They are the best of the worst in that conference. The fact remains that UConn plays teams like ND long before we are at our best and the last half of their schedule virtually never challenges them.

Contrast that to the Big East where their final game before the NCAA tournament was almost always against ND for a conference title plus they played ND at the end of every regular season too - with the regular season conference title on the line most times.

They simply are not anywhere near as mentally tough as they used to be during Big East years. That doesn’t mean they can’t win because they are so loaded that they don’t have to be as tough as others - larger margin for error.

As you say four games against top 15 teams in February and March is not too shabby. We may have to revise that easy-schedule-before-the-tournament argument a bit.

- The pre-AAC schedule is very formidable, right up there with the Irish.
- And Geno is trying to play some tougher games on the back end, but there are only three teams and UConn seems to have South Florida's number.
- And the AAC is, indeed, a container of cupcakes for the likes of KLS and crew.

So, being in a tight contest is something UConn comes across infrequently (Tulane?), which is not something you can accuse the Irish of in ACC ball.

Also, I've read a bit over the summer that many UConn starters were sporting nagging injuries in the tail end of the season. Then why was Geno having his starters play so many minutes in what amounted to scrimmages in the second half? He's had one or two ehh years recruiting, but perhaps the "freshman have to earn their PT living up to my standards" is catching up, a bit. Maybe Geno's standards have been influenced by coaching the National team for years and/or having Stewie and MoJeff on the squad.

In any case, I think he's got to give more PT to frosh like Ono and Williams this year due to graduations and a bit of a talent dearth (for UConn). Stay tuned.