Florida Post Game Thread

[Umami Zen]

Hurley deserves a lot of credit for not blowing his top during that game. He was about as even tempered as I have ever seen him.

The last few games at the Garden the Hurley Family has been strategically seated courtside next to UConn bench. Don't know if that's AD Dave's idea or Danny's. LOL

 

[3rdbass]

We needed someone to try to contain Lee in the second half. We sacrificed defense on their 2nd and 3rd bigs to do that. For the most part, it worked. We made him far more uncomfortable with Ross on the floor.

Good point but still would of substituted Stewart for Ross on offense at end of the game, especially when we were inboudning the ball. Ross just is not strong with the ball in his hands. It looks like a game of hot potato with his having to make decisions passing the ball.

 

[Excalibur]

Agree. Stew was really good first half deserved much more run 2nd half. Ross does some good things and is making shots when open. I don’t get trusting Ross more than Stew last night.

We won, so whatever.

He lost minutes just as much to Mullins as to Ross. We should have been able to find a 2-3 minute break for Alex in the second half as well. He can't be playing 39 minutes every time.

 

[TheShot1990]

Can someone please make a gif of Lee calling iso then air balling by like 3 feet, only because he thought he had Karaban’s number off one weak step back earlier in the game? Career game for the kid and they still lose, tough….

Yes that was comical. "Hey everyone watch me school this 6' 8" guy who just had a tremendous momentum killing drive to the basket through our bigs just 30 seconds prior."

 

[Samoo]

Yeah. He can do that starting the game. Demary is awful right now. No other way to put it.

A look back to late 2022 would surely find a post or two in favor of benching T Newton. How'd that season turn out?

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

A look back to late 2022 would surely find a post or two in favor of benching T Newton. How'd that season turn out?

You could find people in the chat wanting to bench Newton in the Final Four against Alabama.

 

[HW611]

He lost minutes just as much to Mullins as to Ross. We should have been able to find a 2-3 minute break for Alex in the second half as well. He can't be playing 39 minutes every time.

39 out of 40 minutes is crazy for Karaban wtf.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Of course, guys were missing shots early in the game. You don't get assists on the passes to guys missing shots. When they started hitting, Malachi was in the game. Would obviously prefer to see more assists, but he only had 1 turnover, so he's not forcing it, either.

That wasn't really it. He didn't make many passes to open players. He's standing out there pounding the ball. Some of that is guys not moving or cutting or screening. I'm seeing almost none of the off the ball screening we used to see. That was our calling card. It may be that Dan and Luke don't think this team can run it.

Smith plays like an old school PG, attacking, drawing defenders and dishing. Silas, we hoped, would be more like Newton, but Solo, Stewart, Mullins, Ross are not moving and screening like the two championship teams did. We had facilitators at SF and SG with Castle, Cam and Liam. Stewart has made some really nice passes lately and can get to the top of the key and distribute from there. We may need to build on that and hope he can unlock a Daniel Hamilton "lite" type of game. He's our best passing 2/3 and that's not a great sign. Haven't seen much facilitation from Mullins, maybe it will come. If Solo and Mullins are going to just be scorers, then Silas has to be more assertive and aggressive like Smith has been.

 

[Iluvsuebird]

THIS

inbounding the ball continues to be a problem. They do realize that the opponent wants you to pass it to the corner, right?

 

[homunculus]

One of them - I think his second - he crashed right into a Florida player at half court. Zero chance that isn't called, ever.

That was his first. Absolutely a foul.

 

[DW1361]

learning experience yes. Good foul? only if you are a scrub. When you have 4 fouls and you are an important asset, on a close game, you do not disqualify yourself with under 5 minutes to go.

It was a good foul as it worked out well for us. He prevented an easy basket at a critical time when Florida was gaining momentum. Basically resulted in a turnover due to the two missed free throws. It wasn’t his night and he was pretty much a non factor.

The foul was with 2:40, resulted in retaining a four point lead and Malachi replacing him. You certainly don’t draw that up so I get your point, but it actually worked out just fine for us.

 

[Trudy Gay]

LOL!!! No

LMAO!! yes

 

[aceboon]

39 out of 40 minutes is crazy for Karaban wtf.

