DePaul Post Game Thread

[Marat]

I thought that looked pretty good, there was a specific gameplan and they executed it.

Ball looks great to me, not sure why he gets so much negativity. I think some people here are purposefully ignoring his defensive improvements.

He looked better on his defensive closeouts on he 3 point shooters today. People are surprised that his finishing touch at the rim isn't better given his explosiveness and arm length. But he is one he'll of a shooter already.

 

[auror]

Solo with zero assists. WTF

Solo has 1 assist in the last 6 games.

We've won all the games, so shrug.

 

[gtcam]

DePaul is much improved.
That's about it

 

[blkknight1]

I think that one on Solo's biggest problems on defense is that he is constantly ball watching instead of sticking to his man. So mant times during the game id see him not with 10 ft of his man because he is watching the the ball. If he played his man and didn't ball watch so much he would be in better defensive position when the ball found its way to his man.

 

[blkknight1]

Actually the 13 they had today tied for the 3rd worst amount of turnovers they've had this season. Only the 19 against Texas A&M and the 14 at Texas were worse. They've been really good at taking care of the ball this season. Diarra's A/TO ratio lately has been impressive.

Wow! Outside of that stretch where the lead shrank from 22 down to 9 it didn't seem like they turned it over at all.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

whatever helps you sleep at night after giving up 46 points in a half to depaul.

If you can't see that this isn't the lowly drek DePaul team of the past few years, then I'm not sure what to say. Start paying more attention to what's going on in games before yapping.

Our defense (and offense) suffered in the 2nd half with a big effect of Liam out w/ injury and Diarra gone for 7min for foul trouble.

DePaul is a top-4 3pt makes/game team in the COUNTRY (~12 made per) and they play hard for 40min with pretty good discipline...not a lot of bad shots being taken. We were completely selling out on D to prevent 3s...they only shot 12 3's the whole game, and most were not good looks. They also play with decent tempo, top 33rd-ish percentile in the country. They are more than capable of going off on any team in a half.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

He looked better on his defensive closeouts on he 3 point shooters today. People are surprised that his finishing touch at the rim isn't better given his explosiveness and arm length. But he is one he'll of a shooter already.

The moment Solo figures out that he doesn't have to finesse layups on his drives and should just drive hard, attack the rim and go for dunks/draw fouls is the moment he will be elite. I hope it happens at some point this year...or else we may not see it ever in a UConn uniform.

 

[3rdbass]

Wow! Outside of that stretch where the lead shrank from 22 down to 9 it didn't seem like they turned it over at all.

It actually was 7 at one time.

 

[3rdbass]

The moment Solo figures out that he doesn't have to finesse layups on his drives and should just drive hard, attack the rim and go for dunks/draw fouls is the moment he will be elite. I hope it happens at some point this year...or else we may not see it ever in a UConn uniform.

Why where is he going? He isn't going to the NBA unless he improves his D and dribbling skills to attack the basket.

 

[auror]

It actually was 7 at one time.

Not true. We hit a 3 after they cut it to 9 to push it back to 12, they put it back to 10 and we hit another 3, and they never got it closer than 11 after that.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

It was hard for them to get into the lane during that stretch of the second half, partly because Holtmann was pretty clearly telling his guys to grab and hold on all of the off-ball movement and DHO. He smartly realized the refs weren’t calling any freedom of movement stuff and exploited it. Not really that surprising that the contact started getting out of hand, the refs started calling more of it, and the play stabilized.

Agree they got a way with a ton of clutching & grabbling. Also, I swear I counted at least a half-dozen instances where the DePaul defender literally shoved our guys who were coming out from the foul line to go set screens and not a single foul was called. It's easy to play tough defense when you can completely glue up off-ball movement and offensive play flow with those maneuvers.

 

[Palatine]

I'm still looking for the foul on Diarra when he blocked a shot. Clean, all ball, no body.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

Why where is he going? He isn't going to the NBA unless he improves his D and dribbling skills to attack the basket.

The NBA has shown they are more than willing to draft players and develop them on their rosters. If Solo finishes the year as a 45% 3pt shooter on high volume with clear athleticism and potential, he'll get some interest.

Not saying I agree with it, but it is what it is nowadays.

