Brew's Clues - Houston...Free Throws are a Problem

[JustbrewitMan]

--I have total mixed emotions after this game. Proud of the fight and effort that the team put forth, but irritated at what might have been with some improvements in fundamentals. Nevertheless, was nothing near the potential Valentine's day massacre many were worried about.

Some Things I saw:

-If there was ever a 10.0 Richter Scale earthquake in Hartford, the only things left standing would be the rims at the XL center. Damn, those things don't move at all...

-We actually had some really nice ball movement for most of the game and it paid off in some nice open shots. Unfortunately, we missed too many of them for a legit chance at a victory.

-I was really pleased with Carlton's progress/bounceback from last game. He's making me cautiously optimistic that he'll be able to be an important piece of our frontline for the next 2 years. Though he struggled to make shots, he busted his arse and had a respectable statline versus a very athletic team.

-We need to figure out some way to run some plays to get Polley open for 2-3 more spot-up 3's each game.

-Sid continues to make some great progress and is looking more and more comfortable with the game. If he can put on 10-15 pounds of muscle in time for next season, it can only help him when he's in the paint.

-Tarin had a good/serviceable game. He does tend to dribble a bit too much and it disrupted the offensive flow a few times...but then a few times, he ended up making a nice dish/assist.

-CV was CV. Heart of a lion!

-Houston had very nice ball movement; sometimes we blew defensive switches to give them easy buckets, but there also were just a lot of very nice offensive sets...so hats off to them.


Awards:

Double IPA Award - I think this was a real balanced team effort. But, overall I'll give it to CV
IPA Award - Josh
Session IPA Award - Tarin
Imperial Stout Award - Sid for the nasty breakaway dunk
Sour Farmhouse Ale Award - The Refs. Quite a few headscratcher calls, but that shot clock violation call SUCKED. Took away a likely fastbreak bucket that would have got the crowd going crazy. Who knows if that would have changed the overall momentum of the last few minutes. We'll never know.

Cheers!!!

 

[Husk04ies]

Free throw shooting was absolutely frustrating.....we couldn't capitalize on all of those fouls

 

[Jay-Bone]

--I have total mixed emotions after this game. Proud of the fight and effort that the team put forth, but irritated at what might have been with some improvements in fundamentals. Nevertheless, was nothing near the potential Valentine's day massacre many were worried about.

Some Things I saw:

-If there was ever a 10.0 Richter Scale earthquake in Hartford, the only things left standing would be the rims at the XL center. Damn, those things don't move at all...

-We actually had some really nice ball movement for most of the game and it paid off in some nice open shots. Unfortunately, we missed too many of them for a legit chance at a victory.

-I was really pleased with Carlton's progress/bounceback from last game. He's making me cautiously optimistic that he'll be able to be an important piece of our frontline for the next 2 years. Though he struggled to make shots, he busted his arse and had a respectable statline versus a very athletic team.

-We need to figure out some way to run some plays to get Polley open for 2-3 more spot-up 3's each game.

-Sid continues to make some great progress and is looking more and more comfortable with the game. If he can put on 10-15 pounds of muscle in time for next season, it can only help him when he's in the paint.

-Tarin had a good/serviceable game. He does tend to dribble a bit too much and it disrupted the offensive flow a few times...but then a few times, he ended up making a nice dish/assist.

-CV was CV. Heart of a lion!

-Houston had very nice ball movement; sometimes we blew defensive switches to give them easy buckets, but there also were just a lot of very nice offensive sets...so hats off to them.


Awards:

Double IPA Award - I think this was a real balanced team effort. But, overall I'll give it to CV
IPA Award - Josh
Session IPA Award - Tarin
Imperial Stout Award - Sid for the nasty breakaway dunk
Sour Farmhouse Ale Award - The Refs. Quite a few headscratcher calls, but that shot clock violation call SUCKED. Took away a likely fastbreak bucket that would have got the crowd going crazy. Who knows if that would have changed the overall momentum of the last few minutes. We'll never know.

Cheers!!!

Watch the replay, you'll find that Carlton was getting punked out there. He was active though and squeezed a good number of bounds. But then again, I don't like IPA's, I like stouts, so what do I know? Double entendre intended.

