I agree with this post 100 percent. The alternative to the defense that Hurley ran all season with our players would not have been pretty.
It would certainly help Mahaney with his player driving to the basket. Unfortunately I do not remember whether Mahaney was one whose players he guarded shot a high percentage of threes early in the season. If so was it the result of his playing off his man as you propose and he was slow to contest shots?
Part of it was that. Part of it was Samson sitting on the bench for most of the second half. He was cold when he finally came back in.
Probably right, his upside at UConn is a more effective 6th man and given that he came to UConn with starting expectations and possibly developing to play at next level a role that rules out being a starter might be too much of a letdown. At same time he is what he is and a year playing and developing against the best talent leaves the upside window open even if just a tiny bit.
You named 8 guys.
One of the sillier broadcast stats is "(Team) hasn't scored a field goal in (x) minutes." Kind of hard to score a field goal when you're getting fouled and sent to the line every time.
Then you work with a bunch of entitled bozos. And yeah Expectations determine the level disappointment. We were more likely to lose by 20 than win that game but We played our best defensive of the season and barely came up short thanks to incredible shot making from Clayton. Woulda been nice to make the sweet 16 but oh well. We don’t hang sweet 16 banners.
Yeah, that was the play where Diarra stole the ball. I thought to myself at the time "We are gonna regret not converting that into points" and unfortunately I was right.
I for one have no problem with overwhelming greediness. See Will Farrell in Wedding Crashers
I would he would of been incredible penetrating on this team. He had a great tournament his Freshman year coming off the bench. He was huge that Missouri game in the Tournament. Our weakness on this year's team was penetration. I could name more too but just came up with some off the top of my head.
Sanogo was a lot better able to actually score against a double. I like Reed. Whoever had the plan to force feed him the ball is as much to blame for the loss as anyone. Multiple turnovers and a lot of terrible shots that had no chance were the result. Have to take what the defense gives you.
Bad decision there and it hurt. The trailer was the play there and was wide open, needed to convert that one.
Reed has no composure - panics, isn't strong with the ball. Sonogo was a steel trap once the ball went into him, had coolness and technique, strong soft hands and impeccable footwork. Miles apart. Most amazing about Sonogo was that he rarely got stripped, knew how to protect the ball even when defense collapsed on him. Tarris always feels like he's ready to lose the ball if he has it more than a 2-3 count.
The play you referenced was a killer- Was not convinced by replays that it wasn't the defender who tipped it out and instead of Solo losing control. However-ball security is huge at that time of game. We had our chances in that game.
Was part of three consecutive gaff offensive possessions which killed us. It was definitely off Solo - player poked it, Solo lost the handle and then tried to grab back and fumbled it. They showed the replay. This one particularly hurt. What they didn't show was the replay on AK's take to the rim, which was awkward and he could have done a lot more with it, but he missed so bad that there had to have been some contact (clean or not). I think this may have been the play Hurley threw his post game tantrum over.
The Karaban shot is the one getting all the attention because it was the end of the game, but we had 2 other similar missed opportunities too. Stewart's reverse was another one where in hindsight he should have just gone straight up. But the one that really eats at me is Diarra on the fast break where he was anticipating the defender coming to foul him and missed the layup
A lot of people forget that freshman Kemba was a turnover machine...absolutely reckless with the ball driving to the hoop. He was a good player as a freshman, but it's crazy to suggest he was better than Liam.
Same can be said about the Solo runner bank shot from the right wing in the closing few minutes. He could have taken it to the basket but looked to avoid contact.