Game Thread

[HailUConn]

Does he? I saw Samuel allow a guy to drive down the lane on him late, he pulled up near the foul line, shot a jumper. Samuel didn't even contest it, just watched, I was shocked he didn't even put a hand up.

I swear that I could post 10 clips that Boat was blew right by his opponent, at least. After that, I lost count.

It's not he is not quick or anything. Napier is no taller, but he knows how to defend the switch or 1-on-1.

 

[HailUConn]

Faust was 5-for-18 with three assists. Boat's D was poor at times containing the ball, but let's have a little bit of a grip on reality here.

The last 3 Faust hit to cut the lead to 2 was when Boat sagged to help as Smotrycz beat Daniels on an isolation at the top of the key. Probably would prefer he stay at home there, but that's our team defensive scheme - help and recover.

Faust had FG percentage right around .374 last season. So I am not sure if you could attribute that to Boat's defense.

 

[Gurleyman]

Does he? I saw Samuel allow a guy to drive down the lane on him late, he pulled up near the foul line, shot a jumper. Samuel didn't even contest it, just watched, I was shocked he didn't even put a hand up.

You're reacting a bit to the slomo replay. Samuel did a good job and cut him off as he tried to drive - but after there was some hip-to-hip contact, the Terp guy stopped and popped as the bump knocked Samuel off stride a little. That's a tough play to get your momentum going back forward to contest - especially when you're young and haven't gone through all the agility drills with chairs and cones to get your body trained to change direction on a dime. Best you can do is sort of wave your hand in the air while nailed to the floor, but you won't get in the shooter's field of vision. A Ricky Moore type might be so agile that they can spring back instantly and not give that shot up as easily, but those guys are hard to come by.

The issue with needing Boat out there, especially without Bazz, was better seen when Samuel had the ball poked away with 20 seconds left. It just went o/b, but you need better ball toughness there when the other team is going to be gambling and poking at it.

 

[upstater]

You're reacting a bit to the slomo replay. Samuel did a good job and cut him off as he tried to drive - but after there was some hip-to-hip contact, the Terp guy stopped and popped as the bump knocked Samuel off stride a little. That's a tough play to get your momentum going back forward to contest - especially when you're young and haven't gone through all the agility drills with chairs and cones to get your body trained to change direction on a dime. Best you can do is sort of wave your hand in the air while nailed to the floor, but you won't get in the shooter's field of vision. A Ricky Moore type might be so agile that they can spring back instantly and not give that shot up as easily, but those guys are hard to come by.

The issue with needing Boat out there, especially without Bazz, was better seen when Samuel had the ball poked away with 20 seconds left. It just went o/b, but you need better ball toughness there when the other team is going to be gambling and poking at it.

I agree mostly. They did a slo-mo? I must have looked away. or at the gamethread. I saw it in realtime.

 

[Gurleyman]

Faust had FG percentage right around .374 last season. So I am not sure if you could attribute that to Boat's defense.

I'm not attributing it all - or even mostly - to his defense. But in order to be "eaten alive" by someone, the guy needs to do something. A 5-for-18, 3-assist performance isn't even nibbling on his chin hair.

 

[gtcam]

Faust was 5-for-18 with three assists. Boat's D was poor at times containing the ball, but let's have a little bit of a grip on reality here.

The last 3 Faust hit to cut the lead to 2 was when Boat sagged to help as Smotrycz beat Daniels on an isolation at the top of the key. Probably would prefer he stay at home there, but that's our team defensive scheme - help and recover.

DD was getting beat on D all night. He better step it up on D and take the shot when open- a vet disappointing start for DD but I know KO will slap him out of it

 

[Gurleyman]

I agree mostly. They did a slo-mo? I must have looked away. or at the gamethread. I saw it in realtime.

Yeah - they did a slomo on it. Might have been a little later coming out of a TO. I remember thinking "that replay makes Samuel's D look worse than it was".

I almost consider that possession to be like the guy on offense who makes a great move to create his shot, but maybe doesn't have the spring in his legs to finish. He did a pretty good job keeping the guy away from the rim and keeping other defenders at home (which is key for rebounding position), but he didn't quite finish the stop by making the shot a little harder.

 

[rw005]

2 things:

1. Free throws

2. Random 3 point chucks (even though DD is wide open, he has to see if he can take the long 2)

Great game!

 

[Tommyboy]

I agree mostly. They did a slo-mo? I must have looked away. or at the gamethread. I saw it in realtime.

Yeah he hit a slight nudge and couldn't recover but at least he took a swipe at the ball.

