Last full game I watched a full UConn game, was a home game vs Mike Anderson’s St John’s, UConn lost 85-74. Granted that was SJU’s best game of the year, but amazing how different UConn looked last night. It was night and day. Last night was a display of utter domination in every facet of the game, shooting, rebounding, defense, depth, etc.
I don’t think Arkansas played badly, but this UConn team has matured so well through the season that it has developed into a prototype of what a national championship team looks like. They are solid and deep both inside and outside. And that Hawkins is a special player.
And don’t forget UConn beat Alabama early this year, when Bama was beating everyone in their strong non-conference run.
I live in Connecticut. The Huskies were a top five team early in the season then hit the skids and lost six games in a row. They managed to get the wheels back on about ten games ago and have been dominant ever since. They are going to be hard for anyone to handle.
They have inside scoring. They have outside scoring. They have the best inside combination in the country I was afraid when they brought in Andre the Giant he was going to really change the game and that’s exactly what he did. He’s 7 ft 2 and about 260 probably nobody is seeing anybody that big and agile
Sonogo is also a beast and it’s far far better than Oscar inside scoring.
They have multiple three-point shooters and they have a great defense that funnels everything to the inside where big giant just intimidates everything you do.
He gave Muss a blueprint of how to design a team let’s hope he can go out and build a similar team.
It will be interesting to see if they can shut down the great Gonzaga offense.
I was stunned at the domination by UConn. that team is better than any I’ve seen us play in the last 2 or 3 years. I would not be surprised if they won the natty.
We really needed a couple of shooters to open things up from the outside and force teams to guard the entire floor.
We just didn’t have that and it was the single biggest impact to our season.
Muss has mentioned he likes positionless basketball, however the blueprint defined in this thread is in conflict with positionless basketball.
So far he has recruited players to fit positionless basketball. That means recruiting best athletic players with length that he can get. It will be interesting to see if he changes his recruiting strategy to fit more the winning blueprint.
Muss is perhaps the best recruiter Arkansas has ever had. If he wants to, there is every reason to believe he can recruit well enough to that blueprint.
I don’t define position less that way. I believe it means they can play all the positions. It is not good when they can’t play some of the positions. Not having shooters is not the way to go. You need bigs with a shot. Forwards with a shot and guards with a shot.
We seem to never be able to get a dominant inside player offensively and that’s been for many years surely there are more of them out there that we can get to want to come be a part of this incredible atmosphere and program that we have
I’m not sure Muss really wants a dominant big. Would Sanogo have fit in his system? Seems like he likes the JWill type more. But we will see what he brings in.
Yeah I think sanogo would fit in very well we could throw the ball into him and he can score like he does in their system but there’s a reason we’re not getting them I think.
I think he prefers the defensive presence down low more than the offensive. Fall the big kid coming in I think has a chance to grow into being a very good offensive player because he has good touch from what I can see on tape.
The other side of this and also why Calipari struggles, is that teams that win have returning players that know the system. I am fully on the Muss Buss, but I would like to see some player development so that we have a core of returning players with the add ons.
Correct. However, I interpret that to mean he would like the 5 to be able to defend at least 5,4 and 3. That rules out a physical big like Corliss or Robinson from the 94 team. Anyway, I do agree it is subject to interpretation.
only two ways they lose, if they have a really bad shooting night, and/or they run into a team that can drive in and then kick out to three point shooters that shoot over 40%
This is college basketball. I will not be surprised if UConn beats Gonzaga. I also will not be surprised if Gonzaga beats UConn. As a spectator tonight, I hope it will be a good close game.
I will be a little surprised if UConn plays close to as well as they did against us.