A few thoughts on Houston.

[OkaForPrez]

1. Phil Nolan played 4 min in this game because he was sick. When he was in the game you could see him struggling to get up and down the floor. He is one of the reasons we keep teams from getting 20 first half points in the paint but didn't prevent Houston. Brimah couldn't guard Thomas away from the basket, so we went small which they took advantage of for easy baskets.
2. Houston's 20 point cushion was made up of 6 points off of loose ball deflections that found their way into post players hands under the rim. A tip rebound to Thomas early in the first half and two deflected passes that they collected and finished. There was also a run out where Napier missed a layup in transition and Thomas was rewarded for not getting back on defense. He was off camera for a long time, tying his shoe? These were flukey points.
3. We gave up 5 points on the break off of our own made baskets. JC must have been furious wherever he was. Unacceptable.
4. They hit at least 3 contested threes to open up that lead, including that ridiculous cross over NBA three with Omar and Giffey both contesting. Again, flukey.
5. We, in turn, missed at least 4 good looks from deep Kromah, Omar and Boat x2.

They built that lead on lightning in a bottle and 5 points we slept getting back in transition. It was too much to overcome especially with the dicey calls down the stretch. This, in my opinion was truly a WTF loss with a little bit of don't underestimate the importance of Phil Nolan.

Kevin Ollie can coach. Good Grief.

 

[kansashusky]

So I guess we should just believe this? This is all from your vantage point as a UConn fan. We lost to Houston without their best three players. Balls not going our way, fluky plays, and contested threes were not the reason we lost.

 

[OkaForPrez]

So I guess we should just believe this? This is all from your vantage point as a UConn fan. We lost to Houston without their best three players. Balls not going our way, fluky plays, and contested threes were not the reason we lost.

Believe what you want. My opinion.

 

[Marat]

We should have known all along that "Houston, We Have A Problem!", on our hands. A New Years Eve game in a sparsely populated gym and lack of motivation from the players. ..... resulted in a WTF 1st half.

 

[OkaForPrez]

So I guess we should just believe this? This is all from your vantage point as a UConn fan. We lost to Houston without their best three players. Balls not going our way, fluky plays, and contested threes were not the reason we lost.

P.S. Thomas is clearly their best player and one of the best players in the country, despite the fact that they are indeed a bad team.

 

[freescooter]

We lost to a very bad basketball team without its 3 best players. The rest of it is just excuses.

 

[mauconnfan]

So I guess we should just believe this? This is all from your vantage point as a UConn fan. We lost to Houston without their best three players. Balls not going our way, fluky plays, and contested threes were not the reason we lost.

Now they had their 3 best players not playing? How badly are you trying to portray a worst than actual scenario?

 

[mauconnfan]

We lost to a very bad basketball team without its 3 best players. The rest of it is just excuses.

3 best players? Why do people like you even bother, seriously!

they sucked, they lost……they aren't the only ones move on or move out! WTF

 

[Migs]

They built the 10-2 lead by hitting two wide open threes before the first media timeout. We gave them confidence and sometimes that's all you need when taking bad shots that go in, flukes.

They rammed the ball down our throat and after made baskets and off stops. Our guards didn't stop the ball all night. See second half when their point went down the middle of the floor uncontested past two defenders and threw up the alley oop to break the 59 all tie. When we pressed the ball accordingly, they coughed it up, see amazing comeback. We then decided that was enough and tried to exchage blows to end the game.

I do agree that many things happened that were "out of our control" but effort bridges a lot of those gaps.

They may have been a bad team, but they shot 60% in the first half to our 35%. They played insipred ball and took it to us, kind of like how we played in Germany last year. The common pattern of sluggish halves is something the coaches need to rectify. A solid rotation would help.

 

[Kitaman]

Good analysis, but most of all, the team was flat, lazy and quite frankly shell shocked/deflated in the 1st half.

All I want to know what the hell did Coach say at half-time?

 

[Greathusky]

Good analysis, but most of all, the team was flat, lazy and quite frankly shell shocked/deflated in the 1st half.

All I want to know what the hell did Coach say at half-time?

and can he do that half time speech before the game next time?

 

[freescooter]

3 best players? Why do people like you even bother, seriously!

they sucked, they lost……they aren't the only ones move on or move out! WTF

If this team had been playing great basketball and had a wtf loss in Houston, that would be one thing. they've been playing to the level of their opponents all year long. BC stinks. Maryland is only marginally better. Stanford stinks. Houston stinks and was missing 3 regulars. And you want to quibble about whether they were the 3 best or just 3 regulars...This team is unfocused, doesn't play hard and relies on Shabazz Napier to bail them out every single time. Teams with those tendencies tend not to go very far come tournament time. They had to play on New Year's Eve and that's why they lost? Come on. I guess they didn't give the Houston players a calender...

