UConn back to Big East?

Dan Murfman

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Aug 21, 2001
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Well there is very little chance that Bouknight is back next year. Im glad they’re back in the Big East and I know they’ve had some games postponed but in their first 4 games it reminds me it’s not our father’s Big East. The first 4 games they play are against teams from Nebraska, Illinois and Indiana.
 

Dan Murfman

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Aug 21, 2001
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Very encouraging. No Bouknight and they still have a solid win on the road. Might crack the top 25 for the first time in awhile.
 

StuckOnYouk

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This team has really good depth. Rarely is there a player on the floor where I"m wincing anytime the ball goes in their hand. I mean when the 8th or 9th best guy on your roster is someone like Brendon Adams or Jalen Gaffney, that's pretty darn good.
And I love what Tyrese Martin brings to this team....and this is all without Akok or Andre Jackson who have had injury issues (Akok finally getting a few minutes yesterday).

Very good recruiting class coming in next year, Hurley has done a hell of a job turning this around. It just sucks the Nova game is off for now.
 

greek_gawd_of_walks

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If you told me UCONN would slash 40%/28%/54%, get outrebounded by 10 with Bouknight still out, I'd assume they would have lost-- even against DePaul. Great, rock fight-kind of win. They really played through Martin, especially down the stretch. The defense was phenomenal, holding the Blue Demons to four points over the final eight minutes. Impressive, gritty victory on the road.
 

StuckOnYouk

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It's his non-shooting arm, which is definitely helpful.
Bouknight is a lottery pick. I would have hated to lose the chance to watch him play more... but he should be healed with a chance to get a few games under his belt before we head to MSG.
 

Clears Cleaver

Lil' Bill
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Aug 1, 2001
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I've lost interest in this very average team and, not surprisingly, all of CBB. The Zags were legit good the times I saw them but I'm not sure that Baylor is really elite. No one else is even remotely impressive or even interesting. Which brings me to why I am posting here. The Big East has been a massive disappointment. It is really not a good league. it is a collection of very average teams with few NBA players. Creighton is clear #2? yikes, that team has nothing but a lot of older non-pros kids. 1-12 years ago they'd be no better than the 8th or 9th best team. Even Villanova this year is pretty crappy. They have a great coach but the talent is mediocre, at least relative to the last 6 or 7 years. Uconn is impossible to watch, and Hurley is being exposed as a one-trick fake tough-guy pony. None of the other programs are even worth talking about. Sucks, I really wanted to get back into CBB with UConn returning to the BE and perhaps relevancy.

I think the bigger issue is that CBB is just not what it was and it will never be that way again. I get all the reasons why, I don't blame anyone or anything, but the product is just so bad now...its a shame.
 

Plantiers Wart

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Oct 16, 2002
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CBB has been hit hard by Covid - No tourney last year to provide some growth for the young talent, not much if any summer ball, limited practice this season, and sporadic games thus far. These are kids who are missing out on a year plus of development at the very moment they need it most. The teams with older kids -like Creighton - are the ones who are best suited to thriving. The one and done academies, like Duke, Kentucky, UNC, are struggling. I wouldn't give up just yet on CBB, or on UConn and Hurley. He is recruiting like a MFer, which is most of the battle. He lost his best player, a true legit scorer who is a likely lottery pick. He and they - will be fine.
 

bosox188

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Jan 11, 2008
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Personally I think UConn has been very fun to watch over the last few weeks without Bouknight, they've played tough every game and managed to pull most of them out without their only reliable scorer. I also think the Big East is a very noticeable step up from the years of watching AAC games. It may not be the old Big East, but it's far better than playing Tulsa and Tulane.

Hurley came in with next to nothing to work with and he's built this team back up as fast as one can. Two years ago they were awful, last year they played a lot of close games only to lose in the last minute or in OT. This year they have been finishing games that they would have blown last year. And they got ranked in the top 25 for the first time since 2016, and again that included winning road games without Bouknight. I could not be more optimistic than I am right now, given where this program was at three years ago.
 
