Have we gotten worse?

[Husky Dad]

The team seems to never gel and skill and scheme wise gets worse. This team has loads of skill but lacks the instinct and intelligence to will a close game they need. They have zero clutch players. And, it seems they celebrate inside of games instead of putting them away.

Tough season.

 

[InKembaITrust]

I can't wait unit Jalen and Alterique take over this team. Now there's some heart, defensive tenacity, ball handling skills, and athletic ability to get in the lane and draw fouls to close out all of these close games were losing.

The majority of being able to close out games comes down to poise, and to have poise you need the ball handling, natural born instincts, and confidence these two have. Sadly I'm already looking toward next year. Haven't given up entirely on this team, we're still looking good for the NCAA tournament.

But once these 2 take over this team it will be a breath of fresh air.

 

[raf46]

I can't wait unit Jalen and Alterique take over this team. Now there's some heart, defensive tenacity, ball handling skills, and athletic ability to get in the lane and draw fouls to close out all of these close games were losing.

The majority of being able to close out games comes down to poise, and to have poise you need the ball handling, natural born instincts, and confidence these two have. Sadly I'm already looking toward next year. Haven't given up entirely on this team, we're still looking good for the NCAA tournament.

But once these 2 take over this team it will be a breath of fresh air.

Having lost to Temple and Cincy twice, do not be shocked when our name is not called be the NCAA selection guys.

 

[HuskiesAllDay]

I can't wait unit Jalen and Alterique take over this team. Now there's some heart, defensive tenacity, ball handling skills, and athletic ability to get in the lane and draw fouls to close out all of these close games were losing.

The majority of being able to close out games comes down to poise, and to have poise you need the ball handling, natural born instincts, and confidence these two have. Sadly I'm already looking toward next year. Haven't given up entirely on this team, we're still looking good for the NCAA tournament.

But once these 2 take over this team it will be a breath of fresh air.

I really hope so. Definitely have some bright things to look forward to.

But we need to do something with it. We have talent this year and are just completely wasting it.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

The team seems to never gel and skill and scheme wise gets worse. This team has loads of skill but lacks the instinct and intelligence to will a close game they need. They have zero clutch players. And, it seems they celebrate inside of games instead of putting them away.

Tough season.

Or maybe the talent on this team is overrated? Outside of Adams, Miller and Hamilton, we have very one dimensional players.
Who said that?

 

[uconnfan68]

Having lost to Temple and Cincy twice, do not be shocked when our name is not called be the NCAA selection guys.

Don't know anyone could not be worried.

 

[Ts5034]

I maybe stating the obvious, but I dont think we have gotten worse. I think the problem is clearly this team has not gotten better with little development from the players individually. Back in October, we were all expecting that somebody would emerge as the leader and #1 option. That never happened.

 

[Huskygamble19]

to give up 18 fast break points and jog down the floor watching this is unacceptable for this team. They looked out of sight against USF and it looked like they were primed for this game. Nope...had to the bed against Houston. If they don't make the NCAA's, you can point to this game why. the transition defense was atrocious.

 

[HuskiesAllDay]

Or maybe the talent on this team is overrated? Outside of Adams, Miller and Hamilton, we have very one dimensional players.
Who said that?

Oh I agree. I don't think our talent is that great. And we do have players with serious deficiencies.

But we still have better talent than the AAC teams we keep losing to

 

[Tenspro2002]

A disturbing trend for this coaching staff is we've now gone a few years without seeing substantial improvement among teams throughout a season or among players throughout a career.

This was a staple of JC's program that shortened or eliminated rare down periods.

 

[tzznandrew]

A disturbing trend for this coaching staff is we've now gone a few years without seeing substantial improvement among teams throughout a season or among players throughout a career.

This was a staple of JC's program that shortened or eliminated rare down periods.

You don't think the 2014 team got better as the year went on?

 

[Tenspro2002]

You don't think the 2014 team got better as the year went on?

Not appreciably, not consistently. We beat Florida in December and we beat them in April. We lost to Louisville in February and in March twice. I think we got hot in March -- you could argue our defense really "clicked", but I wouldn't say the team overall was much better than earlier in the year.

I wouldn't call that a consistent improvement like you saw under JC in years like 2002, 2005, 2008, where the team was just much better at the end of the year than the beginning.

In Ollie's tenure, we've had 3 teams that were about the same at the end as at the beginning (2013, 2015, 2016), and 1 that was arguably a better (2014). Maybe 1 out of 4.

JC's teams that had room for improvement usually improved. Exceptions were 1997, 2001, 2007, 2010, and 2012. He was at worst 50/50 in this regard.

 

[UConniki]

Oh I agree. I don't think our talent is that great. And we do have players with serious deficiencies.

But we still have better talent than the AAC teams we keep losing to

We have better players but they have better coaching!

 

[PcketknfNiels]

I maybe stating the obvious, but I dont think we have gotten worse. I think the problem is clearly this team has not gotten better with little development from the players individually. Back in October, we were all expecting that somebody would emerge as the leader and #1 option. That never happened.

Well that's why Ollie rightfully deserves a lot of blame. He had JA as the PG staring him in the face and it took him far too long to make that switch. It's not like that has been the only issue, but this team would be much more coherent offensively right now and would have an extra 2-3 wins and sitting comfortably in the tournament and likely even have some optimism right now.

 

[HooperScooper]

I can't wait unit Jalen and Alterique take over this team. Now there's some heart, defensive tenacity, ball handling skills, and athletic ability to get in the lane and draw fouls to close out all of these close games were losing.

The majority of being able to close out games comes down to poise, and to have poise you need the ball handling, natural born instincts, and confidence these two have. Sadly I'm already looking toward next year. Haven't given up entirely on this team, we're still looking good for the NCAA tournament.

But once these 2 take over this team it will be a breath of fresh air.

Be careful what you wish for. While I agree that the skills both bring will be nice, that backcourt will be extremely young and inexperienced. There are definitely going to be growing pains.

 

[7774]

A disturbing trend for this coaching staff is we've now gone a few years without seeing substantial improvement among teams throughout a season or among players throughout a career.

This was a staple of JC's program that shortened or eliminated rare down periods.

Just LOL. How do you actually think this is reality? I don't want to waste the time it would take to talk about all the players that have improved, so I'll just bring up Shabazz. You cannot be real if you actually think that guy did not improve tremendously his last 2 years.

 

[Excalibur]

The team seems to never gel and skill and scheme wise gets worse. This team has loads of skill but lacks the instinct and intelligence to will a close game they need. They have zero clutch players. And, it seems they celebrate inside of games instead of putting them away.

Tough season.

No, they haven't gotten worse. They just don't handle adversity well. They lock up whenever things start to go wrong.

 

[Palatine]

I can't wait unit Jalen and Alterique take over this team. Now there's some heart, defensive tenacity, ball handling skills, and athletic ability to get in the lane and draw fouls to close out all of these close games were losing.

The majority of being able to close out games comes down to poise, and to have poise you need the ball handling, natural born instincts, and confidence these two have. Sadly I'm already looking toward next year. Haven't given up entirely on this team, we're still looking good for the NCAA tournament.

But once these 2 take over this team it will be a breath of fresh air.

Have you actually ever watched Alterique play?