Florida after repeating

[Inyatkin]

The transfer portal changes everything, but it's worth looking back on the last teams to repeat as NCAA champions. They fell off the map.

Florida won in 2006 and 2007. In 2008, they lost all their starters and were in the NIT. In 2009, NIT again. In 2010, they were back in the tournament and lost in the first round.

They recovered after that, making a few Elite Eights, but didn't get back to the Final Four until 2014. That was a fun game.

Duke, after their early '90s repeat, was back in the title game with Grant Hill as a senior just two years later. Then they, too, fell apart, with K taking time off and the worst teams of his entire tenure in the mid 90s. They were back in the Final Four in 1999. Another fun game.

 

[uconnblueinky]

So it looks like we might struggle for a year or two but then we'll bounce back and play ourselves in the final 4 or championship game! Nice !! They only worthy opponent is ourselves .

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Anything that happened before the portal era is irrelevant today
UConn won 2 largely because of the portal pickups .
Newton , Diarra , Joey C , Alleyne last year
Newton Diarra , Spencer this year

We have no idea at this date on the final roster for next year or even the starting 5
Its a crazy new world.

 

[Chin Diesel]

It's a whole new world out there compared to when Florida went for the repeat.

Coaches really get to start fresh with each team and set the goal. A three peat is a helluva 803 gorilla in the room to try and ignore- even for the freshmen and transfers who haven't experienced it yet.

It's house money and hasn't been done in 50 years. Why UConn? Why not 2025? It's house money from the fan base.

 

[jibsey]

There was an article I just half read that said what Florida did was harder because everyone had to decide to come back and they were a target all season.
That publication must require a low I.Q. to be a writer.

 

[SubbaBub]

Depends how the remaining players develop, and the freshman contribute but we will need at least 2-3 pieces from the portal if we even want to think about another deep run. Which kinds or pieces depends on how Hurley projects what to expect from who is going be here.

 

[Inyatkin]

UConn won 2 largely because of the portal pickups .
Newton , Diarra , Joey C , Alleyne last year

Pretty loose definition of "largely" but ok

 

[bendm]

with the transfer portal we'll never have to rebuild w/ freshmen. we certainly arent doing that next year unless we get some 5* decommits like McNeeley.

 

[ec33]

Why UConn? Why not 2025?

1st and 2nd Round: Providence
East Regional: Newark

Glad they are going to be make the fourth in a row a little more challenging (Buffalo/DC).

 

[Dabutlerdidit]

Anything that happened before the portal era is irrelevant today
UConn won 2 largely because of the portal pickups .
Newton , Diarra , Joey C , Alleyne last year
Newton Diarra , Spencer this year

I think reason we won was combo of recruiting/ portal pick ups AND culture / system Hurley has developed. And I think mostly the latter.. which is why I’m bullish on next year

 

[mets1090]

Think back then, both those teams had most of the team come back which sort of carries an implication that after title number 2 most of the team will leave even moreso than after a normal title season. Not surprising that they'd fall of harder than a normal title team.

As others have said, the portal can theoretically help UConn avoid this. No reason you can't go get 2 or 3 top transfers that fit together and be a legit title contender again compared to trying to instantly rebuild with Freshmen back then. That may or may not happen and of course winning 3 in a row is a tall order, but I'd be pretty surprised if UConn isn't at least pretty good next year.

 

[tzznandrew]

Repeating is incredibly difficult.
Threepeating is way harder than repeating.

Repeating now is way harder than repeating 15 years ago when Florida did it. Too much roster turnover.
Threepeating now is easier to do now than threepeating 15 years ago because the roster turnover is of a different sort. Then, it was unlikely that a team of freshmen or sophomores was winning the title twice and coming back two more times. Now you can keep key players and bring in experience. It would still be ridiculous if they did it—and they won't.

But, in an odd way, it's far more likely we can have a deep run, and if we get deep enough, who knows?

 

[John]

The transfer portal changes everything, but it's worth looking back on the last teams to repeat as NCAA champions. They fell off the map.

Florida won in 2006 and 2007. In 2008, they lost all their starters and were in the NIT. In 2009, NIT again. In 2010, they were back in the tournament and lost in the first round.

They recovered after that, making a few Elite Eights, but didn't get back to the Final Four until 2014. That was a fun game.

Duke, after their early '90s repeat, was back in the title game with Grant Hill as a senior just two years later. Then they, too, fell apart, with K taking time off and the worst teams of his entire tenure in the mid 90s. They were back in the Final Four in 1999. Another fun game.

This post is akin to discussing transportation issues because your horse threw a shoe. It's a brave new NIL/portal world.

 

[cohenzone]

Think back then, both those teams had most of the team come back which sort of carries an implication that after title number 2 most of the team will leave even moreso than after a normal title season. Not surprising that they'd fall of harder than a normal title team.

As others have said, the portal can theoretically help UConn avoid this. No reason you can't go get 2 or 3 top transfers that fit together and be a legit title contender again compared to trying to instantly rebuild with Freshmen back then. That may or may not happen and of course winning 3 in a row is a tall order, but I'd be pretty surprised if UConn isn't at least pretty good next year.

