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I saw a bit of everything that made this season tough to watch at times. Thank goodness that Adams hit the Bomb, really. If he had not, the dominant threads would be questioning the future of the program, rather than questioning whether we have a final four team next year.
I figured that this was our last game when I saw Brimah get his 2nd foul after playing about 100 seconds. It was a rebound on our offensive end, the other big had perfect position, Brimah was squarely behind him, Brimah had a worse chance than an ice cube in the Ghanian heat to get the board and . . . he fecklessly poked an arm over the other big's head, picking up foul number 2. I laughed, crying inside a bit, finished the S.Tier IPA I was drinking, and thought, "Amida - you've been playing NCAA I ball for 3 years, you know you have fouling issues, you know they have quality bigs, WHAT WUZ YOU THINKIN ROSCOE?" Can he develop the skill to differentiate between a viable, foulless offensive board opportunity and a foolish, foul drawing poke in the 8 months he has left to practice before next season? IDK.
The point of that wasn't to beat on the Brimah - I love the guy, I love the fact that he's limited but gives it his all. He's UConn through and through, going back to Rod Sellers or Dan Cyrullic or even Inyatkin. We can start the game by acknowledging that you're more talented than us, then we beat you and you end up making Izzoshian and Squidish comments trying to explain how you just got beat by the team with lesser talent.
I saw some posts on the refs. Just no. There were a few questionable calls, but what I saw was a swarming Kansas defense layered over us by very athletic, quick, bigger players.
I saw some posts on "DHam had a bad shooting day/took bad shots" or "S. Miller just had a bad day." No. What happened was Kansas played great D. If we played them 100 times, they'd probably win 95 or more. They were channeling their 2014 Husky D. They consistently pushed our ball handler out toward the center line, ragged DHam so he rarely got the ball in a favorable starting position, played phenomenal help D, and otherwise played relentlessly. The same is true for our other guys. Nobody played poorly, per se. Our warts were simply illuminated by the brightness of Kansas' game. They are really, really good. Do you notice Ellis take the ball from the elbow, drop two dribbles, juke, and then loft up a sweet floater that was n-but-net? Our big is still working on successfully receiving a pass that hits him in his hands.
The season was decided when we played Temple and lost at home. Or about then. That's when we started migrating toward the 8/9 seed. No doubt in my mind, as many have said, that the 8/9 seed is a horrid seed. The difference between 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 isn't as great as the difference between the 1s and the 3s and most 2s. If everything shook out just right, we, maybe, make the elite 8. Final Four if we get a few miracles along the way. Hard to see us beating the top 8 teams or so - we were just not consistent enough.
Rodney earned his bars. I was wrong about him and his place on the team. He was our leader, and was fearless and undaunted and composed, and he was alone in possession of those three traits. Without him, we maybe lose by 40.
I guess if there had to be a re-write on the season, I would have like to see Adams logging heavy minutes early in the year. In the end, his inexperience showed. He averaged less than 20 minutes a game against the early season cupcakes, and wasn't running point for all of those minutes. Would like to have seen him at point much more. For those who said he couldn't shoot, by the way, for the 2/20 Cincinnati game and thereafter, he shot 64% from 3 (7 of 11). This is much like DeAndre Daniels. Many voices called for him to "shoot fewer 3s" and "don't be in love with the three" when he struggled early. I'll say the same thing here that I said there - Adams needs to shoot when open - always-on green light - even if he's not hitting. Kid has monster talent - gotta let him make mistakes and work through cold shooting.
Next year should be interesting. We'll have a very solid guard crew, with Adams at the point. DHam will make improvements and likely give us a couple more boards/assists/pts per game, with better control and fewer turnovers.
I'll have to hang my hope on Enoch making great strides. Otherwise, we're going to have problems in the paint again. Not insurmountable, but problematic. It's been 3 years and Brimah is still getting ticky-tac fouls at horrible times in big games. I don't expect him to be substantially different next year, and we're losing Nolan (thank you Phil), who was a mature defender who flexibly guarded, and well, everybody from Poythress to the beasts yesterday. We'll miss him much more than the 3ppg that shows up on the stat sheet suggests.
To Gibbs and Miller - thank you gentlemen. To the extent you weren't what we expected, that's on us. To the extent you were, kudos to you.
Let's recruit and reload.
