Charliebball
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While trolling on the Baylor Basketball Forum came across a rather detailed analysis of the "weakness" of Huskies basketball schedule. I have included some actually fair minded responses just to prove that there are some intelligent basketball fans on that board.
I’m sick of hearing about UConn’s "winning streak" It’s totally irrelevant when you consider who they play for the vast majority of their yearly schedule.
To wit:
All information below gleaned from this site:
http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_conf_Women.html
Women's Basketball - American Athletic (2015-2016)
Conf. RPI Rank: 9
Conf. SOS Rank: 7
Only games against Division I opponents are counted.
Last updated - Tue Mar 8 08:10:02 PST 2016
RPI Rk American Athletic Conf All
3 Connecticut 21-0 32-0
20 South Florida 16-5 23-9
71 Temple 14-6 20-11
73 Tulane 12-8 21-11
111 Memphis 12-7 18-12
149 East Carolina 7-13 13-19
193 Tulsa 9-11 12-19
195 SMU 8-12 13-18
239 Cincinnati 4-15 8-22
277 UCF 4-15 7-23
285 Houston 2-17 6-24
Overall AA Conference RPI rank average: 1616/11 teams = 147th
Taking UConn out of the equation: 1613/10 teams = 161st
Only 2 of the 11 teams (18%) ended up ranked in the Top 50.
So...of their 18 conference games, outside of the 2 games against #20 USF, UConn played the other 16 games against teams ranked nationally by RPI, from 71st to 285th!
Note also that of the 11 conference teams, 6 (55%) have losing records for all games played.
Is there any doubt then, that UConn would have to be the most rested, least worn down team of any in the major conferences when it took on the 4-5 out of conference ranked teams?? Sure, they did win those games, but every game to the point of playing those few ranked teams were no more than practice sessions to hone their craft. UConn's starters and top reserves would all be fresh as daisies by the time they played any top teams out of conference, and when they begin the NCAA's.
By comparison, let’s look at the Big 12 Conference:
Women's Basketball - Big 12 (2015-2016)
Conf. RPI Rank: 3
Conf. SOS Rank: 2
Only games against Division I opponents are counted.
Last updated - Tue Mar 8 08:10:02 PST 2016
RPI Rk Big 12 Conf All
2 Baylor 20-1 33-1
7 Texas 17-4 28-4
22 West Virginia 13-7 24-9
29 Oklahoma 12-8 21-10
30 Oklahoma St. 11-8 21-9
48 Kansas St. 8-11 18-12
107 TCU 8-11 16-14
128 Iowa St. 5-14 13-17
137 Texas Tech 4-16 13-18
220 Kansas 1-19 6-25
Overall Big 12 Conference RPI rank average: 730/11 teams = 73rd
Taking Baylor out of the equation: 728/9 teams = 80th
6 of the 10 teams (60%) ended ranked in the Top 50
Note that of the 10 conference teams, only 3 (30%) have losing records. Which means that teams in the B12 typically have at least one very tough conference game every week of their schedules. It takes major management skills by a head coach to balance rest vs. needed practice for the long grind of highly competitive games in the Big 12. Not so, UConn.
I’m not saying UConn isn’t very good, and extremely talented - they are both of those things. But when I hear about their long "undefeated" record/winning streak, I have to put an asterisk beside it, since no fewer than 16 of their league games are basically walkovers and totally uncompetitive matchups that 95% of Big 12 teams in any given year would be undefeated against. I wouldn’t be surprised to see UConn win every game in their conference until Geno succumbs from boredom. So, every time I hear commentators gush about UConn’s conference win streak, I want to yell "BOGUS BS!". Because it is a totally worthless and meaningless statistic.
That is all...
I believe they have won 3 Natty's in a row, looking for number 4.
That might have something to do with it.
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I'll take a stab at answering.
It's true that the AAC is not a very strong conference. Geno counters that with their OOC schedule. They have played South Carolina, Notre Dame, Maryland and Ohio St, among others, in their OOC schedule.
Teams ranked 10-50 are, in general, not going to be the ones that beat UCONN in all likelihood.
It will probably come from one of the other top 5 ranked teams.
Which would you consider the most difficult schedule for a #1 ranked team ? A schedule filled with teams ranked between 30-50 or a schedule with most of the games against teams ranked at 200 and above but with 5 games against top 10 teams ?
I assure you that the former schedule would be ranked much higher but the #1 team probably wouldn't break a sweat. The latter schedule, while lower ranked, would present a real challenge of the #1 team for 5 games.
It's interesting that when UConn left the big East, it's critics forecast trouble for the Huskies because their weak conference schedule would not have them prepared for NCAAT play.
(They did have a record of success while in the Big East, which was the toughest wcbb conference for years)
When that theory didn't turn out to be very accurate, the critics made a 180 and said thatUConn's success was because of their weak conference schedule!!
Sometimes you just can't win, even when you're undefeated.