Its a Hurley blindspot, he won't take AK off the floor. When Mullins minutes increases Hurley has gotta shave some minutes off of AK to keep him fresh and give Stew some run. AK had two early first half fouls vs Arizona and still managed to play 35 minutes in that game.

 

[Excalibur]

39 out of 40 minutes is crazy for Karaban wtf.

We should be targeting 32 minutes. Gives Stewart 8 minutes at the 4, and he can play another 5-8 at the 3 depending on matchups

 

[dennismenace]

We needed someone to try to contain Lee in the second half. We sacrificed defense on their 2nd and 3rd bigs to do that. For the most part, it worked. We made him far more uncomfortable with Ross on the floor.

This is a good insight. We could not stop Lee in the first half. Too fast. By the second half his legs had already had a very good workout. Add a long fresh 6-7 defender and he becomes right sized. But Fla didn't really have anyone who could stop Malachi and apparently his energy was in much better shape by the second half than Lee's. We went 9 deep and as usual it takes it best toll the longer the game goes on. I'm looking forward to Furphy getting more minutes as we start playing league games so that he can be used in places as the season progresses. He seems to have some different skills. This brings back memories of the Henefield and Sheffer eras here we had a deep bench. Really psyched watching how this team progresses!

 

[LetsGoUC]

IMO, Karaban is playing so much better than last year. Not forcing anything and seems so much more in control. Made clutch plays down the stretch last night too. Shooting 44% right now from three!

Let's appreciate this kid, he is an all time UConn great.

 

[HW611]

Its a Hurley blindspot, he won't take AK off the floor. When Mullins minutes increases Hurley has gotta shave some minutes off of AK to keep him fresh and give Stew some run. AK had two early first half fouls vs Arizona and still managed to play 35 minutes in that game.

There’s all the depth in the world for him to play an easy 30 minutes a game. It’s so unnecessary.

 

[Kemba15]

That wasn't really it. He didn't make many passes to open players. He's standing out there pounding the ball. Some of that is guys not moving or cutting or screening. I'm seeing almost none of the off the ball screening we used to see. That was our calling card. It may be that Dan and Luke don't think this team can run it.

Smith plays like an old school PG, attacking, drawing defenders and dishing. Silas, we hoped, would be more like Newton, but Solo, Stewart, Mullins, Ross are not moving and screening like the two championship teams did. We had facilitators at SF and SG with Castle, Cam and Liam. Stewart has made some really nice passes lately and can get to the top of the key and distribute from there. We may need to build on that and hope he can unlock a Daniel Hamilton "lite" type of game. He's our best passing 2/3 and that's not a great sign. Haven't seen much facilitation from Mullins, maybe it will come. If Solo and Mullins are going to just be scorers, then Silas has to be more assertive and aggressive like Smith has been.

I think there’s more movement than you’re giving credit for. It’s just a lot tougher to run all that action against really physical teams like Florida and Arizona. The bigger issue to me is Silas being completely uncomfortable operating the offense.

 

[Mike Honcho]

Pretty good. More Florida fans showed up than I expected, but I am guessing 70-30 split for good guys. The 70% UConn that showed up were ready to go from the tip.

I was sitting down in 115 and it was a much more balanced split. I'm guessing the 200's were more weighted towards UConn fans -- that's typically what happens. They also had some sort of sing-songy chant about halfway through the second half that got fairly loud. Also seemed lame .

 

[HW611]

That wasn't really it. He didn't make many passes to open players. He's standing out there pounding the ball. Some of that is guys not moving or cutting or screening. I'm seeing almost none of the off the ball screening we used to see. That was our calling card. It may be that Dan and Luke don't think this team can run it.

Smith plays like an old school PG, attacking, drawing defenders and dishing. Silas, we hoped, would be more like Newton, but Solo, Stewart, Mullins, Ross are not moving and screening like the two championship teams did. We had facilitators at SF and SG with Castle, Cam and Liam. Stewart has made some really nice passes lately and can get to the top of the key and distribute from there. We may need to build on that and hope he can unlock a Daniel Hamilton "lite" type of game. He's our best passing 2/3 and that's not a great sign. Haven't seen much facilitation from Mullins, maybe it will come. If Solo and Mullins are going to just be scorers, then Silas has to be more assertive and aggressive like Smith has been.

