Final 4 - Hurricane ThoughtZ™

[RichZ]

1. Pretty wild finish to an otherwise boring warmup game. Time for the main event!
2. Talking heads in lead up to the feature event all seemed to be pumping Miami. Placating the Miami fans I guess, because the know it'll all be UConn by the end.
3. What a start! Sanogo with his mind set on winning is an opponent's worst nightmare.
4. Awful GT call on Sanogo's block. Replay from above the rim was clear as day.
5. Seems to me that Hawkins gets lot of relatively short passes picked off. Tosses them kind of lackadaisically.
6. With 9 minutes to go in the half, this game started to get ugly.
7. Three minutes later, we were back in control and the whistles seemed to calm down.
8. Lot of passing to set up an airball by Alleyne. See, we ain't perfect after all.
9. 13.9 Seconds left in the half. Our ball. Is it was time for a patented Karaban buzzer beater 3? Does the sun rise in the East? Idiot announcers are saying it was set up for Hawkins but he was covered. They haven't been watching UConn games, have they? Is this the third or the fourth game in the tourney we ended with a Karaban three at the buzzer?
10. At the half, FG% advantage 50% to 25%. 10 dimes to 2. I would have guessed Miami's turnover advantage would be more than 6:4.
11. Misleading but interesting offensive rebound figures at the half. They have 9 offensive rebounds to our 5. But it's really all about their poor shooting. They rebounded 1/3 of their 27 misses. We've rebounded just over 1/3 (5) of our 14 misses.
12. Loved it when Sanogo faked a three and got a wide open lane to the rim from the corner. Those two early threes are still paying off.
13. 15 minutes left and we're letting them trim the lead a bit. I felt like we needed to stomp them the next 5 to 8 minutes to cut their hearts out and get this thing over with.
14. Alleyne should never inbound the ball against pressure. 2 passes to the wrong team in the 2nd half tonight.
15. 8 minutes left. 15 point lead. I know I should be breathing easier, but memories of January keep popping up.
16. Karaban at 4:05. Money.
17. Adama was the obvious player of the game with 9 of 11 shooting including 2 for 2 from 3, 10 boards, 2 blocks and a dime. But Karaban played an awfully big role as well, with 8 points, 9 boards, a block, a couple dimes and some pretty outstanding defense. This was one of his best all around performances of the season, and it was under the brightest lights. An awful lot of scouts wrote his name down tonight as someone they need to keep an eagle eye on the next season or two.
18. Winning box score columns - Boards by 9. Dimes by 9. Blocks by 5. FG% by 18% (49-32). Our FG% advantage in the NCAA tourney has averaged 14% so far.
19. Miami brought out the press with about 6 minutes left in the game. It lasted through two Ajax unguarded dunks, and they realized it was probably not a good idea.
20. For some reason, I loved the shots of Hurley in the handshake line, trying to not look happy and excited.
21. How many of us are not gonna sleep until Tuesday morning?

 

[businesslawyer]

Nah. I slept fine last night. It’s basketball and upsets happen. But if Gonzaga and Miami have had trouble scoring on us, it’s hard to see how if we play hard SD State is getting a whole lot of points.

 

[RichZ]

Addendum. Not specifically about last night's game, just something I picked up in reading UConn articles half the night. In his UConn career, Adama has gone for 20 or more points 20 times, including last night. In those games, we are 20-0.

 

[hansonel-amin]

22. Running a first play for a Hawk three despite everybody knowing he was under the weather to send a message, and keep Miami from sagging off him.

 

[RichZ]

22. Running a first play for a Hawk three despite everybody knowing he was under the weather to send a message, and keep Miami from sagging off him.

Miami was intent on locking up Hawk. So much so that Wooga doesn't even notice that Adama's shooting a three right next to him.

 

[B1GEast]

I kept wanting for a Miami run. At the 7 minute mark I started to feel better but it wasn't until the 4 minute mark that I knew we had it.

They didn't seem athletic, they seemed very hesitant at times and that was due to our solid defense. They didn't score a lot of easy baskets. They had to earn most of their buckets.

That was a good Miami team that we beat last night, the ACC champs.

The team didn't skip a beat when Jackson got into early foul trouble. Late in the game, Jackson made a few mental errors and they make a small run. I thought that Newton maybe should have been subbed for Jackson, but they kept it together.