There is certainly some expectation by freshmen recruits that it’s their turn at least by year 2. We had this supposed Fab Five , 2 of whom only played in garbage time, 2 of whom saw more time but in reality not much time in the last half of the year for one of them. and the best of the group the BY is salivating over him leaving after one year. The recent portal guys were very experienced, but nobody would have put them at the top of the portal tree when they committed. There is a school of thought on this board that it is attractive to studs to know they can be a one and done by coming here. Is it attractive to the recruits you need to build a consistent winner that the program will be looking for a parade of higher ability experienced guys from the portal a lot of years? I have no idea, but it seems to me that sustaining a pretty high level does require some stability provided by possible 3 or 4 year players. Right now i would think we are attractive to many in the portal, but it seems to me even in this portal world that a program still has to be attractive to good hs players who are likely to be around for 3 years or more. The portal certainly doesn’t simplify things.

 

[Scrutiner]

I think we're on the borderline of becoming portal heavy due to the repeat this year and talk by DH already about a three peat.

Not cast in stone yet, but winning can become addicting and two makes you want three and at some point we'll lose the continuity that lead to the win in 2014 and it'll then be up in the air as to whether we do it the old way with mostly recruits staying long enough to win or we become the portal version of one and done.

Either way I'm ready to celebrate the next win!

 

[willie99]

Where are UCLA's numbers? Or Geno's?

The coaching staff and transfer portal changes everything

And you don't have to be a national champion to have a great season. We were pretty special for 20+ years under Calhoun

 

[storrsroars]

And you don't have to be a national champion to have a great season. We were pretty special for 20+ years under Calhoun

I will opine that if you've got 2, you want the 3rd, as it would mean immortality in the annals of modern college hoops (which doesn't include Wooden). It's an extremely rare opportunity. You can sleep after the 3rd.

That said, I have no idea how DH can pull that off with the current guard situation. Newton was 6'5", Cam was 6'4". If the plan is to use the remaining Fab Five, we're replacing Newt/Cam with 6'1" and 6'2" guys with little experience outside of Hass, so you could assume we won't have the same level of perimeter defense.

With all the talk about needing a sharpshooter who we can teach to play defense, I'm wondering just how bad Romouglou's defense is. If he could plug in for significant minutes, that's a huge asset.

 

[RedStickHusky]

Pretty loose definition of "largely" but ok

I don't know; Newton himself probably warrants a "largely".

 

[gtcam]

DH has done a really nice job these past 2 years but if there isn't a portal I doubt there's is back to back. Nearly all teams playing in the big BB conferences enhanced themselves greatly so you can't say it only helped UConn but one would be ignorant to think it wasn't a very big factor. It will be interesting when everyone has used the Covid year.

 

[Mr. French]

1st and 2nd Round: Providence
East Regional: Newark

Glad they are going to be make the fourth in a row a little more challenging (Buffalo/DC).

Buffalo has gotten us 2 titles! 04 and 14 came through.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Repeating is incredibly difficult.
Threepeating is way harder than repeating.

Repeating now is way harder than repeating 15 years ago when Florida did it. Too much roster turnover.
Threepeating now is easier to do now than threepeating 15 years ago because the roster turnover is of a different sort. Then, it was unlikely that a team of freshmen or sophomores was winning the title twice and coming back two more times. Now you can keep key players and bring in experience. It would still be ridiculous if they did it—and they won't.

But, in an odd way, it's far more likely we can have a deep run, and if we get deep enough, who knows?

Yeah, this is an interesting an astute point.

Florida and Duke could return their whole core and make another run at it. Not surprising they went back-to-back. But also not surprising they fell off the map once that core achieved their objectives and road off into the sunset. There was no fast-reload back then.

Nowadays, there's no such thing as returning your whole core. But a fast reload is possible.

We lost 5 of our top 8 guys, but replaced them with two studs and had two end-of-bench guys step up into reliable (or better) roles.

In a lot of ways, this repeat was actually even more impressive than it looks on the surface, considering only one of our rotation players was directly from the portal this year.

It's plausible that the portal allows us to stay in contention (probably not top 3 wire to wire, but top 10-15) despite losing 4 starters this time.

 

[freescooter]

Repeating is incredibly difficult.
Threepeating is way harder than repeating.

Repeating now is way harder than repeating 15 years ago when Florida did it. Too much roster turnover.
Threepeating now is easier to do now than threepeating 15 years ago because the roster turnover is of a different sort. Then, it was unlikely that a team of freshmen or sophomores was winning the title twice and coming back two more times. Now you can keep key players and bring in experience. It would still be ridiculous if they did it—and they won't.

But, in an odd way, it's far more likely we can have a deep run, and if we get deep enough, who knows?

In many ways we were similar to Florida despite losing 3 important pieces. The key was Clingan. He wasn’t a starter, but got regular burn off the bench, which helped him a great deal, so it wasn’t like we had to replace Sanogo with a newcomer. In fact, he would likely have started for 350 of the 360 D1 teams. Getting him a year in the off the bench role really helped him this year. And we still had several key pieces, in Karaban and Diara and most importantly Newton. The biggest piece we had to replace was Jackson. He was important but less difficult to replace than Newton will be. And while he might not be anywhere near the athlete, Spencer had a basketball iq far above Jackson’s. And adding Castle more than made up for that loss.

 

[McLovin]

I don't expect to miss the tournament ever with Hurley as a coach, in fact I think a 4 seed is the worse we should be. We are on that level as a program right now.

With that said, we just went back-to-back and if we went 0-32 next season I'd still kiss Hurleys feet.

Jokes aside, a 3 peat would be amazing, but if we could somehow even just pull off 3 in 5 year (so win 1 of the next 3), that would be equally as historic in my mind. Unlike back-to-backs, no other modern program has accomplished that level of success in a 5 year span and it would be a true dynasty riding into the final decade of Hurley's tenure, IMO.