Hurley made it a point to give guys more freedom for creativity this year than to have them run the same offenses as in the past. It hurt us a lot lost year when guys were able to key in on our sets and our players weren’t prepared to take anyone one on one.

In 2024 all of those guys were equipped with that ability to go one on one while also running the offense, but they were also guys who developed that ability elsewhere or came in with it (Castle).

It’s harder to have that ability when you spend your formative college years running an offense that discourages it like our “Fab 5” class did. Hurley wanted to work more on letting them play with more freedom this summer which looks like a good move.

 

[Mike Honcho]

Sorry. I meant the Jumbotron at MSG.

Yes. He got a nice response from the crowd.

 

[7774]

There’s all the depth in the world for him to play an easy 30 minutes a game. It’s so unnecessary.

There definitely isn't.

 

[DGRU]

Maybe so, but Malachi is playing with so much more confidence and guts. Hopefully Silas figures it out, but he doesn’t seem up to the task right now. Not sure why Malachi is having more fun out there. Maybe a difference in personalities

I wonder if there’s a coach that Dan can talk to about inbounding tricks when teams start pressing hard late? It just seems like something his teams have always struggled with.

too bad he doesn't know any HOF coaches! (although Calhoun's teams often sucked at that too) Maybe Geno or Dad can draw something up.

 

[thekollieman]

Well not sure he backed off - that reach in was unnecessary that got him off the court.

I don’t want him to change anything other than when he come into the game maybe play solid D but don’t look to make that spectacular defensive play in first 60 sec. Get in flow of game, play solid D but we need him on the court, we really do. Then tune it up on D for sure! Again not change D intensity just get in flow of game first.

With regard to the blow by drives that were referred to, Mullins was allowing space to avoid fouling again. That’s all I was commenting on because he was described in the prior comment as being unable to guard a chair, which I object to.

 

[NJHusky]

Objective comments from Sam V about officials last night

 

[Icehawk]

We were loud. I did hear some Florida cheering on TV but no chants like ours. Camera showed a lot of Gator fans though FWIW.

Alex will play 35+ every game just like has the last 120+ games, hasn't been an issue for him. Glad he is back to his best self.

I have faith Demary will shine brighter as we continue the season, I'll admit I was down on Newton for a long time and I'm not going to make the same mistake.

Mullins made some dumb fouls, freshman-style as we should expect. Still managed to have a positive effect. Foul calls seemed weird though with a bunch of calls I couldn't detect anything on and, as mentioned, a lot of shirt grabbing was ignored.


Our deep bench and overall game feels like 2023 again... and I'm all for it.

 

[RedStickHusky]

Reminding myself that Newton had some downs in his first year too. A lot on his shoulders, but he’s a great, proven high major player. He’ll bounce back

A lot of us weren't all in on Newton until the tournament... It takes a while.

 

[navery12]

A lot of us weren't all in on Newton until the tournament... It takes a while.

And a slightly smaller group continued to criticize him all the way through the championship game. There's even a small group that continues to criticize him after back to back championships and an All American season

 

[UCan3]

With regard to the blow by drives that were referred to, Mullins was allowing space to avoid fouling again. That’s all I was commenting on because he was described in the prior comment as being unable to guard a chair, which I object to.

oh no, he can definitely guard. I agree with you there. I mean the dude's a freshman playing and like his fifth game or whatever it is he's playing fine on defense.

 

[Dutch Boyd]

Its a Hurley blindspot, he won't take AK off the floor. When Mullins minutes increases Hurley has gotta shave some minutes off of AK to keep him fresh and give Stew some run. AK had two early first half fouls vs Arizona and still managed to play 35 minutes in that game.

Hurley knows how meaningful these early games are. Unfortunately many on the boneyard don’t. We are basically Gonzaga this year if the Big East doesn’t improve, so he’s gonna ride him in these high profile games. I’m sure once league play starts the minutes will be reduced. If we want a 1 or 2 seed, these games are must wins.