Dayton Post Game Thread

[UConn990411]

There’s still a potentially good team in there, but the lineups have been nonsensical so far. As others have stated, Stewart’s lack of minutes has made zero sense on any level, and Samson has proven that he cannot be a starter.

And, for the love of god, Hurley needs to cool it. I get that he’s wired a certain way, but that probably resonated more with the more experienced teams he’s had the last two years. This is a much younger team with a lot of guys playing new roles, so he really needs to pick his spots better.

 

[bendm]

Lol we are so talented though right? @superjohn

We have 2 guys on this roster with a shot at the nba right now. Liam is a 1st rounder and Alex is a 2nd rounder. That’s it. Ball is one dimensional on offense. Ross has nba athleticism but not nba skill. Stew can’t play D to save his life. If sanogo couldn’t get drafted Reed won’t either.

 

[USNavyDog]

Here is my prediction for the rest of this season. We'll have the following record over our 31 game season:
20-11, 14-6

We'll be on the bubble but do somewhat ok in Big East tourney and go 1-1. That puts our record at:
21-12, 14-6

We'll get back into the tournament as an 8 or 9 seed....make slightly decent run to the sweet 16 but thats as far as it goes. We end our season with the following record:
22-13, 14-6

Not a great year...but not a disastrous one either. It'll be a year of rebuilding as growth...but the following year will be back to greatness with our star studded 5 star recruiting class coming.

We'll be back for another title run in 2025/2026.

 

[REB1094]

We full way too much in love with this offense to the point it seems more important to run it than develop real offensive skills that help rise above the Xs and Os and score.

I’m hoping we push Solo as the 1A guy and have him get aggressive overall and live with the growing pains that come with it.

Solo seems like the guy that can fill the Cam role of getting the ball off a curl and making something happen near the rim or a short midrange. Obviously not as good of an offensive player as Cam was, but he seems the best equipped to make those types of plays

Liam is pretty good at it too but is slow, so it usually turns into a tough shot at the rim. But he’ll get there with some time

 

[USNavyDog]

Here is my prediction for the rest of this season. We'll have the following record over our 31 game season:
20-11, 14-6

We'll be on the bubble but do somewhat ok in Big East tourney and go 1-1. That puts our record at:
21-12, 14-6

We'll get back into the tournament as an 8 or 9 seed....make slightly decent run to the sweet 16 but thats as far as it goes. We end our season with the following record:
22-13, 14-6

Not a great year...but not a disastrous one either. It'll be a year of rebuilding as growth...but the following year will be back to greatness with our star studded 5 star recruiting class coming.

We'll be back for another title run in 2025/2026.

Correction....we'll be the following after the sweet 16 run:
23-13, 14-6

I miscounted the wins.

Does anyone agree this is a realistic way our season will end?

 

[UConniki]

Kids have a lot to learn. Coaching staff has a lot of work to do. They're just as disappointed if not more so than us. I'll be there to encourage their turnaround

And if someone doesn't think a 98 - 48 free throw disparity makes a difference or the inconsistencies are justified, well they can keep on throat punching air.

I'm going to suggest we just witnessed the largest free throw disparity in the history of three game tournaments

And that’s not even taking into consideration that more often than not that whenever the other team was shooting 3’s there wasn’t a UConn player within 10’ of the shooter. ( why were we backing away from players when they initially drove to the foul line giving them wide open midrange shots).

 

[bendm]

olo seems like the guy that can fill the Cam role of getting the ball off a curl and making something happen near the rim or a short midrange.

That was the hope but he doesn’t do anything but shoot 3s. Don’t think he has the handling or passing gene that cam did

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Rebuilding year. Thankfully we have our best class ever coming in next season.

Problem with that is THE class doesn't address the need for more athletic players 6-8, 6-9, 6-10. Can't keep recruiting Cam Spencer types. For example: recruiting Furphy after landing Mullins. Same player to some extent.

 

[Tiamat7]

They realized they needed some shooters/offense to take the next step and the results spoke for themselves the last 2 years. Unfortunately, they took it to an extreme with this team and I'm afraid with next year's recruits as well because we are sorely lacking quickness and athleticism at every position. I'm sure he realizes this mistake by now. I love all our recruits for next year individually, but collectively, the team will lack quickness and athleticism again unless he finds a way to address this. A start would be getting the players we have with some athleticism some experience ASAP... i.e. We know Karaban & McNeeley will get their minutes this year, but beyond that, play Nowell, Abraham, Stewart and Reed this year as much as we can and be ready to hit the portal. This is a lost season. Come to grips with the fact that long term, Ball is a 2nd unit/perhaps 6th man on a good team due to his elite shooting. Ross, Mahaney, & Singare are not UConn level talent.

And yet two weeks ago Ross was being compared to a young Reggie Lewis.

 

[Mike Honcho]

Some guys have all the luck .

