I do love your optimism (and share it to a large degree) but I have to disagree on the “no team can stay with UConn” . I think SC and (to a slightly lesser degree) Stanford are definite threats and probably NC State and Louisville (on a given day) could be a problem as well. If (and it’s a big if) UConn can get finely tuned with what they have now, and not have any clunkers over the final three games, then, yes, I like our chances against anyone.
I think our defense is really the key. If we are playing our top defense, I think we’ll be at least a wash with any of the top teams. So, then it comes down to offense. Assuming we play well on offense, I really don’t see who can score with us. However, there are a lot of question marks in there.
Can we get finely tuned in time, will we be consistent, can we get a handle on our turnovers, can we at least defend ourselves on the boards against SC and Stanford, will we overcome our recent tendency to have bad quarters (especially fourth quarters), and finally, (perhaps most importantly) can we play our best when it really counts? If yes, then we may be celebrating our twelfth soon. If no well, we could win anyway, but the margin of error becomes very small, and we’re going to need some things to fall our way.