Christmas Eve, Eve, Eve ThoughtZ™

[RichZ]

1. Vital scored our first 6 points. Somehow, this didn't feel like a good sign.
2. Early on, UNH seemed like they couldn't miss from 3.
3. Turned things around when we sped the game up without looking hurried. Mostly due to Bouk, Gaffney and Whaley.
4. Bouk's block on Maultsby was a thing of absolute beauty.
5. Flop warning on Vital was total dung. The defender turned 180 and swung his right arm across CV's chest just as he was coming down. Flat out knocked him to the ground.
6. At about 5 minutes left in the half, suddenly, everything was a foul.
7. Seems like just a game ago, I was complaining about the lack of traps being developed off our ball pressure. It's almost like DH read my ThoughtZ™.
8. Civic center rims are awful. If it ain't a swish, it ain't got much chance of going in.
9. Whaley having his best game of the season -- maybe of his career thus far. He's fun to watch when he's on. Six point, six boards, two assists, a steal and a block. Damn! I'll take that every night, thank you!
10. Loved DH's half-time comment about keeping the pressure on to take away their legs and they'd start missing threes. I think that man may know a thing or two about this game.
11. 14 of our 34 rebounds from the off-guard spot -- 7 apiece for Vital and Bouk. And uhm... 29 points between them as well.
12. Polley's never going to be a great rebounder, but the last few games, he's at least seemed willing to get inside and grab a few.
13. Josh. Other than 4 boards, he was MIA today. That's not good going forward. Whaley's not going to be dominant against teams with a substantial and/or skilled big.
14. Starting off with 4 TOs in the first 9 minutes or so, it looked like it was going to be another ugly afternoon. But the guys cleaned that crap up, and committed only 1 more in the rest of the half, and ended up with 10 for the game. I can live with that.
15. Alterique and Christian in particular seem to have shed the turnover virus they'd somehow acquired. Between them, they have 61 of the team's 144 total TOs so far. Today, they had 3 between them.
16. We are a different team if 2nd half Gilbert shows up on a fairly regular basis for the rest of the season. He still over dribbled and took a few questionable shots, but damn, son, he brought out the whole trick bag and electrified the crowd in the 2nd half.
17. eight players played 20 minutes or more!
18. Maybe the best part was that both Gaff and AG played their best of the season in the same game.
19. Yes, it was a lesser opponent, and we have to guard against getting too high on ourselves based on our performance in a buy game. But it sure was great to have fun watching a Husky game again!
20. For some reason, I was particularly tuned to the annoying and useless clichés the announcers used this game, in relation to the thread about that subject. Three minutes in, we learned that UNH had come to play today. That was followed in short order by Bouk scoring the ball, numerous references to dribble drives (mostly referring to Alterique NOT relying on the dribble drive to the rim, and kicking it out instead. Which was just a preplanned talking point, since AG only had 2 dimes and I don't believe either was on a drive and kick out dish.
21. Not pertinent to the game itself, but there was an in-game ad on SNY for the "Original Harlem Globetrotters". I don't think original means the same thing to them that it does to me. Unless they find way to trot out Goose Tatum and Marcus Haynes, they ain't original to me. I'd even settle for Curly Neal and Meadowlark Lemon. Might be cool though, if the Trotters were holograms and the Generals were live.

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

i dont get why Carlton just disappears in games, he was real active against Indiana but the last couple against lesser competition, he's left a lot to be desired.

 

[UconnU]

How about this possession.

 

[yungdowork]

Huge confidence builder today. We managed to kick the turnover habit and players who needed to step up did. Gilbert had a good game, Bouk and Gaffney were active on both sides of the floor, and Whaley looked like he could be a decent back up center against smaller competition

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

How about this possession.

Knew exactly what they wanted and got it

 

[SubbaBub]

I noticed this set during the game. All that was missing is a cleaner pass to the post for a dunk.

This was a glorified scrimmage. First half was not good. Second half was what you'd expect. I don't know if I want 20 pts/gm from Gilbert.

