Musketeer Madness

UConn takes down #10 Marquette tonight 87-72

"X just needs to keep on winning" Captain obvious

This is great for X and probably great for the conference. UConn needed some wins to lock up their NCAA bid. Marquette may take a seed hit but nothing dramatic given UConn's non conference performance.

Is it better to lose early in the BE tournament to conserve energy, or get further for a better seed in the NCAA’s ? I honestly don’t know. Our number one seed team didn’t seem to be affected except for those horrible calls on JP

I doubt there is a definitive answer but generally winning consistently is better than having a lot of ups and downs.

This team has a limited bench so playing back to back to back might be an issue for the BE tournament. I don't see that carrying into the NCAA tournament as players generally should be good after a couple days of rest. Thinking back to younger days, I can't say that playing hours several days in a row was ever an issue so even playing 3 days straight should not be a problem.

Winning the BE should build confidence going into the tournament. As long as that confidence doesn't cause the team to underestimate the competition or play undisciplined then it should increase the probability of winning games. Improved seeding can make a difference but certainly depends on the seed. If it has a meaningful impact on the path to the final 4 or allows for a more favorable site then it should be beneficial.

Losing round 1 would either cause the team to refocus or would allow doubt to creep in. It would likely have a meaningful seed impact. I'd much rather lose to a quality team in round 2.

Also worth considering that Free will just be getting back into the fold. Getting him playing more games with the team is probably very beneficial.