Biggest Game Coaching mistake Calhoun ever made

[nelsonmuntz]

UConn played very well against UCLA, although I thought Ollie was not rotating back fast enough on Bailey. Bailey had something like 20 points that game. Bailey was not nearly quick enough to get by Ollie 1 on 1, but Bailey was releasing on the UConn shot and Ollie was not rotating back fast enough. Knight did not play well against the Yugoslav center that UCLA had, but that was just Knight being Knight. Knight is one of the better offensive centers UConn has had, but he could be really bad defensively at times, particularly against physical big men.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The 2006 and 2009 teams were recruited and built to win it all. Their demise was not Calhoun's coaching. Those teams lost based on their rosters.

In the 2006 the team was 30-4 but only had two ball handlers- Marcus Williams and a freshman Craig Austrie. Rob Garrison was also there as a freshman but I'm not sure he played. As good as Rashad, Rudy and Denham were they were not ball handlers. "Circuit City" AJ Price was supposed to be there and would've made a huge difference against George Mason. That teamed was flawed.

In 2009 we finally got AJ Price to the Final Four but Dyson was out. Our guards for that game were AJ , Craig Austrie and a young Kemba. That team was supposed to have Doug Wiggins on it and as I recall he was no " Scrub". He would of made a difference.

We won in 1999 , 2011 and more so in 2014 by having multiple guards. This seems to be our winning formula.

I don't disagree on the ball handling argument for the 2006 team, but we are talking about George Mason here, not UCLA or Florida. That UConn team was really, really good even without a second ball handler.

I think the 2009 team just ran into a very good Final Four in which its opponent was playing a home game. Unless Calhoun could have gotten the game moved to a different venue, there is not much he could have done.

 

[Mots010]

I don't disagree on the ball handling argument for the 2006 team, but we are talking about George Mason here, not UCLA or Florida. That UConn team was really, really good even without a second ball handler.

I think the 2009 team just ran into a very good Final Four in which its opponent was playing a home game. Unless Calhoun could have gotten the game moved to a different venue, there is not much he could have done.

I know its George Mason, but after they beat UNC and Mich St, Wich St, then Uconn, at some point you have to just say they were good, or at least very hot. Even in the final 4 they hung with Florida and were competitive. Playing a hot team in front of a home crowd is a recipe for disaster, especially for a Uconn team that was not in top form, and had somewhat of a flawed roster.

 

[Scoe]

I say 06 not playing Ed Nelson enough, I also remember that bs charge called on Nelson near the end of the half that changed the momentum of the game should have been an and one putting us up at least 11 at the half.

Whats the biggest game coaching mistake by Geno, I know what the biggest one from Popovich was it was not having Tim Duncan in the final minute against the Heat last year to grab a rebound. Belichick has had his lately.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

3) Adrien had an amazing game, going 7 for 8 with 17 points and 7 rebounds. Calhoun should have just left him out there.

Jeff played the game of the George Mason bigs better than they did and would have willed a win. Only JC keeping him off the court could have stopped him, and that's what happened. At least that's how it felt to me at the time (and ever since) . . . and so much so that I'm actually commenting in agreement with an OP who way more often than not makes me wonder why he posts silly and/or inflammatory stuff when he's obviously capable of good insights.

Then again, RichZ notes a whole lot of other things that might have changed in subsequent UCONN history, so I can easily enough just accept what's so.

 

[Horatio]

I don't disagree on the ball handling argument for the 2006 team, but we are talking about George Mason here, not UCLA or Florida. That UConn team was really, really good even without a second ball handler.

I think the 2009 team just ran into a very good Final Four in which its opponent was playing a home game. Unless Calhoun could have gotten the game moved to a different venue, there is not much he could have done.

I agree about the 2009 team. Although we play for championships and are " bred to cut down nets" ,I think most reasonable fans accept that final four team right after our four championship teams. They deserve it.

 

[nomar]

Sitting Caron with 2 fouls against Maryland. That let MD back in the game and they won the NC.