 

[HailUConn]

You're reacting a bit to the slomo replay. Samuel did a good job and cut him off as he tried to drive - but after there was some hip-to-hip contact, the Terp guy stopped and popped as the bump knocked Samuel off stride a little. That's a tough play to get your momentum going back forward to contest - especially when you're young and haven't gone through all the agility drills with chairs and cones to get your body trained to change direction on a dime. Best you can do is sort of wave your hand in the air while nailed to the floor, but you won't get in the shooter's field of vision. A Ricky Moore type might be so agile that they can spring back instantly and not give that shot up as easily, but those guys are hard to come by.

The issue with needing Boat out there, especially without Bazz, was better seen when Samuel had the ball poked away with 20 seconds left. It just went o/b, but you need better ball toughness there when the other team is going to be gambling and poking at it.

If Uconn team wants to go deep this year, it should become clear to KO that a 3rd reliable ball handler needs to be brought along. I think it's better to start now.

Here is what i see the issues with Boat (don't shoot me for saying)

It's a fact that Boat's height is an easy exploit, especially when the game gets tough.
Facing a taller opponent with equal athleticism, what will happen? Boat become a liability in both offense and defense.
However, this is not fatal, a smart player can make it less vulnerable. Kemba is a weensy-teensy taller, but he use his quickness and cunning skills to hide or cover that.

This leads to another of my worries. His basketball IQ is not there or he is not using it to make up for his height disadvantage. Kemba made a quantum leap from Soph to Junior year. In this game (yes one game) , I don't see he is reading the opponent, learning the game, adjusting his plays accordingly. Again, one game in the season start does not conclude my analysis, and I hope to God, it's NOT!

 

[joober jones]

Giffey isn't a point guard. We can't really rag on KO for giving Boatright more minutes than Giffey. It's apples and oranges. Then again, it's all apples when Giffey is in the pictures.

 

[HailUConn]

I'm not attributing it all - or even mostly - to his defense. But in order to be "eaten alive" by someone, the guy needs to do something. A 5-for-18, 3-assist performance isn't even nibbling on his chin hair.

I don't want to make this a deep discussion, but to me, when Faust has his way with him, that's not acceptable and he is not learning to stay in front of him rather than run along on the side.

Faust is not scoring, but his two blow-bys resulted in a foul on Brimah, the other on Deandre Daniels

 

[jibsey]

Kromah looks like he can handle as does Samuel.

 

[B1GEast]

I would have liked to have seen Kromah on the floor in the last 5 minutes, good things happen with he's on the floor, we needed to have more front court opportunities as well, too much gaurd play.

 

[Gurleyman]

I don't want to make this a deep discussion, but to me, when Faust has his way with him, that's not acceptable and he is not learning to stay in front of him rather than run along on the side.

Faust is not scoring, but his two blow-bys resulted in a foul on Brimah, the other on Deandre Daniels

You are correct that Boat lost containment on the ball too many times. As a whole, we weren't very good at stopping the ball as a team (and against a team with ordinary guard play), but Boat was our worst culprit. He was playing hard, trying to be disruptive, but he ended up simply being beaten too often.

That said - we don't know the game plan to know if the coaches wanted him pressuring the ball high and were willing to live with Faust driving. Perhaps they wanted to wear him down a bit - and his nine straight missed FG in 2nd half were an indication that may have worked if that was the case.

But I'd have been happier with more defensive possessions like the last one when he played hard, contained the ball, and contested the shot in textbook fashion. His 4-12 included 3 breakaway dunks, so he wasn't able to find ways to score on offense either, although he did backrim a couple rhythm jumpers I expected to go in.

 

[caw]

Samuel has a fine handle, but he was extremely nervous. Hopefully he gets over the jitters soon. I can't imagine it was easy for him. First college game, hometown, decent opponent, packed and relatively loud crowd (especially at the end). He wanted nothing to do with the ball on offenses (at least in terms of shooting it) at the end of the game.

Maryland did a lot of slapping at the ball from behind, with a lot of contact that wasn't called.

Lots of Ricky tack fouls on UConn with relatively few on Maryland.

All-in-all can't complain a ton when your team leads the whole game from the first bucket.

 

[ColoradoUCFan]

disgusting this is team has a lot of work to do

You're disgusting

 

[ColoradoUCFan]

Giffey looked awesome first half. I was a little surprised he didn't get the second half start, after what he accomplished in the first half. Then I was shocked he didn't get in the game till late in the second half. Then I was sad that he was benched at the end and never got a shot attempt the second half. He was our best player tonight! He was a rock star over the summer playing for Germany, competing against NBA players. I love KO, but why was he benching his hottest player in the clutch?

 

[Scoe]

You're disgusting

your disgusting

You're disgusting

Your disgusting for not knowing the difference from a troll to a fan with high expectations,do you wanna see this team go deep in march? if the answer is yes then this performance needs to be unacceptable, I do think we need to get better from this and will.

