What will it take for UConn to Three-peat?

[DogMania]

Although UConn added some very talented pieces and returned some talented and experienced ones, such as Karaban, the players who left provided some unique talents that made last year's team very special.

Clingan did so much - rim protection, high percentage scoring in the paint, was an excellent screener, etc.

Castle provided shut-down D, ran the floor and could attack the rim. Although he struggled from deep he had a solid midrange game and knack for scoring when we needed to stave off opponents runs. Was also a creative passer and seemed to get some timely offense rebounds for put-backs or to keep the play alive.

Newton was huge for us. His leadership and composure was key. He scored everywhere, great touch when driving to the basket, solid midrange and incredible deep range. His ability to create his own shot and knock down dagger 3s late in the clock, especially during critical winning time possessions is legendary in my opinion. He was also very good at finding an open teamate and an amazing rebounder.

Spencer was that piece that put us over the top. His energy and emotion fueled the team. Although he was not explosive, he was so good creating his own shot, both from deep and midrange, and did a solid job on D knowing when to step in passing lanes coming up with some timely steals.

Now I don't expect the 2024-25 team to replace all of the above or look the same, but how will the pieces of this team come together to make another run at a championship?

IMO, the X factor is Hurley and the coaching staff developing the players and getting them to execute their motion offense and stifling defense. It's going to take time, but by tournament time I think they'll be ready.

There will likely be a half dozen teams that retained some key pieces and loaded up this past spring to make a run at the championship. It will be interesting to see which teams are able to put it all together and challenge UConn.

So what will it take? What players will step up and how will they contribute to our Huskies' continued success?

 

[AntG168]

A lot + a little bit of luck

 

[InKembaITrust]

REBOUNDING. We won't be as imposing at the rim with Clingan gone. Hard-nose rebounding will make up for it.
Stewart elevating in year 2 and scoring 10+ ppg.
Abraham becoming the next lock-down defender like Castle and AJ before him.
Diarra and Nowell just being solid and not turning the ball over.
Trusting our shooting and exposing teams with our elite 3-pt shooters.

I see no reason we shouldn't be back in the final 4.

 

[storrsroars]

So what will it take?

Six wins in NCAAs.

I'm not so much looking at specific players to "step up", more whether DH can utilize their specific strengths and get them to play the kind of team ball that's won two NCs.

We're the 2nd least experienced team in the BE (only GTown has less), so I'd expect some bumps against Creighton, Xavier (Freemantle's back) and maybe Butler. It'll also likely be tough to go undefeated in OOC again. Gonzaga and Auburn are among schools with the most experience, so facing them early could be problematic. Might even include Dayton there.

But, if DH does DH things, by February it's a well-oiled machine and ready to take on all comers.

 

[Dogfish]

I'm just really excited to see what he does this year more so this year than any in the last 35 years that I've been watching the Huskies. He's like a master Jewler that gets a few raw, uncut gems, a few more that are already polished but not exactly to his liking and lastly some that have been made to perfection by his skillset. Finally, he puts them all together to reveal the Crown Jewels of National Champions.

 

[prankster]

Although UConn added some very talented pieces and returned some talented and experienced ones, such as Karaban, the players who left provided some unique talents that made last year's team very special.

Clingan did so much - rim protection, high percentage scoring in the paint, was an excellent screener, etc.

Castle provided shut-down D, ran the floor and could attack the rim. Although he struggled from deep he had a solid midrange game and knack for scoring when we needed to stave off opponents runs. Was also a creative passer and seemed to get some timely offense rebounds for put-backs or to keep the play alive.

Newton was huge for us. His leadership and composure was key. He scored everywhere, great touch when driving to the basket, solid midrange and incredible deep range. His ability to create his own shot and knock down dagger 3s late in the clock, especially during critical winning time possessions is legendary in my opinion. He was also very good at finding an open teamate and an amazing rebounder.

Spencer was that piece that put us over the top. His energy and emotion fueled the team. Although he was not explosive, he was so good creating his own shot, both from deep and midrange, and did a solid job on D knowing when to step in passing lanes coming up with some timely steals.

Now I don't expect the 2024-25 team to replace all of the above or look the same, but how will the pieces of this team come together to make another run at a championship?

IMO, the X factor is Hurley and the coaching staff developing the players and getting them to execute their motion offense and stifling defense. It's going to take time, but by tournament time I think they'll be ready.

There will likely be a half dozen teams that retained some key pieces and loaded up this past spring to make a run at the championship. It will be interesting to see which teams are able to put it all together and challenge UConn.

So what will it take? What players will step up and how will they contribute to our Huskies' continued success?