And sitting Emeka in 2004 probably won us the NC.

JC had that rule, and he stuck with it. It's difficult for me to cherry-pick a game or two where it didn't work out for us, when most of the time it did, and in fact may have directly won us a title.

 

[intlzncster]

And sitting Emeka in 2004 probably won us the NC.

JC had that rule, and he stuck with it. It's difficult for me to cherry-pick a game or two where it didn't work out for us, when most of the time it did, and in fact may have directly won us a title.

It's seems KO has adopted the rule too, is that correct? Can anyone remember him not doing it this year?

 

[Gurleyman]

I don't disagree on the ball handling argument for the 2006 team, but we are talking about George Mason here, not UCLA or Florida. That UConn team was really, really good even without a second ball handler.

I think the 2009 team just ran into a very good Final Four in which its opponent was playing a home game. Unless Calhoun could have gotten the game moved to a different venue, there is not much he could have done.

The 2006 team had a good record obviously, but was pretty much meh late in the season - needed double overtime to beat an NIT-bound Notre Dame at home, blew a 17-point lead at 7-24 South Florida, was tied with a minute to go against a sub-.500 Louisville team at home in regular season finale, lost to a pedestrian (yet plucky) Syracuse team in the first round of the BET, regrouped from that debacle to trail Albany by 12 in the second half, was life and death with an also pedestrian Kentucky team (which scored 83 points), and committed highway robbery to escape the Washington game with the help of a BS double tech that took Brandon Roy off the floor. When we drew George Mason, I thought "thank goodness our bracket blew up, because this team wouldn't beat anyone halfway decent right now". George Mason turned out to be halfway decent enough.

Frankly, Albany got a little hyper in the moment and choked their lead away, or we might have lost a 1-16 game (we couldn't guard them either). No secret that I don't care much for Marcus Williams, but he stepped up in the second half and saved us that embarassment, so I'm grateful to him for that at least.

 

[Gurleyman]

I say 06 not playing Ed Nelson enough, I also remember that bs charge called on Nelson near the end of the half that changed the momentum of the game should have been an and one putting us up at least 11 at the half.

Whats the biggest game coaching mistake by Geno, I know what the biggest one from Popovich was it was not having Tim Duncan in the final minute against the Heat last year to grab a rebound. Belichick has had his lately.

I mentioned this earlier in this thread, but Duncan was never on the floor all season in San Antonio's "no threes" defense late in games. They used Diaw in his place and switched everything, and that prevented Duncan from being stuck in a mismatch on the perimeter against a shooter. The unit that was on the floor was the one that was best-drilled on how to handle that situation - yet it so happens those players still botched it up. The issue was Parker didn't switch on to Bosh like he was supposed to - even a small body would have kept Bosh off the glass, since he had to crash from the three-point line all the way down to the paint to get the ball. He just had nobody in the way, and that made it easy.

If you put Duncan in Diaw's spot and assume the Heat run the same play, he would have been out contesting LeBron's three and wouldn't have been in position for the rebound anyway.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

One of the under-heralded storylines of our 2011 run was the Kemba Redemption Tour, getting back to the Final Four, performing well, and winning.

Under-heralded in the sense that I never once heard any reference whatsoever to it in the media or anywhere else until you just mentioned it. That final four was 5 years ago and, until you posted it in this thread, I've never once heard anyone even hint that Kemba was redeeming himself for 2009 in 2011. It never even occurred to me to blame him for the loss to MSU.

 

[David 76]

Right. JC "couldn't get over the FF hump" in 1994. When his team had been to the final eight one time, in their first NCAA appearance. There was no "FF hump" to speak of, at least until after the 1994 loss, but moreso after the loss in the final eight in 1995. The very idea that Calhoun went against his own tendencies is pretty laughable, but to claim he did so because he "couldn't get over the FF hump" in 1994 is just unfathomably ridiculous.

It is amazing the revisionist history flying around here.

Good point. Too bad you were such a about it.