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Clears Cleaver

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Aug 1, 2001
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Wow, you guys have more patience than me. I get COVID has hit the game hard, the schedule is all over the place, no continuity, etc. Doesn't mean its good, though., Because it is not. And UConn is impossible to watch. Clogged toilet offense. But they play hard at least, different than the Ollie era post 2013

Hurley came in with nothing...his recruiting acumen is still TBD as the only players that are remotely decent on this team are upperclassmen (besides Boaknight - Hurley's first ever NBA player). Cole stinks, the freshman have been busts for the most part (Jackson has no idea how to play). I am not a fan of the Diggins kid, he looks like a non-athletic PG (like Hurley himself and like Cole). Hopefully the others will be better. You know Hurley coming into this season had TWO wins against top 25 teams in his career. One was versus Houston last year that ultimately meant nothing. the other was while at URO against a Seton hall team that missed the NCAAs. I am not ready to anoint this guy even a good coach yet.

This season is what it is. Next year's team is not going to be better than this year's team. Fringe NCAA team at best.

And the Big East sucks. I was shocked at how mediocre all these teams are. there just isn't any real talent. The football P5 is going to keep getting better and better and the Big East will get worse and worse relatively speaking. If Jay Wright leaves or retires, the Big east is kind of a joke conference
 

Humphrey

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Aug 3, 2010
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Make that P4 and I might buy your rant. Bill Walton's "Conference of Champions" ain't making it in football AND basketball.
 

StuckOnYouk

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Wow, you guys have more patience than me. I get COVID has hit the game hard, the schedule is all over the place, no continuity, etc. Doesn't mean its good, though., Because it is not. And UConn is impossible to watch. Clogged toilet offense. But they play hard at least, different than the Ollie era post 2013

Hurley came in with nothing...his recruiting acumen is still TBD as the only players that are remotely decent on this team are upperclassmen (besides Boaknight - Hurley's first ever NBA player). Cole stinks, the freshman have been busts for the most part (Jackson has no idea how to play). I am not a fan of the Diggins kid, he looks like a non-athletic PG (like Hurley himself and like Cole). Hopefully the others will be better. You know Hurley coming into this season had TWO wins against top 25 teams in his career. One was versus Houston last year that ultimately meant nothing. the other was while at URO against a Seton hall team that missed the NCAAs. I am not ready to anoint this guy even a good coach yet.

This season is what it is. Next year's team is not going to be better than this year's team. Fringe NCAA team at best.

And the Big East sucks. I was shocked at how mediocre all these teams are. there just isn't any real talent. The football P5 is going to keep getting better and better and the Big East will get worse and worse relatively speaking. If Jay Wright leaves or retires, the Big east is kind of a joke conference
I think part of is you have been watching too much UConn basketball without Bouknight and we've had a very scattered schedule. You don't think Diggins, Hawkins and Johnson are going to be big adds to this team? Geez.

The whole Big East thing is frustrating because the move to the ACC has not been good for Syracuse or Pitt. The fact that football money drove that decision - a sport in which with all due respect to Syracuse and Pitt fans they aren't ever winning a championship - is even more maddening.

But regardless, I think the league overall has been very good the last 5 years and of course Nova has 2 championships over that time..and UConn is definitely improving under Hurley. We will be a top 25 team again consistently I have no doubt.

So just sit back and relax. Next year with covid gone, people back at games and a normal schedule things will be much better. Enjoy what you have for now though. The kids work their ass off.
 

Clears Cleaver

Lil' Bill
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Aug 1, 2001
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Everyone has more patience than you CC.
or maybe everyone has a lot less else to do? :)

I am not high on Diggins. I don't think he's a great athlete at all and his shot doesn't look good to me. Cole is slow with a slow release and he struggles to get his shot off and break down guys. I see the exact same problem with Diggins. Diggins seems to be more an alpha, which is great, so maybe he can be more Khalid and less Cole? Let's hope so. The other two freshman look more the part, but so did Jackson, who has looked like he's never played 5 on 5 before whenever I've seen him on the court for UConn. COVID and his injury have made him probably most affected by the stuff that's happened this year.
 

greek_gawd_of_walks

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Bouknight should be a lottery pick this year. He's a stud. I think UConn could make a run in the NCAA Tournament with him fully healthy. He's that type of player that can make a huge difference ala Kemba and Shabazz.
I agree about the March ambitions for UConn. Bouknight is an absolute game-changer for that team. He looked great last night, no real rust to speak of from what I saw.

It was rough to watch at times with Bouknight out, but I think that eight game stretch makes UConn a better team overall. Four different guys led them in scoring during his absence, and Martin has become a guy that the team looks to for buckets. Between him, Polley and Cole, Bouknight has some guys that can put up points with him.
 

Curtis Pride

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Jul 25, 2005
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Upon seems to have a great defense but not enough good shooters to beat the top teams. Their defense kept Villanova from pulling too far ahead, but their shooters didn't make enough shot get a bigger lead and press the Wildcats. This is a tournament bubble team.