All they have to do is to win the last game that they play.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

This team reminds me of the last Nova FF
team that overachieved to get there.

 

[HuskyInfinity]

Defense has been the calling card and will more now than ever have to continue to be the calling card while the jury is out on who the top dawg(s) are on this team.

Without an obvious 1-1 replacement of Clingan’s and Castle’s defensive importance and prowess, I think taking the team defense and defensive synergy to another level is going to be probably the biggest thing in my opinion along with rebounding a close second. Unless 1-2 players make jumps to become defensive standouts, that’s where my head is at. I think they truly do have the pieces and potential to really shine in different ways on defense in comparison to last years team though.

 

[HuskyFich]

Tarris Reed & Mahaney need to be as good as advertised by the staff.
If we can improve their numbers, we will run teams off the floor with the depth alone.

We also need McNeeley to be 70% of what Cam was, which is asking a lot of a freshman, but he'll be able to hide a bit more with our depth than Cam could last year(not that we wanted him to).

 

[k-walk]

All they have to do is to win the last game that they play.

Seton Hall did that last year but it didn’t work for them smh

 

[bendm]

This team reminds me of the last Nova FF
team that overachieved to get there.

how did they overachieve? that Nova team won 30 games including the BET, and was a 2 seed in the tourney. i'd happily sign up for that right now. if moore didnt get hurt against houston they might have beaten KU in the final 4, who knows.

 

[superjohn]

Six wins in NCAAs.

I'm not so much looking at specific players to "step up", more whether DH can utilize their specific strengths and get them to play the kind of team ball that's won two NCs.

We're the 2nd least experienced team in the BE (only GTown has less), so I'd expect some bumps against Creighton, Xavier (Freemantle's back) and maybe Butler. It'll also likely be tough to go undefeated in OOC again. Gonzaga and Auburn are among schools with the most experience, so facing them early could be problematic. Might even include Dayton there.

But, if DH does DH things, by February it's a well-oiled machine and ready to take on all comers.

Aidan Mahaney and Tarris Reed are juniors and both turn 21 on August 5th, Karaban will be 22 when the season starts and is a junior in his 4th season at UConn, Solomon Ball will be 21 at the beginning of December and is a sophomore, Samson turns 22 in July and is a senior, Hassan is 23 and a 5th year senior. McNeeley is a baby at just 18 and a freshman but out of our likely top 7 guys that's not at all an inexperienced or young team.

 

[storrsroars]

Aidan Mahaney and Tarris Reed are juniors and both turn 21 on August 5th, Karaban will be 22 when the season starts and is a junior in his 4th season at UConn, Solomon Ball will be 21 at the beginning of December and is a sophomore, Samson turns 22 in July and is a senior, Hassan is 23 and a 5th year senior. McNeeley is a baby at just 18 and a freshman but out of our likely top 7 guys that's not at all an inexperienced or young team.

relative to competition, they have less experience

 

[mlpavela]

If they do more points than the other teams, they will win.

 

[bendm]

relative to competition, they have less experience

not worried about winning the BE, experienced or not. there's a bunch of good teams but we're the only championship contender of the bunch.

 

[Ricker]

We have to shoot well from 3 in the big games. Last year we could go 4 for 20 and win by double digits. I think everything else will be different, but will work itself out in terms of general defense, rebounding, ball movement for good shots, etc

 

[ColchVEGAS]

Yes repeating is hard, a 3peat even harder. In reality though, past results do not impact future results so it is no different than any other season. The talent is there. They will need to execute and have some luck.

 

[bendm]

We have to shoot well from 3 in the big games. Last year we could go 4 for 20 and win by double digits. I think everything else will be different, but will work itself out in terms of general defense, rebounding, ball movement for good shots, etc

i think we're going to be an even better 3pt shooting team this year. McNeeley will be a much better shooter than Castle and we'll have improvement from AK, Stew, and Ball.

 

[HooperScooper]

Aidan Mahaney and Tarris Reed are juniors and both turn 21 on August 5th, Karaban will be 22 when the season starts and is a junior in his 4th season at UConn, Solomon Ball will be 21 at the beginning of December and is a sophomore, Samson turns 22 in July and is a senior, Hassan is 23 and a 5th year senior. McNeeley is a baby at just 18 and a freshman but out of our likely top 7 guys that's not at all an inexperienced or young team.

Experience and age are 2 different things. You're citing ages here.

For example, Samson Johnson is a senior and will be 22 years old this coming season. But he's played a total of 755 minutes in his 3 years. That's a little over half of what Tristen Newton logged just this past season.

Solomon Ball will be 21 in December but he's played a total of 450 minutes in college. About 1/3 of what Newton and Spencer played last season.

