rudy gay/2006 uconn team

[msgordon]

Can we finally stop criticizing Rudy and the 2006 team? Please? Ive always hated the narrative that the players were looking forward to the NBA and years like this last one and 2010 make it look even more ridiculous. That team came to play way more often that not and lost exactly four games all year. A road big east opener, @ #1 nova, in OT to cuse in the BET and in the elite eight to a George Mason team that played one of the most ridiculous 2nd halves/OTs ive ever seen. I have a ton of great memories from that season. The best regular season game i have ever attended against Nova in Gampel. Hilton coming out of nowhere to win BE defensive player of the year. Rudy getting into it with Brandon Roy. Rashads amazing shot against Washington. Denhams reverse layup against George Mason. Ive watched the George Mason game plenty of times (yes, i can handle it) and Uconn played a good, if not great, game. We shot 47% , made FTs, turned it over nine times and fought until the very end. George Mason played amazing. I loved that team and it will always be one of my favorite seasons no matter how it ended.

 

[Inyatkin]

It is amazing that the GM game was by far the best game we played that postseason.

 

[Reno]

The NBA dreaming narrative never made sense. George Mason shot the lights out and then shot them out some more in OT, and UConn had 1 ball handler. That's the truth.

 

[Inyatkin]

I could sure go for a 30-4 Elite Eight team right about now

 

[BankShot]

Agreed on the 2006 team, the biggest tragedy was not seeing this team play with a healthy AJ Price on it. The additional ball handler would have been a huge help. STACKED with talent, and would have been a favorite vs anyone that year including the "stacked" Florida squad. At points, the 2006 team just destroyed teams, Seton Hall for example who beat sweet 16 Duke, we destroyed them in Jersey by about 30 by the half. The 95, 96, and 2009 teams were close, but to me the 2006 team will always be the most talented and disappointing.

If they had another ball handler that team had NO HOLES, rebounding, best shot blockers, outside shooters, slashers to the basket. Scary good if you consider how deep that team was, Boone, Armstrong dominated the paint, Gay and Brown, inside/outside/slashing, Rashad the sharp shooter and Marcus running the point. Damn

 

[caw]

The only complaint I had about GM was Boone had a bad game and GM just couldn't miss from outside.

 

[tzznandrew]

The NBA dreaming narrative never made sense. George Mason shot the lights out and then shot them out some more in OT, and UConn had 1 ball handler. That's the truth.

The end of that season was unbelievably frustrating. The Villanova home game on 2/26 was awesome. The team displayed all of its advantages, and beat a very good Nova team by 14.

Then they seemed to stop playing all out. I think part of it was fatigue from the PG spot, as we really only had one competent handler. I'm not sure what the rest of it was. I think this team needed to feel challenged to really play. I've always felt that if they got past George Mason they would have won going away. A 1 seed is supposed to beat an 16, 8, 4, and 11 seed, and they played like they were supposed to win. And in each game they were challenged, they punched back and won. Until Mason. When you play with fire...

 

[BankShot]

I don't think I have to mention that the 2006 team almost featured Andrew Bynum as well. Where would have his minutes come from?

Boone, NBA
Armstrong, NBA
Williams, NBA
Gay, NBA
Shad, NBA level
Denham NBA level
Adrien NBA level

Price, NBA
Bynum, NBA

That game still hurts, because the moment UNC lost to GM I remember going ecstatic because I thought it was an automatic pass going to the Final Four despite playing in DC

 

[caw]

The end of that season was unbelievably frustrating. The Villanova home game on 2/26 was awesome. The team displayed all of its advantages, and beat a very good Nova team by 14.

Then they seemed to stop playing all out. I think part of it was fatigue from the PG spot, as we really only had one competent handler. I'm not sure what the rest of it was. I think this team needed to feel challenged to really play. I've always felt that if they got past George Mason they would have won going away. A 1 seed is supposed to beat an 16, 8, 4, and 11 seed, and they played like they were supposed to win. And in each game they were challenged, they punched back and won. Until Mason. When you play with fire...

That 4 seed may have had the best player in college that year.

 

[tzznandrew]

That 4 seed may have had the best player in college that year.

Agreed.

As to the other question as to where Bynum would get minutes, I seem to remember the word being that they would redshirt Hilton.

 

[ruskin]

by the end of the '06 season it was painfully obvious the NBA-bound guys weren't going to do things that may have led to injury. GM shot great, agreed, but I'll always have nightmares about Jai Lewis' big ass backing down into the post time after time.

 

[Palatine]

Calhoun is the one that said the team was thinking NBA.

So I buy the narrative.

