Dayton Post Game Thread

[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]

This reminds me of 93. We had a great sophomore class and a returning star in Scott Burrell. The sophomores weren’t ready but that transition year sowed the seeds for a great seasons in 94 and 95.

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 SJ to get some rebounds the team might be ok. I would like to see what Singare can do and SJ play less, but Hurley probably thinks he can get SJ where he needs to be.

 

[superjohn]

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.

Furphy and Mullins are nothing alike as players.

 

[Hunt for 7]

Are Liam and AK really to similar in skill set to play together. I look at them standing next to each other and the look close in height.

They are both great shooters. They both have issues with being in between AK to small to play the 4 and Liam maybe lacks the lateral quickness to guard the 3.

Liam I think has a better pull up game. He has an effective floater that he can use when he sees he does not have the right angle to get to the hoop. First let me say I love Alex, respect him and this is nothing but an observation. At times he has gotten stopped at the rim by the defender. In those cases a little pull up floater is critical.

Unfortunately there is no world we’re AK and Liam are not in the starting lineup. So roster construction comes into play, but how do you not take a talent like Liam if he wants to come. So we have are two best players are both tweeters position wise but especially on defense.

Reed Jr I hope can find a way to stay in the floor and use all that talent on every possession.

Samson is a victim of our roster construction since our guards are not threatening the basket when coming around the screen and it puts no pressure on the defense. If the teams are switching everything we should be able to take advantage of the mismatches and we only have taken advantage of a few of those opportunities.

I think Nowell will put pressure on the defense as he will get into the lane and have options. Nowell is really the only player we have that is fast and quick. We need his speed and he defends better than Mahaney.

He will be the starting point guard at some point this season.

 

[uconnfan68]

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.

When it’s physical on both sides, you should expect some parity in foul calls. Not 2-1. Not 3 games in a row.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Furphy and Mullins are nothing alike as players.

6-5, very good outside shooters. A couple of "alikes". How are they different?