 

[Ts5034]

Free throw shooting was absolutely frustrating.....we couldn't capitalize on all of those fouls

Why does it seem like free throw shooting is always a problem? Even in 2004 when we had one of our best and most dominant teams of all time, they were like one of the 10 worst free throw shooting teams in the country. The 2014 team was almost flawless at the line, and that played a huge part in winning the National Championship. Its just funny because I remember at the time everyone was saying how uncharicteristic that was for us. Free throw shooting is extremely important and we cant give up so many points at the line anymore and have our opponents taking 10-15 more free throws than us on a regular basis.

 

[Scrutineer]

Why does it seem like free throw shooting is always a problem? Even in 2004 when we had one of our best and most dominant teams of all time, they were like one of the 10 worst free throw shooting teams in the country. The 2014 team was almost flawless at the line, and that played a huge part in winning the National Championship. Its just funny because I remember at the time everyone was saying how uncharicteristic that was for us. Free throw shooting is extremely important and we cant give up so many points at the line anymore and have our opponents taking 10-15 more free throws than us on a regular basis.

The percentage is not good this year and we're on the short end of attempts most nights, but tonight we made 3 more than Houston took.

 

[Jay-Bone]

Watch the replay, you'll find that Carlton was getting punked out there. He was active though and squeezed a good number of bounds. But then again, I don't like IPA's, I like stouts, so what do I know? Double entendre intended.

Following up on this conjecture. Despite not passing the eye test for me. He did pull down 10 rebounds against a superiorly athletic team. Cobb somehow had 0 bounds. Polley got more than Cobb?!?! Thats incredulous. I have to give Josh credit for that. His best feature tonight was drawing fouls. Ok, he can have the 5% IPA award. Certainly no Pliny.

 

[zls44]

UConn has almost always been one of the tallest teams in the country. Its harder for bigs to make FTs- its a geometry thing.

 

[husky429]

UConn has almost always been one of the tallest teams in the country. Its harder for bigs to make FTs- its a geometry thing.

We're not now.

Our best FT shooters dont get to tthe line much is all.

 

[zls44]

We're not now.

Our best FT shooters dont get to tthe line much is all.

I'm not in love with how our guards shoot there either, but they aren't shooting as many of them now

 

[DALTX]

Sid made the ESPN Sportscenter Top 10 plays with his huge block.

 

[superjohn]

Why does it seem like free throw shooting is always a problem? Even in 2004 when we had one of our best and most dominant teams of all time, they were like one of the 10 worst free throw shooting teams in the country. The 2014 team was almost flawless at the line, and that played a huge part in winning the National Championship. Its just funny because I remember at the time everyone was saying how uncharicteristic that was for us. Free throw shooting is extremely important and we cant give up so many points at the line anymore and have our opponents taking 10-15 more free throws than us on a regular basis.

2014 was uncharacteristic for anyone, that's one of the best ft shooting teams in the history of college basketball. So, no ft shooting isn't always a problem.

 

[Ewekon]

How would you grade the singles section? Could you actually see roses? I didn't on TV.

 

[Huskybass]

How in the world do Cobb and Sid play a combined 53 minutes and get 2 rebounds between them? Stuff like that just can't happen.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

Watch the replay, you'll find that Carlton was getting punked out there. He was active though and squeezed a good number of bounds. But then again, I don't like IPA's, I like stouts, so what do I know? Double entendre intended.

It’s all about progress with Josh. He got double teamed early and often by long athletic players. Earlier in the year, he would have been a complete scared ghost versus Houston. Last night, he fought hard, looked fairly poised, and made some nice moves to create space. Next step is developing the strength to finish those moves versus high caliber opponents.

I think he can do it and I’m rooting for him.

And BTW it’s still stout season!

 

[JustbrewitMan]

How would you grade the singles section? Could you actually see roses? I didn't on TV.

Cameras did a horrible job showing singles section of the crowd.

If they had shown enough of a sample, I could have given out a Blonde Ale Award for the cutest co-ed shown.

 

[Stinger92860]

A winnable game with improvement needed in 2 areas. The free throw shooting is horible. Shoot 68% and pick up 3 points. That’s still only 17-25 but it should be the floor.

Gotta defend better on the 3 ball. Houston shot 11-21 a 52% clip. Taking away 1 or 2 hits makes a hbig difference. Even if they convert on 2’s it’s still another 2-6 points we can get back on D.

I think these are 2 areas we keep having problems that we should be able to bring every night. I understand our own shooting will be variable. However we consistently miss FTs and it seems every team lights up outside.