A Few Things...

[boog204]

1) The better team won. Yes, the officiating was piss poor and we didn't get any of the touch or body calls they got, but Louisville is better than us. They're the defending national champions and are better than us in a few positions. Inside we have no matchup for Harrell, Hancock is better than our 3's, Blackshear is their (better) version of Omar, and Smith is their Shabazz, although not as good. And they were playing w/out a 12ppg scorer who is their Boat.

2) We cannot compete against skilled, athletic big men. Anderson from BC, 22 and 7. Young from FLA, 17 and 7 Powell and Huestis from Stanford a combined 23 and 25. Thomas from Houston, 23 and 8. Nichols from Memphis, 13 and 5; modest, but he scored at will when he got the ball. Harrell 18 and 13. Hell, Justin Sears from Yale had 17 and 10. It's a trend that's not going to go away. This may be the worst collection of 4's and 5's we've had since JC made us relevant. If one of them plays solid, we can beat anyone. But if they all play soft, we will have dogfights...

3) Anyone calling out Boat is out of their minds. He played harder than I can ever remember him playing. His shot was not falling, but he got into the lane, finished inside, and was hurt by the fact that our big men couldn't finish.

4) This is a very flawed team. We have two guys who can handle the ball and are triple threat guys. Daniels, LK, Omar, and Giff are all below average in that regard.

5) Daniels is such an enigma. He came out flying. Then the 2nd foul came and he lost all his aggressiveness and intensity. We were really attacking their zone beautifully, he sits, and then we just started chucking 3's. Little ball movement and so dependent on Bazz and Boat to make something happen.

 

[Milo65]

2) We cannot compete against skilled, athletic big men. Anderson from BC, 22 and 7. Young from FLA, 17 and 7 Powell and Huestis from Stanford a combined 23 and 25. Thomas from Houston, 23 and 8. Nichols from Memphis, 13 and 5; modest, but he scored at will when he got the ball. Harrell 18 and 13. Hell, Justin Sears from Yale had 17 and 10. It's a trend that's not going to go away. This may be the worst collection of 4's and 5's we've had since JC made us relevant. If one of them plays solid, we can beat anyone. But if they all play soft, we will have dogfights...

3) Anyone calling out Boat is out of their minds. He played harder than I can ever remember him playing. His shot was not falling, but he got into the lane, finished inside, and was hurt by the fact that our big men couldn't finish.

4) This is a very flawed team. We have two guys who can handle the ball and are triple threat guys. Daniels, LK, Omar, and Giff are all below average in that regard.

Boat and Bazz played a great game. Yes, Boat had some drives rejected, but I can't fault him, he was aggressive and trying to create. Our lack of any sort of presence kills us. We can't rebound, we had no offense in the paint, and we couldn't defend underneath. Once L'ville extended their zone to defend out 3 pt shooting, it was over. Extending the zone should allow our bigs some space, but our bigs can't create, can't out muscle, and can't compete with any team that has an inside presence. Omar/Giffey can't create their own shots and Daniels was out muscled. Brimah/Olander...not much to say

 

[rbny1]

I totally disagree with you. There is no way in the world that I am going to concede superiority to Louisville. We have a great shot to win when we play them in Louisville.

 

[boog204]

I totally disagree with you. There is no way in the world that I am going to concede superiority to Louisville. We have a great shot to win when we play them in Louisville.

Fair enough... What do we have that Louisville doesn't? They are better inside, better rebounding, and better defensively (and are allowed to play more physically). At this stage they have the superior coach and have deep tournament experience. I'm not saying they are unbeatable. We just need several things to happen to beat them. We need to rebound, we need at least one of our big men to show some semblance of life, we need DD and one of our 3's to score some points, and we need to figure out a means of attacking their zone that doesn't necessitate lots of tough, contested 3's. None of those things really happened last night and these are issues that are consistent with our team. There's maybe been 2 games all year where we've gotten most of things to happen. I don't think we played poorly, we were just outplayed.

 

[rbny1]

Fair enough... What do we have that Louisville doesn't? They are better inside, better rebounding, and better defensively (and are allowed to play more physically). At this stage they have the superior coach and have deep tournament experience. I'm not saying they are unbeatable. We just need several things to happen to beat them. We need to rebound, we need at least one of our big men to show some semblance of life, we need DD and one of our 3's to score some points, and we need to figure out a means of attacking their zone that doesn't necessitate lots of tough, contested 3's. None of those things really happened last night and these are issues that are consistent with our team. There's maybe been 2 games all year where we've gotten most of things to happen. I don't think we played poorly, we were just outplayed.

True, we were outplayed yesterday; we underperformed in all the things you mention. But that's just one game. Any team's fortunes can rise and fall from game to game, and Louisville is good not great. A strong game by DD or better rebounding would help a great deal, and both of those are possible in the rematch. I just don't want to concede defeat ever. In the 1999 NC game, Duke was better on paper than UConn, but we know what happened.

