Game Thoughts - Temple dos

[RichZ]

1. It wasn't a panic situation by any means, but we were down at the half and not playing particularly well, so it was another no left shoe for the 2nd half game.
2. Getting this out of the way right off the top. I had to watch with the sound muted from about 4 minutes left in the first half on. Burke and O'Brien spent about 10 minutes of 1st half game action talking with Lunardi about bull dung that had nothing to do with the action in front of them. The various ESPN outlets are rife with talking heads discussing seeding etc about 20 hours a day. The play-by-play guy should actually be watching the came he's supposed to be reporting the action on, and do some you-know, play-by-play kinda stuff. I turned the sound on every now and then to see if it was any better, but all I caught was Doris droning on about who knows what. Back to mute.
3. Watching the game, I would never have thought we led them in rebounds (29/26), FG% (47/44) and 3pt% (44/33), and both teams ended up 10 of 14 from the line.
4. Jackson had his best game in conference play, despite the 3 TOs. 8 points, (2 of 3 from 3), 5 boards, plus some heady defense including a steal, a block and some good footwork cutting off the roll on their P&R.
5. Amidah was a non-factor, playing only 18 mostly uneventful minutes. Enoch produced an almost identical stat line in about half the PT.
6. Rodney was huge for us today. Until Jalen made magic happen, Rodney kind of carried us. He played his usual good on ball defense all day, and found his shooting stroke in the 2nd half. He missed his first three shots (2 threes and a midrange jumper) before making a layup and a three late in the first half, then missing another 3 in the final minute. Second half, he was 3 for 4 on threes and 2 for 4 on two point attempts. He also had 5 dimes on a day when as a team we only had 11 total.
7. Did anyone else find their heart in their throat when Rodney layed out trying to save his steal attempt at 13:35 of the half as it went out of bounds? It sure looked like he went down awfully hard and awkwardly.
8. Temple lists Dingle as a guard, but his game and his dimensions both scream stretch four. And he was by far their best player today. Until he missed a front end in the endgame, anyway.
9. I believe we had them 28 to 16 on points in the paint.
10. Facey's drive and dunk on Enechionyia at about 17:30 in the 2nd half was something special and totally unexpected from him. I'm trying to think of the last time he dunked the ball that wasn't on an alley oop, and I really can't remember him ever doing anything like that. Not sure I've ever seen him up that high. Now I want to see that at least once a game for the rest of the year, dammit.
11. There were times during the game when I felt like "This is what we're like when Jalen has an off day," and it wasn't a good feeling at all. Then Jalen made that steal with just over a minute left, tried to tomahawk it, and drew the foul, which made it a one point game when he sunk both. Of course he sunk both in that spot. Because Roxbury, you know?
12. Breaking down the last minute. After a Temple time out, they inbounded with 54 seconds left. Standing directly in front of the ref at the 3 point line, Williams had a case of nervous feet, and shuffled both feet several times, with no call. Then there was a bogus call on Purvis, sending Dingle to the line. I know it was a bogus call, because Doris felt the need to defend it, without anyone having questioned it.
    Dingle missed the front end, Facey rebounded, and KO called a time out. KO spent the first half of the time out huddling with Miller and Ricky. (I think it was Ricky -- might have been Killings, all I saw was the back of the bald head -- then went over to the players and set up the possession.
    In the meantime, Burke was talking about Dunphy stressing the importance of not letting Jalen attack the rim going to his right. Sure enough, Jalen goes to his right and gets tied up. Possession arrow to UConn. Again Jalen goes to his right, and this time he gets fouled. That could not possibly have worked out any better. Now we had a new clock and didn't need to leave them 11 seconds! They foul Jalen again at 8 seconds, which as far as I'm concerned, made it a done deal. This one was going to be Jalen's game to win or lose. Dunphy takes time out. No huddling with the assistants this time. This one, I believe, is all about KO's NBA experience. Set up Jalen to take it to the rim off a high screen.
    On the inbounds, Brimah sets that high screen, Adams takes them by surprise by going around the left side of Brimah, and Brimah rolls toward the hoop on the right. At that split second, I envisioned a lob to Brimah. But Brimah gets held by Enechionyia. Jalen though, blows by Alston and gets his head, shoulders and ball past Aflakpui, then goes up with his right hand and uses reverse English to spin the ball into the hoop. You can't teach that. That's magic kinda stuff right there. Dunphy out of timeouts, and unlike when Cincinnati went ahead last year, our guys don't dance around celebrating. Instead, they run down court and defend.
13. As a final note, Temple has a much better looking dance team/cheerleading squad, whatever they call them, than we do.

