What would our record be if...?

[RayIsTheGOAT]

1. We had a relatively full season of health/no suspensions from Jalen, Alterique, Sid, Yakwe and Diarra.
2. We played a couple non-conference road games in Nov/Dec.

We are currently 13-15 (4-11 in conference).

Am I the only that feels like we are a potential top 5-6 AAC team at full strength? Sure, we are not very good at the moment. But we have also seemingly been on the losing side of every close game we've played, including the top teams in the conference. Chalk that up partly to not knowing how to win close, competitive games yet. But I think we can also chalk it up to bad luck, in part.

Off the top of my head- Arizona, Cinci (twice), Houston, Tulsa, USF, UCF, Memphis, Wichita St are all winnable games. That's 9 games that really could have gone either way, save for maybe Houston. But we weren't far off from Houston. Heck, we weren't even too far off from Florida St.
Every single one of our wins have been largely non-competitive. Even Syracuse felt like a game we were in control of for most of the 40 minutes.
All of our wins were non-competitive, and all of our close games we have lost.
My point is, it doesn't feel like we were that far away from having a decent season and even have legit NCAA/NIT hopes even though our record is absolutely disastrous on paper.

Y'all can save the "it doesn't matter anymore" comments.

 

[Kenny11]

We’ve lost way too many close games this season. This will go down as a lost season that was the first season Hurley had with Ollie’s players, but to me that’s bull. We should have a pretty decent record right now.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

In a weird way I’m not giving up on the AAC tourney. Wouldn’t be shocked if we played our way to the semis. From there who knows.

 

[ucawn]

In a weird way I’m not giving up on the AAC tourney. Wouldn’t be shocked if we played our way to the semis. From there who knows.

Yeah I’d be fine with the 10 seed. We’d play either Wichita, USF or Tulsa. Then if we win that we get another crack at Cincinnati which will be a close game. If we can pull a win out there, we get likely UCF as the 3 unless they get upset. Tacko will be an issue but we’ve played them close back in January and I think most of the players have gotten better since. The all you gotta do is beat Houston somehow. If we can repeat the last time we played them, but get our heads screwed on correctly after half, we could have a shot

 

[CL82]

1. We had a relatively full season of health/no suspensions from Jalen, Alterique, Sid, Yakwe and Diarra.

Good question. I'm not sure, obviously. I think Sid playing a full season is bigger than most people realize. He just has so much potential and ability but does dumb stuff out there. All fixable with time.

Jalen? This definitely a WTF season for him. His numbers are solid but man what might have been.

Al has huge potential, but everyone is worried about his durability. Even him. It's an issue.

This team never fired on all cylinders. I think maybe 18 -20 wins if everything had gone well.

 

[SubInATub]

We’ve lost way too many close games this season. This will go down as a lost season that was the first season Hurley had with Ollie’s players, but to me that’s bull. We should have a pretty decent record right now.

So a team that went 14-18 last year and is basically the same exact roster this year is 13-15. What a surprise!

 

[Fishy]

We’ve lost way too many close games this season. This will go down as a lost season that was the first season Hurley had with Ollie’s players, but to me that’s bull. We should have a pretty decent record right now.

Have you seen the injury list?

There’s no rational argument for UConn to have anything but a bad record.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

Have you seen the injury list?

There’s no rational argument for UConn to have anything but a bad record.

I'm not sure I agree with that. As bad as we have looked at times, and even with the injuries we've had, 4-11 in the conference does not feel justified on the whole. We've lost a lot of tough games. Maybe that's not a rational argument, but from the eye test, we aren't a 4-11 conference team. We're mediocre, but not THAT bad.

 

[Towney007]

A lot of it is bad luck. We're like... one of the most unlucky teams in America statistically, so that alone is a win or two. Fully healthy, we don't lose last night.... 4-5 win swing isn't insane.

