A Bit Too Negative Here

[Gurleyman]

This is what's supposed to happen when you're playing your third game in three nights against a rested team (and one that's proven to be better than you over the long haul). Maybe you hang around for a while, but you are supposed to run out of gas. It didn't happen last year against Pitt, but that doesn't mean that you can expect it to happen every time.

Think about today's game - the very first shot that Cuse made was a leakout where we didn't get back defensively. Never happened again (Waiters had a couple fast break buckets off of steals, but that's different). WV killed us with easy put-backs - other than a Triche dunk which was simply a great play which happens from time to time, it didn't happen today. How many of their jumpers were made by lazy perimeter D? Not any really - Waiters got free for an 18-footer when he shook Boatright and stopped on a dime. Southerland was free on a kickout off an offensive rebound when we were scrambling a bit - the play in the corner was a good pass, but we did get out there to contest it. How many times did a guy just blow by us and get to the rim with no contest? None. They had a couple tough passes in traffic to Melo for dunks (one underhanded from Carson-Williams in the first half, one from Jardine that went back to the foul line area and caught Melo on a cut, which was a tough play to complete), but nothing that was caused by lazy D. Waiters had one cut to the basket through three defenders where our D should have better, so maybe we can fault that one, but I thought it was more that the other guy made a tough play.

The sum of all those things is that we played our asses off for 40 minutes - and the fresher team won at the end. Southerland was the X-factor and made the couple shots that Olander/Boatright/Roscoe didn't. We had it at 2 with two minutes left, Jackson made a very tough running bank shot over Lamb for his only bucket of the night and Olander missed a wide open 12 footer. Reverse those two shots and we might still be playing.

I would have liked the W, but I'm content with what we got out of this weekend moving forward. We can iron out some things to get more crisp offensively and make sure Lamb doesn't go long stretches without being involved (and try to get Napier shooting from 20-22 feet more consistently instead of 25), but how we played today is how we need to play from here on out -- and let the chips fall where the may. We won't have a rest disadvantage again.

 

[ATLDYKA]

Cheers to this. I agree nothing but hope after today's game. The effort was certainly there it just wasn't our day shooting the ball.

 

[tykurez]

Good post. I'm upset about the loss, but not about the team as a whole. Feel a heck of a lot better about them than I did after the Providence loss ... they've shown they can play with just about anyone.

 

[aceboon]

You pretty much covered it all, I agree.

 

[Kitaman]

frustrated more than negative. let them [us] vent. Being in the moment a lot of us are dissapointed because we could have won it. Tommorow we will all settle down, except the bandwagon jumpers.

 

[caw]

It was a gutty performance and defensively solid. The problems were offensively, where UConn had a slightly worse shooting performance than Cuse and couldn't manufacture points at the line.

 

[Hoophound]

Great post. This team is exactly where we hoped it would be last weekend. We got 3 straight wins and lost to the #2 team in the country at the wire. We need Bazz, Boat and Lamb to get some rest and heal up and we are fully capable of being a dark horse for the Final Four. I am a much happier camper today than I've been in weeks.

 

[BFieldHusky]

Agreed. We played our B-/C game and we lost by 3 to the No. 2 team in the country. The effort was there on defense, we rebounded the ball well. We just ran out of gas. You can't expect to keep winning the BET with the 5 games in 5 days routine. Lamb and Napier played a lot of minutes the last two games. Our goal here was to play well and we did. We are going to be a tough out. Let Calhoun get back to practice, rest up, and go after it next weekend. The nice thing about the NCAAs is that there will not be an advantage for one team when it comes to rest.

As a side note, if I was a Cuse fan, I would be worried. To beat a team by 3 when they didn't play well, does not impress me. I hate Gotleib, but he is right, Cuse is not as good as Kentucky. Or UNC when they come to play.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Honestly, the fact that we're so upset about this loss means that our expectations for this team have been elevated (which is a good thing). This game was really a bellwether for our ability to beat a #1 or #2 seed in the second round.

We've shown a few times that we can play with a top-10 team. We haven't shown we can pull out a W.

 

[djct1999]

agreed. nothign but positives from this week. i think the guys can go back to storrs, regroup and really make some noise in the tourney that counts. sure they let one slip away, sure they got way to tentative, but lets chalk that up to fatigue. the mojo is back is i really can't think of any opponent i wouldnt want to face. just think, if you are a 1 or 2 seed, do you really want to see uconn in the 2nd round?

 

[superjohn]

Frustrated because we could have won if we shot better and didn't go stagnant on offense. I really like what I'm seeing form this team now and I now think we have a chance of making a little run in the big dance. Syracuse is deeper than us but we are more talented, the biggest difference between the 2 teams is Syracuse is older.

 

[Gurleyman]

Cuse was so stupid on offense for the most of the night, it was scary - but their D got a little tougher when it needed to and they got a mediocre shooter to heat up, so they had just enough to hold us off. There isn't a lot of savviness on that team at all. I'm not sure how they got to this point with only one loss, but kudos to them for overcoming their between-the-ears issues so well until now.

 

[Ricky1Moore]

Losing alwasy stinks, and losing to Cuse stinks double stink. But I feel nothing but positive now... Let's avoid the 8/9 seed, and get even more focused... they are ready to make a run right now

 

[jdb50]

Don't worry if you guys don't like Gottlieb, he likes himself-way to much for my taste. Something that bothered me today was in the second half when Shabazz and Boat were on a 2 on 1 and Bazz missed the shot when he should have passed to the open Boat for a layup. Bad chemistry there. When there was hardly any time left under 2 minutes we are standing and dribbling, the team seemed confused as what to do. I thought we were going to pull away and win this but we hit our worst recurring problem this year- the 10 minute scoring drought. Solve this and we will do pretty well in the Tourney.

 

[dsturdy5]

To add to what the OP said, yes, this is what is supposed to happen. A zone can make you a jump shooting team. When you are playing your third game in 3 days what is the first thing that is likely to go? Your legs and thus, your jump shots. Near the end a lot of the shots UConn took were short and/or flat. The three games in three days (4 in 6) caught up to them. It happens. Let's remember, though, it's March. Anything can happen.

 

[sparky]

Losing sucks, but this team played like I thought they would at the beginning of teh season. Lamb get's touches, but not where he's a scorer threat. I think we either don't set enough screens for him, or he does a bad job running his man off them. T.O. played his ass off. Some of his passes were crappy, but he worked hard. AO needs hands, but when he went out they made their run. Hind sight says start Giff in middle of the zone, but we all have opinions after the fact. All in all I think we are ready.