Who can beat them?

[Hey Adrien!]

Seriously, how many teams in the country can beat this UConn team? Obviously anything can happen in the tournament. But they look like a lock for the BE title, BE tournament title and Final Four.

Here are the teams that can compete with uconn:
Purdue
Tennessee
Kansas.

Teams that make me nervous:
Marquette
Arizona.

Overrated:
Houston
Duke
Illinois.

Auburn makes me nervous too.

They just come at you in waves.

 

[willie99]

You have to play the games, and "it" happens. I don't think we will ever be awful collectively, we're too deep for that. But some other team can play lights out for 40 minutes and beat us. That's the beauty of a one and done tournament.

I will say this. I don't think there's a team out there that wants to see us in the tournament. I'm saying that in the sense that nobody believes they match up well against us and think they can beat us more often than not. A few delusional fans may think so, but coaching staffs and intelligent fans would choose another path if they could.

Teams I fear the most would be;
Marquette, a talented division rival that knows us and won't fear us

Houston an athletic team with moxie and defense

I'd love to see
Purdue, just think we match up well and have tournament moxie which they lack
Tennessee is coached by Barnes who's simply not national championship caliber
Dook & UK, our lucky charms who are both name only at this point

 

[CL82]

Waited to end the thread with this:

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Waited to end the thread with this:

Some need to realize that hubris is our most formidable enemy.

 

[REB1094]

You have to play the games, and "it" happens. I don't think we will ever be awful collectively, we're too deep for that.

+1 to this. Our leading scorers are:

1. Cam: 15.2 PPG
2. Newton: 15.0 PPG
3. Karaban: 14.9 PPG

3 guys combining for 45 points at pretty much equal scoring production. Hard to shut them all down at the same time. And even if you do, we also have Clingan and Castle

 

[Waquoit]

Some need to realize that hubris is our most formidable enemy.

Doomed is so played out.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

+1 to this. Our leading scorers are:

1. Cam: 15.2 PPG
2. Newton: 15.0 PPG
3. Karaban: 14.9 PPG

3 guys combining for 45 points at pretty much equal scoring production. Hard to shut them all down at the same time. And even if you do, we also have Clingan and Castle

And Diarra...and Johnson.
And Stewart...and Ball.

And a head coach vigilantly focused on each game in the present, and then each upcoming game, rather than message board discussions like this...and a roster of coaches fully engaged in the same enterprise.

Worries, nervousness, and concerns are part of the hardwiring, but not worthy objects of focus.

 

[gtcam]

Well you have Johnson to get 5 fouls too. LOL! Our bigs have to learn to play good positional D without fouling. We are 2/3 through the season and both of them are still doing it. That is what I'm most worried about.

UConn Mens Basketball needs to invest some and hire a big man coach.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Doomed is so played out.

It might die out on its own if, "What can go wrong?", "Where are we weak?", and "How do we get beaten?" discussions weren't given so much oxygen.

Hubris, panic, and internal squabbling are all distracting. They may keep knocking on the door, but what's the winning case for inviting them in for endless discussion?

 

[dennismenace]

Marquette game next Saturday is gonna be huge. If we win that one I think we pretty much have the Big East regular season title locked up and the #1 seed in the East.

Agree. We had best have the "A" game, get the lead and put our foot on their neck. That place will be a madhouse. I would expect them to have the A game with Shaka. Clingan has got to be mindful of fouls; not too "psyched up." It will be a great test for us.

 

[dennismenace]

Last time I saw this thread, we were coming out of last years unbeaten OOC and proceeded to drop 6 of 8.

I don't think Dan Hurley will fall into that trap again. He is demanding "toughness."

 

[BrassBonanza]

Clingan has been getting into foul trouble lately. If he picks up two cheapies against Marquette we could really struggle to keep them from scoring. Our defense was not very good during that stretch Donovan missed. Also, in the Big East Tournament last year we couldn't stop anything Marquette was doing, to the point where we had to go zone for the rest of the game.

which let them get those open corner 3s which were killer

 

[TheShot1990]

Texas Tech utterly mauled Kansas by 29. Jhawks beat us by 2. You do the maff.

 

[jibsey]

Texas Tech utterly mauled Kansas by 29. Jhawks beat us by 2. You do the maff.

I’m in remedial math so you splain it. But I feel as though we cannot project what one team did to another and put large credence on it. Seton Hall beat us good but later lost to so called inferior teams at the time.
Our team must be hell to game plan against because we have 5 or 6 players that can go off and step up if Clingan is not scoring much or in foul trouble. Even guys like Diarra, Stewart and Ball can throw some big numbers out there.
But Kolek is a true challenge and we’ll see pretty soon.

 

[JB75]

Many teams? This can't possibly be a serious statement.

MANY teams even when UConn is a LITTLE BIT off? I don’t think he was serious. I believe he meant to say “very FEW teams even if UConn is A LOT off”

 

[HeGotGame]

This thread sucks

 

[prankster]

This thread sucks

Not helping!