Andy Katz (from espn chat) says, sweet 16 would be good

[ctchamps]

Conditioning is completely different than strength training. DD needs to hit the gym 6 times a week and consume protein like he's on Jersey Shore. That will build mass.

Might be strength training hire. Someone from the SEC. Was just wondering if there was football/bb crossover.

 

[Husky Dad]

Whatever Andy Katz. I am shooting for better than Sweet 16. Even in that bogus Lunardi set up Florida is the only team I dont want to play and we already beat them. We are going to be fine. We were built for a run in the tournament.

 

[jfuchs91]

The field is pretty strong this year. Have you seen Florida? With a front court like they've got, there's no way we could ever beat a team like that.

Right?

 

[metsfan2323]

Are these conditioning trainers handling the bb players as well?

Based on press reports the answer is yes, he is designing routines for all of the sports programs. Obviously Ollie needs to throw his support behind the new guy.

 

[ctchamps]

Saturdays game will be a great litmus test to get an idea about UConn's chances.

 

[Jerry1714]

We played Cincy in the round of 32 in '11. They count the play in games as round 1. Conference foes can meet in the round of 32 which is now considered the third round.

Ah I thought that was just because there was 11 in and it would have been impossible for teams from the BE to not potentially meet that year in the round of 32

 

[ctchamps]

Based on press reports the answer is yes, he is designing routines for all of the sports programs. Obviously Ollie needs to throw his support behind the new guy.

That's great news. I'm sure KO will. There has definitely been an upgrade in how the AD is run.

 

[tzznandrew]

Ah I thought that was just because there was 11 in and it would have been impossible for teams from the BE to not potentially meet that year in the round of 32

That was why it happened. But they've since changed the rules to allow for earlier meetings. I think they'll still try to avoid it, by sliding teams down the S-Curve a little, but won't drop them a seed-line anymore.

But this won't nearly be as much of a problem, because the conference that caused the problem (the Big East, AKA the best basketball conference of all time, c. 2003-2013) is dead. It will be a while before you get 11 teams in the tournament from one conference, because the best teams from that conference are in 2 brand new conferences, and one other (pretty good for its age but overrated) basketball league

 

[CTBasketball]

I don't agree that we're built for the tournament, but yet again any team that lives and dies by the 3 can catch fire in March.

 

[CAHUSKY]

Yea I really don't understand posters harping on our lack of post offense.

Its not even really a lack of post offense. Its the complete lack of passing the ball inside to draw defenders away from our shooters. When we completely stop feeding the post the defense swarms the shooters which makes hitting shots exponentially more difficult.

 

[storrsroars]

The issue with feeding AB and Phil is that AB doesn't have the footwork (yet) and Phil has a bad case of "I'm gonna take a power dribble and load for a huge dunk even though I'm wide open and let the defense come to alter the shot." If DD sticks on the block and we find a way to feed AB and Phil for a combined 8 shots and 6 of them fall I'll be very happy.

One of the best things about last night is twice Nolan got the ball in tight and did not put it on the floor before launching himself for the dunk.

He's still learning. And none too soon.

 

[huskiesnyc]

Im still flabbergasted we haven't tried to force feed Amida and Phil in the post more often. I realize they are both offensive liabilities but in the rare instances we run plays for them we have had some success. Without them providing at least a tiny bit of offense its going to be damn near impossible to move beyond the sweet 16 unless we shoot 60% from three.

I love Bazz and Boat but if they didn't involve Drummond and Oriakhi in our offense in 2012 don't expect them to feed Brimah and Nolan..

 

[CTBasketball]

I love Bazz and Boat but if they didn't involve Drummond and Oriakhi in our offense in 2012 don't expect them to feed Brimah and Nolan..

This is 100% true.

 

[Tenspro2002]

I love Bazz and Boat but if they didn't involve Drummond and Oriakhi in our offense in 2012 don't expect them to feed Brimah and Nolan..

Are any of those 4 worth feeding in a back-to-the-basket scenario? They're not exactly Emeka Okafor.

 

[champs99and04]

Are any of those 4 worth feeding in a back-to-the-basket scenario? They're not exactly Emeka Okafor.

Exactly, Shabazz looked for Drummond constantly in 2012 (and Boatright did, too, to a lesser extent). I'd be willing to bet a significant portion of Drummond's points were backdoor lobs from Bazz and Boat (his other points were putbacks and dump-down drop-offs).

As for Oriakhi, despite his best efforts to convince us otherwise, Shabazz and Boatright didn't have any sort of vendetta against him. He was just very clumsy in the post and whenever he got the ball down there it was generally a wasted possession.

For this season, I feel like we feed Nolan often enough. We generally try to get it to him at least once or twice, and he's had varying degrees of success. Last night he put up something that looked like it was shot out of a cannon and we never went back to him - hard to blame the guards. Further, it would be one thing if Nolan and Brimah were winning deep post position every time down the floor. They're not. Most of the time when they get the ball, they aren't in a position to realistically do anything productive. If what people want is to get the ball to Nolan ten feet from the basket, you're banging your head into a wall.

 

[James]

Yeah champs nailed its ; it's about establishing position,which is damn near impossible when you're outweighed by like 40 pounds most nights.
You know what looked really really nice ? Olander hitting that nice little mid range. It's a shame he can't defend pnr's . Maybe Nolan can start hitting that shot ?

 

[ecasadoSBU]

Screw that. We taking it all!!!!!!! LETS GO!!!!!!!!! CONNECTICUT!!!

 

[gtcam]

The "field" is lousy this year.

We're talking about Syracuse as a #2 seed and they haven't scored more than 62 points in over a month.

But the killer for UConn is that eventually, the shots won't fall and the front court's inability to rebound will be fatal.

Sweet Sixteen would be a good result - anything past that this year is gravy.

The shots wont fall?
I don't recall a lot of shots falling the last 6 games or so
Yes they hit some 3s Wednesday but overall the offense has been rather dismal
Out rebounded by 10 Wednesday
I'm not saying they are going any further than sweet sixteen but right now the offense is not clicking.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

Here's Lunardi's bracketology from today:

http://espn.go.com/ncb/bracketology

I would take this draw in a heartbeat. Michigan is a pretty inconsistent team at a 3 seed. Virginia is tough, but beatable.

I doubt we could take Florida at full strength, but Elite Eight would be great for this squad.

 

[Palatine]

Virginia killed the Syracuse zone. I thin they would have more trouble with our man2man.

 

[mauconnfan]

Conditioning is completely different than strength training. DD needs to hit the gym 6 times a week and consume protein like he's on Jersey Shore. That will build mass.

Or ring dings, potato skins, fried mozzarella, pizza………oops wrong "mass"

 

[Brochacho]

I've been telling this to my friends, but I have a gut feeling that Omar Calhoun will be the reason we win in the Sweet Sixteen this year. He will randomly come up huge. Crystal Ball past that is a little fuzzy.