George Blaney...........

[mauconnfan]

Okay we love the guy as the associate HC and the guy has forgotten more about basketball than any of us. But seriously, when you're in the game late 1st half and the calls seem to be swaying a little ugly, especially when Scoop goes to the hole loses it himself and keeps the ball. Especially when Scoop throws a bullet through Southerlands hands and OOB's only for them to keep it again? By the way this by no means is a hammer on the refereeing as it all evens itself out and had NO bearing to this game at all. But nonetheless you don't get any makeup calls if you don't let them know they blew a few............JB doesn't hold back nor does JC and I promise a little hammer gains some recognition from the stripes on occasion. He is way too nice of a man on the sidelines for my liking....support the kids, grab a T if necessary, fire someone up, for crying outloud UNFOLD your arms for a minute straight and act Italian................

Love the guy but we need some passion, and so do the kids, on the sideline!!!

 

[Tenspro2002]

The one time he did show passion was after Drummond got reject by Fab, you could see Blaney on the sideline scream "dunk it!" or something to that effect. And, sure enough, Drummond went into beast mode for the next 5 minutes.

 

[Wise2]

The one time he did show passion was after Drummond got reject by Fab, you could see Blaney on the sideline scream "dunk it!" or something to that effect. And, sure enough, Drummond went into beast mode for the next 5 minutes.

Any report on Andre's Ankle? We don't need a repeat of the Gronk

 

[tzznandrew]

I thought that his usage of TOs was better than usual. He called them roughly when Calhoun would have.

As much as we're giving him crap (and he deserves it), he was instrumental in the growth of the 2002-03 team. They weren't very good, he came in, they got killed by VT, but then went on a run.

 

[Chief00]

At his age now, George tends to wear down the last 5 minutes of a half - both key times in a game. Let's not forget, I believe George is a few years older than Calhoun.

 

[Kitaman]

All things considering Blaney did good, putting us in a chance to win the game. Not sure if JC could have won this one. Kids are not responding or getting impatient when the heat is on.

When will we ever commit a hard foul? We are just too nice out there. Bazz becomes a fullback to pick up an opponent knocked to the floor. Just saying...............................

 

[Chief00]

The refs don't allow Alex to back down guys on offense. Blair did it all the time and was seldom called for it. Is Alex's technique bad or does he get no respect - despite almost being the MVP of the F4.

 

[selles]

The one time he did show passion was after Drummond got reject by Fab, you could see Blaney on the sideline scream "dunk it!" or something to that effect. And, sure enough, Drummond went into beast mode for the next 5 minutes.

I noticed that too, thought there was definite cause and effect between George getting upset and AD's awakening. If that's all it takes, I hope UConn will have one of the student managers follow AD around 24/7 yelling "dunk it". So much tantalizing potential.

Overall I thought Blaney did well today. Would have liked to see a timeout on our second to last possession of the first half (we looked disorganized and badly needed a bucket). But I thought he used the second half TO's well, substituted well, and really did succeed in motivating Drummond for that stretch where he looked all-world.

 

[Fishy]

Blaney did very well today - no complaints at all.

 

[RS9999X]

Like everyone else I was happy with the kids at the 6 minute mark. Kept coming back. No sense of being over matched or folding their tent.

George has a good chance to set these guys up to get back to 500. Marquette's a good matchup when on the road. Their jump shooting suffers some--2/13 @ND beyond the arc 6/26 @SU--both losses. That and the boards are the way to beat them.

 

[UCweCONN]

Blaney did very well today - no complaints at all.

I agree. This one is on the players. The key factors were mistakes at key moments, empty possessions on offense, shaky perimeter defense, and loss of composure down the stretch. Oh, and Syracuse shooting 60% helped too.

 

[caw]

The refs don't allow Alex to back down guys on offense. Blair did it all the time and was seldom called for it. Is Alex's technique bad or does he get no respect - despite almost being the MVP of the F4.

I think Alex does two things wrong:

He is very repetitive on his back downs, or rhythmic; making it easier for the defensive player to flop/draw the charge on the third hit.

He is slow in starting his moves.

He needs to seriously make a quicker move.

 

[uconnfan68]

Okay we love the guy as the associate HC and the guy has forgotten more about basketball than any of us. But seriously, when you're in the game late 1st half and the calls seem to be swaying a little ugly, especially when Scoop goes to the hole loses it himself and keeps the ball. Especially when Scoop throws a bullet through Southerlands hands and OOB's only for them to keep it again? By the way this by no means is a hammer on the refereeing as it all evens itself out and had NO bearing to this game at all. But nonetheless you don't get any makeup calls if you don't let them know they blew a few............JB doesn't hold back nor does JC and I promise a little hammer gains some recognition from the stripes on occasion. He is way too nice of a man on the sidelines for my liking....support the kids, grab a T if necessary, fire someone up, for crying outloud UNFOLD your arms for a minute straight and act Italian................

Love the guy but we need some passion, and so do the kids, on the sideline!!!

Name one person they would play for.

 

[Henry]

The refs don't allow Alex to back down guys on offense. Blair did it all the time and was seldom called for it. Is Alex's technique bad or does he get no respect - despite almost being the MVP of the F4.