Reed has played 2 seasons but has played less minutes in college than Newton and Spencer played just this past season.

Although Diarra has only started 13 games in his career, he has a pretty good amount of college playing experience and is a 5th year senior with 2 seasons under his belt at UConn. That might count more than just the total minutes he's played.

Karaban and Mahaney are definitely both seasoned veterans, although Mahaney hasn't been in the UConn program before.

So I'd say we have 3 veterans with a good amount of experience coming into this season in Karaban, Mahaney, and Diarra. I'd even throw Reed in there but he's had only 1 season total of minutes and hasn't been in the UConn program before this year.

So I agree with you that it doesn't seem to be a very inexperienced team, but it's not overly experienced either.

 

[superjohn]

Experience and age are 2 different things. You're citing ages here.

For example, Samson Johnson is a senior and will be 22 years old this coming season. But he's played a total of 755 minutes in his 3 years. That's a little over half of what Tristen Newton logged just this past season.

Solomon Ball will be 21 in December but he's played a total of 450 minutes in college. About 1/3 of what Newton and Spencer played last season.

Reed has played 2 seasons but has played less minutes in college than Newton and Spencer played just this past season.

Although Diarra has only started 13 games in his career, he has a pretty good amount of college experience and is a 5th year senior with 2 seasons under his belt at UConn. That might count more than just the total minutes he's played.

Karaban and Mahaney are definitely both seasoned veterans.

So I'd say we have 3 veterans with a good amount of experience coming into this season in Karaban, Mahaney, and Diarra. I'd even throw Reed in there but he's had only 1 season total of minutes and hasn't been in the UConn program before this year.

So I agree with you that it doesn't seem to be a very inexperienced team, but not overly experienced either.

I cited age and experience. We have 3 guys in our top 7 who have already won two national championships. I don't considered this an inexperienced or young team.

 

[HooperScooper]

I cited age and experience. We have 3 guys in our top 7 who have already won two national championships. I don't considered this an inexperienced or young team.

I guess I define experience as playing time in college while you're defining experience as your grade. There's definitely something to be said for having juniors and seniors but I think the actual playing time is more important. Would you rather have a senior who's logged 100 minutes in his career or a sophomore who started and played over 1000 minutes as a freshman?

 

[UCFan1513]

A lot of health luck

 

[superjohn]

I guess I define experience as playing time in college while you're defining experience as your grade. There's definitely something to be said for having juniors and seniors but I think the actual playing time is more important. Would you rather have a senior who's logged 100 minutes in his career or a sophomore who started and played over 1000 minutes as a freshman?

It depends on how good they are. I would rather the better player who has logged less minutes. If they're exact equals as players I would prefer the guy who has played more minutes.

 

[TheChamps990411]

Although UConn added some very talented pieces and returned some talented and experienced ones, such as Karaban, the players who left provided some unique talents that made last year's team very special.

Clingan did so much - rim protection, high percentage scoring in the paint, was an excellent screener, etc.

Castle provided shut-down D, ran the floor and could attack the rim. Although he struggled from deep he had a solid midrange game and knack for scoring when we needed to stave off opponents runs. Was also a creative passer and seemed to get some timely offense rebounds for put-backs or to keep the play alive.

Newton was huge for us. His leadership and composure was key. He scored everywhere, great touch when driving to the basket, solid midrange and incredible deep range. His ability to create his own shot and knock down dagger 3s late in the clock, especially during critical winning time possessions is legendary in my opinion. He was also very good at finding an open teamate and an amazing rebounder.

Spencer was that piece that put us over the top. His energy and emotion fueled the team. Although he was not explosive, he was so good creating his own shot, both from deep and midrange, and did a solid job on D knowing when to step in passing lanes coming up with some timely steals.

Now I don't expect the 2024-25 team to replace all of the above or look the same, but how will the pieces of this team come together to make another run at a championship?

IMO, the X factor is Hurley and the coaching staff developing the players and getting them to execute their motion offense and stifling defense. It's going to take time, but by tournament time I think they'll be ready.

There will likely be a half dozen teams that retained some key pieces and loaded up this past spring to make a run at the championship. It will be interesting to see which teams are able to put it all together and challenge UConn.

So what will it take? What players will step up and how will they contribute to our Huskies' continued success?

Its simple. Hurley will figure out the best formula for this team and theyll be running on all cylinders by March. If the rest of the country has not figured out how to deal with Hurleys offense and defensive systems we`ll likely see a 3 peat and it might not be close again. The rest of the country is playing catch up right now with Hurley. Thats what will determine the 3peat if injuries or some other unforseen thing doesnt derail it.