 

[Inyatkin]

Believe what you want. My opinion.

I'd rather believe Boat is selfish and Omar is pouting and DD is soft and Bazz is padding his stats. I believe these things because I hate UConn basketball, despite spending so much time on a UConn basketball message board.
Oh, and our coach determines who gets to shoot based on skin color.

 

[HuskiesAllDay]

1. 
   [ ]Phil Nolan played 4 min in this game because he was sick. When he was in the game you could see him struggling to get up and down the floor. He is one of the reasons we keep teams from getting 20 first half points in the paint but didn't prevent Houston. Brimah couldn't guard Thomas away from the basket, so we went small which they took advantage of for easy baskets.
   [ ]Houston's 20 point cushion was made up of 6 points off of loose ball deflections that found their way into post players hands under the rim. A tip rebound to Thomas early in the first half and two deflected passes that they collected and finished. There was also a run out where Napier missed a layup in transition and Thomas was rewarded for not getting back on defense. He was off camera for a long time, tying his shoe? These were flukey points.
   [ ]We gave up 5 points on the break off of our own made baskets. JC must have been furious wherever he was. Unacceptable.
   [ ]They hit at least 3 contested threes to open up that lead, including that ridiculous cross over NBA three with Omar and Giffey both contesting. Again, flukey.
   [ ]We, in turn, missed at least 4 good looks from deep Kromah, Omar and Boat x2.

They built that lead on lightning in a bottle and 5 points we slept getting back in transition. It was too much to overcome especially with the dicey calls down the stretch. This, in my opinion was truly a WTF loss with a little bit of don't underestimate the importance of Phil Nolan.

Kevin Ollie can coach. Good Grief.

You don't get down 21 pts on all fluke plays. We tied it up with 12 min to go, built a lead and still lost.

Phil Nolan has been awful 90% of the season so I don't think his sickness is a legitimate excuse.
Houston stinks and, as pointed out, was missing three starters. This was a pathetic performance. Stop making excuses. We've played pretty crappy now for a few weeks.

Remember when you called me dumb for saying we stink against Washington? We have been stinking and your rationalization and excuses are absurd.

 

[selles]

I'd rather believe Boat is selfish and Omar is pouting and DD is soft and Bazz is padding his stats. I believe these things because I hate UConn basketball, despite spending so much time on a UConn basketball message board.
Oh, and our coach determines who gets to shoot based on skin color.

Yup and you could add my firm belief that if we don't win every game by 35 points from here on out, we are doomed to conference irrelevancy forever! FOREVER! AHAHAHAH!

 

[huskyharry]

1. 
   [ ]Phil Nolan played 4 min in this game because he was sick. When he was in the game you could see him struggling to get up and down the floor. He is one of the reasons we keep teams from getting 20 first half points in the paint but didn't prevent Houston. Brimah couldn't guard Thomas away from the basket, so we went small which they took advantage of for easy baskets..

Very good analysis overall. We clearly allowed them to gain confidence in the first half through defensive lapses and lackadaisical play.
In regard to statement #1. I would say that Brimah struggled as much close to the basket as away and this has been a common thread in other instances throughout the year, not only with Brimah but with our other bigs as well. We are very vulnerable to a big who has average + bulk and interior skills on offense. Thomas fit that bill from Houston. Anderson from BCU also wore us out inside. Potential future opponents with players of this skill set would pose a huge problem (Randall at Kensucky, Meeks at UNC, Ridley at Texas, Hammons at Purdue etc.). PN is a bit better and TO is clearly better than Brimah at stopping a big man with interior scoring skills, but they both do it at the cost of collecting too many fouls. At least two of TOs fouls were garbage calls in my opinion but refs tend to reward someone who has had success earlier in the game and part of the crapola storm against us was Thomas, a 55% FT shooter, making 7 of 8 from the line.

 

[OkaForPrez]

Phil Nolan has been awful 90% of the season so I don't think his sickness is a legitimate excuse.

Phil Nolan is our best interior defender at present. His absence was relevant in discussing the points we allowed in the paint, the context I raised it in.

Remember when you called me dumb for saying we stink against Washington? We have been stinking and your rationalization and excuses are absurd.

