They went from looking like national title favorites to Big East also-rans, losing 4 of 5. Did they peak too soon or was all that early season domination smoke and mirrors?

The analytics still like UConn. In contrast to Purdue, who the analytics never liked that much in the first place.

Good coaches happened. Found a weakness and exploited it.

A bad five-game stretch does not mean the season is ruined for UConn. But the four losses were by 10, 12, six and 11. That's not good. (The lone UC win during that span was by nine at home to a mediocre Creighton team.)

There is still enough time for the Huskies to right the ship. But if the UConn loses two of the next three (at Seton Hall and at home to Xavier will be tough), which is not unthinkable ... disaster.

Overrated

Huskies have taken a beating since a sportswriter on CBSsports.com wrote an article in late December saying it wasn't so far-fetched to see UConn going undefeated for the season based on its early-season dominance. Ooooops!!!

I mean Hell, I started a thread on it, I jinxed 'em too

UConn blows a 17 point lead and fails to secure a late rebound before a game winner by Seton Hall, losing to Hall 67-66.

(01-18-2023 08:42 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  UConn blows a 17 point lead and fails to secure a late rebound before a game winner by Seton Hall, losing to Hall 67-66.

Basketball is a weird sport, all it takes is personal problems or small nagging injuries to a couple starters and the wheels can fall off. On the flip side, my Aggies looked terrible at the start of the season and now we're 5-0 in the SEC with road/home wins over UF and home wins over LSU and Missouri. And we absolutely destroyed an admittedly bad USC the other day, final score was 94-53 but we were up 51-18 at halftime. We could have won that one by 60. Our bench had almost as many minutes in that game as the starters. Against UF tonight, our bench hardly played and they all combined only had 7 shots. I don't know exactly what has changed for us, but I sure like it.

Here's an SEC writeup from SDS the other day. They had us at #9 in the SEC 2 weeks ago and basically dead men walking, then Conference play started and we're clicking on all cylinders. Hopefully it continues:

3. Texas A&M (12-5, 4-0, LW: 9)

I’ll admit it – heading into SEC play, I’d written the Aggies off as dead. If you’re being honest with yourselves, I’m guessing many of you did, too. Who would have thought a team with nonconference losses to Murray State, Colorado, Boise State, Memphis and Wofford would start SEC play 4-0, with wins over Florida, LSU, South Carolina and Mizzou? Not me! But Buzz Williams has this team playing an exciting brand of basketball. The Aggies will host the improving Gators on Wednesday night and will head to Kentucky on Saturday. It should be an interesting week for Texas A&M!

https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/sec-fo...s-am-roll/

It's possible that UConn's players just read too many headlines about their greatness, while A&M's players actually started to focus b/c they were embarrassed at how we started the season. Maybe UConn figures things out, maybe not, but it will be interesting to find out.

Ouch baby. They’ll be unranked after this week. Quite a quick and precipitous fall.

I believe UConn coach Dan Hurley missed the game due to Covid. Not an excuse for the Huskies' baffling collapse tonight (and during the past few games). But perhaps a bit of an explanation — at least for this demoralizing loss.

Hall has been a thorn this year. Beat @RU. Now this. Dominating the Ole' rivals.

It's the league's fault.....They can't recruit the big time players, and their fans don't like the teams they play, and errrr wait.......that was the excuse before! I got nothin'.

(01-15-2023 05:11 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  They went from looking like national title favorites to Big East also-rans, losing 4 of 5. Did they peak too soon or was all that early season domination smoke and mirrors?

The Big East is still a tough conference.

Entitled UConn the victim again.

2022-2023
Waa! We don't have a bowl tie.
Waa! We have an annual deficit in our budget.
Waa! The Big East isn't letting us cake walk through conference play.

I've watched a decent bit of Big East basketball this year and the depth and balance are strong. Any team, notwithstanding Georgetown, can beat any other in any given game. Lots of quality and parity.

The challenge (and some might use the term "concern") is that there is no league team that truly looks consistent enough to be Elite 8 caliber (much less Final Four). I'm cautiously optimistic and hopeful the BE will have an Elite 8 participant, but UConn's mid-season collapse ...

(01-18-2023 09:19 PM)bryanw1995 Wrote:  

(01-18-2023 08:42 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  UConn blows a 17 point lead and fails to secure a late rebound before a game winner by Seton Hall, losing to Hall 67-66.

