7-3 Could be worse...remember?

[todbo]

Watching this team twists my gut. A few close wins should have been blowouts, and I went to bed at halftime of the Syracuse game.

But at this point last year, we were 5-5, with losses to two inferior teams.

We'll see how the rest of the season goes (I'm not optimistic about making the post-season.), but so far, we've won the games we should have won.

Gotta give the team and KO some credit.

 

[Travelman6]

D2 Chamindade does not count. Uconn was 4-6 in their first 10 and lost 3 more to drop as low as 4-9. So yah, things are better but, that is not saying much.

 

[UCDaveD]

The difference between 7-3 and 5-5 with 2 losses to inferior teams is a combined 7 points vs Columbia and Monmouth. Woohoo.

 

[huskiesnyc]

Let’s hope it doesn’t happen but this team is projected to win less games than last year. I don’t think some people here understand how much harder the schedule is about to get.

 

[UCDaveD]

Let’s hope it doesn’t happen but this team is projected to win less games than last year. I don’t think some people here understand how much harder the schedule is about to get.

Yeah it's going to be brutal. 1-2 in our next 3 would be a massive success.

 

[uc1990]

Watching this team twists my gut. A few close wins should have been blowouts, and I went to bed at halftime of the Syracuse game.

But at this point last year, we were 5-5, with losses to two inferior teams.

We'll see how the rest of the season goes (I'm not optimistic about making the post-season.), but so far, we've won the games we should have won.

Gotta give the team and KO some credit.

I agree completely with everything! want to throw up during games. Hope they get better but they might not Probably not a post season team. unless a miracle happens. You have to look at positives not negatives like most(negatives are too easy) ANd the only thing that would make our program spiral worse would be to fire KO. Its bad enough to have fans that talk about it so much that it is making news but if they actually did it. What would this program look like in 5 years????? Maybe let his contract run out and find someone else. But we don't need a place that doesn't support their coach on top of all the other issues we have.
KO positives... Loves UCONN just as much as anyone. Has a lot of room to get better as a coach. Wants to work hard.
Team positives... Talented with a lot of room to grow. 1 nba player on the roster JA. (if he plays defense and spends time shooting in the off season.)

 

[Sphinx]

The only thing I take from six competitive wins against mid-majors is that this team can rally when faced with utter humiliation. This gives us hope for the games against USF, maybe ECU, and even more maybe, Tulane and Tulsa.

Our hope against everybody else stems from the win over Oregon, the 27-28 half against MSU and the 34-32 half against Syracuse. Not that the team played well in those instances but it showed that it could drag almost anybody down to its level for a period of time. It is conceivable that in some games it can sustain this effect long enough to post an ugly win against a superior team.

With that as our hope, onward we march.

 

[SubbaBub]

We are 0-3. Not a single one of those wins is worth a damn thing come selection Sunday. Cuse and Arkansas could be considered bad losses.

 

[Paesano]

On this date last year, our Sagarin ranking was 102. This year it is 96. So, yeah, a LITTLE better but that is in the noise. There is basically no improvement over last year. While no one was expecting a great year, we were expecting SOME improvement with the coaching and player changes. Remember, we got rid of the guys that didn't want to be here and a bad S&C coach.

So, you may be wondering where we were after 10 games? Well, our 10th D1 game was on 12/23. After that game we were ranked 93. So, it is even worse if you go by games played instead of the date.

At this point there is no discernible improvement and the record is deceiving. The Sagarin ratings match what many of our eyes are telling us. Is it because of Gilbert? Well, he didn't play much last year either but Larrier is and Adams and Vital are a year older. Is it because the team was blown up? Well, we got in guys that "wanted to be here". If you get rid of team cancers and add hungry guys that are rated around the same place or higher than what Columbia has, what is your remaining excuse? The situation is dire folks.

 

[bazz&boujee]

it's pretty bad bro

 

[Excalibur]

The attempts to excuse the inexcusable are getting increasingly half-hearted . . .

 

[jibsey]

Guess I shouldn’t believe what my eyes have seen this year. Against only 1 serious opponent were we even competitive including Providence. Seriously, how many more poor performances do we have to watch?

 

[Storrs South]

For this team to have a shot at making the tournament the following things, at a minimum need to happen:

1. Jalen 3P% increases (currently at 34%, was 35% last year)
2. Jalen FT% increases (currently at 69.2% was 82.8% last year)
3. Jalen defense gets better (currently 0.0 DBPM was 1.2 last year)
4. CV 3P% increases (currently 25%, was 36.6% last year)
5. CV defense gets better (currently 0.0 DBPM was 1.9 last year)
6. Terry Larrier defense gets better (currently -0.6 DBPM)
7. Jalen assists increase (currently 3.7 APG, was 6.1 APG last year)
8. Polley becomes a positive on offense (currently -2.0 OBPM)
9. Let's see more of Whaley

• He has only played against weaker schools but I like what I've seen and the numbers back that (OBPM 2.9 & DBPM 7.9)

1. Cobb/Carlton need to get more run

• the numbers say they are both big negatives on offense (-6.0 & -5.3 OBPM)
• but they are huge positives on defense (5.1 & 6.3 DBPM)

It's a long list of items to correct but a lot will fix itself naturally since we are dealing with a small sample size particularly the poor shooting numbers. The issues I'm most worried about are points 3, 5, and 6 (i.e. playing better defense).

