How did they lose all those games? | The Boneyard

How did they lose all those games?

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martyn

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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.
 
This team has grown and evolved over the season.. The hangover from previous early Tournament exits and losing close games.. To believing in themselves and winning close games.. And then to blowing the best teams out in the Tournament (so far).. A process.. Learning from your mistakes and growing.

A season is a motion picture and always moving/evolving.. Its not a snap shot that's static and never evolves/stands still.

Credit to the HC/staff/players/players families.. What an awesome experience for them all.
 
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.
 
husky429 said:
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.
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Ohhh here we go blaming hurley.
 
As soon as they got to #2, and the losses came, I thought they got cocky. Remember those Ts Andre got near opposing benches? Not good.

Then, I had a feeling they looked tired as their game speed wasn't like it was during the opening stretch of games.
 
husky429 said:
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.
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This is why conferences matter. The BE prepares teams wonderfully for the tournament. The biggest preparation was taking away the offense UConn spent all preseason and early season developing.

It takes time to realize something is not a fluke or a system needs more than a tweak before deciding to change. That January swoon was a blessing for this team. It gave us plenty of time to make the changes and perfect them. We are lucky to have players who can learn quickly. Our greatest strength is player adaptability. And top to bottom our players have shown incredible positive change and development.

This is the way! I have spoken!
 
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fleudslipcon said:
This is why conferences matter. The BE prepares teams wonderfully for the tournament. The biggest preparation was taking away the offense UConn spent all preseason and early season developing.

It takes time to realize something is not a fluke or a system needs more than a tweak before deciding to change. That January swoon was a blessing for this team. It gave us plenty of team to make the changes and perfect them. We are lucky to have players who can learn quickly. Our greatest strength is player adaptability. And top to bottom our players have shown incredible positive change and development.

This is the way! I have spoken!
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In Hurley we trust!
 
Uhh Big East is a rock fight of men. Especially on the road.

And the big east refs and Hurley, not on good terms.

Throw in a team evolution (especially two amazing freshmen) and shooters finding their stroke.

This team’s recent success out of conference is no surprise to me
 
martyn said:
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.
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It seems as if the offense evolved through adversity. Jackson standing at the three point line for most of the games never made any sense. Now he rarely stands there and if he does, he dribbles or passes rather than shooting. To me, that is the biggest improvement in this offense plus the constant motion by everyone. I watched every spurs game for Duncan’s entire career and this offense reminds me a little of the Spurs’ offense.
 
fleudslipcon said:
This is why conferences matter. The BE prepares teams wonderfully for the tournament. The biggest preparation was taking away the offense UConn spent all preseason and early season developing.

It takes time to realize something is not a fluke or a system needs more than a tweak before deciding to change. That January swoon was a blessing for this team. It gave us plenty of team to make the changes and perfect them. We are lucky to have players who can learn quickly. Our greatest strength is player adaptability. And top to bottom our players have shown incredible positive change and development.

This is the way! I have spoken!
Expand ...
I hate the argument that "we don't need to schedule hard in non-conf because conf prepares us", but you're 100% right. The Big East really helped us. It exposed all our flaws and allowed us to work through them. Now we can beat teams with our old non-conf stuff or the new conf stuff. And players picked up new skills too that we saw last night (like Sanogo high post or pump fake and drive stuff, Sanogo passing from double, Hawkins attacking rim more, etc.)
 
If you look at last year's roster, the team never went any more than 9 deep. Of those 9, only THREE returned - Jackson, Hawkins, and Sanogo. They're still 9 deep, but 6 of the 9 are new - Clingan, Karaban, Joey C, Newton, Alleyne, and Diarra. While they gelled really quickly early in the season, they never faced any adversity, so by the time the meat of the conference road schedule came around, that's when the growing pains started. Everybody still had to adjust to their role and their new team, even though they had been playing together for a few months by that time. And in conference, there is very little margin for error because the opposing coaches know your stuff by heart.
 
