CBS Sports activities faculty basketball insiders Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander spent a month surveying 100-plus Division I males’s basketball coaches for our annual Candid Coaches sequence. They polled throughout the game’s panorama: a few of the greatest names in faculty basketball, but additionally small-school assistants in low-major leagues. Coaches agreed to share unfiltered opinions in alternate for anonymity. We requested 10 questions and are posting the outcomes over a three-week span.
UConn made historical past final season by changing into the primary back-to-back nationwide champion in Division I males’s basketball since Florida did it in 2006 and 2007. It was an superior achievement for many causes, amongst them the truth that Dan Hurley completed it after dropping three of his prime six scorers from the earlier season. That is why few people have been giving the Huskies an actual likelihood to win a second straight nationwide title this time final yr — as a result of they’d misplaced a lot. Regardless, UConn proved any and all skeptics flawed by rolling to a 37-3 report whereas successful their six video games within the 2024 NCAA Match by a median of 23.3 factors.
The Huskies have been unimaginable.
Now, they’re coping with main personnel losses once more — particularly the departures of Tristen Newton, Cam Spencer, Donovan Clingan and Stephon Citadel., i.e., 4 the highest 5 scorers from final season’s workforce, every of whom was chosen in June’s NBA Draft. That is rather a lot to beat, clearly. Even so, maybe surprisingly, Hurley’s Huskies stay the favourite to win the 2025 NCAA Match at +900. With that in thoughts, we determined to proceed our annual Candid Coaches sequence by asking greater than 100 faculty basketball coaches from all ranges of the game the next query:
Will UConn at the very least make a 3rd straight Remaining 4 this season?
Quotes that stood out
Coaches who answered ‘Sure’
- “I am not betting towards UConn — though Hurley would in all probability like that, to make use of it as motivation. Gotta knock them off the mountain first. He gained back-to-back nationwide championships with very totally different groups, but have been elite each offensively and defensively. Exhausting to try this. They’ve turn out to be so significantly better on the offensive finish the final two years and they’re all the time laborious to attain towards and out-rebound.”
- “Give a roster that misplaced that a lot to another coach, and I would say no. However I am not going to doubt Danny Hurley after what he is achieved the previous two years. He deserves the advantage of the doubt. He is earned it.”
- “I completely see it. Clearly, Alex Karaban will get an enormous bulk of the preseason hype (and it’s well-deserved), together with the expectation of a sophomore bounce from Solo Ball and Jaylin Stewart, and Liam McNeely might be a lottery decide. However I believe the straw that can stir the drink right here is having a veteran like Hassan Diarra main the best way. I believe he’s an absolute unsung hero that would discover himself on the Cousy finalist listing if the season goes as nicely for UConn as everybody expects it to. I believe the Huge East will likely be greater than winnable once more, and they need to stroll into the match with a top-2 seed.”
- “You may’t wager towards them proper now.”
- ” I imagine they are going to due to the tradition that Hurley has created. The older gamers will police the newcomers.”
- “Exhausting to think about this however I’m going to say sure. Assume their tradition and perception are that robust in what they’re doing. Love their additions — they usually have sufficient returners who’ve that championship DNA.”
- “Love UConn’s roster. Nonetheless, I understand how laborious it’s to be flawless in March — even with a wonderful group of bought-in younger males. You might have to have the ability to stand up to an evening or two the place the opposition (Oakland, Princeton, VCU) goes on a magical run or has the night time of a lifetime. Even if you happen to play nicely they might nonetheless get you on a given night time. That being mentioned, if there have been ever a time to wager, I would put my cash on Hurley seven days per week and two instances on Sunday! UConn goes again to the Remaining 4, child!”
Coaches who answered ‘No’
- “They misplaced 4 starters from final yr’s dominant nationwide championship workforce — with two of these starters (Citadel and Clingan) being lottery picks and arguably the 2 most dominant defensive gamers within the nation, the opposite (Newton) being a First Group All-American … and the [fourth] starter (Spencer) being essentially the most environment friendly participant within the nation, based on KenPom, and the right complement to the opposite three. Whereas the primary nationwide championship workforce (underneath Hurley) misplaced three excellent gamers in Jordan Hawkins, Andre Jackson and Adama Sanogo, they have been capable of exchange them with three gamers in Spencer, Citadel and Clingan that, for my part, have been higher faculty gamers. The percentages of them having the ability to hit on their incoming gamers to that stage once more are very troublesome.”
