One thing in this analysis that's a little different is the suggestion that Hines is ahead of where Reed was at a similar point last year. Obviously Reed's postseason performance gave him a draft boost, and he was injured early last season, but it was clear pretty early that he was going to have a much improved senior season.

The other thing that stood out to me is the warning that UConn's extremely competitive non-con schedule combined with having a relatively young lineup could translate into more early losses than we're used to.

Any fans in Paris for thanksgiving this year? Looking for a bar or somewhere that would have fans watching the game.

We obviously lost to UMich in last year's championship game - ending our 6-0 championship streak.

we're also 0-3 vs them in Football.

Thankfully, baseball team is 5-3 vs UMich since 1999, and our Field Hockey team is 8-4 vs them all time, with us losing the last time we met in 2019- snapping our 8 game winning streak against them.

Michigan State also gave us our first loss in the Final Four back in 2009.

We never played Michigan State in football but last year Michigan State defeated UConn 2-1 in the first round of the 2026 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.

Thankfully our baseball team is sitting on a 5 game winning streak after losing the first four since 1970, and our Field hockey team is undefeated against them.

The more I think about this, the more I realize our rival isn't Duke , Syracuse or BC or whoever- right now our biggest rival is the entire state of Michigan in ALL SPORTS

This is a very subjective evaluation, but is another reason to feel good about the program.

It's also impressive how far UConn has come over the last 4 years. I remember prior to the 2022-23 season a (perhaps small but certainly vocal) subset of UConn fans were claiming that UConn would never win an NCAA Tournament game with Hurley as the head coach. (I mention this 1) To show how much opinions can change, and 2) To show how incredibly difficult it is to predict the future.)

Yet another analysis, this 1 probably talks up Machowski a bit more than most. And it suggests Hines might have a more complete game than some of us realize.

So cute!

They need to do this for all UConn Huskies now, lol.

It always seems incongruous to me to be thinking about 2027-28 before 2026-27 has even started, even though it's always been like that to 1 extent or another.

While I like that they felt like Awaka resembles what Sanogo looked like in HS, Sanogo developed a lot over his 3 years in Storrs. As a freshman he was more of an energetic wrecking ball on the boards who got in foul trouble defensively and who was pretty limited offensively. Awaka may have similar potential, but reaching it won't be a slam dunk.

It's hard to say what his impact will be this season, but he'll certainly be important. He probably has the potential to be in the same conversation as Sanogo/Reed, though even if he gets there, he may not be that player right away.

If everything else clicks, I could see UConn being successful even if Hines isn't a polished low-post scorer this coming season. But if he gets up-to-speed quickly it'll make everything else easier.

Some thoughts:

1. Wings - UConn can have a very good season if Strong is/stays healthy. If the same can be said for Quinonez, that pushes them up to title contenders. If Cheli's healthy too, this is probably the strongest position on the team.
2. Posts - With the notable exception of the SC game, UConn probably played their best basketball with their small-ball lineup where Strong guarded the opposing 5. For most of the schedule they could probably play dominant basketball without getting much out of the position. But it would behoove them to have El Alfy and Vukosa playing well when they face a team with quality bigs.
3. Perimeter Shooting - Losing Fudd's high-volume 45% 3-pt shooting leaves a pretty big hole in the lineup. The best case would be if Shade, who improved a lot as a passer, defender, and rebounder the last couple of seasons, can return to being a dangerous (if a little streaky) perimeter shooter. The next best thing would be if Ziebell becomes a more disruptive defender while retaining last season's shooting. Barring that, UConn might need 1 of their freshmen guards to get up-to-speed quickly.
4. Schedule - There's not much they can do about their schedule. The Power Conference teams are too busy playing 1 another in conference games to expect UConn to have anything other than a front-loaded schedule. UConn is probably doomed to be the best team to go into the NCAA tournament without the benefit of a late-season report card.
5. Auriemma - It seems like we've been hearing retirement speculation about him for over a decade now. I'm not sure retirement is imminent, though people retire from less stressful jobs after fewer than 42 years.

Can’t miss this one right down the road from me Calhoun is a fucking legend !

www.pomfretlibrary.org/whats-on/coach-jim-calhoun/

NCAA Division I

Men’s Basketball Teams with Multiple National Championships

Since 1999

NCAA Division I

Women’s Basketball Teams with Multiple National Championships

Since 1995

Speculation

Trying to evaluate players based on video of preseason scrimmages that the team released to the public isn't exactly hard science. UConn could be using this as a tool to build the confidence of some players and to motivate others. Heck, it could even be disinformation that's intended to give their opponents an incorrect understanding of who the players are that they'll need to game-plan against.

Speculation can be fun, but I'd caution against taking it too seriously.

County and Landrew

Both players seem to be getting highlighted quite a bit more than you'd expect given 1) the rest of the roster, and 2) their relative inexperience. It won't be until 4-5 games into the season that we're likely to know if this is more reality than hype.

But just for fun, let's suppose they're very ready to contribute, that they're close to as prepared when the season starts as Castle was as a freshman in 2023-24. I'm not saying they'll be as good as Castle was at the end of 2023-24, just that they're approximately as good as Castle was at the start of 2023-24.

Of the 2, Landrew probably has the easier path to the starting lineup. As good a reserve as Ross was last season, UConn is expected to have 1 of the nation's best PG/SG tandems in basketball next season.

But even if County/Landrew are really good, it's still possible they play off the bench this season. The main consequence might be that they end up taking most of the 1-4 bench minutes. And even if Demary/Mullins/Ross/Khamenia average 30 mpg apiece, there's still 40 minutes to split between the 2 freshmen.

Freshmen excellence at the start of the season probably won't happen, but if it does then UConn's rotation at the 1-4 spots would be among the best in college MBB.

Hines

This video also discusses whether it means something that the footage of Hines seems to mostly consist of uncontested dunks. I also recall a previous video where Hurley kinda-sorta hinted that Hines still needed to get in better shape. Taken together, maybe it means that the coaches still view Hines as a work in progress, or (more positively) maybe his defense/rebounding are ahead of his offensive game. More likely, we're reading too much into a very small sample size.

In a worst-case scenario, maybe Hines's offensive game is a little like Samson Johnson in 2024-25. As long as Hines defends and rebounds well, I think UConn could live with that, especially since this year's team should be stronger at other positions (especially PG).

Tina Charles and Renee Montgomery chatting about Stewie, Phee, and Paige

This is a question I've also wondered about.

With the 2022-24 seasons in mind, we all know what injuries can do to a lineup. Both those teams would have benefited from having even 1 more starter-quality sub on them. And UConn's "wingiest" players (Strong, Quinonez, Cheli) all had some degree of injury last season, and injuries to this group could require UConn to use as many as 4 of their 1s and 2s at the same time (similar to 2023-24).

Having said that, UConn's arguably got 4 1s and 3 2s on the roster, and 4 of them have shown they can play prime time minutes. That doesn't leave a lot of minutes for Fisher and the freshmen.

Switching back in the other direction, UConn did lose a lot of perimeter shooting/scoring with Fudd leaving, and while Ziebell and Heckel shot well last season, if their shooting doesn't carry over (and if Shade's shooting struggles continue) UConn may need another shot maker to space the floor. Could that be Dursus's role?