 

[uconngb]

1. Pretty wild finish to an otherwise boring warmup game. Time for the main event!
2. Talking heads in lead up to the feature event all seemed to be pumping Miami. Placating the Miami fans I guess, because the know it'll all be UConn by the end.
3. What a start! Sanogo with his mind set on winning is an opponent's worst nightmare.
4. Awful GT call on Sanogo's block. Replay from above the rim was clear as day.
5. Seems to me that Hawkins gets lot of relatively short passes picked off. Tosses them kind of lackadaisically.
6. With 9 minutes to go in the half, this game started to get ugly.
7. Three minutes later, we were back in control and the whistles seemed to calm down.
8. Lot of passing to set up an airball by Alleyne. See, we ain't perfect after all.
9. 13.9 Seconds left in the half. Our ball. Is it was time for a patented Karaban buzzer beater 3? Does the sun rise in the East? Idiot announcers are saying it was set up for Hawkins but he was covered. They haven't been watching UConn games, have they? Is this the third or the fourth game in the tourney we ended with a Karaban three at the buzzer?
10. At the half, FG% advantage 50% to 25%. 10 dimes to 2. I would have guessed Miami's turnover advantage would be more than 6:4.
11. Misleading but interesting offensive rebound figures at the half. They have 9 offensive rebounds to our 5. But it's really all about their poor shooting. They rebounded 1/3 of their 27 misses. We've rebounded just over 1/3 (5) of our 14 misses.
12. Loved it when Sanogo faked a three and got a wide open lane to the rim from the corner. Those two early threes are still paying off.
13. 15 minutes left and we're letting them trim the lead a bit. I felt like we needed to stomp them the next 5 to 8 minutes to cut their hearts out and get this thing over with.
14. Alleyne should never inbound the ball against pressure. 2 passes to the wrong team in the 2nd half tonight.
15. 8 minutes left. 15 point lead. I know I should be breathing easier, but memories of January keep popping up.
16. Karaban at 4:05. Money.
17. Adama was the obvious player of the game with 9 of 11 shooting including 2 for 2 from 3, 10 boards, 2 blocks and a dime. But Karaban played an awfully big role as well, with 8 points, 9 boards, a block, a couple dimes and some pretty outstanding defense. This was one of his best all around performances of the season, and it was under the brightest lights. An awful lot of scouts wrote his name down tonight as someone they need to keep an eagle eye on the next season or two.
18. Winning box score columns - Boards by 9. Dimes by 9. Blocks by 5. FG% by 18% (49-32). Our FG% advantage in the NCAA tourney has averaged 14% so far.
19. Miami brought out the press with about 6 minutes left in the game. It lasted through two Ajax unguarded dunks, and they realized it was probably not a good idea.
20. For some reason, I loved the shots of Hurley in the handshake line, trying to not look happy and excited.
21. How many of us are not gonna sleep until Tuesday morning?

Nit picky but you couldn’t be more wrong on #4. He took it off the glass, that’s an automatic goal tend call and a very easy one.

 

[Hunt for 7]

They did switch to Newton bringing the ball up after a few of those miscues. But that led to the alley oop dunk. So Hurley has made all the correct adjustments. He is looking like the next BE version of the guy doing the commentary for CBS ….Jay Wright.

 

[HuskyBaggins]

I kept wanting for a Miami run. At the 7 minute mark I started to feel better but it wasn't until the 4 minute mark that I knew we had it.

They didn't seem athletic, they seemed very hesitant at times and that was due to our solid defense. They didn't score a lot of easy baskets. They had to earn most of their buckets.

That was a good Miami team that we beat last night, the ACC champs.

The team didn't skip a beat when Jackson got into early foul trouble. Late in the game, Jackson made a few mental errors and they make a small run. I thought that Newton maybe should have been subbed for Jackson, but they kept it together.

Typically, Jackson has a mismatch at the 3 with his size and ball handling. Miami switched Wong onto him and they had the mismatch on defense with Jackson the primary ball handler. We went away from Jackson at the top of the offense, but Wong seemed to stop hounding him as well. No idea why Miami went away from that. Seemed to be working

 

[uconnfan68]

#8. He had to toss it from 35' because time was running out. Not all his fault.

 

[ibleedhuskyblue]

Nit picky but you couldn’t be more wrong on #4. He took it off the glass, that’s an automatic goal tend call and a very easy one.

Yeah, i agree. I thought it was pretty obvious at the time. Ill watch it a few more times later, but i certainly remember thinking it was as obvious as can be.