Colorado Post Game Thread

[CardiacAndre7]

These are island games in November. there’s nothing more fluky than this event in a high school gym. I assume we just should pack it in the rest of the year? I’m not writing the obituary until the new year. Gonzaga in the garden?? And Baylor in Gampel. We’ll win both of those games.

I admire the enthusiasm. Gonzaga is simply a better team than us. We can for sure beat Baylor beacuse they are erratic, but there is no reason right now to think we can beat Gonzaga.

 

[ucp990411]

Samson played decently today but man do he and Reed need to stop taking dumb fouls trying to pick up hero rebounds they have no chance at or take dumb fouls far from the basket.

One rebound from our starting center and he played decent ? Guess the bar is rather low

 

[Dibbie]

They would’ve only had 5 seconds with or without a timeout

Of course, but also allows the D to draw up a set

 

[3rdbass]

for the folks complaining about the whistle, that last non-call on the McNeeley attempted defensive rebound sucked but this team fouls alot, way too much reaching and putting their hands on people and just bad principles flying off their feet for shot fakes. Even last year when "The Athletic" was doing blind scouting reports on tournament teams opposing anonymous coaches were commenting on how much UConn fouls.

Yeah but at least we had Clingan and Steph to clean up our messes. Even Newton and Spencer play more D than this team. We played great Perimeter D against Purdue in the championship game. The 2 teams aren't comparable.

 

[superjohn]

I’m more impressed with McNeeley than yesterday, but his defense was pretty poor again. His shot has/always will be there. But his guy seems to drive by him any time he wants. Not that anyone else is particularly good defensively, but I expected him to be better on that end.

The entire team was horrible on defense these two games.

 

[Hunt for 7]

My eyeballs, NBA scouts, scouting services rankings...

McNeeley, Karaban, Ball, Reed, Stewart will all likely play in the NBA. Then there's guys like Nowell, Abraham, and Ross who may have a shot.

And the guy who is not on the list takes the last shot.

 

[UCfor3]

I am starting to think the whole "can't win a close game" thing is actually becoming a concern. The team got up 4 late in OT yesterday and folded and again today up 5 after the wild Solo shot. After missing the FT out of th break it just seemed to snowball into a team that didn't have the confidence to know how to close out the game.

Anybody else think we would have been better off in an open court situation with the last 9 seconds instead of calling the timeout to draw something up? To me it's usually favorable to the offense to have an open court situation trying to get to the basket as time expires.

I think if there is 25 seconds left, you call a timeout. If there is sigle digit seconds left in the game like today it's usually better to just push the ball and go. It's easier to trust an experience team, which we are not, or a team.with an experienced dynamic guard to just go hence the dilemna.

 

[Zonepress]

Not a very good team right now
Seems like some of the following might be true
-the talent on the team is not what it was perceived to be
-players might be feeling the pressure of expectations and are underperforming

• the team is poorly constructed
• the team is poorly coached

Or a combination of all 4

 

[Shine21]

Because Diarra is a 6th man. That’s what he is and a good one.

He is not a starting point guard on a deep run tournament team

This. Mahaney not living up to the hype has set this team back.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

The entire team was horrible on defense these two games.

I’ve said that repeatedly. I’ve just noticed McNeeley doesn’t offer resistance on drives. Also thought he would be getting more rebounds from the first few games. 1 in 33 minutes is rough.

 

[blkknight1]

it comes down to 2 things if the defense (especially the 3pt defense) doesn’t improve and if the foul disparity doesn’t change it’s gonna be a struggle all year. You can’t have teams shoot over 50% from 3 and you can’t put teams in the bonus with 10+ minutes in the first half while also losing important players because of the fouls. Diarra and Alex are upperclassmen with tons of experience who should know better, you pick up an early foul you have to play smarter yet they quickly picked up second fouls and had to sit. The younger players you don’t like it but understand it.

 

[Devland]

Biggest difference between this year and last year is the perimeter. We let up a lot of easy threes. We miss Newton more than anyone.

 

[KingAG]

Of course, but also allows the D to draw up a set

We called a timeout yesterday in the almost same situation and it worked. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. It’s not an obvious choice though

 

[Huskyforlife]

I think the offense will be good with Nowell being inserted for Mahaney. Nowell-Ball-Liam-Alex-Reed is a talented offensive lineup.

The defense and fouling is where I’m losing hope. This team can’t guard any dribble penetration, Samson is a walking bonus machine. Can Hurley fix the defense before we get to conference play?

 

[superjohn]

I’ve said that repeatedly. I’ve just noticed McNeeley doesn’t offer resistance on drives. Also thought he would be getting more rebounds from the first few games. 1 in 33 minutes is rough.

And yet he's the least of our problems.

We have a lot of problems right now.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

And yet he's the least of our problems.

We have a lot of problems right now.

Yes, but an issue nonetheless.

 

[Marat]

So who's going to stay up at 12am to watch them play live for 7th place ?

 

[CardiacAndre7]

So who's going to stay up at 12am to watch them play live for 7th place ?