I never called you dumb, I said you were going to look foolish drawing conclusions from 10 minutes of play and ultimately you did. I actually regret posting the way I did. My own emotions getting to me.

Just as you shouldn't overreact to that ten minute stretch of the Washington game, I don't think you should over-react to this loss. Yes its true that Houston is a bad team. It's also true that they played way above their station in that game. Early on it was a mixture of our lack of effort a few favorable bounces and the fact they made shots that I would gladly have given them all day if I was KO. Knowles played a hell of a game and his third three of the year on 9 attempts ended up being huge for them down the stretch.

I've pulled back on my expectations for this team some. Omar is lost, Deandre isn't as physical as I expected him to be and Boatright has not matured to the level bazz did entering his junior year. That doesn't mean this is a bad team though. As long as we have Napier we are always in the game. The fact that we were able to go on that 21-3 run to even things up is relevant.

Nobody should be proud of the effort from Tuesday, or comfortable with the outcome. But nobody should be questioning Ollie's competency over this game or believe that it is the true nature of this team either.

Don't let your high's get too high or your lows get to low.

 

[HuskiesAllDay]

Phil Nolan is our best interior defender at present. His absence was relevant in discussing the points we allowed in the paint, the context I raised it in.



I never called you dumb, I said you were going to look foolish drawing conclusions from 10 minutes of play and ultimately you did. I actually regret posting the way I did. My own emotions getting to me.

Just as you shouldn't overreact to that ten minute stretch of the Washington game, I don't think you should over-react to this loss. Yes its true that Houston is a bad team. It's also true that they played way above their station in that game. Early on it was a mixture of our lack of effort a few favorable bounces and the fact they made shots that I would gladly have given them all day if I was KO. Knowles played a hell of a game and his third three of the year on 9 attempts ended up being huge for them down the stretch.

I've pulled back on my expectations for this team some. Omar is lost, Deandre isn't as physical as I expected him to be and Boatright has not matured to the level bazz did entering his junior year. That doesn't mean this is a bad team though. As long as we have Napier we are always in the game. The fact that we were able to go on that 21-3 run to even things up is relevant.

Nobody should be proud of the effort from Tuesday, or comfortable with the outcome. But nobody should be questioning Ollie's competency over this game or believe that it is the true nature of this team either.

Don't let your high's get too high or your lows get to low.

But it's not overreacting to a bad stretch against Washington and now a horrific loss to Houston. We haven't played well for almost the entire season. We're very lucky to only have two losses. We're a few shabazz hero ball misses from being 8-5.

Bc stinks and we barely beat them. Indiana isn't very good. Washington is awful and we were down 15 to them. Stanford isn't very good. Down to eastern Washington with under 5 min in the first half? Beating a crap Loyola team by 7 at home. It's been all season now.
We just lost to a Houston team that stinks when they have all their players, and yet we lost when they were missing 3 out of 5 starters. There's no explaining that away. We're not a very good team right now and frankly we haven't been all season.

 

[ctchamps]

Very good analysis overall. We clearly allowed them to gain confidence in the first half through defensive lapses and lackadaisical play.
In regard to statement #1. I would say that Brimah struggled as much close to the basket as away and this has been a common thread in other instances throughout the year, not only with Brimah but with our other bigs as well. We are very vulnerable to a big who has average + bulk and interior skills on offense. Thomas fit that bill from Houston. Anderson from BCU also wore us out inside. Potential future opponents with players of this skill set would pose a huge problem (Randall at Kensucky, Meeks at UNC, Ridley at Texas, Hammons at Purdue etc.). PN is a bit better and TO is clearly better than Brimah at stopping a big man with interior scoring skills, but they both do it at the cost of collecting too many fouls. At least two of TOs fouls were garbage calls in my opinion but refs tend to reward someone who has had success earlier in the game and part of the crapola storm against us was Thomas, a 55% FT shooter, making 7 of 8 from the line.

I would say that Brimah still struggle to move his feet properly when trying to prevent post players from driving to the basket and picks up easy fouls. He's also indecisive on when to go out to the perimeter and when to stay for a rebound. Hopefully he'll figure these things out and get stronger over the upcoming years.

 

[Inyatkin]

We're a few shabazz hero ball misses from being 8-5..

We're also two plays from being 13-0. We are what we are.

 

[OkaForPrez]

But it's not overreacting to a bad stretch against Washington and now a horrific loss to Houston. We haven't played well for almost the entire season. We're very lucky to only have two losses. We're a few shabazz hero ball misses from being 8-5.

