UConn's Strong Start: Aiming for Third Straight Title

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00:00The number three team in the country, looking for three consecutive national championships.

00:08That's Dan Hurley's Huskies and UConn off to a great start.

00:12Sure, they have not played anybody just yet, but with the way that they are rolling through

00:17competition once again in non-conference action, UConn is certainly on that third title defense.

00:24They have beaten Sacred Heart, New Hampshire, and LeMoyne.

00:27I get it.

00:28They have been booked as a 35-plus point favorite in every single game, and they are a perfect

00:343-0 against the number.

00:36All three games staying under last night, holding the Dolphins, who did cover against

00:41my Syracuse, Orange, to only 49, a 41-point win for UConn.

00:48A perfect 3-0, DRS, straight up.

00:50And again, the non-conference wagon that UConn has been, NCAA tournament or elsewhere in

00:56the regular season, the last two-plus years, now 36-1 straight up, with an average margin

01:03of victory at 24.9 points per game.

01:07They are a very difficult team to beat if they're not playing in Big E's competition.

01:12And by the way, you take a look at Hurley in regular season form already, living and

01:17dying with every referee call against LeMoyne here.

01:19It's kind of funny to watch, but that's just him, that's the way he plays out.

01:22Also number two, we had the Champions Classic the other night, which you know me, I'm not

01:27a big basketball fan until after January.

01:29I loved it.

01:30Watched it, bet it, it was so much fun.

01:31And then we go to nights like this and see nobody play anybody.

01:34I just wish, if you have the conference, Ben, you play, I don't know, 20, 22 games, 24 games

01:39in conference play.

01:40Why can't we up that to 30 conference games and start it right off the bat?

01:44Because college basketball is so much fun, but this just puts that damper on it.

01:48When I just see these bad basketball games where you don't play anybody for the first

01:5110 games of the season, if we just got it underway where these big boys were playing

01:55on a night-to-night basis with really good games, it would be so much more fun at this

01:59point.

02:00That's my only beef so far.

02:01The Champions Classic, awesome.

02:02I'm like, ooh, what's next here?

02:03I looked at it yesterday, nothing.

02:05I looked tonight, nothing.

02:06I just get upset with that.

02:07That's all.

02:08Listen, I understand my only beef with non-conference scheduling in college basketball is the fact

02:15we don't see more and more key matchups early in the season.

02:19They will come, especially as we get closer to Thanksgiving in about a week with all the

02:23non-conference tournaments, the Maui Invitational, the Battle for Atlantis, when the fields are

02:28stacked and juiced and you see multiple games in a five-day stretch between top 25 competition.

02:35My only beef, DRS, is understanding that in college hoops, your resume only has a benefit

02:40of playing another highly-regarded team because if you have a win, that's a quad one, quad

02:45two victory, perhaps, for the entirety of the season, and it's not like in college football

02:51where one loss makes or breaks your season.

02:54In fact, a loss against a team like La Void would hamper your resume all year long with

03:00a huge red mark on it.

03:02Not necessarily the case, though, as we see it here.

03:06A good start for UConn.

03:07Elsewhere around the country, Auburn, now a top five team with a huge victory against

03:12Houston over the weekend.

03:14Kent State in football is 0-10.

03:16Kent State in basketball, a contender in the MAAC in Auburn Dispatches of the Golden Flashes,

03:2279-56, winning by more than 20 points.

03:26This Auburn Tigers team, DRS, a fighting, scrapping bunch.

03:30They're going to be that way all year long.

03:32Yeah, and also, like, we take a look.

03:33At least that was a little bit more of a, as opposed to Le Moyne, because Kent State

03:36does play in a pretty good basketball conference in the MAAC, and they're going to show up

03:39and they take these type of games and say, you know what, let's measure up and use that

03:42measuring stick against higher-ranked opponents and then go back to the MAAC, but Auburn's

03:46supposed to do what they do.

03:4779 points at home, absolutely, Broome, 18 points, 12 rebounds, three blocks already

03:51in midseason form.

03:52Love to see that here.

03:53We'll see what they do this year in the SEC.

03:56Janiyah Broome, who was the SEC Player of the Year in the preseason, 18 points, 12 boards,

04:01like you mentioned, and he did not make a triple last night and was still 8 of 12 from

04:06the floor.

04:07A name to know, not only in the Southeastern Conference, but all around college basketball.

04:11Houston, after the loss to Auburn, bounces back, 91-45, still a highly regarded team

04:17that is going to be nails on the defensive side of the floor.

04:21Less than 50 points scored by Troy last night because of a good defensive effort out of

04:25John Calipari's Arkansas Razorbacks.

04:28They win 65-49.

04:29You might be thinking, ooh, that game probably closer than expected.

04:33No, only a 12.5 point favorite in Bud Walton against the Trojans, so Arkansas does cover.

04:39Still was 152.5, stays well under because of the defensive effort and perhaps a lack

04:45of offense out of the Hogs.

04:46Yeah, exactly.

04:47And that's where you're going to get a lot early in the season.

04:50When you start to step up in competition, let's just say, or even play in your different

04:53arenas, even though, again, Arkansas was playing at home for the, what, second time in three

04:57games.

04:58You are expected to see this.

04:59You're still trying to work out your rotations.

05:00And also, this is a new head coach and a lot of new players on Arkansas.

05:03We go back to the offseason where Calipari's like, I don't even have any players on my

05:06team right now.

05:07So people learn to play with each other, but a good start here, 2-0 at home, and that's

05:10a good victory over Troy.

05:11You're right.

05:12How about Rick Pitino in the Red Storm?

05:15St. John's a 21-point win against Wagner last night, under 143 for that total.

05:21The Seahawks, of course, were an NCAA tournament team out of the Northeast Conference, so a

05:27good win, I guess, for St. John's.

05:29Wagner does cover as a 26-point dog.

05:32More importantly, though, DRS, in the tri-state area, oh boy.

05:36What is happening to Seton Hall, Shaheen Holloway, and the magic of the Peacock from

05:41St. Peter's?

05:42Now, with Hall ball, I believe in his third year, it has been ugly.

05:48They get beat by the pride of Hofstra last night, 49-48.

05:53They got beat at the buzzer by Fordham over the weekend on Saturday in South Orange.

05:59And on top of that, Seton Hall's only win against Shaheen's former club, that being

06:04St. Peter's, by a point, when Seton Hall was a 13-and-a-half-point favorite.

06:10Look at that score.

06:11Neither team even gets to 50 last night.

06:13It is bad for the Pirates.

06:16Not a good look.

06:17And also, if you keep it in the Big East there, what the heck's going on with Villanova?

06:20Two proud franchises, as we like to say in the Big East, really struggling here to start

06:25the season.

06:26But it is what it is.

06:27It's early.

06:28You can recover from that.

06:29Hopefully, they do.

06:30But it's never a good look when you're taking losses like this.

06:31It's one thing, Ben, hey, we lost 7-8, 77, didn't play good defense.

06:34But when you're losing these type of games and not scoring points, that's actually embarrassing.

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