Disappointing finish, but reason for optimism

[jfuchs91]

Losing always hurts. Especially when leading by 14 in the second half (against a former rival on national TV, no less). But a reminder: this team's path to making the NCAA Tournament is through the AAC Tournament in Hartford. With that in mind, improvement until the end of the season is the #1 priority. And we've seen a lot of progress over the last 3 games.

Thoughts:

• Jalen Adams is blossoming into a star before our eyes. The last few games he's had a complete control of the offense, and seems to have mastered when to pass and when to shoot. He's manipulating the defense with his drives, and finding the open man. Our offense looked hopeless earlier this season - Jalen's ascent as a point guard has our offense showing some real promise.

• Vance Jackson continues to impress. With each passing game, Vance shows off more of his skills. His struggled with his shot earlier in the season, but he's been much more effective since he's gotten away from merely camping at the 3-point line. He's got a really nice floor game, and has shown off seriously impressive post moves, vision, and creativity off the bounce. There's a lot to like here.

• Brimah and Purvis may be the most frustrating seniors in UConn history. Their careers have been characterized by inconsistencies and a lack of BBIQ. I'm as big of a Brimah defender as you'll find, but his performance today was inexcusable. Purvis had a handful of maddening plays, per usual. With relative no-shows from those two, we had to rely on our "future" to carry us today, and for the most part, I think they did as well as could be expected for a young, undermanned squad.

• Facey has been fantastic. His emergence may have altered the trajectory of this season. He's money from mid-range, and is finally using his bounciness to be assertive on defense and on the glass. Kentan has turned into one of our 3 best players, and I hope he'll continue to break out down the stretch. It's really a shame we won't have him around next year.

• Enoch and Durham still have a lot of developing to do, but they've been giving us nice minutes. Durham may be limited physically this year, but Enoch needs more game experience, and hopefully the game will finally slow down for him. If he ever harnesses his physicality, look out.

This has been a season from hell for UConn. About everything that could have gone wrong has. But our play the last three games has ignited a little glimmer of hope. For the first time since our early-season injuries, I think this team might actually be capable of winning the AAC tournament in front of a home crowd. UConn teams historically get stronger as the end of the season nears, and this bunch has shown just enough fight that I'm not ready to give up on the season just yet.

There's still a long way to go, and there has to be a lot of development along the way, but we actually look like a real basketball team again - and given how much of the season has gone to date, I'll gladly take that.

 

[gtcam]

Good post
I will add that I thought KO did a real good job handling the team today
Loved a few of his plays after TOs and my son who was at the game said that he was really on the refs and one in particular who was a moment away from Ting him up

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Thought Steve played well, atleast better than he has, but he played 27 minutes and got 1 board. 6'11 245, that should not happen

 

[mauconnfan]

Thought Steve played well, atleast better than he has, but he played 27 minutes and got 1 board. 6'11 245, that should not happen

He needs to get more no doubt, but he moves people you will notice others getting rebounds because he's boxing people out quite often. But in his space he needs to get his hands on more, not in the right spot because of his own doing hope he can figure it out eventually.

 

[GemParty]

Would it be asking too much to see Enoch explode offensively, like Facey, next year rather than his Senior Year. Why not?

 

[Jaker]

Saw lots of good things today, this team will be dangerous come march.

 

[Matrim55]

Would it be asking too much to see Enoch explode offensively, like Facey, next year rather than his Senior Year. Why not?

I don't give a F about his offense. I just want him to rebound.

 

[Fishy]

Basically, UConn was blown out after going up 14 by a bad Georgetown team.

Not sure where the optimism is coming from here - this team looks down at its shoes when another team looks them in the eye.

 

[Jerry1714]

I took zero good out of today's game (outside of covering +7), we should have won, but blew a big lead against a bad team. Another game we could not pull out at the end.

I am thrilled Facey has developed into a real player but too bad he is a senior and this year is going nowhere.

I knew Jalen was good, did not need today to tell me that. At this point in his career I am looking for a little more than getting some good mins here and there from Enoch. Vance looks like he can develop into a real player, have not seen enough from Durham to say that (but with his injuries I am not down on him at all and expected it to be slow going)

I know this is a negative post but the reality is we are 7-10 with 1 road win and it was by 3 against a horrible team. This year has sucked.