Basketball is a weird sport, all it takes is personal problems or small nagging injuries to a couple starters and the wheels can fall off. On the flip side, my Aggies looked terrible at the start of the season and now we're 5-0 in the SEC with road/home wins over UF and home wins over LSU and Missouri. And we absolutely destroyed an admittedly bad USC the other day, final score was 94-53 but we were up 51-18 at halftime. We could have won that one by 60. Our bench had almost as many minutes in that game as the starters. Against UF tonight, our bench hardly played and they all combined only had 7 shots. I don't know exactly what has changed for us, but I sure like it.

Here's an SEC writeup from SDS the other day. They had us at #9 in the SEC 2 weeks ago and basically dead men walking, then Conference play started and we're clicking on all cylinders. Hopefully it continues:

3. Texas A&M (12-5, 4-0, LW: 9)

I’ll admit it – heading into SEC play, I’d written the Aggies off as dead. If you’re being honest with yourselves, I’m guessing many of you did, too. Who would have thought a team with nonconference losses to Murray State, Colorado, Boise State, Memphis and Wofford would start SEC play 4-0, with wins over Florida, LSU, South Carolina and Mizzou? Not me! But Buzz Williams has this team playing an exciting brand of basketball. The Aggies will host the improving Gators on Wednesday night and will head to Kentucky on Saturday. It should be an interesting week for Texas A&M!

https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/sec-fo...s-am-roll/

It's possible that UConn's players just read too many headlines about their greatness, while A&M's players actually started to focus b/c they were embarrassed at how we started the season. Maybe UConn figures things out, maybe not, but it will be interesting to find out.

As a Boise State fan, all I can say to A&M basketball and their current winning ways is, thank you! Keep it up!

I don't know what happened but they better figure it out quick. Losers of three in a row and now five of their last six has them sitting at 4-5 [sixth place] in the Big East. That is a far cry from when they started out 14-0 with great OOC wins over Oregon, #4 Bama, #12 Iowa St, Okie St and Florida.

This feels like another year where UConn limps to a #10 seed and then goes bonkers in the tournament. I've seen this movie before - so I'm going to shut my mouth for now.

(01-19-2023 10:40 AM)Bronco85 Wrote:  

(01-18-2023 09:19 PM)bryanw1995 Wrote:  

(01-18-2023 08:42 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  UConn blows a 17 point lead and fails to secure a late rebound before a game winner by Seton Hall, losing to Hall 67-66.

Basketball is a weird sport, all it takes is personal problems or small nagging injuries to a couple starters and the wheels can fall off. On the flip side, my Aggies looked terrible at the start of the season and now we're 5-0 in the SEC with road/home wins over UF and home wins over LSU and Missouri. And we absolutely destroyed an admittedly bad USC the other day, final score was 94-53 but we were up 51-18 at halftime. We could have won that one by 60. Our bench had almost as many minutes in that game as the starters. Against UF tonight, our bench hardly played and they all combined only had 7 shots. I don't know exactly what has changed for us, but I sure like it.

Here's an SEC writeup from SDS the other day. They had us at #9 in the SEC 2 weeks ago and basically dead men walking, then Conference play started and we're clicking on all cylinders. Hopefully it continues:

3. Texas A&M (12-5, 4-0, LW: 9)

I’ll admit it – heading into SEC play, I’d written the Aggies off as dead. If you’re being honest with yourselves, I’m guessing many of you did, too. Who would have thought a team with nonconference losses to Murray State, Colorado, Boise State, Memphis and Wofford would start SEC play 4-0, with wins over Florida, LSU, South Carolina and Mizzou? Not me! But Buzz Williams has this team playing an exciting brand of basketball. The Aggies will host the improving Gators on Wednesday night and will head to Kentucky on Saturday. It should be an interesting week for Texas A&M!

https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/sec-fo...s-am-roll/

It's possible that UConn's players just read too many headlines about their greatness, while A&M's players actually started to focus b/c they were embarrassed at how we started the season. Maybe UConn figures things out, maybe not, but it will be interesting to find out.

As a Boise State fan, all I can say to A&M basketball and their current winning ways is, thank you! Keep it up!

It feels like last season for us all over again, except this season we started playing well a bit sooner. Hopefully, it will be enough to get us dancing.