Final(s) ThoughtZ™

[RichZ]

Sorry for the late post, had to get right to bed after the game to get up at 5 and go striper fishing.

1. Not sure whether to blame Newton or Karaban for that first turnover. Newton made a bad decision on the pass, but Alex could have caught that if he'd jumped. Wouldn't have scored, but would have had possession and gone from there.
2. Took us a bit to get going, but we seem to find our comfort zone about 8 minutes in.
3. Double digit lead with 8 to go in the half.
4. Hawkins fouls on a three point attempt. Taste of his own medicine?
5. Not fancy, but Ajax drop pass and screen for JoeyC's 3 at the 3 minute mark in the half was as pretty a basketball play as you'll ever see.
6. 12 point lead at the half, but it had been 16 just a minute earlier.
7. Shooting 52% to their 29%.
8. 7-2 on dimes, 3-1 on blocks and 6-2 on steals.
9. Newton leads all scorers at the half with 9. Sanogo and Hawkins with 7 each. Tramell has 7 for SDS.
10. Awful start to second half for Hawk. Blew a stuff and a three, then turned it over. Somehow though, its still 12 points 2 minutes into the 2nd half.
11. Lead bouncing between 10 and 15 for the first 11 minutes of the 2nd half. Felt like we needed a 7 or 8 point spurt to destroy their hopes and dreams.
12. Not the time for Ajax to jack a three. JoeyC though, that's ok.
13. We were supposed to make the run, not them!
14. Up 8 with 7 minutes left. Tenuous lead, but for some reason, I didn't feel nervous at all.
15. That was an awful call on Karaban at 5:20. Johnson is backing up as he takes the shot. Karaban goes up to try for the block, and Johnson, after he'd released the shot, leans forward to initiate contact. Even then, there wasn't enough contact to merit a call. but when he made two free throws and cut the lead to five. I finally started to worry.
16. Then Hawkins drilled the three at the other end, and all was right in the world once again.
17. Until Adama made the worst offensive move of his career a couple possessions later.
18. At that point we were really out of sorts, with 4 minutes left, nursing an 8 point lead, and to make matters worse, Karaban fouled Johnson again on the rebounding action following that move by Sanogo.
19. But Johnson missed the front end of the 1 & 1, and Naheim got the rebound.
20. Thanks mostly to some clutch FT shooting, we nursed that 8 point lead right up to 17 in about 3 minutes before pulling all the starters with 30 seconds left. Coaches son dribbled out the last 20 seconds.
21. Sanogo earned MOP of the final four (and the whole damned tourney, for that matter) but Newton was our most valuable player last night.

 

[Glenn]

Newton was on the all tournament team along with Hawkins and Sanogo. Also Butler of SDSU and Martin of FAU

 

[ibleedhuskyblue]

5. Not fancy, but Ajax drop pass and screen for JoeyC's 3 at the 3 minute mark in the half was as pretty a basketball play as you'll ever see.

He had one a couple minutes earlier where he dropped it off for Hawkins, screened, then re-screened to buy him the space. It was beautiful.

 

[Mike Honcho]

I don't think it's been talked about enough but our free throw shooting was so important in this game. 24-27 (89%) will win you a lot of games. And the 7-8 from Sanogo was just beautiful. Can't just put him on the line cause he'll make you pay. A very deserved final 4 MOP.

 

[REB1094]

A subtle move of strong coaching that helped Newton have such a great game. The gameplan clearly called for Newton to attack Trammell and score. Have we seen Newton that aggressive all season? Probably not, and it wasn't an accident or a sudden change of heart. UConn ran a lot of action to get people moving off ball, mostly as a distraction to get Newton going downhill with little help defense. Led to a lot of good looks, and a lot of free throws

Newton is 6'5. Trammell is 5'10. Very smart move from the staff to abuse that matchup. Led to some frustrating turnovers, but overall a big net positive

 

[nadavtheman]

A subtle move of strong coaching that helped Newton have such a great game. The gameplan clearly called for Newton to attack Trammell and score. Have we seen Newton that aggressive all season? Probably not, and it wasn't an accident or a sudden change of heart. UConn ran a lot of action to get people moving off ball, mostly as a distraction to get Newton going downhill with little help defense. Led to a lot of good looks, and a lot of free throws

Newton is 6'5. Trammell is 5'10. Very smart move from the staff to abuse that matchup. Led to some frustrating turnovers, but overall a big net positive

Spot on

 

[B1GEast]

When the Aztecs cut it to 5 with about 5 and change to go, I started to worry a bit and then Captain America, Hawkins launches a three and brings us back up to 8. That shot sealed the game.

That 9-2 run at the end was due to a lot of sloppy errors by Jackson and a few others.

Newton and Alleyne's contributions were key. Everyone got involved somehow or another. Joey C made a nice three as well.

This game was closer than it should have been.

There were a lot of cheap fouls called on our guys, but our bench was so deep, it didn't matter.

San Diego like Miami was befuddled. They had nowhere to go inside and the perimeter defense was incredible.

Part of me wishes that Kansas and Arizona would have been opponents, but they didn't step up and win their games, so it is what it is. I'm fine with that. Great performance overall by our guys