Adama Sanogo is an interesting prospect, though.
 

HomeRunBaker

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Jan 15, 2004
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Lunardi had us as the first team out prior to this game so certainly not a 10 seed.
Maybe not in “today” but with a healthy Bouknight they will surely win 2 of their last three with a good chance at sweeping. Remember that the committee is using certain criteria that doesn’t not penalize a team for not being at full strength due to injury so even today I’d guess that it would be difficult to omit the Huskies. I think you’d have to lose two of these final three to stay home and if that’s the case there would be no qualms.
 

bosox188

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Nice win over Hall. 4-1 with Bouknight back.
And great offensive showings tonight from Cole, Whaley, and Sanogo to pick up Bouk while he had a bit of an off night. Cole has been outstanding for the last few games, I've loved him on defense all year but if he's found something on offense this team gets a lot scarier. Watching Sanogo do what he's been doing as a true freshman also has me very excited for the next couple of years.
 

RedOctober3829

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Jul 19, 2005
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UConn is the #3 seed in the BET and plays in the 9:00 pm time slot on Thursday in the quarterfinals against the winner of #11 DePaul and #6 Providence. I think they have a great chance of cutting the nets down on Saturday night with Villanova missing Gillespie and playing two tight games with Creighton in the regular season. I'm excited to see what they can do the rest of the way.
 

bosox188

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I feel very good about their chances with Creighton this time around. The first matchup was an OT loss after UConn had about a 2 week layoff due to COVID protocols, and the second matchup was a loss without Bouknight. The last few games the offense has been clicking after Bouknight had a couple games to get his game legs back, and they've managed to avoid any further program interruptions. I think the third time's going to be the charm against Creighton, and with Nova bitten by the injury bug there's nobody else in the Big East that should scare them. I think this is UConn's tournament to lose.
 

bosox188

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Absolute domination against DePaul tonight. Bouknight cramping up badly in the second half was a little scary, hope the kid is able to hydrate and pace himself better tomorrow night. But the rest of this team has stepped up so well offensively as of late that I'm not as worried as I would have been if Bouknight needs a bit more load management during the game.
 

BaseballJones

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Oct 1, 2015
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Honestly, I'm just stunned that UConn didn't win the BE tournament. I thought they were primed to make the run and even make a deep run in the NCAA tournament (which, of course, they still may do).
 

rymflaherty

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when I found the bracket I was first super excited to see UConn in Michigan’s bracket, then became completely deflated to see Alabama as the #2 seed.

Personally I had thought Alabama, Illinois and Gonzaga to be the only truly scary teams, so that was quite the bummer.
Guess you need to beat good teams at some point, but this team had begun to really capture my imagination, for the first time in a long time, so it would have been nice to have a draw I could feel more optimistic about.
 

Clears Cleaver

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Aug 1, 2001
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I posted this in the Boneyard and they took it down...LOL.

"Listen, we were all spoiled by having Calhoun coach this team for as long as he did. Ollie was a bad person, not particularly bright and couldn't legislate a third grade classroom, but knew how to run basketball plays. Hurley is the quasi-opposite...leader of men, but also not particularly bright and has no real sense of how to coach in game. basically his mantra is to be tough and play hard and let's see what happens. Grit and fight. His players don't really know what to do out there, and he is consistently outcoached by anyone who has a clue. In essence, his is a bully team, one that if ahead can win and look good doing it, but if gets hit he falls down and can't get up. Kind of like him in real life with the tough guy bravado, peacocking on the sidelines act until the going gets tough and then he turtles up (no pun intended) and looks lost.

The ceiling for the program is low with him as coach, but it always was as soon as they realized there was no home in the ACC or B1G and admitted they had to go back to the BigEast."
 

bosox188

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I mean, it was only his 3rd year, and he was coaching a team whose upperclassmen were still Ollie guys, and his guys were still mostly freshmen-sophomores (I guess you could sort of count Martin since Hurley recruited him at URI). And Bouknight clearly wasn't the same after he came back from the elbow. I'm not willing to proclaim that the program has a low ceiling moving forward based off this result.

There are a lot of good recruits coming in and that's only going to keep getting better. They finished high in the Big East standings in their first year back, spent a brief time ranked in the top 25 (and had Bouknight not been hurt would have stayed there), and they're about to send a lottery pick to the NBA as a sophomore. We're going to see more talent on this team and then we can see how Hurley's coaching stacks up.