 

[SubbaBub]

Can we finally stop criticizing Rudy and the 2006 team? Please? Ive always hated the narrative that the players were looking forward to the NBA and years like this last one and 2010 make it look even more ridiculous. That team came to play way more often that not and lost exactly four games all year. A road big east opener, @ #1 nova, in OT to cuse in the BET and in the elite eight to a George Mason team that played one of the most ridiculous 2nd halves/OTs ive ever seen. I have a ton of great memories from that season. The best regular season game i have ever attended against Nova in Gampel. Hilton coming out of nowhere to win BE defensive player of the year. Rudy getting into it with Brandon Roy. Rashads amazing shot against Washington. Denhams reverse layup against George Mason. Ive watched the George Mason game plenty of times (yes, i can handle it) and Uconn played a good, if not great, game. We shot 47% , made FTs, turned it over nine times and fought until the very end. George Mason played amazing. I loved that team and it will always be one of my favorite seasons no matter how it ended.

No. That was easily the best team in the country. Couldn't say that in 99,04,11. They couldn't be unselfish for three weeks. I will always consider it the lost championship.

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[tzznandrew]

No. That was easily the best team in the country. Couldn't say that in 99,04,11. They couldn't be unselfish for three weeks. I will always consider it the lost championship.

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1999 and 2004 were the best teams those years. I'm sick of revisionists giving the 1999 Duke team the label of best team. UConn lost one game without their starting center. They lost another game to a 2 seed at the end of the year. Everyone else they pretty much toasted. Then they beat Duke in the title game. And I actually just rewatched it--UConn didn't play out of their minds. Both teams had average games. And UConn won.

As for 2004--they were the best team, clearly, even if they didn't have the best season. Stanford and St. Joe's may have only had one loss, but those were from weak conferences.

 

[Gurleyman]

At points, the 2006 team just destroyed teams, Seton Hall for example who beat sweet 16 Duke, we destroyed them in Jersey by about 30 by the half. The 95, 96, and 2009 teams were close, but to me the 2006 team will always be the most talented and disappointing.

That was about the only game we destroyed anyone. We had a good game against Syracuse at home and played well in the rematch with Villanova. But this is how we ended the year:

Needed Double OT at home to beat an NIT team from Notre Dame
Up 17-0 against 6-24 South Florida early, USF cut it to one in second half.
Tied with 12-20 Louisville at home with less than 2 minutes to play in regular season finale
Lost to Cuse in BET
Down 10 to Albany in second half
Couldn't stop a so-so Kentucky team and needed to hang on for dear life
Stole one from Washington - Washington was the better team
Lost to George Mason

The team probably played harder with Austrie at point because everyone knew there was no margin for error. With MW at the point, we became a team that could score but didn't have defensive intensity/clamps when we we needed the. Some of that was that we were too slow (plus MW was so damn aloof and casual and the team fell in line behind him). Without any team speed, we also couldn't double team the post and recover to shooters, so we let the fat guy from George Mason just take 10 seconds to decide what post move he wanted.

 

[Silk City]

Come on. As the 06 postseason rolled along, it became obvious UConn wasn't as good as everyone said, and they still managed to keep winning. Down double-digits to Albany, they rallied back. Struggling with Kentucky (who had Rondo on their team, lets not forget) we put them away. Then we should have lost to Washington, and ended up making one of the more iconic shots in UConn NCAA tourney history to send it to OT and eventually win.

This was a talented team, but they also were never an obvious title favorite, and they still rallied in the clutch. Even in the Mason game, they traded punches with a team shooting the lights out, and nearly won. Denham had the clutch lay-in to send it to OT, and Marcus had some huge 3's to keep us within distance for a final shot.

Pretty funny how no one gives last year's elite Kansas team much crap for losing to an 11 seed in the same round, (you never hear: oh, the Morris twins were looking ahead to the pros) and that game didn't even come down to the wire. It's just because people have mental images of Rudy and Marcus that for whatever reason make them forget how that UConn team battled, and forget that Mason had an unreal shooting day.

Say what you want about how talented UConn was compared to the competition--that's an opinion. But when it's all said and done, they showed amazing resiliency--that's fact.

 

[SubbaBub]

1999 and 2004 were the best teams those years. I'm sick of revisionists giving the 1999 Duke team the label of best team. UConn lost one game without their starting center. They lost another game to a 2 seed at the end of the year. Everyone else they pretty much toasted. Then they beat Duke in the title game. And I actually just rewatched it--UConn didn't play out of their minds. Both teams had average games. And UConn won.

As for 2004--they were the best team, clearly, even if they didn't have the best season. Stanford and St. Joe's may have only had one loss, but those were from weak conferences.

I said easily the best team. Perhaps I should have said clearly or by far. Duke was nearly as good and st joes almost went undefeated with two very good guards.

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[tzznandrew]

I said easily the best team. Perhaps I should have said clearly or by far. Duke was nearly as good and st joes almost went undefeated with two very good guards.

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Sorry. I didn't read it closely enough.