 

[huskiesnyc]

Our hope against everybody else stems from the win over Oregon, the 27-28 half against MSU and the 34-32 half against Syracuse.

Gilbert played against OU and the first half of MSU. The 2nd half of the Cuse game meant absolutely nothing. They lost and never came close to winning. Cuse is also not good.

 

[August_West]

We are 0-3. Not a single one of those wins is worth a damn thing come selection Sunday. Cuse and Arkansas could be considered bad losses.

Now that's just not true at all. To get in the conversation at all you must have wins of ANY type. After you are in the conversation is when the discussion of quality of wins and losses take place.

 

[8893]

Now that's just not true at all.

Since when does that matter?

 

[UconnFanDC]

I've accepted that we are currently playing like a mid-major. Sigh. We can't event finish better then 5th in this confrence. Im praying for this to be an overarching year

 

[Kitaman]

We may be winning games but they don't feel like victories to me, if that makes sense.

 

[jleves]

For this team to have a shot at making the tournament

 

[August_West]

We may be winning games but they don't feel like victories to me, if that makes sense.

Yesterday was the only one that truly felt that way for me. As much as Columbia and Monmouth should never have gone to OT I felt like the team could at least learn something about itself in tight late game situations.

Yesterday we learned zero

 

[Jaybo]

We can easily be 7-6 after the next 3 games. Actually its looking very likely.

 

[August_West]

For this team to have a shot at making the tournament the following things, at a minimum need to happen:

1. Jalen 3P% increases (currently at 34%, was 35% last year)
2. Jalen FT% increases (currently at 69.2% was 82.8% last year)
3. Jalen defense gets better (currently 0.0 DBPM was 1.2 last year)
4. CV 3P% increases (currently 25%, was 36.6% last year)
5. CV defense gets better (currently 0.0 DBPM was 1.9 last year)
6. Terry Larrier defense gets better (currently -0.6 DBPM)
7. Jalen assists increase (currently 3.7 APG, was 6.1 APG last year)
8. Polley becomes a positive on offense (currently -2.0 OBPM)
9. Let's see more of Whaley

• He has only played against weaker schools but I like what I've seen and the numbers back that (OBPM 2.9 & DBPM 7.9)

1. Cobb/Carlton need to get more run

• the numbers say they are both big negatives on offense (-6.0 & -5.3 OBPM)
• but they are huge positives on defense (5.1 & 6.3 DBPM)

It's a long list of items to correct but a lot will fix itself naturally since we are dealing with a small sample size particularly the poor shooting numbers. The issues I'm most worried about are points 3, 5, and 6 (i.e. playing better defense).

That's a great post. Certainly there are numbers there that bear out that we could and should be better.
However to this point we fail the eye test bigly.
But players playing to what they should be can fix some of that. And the rest as you point out is defense. The defense is just so wrong right now.

I have a hard time seeing it from the eye test failure to this point but if you want a crazy glass half full viewpoint I guess it could be that at least we are getting some W's while looking so terrible. It would be really nice if we can work some stuff out now.

Go 1-1 on the road trip and then see what happens with witchita.

One thing I'm pretty sure about. Jalen won't touch past years assist average this year. That was in great part because of the staple Brimah lob plays we ran for the last 3 years with Hamilton and then Adams. Probably worth 2 assits a game on its own.

 

[champs99and04]

Being 7-3 isn’t so bad in and of itself, given the schedule we’ve played and how young/new the team is.

It’s the how that’s been so ugly. Three non-competitive losses and some ugly wins.

 

[imno1]

Gilbert played against OU and the first half of MSU. The 2nd half of the Cuse game meant absolutely nothing. They lost and never came close to winning. Cuse is also not good.

Just a note that Syracuse is not bad. They don't shoot it particularly well but they will probably make the tournament this year. It pains me to say this but I"m buying SU this year.

 

[Brenda Hoops]

Watching this team twists my gut. A few close wins should have been blowouts, and I went to bed at halftime of the Syracuse game.

But at this point last year, we were 5-5, with losses to two inferior teams.

We'll see how the rest of the season goes (I'm not optimistic about making the post-season.), but so far, we've won the games we should have won.

Gotta give the team and KO some credit.

"Gut wrenching" or "cardiac kids" - either way I'm still on the bandwagon; would just like to see them be a little more cohesive.