Folkx,,, it’s basketball season.
Every year, the ADB staff gives you some soon-to-be-wrong predictions in the form of the preseason roundtable. You can read some past words and hold them against us here: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014.
Let’s begin…
Record Prediction
Meghan: 22-9, win the AACT, leaving this hellscape middle fingers to the sky.
Russ: 22-9 regular season. Things get silly after that.
Tyler: 19-12. I’ve settled into my role as the pessimist here at ADB. Unlike the past few years it’s much easier now to see the path to 23 wins and a tournament berth, but after several seasons of limited player development (granted, under former coach Kevin Ollie), I’m predicting more of a slow climb back to relevance as Hurley continues to recruit more talent onto the roster.
Peter: 25-6 regular season, AAC tournament title, Sweet Sixteen.
Kevin: 21-10 regular season, AAC Tournament semifinal loss, First Four loss.
Alex: 24-7, Win AACT, Sweet 16.
Chris: 21-10 regular season, semi-finals in AAC Tourney, NCAA Round of 32.
Best Quality
Meghan: Guards on guards on guards – Gilbert and Vital bring the experience and I’m excited to see what Bouknight and Gaffney can add to the mix, with Brendan Adams looking improved from last season.
Tyler: Coaching. UConn has a handful of talented players but no genuine superstars. Getting the most out of this roster will require Hurley to bend the game towards his three key players and implement a style of play that can maximize role players like Tyler Polley and Isaiah Whaley. UConn probably isn’t going to bully too many good teams off the court but with a solid and well-executed game plan, it could win a lot of games.
Kevin: Guard depth, babby (Assuming James Bouknight plays and is as electric as he, from all accounts, is)! Pray for Alterique’s general health, of course, but UConn should be able to have two or three high-major guards on the court at all times. That would be…a welcome change.
Peter: With Gilbert and Vital, we have one of the best backcourts in the AAC.
Chris: Guard play is going to be our strength, but in year two the team is finally going to be strong and conditioned enough to play as fast as Hurley wanted to last season.
Russ: Everyone is going to say the backcourt because that’s the right answer. Here’s another: The team has a chip on its shoulder. Three straight losing seasons and a bunch of fans talking shit about the program will make the final season in the AAC a good opportunity for a little revenge tour. As the great philosopher Ryan Boatright once said, the other 11 AAC teams should have a “bad taste of UConn in their mouth.”
Alex: Objectively the coolest dog on the planet. Closest breed to wolf, and wolves slap.
Worst Quality
Kevin: Rebounding is going to be a concern until Hurley brings in more of the large bois.
Chris: Depth of the front court. Carlton, Akok and Whaley should be good to solid this year, but the loss of Springs is going to come back to haunt them and force Sid Wilson to have to play some meaningful minutes in big games.
Russ: The team isn’t good enough. The talent level in Storrs has obviously decreased dramatically post-2014 and Hurley is still working to build it back up. They’re good enough in the backcourt, but everyone else is serviceable at best. Give it another recruiting class and UConn should head into its first Big East season with a deeper roster.
Peter: Richie Springs wasn’t going to be an impact guy as a freshman, but without him, frontcourt depth is definitely an issue. Also, early returns on the intelligence of our freshmen are not exactly blowing my skirt up.
Tyler: Depth, generally. If the starting point guard goes down with an injury at any point, that’s the end of the season, which isn’t novel to UConn but is a real danger considering Gilbert’s history of exploding. Springs’ redshirt also complicates the day-to-day mechanisms of the frontcourt. It’s easier to play with a thin bench if you know what you’ll get from your starters every night but with Whaley, Akok and Sid Wilson all carrying big question marks into the season, having one more human being (and his 5 fouls) would’ve been nice.
Alex: Uncontrollable energy that will lead to stepping out of bounds and stuff. (I saw like 3 plays on Wednesday and this happened on all of them.) If I’m actually going to answer this, it’s that Springs not being in the picture has a bad ripple effect. Even though he wasn’t going to be counted on for significant contributions outside of fouls this season, depth is depth. Now we have less flexibility. We really can’t afford a frontcourt injury. We sort of can’t afford Carlton committing beyond 2 fouls ever.
Meghan: Not being in the Big East yet (it’s frontcourt depth, but the others have covered that).
WTF Loss
Alex: There is no possible loss that could make me say why the face this year. Whether we beat or lose to these schmucks, my only thought will be, “BUHBYE.”
Meghan: Please, for the love of Jonathan let’s just not lose at fucking Tulsa again I hate that place with my life.
Chris: at USF on 1/4 because of…
Peter: Are we at Tulsa this year? Then that.
Kevin: T~U~L~S~A. I don’t know what the actual date of the away Tulsa game it is but I do know that whatever it is, it will be Thursday at 9:45 (“Tulsa Time”) somewhere.
Russ: Tulsa. It’s always Tulsa.
Tyler: Ugh. It’s at Tulsa, obviously.
WTF Win
Chris: at Cincy on 1/1. Huskies have struggled last few years vs Bearcats, but I feel like Dan Hurley on the road to begin conference play will have the Huskies ready to make a statement.
Meghan: Florida. Come at me.
Russ: Gonna win at Nova. There, I said it.
Peter: We can beat anyone. Anyone.
Tyler: I’ve settled into my role as the optimist here at ADB. They’re gonna beat Memphis twice.
Kevin: We will play Florida twice and win once.