Took care of business late and got some good minutes for the young guys. Will not count for much agaisnt better teams if they revert back to hero ball when they initial offensive set doesn't work, which happened a lot playing UNH.

 

[Chin Diesel]

#18. Not a coincidence. I think you'll see at least 10 mpg with Gaff, AG and Vital all on the floor with Gaffney running the point.
AG seems so much more relaxed when he doesn't have pressure of running offense entirely on him.

 

[RichZ]

How about this possession.

The thing was, they stayed in that zone almost the whole 2nd half. I think that our early 3 point inaccuracy lulled them into thinking that was how to beat us, but we kinda had our way with their zone in the 2nd half. Of course that was predicated on us making threes.

 

[UconnU]

Team chemistry is a very underrated component in sports. You tend to play harder, work harder, play more unselfishly when you genuinely care about the other guys you’re playing with.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

i dont get why Carlton just disappears in games, he was real active against Indiana but the last couple against lesser competition, he's left a lot to be desired.

His disappearing this game was a bit related to what the other team was doing. UNH was making a concerted effort all game to pull our big guys out away from the hoop as much as possible.This is NOT Josh’s game at all and he was getting torched trying to play D that far out from the hoop.

Whaley is much quicker more athletic and able to play pretty good D anywhere on the court. He rose to the task today which was great to see. I hated to see Josh get reduced minutes and be ineffective but at least we now have an adaptable enough lineup that we can make winning adjustments.

 

[RichZ]

His disappearing this game was a bit related to what the other team was doing. UNH was making a concerted effort all game to pull our big guys out away from the hoop as much as possible.This is NOT Josh’s game at all and he was getting torched trying to play D that far out from the hoop.

Whaley is much quicker more athletic and able to play pretty good D anywhere on the court. He rose to the task today which was great to see. I hated to see Josh get reduced minutes and be ineffective but at least we now have an adaptable enough lineup that we can make winning adjustments.

Not sure they have and real bigs, but you're right, they did kind of go inside out a bit on offense, We did it to them at least once too, when Akok and Isaiah were our only bigs in the game, and we had Adams and Bouk in/near the paint, Whaley around the FT line and Akok and Gaffney on the perimeter.

 

[Excalibur]

His disappearing this game was a bit related to what the other team was doing. UNH was making a concerted effort all game to pull our big guys out away from the hoop as much as possible.This is NOT Josh’s game at all and he was getting torched trying to play D that far out from the hoop.

Whaley is much quicker more athletic and able to play pretty good D anywhere on the court. He rose to the task today which was great to see. I hated to see Josh get reduced minutes and be ineffective but at least we now have an adaptable enough lineup that we can make winning adjustments.

While this is true, why is it that we should have to adjust to them, as opposed to them adjusting to us?

 

[Chin Diesel]

While this is true, why is it that we should have to adjust to them, as opposed to them adjusting to us?

Obstinance can be an asset or a liability.

Ideally you want the other team to adjust to you so you can maintain your rotations and play your game plan.

But, other teams scheme too and it is apparent after three seasons of watching Josh improve there are still opponents and match ups preventing him from being an asset.

Fortunately Whaley has improved and is the antedote for teams with outside in offensive sets. Whaley can now move and recover quickly. With Whaley and Akok there is a lot of length to cover the 4/5.

UConn in theory is still screwed against a team with a burly 5 who can shoot from the perimeter or make moves and shots in the paint. But so are most college teams.

 

[Jay-Bone]

I don't know if I want 20 pts/gm from Gilbert.

Well when you consider that 9 of those happened within 2 mins where we went from 4th to 6th gear, blew their doors off and stepped on the neck allowing other things to be experimented with including walk-ons, yes you do want those points. AG didn't have as complete of a passing game (Gaff picked up in that area), but his tenacious D, limiting TO's as well as hero ball and scoring run insured victory. Way to go young man.

 

[Dabutlerdidit]

UConn in theory is still screwed against a team with a burly 5 who can shoot from the perimeter or make moves and shots in the paint. But so are most college teams.

