What will it take for UConn to Three-peat?

[TheChamps990411]

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.

Because its not. Im glad to see you and a few others are not falling for that bs. This team has loads of experience. Even the sophomores have the experience of last years run whether they played much or not.

 

[Horatio]

No injuries, use the depth for pressure defense.

 

[UofCT]

Avoid big East refs in the ncaa tournament

 

[Staven]

Consistent play, players playing to expectations, no injuries and a lot of luck

 

[tennmike]

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.

I'm not sure who you think you are coming in here throwing around a rational perspective.

 

[CTBasketball]

I would expect us to have some growing pains, similar to 2022-2023, but not to the same level. We walked thru the Big East last year and I expect us to have a lot more trouble this year.

Book us for the Big East opener loss, the Creighton road game, and 1-2 more road games. Maybe a trip up in Maui but I don’t know - Hurley wants that trophy. It’s all just a matter of staying healthy until tournament play, then we’ll play our best ball.

 

[alexd]

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

Win their last 6.
Or 9 would be nice too.

 

[Khal Drogo]

A lot + a little bit of luck

Do we all wear Dragon boxers

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I highly doubt that our defense this upcomong season will be as good as it was in 22-23 and I don't see any way in hell that it will be as good as it was this past season so we will need to be very efficient on offense to close that gap. Fortunately, we have more than enough shooters where that could happen.

As long as we don't have any bad luck on the injury front I believe we will have a fighter's chance once the tournament rolls around. We will however need to shoot far better from three than we did this past tournament as we won't have the luxury of being able to blow out teams with one aspect of our game on hiatus.

I still find it stunning that we won as easily as we did without shooting threes at a clip we were capable of. Imagine how dominant we would have looked if we did shoot well from three.

 

[awy]

general answer score more than they give up, specific answer beat alabama.

 

[storrsroars]

I highly doubt that our defense this upcomong season will be as good as it was in 22-23 and I don't see any way in hell that it will be as good as it was this past season so we will need to be very efficient on offense to close that gap. Fortunately, we have more than enough shooters where that could happen.

With how DH turned Castle into a defensive terror, I'm not so sure DH won't have himself one of the best Ds in the BE. Seems he can get his guys to happily buy into playing D. I expect that to continue with the new kids.

 

[awy]

castle has elite physical tools for a defender. positional size, length, strength and good hip/lateral quickness. they do have guys like diarra/ball who can be impact perimeter defenders, but the issue is really how good the weaker links are as well. mahaney in particular needs to get stronger.

rim protection loss is maybe 5 points swing from clingan to this team, no replacing that.

 

[mauconnfan]

Go back a year:

Sanogo, automatic buckets not sure DC can do that for us nor is he physical enough to guard strong bigs.

Hawkins, who’s gonna shoot the ball like him and be that clutch 2nd half?

Andre, does it all. Defend their best scorer, rebound, start the break and best athlete.

Calcaterra, no way we can get another clutch shooter like that off the bench.

Alleyne leaving kills us, he would’ve stepped up and averaged 10-12 a game.

Just sayin’!!

 

[B1GEast]

Hurley's pushed all the right buttons so far. He's recruited the right guys and for the last two championship seasons we've had leadership stick around.

The formula for success is there and proven.

Honestly at this point as a fan, it's all gravy. I'm numb. I mean this board didn't even have a mojo thread dedicated to the tournament this past season.

Confidence is high for a final 4. Anything above that would be so epic.

In the modern age of college basketball to win back to back and be favored to win a third title in a row, for me at least is unfathomable.

 

[DogMania]

Two keys that I think will have the biggest impact are:

The team's ability to execute the offensive and defensive schemes at a high level the coaching staff tries to deploy.

The second is having at least 2 players who are able to make plays and knock down shots during winning time or to stop a team from mounting a late run. This past season, Newton came up huge late in games, but Spencer, Alex and even Diarra gave us late lightning, and two of those have returned for another run. Add to those two Mahaney, McNeeley, Stewart and Ball, it seems reasonable that we'll have at least two who will want the ball with the momentum or game on the line.

Since I'm sure someone will bring this up how they won by double digits all six NCAA Tournament games during their back to back NC runs, but in some of those games opponents made late runs which UConn quickly squashed, always having a answer each time.

I think our offense is going to be good again this upcoming season. It's developing a cohesive stifling D that will be the different between being one of the top teams and being that dominant champion. Based on Hurley’s track record the past two seasons, I wouldn't bet against him.

 

[Scottobot]

Recipe for championships

1. Talent (check we have enough talent)
2. Good coaching (check have best coach)
3. No major injuries (requires luck)
4. Luck in NCAA tournament (some crazy on fire opponent can derail a great season, and som god awful cold shooting night can derail it too)
5. No once in a generation great team blocking the way ( eg like last years Uconn team ( we blocked a worthy Purdue team from throne) or 2003 Maryland team that blocked Caron Butler, or 1995 UCLA team that blocked Ray Allen)

Kansas with Hunter Dickenson is the only preseason juggernaut I see out there, but they have a bunch of new pieces, and they like everyone else have to avoid injury whammy

 

[bballmicmac]

I'm gonna say to three peat they first have to get in to the tournament, then they can't lose in the tournament, that way by winning and not losing, they will 3 peat

 

[bendm]

Kansas with Hunter Dickenson is the only preseason juggernaut I see out there

Dickinson is a giant turd and he stinks on D

 

[Huskyforlife]

Breakout season from either Solo, Stewart, or Ross. Johnson or Reed as well.

 

[TroyHall98]

castle has elite physical tools for a defender. positional size, length, strength and good hip/lateral quickness. they do have guys like diarra/ball who can be impact perimeter defenders, but the issue is really how good the weaker links are as well. mahaney in particular needs to get stronger.

rim protection loss is maybe 5 points swing from clingan to this team, no rep

castle has elite physical tools for a defender. positional size, length, strength and good hip/lateral quickness. they do have guys like diarra/ball who can be impact perimeter defenders, but the issue is really how good the weaker links are as well. mahaney in particular needs to get stronger.

rim protection loss is maybe 5 points swing from clingan to this team, no replacing that.

In addition to elite perimeter defense, the guards really crashed the boards well all year. We had the best back court in the country last year. While I’m not saying the frontcourt will be easily replaced, I think it will be more difficult to replace the backcourt.

 

[RuffRuff]

Tarris Reed - his development as a legit 5 will be big.

Soph jump for the frosh, who will the real Solo and Jaylen be? A lot of us assume they’ll make the leap, but it’s not guaranteed.

Dan finding the right rotational balance. I’m assuming, given the depth this year and lack of true rim protector, pace may be faster. How will Dan structure the offense and defense to take advantage?

 

[Dabutlerdidit]

Recipe for championships

1. Talent (check we have enough talent)
2. Good coaching (check have best coach)
3. No major injuries (requires luck)
4. Luck in NCAA tournament (some crazy on fire opponent can derail a great season, and som god awful cold shooting night can derail it too)
5. No once in a generation great team blocking the way ( eg like last years Uconn team ( we blocked a worthy Purdue team from throne) or 2003 Maryland team that blocked Caron Butler, or 1995 UCLA team that blocked Ray Allen)

Kansas with Hunter Dickenson is the only preseason juggernaut I see out there, but they have a bunch of new pieces, and they like everyone else have to avoid injury whammy

We are the juggernaut

 

[giddyup]

It will be astronomically hard to win 3 in a row. Winning even one is extraordinarily difficult. Multiply the odds of 1,000 to 1 x 1000 to 1 x 1,000 = 1,000,000,000 to 1. Thats how nuts it is. But, lighting does strike