No respect in my opinion. If they called fouls on Blair every time he did something, he would have fouled out early in every game. Wasn't he the one who almost broke off Thabeet's arm?

 

[mets1090]

No respect in my opinion. If they called fouls on Blair every time he did something, he would have fouled out early in every game. Wasn't he the one who almost broke off Thabeet's arm?

Yes. And they called the foul on Sheem

 

[uconnfan68]

No respect in my opinion. If they called fouls on Blair every time he did something, he would have fouled out early in every game. Wasn't he the one who almost broke off Thabeet's arm?

Blair was smooth, AO isn't. And it's still hard to believe how easily Thabeet could be tossed around.

 

[boog204]

The refs don't allow Alex to back down guys on offense. Blair did it all the time and was seldom called for it. Is Alex's technique bad or does he get no respect - despite almost being the MVP of the F4.

as has been said, he's so mechanical and obvious in his back down that the contact looks much worse than it actually is. plus, it looks like he really puts his shoulder down when he turns towards the hoop and that's an easy call to make.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Blaney was a below average game coach in his prime. He is a much stronger teacher than he is a Head Coach. He has a tendency to become a spectator at times, and I am convinced that he loses track of time during the games. He has odd substitution patterns and lineups, and then leaves them out there for extended periods of time. He doesn't change offenses or defenses, and so the same UConn weaknesses can get exploited over and over. He is terrible at coming up with "go to" offensive plays to break a drought.

I can not think of a single reason why Ollie should not be the interim coach. Given how weak Blaney is as a game coach, why not see what Ollie can do? He would bring some fire and have Blaney to help him out. Most importantly, we would get to see how he did.

 

[boog204]

...He has odd substitution patterns and lineups, and then leaves them out there for extended periods of time. He doesn't change offenses or defenses, and so the same UConn weaknesses can get exploited over and over. He is terrible at coming up with "go to" offensive plays to break a drought.

I can not think of a single reason why Ollie should not be the interim coach. Given how weak Blaney is as a game coach, why not see what Ollie can do? He would bring some fire and have Blaney to help him out. Most importantly, we would get to see how he did.

I'm going to duck for cover, but in the first part of your post you could essentially say the same thing about JC. JC is great at coming up with game plans, his passion etc is remarkable. However, he generally only makes adjustments at halftime. He's stubborn as hell which is both a great positive and at times a negative. We have watched this team run the same ineffective offense for 24 straight games and there has been zero structural change. We have openly complained about his lineups/subbing patterns. Hell we've watched the same basic ineffective half court offense for 20 years with no real change. When it works, it works great. When it doesn't, its putrid. How many times have we or the analysts noted that we were making the same mistake or lack of adjustment over and over?

As for the second point, I agree Blaney is pretty bland out there. But we really have zero idea if Ollie can coach. Just b/c you played, does not mean you are a coach. I virtually guarantee that people would be complaining should we lose that we are allowing a KO, a coach w/ literally 0 games under his belt, to coach instead of a guy with 400+ wins.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I'm going to duck for cover, but in the first part of your post you could essentially say the same thing about JC. JC is great at coming up with game plans, his passion etc is remarkable. However, he generally only makes adjustments at halftime. He's stubborn as hell which is both a great positive and at times a negative. We have watched this team run the same ineffective offense for 24 straight games and there has been zero structural change. We have openly complained about his lineups/subbing patterns. Hell we've watched the same basic ineffective half court offense for 20 years with no real change. When it works, it works great. When it doesn't, its putrid. How many times have we or the analysts noted that we were making the same mistake or lack of adjustment over and over?

As for the second point, I agree Blaney is pretty bland out there. But we really have zero idea if Ollie can coach. Just b/c you played, does not mean you are a coach. I virtually guarantee that people would be complaining should we lose that we are allowing a KO, a coach w/ literally 0 games under his belt, to coach instead of a guy with 400+ wins.

We don't have any idea if Ollie can coach, but Blaney is not getting it done, is 72 years old, and Ollie is the heir apparent. Why not see what Ollie can do?

I wouldn't say Calhoun is the greatest game coach in history either, his strongest skills are definitely elsewhere, but I never get the sense that Calhoun is letting obvious problems in a gameplan fester. The team's offensive problems are what they are, and in a large part only experience will improve that. We should have a few plays that can break a sticky drought. Under Blaney, there seem to be developing problems on defense too.

 

[UCweCONN]

Blaney was a below average game coach in his prime. He is a much stronger teacher than he is a Head Coach. He has a tendency to become a spectator at times, and I am convinced that he loses track of time during the games. He has odd substitution patterns and lineups, and then leaves them out there for extended periods of time. He doesn't change offenses or defenses, and so the same UConn weaknesses can get exploited over and over. He is terrible at coming up with "go to" offensive plays to break a drought.

I can not think of a single reason why Ollie should not be the interim coach. Given how weak Blaney is as a game coach, why not see what Ollie can do? He would bring some fire and have Blaney to help him out. Most importantly, we would get to see how he did.

Plus at 73 years old, if you were Blaney, at this point in your career wouldn't you want to help a young coach get his start instead of coaching a few more games yourself? Given his role with the program, he clearly must sees that Calhoun's time (and as a consequence his own) with the program will be ending soon.