Last year we wore teams down in the middle of halves with our subs being better than their subs.
I also learned the start time favored the Midwest team because UConn fans bedtime is 10 pm.
We had the luxury of having basically hockey lines to sub with limited fall off. I think it’s just different this year (and look at the results in the W/L column) with individual subs and a wider variety of lineups. I don’t remember us playing nearly as much small ball, which has seemed to be very effective for us; I would love to see if someone can play around with the KenPom stats on the small ball lineups we’ve played
And people get in a tizzy when we aren’t considered a blue blood. Puke, KU, UK don’t care when the game is, who is playing and what the rankings are; when they have someone in their house who isn’t a cupcake, they are loud. For whatever reason, our fans still aren’t as passionate and raucous as those other blue bloods.
Looked good, i do wish he occasionally established lower position so he could just dunk
That’s my only qualm. Edey is definitely more developed offensively but he dunks a ton. Clingan doesn’t move bodies as well and his touch, especially off the backboard, leaves a bit to be desired.
I've been to plenty of games in Hartford that had great, supportive crowds. This was not an enthusiastic crowd by any means and without the crowd energy, the players seemed to have less energy. Sometime the crowd can really make a difference.
I'm a big fan of Benetti too. He and Steve Stone made watching White Sox games bearable the last few years. The worst sports owner in the U.S. (Jerry Reinsdorf) wouldn't rehire him because Benetti wanted to do more national baseball broadcasts. The Tigers signed him up the next day. He is Chicago area born and raised and it's a shame to lose him. His back story about his diagnosis of cerebral palsy and the surgeries to improve his mobility are inspirational too. Some might feel he jokes around too much but he does have a good sense of humor. Lastly, Benetti is one of the few play by play guys that can keep Bill Walton semi involved in the game they are announcing.
Said by the guy who stated that the game was too late to drive from Boston.......
Cameron and The Phog are also both located on campus which makes a huge difference. Students play a huge role in bringing the energy, and a lot of times the rest of the crowd follows suit. At XL games, what percentage of the crowd are students? The 200 sections in particular have basically no students and it's predominantly families or older fans.
The operative phrase is "when Castle was out" Castle took his minutes when healthy, turned out ok, yes?
You know what, though, crowds get riled up for big games, close games and rivalry games. This was none of the above. It was never a game we were in serious danger of losing. We led from wire to wire. They got the lead down to around 5 a couple of times maybe 4 once, but it might as well have been 25. You could sense Butler wasn’t getting over that hump. It never felt like Butler could catch us. So it’s hard to get that excited.
I would say that we're less top-heavy but also less deep than last year's team.
It also aligns with bringing Karaban on board and personnel allowing our offense to morph to a true 4-out offense where all of them can credibly dribble, pass, and shoot.
The starters are harder to gameplan for this season, each one can get you 20+ on any night. Only three were capable of that last season. I also think Cam is a better all around player this season than Hawk was last season.
You mean the right to an opinion is not a right to be right?
Right.
He is at least more consistent. Hawk could disappear for long stretches. Spenser does not and even when not scoring seems always to be involved.
He is slumping in perimeter shooting. I was very glad to see that one three go down but that is the only 3 that he has made in the last 3 games...1 for 10
He’s obviously better than that, but he’s just not a very good 3pt shooter as is.
Your latter point is under-discussed but I think has merit. Hawkins was an exceptional spot-up and off-screen shooter and an underrated defender, but Spencer's game is actually more well-rounded and makes other guys' jobs easier more than Hawkins did.
Completely agree
Nah man it comes down to pure number of students.
Not to worry tweetums I gave my ticket away to someone and I’ll be there 2/17 for Marquette so my seat will have been full for every XL game this season.
Yeah but we’re never going to be filling the 200 sections at XL with students, so anything is better than nothing.
