UConn left off Bilas' list of top national title contenders

[amory]

It's an insider thing, but here's the list

1. Arizona
2. Louisville
3. Syracuse
4. Mich State
5. Florida
6. Duke
7. Wisconsin
8. Ok State

Honorable Mentions: Ohio State, Kansas, Kentucky, Gonzaga, Oregon, Wichita State, and Iowa

My reaction:

Come on Bilas, I love ya but you gotta be kidding me with the Shockers and Hawkeyes on there over the 3-time king Huskies.

You're better than that, Bilas. You'll do better next time out.

 

[arnie3]

UConn is at its best when they're ignored.

 

[Husky1964]

DOOK??????????????????????????????

 

[amory]

UConn is at its best when they're ignored.

Correction: UConn is at its best when they're ignored by everyone except Jay Bilas.

 

[Nnocu]

iowa over connecticut...?

...

 

[~*Jen*~]

iowa over connecticut...?

...

... Yeah, that's it.

 

[Stinger92860]

Espn sucks, not sure what else I can say

 

[ShakyTheMohel]

Bilas is pretty logical, so I would love to hear his reasoning. I would guess that he thinks the close wins are going to even out and become close losses.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Bilas is pretty logical, so I would love to hear his reasoning. I would guess that he thinks the close wins are going to even out and become close losses.

I think you're probably giving him too much credit. Bilas is becoming more of an ESPN personality than a guy who puts in the work to know what he's talking about.

 

[Rico444]

A little bit annoyed we're not at least on the honorable mentions list, but to be honest, I haven't seen enough from this team to be convinced they're a national title contender, and I'm a huge fan. We have no consistent scorer outside of Shabazz, an enormous amount of our success is because we've shot what's likely to be an unsustainable number from 3, and we're a godawful rebounding team. When we're on, we can beat anybody, and we'll just about always have the best player on the court, but are we going to be able to avoid all of those pitfalls for six straight games against the best teams in the country?

Not saying we can't improve and get to the point of title contenders, but right now, I'm a bit skeptical.

 

[Northbound]

I think that the this team can beat anyone, would I feel comfortable favoring them or laying smart money on them to win outright over those teams, sorry no. That said, should probably be included in the list simply because this team is probably warrants being in that conversation simply because there's a ton of teams at the same level

I have seen some, but not all of these teams play so I'm going on the information from Bilas who I'm going to assume has seen them all play. Bilas is still pretty good although sometimes he's prone to jump the rails.

I think all these teams, UCONN included will get better, so what someone says a third of the way through doesn't excite or upset me. Roll the balls out, lace them up and see how it shakes out, but I hope someone has an Epiphany and commits to being a kick ass rebounder and an inside presence on this team though. Hard to tell if the close games are a good or a bad omen at this point, got to get on the floor with a good team that is healthy and see how it works out (BC, Maryland and IU don't count).

 

[UConn17]

Bilas did call Shabazz the most underrated player in the country along with Kevin Pangos... take that as you want

 

[willie99]

the talking heads were predicting an early exit in 2011, some even said Bucknell would eliminate us in the first round. It was a popular sleeper pick

in 2004, Jim Calhoun was awarded the "uncoach of the year", doing too little with the talent he had

in 1999, the talking heads picked Dook over UConn by a 1,001 - 1 margin, only Digger picked us to win



so at the end of the day, they're just talking heads intoxicated by their own vision of self worth and blinded by some fog that separates them from reality

so let me conclude by saying "I like it"

 

[arnie3]

the talking heads were predicting an early exit in 2011, some even said Bucknell would eliminate us in the first round. It was a popular sleeper pick

in 2004, Jim Calhoun was awarded the "uncoach of the year", doing too little with the talent he had

in 1999, the talking heads picked Dook over UConn by a 1,001 - 1 margin, only Digger picked us to win



so at the end of the day, they're just talking heads intoxicated by their own vision of self worth and blinded by some fog that separates them from reality

so let me conclude by saying "I like it"

I remember that Bucknell prediction in 2011. I just hope these "experts " continue to piss the team off.

 

[Strummer]

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

I'm hoping we can live through the end of March.

But we're living by the "can't hold a lead" and the "play to the level of the opponent" and the "win with last second heroics" sword, and we can die by that very easily.

I love this team. I really do. Loved the 11 team. Haven't loved teams as much as the 11 and 14 teams since, probably, 99. Not sure what it is, but they're really easy to root for and a blast to watch.

But gotta keep it real. Keep it real. Which means try to see it from an outside perspective.

The only top 25 team we've beaten is Florida. We beat them by 1. At home. With them missing key players. And we needed a 4 point play on a questionable foul call to do it. And a last 4/10ths of a second shot to win it.

Point is, if you're on the outside looking in, what we are is a 10 win team that needed the stars to align to beat number 16 at home and that doesn't have a compelling win outside of that.

In other words, outside of Florida, we have been feasting on cupcake island. We almost choked on two of the cupcakes.

Fact is, we only have 2 ranked teams left on our schedule. How we do against LVille and Memphis will provide a huge amount of info. How we do against UCF and Rutgers, not much so.

Remember - his list was "top title contenders." Not "top 10."

Do we really, RIGHT NOW, look like a team that can win the title?

Obviously, I'd love that. More than 11 even. But, realistically, we've done nothing on the court to suggest we have the talent to win it all, and, on paper, we sure don't look like we have what it takes.

Our center position, for example, is good for about 6 points, 4 boards, 14 fouls, 3 turnovers, and 2 blocks a game. Against the one top-25 team, the centers rained in 5 points and jerked down 2 boards in 40 minutes.