 

[elmcityboy]

agreed on everything here (including #14) thanks for the write-up!

 

[huskyrob1]

1. It wasn't a panic situation by any means, but we were down at the half and not playing particularly well, so it was another no left shoe for the 2nd half game.
2. Getting this out of the way right off the top. I had to watch with the sound muted from about 4 minutes left in the first half on. Burke and O'Brien spent about 10 minutes of 1st half game action talking with Lunardi about bull dung that had nothing to do with the action in front of them. The various ESPN outlets are rife with talking heads discussing seeding etc about 20 hours a day. The play-by-play guy should actually be watching the came he's supposed to be reporting the action on, and do some you-know, play-by-play kinda stuff. I turned the sound on every now and then to see if it was any better, but all I caught was Doris droning on about who knows what. Back to mute.
3. Watching the game, I would never have thought we led them in rebounds (29/26), FG% (47/44) and 3pt% (44/33), and both teams ended up 10 of 14 from the line.
4. Jackson had his best game in conference play, despite the 3 TOs. 8 points, (2 of 3 from 3), 5 boards, plus some heady defense including a steal, a block and some good footwork cutting off the roll on their P&R.
5. Amidah was a non-factor, playing only 18 mostly uneventful minutes. Enoch produced an almost identical stat line in about half the PT.
6. Rodney was huge for us today. Until Jalen made magic happen, Rodney kind of carried us. He played his usual good on ball defense all day, and found his shooting stroke in the 2nd half. He missed his first three shots (2 threes and a midrange jumper) before making a layup and a three late in the first half, then missing another 3 in the final minute. Second half, he was 3 for 4 on threes and 2 for 4 on two point attempts. He also had 5 dimes on a day when as a team we only had 11 total.
7. Did anyone else find their heart in their throat when Rodney layed out trying to save his steal attempt at 13:35 of the half as it went out of bounds? It sure looked like he went down awfully hard and awkwardly.
8. Temple lists Dingle as a guard, but his game and his dimensions both scream stretch four. And he was by far their best player today. Until he missed a front end in the endgame, anyway.
9. I believe we had them 28 to 16 on points in the paint.
10. Facey's drive and dunk on Enechionyia at about 17:30 in the 2nd half was something special and totally unexpected from him. I'm trying to think of the last time he dunked the ball that wasn't on an alley oop, and I really can't remember him ever doing anything like that. Not sure I've ever seen him up that high. Now I want to see that at least once a game for the rest of the year, dammit.
11. There were times during the game when I felt like "This is what we're like when Jalen has an off day," and it wasn't a good feeling at all. Then Jalen made that steal with just over a minute left, tried to tomahawk it, and drew the foul, which made it a one point game when he sunk both. Of course he sunk both in that spot. Because Roxbury, you know?
12. Breaking down the last minute. After a Temple time out, they inbounded with 54 seconds left. Standing directly in front of the ref at the 3 point line, Williams had a case of nervous feet, and shuffled both feet several times, with no call. Then there was a bogus call on Purvis, sending Dingle to the line. I know it was a bogus call, because Doris felt the need to defend it, without anyone having questioned it.
    Dingle missed the front end, Facey rebounded, and KO called a time out. KO spent the first half of the time out huddling with Miller and Ricky. (I think it was Ricky -- might have been Killings, all I saw was the back of the bald head -- then went over to the players and set up the possession.
    In the meantime, Burke was talking about Dunphy stressing the importance of not letting Jalen attack the rim going to his right. Sure enough, Jalen goes to his right and gets tied up. Possession arrow to UConn. Again Jalen goes to his right, and this time he gets fouled. That could not possibly have worked out any better. Now we had a new clock and didn't need to leave them 11 seconds! They foul Jalen again at 8 seconds, which as far as I'm concerned, made it a done deal. This one was going to be Jalen's game to win or lose. Dunphy takes time out. No huddling with the assistants this time. This one, I believe, is all about KO's NBA experience. Set up Jalen to take it to the rim off a high screen.
    On the inbounds, Brimah sets that high screen, Adams takes them by surprise by going around the left side of Brimah, and Brimah rolls toward the hoop on the right. At that split second, I envisioned a lob to Brimah. But Brimah gets held by Enechionyia. Jalen though, blows by Alston and gets his head, shoulders and ball past Aflakpui, then goes up with his right hand and uses reverse English to spin the ball into the hoop. You can't teach that. That's magic kinda stuff right there. Dunphy out of timeouts, and unlike when Cincinnati went ahead last year, our guys don't dance around celebrating. Instead, they run down court and defend.
13. As a final note, Temple has a much better looking dance team/cheerleading squad, whatever they call them, than we do.

