Is UCONN this good??

[SHUisNJsTeam]

That and the fact that the athletic department got a very fast start when the NIL landscape was developing. That put us ahead of the curve.

Always good to have people in place who aren’t afraid of success in the right places!

 

[Hall84]

Absolutely. Last year's team entered the tournament as a 4 seed with a 25-8 record. This year's was dominant all year, entering as the #1 overall seed and 31-3. Clingan has seamlessly taken over for Sanogo and actually makes them better defensively. Newton, Karaban, and Diarra have all improved year over year. Spencer gives them what they had in Hawkins' shooting ability and is way better than Calcaterra.

Their defense overall is really good, just as it was last year, but the offense is significantly improved.

I'll add that Castle gives them another dimension with his overall athleticism.
As I said in another thread about a month ago, The 2 most important factors in Uconn going all the way was keeping Clingan on the court, healthy and out of foul trouble, and the emergence of Castle.

 

[dehere23]

Uconn is really, really good. But "really really good" now is far different than it was 20+ years ago, when the best players stuck around longer. Look at some of those teams that were in the Final 4 in the 80s, 90s or even 00s, before the top tier kids started leaving immediately all the time in a widespread fashion. The starting lineups are mind-boggling.

 

[Halldan1]

2024 Men's College Basketball Championship Odds​

(SEED) SCHOOL	ODDS
(1) UConn Huskies	-200
(1) Purdue Boilermakers	200
(4) Alabama Crimson Tide	16-1
(11) NC State Wolfpack	18-1

 

[Halldan1]

 

[TheHall87]

UConn improved vastly as the year went on -- and keep in mind this is a team that played and defeated Indiana, Texas, North Carolina and Gonzaga prior to Big East play.

Starting with the Xavier game on January 28, they have wins in Big East play of 33, 25, 36, 28, 24 and 30. Plus wins by 27 and 16 in the BET.

This year's team has had a tougher road to the Final Four as well. Last year's tournament was riddled with upsets but this year has been much closer to chalk than many recent seasons.

 

[The Crows Nest]

Here are the stats that just blew my mind. In the Northwestern and Illinois tournament games, UConn shot a combined 6 for 39 from 3. They were 3 for 22 against Northwestern (13.6%) and 3 for 17 against the Illini (17.6%). Yet, they still beat Northwestern by 17, and beat the Illini by 25. That’s crazy.

Defies conventional wisdom re: College basketball