- “I should not decide towards Hurley — however the odds are an excessive amount of towards it.”
- That is like when individuals used to say, ‘Are you taking Tiger (Woods) or the sphere? You would argue that is the place Hurley’s at now.”
- “I believe they arrive again to the pack. Not an excellent roster.”
- “It is simply so laborious to do — and now you have a look at their workforce. Two years in the past, you recognize, a professional, a professional, a professional. The following yr: a professional, a professional, a professional. This yr, do you see that?”
- “UConn won’t make the Remaining 4. Individuals don’t know how laborious it’s to do what they’ve achieved.
- “I do not see it. At a sure level, the physique depend provides up. … They will not fall far, although.”
The takeaway
Like a number of coaches we communicated with famous, it is really a testomony to what Hurley and his workers have constructed, a testomony to the tradition of successful they’ve created, that 32% of the coaches we requested imagine that, regardless of dropping 4 starters from final season’s workforce, UConn will certainly turn out to be the primary program to make three straight Remaining Fours since Ben Howland’s UCLA Bruins did it in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
The good thing about the doubt is robust.
Will Hurley take offense that solely 32% voted that method? Maybe. That is a part of what makes him nice. However I actually do assume we have reached the purpose the place no workers in faculty basketball is as revered and admired for what they have been capable of construct and attain as a lot as Hurley and his workers are revered and admired for what they have been capable of construct and attain since taking up in March 2018.
Once more, it isn’t like UConn gained a nationwide championship in 2023 after which simply ran in again in 2024. That is roughly what Billy Donovan’s Florida Gators did in 2006 and 2007 with a core of Taurean Inexperienced, Lee Humphrey, Corey Brewer, Al Horford and Joakim Noah. At UConn although, the core modified dramatically after the 2023 NCAA Match. Now, it has modified dramatically once more. And but roughly one out of each three coaches Matt Norlander and I requested nonetheless informed us they continue to be unwilling to wager towards a person who has gained 12 straight video games within the NCAA Match, every of them determined by at the very least 13 factors.
However coaches aren’t silly.
They, higher than most, additionally perceive how troublesome it’s, no matter how good or nice of a workforce you might need, to make the Remaining 4 of a 68-team single-elimination match the place there’s all the time a Fairleigh Dickinson, Oakland, Yale or Saint Peter’s ready to knock off an enormous boy, to not point out high-major powers ok to only get you on any given day. For example, Houston and North Carolina each obtained No. 1 seeds within the 2024 NCAA Match — however neither even made the Elite Eight. One yr earlier, Houston, Alabama, Purdue and Kansas all obtained No. 1 seeds within the 2023 NCAA Match — however none of them even made the Elite Eight. One yr earlier than that, Gonzaga, Baylor and Arizona all obtained No. 1 seeds within the 2022 NCAA Match — however none of them even made the Elite Eight.
I may go on and on — however you get the purpose.
Even when a workforce proves to be one of many sport’s 4 finest, or at the very least one of many sport’s 4 most-accomplished, over a span of a number of months that features the common season and all convention tournaments, historical past suggests most are nonetheless unlikely to make the Remaining 4. That is why, because the NCAA Match expanded to 64 groups in 1985, solely as soon as have all 4 No. 1 seeds made the Remaining 4. That is why, regardless of having earned an immense of quantity of respect from his friends by rebuilding UConn’s proud program into faculty basketball’s finest, 68% of the coaches we polled merely mentioned they will play the chances.
Backside line, the Remaining 4 is a tough place to get. Nice groups fall brief yearly. So I perceive coaches taking part in the chances. For a wide range of causes, that is the sensible wager. However, as I wrote in a earlier Candid Coaches query, depend UConn out at your personal danger. The Huskies have spent the previous two seasons proving all skeptics flawed. It could be silly to insist there is not any method they will do it once more. And in the event that they do do it once more — and by “do it once more,” I imply not solely make a 3rd straight Remaining 4 but additionally win a 3rd straight NCAA Match — I would be comfy calling it the best achievement within the historical past of males’s faculty basketball contemplating how a lot the roster has modified from one yr to the subsequent.
That is among the many causes Hurley turned down the Lakers this offseason. He did not need to cross on the possibility to make historical past.
And I, for one, cannot wait to observe him attempt to make it.