Nice read, and nice post. What do we need Jeff Jacobs for? Lol

 

[Chief00]

1. It wasn't a panic situation by any means, but we were down at the half and not playing particularly well, so it was another no left shoe for the 2nd half game.
2. Getting this out of the way right off the top. I had to watch with the sound muted from about 4 minutes left in the first half on. Burke and O'Brien spent about 10 minutes of 1st half game action talking with Lunardi about bull dung that had nothing to do with the action in front of them. The various ESPN outlets are rife with talking heads discussing seeding etc about 20 hours a day. The play-by-play guy should actually be watching the came he's supposed to be reporting the action on, and do some you-know, play-by-play kinda stuff. I turned the sound on every now and then to see if it was any better, but all I caught was Doris droning on about who knows what. Back to mute.
3. Watching the game, I would never have thought we led them in rebounds (29/26), FG% (47/44) and 3pt% (44/33), and both teams ended up 10 of 14 from the line.
4. Jackson had his best game in conference play, despite the 3 TOs. 8 points, (2 of 3 from 3), 5 boards, plus some heady defense including a steal, a block and some good footwork cutting off the roll on their P&R.
5. Amidah was a non-factor, playing only 18 mostly uneventful minutes. Enoch produced an almost identical stat line in about half the PT.
6. Rodney was huge for us today. Until Jalen made magic happen, Rodney kind of carried us. He played his usual good on ball defense all day, and found his shooting stroke in the 2nd half. He missed his first three shots (2 threes and a midrange jumper) before making a layup and a three late in the first half, then missing another 3 in the final minute. Second half, he was 3 for 4 on threes and 2 for 4 on two point attempts. He also had 5 dimes on a day when as a team we only had 11 total.
7. Did anyone else find their heart in their throat when Rodney layed out trying to save his steal attempt at 13:35 of the half as it went out of bounds? It sure looked like he went down awfully hard and awkwardly.
8. Temple lists Dingle as a guard, but his game and his dimensions both scream stretch four. And he was by far their best player today. Until he missed a front end in the endgame, anyway.
9. I believe we had them 28 to 16 on points in the paint.
10. Facey's drive and dunk on Enechionyia at about 17:30 in the 2nd half was something special and totally unexpected from him. I'm trying to think of the last time he dunked the ball that wasn't on an alley oop, and I really can't remember him ever doing anything like that. Not sure I've ever seen him up that high. Now I want to see that at least once a game for the rest of the year, dammit.
11. There were times during the game when I felt like "This is what we're like when Jalen has an off day," and it wasn't a good feeling at all. Then Jalen made that steal with just over a minute left, tried to tomahawk it, and drew the foul, which made it a one point game when he sunk both. Of course he sunk both in that spot. Because Roxbury, you know?
12. Breaking down the last minute. After a Temple time out, they inbounded with 54 seconds left. Standing directly in front of the ref at the 3 point line, Williams had a case of nervous feet, and shuffled both feet several times, with no call. Then there was a bogus call on Purvis, sending Dingle to the line. I know it was a bogus call, because Doris felt the need to defend it, without anyone having questioned it.
    Dingle missed the front end, Facey rebounded, and KO called a time out. KO spent the first half of the time out huddling with Miller and Ricky. (I think it was Ricky -- might have been Killings, all I saw was the back of the bald head -- then went over to the players and set up the possession.
    In the meantime, Burke was talking about Dunphy stressing the importance of not letting Jalen attack the rim going to his right. Sure enough, Jalen goes to his right and gets tied up. Possession arrow to UConn. Again Jalen goes to his right, and this time he gets fouled. That could not possibly have worked out any better. Now we had a new clock and didn't need to leave them 11 seconds! They foul Jalen again at 8 seconds, which as far as I'm concerned, made it a done deal. This one was going to be Jalen's game to win or lose. Dunphy takes time out. No huddling with the assistants this time. This one, I believe, is all about KO's NBA experience. Set up Jalen to take it to the rim off a high screen.
    On the inbounds, Brimah sets that high screen, Adams takes them by surprise by going around the left side of Brimah, and Brimah rolls toward the hoop on the right. At that split second, I envisioned a lob to Brimah. But Brimah gets held by Enechionyia. Jalen though, blows by Alston and gets his head, shoulders and ball past Aflakpui, then goes up with his right hand and uses reverse English to spin the ball into the hoop. You can't teach that. That's magic kinda stuff right there. Dunphy out of timeouts, and unlike when Cincinnati went ahead last year, our guys don't dance around celebrating. Instead, they run down court and defend.
13. As a final note, Temple has a much better looking dance team/cheerleading squad, whatever they call them, than we do.

