Decent game i'd say...

[EricLA]

Listened to it on the radio. i was pretty psyched when we got the lead up to 15 and thought we were going to run away at the end, but Wanger hung tough. i think JC probably saw some things he liked, and a good number of things he didn't.

Hard to complain about the scoring from Lamb and Napier, but Shabazz with only 1 assist? UCONN had 6 total assists on 21 made baskets and Olander had 4 of them. that struck me as an odd stat.

what was up with Roscoe tonite? nice line by Daniels. 11 points and 3 boards. and solid effort by Olander - 7 points, 5 boards, and 4 assists. i think i'd like to see a little more production out of Oriakhi. Nice to see Niels back to playing too.

i think this team is missing not having Boatright. i know you can't rely too much on untested freshmen, but imagine us last year without Napier. hopefully Boat is back soon...

 

[caw]

Daniels missed one foul shot, and made everything else, smoothest stroke on the team. Can handle the ball, but not a great passer off the dribble.

Olander should have had more boards, he let at least 2 slip through his hands. Plus that bunny he missed.

Oriakhi scored or was fouled on the fist 3-4 possessions of the first half, he could have had a monster game if Calhoun didn't sit him.

Drummond played well, but still doesn't know how to use his strength quite right yet, but his potential is higher than any other big I've seen this year.

Roscoe is still a great defender, but he needs to be more confident on offense.

Ditto for Giffey.

Napier is playing very well, but he needs to not let other teams guards get to him. Wagner was scratching and clawing and Napier was not happy a few times.

Lamb, missed two layups and a few other shots he normally makes. Wagner did a good job of bothering him as much as they could, quite a few uncalled fouls with the way Wagner was playing.

All-in-all not a game that was ever in doubt, but not the prettiest win either.

 

[johnhuskies95]

Where's Lamb's floater? I haven't seen it yet this year.

 

[champs99and04]

There were definitely some positive and negatives, as usual for these type of games. I would imagine it is difficult on the players to maintain focus and intensity through 40 minutes against a team that they are clearly better than. You want them to go all out of course, but they just aren't going to have that zip that they would playing a team like Pitt or Cuse or whoever else. So while it is tough to expect, I would really like them to put together a complete game or two, preferably sooner rather than later. The talent is very evident, but I still want to see them do all the little things, such as boxing out on a consistent basis, posting hard, making clean entry passes, etc.

One of the bigger problems from this game was the defense, IMO. Giving up 40% shooting to Wagner isn't going to get it done. Maybe their defense at the end of last season spoiled us, but I maintain with the legnth and athleticism this roster possesses, they should be dominant. I noticed they had difficulty defending the pick and roll, which isn't unusual this early in the season, but something that definitely needs to improve.

 

[Chin Diesel]

This is a game where Calhoun could have rolled the ball on the court, randomly substituted players in and not done a bit of coaching- and Uconn still would have won by double digits.

We could have tried a bunch of alley oops, fast breaks and gotten nothing out of the game.

Instead, there was a very clear desire to work on half court offense, ball movement, getting Lamb experience at the point and working player rotations.

I much prefer the way the game was coached.

 

[joober jones]

Napier's A:T tonight was 1:6. When your PF is the team's assist leader, you know things in the game didn't go quite right.

 

[champs99and04]

Napier's A:T tonight was 1:6. When your PF is the team's assist leader, you know things in the game didn't go quite right.

That's the other thing...too many turnovers these past two games. The offense needs to run more crisply.

 

[Danzz]

Daniels missed one foul shot, and made everything else, smoothest stroke on the team. Can handle the ball, but not a great passer off the dribble.

Olander should have had more boards, he let at least 2 slip through his hands. Plus that bunny he missed.

Oriakhi scored or was fouled on the fist 3-4 possessions of the first half, he could have had a monster game if Calhoun didn't sit him.

Drummond played well, but still doesn't know how to use his strength quite right yet, but his potential is higher than any other big I've seen this year.

Roscoe is still a great defender, but he needs to be more confident on offense.

Ditto for Giffey.

Napier is playing very well, but he needs to not let other teams guards get to him. Wagner was scratching and clawing and Napier was not happy a few times.

Lamb, missed two layups and a few other shots he normally makes. Wagner did a good job of bothering him as much as they could, quite a few uncalled fouls with the way Wagner was playing.

All-in-all not a game that was ever in doubt, but not the prettiest win either.

Daniels missed one foul shot, and made everything else, smoothest stroke on the team. Can handle the ball, but not a great passer off the dribble.

Olander should have had more boards, he let at least 2 slip through his hands. Plus that bunny he missed.

