Dan Hurley took a gamble when he came back to UConn with a three-peat in mind for the 2024-25 season. The current Huskies look nothing like the last season or even the season before that. Hurley knows he has to coach a young team in a tough conference when he could have been coaching NBA pros in Los Angeles. But while he’s committed to college basketball, the different rankings really have to get on his nerves sometimes, or so one analyst thinks.

On the Locked on UConn podcast, host Mark Zanetto discusses numbers with economist Tyler Remick, who discusses how every conference seems to be struggling this season for some reason. While he points out, “When other teams are struggling too, you don’t lose as much ground as you think you’re losing,” it doesn’t mean the team is out of hot water completely.

Remick then goes on to discuss the Big East Conference in general and how this season compares to the last one. “The average net ranking of the conference this year is better than it was last year. Last year’s end of season, the average net ranking for all 11 teams was around 80, and this year it’s 67.” In the current NCAA net rankings, two teams make it to the top 25 – Marquette at No. 9 and UConn at No. 16. Then there is St. John’s at 28, but the rest of the conference is below the 60s, with DePaul ending at 87.

Even so, Remick points out that there are much better numbers for the tail end of the conference because DePaul was 320 and Georgetown was 205, so it’s a big leap to the top 100. “The bottom of the Big East Conference has gotten a lot better but the top is not as strong,” as the analyst says. Zanetto then looks to the coaches, “All of this net ranking stuff has gotta drive coaches crazy because where UConn ended last year, we all know…they finished second in the net after winning a national title and that wasn’t second going into the tournament.”

Where Marquette is firmly in Quad 1, UConn seems to be struggling. “The coaches hate the quad system because coaches used to have some kind of agreement, especially when you’re playing those buy games or whatever. You didn’t see a lot of buy games that were won by 50, 60 points back in the day because it didn’t matter,” Zanetto points out.

Now this year, the Huskies seem to be struggling more than ever, especially after the almost easy wins that seemed to come last year.

Dan Hurley on last season’s Huskies: “No weaknesses”

Before we look at anything else, perhaps it should be noted that the only black mark on the Huskies’ record this season is their three back-to-back losses in Maui. Maybe it was something in the air or maybe it was something the guys ate. Dan Hurley exploded on the sidelines and his team didn’t end up winning either way. But even with their 10-3 record, it’s not quite what it was last year.

Hurley said, “Last year’s team was just well put together personality-wise. We just complemented each other in every way. Played such a level of bullet-proof basketball. No weaknesses.”

Even Alex Karaban, the only returning member from last year, said, “I think it was the best college team of all time and just to do what we did in the tournament and just how dominant we were. We lost Cam, Tristen, Steph and Donovan. It was tough losing those guys, but we got a great team this year.”

It speaks to Hurley’s talent that he produced NBA-ready players even if he lost some of them to the transfer portal. Nevertheless, the team is determined and there has been a fire lit in the UConn Huskies heart. And it will not be quenched without a third straight NCAA trophy.