UCONN is overrated

[richfame]

I said it 3 months ago when i was knocking thabbet. Uconn is not as good as everyone says they are! They do NOT deserve to be number 2 in the nation. Now i agree kemba walker is great and by the end of the year can be awesome. But the rest of the team lacks heart, doesnt play defense outside of thabbet blocks. And really when the games on teh line whos going to make the big jumper.. Theres no butler, no rip, no rudy, not even a keviin ollie to knock down 3's.
Im not saying there horrible, obviously there going to be top 3 in the big east. I know thabbet can be a force and kemba is special. But i dont think kemba can do it alone, and hes a frosh. Im from CT i graduated uconn in 2001. And im telling ya this team just doesnt look right. Calhoon looks despondant. Well see, top 15 team absolutely. Top 3 not so much. UNC WOULD BEAT THEM BY 20.

[MCIGuy]

This is my theory as well and I also pointed out months ago that they will still keep other teams in games because their offense can be suspect. That being said they still may be the 2nd best team in the country. That's how much the talent is down this season (other than at UNC). Who do you put ahead of UConn? Pitt? The Panthers have some of the same problems.

[lichoya68]

WE WILL SEE hope youre WRIGT but remember last year buffalo almost beat a very good pitt team only lost by three and was up by ten in the second half sooo they had all seniors back and as the announcers said they were MEN sooo HOPE YOUR WRIGHT but that game up there early in the season they will be tough folks very very tough would be great to win but uconn IS that good much better this year and didnot tabeet win the game with like 21 and 18 go hoyas BEAT UCONN BUT SOME BUSINESS TO HANDLE FIRST win each one one by one by one and have some fun all could dangerous go hoyas beat au first no let downs play hard for the WHOLE game in every game no gimmes nope and horaces team has put michigan to ot and lost by two i think to floridad state or somebody so NO GIMMES GO HOYAS BE READY YUP FOR ALLLLLL OF THEM ;D

[DoubleOhHoya]

Mark my words, Pitt will finish above UConn in the big east.

[Boz]

Pitt scares me a LOT more than UConn. I think they are a much better team.

Not that UConn isn't really, really good, last night's performance nothwithstanding.

I'd be really happy if the Hoyas come out of the gate 1-1 in the Big East. (If they could come out of the gate 2-1, I'd be ecstatic.)

[SFHoya99]

I'm really not looking forward to this board in the early BE season.

At Connecticut, Pitt at home, at ND, then a small break with Providence, the Syracuse at home and then at Duke.

That's five ranked teams in six games, three on the road. We could be a really good team and come out of that 2-4 easily.

[idhoya]

I'd be happy with .500 in that stretch.

[williambraskyiii]

Agree completely with SF. 2-4 is actually to be expected. Anything better than that would be success. Say all you want about UCONN being overrated, but they are a very talented team and one of the few that will be able to challenge UNC. Someone was ripping on Thabeet in another thread about how he has zero offensive moves...I mean, fine, I didn't watch the game last night...but if a 7'3 big man gives me 21 and 18, i am not so worried about whether he has that jump hook nailed down.

At UCONN is a monumental challenge. Pitt at home a toss-up (but we will def not be favored), ND away a monumental challenge, at Duke a monumental challenge and Syracuse is always a toss-up.

I guess people can say whatever they want about other teams being overrated as long as they don't start saying that we are going to steamroll the BE or anything. We are essentially a 6-deep team right now early in the season and we really aren't going to be able to pass judgment on this team's chances until Feb or March when or 7 and 8 men prove to be able or unable to significantly contribute.

If we played UNC right now I fear we'd be run off the court. Greg would be on the bench at the 18 minute mark after the refs tagged him with two early fouls guarding TH's heart.

[Hoya TMF]

I really don't understand this. UConn won the game. Teams struggle against mediorce opponents all the time. And comparing them to past UConn teams won't work either; the college game has been diluted over the years. As good as UNC is this year, it's hardly the best team they've had in their history. There just aren't a lot of other teams with their depth and experience in college basketball RIGHT NOW.

As for UConn. We'll see how overrated they are on December 29. I'd be ecstatic if we beat them and I think we can, but I'm not expecting it. I think we'll play hard and be competitive, but their guards can penetrate and thabeet and adrien are tough covers in the post. Plus, as good as Monroe is, I don't know if he can score on Thabeet close in liek Roy could. Thankfully, Monroe can hopefully keep Thabeet away from the basket to give other guys opportunities. If we win, it would definitely be an upset. Overrated is a more than a little strong. While Pitt might be able to beat them straight up just like Pitt did to us last year, I think Connecticut will be better overall in conference just like we were.