Bc stinks and we barely beat them. Indiana isn't very good. Washington is awful and we were down 15 to them. Stanford isn't very good. Down to eastern Washington with under 5 min in the first half? Beating a crap Loyola team by 7 at home. It's been all season now.
We just lost to a Houston team that stinks when they have all their players, and yet we lost when they were missing 3 out of 5 starters. There's no explaining that away. We're not a very good team right now and frankly we haven't been all season.

You seem pretty locked in to your pessimism and that's fine. Agree to disagree. There is enough of a sample size on Shabazz Napier's ability to guide this team to W's in tight games over the last two seasons to dismiss it as luck, heck I think its lucky for Houston and Stanford he didn't pull through those nights. Even if we are an otherwise average team with a POY caliber player, that makes us a good team this year capable of making a run.

 

[ctchamps]

But it's not overreacting to a bad stretch against Washington and now a horrific loss to Houston. We haven't played well for almost the entire season. We're very lucky to only have two losses. We're a few shabazz hero ball misses from being 8-5.

Bc stinks and we barely beat them. Indiana isn't very good. Washington is awful and we were down 15 to them. Stanford isn't very good. Down to eastern Washington with under 5 min in the first half? Beating a crap Loyola team by 7 at home. It's been all season now.
We just lost to a Houston team that stinks when they have all their players, and yet we lost when they were missing 3 out of 5 starters. There's no explaining that away. We're not a very good team right now and frankly we haven't been all season.

Reactions are subjective. Personally I feel this team has played better than it should have the past two seasons. It is composed of so many players with limitations that I scratch my head and say how come we aren't having a Rutgers or BC type of season.

So if I'm correct we have played really well most of this season for an average team and have over achieved. The question is whose expectations about this team is correct, your or mine. I really like OkaForPrez's analysis because this team is constructed in which everything has to be played at optimum in order for it to win, and he is pointing out the situations in which that didn't happen.

 

[huskyharry]

I would say that Brimah still struggle to move his feet properly when trying to prevent post players from driving to the basket and picks up easy fouls. He's also indecisive on when to go out to the perimeter and when to stay for a rebound. Hopefully he'll figure these things out and get stronger over the upcoming years.

Yes, AB needs work on the footwork, but he also lacks the core strength and it only takes a mild bump from a beefier opponent to dislodge him from proper defensive position.

 

[ctchamps]

1. 
   [ ]Phil Nolan played 4 min in this game because he was sick. When he was in the game you could see him struggling to get up and down the floor. He is one of the reasons we keep teams from getting 20 first half points in the paint but didn't prevent Houston. Brimah couldn't guard Thomas away from the basket, so we went small which they took advantage of for easy baskets.
   [ ]Houston's 20 point cushion was made up of 6 points off of loose ball deflections that found their way into post players hands under the rim. A tip rebound to Thomas early in the first half and two deflected passes that they collected and finished. There was also a run out where Napier missed a layup in transition and Thomas was rewarded for not getting back on defense. He was off camera for a long time, tying his shoe? These were flukey points.
   [ ]We gave up 5 points on the break off of our own made baskets. JC must have been furious wherever he was. Unacceptable.
   [ ]They hit at least 3 contested threes to open up that lead, including that ridiculous cross over NBA three with Omar and Giffey both contesting. Again, flukey.
   [ ]We, in turn, missed at least 4 good looks from deep Kromah, Omar and Boat x2.

They built that lead on lightning in a bottle and 5 points we slept getting back in transition. It was too much to overcome especially with the dicey calls down the stretch. This, in my opinion was truly a WTF loss with a little bit of don't underestimate the importance of Phil Nolan.

Kevin Ollie can coach. Good Grief.

Great analysis. I would point out that Ryan played a great game against Houston and if not for his play in the first half things would have been a lot uglier.

This team is not at the level of blowing teams out. It just lacks the players or the development of players currently for that to happen. So just a few small things can be the difference between winning and losing.

I was glad you pointed out those few plays in which the balls bounced the wrong way for UConn. There were four or five plays (you mention three) in which the team lost the ball because two UConn players aggressively went after the ball. I knew right away that was a bad omen. It reminded me of the 2008-2009 season in which many of the games the opposing teams were hitting half court shots at the buzzer to end the first half.

 

[ctchamps]

Yes, AB needs work on the footwork, but he also lacks the core strength and it only takes a mild bump from a beefier opponent to dislodge him from proper defensive position.

I agree he lacks the strength but he also has the instinct to stick out his knee when players start to drive past him and he picks up fouls as a result.