Do those sound like title numbers to you?

In 11, while we had losses, we had the components to make a run - great point, very serviceable big man, excellent back up point, great defenders all around, excellent rebounding 4 (miss you Scoe), veteran leader (Bev!). Point is, we looked VERY good on paper, even if we had 9 or 10 losses.

Bilas is a smart guy. He watches more College BBall than you, probably. No sense getting all silly about his opinion. Fact is, we haven't done a thing to suggest we're a contender, our 10 rank seems a bit generous to me, and our paper credentials - especially up front - are weak.

So him saying that we're not a top 12 or 14 title contender seems, to me, very reasonable. Our chance to change his mind (not prove him wrong) will come on January 16th and January 18th, when we have back to back games against the only two ranked opponents left for us.

No later than January 19th we'll know whether Jay was right minded or quite blinded.

 

[boog204]

he's got to mean Iowa State, right?

I have to say I don't necessarily disagree with him. We are 9-0, fantastic in every way. But we're not an overly impressive 9-0. We have shown an inability to sustain leads and have had to get bailed out by Bazz against four teams we are much better than. We could very easily be 5-4 if the bounces went another way or we didn't have Bazz bailing us out. Maryland is 7-4 with losses to Ore St, Ohio State, and GW and squeaked out wins against Providence and Florida Atlantic. Indiana is 8-3 and lost to Notre Dame (who just lost N. Dakota St. and lost to Ind St earlier in the year) and was blown out and made to look foolish and Cuse. BC is 4-7 w/ losses to Prov, Toledo, and UMass. Florida is 7-2 and by far the best team we've played but you can make the argument that we were aided by their PG going down down the stretch.

I think we are a potential final four team but despite our record I don't think we've looked like it, yet. We have stretches of looking pretty ugly and we have played down to our opponents. We have blown big leads with a veteran team and at times have looked selfish and one dimensional.

 

[amory]

I agree with what you're all saying about our wins. I've been saying it all along.

But you simply cannot make the argument that Wichita State or Iowa, or Oregon for that matter, has a better shot at the title than us. I agree we don't belong in that top 8 right now, but we should've gotten an honorable mention.

 

[Inyatkin]

the talking heads were predicting an early exit in 2011, some even said Bucknell would eliminate us in the first round. It was a popular sleeper pick

in 2004, Jim Calhoun was awarded the "uncoach of the year", doing too little with the talent he had

in 1999, the talking heads picked Dook over UConn by a 1,001 - 1 margin, only Digger picked us to win



so at the end of the day, they're just talking heads intoxicated by their own vision of self worth and blinded by some fog that separates them from reality

so let me conclude by saying "I like it"

The best part about Digger picking us in 99 is that he was the only one in the pre-game to pick Ga. Tech in 2004, thereby proving his worthlessness and that he just got lucky in 99.

 

[Kitaman]

Thank goodness he's not God!

 

[DogMania]

It's an insider thing, but here's the list

1. Arizona
2. Louisville
3. Syracuse
4. Mich State
5. Florida
6. Duke
7. Wisconsin
8. Ok State

Honorable Mentions: Ohio State, Kansas, Kentucky, Gonzaga, Oregon, Wichita State, and Iowa

My reaction:

Come on Bilas, I love ya but you gotta be kidding me with the Shockers and Hawkeyes on there over the 3-time king Huskies.

You're better than that, Bilas. You'll do better next time out.

No worries! We'll just have to pull another 2011 and shock the h*ll out of everyone, including Bilas. I too usually like him. Maybe he feels our weakness in the post will cut our run short, but I'm not so sure.

Depending on match-ups, I like our chances to go very deep into March. I haven't seen all those teams play listed above, but of the ones I've seen, only Zona scares me. The size and athleticism of the Wildcats' front court, if we face them, might just turn out to be our Kryptonite. But depending where both teams are seeded, we might not face them till the finals if both get that far. Based on what I've seen so far, they look like the team to beat, but as for the rest on that list, I continue to say, "Why not UConn!!!!"

 

[ASweet3781]

I am one whose been concerned with some of our less than stellar performances and escapes against mediocre to bad competition.

But there is absolutely no justification for leaving us off while including Gonzaga and Iowa. None. Or having Florida that high while leaving us off.

Bilas analysis is usually overrated and superficial...I'm shocked he didn't include UNC. And the only way you hold onto MSU at #4 still is to ignore what you are seeing in front of you.

 

[seanmc94]

Guard play maters so much in March; ESP this year. Bilas' top 5 I have no problem with. The rest is garbage.

 

[~*Jen*~]

This is kinda off-topic but I had to share since it relates to this thread. I was telling my husband about Iowa being favored over UConn. (We are living in Iowa at the moment so there are Hawkeye fans all around us.) Anyway, we have this super sassy three-year-old who heard what I said about Bilas's choices and she said, "No, no. He needs to try again."

I've got a smart girl on my hands.

 

[mesman00]

who really cares? it's not a requirement to be on these list in order to win a national championship. especially in december. we all know that come march any team can get hot and make a run. but to be honest our front-count is a HUGE issue and I can see that as the reason we're not included as of yet. don't let these list get you into a tizzy.

 

[Jerry1714]

I agree with what you're all saying about our wins. I've been saying it all along.

But you simply cannot make the argument that Wichita State or Iowa, or Oregon for that matter, has a better shot at the title than us. I agree we don't belong in that top 8 right now, but we should've gotten an honorable mention.

Iowa and witichita st are both really good