 

[caw]

Fair enough... What do we have that Louisville doesn't? They are better inside, better rebounding, and better defensively (and are allowed to play more physically). At this stage they have the superior coach and have deep tournament experience. I'm not saying they are unbeatable. We just need several things to happen to beat them. We need to rebound, we need at least one of our big men to show some semblance of life, we need DD and one of our 3's to score some points, and we need to figure out a means of attacking their zone that doesn't necessitate lots of tough, contested 3's. None of those things really happened last night and these are issues that are consistent with our team. There's maybe been 2 games all year where we've gotten most of things to happen. I don't think we played poorly, we were just outplayed.

Umm UConn has deep tourney experience. Napier is better than any guard they have by a country mile. Boat is behind smith but the distance between him and Rozier is larger than him and Smith. UConn is a much better shooting team.

Defensively, UConn is just as good. UConn got tons of initial stops. The defensive rebounding on the other hand...

DD had his worst game of the year, but it's not like it was because of good defense. He missed open shots he has made the past 13 games.

Harrell is better than any big UConn has, but he also made some shots he would be lucky to duplicate.

Even with all the bs calls it was a 7 point game with 3 to go. Brimah doesn't miss a pretty easy alley-opp and it's a 5 point game with 3 to play. I don't think that means UConn would have won, but I do think it how's UL isn't necessarily the better team.

 

[upstater]

This UL team has not looked great so far this year, and really they didn't look great last night. I agree with Boog that they were the aggressor and played with a bit more passion, so they deserved the win. But, I think this UL team is not nearly the top team they were last year. one of the biggest reasons is that Russ Smith is still out of control, as we saw last night. Harrell is solid, and always a force. Blackshear is a big ? for them because he is coming on strong lately. Also, UL fans are talking about C Jones and the Ewing factor, so... hold off on discussions of an undermanned Ville. Besides, Hancock has a pretty decent handle. He took Jones's minutes.

 

[CTBasketball]

That was probably the worst both teams have played all season (I know the Texas trip, but still). I'll make a fair judgement after the game at the Yumm Center (and by the way, what a terrible name for an arena. Awful)

 

[FfldCntyFan]

What pissed me off (referees aside) was that Louisville wanted every loose ball a lot more than we did (and on a few of them Brimah was in the best position to get the ball but didn't react quickly enough).

Once Daniels sat with his second foul in the first half (a little more than 13 1/2 minutes left IIRC) we didn't even try to run any offense as there was nobody (an attempt or two with Giffey excepted) that we were willing to pass to in the lane.

I was very irritated with the number of moving screens that Louisville got away with, especially with the refs letting UL push and grab a lot on defense while we would get called for touch fouls.

I don't believe I've ever said this before (and haven't felt this about a sporting event since I was a kid) but even with our shortcomings (twice UL reacted very well while we did not after Pitino called a TO) our effort could have been enough but the refs were not going to let us win that game.

 

[boog204]

Umm UConn has deep tourney experience. Napier is better than any guard they have by a country mile. Boat is behind smith but the distance between him and Rozier is larger than him and Smith. UConn is a much better shooting team.

Defensively, UConn is just as good. UConn got tons of initial stops. The defensive rebounding on the other hand...

DD had his worst game of the year, but it's not like it was because of good defense. He missed open shots he has made the past 13 games.

Harrell is better than any big UConn has, but he also made some shots he would be lucky to duplicate.

Even with all the bs calls it was a 7 point game with 3 to go. Brimah doesn't miss a pretty easy alley-opp and it's a 5 point game with 3 to play. I don't think that means UConn would have won, but I do think it how's UL isn't necessarily the better team.

Napier, TO, and Giff have deep tourney experience when they were freshmen, no one else does. 3 of Louisville's starting 5 were major players on a final four team last year. Bit of a difference. You could see us visibly lose our composure, Napier included, after KO got tossed. Louisville never lost their composure in the slightest. Not when we tied it early on or when we cut it to 7. We miss that alley-oop and they put us away. Defensively we are just as good but the rebounding clouds that and that is part of the whole defensive effort. Plus Louisville is allowed to play physically where we clearly are not.

Either way, when we start saying we "need" this and this and this to happen it concedes a bit. We have not been a good rebounding team all year. DD has been inconsistent. Same as our bigs. We can't just take what happened vs. Memphis and say that that is the new norm. If we played Louisville 10 times we beat them three times I'd think. I'm not saying we suck, I'm saying that I am not angry w/ our performance last night b/c Louisville is a good team.

 

[Henry]

Daniels seems to have the worst hands too. How many times does he drop a rebound or get it knocked out of his hands. He's not a self starter and seems to need to get off to a good start in order to have a good game. If he expects to make it in the NBA, that will have to change.

