive.

He's become the basketball equivalent of Phil Esposito.

(for those too young to recall, Espo was famous for being around the goal and scoring most of his points on short rebounds off the goalie, earning him the moniker "The Garbage Man". It's definitely a talent, not just luck.)

 

[tzznandrew]

We’ve beaten Butler x2, St Johns and Georgetown on this little run. 3 of the bottom 5 teams in the BE. We’ve looked good the last 3, this isn’t meant to be a downer post. But the schedule is gonna get a lot tougher than these past games. If we beat the next two easier ones and Nova, then yes, we are undoubtedly a top 10 team. But these wins haven’t moved the dial much. Let’s be honest with ourselves.

Georgetown and Butler are the equivalents of ECU and Tulane this year. Actually, respectively, each is ranked lower in KenPom.

Good teams take care of business, but I don't know that this is all that much different that annihilating cupcakes.

 

[UConnSwag11]

Sweet 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'

It was Georgetown. They are terrible. Let's wait until we play better competition. We have a good team. Top 10, not yet

 

[KingAG]

Georgetown and Butler are the equivalents of ECU and Tulane this year. Actually, respectively, each is ranked lower in KenPom.

Good teams take care of business, but I don't know that this is all that much different that annihilating cupcakes.

I don’t believe that’s where the confidence or excitement is coming from though. After a 17 Covid pause we even looked good in our SH loss. We’ve just looked good for the most part

 

[UConnSwag11]

I don’t believe that’s where the confidence or excitement is coming from though. After a 17 Covid pause we even looked good in our SH loss. We’ve just looked good for the most part

as we should against these teams. We shouldn't have lost to SHU but that's over and done with. Let's have this discussion after DePaul, Creighton, Xavier, Marquette, Nova. Those teams is where we'll see where we are and if we can close out games

 

[karstenkibbe]

I think Dan Hurley puts it best....every game no matter opponent we should either win or lose a close game. Does that make UConn top 10, we'll see.

To be a top 3 seed in Ncaa torney, which I assume is ultimate goal entering, need to beat BE teams tourney bound, so far just 1...plenty of those coming up though.

In that same CBSSN post-game interview, Hurley also said that if the good guys play first-half defense against top BE teams like they did last night, they will find themselves down 12 at the half and it will be difficult to recover. They must tighten that up, especially defending the 3pt line. Nova’s perimeter passing is so crisp and timely.

 

[Skiblets]

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

 

[Umami Zen]

Nice momentum win.. Beating teams that we should .Grab two more before the Nova game and lets see where we're at after that one. Actually think we match up well with them athletically--Will come down to execution and BB IQ on their court and made FTs.

 

[KingAG]

Nice momentum win.. Beating teams that we should .Grab two more before the Nova game and lets see where we're at after that one. Actually think we match up well with them athletically--Will come down to execution and BB IQ on their court and made FTs.

It would be nice for Nova to have an off shooting night against us for once

 

[MTBingNinja]

Sweet 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.