I thought we were actually worse than our record last year. I think we're a good deal better than our record this year.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

no Jalen = 0-6 since. that's the fact, jack. talk amongst urselves. proally aboot headbands, untucked shirts, 4 100 and sumsuch im guessing. let's hope we get to see him huskyballin again. sure would help. a lot.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

A lot of it is bad luck. We're like... one of the most unlucky teams in America statistically, so that alone is a win or two. Fully healthy, we don't lose last night.... 4-5 win swing isn't insane.

I thought we were actually worse than our record last year. I think we're a good deal better than our record this year.

What statistics are you referring to for unluckiness? Just curious.

 

[JB75]

I think we cud be a win or two better but remember, we had no front line to begin with and then take away diarra and Yakwe -our only “bangers” and we are basically playing every game with no frontcourt. Think about how bad Ollie killed our frontcourt. Jackson and Enoch transfer because of him, then we get guys a step below them in Polley and Carlton , and then the guys backing them up (diarra And Yakwe) get knocked out for year. It’s actually amazing we won 4 conference games. It’s like playing hoops missing a limb. Crazy if u think about it. Thx Ollie.

 

[JB75]

I’m my opinion , fully healthy we beat:
Zona, ucf(second time), houston, cincy(both Times) Wichita st- that’s 6 wins. And that’s not even a stretch. Maybe Houston game is pushing it a bit. So at least 5 wins

 

[geordi]

Teams also have to learn how to win...especially win close games. That's what we are going through now. Last year, our 14-18 record included countless games in which we tanked. We had no confidence, and we gave up pretty early in the game. I don't normally turn the game off early in the second period, but last year much of it was unwatchable, and I did leave early... and leave disgusted.

This year we are competing. As Ray said above, we've played 9 games in which we competed and pushed hard to win and against teams that are actually better than we are. Those games would have been blowouts last year. They are learning what it's like to be in close games and learning what to do in order to actually win some of them.

That's the biggest takeaway from this season. As they begin to win a few of these, the confidence will grow and they'll win more. Unfortunately, that won't happen this season; but the Freshmen and Sophs will experience it.

 

[RF79]

I’m my opinion , fully healthy we beat:
Zona, ucf(second time), houston, cincy(both Times) Wichita st- that’s 6 wins. And that’s not even a stretch. Maybe Houston game is pushing it a bit. So at least 5 wins

I agree...fully healthy but we were committing way too many TO’s and also in crucial vital times. You can’t win games committing 16-20 TO’s in which we did during most of those games.

 

[Towney007]

What statistics are you referring to for unluckiness? Just curious.

KenPom's luck stat

We're literally 348 out of 353 division 1 teams.

Only Pitt, Akron, Texas, Little Rock and Boise St have been less lucky.

 

[PAHusky]

We have never put a full game together even when healthy. This team clicks on offense or defense for stretches once in awhile but they rarely play cohesively and they're just not that talented as a group. Jalen is the best player on the roster but the offense strangely seems off somehow when he plays.

I see them play hard, which is a good sign. I don't really see a lot of improvement over the course of the season, which is worrying. Nothing is going to change until the KO roster is completely overturned and the team gets a huge talent infusion. Love Hurley and think he's going to turn us around but every game highlights just how far this program has fallen subsequent to the Ollie era.

 

[Fishy]

I'm not sure I agree with that. As bad as we have looked at times, and even with the injuries we've had, 4-11 in the conference does not feel justified on the whole. We've lost a lot of tough games. Maybe that's not a rational argument, but from the eye test, we aren't a 4-11 conference team. We're mediocre, but not THAT bad.

Even at full strength, this isn't an NCAA team or even a fringe NCAA team. Start knocking off parts, especially the better parts and you get to 4-11 very quickly.

Given a full compliment of starters and reserves....Adams, Gilbert, Yak and Diarra, we're not a 4-11 team. But given how thin and bad the front court is and how much we rely on Adams and Gilbert, any kind of disruption there is just fatal.