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Even going into the championship game, most are counting UConn out yet again. I think it's safe to say that most college hoops analysts have had UConn losing in every round, including against St. Joes, which btw was a close call.
I had thought that we had a good shot at making it the E-8, but seeing how good our D had been developing as the tourney went on, I began to like our chances of getting past each opponent we've faces so far, and I still feel that way tonight.
I've learn over the years that match-ups play a big part, not necessarily all the time, in advancing deep into the tourney. The type of team that concerned me was teams that had big physical and athletic guards who could keep our perimeter guys from getting into the lane, plus one or more big strong athletic bigs that could get our physically challenged and inexperienced bigs into foul trouble and abuse on on the boards. Other than MSU, I didn't see that type of team in our way, and after watching MSU more closely, realized they weren't the type of team that I thought they were. Other than Payne, who is an inside/outside handful, MSU's strength wasn't with their bigs. I had thought that Dawson (6-6, 225) who plays a lot at the 4 was much bigger. Izzo had a few 6-9 to 6-10 bigs he would roll out there, but none of them were scary athletic like UL's Harrell or UF's Young, and their guards simply were sub-par handlers that had little to no chance at driving by our guards.
Now we were fortunate that the 6-7. 240 Niang who was averaging almost 17 points per game was out when we faced ISU. His ability to pull one of our bigs to the perimeter would have made it even harder to defend them, but didn't have anyone taller than 6-6 who played significant minutes. It was after this game, that I began to realize how well our defense was coming around, and a lot had to do with Boatright. IMO, he gave us very little to believe that he could be the lock-down and help defender that he's turned out to be. He frequently would play too far off his man and get caught up in screens and lose his man when having to get through the traffic when his man crossed through the paint. Of course all the defensive credit doesn't go to just RB, but the entire team, including the bigs have done a great job of help defense. What has really surprised me is that not only are they hedging and reengaging well on screens, but are sometimes switching, which is extremely hard to do both without getting mixed up at times. This just shows you how well they are communicating with each other.
Going into the UF game, I continued to like our chances. Now I'm not saying I predicted they'd win, but it was clear that some of the weaknesses that plagued them throughout the first half to 2/3rd of the season had been overcome by good coaching and player learning. They were no longer being abused on the glass. They've held their won through out the tournament. I give Daniels a ton of credit for this, but also Giffey as well. As a whole the they're doing a good job of team rebounding. The numbers don't always tell the story, but our bigs are doing a much better job of boxing out, while our wings and guards are flying in picking up some of the rebounds. Nolan has improved dramatically on D and is the big that we can put on the mobile inside/outside bigs like Payne. Brimah continues to be the rim protector, though has struggled to cover players like Payne, but fortunately we haven't had to face many of them. When we've had to go small, which it seems that KO realizes can be our most dangerous line-up as long as we don't have serious foul trouble with our wings as well, he's been able to push the right buttons with lineups that consist of some combinations of Bazz, Boat, TSam, Kromah, Giffey and Daniels. Getting back to the UF game, although Young was the handful we thought he'd be, as Prather, the team was able to keep everyone else in check. Like they did against MSU, our perimeter defenders were able to keep the Gator guards from driving the lane and blowing up our D. They limited UF's run-outs for the most part. Holding MSU and UF to 54 and 53 points respectively is impressive to say the least!
Although offensively, UConn has struggled at times, they've come up big when they've needed to. Regardless if it's a run that gets them back into the game after being down by double-digits or making winning time plays to hold or take the lead, they've got it down. They've been very good at not only knocking down that timely shot, but good at drawing fouls, getting to the line and getting it down at the line. Although Bazz has not been lights out with his shooting, though has come up big when we needed him, it's the elevation of play and consistent production from Daniels and Boatright that IMO have made the difference.
Let me add TSam as honorable mention. Hum...he deserves more than that, doesn't he. Not only has TSam become a valuable player off-the-bench to spell Bazz or Boat, he's often the 3rd guard in the 3G-Set who's showed he can also score off-the-bounce, and has helped handle some of the full-court pressure as well.
While Giffey has struggled shooting the 3 lately, he's also been effective off-the-bounce driving it into the paint, and playing very good D. He's made up for Bromah's last season slump. Hopefully we can get solid production from both of them in the finals. Getting a solid performance in the finals from just about every player has been one of the reasons, UConn is 3-0 in this game, and hopefully will be 4-0.
I said leading into the post season, the key to this team would be Daniels. Of course we needed Bazz and Boat to do what they were capable of if we had any chance of winning. Giffey knocking down open 3s would help open things up, but DD elevating his game and bringing it on a night-in, night-out basis would put this team over-the-top, which IMO, has been the difference.
I don't mean to take anything away from Bazz, who has come up huge all season long on both ends of the floor. Like Kemba, he's a special player and it would be hard for this team to overcome a bad game from him, which rarely happens. Also, Boatright has been huge on both ends of the floor like DD, but Daniels has become a threat off-the-bounce lately, that teams have had to double him as he gets close to the paint which has really opened things up for Bazz and Boat. Once a team has that 3rd scoring option, all who can create off the dribble, they become extremely harder to defend, especially as the game goes on, the pressure mounts and the the legs get tired.
