Would re-watching the AAC Tourney give us a clue?

[dogpause]

I know we played better toward the end of the regular season and into the AAC, but I'd really like to watch the AAC Tournament again. I'm certain that I was so fixated with Louisville being Kryptonite that I probably missed a lot of positives. Was there anything in the way we played that foretold our championship run?

In 2011, after we won 5 straight to take the BET, I had the sense that we were in such a zone (Not the Syracuse kind; a winners zone.) as to be invincible. But this year's championship was more like a lightening strike -- albeit one that lasted three weeks -- in it's unexpectedness.

Are the AACT games available online? I just want to see if there was any handwriting on the wall. Did the run begin there, or did it come out of the blue?

 

[UCHuskies08]

UConn vs Memphis: http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player?id=1656929

UConn vs. Cincinnati: http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player?id=1656996

UConn vs. Louisville: http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player?id=1657049

 

[dogpause]

THANK YOU!

 

[Mots010]

Obviously the Memphis and Cincinnati games were positives but I also thought the second half of the Louisville game was encouraging. Don't think for a second that Pitino didn't want to run the score up and beat us by 30 again. Daniels came out and showed a glimpse of what was to come in the NCAA tournament.

 

[Robertelamin]

No I don't think so, we played well but I figured the S16 was really our ceiling.

 

[aceboon]

They led Memphis by about 23 pts in the 2nd half on their own home floor before KO called the dawgs off, they controlled a great deal of the 2nd half against Cincy and started their run in which they seized control with Bazz on the bench, and while the Louisville game was disappointing, the game was decided by pretty much one run right before the half and they played them relatively close outside of that run. Based on all of that I thought this team had the tools to make a run, and I felt even better once the draw was announced. To be honest I was actually shocked at how difficult the St Joes game was but when you go back and watch and realize they played a team that was incredibly confident after their A10 tourney run and were hitting a great deal of shots outta their asses it makes sense.

 

[Scoe]

They led Memphis by about 23 pts in the 2nd half on their own home floor before KO called the dawgs off, they controlled a great deal of the 2nd half against Cincy and started their run in which they seized control with Bazz on the bench, and while the Louisville game was disappointing, the game was decided by pretty much one run right before the half and they played them relatively close outside of that run. Based on all of that I thought this team had the tools to make a run, and I felt even better once the draw was announced. To be honest I was actually shocked at how difficult the St Joes game was but when you go back and watch and realize they played a team that was incredibly confident after their A10 tourney run and were hitting a great deal of shots outta their asses it makes sense.

I said going into the L'ville game in the AAC final that we need to play Lville to get us ready for the tourney win or lose. St. Joes beat Dayton and VCU in the A10 tourney they were freaking scary.

 

[jibsey]

Any top 25 team can cause trouble but I don't know who could have seen this coming. Daniels was not consistently knocking it out of the park and Brimah and Nolan were not a tandem that most would want to go national championship hunting with. I can't give enough credit to KO and his staff because they coached up and gave fire to our talent to do what we did.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Obviously the Memphis and Cincinnati games were positives but I also thought the second half of the Louisville game was encouraging. Don't think for a second that Pitino didn't want to run the score up and beat us by 30 again. Daniels came out and showed a glimpse of what was to come in the NCAA tournament.

I made the same comment right after the NC.
That second half was a DD confidence builder.
Senore confirmed that the second half was a topic of discussion on the Ville board.
Give their fans credit they were ahead of most of us. Probably because it's harder to be rational after a loss than a win.

 

[BoatShow]

Bazz's stepback vs Kilpatrick was when he crossed the line to immortality and took the team with him.

 

[Kitaman]

I always felt that not getting blown out by ville in the Tourney was very telling. Sure we didn't beat them but would showed grit, heart and determination. I then knew we would go very far in the Tourney and then when ville, lost much farther.

 

[Scoe]

I said that I liked it even at the time when Shabazz and Boat were going down each others throats, and I liked Samuel going after a Lville player not sure if it was the Lville game in the AAC finals or not.

 

[OkaForPrez]

Two things for me really started to change:

1) our shooting was coming back.

2) Amida was starting to really understand moving his feet and going straight up at the rim. His block against the Cinci kid whose name is escaping me at the moment is exhibit A.