What's your projection for next year's team?

[dogpause]

Shame on me, but I wasn't paying close attention to recruiting this year. Please tell me about next year's team, and your realistic expectation for the lineup, overall team success and BE competition. Thanks.

 

[uconngb]

Another NC

 

[caw]

Shame on me, but I wasn't paying close attention to recruiting this year. Please tell me about next year's team, and your realistic expectation for the lineup, overall team success and BE competition. Thanks.

Too early to even tell who is on the team next year. So far all we know (or all we can talk about) is that Joey is gone. It's a matter of math that not everyone will be back but there are eight other spots aside from the freshmen. The team could be somewhere from very good to dominant depending on who fills those eight spots.

To answer in short about the freshmen:

Castle - tall PG in the mold of Newton but taller and more athletic. Perhaps Black from Arkansas is a better comparison. Debatable if he is a better shooter/PG as he played on a team where he needed to do a lot, especially with some mid-season injuries. Burger-boy.

Solo Ball - Combo Guard in the mold of maybe Desmound Claude from X. Not as tall as Claude but more athletic. 6'3, strong, attacks rim. Streaky shooter but has decent form and looks better than last AAU. Probably off the bench next year.

Jaylin Stewart - West Coast (Seattle) kid, 6'7 and bulky. Decent midrange, looks to have gotten into better shape throughout the year. Similar game to Hopkins at PC.

Jayden Ross - Had a late growth spurt to get to 6'7. Skinny but a good shooter who is also pretty athletic. Late-bloomer. Played AAU with Ball, so there is some chemistry there. I think he will explode by his sophomore year if he continues his current growth-rate. He needs the weight room though.

Youssouff Singare - Raw, tall center. I never saw more than highlights. I know next to nothing about him.

 

[PNolanFan]

I think my answer is the same as to what it was last year which is that next year we will finish somewhere between nation champions and the bubble

 

[NJHoops]

That’s bait!

 

[SubbaBub]

Same as every seaaon, make the Sweet Sixteen and go from there. A BE regular season or tournament title would also be nice and something that should factor into any best UConn team discussions.

 

[aburks41]

We will be title favorites. Still a few moving pieces left to figure out though

 

[MexicoHusky]

I don't expect us to do super (like last off-season) in the transfer portal.

Last year all our defections were right away. We had tons of pt available. I don't think that'll be the case. Some of our players who may leave may not make up their minds for a while. It won't be so easy to sign transfer portal players with the amount of roster uncertainty we have.

All that said, we should have great returning talent and a nice recruiting class. Making the tournament seems highly likely. Making the second weekend is tougher to predict. It's not easy to do.

 

[Rico444]

Hoping for Timberlake and maybe a solid backup center if the staff doesn't think Singare is ready for 10 minutes or so a game. With the freshmen we have don't want to go overboard bringing pieces in and have any of them transfer out next year.

 

[upstater]

Losing Sanogo and Hawkins will be a very difficult dynamic to replace. More so Sanogo. His low post moves were the best in college ball. No one had anything like him.

Our offense was also tuned to giving Hawkins the slightest sliver of space, but we also did well when he was on the bench. While I think our defense ratchets up with Clingan playing 20+, I worry about his tendency to foul, and the fact that he was essentially a changeup to Sanogo, which forced teams to play both offense and defense another way. Other teams must have spent so much time preparing for Sanogo.

I do think we can replace Hawkins with tweaks but the double-headed monster up front is no more.

 

[uconnever]

We will be title favorites. Still a few moving pieces left to figure out though

But we should not be favs because we don’t even know what we’re going to look like. All of these projections of us being the favorites are silly.

 

[aburks41]

But we should not be favs because we don’t even know what we’re going to look like. All of these projections of us being the favorites are silly.

? That's what I said. We will end up being favorites, but we still have a few pieces to figure out. The staff will get the guys we need, whether it's retaining covid year guys or hitting the portal

 

[UCLJ0211]

It would be nice to win the BE regular season or BET! I would be happy with either of those and at least a Sweet 16. Winning the championship this year takes a lot of pressure off next year for sure.

