Winning back to back national championships buys you a certain amount of goodwill, even in Storrs which can be a demanding place.
It should. As a Yankee fan, I can tell you a certain element of the fan base be unrealistic and have outsized expectations. But "flags fly forever". If I'm a Uconn fan, Hurley would have about as long a leash as possible.
Personally, I think Uconn is still 1 or at worst 2 in the league with a healthy McNasty and will still be a legit threat in the dance.
The standards are so high for them, I think with McNeeley they are really damn good at the 2-4 spots. They aren't as good as last year (or the year before), but that should be expected particularly with the "drop off" at the 1 and 5 spots.
Newton was a top flight college guard and is a borderline NBA player who might ultimately stick. It's tough to replace his shot-making ability and everything else he brought to the lead guard spot.
Sanogo/Clingan were top shelf college bigs (the former probably a fringe NBA player, and the latter will probably be in the league for a long time).
Tough to replace that caliber, on top of what they lost at the other wing/guard spots (which I think they've done as well a job as you can at filling).
No surprise the defense is down losing Castle (who I thought was their best perimeter defender last year) and Clingan (who was one of the most formidable defense bigs in the league/country).