Deandre's clearly the guy who's going to needs to make the jump for this team to win these games | The Boneyard

Deandre's clearly the guy who's going to needs to make the jump for this team to win these games

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First off, I loved the effort tonight. This team played extremely hard and pushed a team that was more talented than them to the brink.

However, I'm not a mood right now to smoke up everyone's ass, because this is the second opportunity we've had in 15 days to grab a big win and we just did not get it done. There were a lot of good things I saw tonight, but there were also a lot of concerns. Let's start with the fact that after that 20-8 start the offense pretty much went to . The turning point was in the second half when UConn had the game tied at 53 and had the ball with a chance to take control of the game and possibly force N.C. State to press. Instead of moving off the ball and trying to get the ball in the hands of our shooters, it was Boatright dribbling the ball at the top of the key and everybody else standing around. I don't know if they were tired, or what, but the execution late in games just has not been good recently.

And we can make it sound like this was Arkansas St. pushing Kentucky to the brink in the NCAA Tournament, but that's just not the case. N.C. State is far from a team firing on all cylinders, and they made enough mistakes that they were vulnerable for an upset, particularly in the first half. Sure, we're under-manned, and undersized, but this team has a lot of offensive talent and the execution has just been lacking. Having said that, the offensive execution is fixable, and I'm not so sure that's the case in regards to our rebounding. If it wasn't clear by now, N.C. State's domination on the glass, particularly in the second half, should have driven home the point that this team isn't going to win many rebound battles, which puts more pressure oon our defense and our guards. It's depressing to watch our front court get curb-stomped on the glass every single night, and it severely depletes any sort of momentum the team is playing with at the time.

Now, getting to the topic of the thread, I'd like to say Deandre Daniels played terribly tonight. Granted, he seemed to have a back issue, so he'll cut him a little bit of slack, but he simply has to take his game to the next levle if this team is going to win these type of games. Shabazz Napier and Ryan Boatright can only do so much offensively, and if Deandre and Omar continue to struggle, the half-court offense is going to look an awful lot like what we saw tonight: napier and boatright standing around pounding the ball into the court. It was clear from the outset of the second half that Gottfried was not going to make the same mistake Michigan State made and allow Napier to beat them. He only tool three or four shots in the second half if I remember correctly, and he didn't make many of them. Give credit to the N.C. State defense, but we need a third consistent offensive option to emerge if Napier is going to get the open looks he got in the first half.

Not only are Calhoun and Daniels struggling to create offense, but they also combined for seven crippling turnovers tonight. I don't mean to pile on, but at least three or four of those turnovers led directly to N.C. State baskets - you just can't have that because it gives the other team momentum and brings the opposing crowd into the game. These two quite simply do not look ready for Big East play right now, so they better work on their handle until they can't feel their hands anymore because teams like Louisville and Syracuse will tear us apart if we only have two ball handlers.

Also, I mean this in the most endearing way possible, but there were times tonight I wanted to drive down to New York, charge onto the court, and yell at Giffey to shoot the *king basketball. I like a lot of the things Giffey does on the basketball court, but at some point he needs to become a threat offensively or he's not going to get consistent minutes. He has it in him to be an 8-10 PPG scorer, and it would help this offense tremendously. Somebody needs to nail it into his head that he's not playing with the Showtime Lakers and it's OK to look for his own offense once in a while.

Other brief player notes:

Boatright - I actually think he played pretty well tonight. A lot of the criticisms I had of him a couple weeks ago still hold true, but his pressure defensively is really bothersome to opposing guards, and his ability to get into the lane is what makes this offense go. I'm also not going to bash him for putting it up 20 times, because let's face it, this is a limited team offensively at this point in time.

Napier - Boy, I thought he was going to go for 30+ tonight with the way he came out of the gates. I don't think there are many better shooters in the country when he squares to the rim and gets his feet set. Unfortunately in the second half N.C. State was super aggressive hedging at the top of the key and that forced Napier to give up the ball.

Olander - Look, he is what he is. In a perfect world he'd be an energy guy off the bench who plays 5-10 minutes a night, but the departures of Smith, Oriakhi, and Drummond have rendered that impossible. He's just not athletic enough or strong enough to bang bodies in the Big East. Great kid, hard worker, just not a very good player at this level.

Evans - He played pretty well. Only 2 for 8, but you like the aggression. I'm not sure he was getting off the ground as well as he had been earlier in the season, which isn't surprising considering his back issues.

Wolf - Glowing praise for Wolf here. We haven't had a big man with his kind of touch arond the rim since Gavin Edwards, and the extra two or three inches Wolf has on Edwards might actually make him a better player in the long run. It's refreshing to see a UConn big man that can actually hit an open jumper, catch the ball when it's passed to him, and show some semblance of a low post game. Defensively, he held his own. He grabbed nine boards in only 21 minutes which is pretty impressive and although he got lost a couple times on screens, he'll learn. At this point I think it's a no-brainer, you have to start Wolf over Olander next game.

All in all it was a nice learning experience, even thought it sucks to leave a win on the table like that. This would have been a great boost for the morale of the program, and it would have also been a good boost for me as I prepare to wake up in about five hours. Coach Ollie has done a nice job all things considered. It's definitely time to get him that contract, I think.
 
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Great post. Also without Evans we lose by much more. He brings something to the court, I can't seem to define. But he is a fearless MF.

DD has no threat in terms of job security. He's all we have at the 4 (or 3). No competition for his spot. Similar to when Sticks was here. Not good to not be pressed. He may be a year away, but his steady presence on the perimeter is frustrating leaving TO and Wolf alone down low.

We made a good team look bad which is UConn bball. We could have won it but I think fatique, mistakes (of course) and some 'very' bad decision making were fatal. We are young, undermanned and out-sized. Frustrating games like last night will be frequent but in a way it's a victory to play well and to not get embarrassed playing with only 3 or so contributors.

DD, TO, NG and OC need to step up on a consistent basis (at least one of them). If they do that it won't be so frustrating knowing that the team was not clicking.
 
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