We Have A Top 10 Team | Page 4 | The Boneyard

We Have A Top 10 Team

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.
 
VAHuskyFan said:
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.
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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?
 
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.
 
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.
 
EnochRoot said:
I forgot there was a game tonight (been taking care of my sick wife all day).

Son of a...
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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.
 
Lefty2one said:
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.
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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 ?
 
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Lefty2one said:
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.
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Not reactionary in the least.

It wasn't until the Andre rim rattler that I thought we National Champions again.
 
Huskybass said:
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.
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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).
 
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.
 
Saw some of the first half on my phone, that’s it. No CBSSN here at my Airbnb. The guys took care of business. Well done. I said a few weeks back that this team was playing tight, they looked like they were under pressure of expectations and that affected their play and especially shooting. They seem to be playing loose, fun basketball now.

I think we need to remember back a few years to when UConn teams struggled to win these games. So yes, winning games you should win. But doing it by 20+ is not the same as doing it by 4.
 
Huskybass said:
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 ?
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It was 7
 
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In many ways Georgetown looked like we did in the 2 years before Hurley took over. Remember those double digit road losses? We beat Auburn with Tyler and Hawk having big games. They are crucial for us to win against the top of the Big East. Giving up 10 3's against Nova will not be good as their defense will be better than we saw last night. Seton Hall was able to win by isolating our guard against their best at the end of the game. Other teams are going to do this and they will press us on occasion to throw us off as that is still a challenge for us to deal with. We have a chance to be top 10 but still have to prove it against the conference top dawgs. It is nice to be on the verge and will be a great way to spend time in February and March watching how this plays out.
 
This team with a fully operational Jordan Hawkins is seriously good. The thermal exhaust port of this Death Star is perimeter defense. We have a chance at the final four, but never tell me the odds.
 
Dove said:
Not reactionary in the least.

It wasn't until the Andre rim rattler that I thought we National Champions again.
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Let’s fight one battle at a time. Capture the big East, take MSG, and then set our sights at the big prize. I am hopeful and see potential but I am not jumping on board and calling UCONN a Final Four team.
 
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CL82 said:
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.
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Oh, I'm enjoying it!
 
uconngb said:
I’m excited too….:but that was Georgetown. They are god aweful. Let’s wait for Nova and Xavier before making these proclamations. We are beating up on the dregs. That’s expected.
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But you said that this team would be lucky to finish above .500, so beating these teams isn’t too bad for a team of the quality your eyes and knowledge says it is.
 
Brochacho said:
We say that without mentioning Marquette and St. Bonaventure were down their best/key players, and Auburn was down a guy who may be their best college player coming off an Achilles injury. Works both ways.
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Do you think we're a good team? I'm genuinely starting to wonder
 
businesslawyer said:
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?
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I know this is a rhetorical question but I wouldn't be shocked if some do
 
We will find out pretty soon if we are top 10 with the meat of our BE schedule coming up. For people to declare us top 10 after blowout wins over ButlerX2 and Georgetown is foolish. Yes, we did beat Auburn on neutral court and Marquette away but we haven't beat anybody else worth much yet. Let the games play out more before declaring some bs stuff like this.
 
3rdbass said:
We will find out pretty soon if we are top 10 with the meat of our BE schedule coming up. For people to declare us top 10 after blowout wins over ButlerX2 and Georgetown is foolish. Yes, we did beat Auburn on neutral court and Marquette away but we haven't beat anybody else worth much yet. Let the games play out more before declaring some bs stuff like this.
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Why? We lose a game to a good team and you will say this teams sucks and Dan Hurley should be fired, the hypocrisy from the haters is gold.
 
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Brochacho said:
We say that without mentioning Marquette and St. Bonaventure were down their best/key players, and Auburn was down a guy who may be their best college player coming off an Achilles injury. Works both ways.
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Allen Flanigan is lucky if he's Auburn's 5th best player.
 
HeGotGame said:
Why? We lose a game to a good team and you will say this teams sucks and Dan Hurley should be fired, the hypocrisy from the haters is gold.
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Well those are the haters. I love Dan Hurley as our coach and won't be saying he should be fired if we lose to a good team. I'm just keeping it real based on who we played and beat. Can we be a top 10 team sure? Are we a top 10 team? Still needs to be proven on the court. I still like us beat a good team at the end of the game. We don't have that go to player other teams have. I guess RJ is the closest we have right now(Maybe Martin can be that player if he can finish better at the rim). I still love this team but have honest questions on our ceiling.
 
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