 

[Husky999]

Can't believe no one here is talking about the biggest underachieving Uconn team of them all 1995-96. Loss to Miss st. in the sweet 16. IIR we were down about 20 points when we decide to start up the press and cut it to 2 before ultimately losing to that chump team. That loss hurt way more than the Florida loss. That Uconn team was way better with or without Ricky Moore. Even though if we had won we would have forfeited the games because of the violations.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Can't believe no one here is talking about the biggest underachieving Uconn team of them all 1995-96. Loss to Miss st. in the sweet 16. IIR we were down about 20 points when we decide to start up the press and cut it to 2 before ultimately losing to that chump team. That loss hurt way more than the Florida loss. That Uconn team was way better with or without Ricky Moore. Even though if we had won we would have forfeited the games because of the violations.

I thought that team overachieved a little. The lineup was Sheffer, Allen, King, Knight and Moore or Rash as the 5th starter. That team basically had no bench, and neither of the front court players were creators even if they got the ball on the blocks. That team was susceptible to a really good defensive squad, and was protected by an OK Big East that year that did not expose the team's holes.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The 2006 team had a good record obviously, but was pretty much meh late in the season - needed double overtime to beat an NIT-bound Notre Dame at home, blew a 17-point lead at 7-24 South Florida, was tied with a minute to go against a sub-.500 Louisville team at home in regular season finale, lost to a pedestrian (yet plucky) Syracuse team in the first round of the BET, regrouped from that debacle to trail Albany by 12 in the second half, was life and death with an also pedestrian Kentucky team (which scored 83 points), and committed highway robbery to escape the Washington game with the help of a BS double tech that took Brandon Roy off the floor. When we drew George Mason, I thought "thank goodness our bracket blew up, because this team wouldn't beat anyone halfway decent right now". George Mason turned out to be halfway decent enough.

Frankly, Albany got a little hyper in the moment and choked their lead away, or we might have lost a 1-16 game (we couldn't guard them either). No secret that I don't care much for Marcus Williams, but he stepped up in the second half and saved us that embarassment, so I'm grateful to him for that at least.

The Big East was very tough that year, and UConn had a great record. The top 6 on that squad were excellent, and the Adrien and Austrie were a good 7 and 8. It took epic no shows by Boone and Armstrong for UConn to lose in overtime.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Jeff played the game of the George Mason bigs better than they did and would have willed a win. Only JC keeping him off the court could have stopped him, and that's what happened. At least that's how it felt to me at the time (and ever since) . . . and so much so that I'm actually commenting in agreement with an OP who way more often than not makes me wonder why he posts silly and/or inflammatory stuff when he's obviously capable of good insights.

Then again, RichZ notes a whole lot of other things that might have changed in subsequent UCONN history, so I can easily enough just accept what's so.

Armstrong and Boone were not even slowing GMU's bigs down in that game, they were just getting out of the way. I have trouble coming up with any other UConn game where I ever questioned a player's effort, but I do question what happened in that GMU game.

 

[Gurleyman]

Can't believe no one here is talking about the biggest underachieving Uconn team of them all 1995-96. Loss to Miss st. in the sweet 16. IIR we were down about 20 points when we decide to start up the press and cut it to 2 before ultimately losing to that chump team. That loss hurt way more than the Florida loss. That Uconn team was way better with or without Ricky Moore. Even though if we had won we would have forfeited the games because of the violations.

Ricky wasn't a big loss statistically, but he was a card that we needed to play in order to make an adjustment. He was a guy who could have changed the pace of the game and improved our matchups on defense. He could have guarded Wilson (their shooter), and pushed the ball up the floor when we were stuck in the half court. We couldn't really press with no backup guards - Sheffer had to play 40 and he was a bit hobbled too.

Losing Ricky then would be like losing Napier in 2011 and losing the adjustment of being able to put Kemba off the ball. There's nothing in Ricky's 1996 stats or Bazz's in 2011 that makes it seem like they were vital, but they were guys who were important to us strategically.

