Why we watch

[Kolumbo]

Acceptance - That's where I'm at. Big Picture:

1. After a long string of setbacks due to CR, UCONN was in an awful place
2. Today the program is mostly back and in position to compete for titles.

Coach Hurley is 73-47 (0.608) since arriving at UCONN, not bad considering where the program was. We weren't going to win a national title yet and the teams we lost to earned their wins regardless of which round the games were played in. At least we are back in the game competing in a top basketball conference. Our former conference mates are sitting at home and, as Quint says to Hooper, playing with themselves. Regardless of the personnel today or tomorrow, The UCONN Huskies are back, and for that we are thankful.

 

[UConnSwag11]

Let’s be honest and take off the rose colored glasses. The season figuratively wasn’t a failure, 24-10 is a fine record. But it was a step back, a huge disappointment in how it ended.

We peaked late Feb in Hartford vs. Villanova then it slowly went downhill. If you paid attention you could see that happen. We are a very easy team to gameplan for. Any good coach schemes and beats us. Wright, Izzo, McDermott, Jans, Huggins. We are very one-dimensional, with no shot makers (outside of Cole when he gets a high ball screen on a mismatch switch) our only option for consistent points was to run the offense thru Sanogo. No one else. Martin, Whaley, Polley, Cole, etc they all have nice assets to their game but they can’t take over and simply create for themselves and others consistently.

You can blame Hurley on the roster construction all you want, but Hawkins was supposed to be our second playmaker like freshman Bouknight was. Obviously that didn’t pan out the way we thought. That elephant in the room has been around since the start of last season, and became very evident this year when Hawkins/Cole/Martin didn’t take it to the next level. That limits our ceiling and sure as heck makes it easy to stop us. Sanogo isn’t a world beater just yet, he got to Big East 1st Team off of volume. You knew a loss like this was coming and coming early. Only good coaches and teams make the NCAA’s. We weren’t playing St Johns or Butler or Xavier where Sanogo can score 20 at will.

So maybe I’m a little optimistic for next year, I think we’ll be better. Jackson another year to develop an offensive game, Hawkins to be a playmaker he was recruited to be, Floyd being a dependable 2 guard. Definitely need to hit the portal and hard tho - this cannot happen again.

Overall just very disappointed. Terrible end to the season.

Agree with all the bolded. 100%

“We peaked late Feb in Hartford vs. Villanova then it slowly went downhill. If you paid attention you could see that happen.”

We did peak vs Nova but it wasn’t downhill after that. We just went back to who we were and how we’ve played for the entire season.

 

[David 76]

This wasn't a step backward. It just wasn't a step forward.
Hurley has a lot to learn, but progress doesn't go in a straight line.
Frustrating but not as much as Ukraine.

 

[Kolumbo]