Oriakhi scored or was fouled on the fist 3-4 possessions of the first half, he could have had a monster game if Calhoun didn't sit him.

Drummond played well, but still doesn't know how to use his strength quite right yet, but his potential is higher than any other big I've seen this year.

Roscoe is still a great defender, but he needs to be more confident on offense.

Ditto for Giffey.

Napier is playing very well, but he needs to not let other teams guards get to him. Wagner was scratching and clawing and Napier was not happy a few times.

Lamb, missed two layups and a few other shots he normally makes. Wagner did a good job of bothering him as much as they could, quite a few uncalled fouls with the way Wagner was playing.

All-in-all not a game that was ever in doubt, but not the prettiest win either.

"Olander should have had more boards, he let at least 2 slip through his hands..."
This was Tyler's biggest weakness last year. He didn't have strong hands and had a bunch of rebounds taken away.Overall, it sounds like he has is stronger this year and hopefully he recognizes his problem and works on it.

 

[caw]

Last year that would have been 4-6 balls slipping threw Olanders hands. He is getting better and mostly being more assertive.

Again if Calhoun doesn't sub out ad and ao they both probably get double doubles.

DD is going to be good.

Roscoe an giffey need a boost of confidence. If it clicks both have pretty high potential.

 

[Husky68]

Something about offensive pattern for Uconn that seems less effective than opponents.

Opponents run 3 point line picks continually, bigs come out and go back in, force switches, Uconn defensive bigs always float back deep into the paint and guards (more Bazz than Lamb) let their guy float to off side 3 point line, dribble penetration given up too much - in general both opponents so far have run nice motion offenses and have been able to get isolation and shots. Both opponents looked effective on offense. Low scoring due to taking lot of time off clock on each possession.

Uconn offense seemed to be too much Bazz dribbling. Very few outside picks, attempted isolations inside looked ok, only plays saw for outside were Lamb or someone doing circle cut away from ball. Doesn't seem like other wings are making themselves available to Bazz in a position to get the ball and put defense in immediate danger. Did see one play in 2nd half where Daniels did make himself available and Bazz didn't make the pass. Offense looked very much like guard/wing isolation and beat your man. Maybe is same offense as last year and it made sense to me when Kemba had ball so much while this year not expecting Bazz to be Kemba, but in Uconn offense that is what are asking him to be. Seems like the alternative to wearing Bazz out by him handling the ball in half court all the time (last year saved Kemba by putting him off the ball with Bazz) is to have Lamb play assistant PG for a few possessions.

Bazz is one of the best dribblers I can remember seeing with both hands, Lamb and Daniels can really move and handle the ball. Somehow that needs to be exploited more.

 

[Drumguy]

I'd add that Wagner is going to do well in their conference - projected 4th I'd bet they vie for the top spot. 7 guards with excellent coaching, they should do well. The Hurleys won't be at Wagner all that long imho. The team also didn't let up and took advantage of our lapses in attention. C'mon, we can get the ball in vs a press, but last night they had a lot of trouble against it at the end. Good lesson for our guys that the opponent didn't stop playing until the end of the game.

 

[arnie3]

Spacing was a problem last night against the press. At one timeout JC was yelling at AD to break towards the basket. AD had been off to the side below the half court line causing a bottleneck between his man and 'Bazz. Had he broke towards the basket he might have had an easy dunk. These are things that are all part of the process. Last year it was starting games slowly, this year it's lapses in the second half. They look like they'll be fine when the team is at full strength.

 

[Drumguy]

Spacing was a problem last night against the press. At one timeout JC was yelling at AD to break towards the basket. AD had been off to the side below the half court line causing a bottleneck between his man and 'Bazz. Had he broke towards the basket he might have had an easy dunk. These are things that are all part of the process. Last year it was starting games slowly, this year it's lapses in the second half. They look like they'll be fine when the team is at full strength.

+1

 

[Vehcoo23]

Don't understand why people are saying, if Calhoun didn't sit AO he would have done better. AO was benched for a reason. Didn't hustle much and isn't playing well. Theres also a reason why after halftime, he came in and scored right away and pulled down some boards. The team is playing pretty selfish. Plenty of times i've seen lamb drive in and throw up some random shot when DD is wide open on the wing to hit a 3. Likewise with Napier. We aren't playing as a team and its pretty discouraging. Understand that Napier was battling a flu and he had to be tired playing all these minutes. Giffey didn't do much. He passed on a open 3, that doesn't help us and then he passed the ball under the hoop which caused a turnover. I can't wait til Boatright plays because def need some mojo on our team. We just look off.