The chump team actually punked the best Kentucky team Pitino ever had in the SEC title game and beat a very good Cincy team after us - giving them wins over 3 of the top 6 teams in the country in a span of two weeks. We needed Ray-Doron-Travis to be on their games to win and we just got Ray for a half and a few minutes of Doron late. Not enough.

 

[ASweet3781]

Can't believe no one here is talking about the biggest underachieving Uconn team of them all 1995-96. Loss to Miss st. in the sweet 16. IIR we were down about 20 points when we decide to start up the press and cut it to 2 before ultimately losing to that chump team. That loss hurt way more than the Florida loss. That Uconn team was way better with or without Ricky Moore. Even though if we had won we would have forfeited the games because of the violations.

Which is why the statement that the MSU loss hurt more than Florida is kinda absurd. 1996 wouldn't have counted even had we beaten MSU. 1994 had a legit shot to win had they not choked against UF. It certainly could have been atleast a Final Four year with BC awaiting in the regional.

I don't know how anyone can say any loss hurt more than that Florida one. George Mason was embarrassing. Laettner was heartbreaking. Florida was embarrassing, heartbreaking, and infuriating. Thankfully we got some revenge this year!

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Can't believe no one here is talking about the biggest underachieving Uconn team of them all 1995-96. Loss to Miss st. in the sweet 16. IIR we were down about 20 points when we decide to start up the press and cut it to 2 before ultimately losing to that chump team. That loss hurt way more than the Florida loss. That Uconn team was way better with or without Ricky Moore. Even though if we had won we would have forfeited the games because of the violations.

Was that the year UConn lost at Gampel to Charlie Ward and Florida State? All I remember from that came was a co-ed naked body surfing in the student section. Not sure if that made in on the CBS broadcast.

 

[CallMeBruce]

I thought that team overachieved a little. The lineup was Sheffer, Allen, King, Knight and Moore or Rash as the 5th starter. That team basically had no bench, and neither of the front court players were creators even if they got the ball on the blocks. That team was susceptible to a really good defensive squad, and was protected by an OK Big East that year that did not expose the team's holes.

What? Moore and Jones were both great off the bench, and Hayward played a ton of very productive minutes, too. Also, the Big East was loaded that season. Nothing you just said makes sense.

 

[Inyatkin]

I thought that team overachieved a little. The lineup was Sheffer, Allen, King, Knight and Moore or Rash as the 5th starter. That team basically had no bench, and neither of the front court players were creators even if they got the ball on the blocks. That team was susceptible to a really good defensive squad, and was protected by an OK Big East that year that did not expose the team's holes.

Rudy Johnson started that season, Ricky came off the bench. We entered that game at 32-2. I don't know how you could view Mississippi State as anything other than a total letdown, future sanctions notwithstanding.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Rudy Johnson started that season, Ricky came off the bench. We entered that game at 32-2. I don't know how you could view Mississippi State as anything other than a total letdown, future sanctions notwithstanding.

That MSU team had 3 future NBA players on it.

 

[Inyatkin]

That MSU team had 3 future NBA players on it.

That UConn team had Ray Allen on it. You're going to argue that wasn't a total letdown on UConn's part? OK, I'd say otherwise.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

That UConn team had Ray Allen on it. You're going to argue that wasn't a total letdown on UConn's part? OK, I'd say otherwise.

I am saying that I don't think it was a coaching failure. There were not a lot of levers to pull on that UConn team. There were basically 4 very good starters and then gimpy kneed Rudy Johnson or some frosh. I believe Moore was out that game, right? That team was really dependent on Ray Allen for scoring, and if the other team could slow or stop him, there wasn't a good plan B. I don't think that team was as good as its record either. It was a good team, but not 34-2 good.

 

[Waquoit]

It's seems KO has adopted the rule too, is that correct? Can anyone remember him not doing it this year?

I know he has played guys with 2 fouls in the first half, I just don't recall the exact games. He would have put Bazz back in against Nova if he needed to,