How did they lose all those games?

[Ratso]

https://y.yarn.co/66a05459-0def-4ab9-be77-cbc5a9f80dd5_text.gif

foolishness

 

[uconnfan68]

Unless a school does some serious cheating and gets away with it.

<cough> Duke <cough>

 

[uconn_jack]

I just can't believe we did this without playing double bigs.

 

[UCTitleTown]

<cough> Duke <cough>

Was thinking more of UNLV from back in the day. As for Duke, they are really reaping the benefits of the transfer portal. Don't be surprised if they get Dickinson from Michigan too.

 

[Horatio]

It’s called the “Big East Marinade Process”. We were marinading.

 

[Excalibur]

We didn't adjust on offense fast enough when Big East teams figured out how to stop Andre and use his man to double Sanogo. Trouble on offense affected our defense.

We started using Andre differently, Sanogo adjusted and took higher % shots instead of forcing through double teams.

We did much of this after two games.

 

[uconnfan68]

Was thinking more of UNLV from back in the day. As for Duke, they are really reaping the benefits of the transfer portal. Don't be surprised if they get Dickinson from Michigan too.

He’s from DC area, I’m think Georgetown or Villanova.

 

[gsmooth]

Obviously, I didn't watch as much as you guys, but...

1) The Big East is a guard's league. And Alleyene and Newton were at a disadvantage and it toughened them up. The other conferences are more geared towards ... other things.

2) You guys stink in close games. If you had won some of those close games, you'd have maybe have 5 BE losses and a BET championship and be a 2 seed and then ... nobody's talking about why they lost so many games.

Has UConn won a close game yet? I don't mean that in a deragatory way either, as they likely won't have to.

No they have not, not really. They won a close game against Providence in the BET, but the game shouldn't have been close as UConn blew a 26-pt lead as it turned into a 5 pt lead with 3:30 left to go.

It's why none of us want a close game tomorrow, but rather a comfortable double digit win. We don't see it as a luxury for style points, but rather as a necessity.

 

[Dogdeacon]

Obviously, I didn't watch as much as you guys, but...

1) The Big East is a guard's league. And Alleyene and Newton were at a disadvantage and it toughened them up. The other conferences are more geared towards ... other things.

2) You guys stink in close games. If you had won some of those close games, you'd have maybe have 5 BE losses and a BET championship and be a 2 seed and then ... nobody's talking about why they lost so many games.

Has UConn won a close game yet? I don't mean that in a deragatory way either, as they likely won't have to.

On #1 I’d refine that to say BE is more of a physical league at all positions & UConn’s guards got manhandled in first part of BE schedule. Joey for example was played off the floor multiple times, ultimately was out of the rotation. It wasn’t Nova as UConn killer this year, but they have set the standard in BE of strong physical guards that can both take you out of your offense & post you up to exploit any lack of strength.
NCAA tourney has usually been about who has the best guards (see Kemba, Shabazz & Boat) and now Newton showed (esp v Miami) how he has been toughened up, Hawk is used to dealing with physical play, Joey also toughened up, Alleyne & Diarra provide mental toughness, amazing depth and yin-yang of offense & defense (Alleyne doing both of late).

 

[BBallF]

After each of these dominant wins the TV commentators have expressed puzzlement at how this team could have lost that string of games. The simple answer is they are this good when they play hard, when they play with confidence. For some reason the team got tentative, and lost confidence. And paid the price. But they've had it in spades in the Tournament.

I think 2 things happened. First, the defense became retooled and emphasized. Second, Hurley adopted a more relaxed in game attitude and it filtered down to the team. They are playing freely and their talent is showing.

 

[jibsey]

We’ve been seeing a different more intensive defense through this tourney. We actually had that in the Marquette game but their offense was so prolific that it ended with a close loss in the BE tournament. But the one advantage Marquette and Xavier had was that they knew exactly how to prepare for us and they experienced it multiple times.

 

[jayteeman]

It's fate, luck, talent, coaching, teamwork, and personalities.
You don't have to beat everyone in the tournament.
You just have to beat all the teams that you play, that had those same qualities against their opponents at that moment in time, and the ending result is the best of the best.
Winning outright just accents how special this team is.