UConn was really good last year. (Not good enough to beat Xavier, but still pretty good.) They won 13 in Big East conference play, dropped a two point game to Marquette in the conference tournament, then bludgeoned their way through the NCAA tournament. Their closest game was a 13 point Final Four beatdown of Miami. They beat Gonzaga by 28 and made the national championship game an exercise in controlled boredom. They were really, really good.
But not all is rosy in Storrs this year. The Huskies aren’t bringing that entire team back. They have a talented freshman class incoming, but their returning players didn’t all log significant time.