Since this post is ridiculously long...it's been a while since I posted a big one lately...I'll put my UK thoughts in a different post.
I had thought that we had a good shot at making it the E-8, but seeing how good our D had been developing as the tourney went on, I began to like our chances of getting past each opponent we've faces so far, and I still feel that way tonight.
I've learn over the years that match-ups play a big part, not necessarily all the time, in advancing deep into the tourney. The type of team that concerned me was teams that had big physical and athletic guards who could keep our perimeter guys from getting into the lane, plus one or more big strong athletic bigs that could get our physically challenged and inexperienced bigs into foul trouble and abuse on on the boards. Other than MSU, I didn't see that type of team in our way, and after watching MSU more closely, realized they weren't the type of team that I thought they were. Other than Payne, who is an inside/outside handful, MSU's strength wasn't with their bigs. I had thought that Dawson (6-6, 225) who plays a lot at the 4 was much bigger. Izzo had a few 6-9 to 6-10 bigs he would roll out there, but none of them were scary athletic like UL's Harrell or UF's Young, and their guards simply were sub-par handlers that had little to no chance at driving by our guards.
Now we were fortunate that the 6-7. 240 Niang who was averaging almost 17 points per game was out when we faced ISU. His ability to pull one of our bigs to the perimeter would have made it even harder to defend them, but didn't have anyone taller than 6-6 who played significant minutes. It was after this game, that I began to realize how well our defense was coming around, and a lot had to do with Boatright. IMO, he gave us very little to believe that he could be the lock-down and help defender that he's turned out to be. He frequently would play too far off his man and get caught up in screens and lose his man when having to get through the traffic when his man crossed through the paint. Of course all the defensive credit doesn't go to just RB, but the entire team, including the bigs have done a great job of help defense. What has really surprised me is that not only are they hedging and reengaging well on screens, but are sometimes switching, which is extremely hard to do both without getting mixed up at times. This just shows you how well they are communicating with each other.
Going into the UF game, I continued to like our chances. Now I'm not saying I predicted they'd win, but it was clear that some of the weaknesses that plagued them throughout the first half to 2/3rd of the season had been overcome by good coaching and player learning. They were no longer being abused on the glass. They've held their won through out the tournament. I give Daniels a ton of credit for this, but also Giffey as well. As a whole the they're doing a good job of team rebounding. The numbers don't always tell the story, but our bigs are doing a much better job of boxing out, while our wings and guards are flying in picking up some of the rebounds. Nolan has improved dramatically on D and is the big that we can put on the mobile inside/outside bigs like Payne. Brimah continues to be the rim protector, though has struggled to cover players like Payne, but fortunately we haven't had to face many of them. When we've had to go small, which it seems that KO realizes can be our most dangerous line-up as long as we don't have serious foul trouble with our wings as well, he's been able to push the right buttons with lineups that consist of some combinations of Bazz, Boat, TSam, Kromah, Giffey and Daniels. Getting back to the UF game, although Young was the handful we thought he'd be, as Prather, the team was able to keep everyone else in check. Like they did against MSU, our perimeter defenders were able to keep the Gator guards from driving the lane and blowing up our D. They limited UF's run-outs for the most part. Holding MSU and UF to 54 and 53 points respectively is impressive to say the least!
Although offensively, UConn has struggled at times, they've come up big when they've needed to. Regardless if it's a run that gets them back into the game after being down by double-digits or making winning time plays to hold or take the lead, they've got it down. They've been very good at not only knocking down that timely shot, but good at drawing fouls, getting to the line and getting it down at the line. Although Bazz has not been lights out with his shooting, though has come up big when we needed him, it's the elevation of play and consistent production from Daniels and Boatright that IMO have made the difference.
Let me add TSam as honorable mention. Hum...he deserves more than that, doesn't he. Not only has TSam become a valuable player off-the-bench to spell Bazz or Boat, he's often the 3rd guard in the 3G-Set who's showed he can also score off-the-bounce, and has helped handle some of the full-court pressure as well.
While Giffey has struggled shooting the 3 lately, he's also been effective off-the-bounce driving it into the paint, and playing very good D. He's made up for Bromah's last season slump. Hopefully we can get solid production from both of them in the finals. Getting a solid performance in the finals from just about every player has been one of the reasons, UConn is 3-0 in this game, and hopefully will be 4-0.
I said leading into the post season, the key to this team would be Daniels. Of course we needed Bazz and Boat to do what they were capable of if we had any chance of winning. Giffey knocking down open 3s would help open things up, but DD elevating his game and bringing it on a night-in, night-out basis would put this team over-the-top, which IMO, has been the difference.
I don't mean to take anything away from Bazz, who has come up huge all season long on both ends of the floor. Like Kemba, he's a special player and it would be hard for this team to overcome a bad game from him, which rarely happens. Also, Boatright has been huge on both ends of the floor like DD, but Daniels has become a threat off-the-bounce lately, that teams have had to double him as he gets close to the paint which has really opened things up for Bazz and Boat. Once a team has that 3rd scoring option, all who can create off the dribble, they become extremely harder to defend, especially as the game goes on, the pressure mounts and the the legs get tired.
Since this post is ridiculously long...it's been a while since I posted a big one lately...I'll put my UK thoughts in a different post.