If UConn isn't number 2, what other teams would you put ahead of them. Even if you concede that Pitt is better, a number two ranking is not too much of an overrating for the third best team in the country.

If you really think UConn is overrrated, name the teams that are better than them? UNC, sure. Gonzaga? I doubt it, but we'll see shortly. Pitt, possibly? Duke? laughable. Oklahoma? Possibly, but porbably not. Notre Dame? Not with Gody sick and their inability to D up? Louisville? They actually lost to a mid-major. By my count that's four teams at most and some of those are questionable.

I hate UConn, but I always find it strange when teams are called overrated and no one can explain what teams deserve to be ranked higher than the overrated team. So name names, please.

[hoyalove4ever]

This is a typical good You Con team: loads of talent, lots of attitude, inconsistent effort, but a team that will be very difficult to beat in March (and really, throughout the rest of the season). It was no big shock to see them get a scare last night but find a way to pull through.

[dailey247]

Who let a UConn graduate on here? Especially one so typically uneducated about basketball. The Huskies have had an exceptionally efficient offense this year to go along with their strong, Thabeet-anchored defense. Dyson gets more touches than I'd like, but he's a volume scorer. Thabeet has a 60 eFG%. Price does everything well. Walker looks good for a rookie. Adrian is, at worst, a very good player, and has always shown flashes of greatness, which he maybe can harness this year. And in two weeks, they're adding Stanley Robinson who's better than all of those guys. And you want Kevin Ollie on this team? He couldn't hold Price's jock. But they don't have "heart," of course. Everyone knows that team that leads the nation in heart-per-possession reach the final four 92% of the time. Maybe Jason McElwain is available. Now I have to go gargle some bleach to get the taste of saying nice things about UConn out of my mouth. Worth it, though, because the only thing worse than a UConn player is a UConn fan. (And the only thing worse than a UConn fan, is a UConn coach.)

[daytonahoya31]

i agree with everything you said on this post but the kevin ollie reference. he's way better than price and i guarantee you price doesn't carve out a 13 year NBA career like ollie did

[dailey247]

I appreciate the support. I have no idea what kind of NBA career Price is going to have, so I won't try to argue with you on that. However, I will just say that in college, Ollie was a career 26.2% three point shooter. Price is at 33.9% so far. Thus, I defend my claim that "Theres ... keviin ollie to knock down 3's" is a dumb thing to say.

[Deleted]

Dec 5, 2008 13:44:09 GMT -5 dailey247 said:

And you want Kevin Ollie on this team? He couldn't hold Price's jock.

Price doesn't need someone to hold his jock. He just needs someone to hold his laptops.

Ba-ZING!!!!!!

[Thank you, thank you....I'll be here all week]

[aggypryd]

UCONN is very good at playing their type of game. If we weren't so weak in our rebounding, I wouldn't be too worried. But since we're thin up front, I realize that things could get really ugly against the Huskies.

[richfame]

Dailey- i agree with you that kevin ollie is better thats what i meant. As far as nationally i think there are many teams that can beat and probably would beat UCONN. As far as in the big east, i think we are just as good if not better, i think PITT, and marquette can and may be better. As far as nationally i can probably rattle off 10 teams that are in UCONNS class or better on any given day. I just dont see this being a vintage uconn team that should have a top ranking. They are better than last year with kemba but until they show me some heart and desire and teh ability to grind it out and play defense when it counts im still not going to consider them an elite team.

[richfame]

dailey why would you say im uneducated about basketball. Ive been watching georgetown since 1990 and ive been one of the few people wearing the georgetown parka and hat in teh hartford civic center.. I got tons of dirty looks but im a true fan so i didnt care. Its been harding watching them dominate over teh past decade but finally its my turn to gloat! Lets beat them up this year too!!!

[vcjack]

If by "overrated" you mean that there is are teams besides UNC that are better than UConn right now, who would you put there? Pitt and Louisville (and I guess ND) will get their chance to prove themselves but are the likes of Gonzaga and Duke better than Uconn? Probably not.


If by overrated you mean "not vastly better than us", I'd say you're right, but any Syracuse, Villanova or Marquette* fan could probably say the same thing. The Big East is still a three tier system, but the gap between the levels is not that wide


*Their bad loss on a neutral court notwithsdanding

[HoyaSinceBirth]

if anyone in the big east is overrated it's marquette.

[hoyafrigginsaxa]

I knew this thread was coming....I think they are overrated to a small extent. I don't think they are a top 2 team, but I do think they are top 5 with very real national championship potential. Anything can happen in the tourney and if Uconn plays their best they can beat anybody.

That being said...can't wait to see the hoyas destroy them on the 29th. I'll be in storrs in all my glory