The last 2 days have caused heartache, I don’t know if I can go for 3 in a row

 

[blkknight1]

We called a timeout yesterday in the almost same situation and it worked. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. It’s not an obvious choice though

There was much more time on the clock I believe around 9 second. With 5 seconds it’s basically all or nothing on the play as you don’t have enough time to look elsewhere. With 9 seconds you have time to look of first option isn’t there you can move to a second or possible 3rd.

 

[RuffRuff]

Well we’re officially down to earth.

Bottom line is we don’t have nearly as well designed a roster as in the last two years. It’s imbalanced. We have too many 3/4s and not enough 1/2s. There was a clear misfire in the portal as we likely could have done more there. Hindsight but now obvious we needed a real play making guard with some size (Haggerty a good example), any available rim protector to hedge perimeter defense and someone capable of playing PG. To DHs defense he stayed loyal to the Fab 5/Samson, issue is that group isn’t talented enough to hoist this team into a NC contender. I honestly wonder if there was a bit too much confidence in the staff thinking they can coach up and the “system” when reality is ability is often something you’re born with.

Hurley may want to rethink the high emphasis on “processing” as it may neglect some of the tough nosed kids out there that have “dawg”. This team feels soft.

AK is great but not designed to be a focal point.

I’ve officially thrown in the white flag with Mahaney. Beyond the lack of ability his disposition is just uninspiring as he looks chronically unsure for a junior that has played in two NCAA tourneys. He looks scared.

The depth piece is a fallacy as depth is only great when your core is humming. Time to start refining down to your 8 and to find chemistry amongst those parts. To me fairly clear that’s:

Hassan
Solo
Liam
AK
Reed

First three off bench:

Samson
Stew
Ahmad

Honestly don’t know what Jaylen is bringing as he feels like a lower caliber redundancy. Thought that this in summer and then the hype came.

Not one to complain about refs but these two games have felt like there has been some intention around the lopsidedness. Hurley needs to figure that out as it may follow him.

Wasn’t surprised yesterday, this one was surprising. Colorado is not a good team. If this UConn team is to make a mark, it’s time to stop diluting time with all the parts and to give a core group a chance to figure each other out and hope a few players step up and everything congeals.

 

[Zonepress]

And the guy who is not on the list takes the last shot.

My eyeballs, NBA scouts, scouting services rankings...

McNeeley, Karaban, Ball, Reed, Stewart will all likely play in the NBA. Then there's guys like Nowell, Abraham, and Ross who may have a shot.

If you are right, (and I only see McNeeley as a lock )
Then this is a very poorly coach team if it has four NBA players on it

 

[jdb50]

When you are only down one point I think not calling the timeout and driving the ball is the best choice with 8 seconds to go. Lets rally and get a win tomorrow and then go back into the lab and get ready for the next 3.

 

[KingAG]

There was much more time on the clock I believe around 9 second. With 5 seconds it’s basically all or nothing on the play as you don’t have enough time to look elsewhere. With 9 seconds you have time to look of first option isn’t there you can move to a second or possible 3rd.

I have to rewatch that possession. But it’s possible he didn’t like how we were set up or our floor balance

 

[Viet Vet]

Has anyone seen UConn set a DOUBLE screen. Or am I just too 1960s?

 

[aceboon]

These are island games in November. there’s nothing more fluky than this event in a high school gym. I assume we just should pack it in the rest of the year? I’m not writing the obituary until the new year. Gonzaga in the garden?? And Baylor in Gampel. We’ll win both of those games.

I'm not ready to throw in the towel after 6 games but what is fluky about Maui? It's basketball, the gym and the island had nothing to do with guys fouling non-stop and leaving shooters open. When we've had good to great teams they've played up to their level out there.

 

[blkknight1]

Biggest difference between this year and last year is the perimeter. We let up a lot of easy threes. We miss Newton more than anyone.

Newton was one of the smartest players in college basketball it wasn’t his physical skills it was the mental on both ends of the floor.

I said it earlier this team has very little basketball intelligence. Last year we had one of the most intelligent teams ever lead by newton.

 

[Dibbie]

We called a timeout yesterday in the almost same situation and it worked. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. It’s not an obvious choice though

Yeah kinda like fouling or not when up 3

 

[alphasigko]

Did you watch the game. We were much more effective with Johnson in the game. Reed was basically a no-show.

That's a first

 

[7774]

Ross didn’t do a single thing in these two games. What is Hurley seeing in these practices lol???

He played 10 minutes in a game where we had massive foul trouble and Mahaney is unplayable. It’s not like he’d have to see much. He at least made a couple recoveries at the rim after he got blown by, which makes him an above average defender on our team right now.

 

[Dibbie]

Newton was one of the smartest players in college basketball it wasn’t his physical skills it was the mental on both ends of the floor.

I said it earlier this team has very little basketball intelligence. Last year we had one of the most intelligent teams ever lead by newton.

Diarra had a few beautiful passes in the post. Those were so common with TNew at the point. Throw in DC, which is why last year’s team was one of the greatest ever.