 

[ninety-nine]

My projection is that at least one key on-the-fence player decides to stay another year, UConn finishes top three in the Big East and makes a solid NCAA tournament run, and the Official Syracuse Unintended Hilarity Thread reaches the 300-page mark before the regional finals.

 

[Chin Diesel]

UConn should make it to the second weekend and be a favorite in whichever regional they make it to. After that, it's all gravy.

 

[Brochacho]

My goal for next years team is the East regional. Getting to play in Boston will be a huge advantage. I’m happy we avoided MSG this year because I think that would’ve put a huge amount of pressure on the team with the NCAA monkey on their backs. Now that we have tournament success, I think playing in front of a pro-UConn crowd in the tournament will be a significant boost. Let’s go back to the Final Four and see what happens.

 

[bendm]

just for arguments sake, i think the below depth chart is the bare minimum necessary for a tourney run, but we'd be relying heavily on freshmen.

to be clear, if a player is missing from this depth chart that doesn't mean i'm speculating he's leaving. i dont think this is what the roster will look like in october, just demonstrating that our floor is solid.

Castle----Diarra
Transfer--Ball
Alleyene-Ross-----Roumelagou
Karaban-Stewart--Hasson
Clingan--Johnson-Singare

 

[UCTitleTown]

My projection for next year's team?:
Newton - Point Guard
Karaban - Shooting Guard
Jackson - Point Forward/Small Forward
Sanogo - Power Forward
Clingan - Center

+ Crazy bench depth once again.

Who's beating that lineup next season?

 

[Umami Zen]

Fewer losses next year.. No projections.. @August_West knows what I'm talkin' 'bout

 

[August_West]

Fewer losses next year.. No projections.. @August_West knows what I'm talkin' 'bout

You did well. But there was a post by someone here ( not me) that did better. I’m going to drag it up this week.

 

[aburks41]

Bare minimum expectations now is Sweet 16. Every year. Although now my “title or bust” mentality is validated. Doesn’t mean a FF or E8 appearance would constitute a failure, but the goal every year has to be National Championship. You play the game to be the last one standing.

We will be very good next season. Might take a couple months for the freshman to start cooking, but we’ll peak in March like we always do

 

[Umami Zen]

You did well. But there was a post by someone here ( not me) that did better. I’m going to drag it up this week.

Let me say this.. Not to beat a dead horse.. I was disappointed at a certain point in the season by a lack of optimism about the team.. Around the Seton Hall/Xavier losses.. By "fans"/Yard.. It was my opinion that these guys were good. If you think about it.. Our losses were close.. With the exception of St Johns.. A clunker for us.. But no blow outs at all in any of our losses.. I couldn't believe..at that point in the season.. that people loyal to the Program were throwin' in the towel.

Not about who is right or wrong..Who is more optimistic than others.. My vibe was these guys could run the table.. Really proud of what they did/how they did it.. In the Tournament..And oh by the way..Our coach figured some "stuff" out about himself as a coach. That will only help us grab number 6 that much quicker.. Nuf said

Edit: When I said 9-2.. 24-7.. I got hammered..Did not understand why these guys--at that time--weren't getting more respect from their fanbase.

 

[gsmooth]

My goal for next years team is the East regional. Getting to play in Boston will be a huge advantage. I’m happy we avoided MSG this year because I think that would’ve put a huge amount of pressure on the team with the NCAA monkey on their backs. Now that we have tournament success, I think playing in front of a pro-UConn crowd in the tournament will be a significant boost. Let’s go back to the Final Four and see what happens.

I concur. I am also biased because I live in Boston

 

[wheelerdog]

I'll let you know when we know the roster.

 

[Danbgf]

My projection for next year's team?:
Newton - Point Guard
Karaban - Shooting Guard
Jackson - Point Forward/Small Forward
Sanogo - Power Forward
Clingan - Center

+ Crazy bench depth once again.

Who's beating that lineup next season?

Love it. I actually would say Castle at PG and Newton/Karaban/Ball as a SG/SF by committee, but the key is finding a way to put Sanogo and Clingan on the floor at the same time, even if it is just for a 10-20 minute overlap per game. Tons of pundits came up with lots of reasons it didn't happen this year, but there are also tons of teams that have made similar combos work.