Chief00 - Approved. Special emphasis on 2 and 13.

 

[Kitaman]

#4 Thanks for the VJ note, I thought he played good but not that good. Perhaps I just want to see him shoot more, but you convinced me.

Vital also was solid, the kid is UConn personified. He is probably the biggest reason our season has been saved, so to speak.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Vance was feeling it. I hope this game is a catalyst for more aggressive play down the stretch because we need him

 

[blackbird]

Have to disagree on Brimah. We're significantly better with him on the court, on both sides of the floor, when he's on the court. And he doesn't even have to do anything .

Enoch was literally getting in the way..

 

[ctchamps]

Jalen won the game and kudos for that but he and Kentan had really bad games relative to what they're capable of doing. Both missed a lot of shots (KF missed an easy bucket at the rim with no one guarding him and multiple shots he's made in many games) and both played lousy defense. Jalen let his player get by him constantly, and both he and Kentan lost their players allowing for wide open threes.

I thought the game was over when they went zone late in the game and Kentan who was playing the base left his position to double team a player leaving a wide open Dingle in the corner who made a three.

This is not an indictment on those players. It's actually a statement that two of our most pivitol players can play poorly and the team still can find a way to win. But against teams like SMU and Cinci, the three players who played well (CV, VJ and RP) will still need to play well and Jalen and Kentan will have to play much better if they want to beat those teams.

And super read RichZ.

 

[starpka]

Great writeup ...love the #12.

 

[Hugo]

Have to disagree on Brimah. We're significantly better with him on the court, on both sides of the floor, when he's on the court. And he doesn't even have to do anything .

Enoch was literally getting in the way..

After watching Enoch I feel more and more that unless he has a Hilton/Facey improvement from this year, we are in deep trouble at the 5 especially on D. We definitely need a serviceable 5 on board. Either a grad transfer, a juco or hope and pray that Carlton plays above his ranking and can rebound and play D. One thing that Ollie has done which has made a big improvement in the O is that he has made a real effort to improve our post game. We need to continue this trend to successfully recruit quality big men. It is our biggest need for next year.

 

[businesslawyer]

Chief00 - Approved. Special emphasis on 2 and 13.

#13 hardly needs to be said, because it's true every game.

 

[pj]

5. Amidah was a non-factor, playing only 18 mostly uneventful minutes. Enoch produced an almost identical stat line in about half the PT

When the primary stat they are piling up is personal fouls, it's good that Amida accomplished it in more minutes.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Have to disagree on Brimah. We're significantly better with him on the court, on both sides of the floor, when he's on the court. And he doesn't even have to do anything .

Enoch was literally getting in the way..

AB's defense makes the other 4 guys so much better.

 

[gwhuskyfan]

AB's defense makes the other 4 guys so much better.

This 100%. Game changed last few mins of Memphis game when he came back. Same yesterday.

 

[Kembacity]

Regarding the cheer squad, there was a shot coming out of a timeout near the end where the group was doing a little shimmy move that appeared designed to shake the girls and without any other point or display of skill or choreography. I was enjoying the show when my wife comments "I think one girl just flat out didn't wear a sports bra today", yes sweetheart, I noticed

 

[Chief00]

AB's defense makes the other 4 guys so much better.

True, if it's a situation where he can play help defense. He is not so much a good 1x1 defender since his fundamentals are still poor and he is prone to foul. He also got caught a couple times switching out in three territory - where it's almost guaranteed he will make a poor decision on a switch or make a foul 25 feet away from the basket.