 

[ctchamps]

Giffey looked awesome first half. I was a little surprised he didn't get the second half start, after what he accomplished in the first half. Then I was shocked he didn't get in the game till late in the second half. Then I was sad that he was benched at the end and never got a shot attempt the second half. He was our best player tonight! He was a rock star over the summer playing for Germany, competing against NBA players. I love KO, but why was he benching his hottest player in the clutch?

A couple of people pointed out that NG was allowing his player to score easily in the first half. I agree with them. NG had one of his best offensive games in the first half and one of his worst defensive games in the first half. DD had poor stats, but as some astute posters have pointed out Smotrycz was smoking UConn when DD was out early in the first half, but when DD was reinserted Smotrycz was neutralized by DD's defense. DD can be criticized for a lack of offensive production relative to what he is capable of, but his defense was stellar. Playing in the corner was the reason for his poor rebounding performance, but it worked. KO is an advocate of defense same as his mentor.

And as other posters pointed out, OC's game in the second half was great, both on the offensive and defensive end, so as a result of these three factors, OC and DD stayed in and NG and LK were sidelined.

 

[upstater]

Boatright did not have a great year last year, but before people discuss what Boat can or cannot do based on the Maryland game, remember how he played last year toward the end when Shabazz was out. He controlled the offense and controlled it well.

 

[ctchamps]

Boatright did not have a great year last year, but before people discuss what Boat can or cannot do based on the Maryland game, remember how he played last year toward the end when Shabazz was out. He controlled the offense and controlled it well.

RB's assist to turnover ratio was similar to SN (7-3 for Bazz vs. 6-3 for RB). His major flaws in this game were the inability to keep his player from getting by him, and missing shots. He actually dribbled into positions for open looks and missed shots he can make. That is his problem on offense relative to Bazz - inconsistency. But as far as breaking down man to man or zone half court defenses they are both very good.

RB has the ability to keep players contained but I believe he's still adjusting to the hand checking rules.

The biggest issue is minutes. I'm hoping TS can develop to reduce the minutes for SN and RB. LK and OC do not have the handle to break down zones or tough man to man coverage.

 

[HailUConn]

RB's assist to turnover ratio was similar to SN (7-3 for Bazz vs. 6-3 for RB). His major flaws in this game were the inability to keep his player from getting by him, and missing shots. He actually dribbled into positions for open looks and missed shots he can make. That is his problem on offense relative to Bazz - inconsistency. But as far as breaking down man to man or zone half court defenses they are both very good.

RB has the ability to keep players contained but I believe he's still adjusting to the hand checking rules.

The biggest issue is minutes. I'm hoping TS can develop to reduce the minutes for SN and RB. LK and OC do not have the handle to break down zones or tough man to man coverage.

This is the most intelligent post about RB's play. I agree with pretty much everything you said here.

The only thing I have knocked on RB is his size. When he is in the starting line up, he may be over matched most of time. I honestly don't know any quality team has SG under 6'. I know he and Bazz can switch, but I would want Bazz to not exert too much on the other team's offensive shooting guard.

 

[ctchamps]

This is the most intelligent post about RB's play. I agree with pretty much everything you said here.

The only thing I have knocked on RB is his size. When he is in the starting line up, he may be over matched most of time. I honestly don't know any quality team has SG under 6'. I know he and Bazz can switch, but I would want Bazz to not exert too much on the other team's offensive shooting guard.

His height is more than made up by his quickness and athleticism. I will take his shortcomings because he brings to the table a lot of positives. If you and I could stretch his body 6 inches and make his frame mid sized instead of slender, keeping his quickness with his hands and feet and his leaping ability, we would have the lottery pick player.

But there is nothing we can do about his body type. What I like about RB is that he is making a conscious effort to not only create for himself but look to distribute more. SN is rubbing off on him. It will take time because RB's instincts from years of playing a certain way are to use his speed advantage and make plays for himself. Be patient with him. The combination of SN and RB is just an incredible tandem that on most days, when things are falling right, will give the UConn fans lots of satisfaction and opposing fans lots of fits.

 

[hyperthink]

Kromah and Giffey carrying the scoring load early on. Anyone predict that for the first game?!!

Hey i've been telling people kromahmis good since july

 

[mauconnfan]

Hey i've been telling people kromahmis good since july

I think we know that now hyper........next?

 

[UChusky916]

Hey i've been telling people kromahmis good since july

Mr/Mrs. Kromah... We are glad your son came to UConn. You win. Now leave.

 

[hyperthink]

Lol im not a kromah. I actually came to this site as a hoops enthusiast. Ad thistopic came up. I love the debating on this site. Im actually gonna stay around tho. But i love the fact that i've got you to succumb to my will. Just havin fun with it. (Evil laughter ensues)........ As u were

Mr/Mrs. Kromah... We are glad your son came to UConn. You win. Now leave.

 

[hyperthink]

Btw anything less than the sweet 16 is a disappointment for this team

 

[Husky]

rebounding...