 

[REB1094]

And Solo is a more accurate three point shooter than Hawkins.

Today will bring him up to 44.7% on 6.1 attempts per game

That’s honestly at the level of the best shooters in all of college ball

 

[auror]

I don't think it's been mentioned here yet, but in Hurley's postgame he said Jaylin missed a few additional days after the team break with pink eye, so that he wasn't where he needed to be to play more in this game. Hurley implied he'd play more against Providence with Liam likely out.

 

[Deleted at users request]

Atta boy. Wouldn’t mind our best or second best player missing games so guys that can’t prove in practice they deserve more minutes get opportunities to play more.

Lol the obsession of guys needing to earn minutes in practice is weird. If a guy plays well during the game, what does it matter?

 

[TheShot1990]

One of the things I love about Hurley is that he has a pecking order and he honors that pecking order to the greatest extent possible. He doesn’t recruit over players, and if a player returns to the team rather than entering the portal, he will give that player every opportunity to succeed. He doesn’t throw players out with the trash just because they’re struggling, especially if they’re only struggling with one aspect of their game. He has the most patience of any coach I’ve seen in college basketball.
The rest of us boneyard coaches would’ve probably had 10 different lineups by now.

 

[uh-no]

Liam on the floor, the team played very well. Without him out there we’re just not as good but that should be no surprise.

depaul scored 10 points in 3 minutes in the second half with liam on the floor. that is not good defense.

 

[87Xfer]

Lol the obsession of guys needing to earn minutes in practice is weird. If a guy plays well during the game, what does it matter?

So how do you propose the staff decides who gets game minutes if not performance in practice? Just play everybody and see how they do?

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

whatever helps you sleep at night after giving up 46 points in a half to depaul.

If this is going to keep you up tonight you’ve got bigger problems.

 

[mauconnfan]

depaul scored 10 points in 3 minutes in the second half with liam on the floor. that is not good defense.

Liam has turned into one of our better defenders, huge improvement from the URI scrimmage.

 

[Storrs South]

I'm still looking for the foul on Diarra when he blocked a shot. Clean, all ball, no body.

The notorious BOC was so bad today on the whistle. He should retire.

 

[superjohn]

depaul scored 10 points in 3 minutes in the second half with liam on the floor. that is not good defense.

UConn was up 53-36 through 26 minutes and 12 seconds of game play when Liam got hurt.

I hope you're able to sleep again.

 

[HooperScooper]

Solo has 1 assist in the last 6 games.

We've won all the games, so shrug.

2 in the last 7 games and none in the last 4.

 

[Hunt for 7]

Not sure why we keep talking about Nowell - until Dan Hurley is ready to use him, continuing to talk about him isn’t going to send a telepathic epiphany to the staff. Got to hope the guys actually playing get better.

Solo shot the 3 at a blistering level today - made up+ for his deficiencies elsewhere. Not sure we can expect 7-9 often. He did have his best rebounding game of the year. He also had a few takes that were well timed, just looks afraid in traffic.

There were moments in the first half where the offense being run had glimpses of 2024, and that was encouraging. You can see the core guys starting to find a rythym.

The foul imbalance was hard to discern in this one as while the refs did look bad in spots, the imbalance has been consistent all year. Most of what went bad in this one was in a second half when we lost our best player and during foul trouble. Hard to be too critical of that. Our bench guys are not interchangeable with our starters, they’re there for breathers. There is a cliff in quality other than Reed when we hit our bench.

I am guessing we are talking about Nowell for the following reasons:
1) Hurley made statements that he would be trying to find Nowell more minutes.
2) When he played there has been good and bad. But flashes that he may be the fastest/quickest player on the team.
3) We are not very deep at the guard position.
4) Before McNeeley got injured he was handling the ball more in this game and he has been involved more and more in bringing the ball up and getting us into our offense sets.
5) It was clear without either he and Diarra in the game we seem to be running our offense about three beats slower.
6) We are not very deep at guard and guard play is a must in college basketball.
7) There are probably a few points I am missing.

I hope he is healthy or if he is not then we are being abundantly cautious with his return. We all know shoulders can be career changers if not dealt with correctly the first time they pop up.

I think it is impossible to be a UConn fan and not wonder what’s up with Nowell.