I thought they would lose this one.. Seemed like a let’s get out of town game. Sort of like a baseball team playing an afternoon game to end a long road trip. Get it over with and get on the plane.

You pop up like a cockroach whenever we lose. I remember looking and you were absent from the boneyard for five months after the championship. That's some way to live.

 

[gsmooth]

Time to swap out my pumpkin for some HUMBLE PIE.

My child and wife keep asking me, "What's wrong with UConn?". Offense, defense, roster construction...where does one begin?

The highs wouldn't be nearly so high if not for experiences like Maui '24. I feel for the Husky fans out there. Hope they can find zen in the surroundings.

Turn the page, back to work. Need to secure "upsets " vs Baylor, Texas, and Gonzaga.

MD Eastern Shore...on Saturday, not Sunday. Jetlag game, beware.

Thanks bud. We enjoyed Maui a lot and going to the UConn games as well as the non-UConn games, but losing all 3 was humbling as well as getting run out of the gym by Dayton .

 

[Zonepress]

We have 2 guys on this roster with a shot at the nba right now. Liam is a 1st rounder and Alex is a 2nd rounder. That’s it. Ball is one dimensional on offense. Ross has nba athleticism but not nba skill. Stew can’t play D to save his life. If sanogo couldn’t get drafted Reed won’t either.

Accurate assessment
Im
Amazed had how many on this board think
So many of theses players are nba caliber

 

[uconnblueinky]

I'm just hoping the season doesn't implode and we have some decommits because of it. I think this ten will get better, I'm just not sure if it'll be much. We shall see. Scary few games coming up

 

[uconnfan68]

To look on the bright side:
1-Diarra will be OK if he stops thinking he's the best 3 point shooter; I think DH is trying to bring Nowell along fast as possible.
2-Ball has enormous potential--hopefully his D can be coached up. Impressive shooting--50% from 3 this year.
3-McNeeley will be fine--needs to drive more. Stewart will be valuable more athletic backup when he improves D.
4-AK can and needs to be used as point forward.
5-Samson's best game. Only 3 fouls in 26 min!! May make an adequate backup. Reed, Jr quite good, averaging twice what he did 23-24.

Oh--and "dressing" only exists because Victorian ladies decided "stuffing" a turkey had far too many appalling connotations.

I like to see the positive. It usually doesn’t come from me.

 

[UCTitleTown]

I say we end up with 10 losses and an 8 or 9 seed, win a game in the NCAA Tournament then call it a day. AK won't improve his draft position, but at least he's making big NIL. Also, fortunately for us, the Big East sucks so a Big East Tournament title is not out of the realm of possibility.

Maui was definitely a bucket of ice water to the face. I just don't see great upside rearranging the lineup. Center foul trouble and getting nothing from YS, and the lack of point guard depth will kill us. Lack of a second ball handler has often been a season killer in the past. And that's assuming we stay healthy. We're this bad at full-strength. Imagine if we lose a key piece or two for any length of time?

 

[UCONNFAN179]

I say we end up with 10 losses and an 8 or 9 seed, win a game in the NCAA Tournament then call it a day. AK won't improve his draft position, but at least he's making big NIL. Also, fortunately for us, the Big East sucks so a Big East Tournament title is not out of the realm of possibility.

Maui was definitely a bucket of ice water to the face. I just don't see great upside rearranging the lineup. Center foul trouble and getting nothing from YS, and the lack of point guard depth will kill us. Lack of a second ball handler has often been a season killer in the past. And that's assuming we stay healthy. We're this bad at full-strength. Imagine if we lose a key piece or two for any length of time?

Yes, you wonder where we'd be if Alex stayed in the draft and Liam stayed with Indiana. Those were real possibilities at a time it was no longer possible to replace them with quality. Even Diarra was a late question to return.

I do wonder if Alex regrets his decision to return

 

[mauconnfan]

Someone had a pre-season thread on what was most worrisome about this team. I said replacing Newton at the point and replacing Clingan. But Newton was the biggest loss. Watching our guys now, we didn’t even try to replace him. Hurley’s famed motion offense is nothing without someone to run it.

Good call. Also another thing was the tightness of the cuts off the picks by Spencer and others…. Maui week left no room for the defender to follow immediately. Our picks suck no one holds them and our use of them is dreadful they just run around them leaving space as if they’re running skeleton offense.

So many things need to get better from coaching, use of the starters vs bench time and most of all defense,it’s quite scary but it’s early. We will see more soon. One thing I don’t want to see is any more 1-3-1 zone that was dreadful, if you have bad defenders you better at least keep them close to each other. Please try some 2-3, 2-1-2 only that was awful.

Good news is the Big East is not good, bad news is we are part of that mess. Don’t see all that many teams we automatically sweep but that’s only due to Maui. Hope it changes.

 

[BigTenFan]

Yes, you wonder where we'd be if Alex stayed in the draft and Liam stayed with Indiana. Those were real possibilities at a time it was no longer possible to replace them with quality. Even Diarra was a late question to return.

