Beyond impressed

[superjohn]

What a senior night for CV. He always gave it his all, that maddening player with the ups and downs now has the look of one of those great senior guards you see in the tournament. His leadership has grown by leaps and bounds and we all knew he was making those ft's to close it out. He has now cemented his legacy.

So undermanned but every player is busting their arses every game and Hurley is coaching his buns off. Houston is the one really good team in this league and we've outplayed them for 80 minutes.

We used to have no idea how to run a fast break, now it's almost always a guaranteed bucket. Hurley now knows when to let them run and when to call the timeout to calm them down and to execute (timeout with 4 mins left was perfect) as were his substitutions. He's squeezing every last drop out of these guys.

We can look at those earlier games we should have won or we can all just say let's win the whole damn thing and go dancing.

 

[Shine33]

@DaveHuskiesFan I am starting to come around on CV. He was our best player today and he’s been a true leader through this final stretch. Still not ready to place him next to the all time great Uconn guards until I see what he does in this aac tourney...

But either way I’m proud of him and grateful to have him leading our team right now.

I’m pretty confident he continues his stellar play and he might play us into the tourney.

I see hunger in his eyes. Haven’t seen determined eyes like that in a UConn guard since..well...the other greats...

But I give you credit, you said so all along , but I still want credit for calling Bouks rise long before it happened my friend

 

[80shusky]

CV has always given maximum effort. That is all you can ask. He was special tonight but has been many times in his career. Everything hasn't always been pretty but you could always count on his desire to win and to do the extra things to try to help the team. I've been a stan of his since his freshman year and I still am . I hope he has an extra few games of greatness in his pocket just for fun.

 

[Rocktheworld]

From Kemba, to Bazz, to Boat, to Christian, we have been blessed with some true heart-of-lion guards.

 

[Lefty2one]

Vital has been unbelievable down the stretch. I've knocked him often enough for his propensity for heroball and boneheaded decisions but he's been fantastic the last five games. Since the Memphis game...

22.6 / 7.2 / 2.6 and 3.0 steals.
.453 / .415 / .903 splits

Still being a bit of himself with 3.6 turnovers a night but overall his decision-making has been much better.

If he keeps this up in Dallas we have a good shot at winning the darn thing. No one else in this dumpy conference is bringing that to the table.

 

[amsterdamjade]

@DaveHuskiesFan I am starting to come around on CV. He was our best player today and he’s been a true leader through this final stretch. Still not ready to place him next to the all time great Uconn guards until I see what he does in this aac tourney...

But either way I’m proud of him and grateful to have him leading our team right now.

I’m pretty confident he continues his stellar play and he might play us into the tourney.

I see hunger in his eyes. Haven’t seen determined eyes like that in a UConn guard since..well...the other greats...

But I give you credit, you said so all along , but I still want credit for calling Bouks rise long before it happened my friend

Come on. You want credit for calling Bouk’s rise long before it happened? That’s like wanting to take credit for the sun coming up in the morning. Any other ground breaking predictions you want to give out? Like maybe that was probably the last time Houston comes to play a conference game in Storrs?

 

[Huskyforlife]

Could be wrong, but do we have the 2 best guards in this conference? This feels like why we're dangerous, guard play wins.

 

[glastonbury50]

So impressed. I feel like all of the games I've been going to over the past four years has me hoping and waiting for a game and environment like tonight. There was really something special about that game and this team. Almost feel like I'm as emotionally attached to this UConn team as any team in the past. Not sure what it is but could be the adversity and the fact that it appears we are turning the corner.

 

[QuickDraw]

I can't think of any player ever who has fulfilled as much of their potential as CV. There have been players with higher ceilings and accolades but none IMO have done as much to max out their potential. He should be held as the standard for what you can achieve with hard work, dedication & perseverance.
He deserved to have his senior night go this way as much as anyone. Great win

 

[UConn2SF]

The two biggest catalysts in going 4-1 the last 5 games is CV and Bouk. But Whaley has been a huge factor too: shooting 62.5%, 33.2mpg, 14.6ppg, 8,4rpg, 2bpg. For me, his emergence might be the most surprising.

 

[gsmooth]

So impressed. I feel like all of the games I've been going to over the past four years has me hoping and waiting for a game and environment like tonight. There was really something special about that game and this team. Almost feel like I'm as emotionally attached to this UConn team as any team in the past. Not sure what it is but could be the adversity and the fact that it appears we are turning the corner.

Bingo and Ditto! I think it's the last 3 years prior to this one that got me so emotionally attached to this team. The last 3 years reminded me of the Dom Perno years-I can't remember a time UConn basketball being that bad and over more than 1 year. It's like this year the program is resurrected out of the ashes. It's been a while since I have been emotionally attached to a UConn basketball team. LIke I have said in my other posts, I came down from Boston to watch last night's game in Gampel because of CV and Alterique. The atmosphere reminded me of the old Big East games-it was a fun and emotional night.

 

[gsmooth]

I can't think of any player ever who has fulfilled as much of their potential as CV. There have been players with higher ceilings and accolades but none IMO have done as much to max out their potential. He should be held as the standard for what you can achieve with hard work, dedication & perseverance.
He deserved to have his senior night go this way as much as anyone. Great win

damn right. Last night's game was a victory I really wanted for the seniors. The last time I really wanted a victory this bad was last year for Jalen Adams against Houston, but they got blown out in the AAC tourney. And before that game it was the 2016 NCAA tourney games. It's been a long time since UConn basketball has been relevant.

 

[NJHoops]

 

[NJHoops]

The above and this are a sign of a good coach and a good player. Lots of credit due all around for this ending up being a meaningful season.

 

[DayDayTFS]

The two biggest catalysts in going 4-1 the last 5 games is CV and Bouk. But Whaley has been a huge factor too: shooting 62.5%, 33.2mpg, 14.6ppg, 8,4rpg, 2bpg. For me, his emergence might be the most surprising.

Huge.

 

[sdglast]

I think the evolution of Bouknight as the go-to player has been the catalyst for the rise of both Vital and Whalley. Vital especially tried to do too much thinking he needed to be the number one option. Having Bouknight become the go-to guy has elevated the play of everyone else. Jeff Goodman believes the hype--already touting Bouknight as the Big East Player of the Year next year on twitter.

 

[Caronimo]

From Kemba, to Bazz, to Boat, to Christian, we have been blessed with some true heart-of-lion guards.

I think we have a special one in Gaff as well

 

[Tenspro2002]

The above and this are a sign of a good coach and a good player. Lots of credit due all around for this ending up being a meaningful season.

Wow, surprised to see them actually acknowledge that.

I think it's clear now that Hurley couldn't stand Vital's losing-play tendencies, but eventually got through to him.

Terrific coaching by Hurley and impressive maturity by Vital to buy into it.

 

[8893]

Wow, surprised to see them actually acknowledge that.

I think it's clear now that Hurley couldn't stand Vital's losing-play tendencies, but eventually got through to him.

Terrific coaching by Hurley and impressive maturity by Vital to buy into it.

Hurley spoke about it to the crowd last night after the game, too. He said there were times last year when he didn't think they could be in the same room together, but seeing how it has come together now is what he loves best about coaching.

 

[intlzncster]

From Kemba, to Bazz, to Boat, to Christian, we have been blessed with some true heart-of-lion guards.

Can't leave out Taliek, Ricky and crew. Taliek is right there at the top in that dept

 

[ctchamps]

If Vital looks in the mirror he could easily see Hurley and vice versa. They are two strong minded and stubborn people who always give 110%.

It’s not surprising they had a difficult time adjusting to one another. We may feel differently but some players needed time to adjust to a coaching change.