And cheer like mad for Mad Bob Diaco, who, in 5 years, may retrospectively be viewed as UConn Basketball's second savior.
I figured that this was our last game when I saw Brimah get his 2nd foul after playing about 100 seconds. It was a rebound on our offensive end, the other big had perfect position, Brimah was squarely behind him, Brimah had a worse chance than an ice cube in the Ghanian heat to get the board and . . . he fecklessly poked an arm over the other big's head, picking up foul number 2. I laughed, crying inside a bit, finished the S.Tier IPA I was drinking, and thought, "Amida - you've been playing NCAA I ball for 3 years, you know you have fouling issues, you know they have quality bigs, WHAT WUZ YOU THINKIN ROSCOE?" Can he develop the skill to differentiate between a viable, foulless offensive board opportunity and a foolish, foul drawing poke in the 8 months he has left to practice before next season? IDK.
The point of that wasn't to beat on the Brimah - I love the guy, I love the fact that he's limited but gives it his all. He's UConn through and through, going back to Rod Sellers or Dan Cyrullic or even Inyatkin. We can start the game by acknowledging that you're more talented than us, then we beat you and you end up making Izzoshian and Squidish comments trying to explain how you just got beat by the team with lesser talent.
I saw some posts on the refs. Just no. There were a few questionable calls, but what I saw was a swarming Kansas defense layered over us by very athletic, quick, bigger players.
I saw some posts on "DHam had a bad shooting day/took bad shots" or "S. Miller just had a bad day." No. What happened was Kansas played great D. If we played them 100 times, they'd probably win 95 or more. They were channeling their 2014 Husky D. They consistently pushed our ball handler out toward the center line, ragged DHam so he rarely got the ball in a favorable starting position, played phenomenal help D, and otherwise played relentlessly. The same is true for our other guys. Nobody played poorly, per se. Our warts were simply illuminated by the brightness of Kansas' game. They are really, really good. Do you notice Ellis take the ball from the elbow, drop two dribbles, juke, and then loft up a sweet floater that was n-but-net? Our big is still working on successfully receiving a pass that hits him in his hands.
The season was decided when we played Temple and lost at home. Or about then. That's when we started migrating toward the 8/9 seed. No doubt in my mind, as many have said, that the 8/9 seed is a horrid seed. The difference between 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 isn't as great as the difference between the 1s and the 3s and most 2s. If everything shook out just right, we, maybe, make the elite 8. Final Four if we get a few miracles along the way. Hard to see us beating the top 8 teams or so - we were just not consistent enough.
Rodney earned his bars. I was wrong about him and his place on the team. He was our leader, and was fearless and undaunted and composed, and he was alone in possession of those three traits. Without him, we maybe lose by 40.
I guess if there had to be a re-write on the season, I would have like to see Adams logging heavy minutes early in the year. In the end, his inexperience showed. He averaged less than 20 minutes a game against the early season cupcakes, and wasn't running point for all of those minutes. Would like to have seen him at point much more. For those who said he couldn't shoot, by the way, for the 2/20 Cincinnati game and thereafter, he shot 64% from 3 (7 of 11). This is much like DeAndre Daniels. Many voices called for him to "shoot fewer 3s" and "don't be in love with the three" when he struggled early. I'll say the same thing here that I said there - Adams needs to shoot when open - always-on green light - even if he's not hitting. Kid has monster talent - gotta let him make mistakes and work through cold shooting.
Next year should be interesting. We'll have a very solid guard crew, with Adams at the point. DHam will make improvements and likely give us a couple more boards/assists/pts per game, with better control and fewer turnovers.
I'll have to hang my hope on Enoch making great strides. Otherwise, we're going to have problems in the paint again. Not insurmountable, but problematic. It's been 3 years and Brimah is still getting ticky-tac fouls at horrible times in big games. I don't expect him to be substantially different next year, and we're losing Nolan (thank you Phil), who was a mature defender who flexibly guarded, and well, everybody from Poythress to the beasts yesterday. We'll miss him much more than the 3ppg that shows up on the stat sheet suggests.
To Gibbs and Miller - thank you gentlemen. To the extent you weren't what we expected, that's on us. To the extent you were, kudos to you.
Let's recruit and reload.
And cheer like mad for Mad Bob Diaco, who, in 5 years, may retrospectively be viewed as UConn Basketball's second savior.