I do wonder if Alex regrets his decision to return

Given the way IU is playing I would say Liam made the correct decision to play at Uconn

 

[Eweconn]

There is a foul disparity because we foul the other team more.

Bingo! Why does everyone think the number of fouls should be equal? I've never understood why people use foul disparity as an excuse. Argue the number of fouls called on us if you want, but not the disparity between us and our opponents. They don't need to be similar and they won't be if we continue to foul a lot more than out opponents. We are very undisciplined on defense. Samson Johnson is particularly undisciplined. There's no reason be should be committing dumb fouls 20 feet from the basket.

 

[USNavyDog]

Losing Torraino Walker for the remainder of the 1992/1993 season made it that a bit more difficult as well.

Another example was losing Kirk King and Ricky Moore to a ridiculous suspension that ruined our 1996/1997 season.

 

[controlfade]

Yes, you wonder where we'd be if Alex stayed in the draft and Liam stayed with Indiana. Those were real possibilities at a time it was no longer possible to replace them with quality. Even Diarra was a late question to return.

I do wonder if Alex regrets his decision to return

AK came back as he believed in this team and coaching staff and believed they were good enough to win. If he didn’t there is no chance in hell he comes back.
Hurley clearly believed in them as well or he wouldn’t have let Clingan return when he said he would.
Its gonna be little more bumpy than anyone thought but I still believe this season can be successful.

 

[Eweconn]

If you haven’t started yet; you are delusional. This isn’t even a tournament team. It’s pretty obvious

I respectfully disagree. 7 games into the season and you're making the "It's pretty obvious" call? I guess I'm just more of an optimist than you are. We didn't lose those three games because we couldn't score enough points to win them. We lost them at the free throw line. That's fixable. Will it be easy to fix? No it won't but it's certainly doable. No one expected us to go undefeated. At least I didn't. When UConn won the Championship in 2010-'11, the had 9 loosess. 2013-'14, 8 losses. 2022-'23, 8 losses. There's too much talent on this team NOT to be a tournament team. If that makes me delusional by your standards, so be it. I'm not folding this early in the season.

 

[JerseyAlum]

To me the Dayton game was all about fouls. Wether you blame the refs, the players, or both:
1. Field Goals made: UConn 26, Dayton 25. (+2 pts)
2. 3Pt field goals made: UConn 8, Dayton 8 (+ 0 pts)
3. Free throws made: UConn 7, Dayton 27 (-20 pts)

Coach always talks about recruiting offensive players and teaching defense: you got McNeeley, Mahaney, Ball, Johnson who categorically play "meh" solo defense and "so-so" team defense. But they are all known for offense and are still coming along defensively.

Johnson played 25 minutes vs Reed, Jr. 14 minutes who got more blocks, offensive boards, defensive boards and less fouls than Johnson and I think most of the yard agrees Tarris should start.

 

[Scottobot]

The million interviews with Hurley talking about three-peating was fun but I get the sense from Hurley on down this team loved the smell of their own farts the entire off-season. The sum is shockingly so much less than the parts.

Our defense is atrocious, you simply can't win games with the defense we play. The staff probably should've focused on defense while they were busy perfecting the offense. The offense is also a huge mess but nothing like the D.

Hurley has no clue what his rotation is. He had Mahaney and Nowell playing together. Then at one point he went with no guards. He stressed all off-season and up until today that the strength of the team is our great wings. What does having depth at wing matter when you play Liam the whole time when he's hurt and missing everything and you have Jaylin plastered to the bench. Jaylin gets the short end of the stick every game. He got four seconds of action in the second half and missed a shot before being benched. How dare he miss a shot.

Solo can shoot threes, that's it. He's a huge liability on defense and does nothing other than shoot threes on offense. Hass plays his heart out but he's meant to be a backup point guard/energy guy off the bench. Karaban looks great if he's hitting threes, otherwise he's a ghost. Only thing Samson is good at is alley oops and blocking shots but he usually fouls on his block attempts. Everything else is a liability with him. Jaylin is inexplicably in the doghouse. Ross and Mahaney provide nothing. Where was Tarris Reed?

The last two years were amazing but Hurley probably needed this humble pie. Something miraculous has to happen or this team isn't making the tournament. I'm already at peace with it. I didn't think we would win this game going into it but the way we played leaves a very bad taste.

On to Thanksgiving, enjoy your Turkey and ketchup.

I find it ridiculous that someone can be critical of Hurley after winning back to back championships. He struck gold discovering and landing Newton, Clingan, Spencer, Sanogo, Jackson, Karaban.
Yes this year is a major disappointment and looks like some plauers he thought were going to studs are not. Nobody gets it right 100% of the time.
If he can get Ball to,play some defense, and Samson Johnson to get some rebounds the team might be ok. I would like to see what Singare can do and Samson Johnson play less, but Hurley probably thinks he can get Samson Johnson where he needs to be.