 

[Chief00]

#13 hardly needs to be said, because it's true every game.

A friend of mine who has a couple of generations of family members who went to a SEC school - so he's been to lots of SEC football games - told me UConn is just kidding themselves if they think that area doesn't need to be upgraded - just like facilities.

 

[CL82]

It used to be way better and then there was some kind of PC decision that it's about spirit not looks.

 

[gtcam]

This 100%. Game changed last few mins of Memphis game when he came back. Same yesterday.

I will agree that when, and it is too sporadic and much too little, AB asserts himself on D and makes himself as a presence under the hoop, it makes the whole team better, However, it seems to be only at the end of games. Yes, it has helped win close games but if he was/is capable of doing so for larger segments, these games would most likely not be close. He does it at the end because there is little time left to collect another foul and he lets loose. This can be attributed to his inability to stay out of foul trouble. Yes he is good for at least one WTF call per game but he has not learned to play smart. It goes back to his inability, after 3.75 years of D1 ball, to improve his footwork, rebounding instincts and techniques, offensive moves and not leaving his feet at every fake. Is it inability to learn or desire to do so? I have no idea.
It's too bad because if he could have improved these areas by 30% this team would be in a much better place.
AB is a great ambassador for the program but his progress since freshman year, for me, has been a disappointment
Lets all hope he catches on during these final weeks and helps UConn win the AAC tournament!!!!

 

[Matrim55]

Chief00 - Approved. Special emphasis on 2 and 13.

2 & 13 were definitely the points that most resonated with casual fans still learning the game, so it felt like those would be in your wheelhouse.

 

[ctchamps]

It used to be way better and then there was some kind of PC decision that it's about spirit not looks.

Does KO reject recruits because they're not model material?

The football forum has a thread about Baylor and the rape culture that existed there. At some point in time we may reach a state in our humanity that sees the soul of people and not some superficial cliche that reduces the value of people in order to satisfy our weaknesses.

I want to bring some balance to this discussion and not censure honest feelings. To me playing the PC Card is just an arrogant dismissal of points of view when we don't happen to be in agreement.

The male "need" to lust over some general sense of a "sexy" body is most likely inherent in our biology. It happens to be at odds with some females perception of the world. As much as I want to ( and have) succumb(ed) to this desire I also want to honor the female gender by seeing them as they prefer to be seen.

Cheer leading is a sport which in the past has been identified with sexual attraction. It doesn't have to remain this way.

I feel the noble thing is to defend UConn's position in this matter when we have discussions with our male counterparts from other places. It's not like we can't find women in the world to satisfy our visual needs.

 

[CL82]

I feel the noble thing is to defend UConn's position in this matter when we have discussions with our male counterparts from other places.

Lol, I'm sure that you do.

 

[UConnNick]

It used to be way better and then there was some kind of PC decision that it's about spirit not looks.

Again, political correctness running amok!

 

[Chief00]

2 & 13 were definitely the points that most resonated with casual fans still learning the game, so it felt like those would be in your wheelhouse.

I have always been a huge proponent of the casual fan - always learning never getting stale - Stairmaster you could learn from that!

 

[Chief00]

Does KO reject recruits because they're not model material?

The football forum has a thread about Baylor and the rape culture that existed there. At some point in time we may reach a state in our humanity that sees the soul of people and not some superficial cliche that reduces the value of people in order to satisfy our weaknesses.

I want to bring some balance to this discussion and not censure honest feelings. To me playing the PC Card is just an arrogant dismissal of points of view when we don't happen to be in agreement.

The male "need" to lust over some general sense of a "sexy" body is most likely inherent in our biology. It happens to be at odds with some females perception of the world. As much as I want to ( and have) succumb(ed) to this desire I also want to honor the female gender by seeing them as they prefer to be seen.

Cheer leading is a sport which in the past has been identified with sexual attraction. It doesn't have to remain this way.

I feel the noble thing is to defend UConn's position in this matter when we have discussions with our male counterparts from other places. It's not like we can't find women in the world to satisfy our visual needs.

I will consider your viewpoint. You understand though that big time football cheerleading has not "progressed" to unattractive yet. That seems to be a CT thing and a few other enclaves. Can't we find some cheerleaders beautiful on both the inside and outside?