But we did beat Florida

 

[HuskyHawk]

His disappearing this game was a bit related to what the other team was doing. UNH was making a concerted effort all game to pull our big guys out away from the hoop as much as possible.This is NOT Josh’s game at all and he was getting torched trying to play D that far out from the hoop.

Whaley is much quicker more athletic and able to play pretty good D anywhere on the court. He rose to the task today which was great to see. I hated to see Josh get reduced minutes and be ineffective but at least we now have an adaptable enough lineup that we can make winning adjustments.

Sort of. He disrupted several drives to the hoop. Let their bigs shoot 3s. Good luck wit that.

My concern is the other end. Against thus small team feed him and feed him again. He should have had 25 points. They had nobody who could really guard him and yet he didn’t score. Punish 5 out teams by pummeling them in the paint.

 

[MuchoDogYears]

Well when you consider that 9 of those happened within 2 mins where we went from 4th to 6th gear, blew their doors off and stepped on the neck allowing other things to be experimented with including walk-ons, yes you do want those points. AG didn't have as complete of a passing game (Gaff picked up in that area), but his tenacious D, limiting TO's as well as hero ball and scoring run insured victory. Way to go young man.

Yeah but Hurley called a TO after AG’s last basket in the 11 point sequence. DH was crazy upset with AG who had gone into total iso ball mode, not once looking for an open teammate. AG came out of that timeout and found open teammates the next two times down the court, not looking to iso. Great coaching job by Hurley as AG had reverted to bad habits, which wasn’t acceptable in spite of his shots falling.

 

[imno1]

While this is true, why is it that we should have to adjust to them, as opposed to them adjusting to us?

Well they didn’t adjust to us and look at the result.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

How about this possession.

At this point, we have 100x better ball movement versus a zone compared to when we’re facing man-to-man. Hoping at some point we can run more than just the high weave to infinity vs. man.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

While this is true, why is it that we should have to adjust to them, as opposed to them adjusting to us?

I can see what you’re saying for when we were on offense (thought we abandoned trying to get the ball inside to Josh really quickly).

But on defense, it’s not like we can ask them nicely to stop spreading the floor and having their 4/5 go outside because our big doesn’t play D outside the paint without getting torched or fouling. They’re gonna run offensive sets how they choose to...

 

[Purple Stein]

At this point, we have 100x better ball movement versus a zone compared to when we’re facing man-to-man. Hoping at some point we can run more than just the high weave to infinity vs. man.

Was watching Depaul the other day and Leitao's offense had great movement. One of the voices in the back of my head said "where's the guy setting the useless screen 22 feet from the basket?"

 

[Chin Diesel]

Was watching Depaul the other day and Leitao's offense had great movement. One of the voices in the back of my head said "where's the guy setting the useless screen 22 feet from the basket?"

Avoiding having 4/5 pick up silly moving screen fouls 22' from the basket??

 

[Jay-Bone]

AG had reverted to bad habits, which wasn’t acceptable in spite of his shots falling.

The kid was having a little fun and riding his hot streak channeling Walker/Bazz. I'm ok with that, he deserves it. But DH was right to curtail it and settle him down.

 

[spudzj6]

Yeah but Hurley called a TO after AG’s last basket in the 11 point sequence. DH was crazy upset with AG who had gone into total iso ball mode, not once looking for an open teammate. AG came out of that timeout and found open teammates the next two times down the court, not looking to iso. Great coaching job by Hurley as AG had reverted to bad habits, which wasn’t acceptable in spite of his shots falling.

I said the same thing to my wife (as she ignored me of course)...even the announcers were saying, "it looks like a totally different AG", I said his style of play, decisions with the ball and such did not change. The only thing that changed was the ball ending in the basket, or getting fouled while driving. I'm stoked for him that he started to score, and hope his confidence leads to a better version going forward. Like coach says, to win the AAC, AG and CV (and Josh) need to be playing all conference level.

 

[Waquoit]

The kid was having a little fun and riding his hot streak channeling Walker/Bazz. I'm ok with that, he deserves it.

I think this is pure nonsense.