Alex: We will beat the everliving fuck out of Tulsa.
Who is the X Factor?
Kevin: Akok. Just from watching him for the first time in an exhibition Wednesday night, the skill and athleticism are clear. Whether he’s strong enough to battle inside and become the second rebounder this team badly needs? I don’t know! But that would raise the ceiling for this team considerably and would balance out the starting five very nicely.
Tyler: Akok. If he can solidify himself as the starting PF and be a legit scoring threat next to Carlton, the floor will open up for the guards and life generally will be worth living.
Peter: Sid Wilson. One of the most talented players in the league, Sid has the ability to take over games if he’s focused, and if his shooting has appreciably improved.
Meghan: Whaley. They need someone in the frontcourt to step up, and Whaley looks like he’s been doing work this off season. If he can take a huge step up, that can be the difference for the season.
Russ: Akok Akok. He wasn’t great on Wednesday, but you could see the potential there. If he’s an impact player from day 1, the ceiling for this team increases dramatically. Especially given the concerns in the frontcourt.
Alex: Carlton. If last season wasn’t a mirage and he keeps developing, he’s got a puncher’s chance at conference player of the year, for me.
Chris: Akok Akok. At this point we pretty much know what we’re going to get from the upperclassmen in terms of production. If Akok is able to come in and produce in the front court immediately, it means the team is going to make a run in March.
Breakout Player
Peter: Hopefully Sid Wilson
Chris: Josh Carlton. You can argue Carlton “broke out” last year, but I see him getting even better this season and attracting national attention.
Alex: Alterique. I know it’s weird to think of him as a potential, “breakout,” player because of how long he has been here but this is the first time we will get to see him without a long injury layoff. He’s had a full offseason. He could be poised to have a hell of a season.
Russ: Isaiah “Porkchop” “Poppers” Whaley. Twitter cretins were yelling at him to transfer. Instead, he worked his ass off this summer and looks like a different player.
Meghan: Bouknight (this is not a bad jail joke, I promise) Look, he did a very dumb thing and will have to sit for a minute, but I think he’s tremendously talented and has the potential to make a splash this season.
Kevin: Did Tyler Polley officially break out last year? I submit that he did not, and that he was merely “improved.” Tyler Polley will break out this year, shooting better than 40% on 3-pointers and becoming the two-way wing that we haven’t really had since DeAndre Daniels.
Tyler: I’m guessing Tyler Polley becomes more efficient on offense (45% from the floor, 41% from three) and settles into the much-needed role as the guy who can score if Gilbert or Vital are struggling.
Team Leaders in Scoring, Rebounding & Assists
Peter: Scoring – Vital, Rebounding – Carlton, Assists – Gilbert
Tyler: Vital, Carlton, Vital
Alex: Gilbert/Carlton/Gilbert
Meghan: Scoring: Vital, Rebounds: Carlton, Assists: Gilbert
Chris: Vital, Carlton, Gilbert
Kevin: Vital, Carlton, Gilbert
Russ: Vital, Carlton, Gilbert
Jamal Coombs-McDaniel Award (bench guy who inexplicably leads the team in scoring once or twice)
Tyler: Sid is gonna go full Brimah v. Coppin State for exactly one game (guessing Maine).
Meghan: Brendan Adams is gonna get hot from three some night and just bomb treys and I’m looking forward to it.
Russ: Brendan Adams. Sounds like he had a great summer and has been practicing well. He even showed some flashes in the exhibition game.
Alex: Pork Chop. This one is so obvious.
Peter: Brendan Adams
Kevin: Isaiah “Pork “Poppers” Chop” Whaley. The Isaiah Whaley Decade begins.
Chris: (Assuming everything off the court works out) James Bouknight
AAC Opponent You’ll Miss The Most
Meghan: Who the fuck are these people idk.
Chris: Stetson.
Kevin: St. Michael’s.
Russ: Appalachian State
Peter: We joke about this, but Cincinnati has been a great conference mate since joining the Big East in 2004 or whatever. They’ve consistently performed like a power program in both football and basketball, and I will miss having them on the schedule. I won’t miss playing them, because those games are always excruciating, but I’ll miss sharing a league with them.
Tyler: Mike Aresco’s negotiating abilities.
Alex: The only thing I will miss is the hot balls countdown.
Wild Card (Literally Any Other Prediction)
Meghan: All the AAC banners inexplicably disappear in the dead of night and are later discovered in a smoldering pile, post bonfire. They will never solve the case. (It me, Imma do it.)
Alex: Christian Vital appears in a Silas Dean Pawn Shop commercial.
Tyler: Before a big conference game (Cincy?) the AAC announces it will replace UConn by adding East Carolina.
Peter: Vital drops 40 once while not missing a single shot.
Chris: This is a team that literally lost six games by two possessions or less and 12 by eight points or less last year. A lot of those games will fall UConn’s way this season and that should be enough to get the Huskies into the NCAA Tournament in Dan Hurley’s second season.
Kevin: We’ll know something has clicked with Hurley when we see noticeable improvement on defense — Wagner under Hurley improved by 160 spots in KenPom adjusted defense from year 1 to 2, while URI jumped 105 spots in Hurley’s second year there. So I think we see a big jump this year, with UConn going from 129th into the top 50 nationally.
Russ: UConn will enter the AAC Tournament as a bubble team and then win the tournament and leave the trophy out on the court like UCF did with the ConFLiCT.