 

[hyperthink]

Boat and Bazz played a great game. unnecessary and when ur playing against a zone like thatnyounnoat had some drives rejected, but I can't fault him, he was aggressive and trying to create. Our lack of any sort of presence kills us. We can't rebound, we had no offense in the paint, and we couldn't defend underneath. Once L'ville extended their zone to defend out 3 pt shooting, it was over. Extending the zone should allow our bigs some space, but our bigs can't create, can't out muscle, and can't compete with any team that has an inside presence. Omar/Giffey can't create their own shots and Daniels was out muscled. Brimah/Olander...not much to say

In all honesty I think boat needs to pass more. I mean a lot of those shots are unnecessary. He is tough as nails but I think when he penetrates and dishes the team is at their best. I think they sat kromah too long. He started off good and they just sat him along with dainiels. Pretty sure ollie will have them fired up for the next game.Although they are better top to bottom uc onn could have won.DD having early foul trouble was a big problem. U arrel just went off

 

[huskyharry]

1) The better team won. Yes, the officiating was piss poor and we didn't get any of the touch or body calls they got, but Louisville is better than us. They're the defending national champions and are better than us in a few positions. Inside we have no matchup for Harrell, Hancock is better than our 3's, Blackshear is their (better) version of Omar, and Smith is their Shabazz, although not as good. And they were playing w/out a 12ppg scorer who is their Boat.

2) We cannot compete against skilled, athletic big men. Anderson from BC, 22 and 7. Young from FLA, 17 and 7 Powell and Huestis from Stanford a combined 23 and 25. Thomas from Houston, 23 and 8. Nichols from Memphis, 13 and 5; modest, but he scored at will when he got the ball. Harrell 18 and 13. Hell, Justin Sears from Yale had 17 and 10. It's a trend that's not going to go away. This may be the worst collection of 4's and 5's we've had since JC made us relevant. If one of them plays solid, we can beat anyone. But if they all play soft, we will have dogfights...

3) Anyone calling out Boat is out of their minds. He played harder than I can ever remember him playing. His shot was not falling, but he got into the lane, finished inside, and was hurt by the fact that our big men couldn't finish.

4) This is a very flawed team. We have two guys who can handle the ball and are triple threat guys. Daniels, LK, Omar, and Giff are all below average in that regard.

5) Daniels is such an enigma. He came out flying. Then the 2nd foul came and he lost all his aggressiveness and intensity. We were really attacking their zone beautifully, he sits, and then we just started chucking 3's. Little ball movement and so dependent on Bazz and Boat to make something happen.

Very good post! Agree with most, but LK actually has a good handle for a 6'6" wing and Daniels mentally collapsed after missing that dunk. PN and Omar were also never mentally in the game...thus team desperately needs a good sports psychologist!

I also agree that L'ville has a lot more talent than UConn. I truly believe that Bazz will make an NBA roster, but he will likely be a 2nd round pick. Other than Bazz, not sure who else will make it (perhaps AB if he develops like we dream he will).

 

[caw]

Napier, TO, and Giff have deep tourney experience when they were freshmen, no one else does. 3 of Louisville's starting 5 were major players on a final four team last year. Bit of a difference. You could see us visibly lose our composure, Napier included, after KO got tossed. Louisville never lost their composure in the slightest. Not when we tied it early on or when we cut it to 7. We miss that alley-oop and they put us away. Defensively we are just as good but the rebounding clouds that and that is part of the whole defensive effort. Plus Louisville is allowed to play physically where we clearly are not.

Either way, when we start saying we "need" this and this and this to happen it concedes a bit. We have not been a good rebounding team all year. DD has been inconsistent. Same as our bigs. We can't just take what happened vs. Memphis and say that that is the new norm. If we played Louisville 10 times we beat them three times I'd think. I'm not saying we suck, I'm saying that I am not angry w/ our performance last night b/c Louisville is a good team.

UL didn't have their coach thrown out on two quick techs after an atrocious no-call. Can't compare the two, just silly to try. They lost their composure when Memphis went to UL and won.

Every team needs something. You think UL would have had a lead at half if Harrell was on the bench for 14 minutes in the first half? If he doesn't hit shots he hasn't hit all year? I wouldn't bet on it.

UL has as many inconsistent players as UConn. They aren't a much better if at all. All three teams (Mephis included)are somewhere between 12-20 nationally, IMO. Yes UL is a good team, so is UConn.

Daniels has been pretty consistent besides the past two games, one great, one bad. He has consistently hit the shots he missed last night, just look at his percentages. He missed a ton of open looks, just a bad night shooting for him.

 

[SubbaBub]

They got something out of their front court. It's the only difference.

Bazz is better than Smith this year. We had no business keeping it as close as we did getting beat on the boards that badly.
A fair whistle would have made it interesting. My take away is that our toughest opponent from here will be consistently.

 

[mauconnfan]

Louisville played harder, smarter and was definitely better last night. At least 5 - 50/50 balls got them easy baskets, can't happen. Hancock is a very cerebral player and our guys need to stay on the floor, it was awful how many times they went for the ball/head fakes. He's a whiner too so you need to stay on the floor, try to play as physical as allowed and make him shoot the 3, it's okay if he makes a couple but allowing him a lane to the basket doesn't work. Harrell hammered our guys around, some legal some not so much, got away with a lot of contact which the referees feel he deserves because he's bigger? He also made some nice plays weak side which is on our guys for not putting a body, hard one, on him. Again, I could care less how skinny you are, hit 'er when he's flying for a rebound, it's your job! Those 2 were the difference last night and I feel both hit their ceiling in this game……..Huskies may not be as good but even with our weak front court it's not a stretch to think they can play with them, not at all…….