 

[Jaker]

The team played great for almost 30 minutes and they can win the American tourney. I am still very bullish.

 

[jfuchs91]

Basically, UConn was blown out after going up 14 by a bad Georgetown team.

Not sure where the optimism is coming from here - this team looks down at its shoes when another team looks them in the eye.

This is a team that's been crippled by injuries and senior inconsistency. As recently as nine days ago, this looked like a completely lost season. People were calling for Ollie's head, and we were seriously questioning the talent level on this squad. It felt like the slow dripping death of UConn basketball.

Over the last three games, something's clicked. Those same underclassmen that looked lost and overmatched are now finally starting to become competent players. As I said above, we actually look like a real basketball team again, with some promising young players.

Sure, in a "normal" UConn season we'd be in meltdown mode about our end-of-game collapse. But context is important, and given how bleak things looked just a week ago, there is absolutely reason for optimism.

 

[Fishy]

Providence went up 14 at Georgetown with 17 minutes left and then they did something interesting - they kept playing.

Now, ten minutes later, they're up 21.

Saturday was a debacle, not a bright spot.

 

[Dove]

Reporter: "Coach, can you describe your new players coming in?"

Coach Ollie: "Oh man, they're really nice kids. Good families. Just nice, nice kids..."

 

[Balker]

Providence went up 14 at Georgetown with 17 minutes left and then they did something interesting - they kept playing.

Now, ten minutes later, they're up 21.

Saturday was a debacle, not a bright spot.

Georgetown turned a game around with a ridiculous alley oop, at home, and got ridiculously hot to go on a 16-2 run. A better team with better seniors probably would have stopped the run and closed them out. Probably.

But... maybe our players learned a bit about stopping a team from getting hot. Maybe. That could be helpful over the rest of the season.

It can be a crappy loss, and a step forward imo. At least this year.

 

[Dove]

Reporter: "Coach Ollie...any chance you will pull the trigger more quickly when calling a needed timeout?"

 

[champs99and04]

Providence went up 14 at Georgetown with 17 minutes left and then they did something interesting - they kept playing.

Now, ten minutes later, they're up 21.

Saturday was a debacle, not a bright spot.

Nobody is disputing that it was by and large a debacle, but are we really at the point where we can't extract hope from some of the things we have seen? Georgetown is also a team that has beaten Oregon and played Maryland, Butler, and Xavier to the wire on their home floor - they're bi-polar but not untalented, and while no medals should be handed out for losing close games against beatable opponents, we were still playing a top 100 team on the road. This wasn't like losing to Tulsa.

The bottom line is that we have seen a demonstrably better team over the last three games. It's still not a representative product, but over a span of 111 minutes - the end of the Memphis game, the UCF and Temple games, and the beginning of the Georgetown game - we outscored four top 100 teams by a total of 54 points. Essentially, they played at the level of a top 25 team for 100+ minutes. It's not something to celebrate but it might be something to cling to given how bad they were earlier, especially when some of the contributing players are freshman and sophomores.

The negativity will be more warranted on Thursday when we get blown out by SMU, but let's at least wait until that happens.

 

[huskyharry]

Over the last three games, something's clicked. Those same underclassmen that looked lost and overmatched are now finally starting to become competent players. As I said above, we actually look like a real basketball team again, with some promising young players.

Sure, in a "normal" UConn season we'd be in meltdown mode about our end-of-game collapse. But context is important, and given how bleak things looked just a week ago, there is absolutely reason for optimism.

I agree...
Pryor and Peak are very talented. Georgetown is another team that is better than their record indicates.
I see positives that we continued to run good offense and maintained good defensive intensity.
I love Rodney's attitude and dedication to the program but he had a subpar game overall and a very poor stretch when we went up 14. The next five out of seven possessions or so, Rodney made a mistake or didn't make an open shot and it torpedoed our momentum. Sooner or later, his play will regress back to the mean and we will start seeing performances like the end of last season...at least I hope so.
Steve's play was also encouraging. He looks a little less unaware on defense and he started to show some confidence out there ...even though the shots didn't fall. Hopefully, he will continue to improve and play an important role going forward.
Vance played a pretty complete game today and looks very good going forward. We didn't get the ball to Kentan as much but Georgetown was keying on him more than recent opponents.
I am concerned that Jalen seems to be wearing down by the end of the games.
Season is not over yet. Go Huskies!