Marquette, Creighton and Xavier are all excellent teams. Creighton lost to SDSU by 1 point in the Final 8, and Xavier would have played in the Final Four if Freemantle had not gotten hurt. Marquette had a stinker of a game against MSU, but they won the Big East and deserved their 2 seed. That is 5 of UConn's losses between those three teams.

At Seton Hall was not a great loss, but in a league as good as the Big East, sometimes a middle-of-the-pack team will pull an upset.

Providence sucked, but was getting insane home-cooking from the refs at the Dunk all season long. The fact that they completely embarrassed themselves away from Providence is proof that I was right about this team all season.

St. Johns at home was a bad loss. Those happen sometimes.
 
auror said:
I hate the argument that "we don't need to schedule hard in non-conf because conf prepares us", but you're 100% right. The Big East really helped us. It exposed all our flaws and allowed us to work through them. Now we can beat teams with our old non-conf stuff or the new conf stuff. And players picked up new skills too that we saw last night (like Sanogo high post or pump fake and drive stuff, Sanogo passing from double, Hawkins attacking rim more, etc.)
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Necessity forced changes on us. But good coaching recognizes what to do when that arises. JC was good at dividing the season into thirds. The first third was to develop an identity and work on his book of plays. The second third was to make adjustments as needed. The final third was to polish those first two thirds. His formula worked obviously.

The middle third was the most important. He was willing to sacrifice short term success for long term results. People forget but he got reamed in this forum when UConn went on its January swoons back then. Non conference games offer the opportunity for the coaches to evaluate if their assessment of the team and individual players is accurate. The early and middle conference games are used to determine if that assessment has sustainability.

We probably had one of the most difficult in conference schedules of all the teams in the country during our swoon this season. It really made this forum upset. But it was critical it happened. Those were the type of games and opponents we were most likely to experience in the NCAA Tournament. If things didn't work then they weren't going to work now. Looking back this "horrible" period was really our stroke of good fortune.

This is the UConn blue blood way!
 
martyn said:
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.
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I searched and couldn't find the quote, but if memory serves, Dean Smith, when asked "What was your greatest victory," he said, "Any conference road win."
 
HuskyBaggins said:
If you look at last year's roster, the team never went any more than 9 deep. Of those 9, only THREE returned - Jackson, Hawkins, and Sanogo. They're still 9 deep, but 6 of the 9 are new - Clingan, Karaban, Joey C, Newton, Alleyne, and Diarra. While they gelled really quickly early in the season, they never faced any adversity, so by the time the meat of the conference road schedule came around, that's when the growing pains started. Everybody still had to adjust to their role and their new team, even though they had been playing together for a few months by that time. And in conference, there is very little margin for error because the opposing coaches know your stuff by heart.
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Not the point of this thread, but consider the 9 man rotations last year to this year.

Hawkins --> Hawkins: big improvement in handle, defense
Jackson --> Jackson: playing smarter
Sanogo --> Sanogo: an even more polished offensive game, adding the 3 point shot

Cole --> Newton: Better D, better able to get to the rim
Martin --> Alleyne: Step down in rebounding and toughness, comparable shooting
Whaley --> Karaban: Worse D and rebounding, but much better shooting and a better overall fit
Polley --> Calcaterra: Less size, but a much more well-rounded game (handle, D) and therefore, again, a better roster fit
Gaffney --> Diarra: About a wash, maybe slightly better D
Akok --> Clingan: Very different games, but obviously a much bigger impact from Clingan

Overall, last year's individual players had too many weaknesses that were too difficult to paper over with other guys (who themselves had some glaring weaknesses). This year's players are much better well-rounded individually and a better fit overall.
 
There was a 3 minute stretch in the first half of the Miami game last night where they didn't box out and turned the ball over in the backcourt. They lost those game because they were doing that for much larger stretches.

It's a long season, especially for a kid in college, and it is hard to keep that focus and willingness to grind going. Combine that with the fact that they played in one of the best leagues, if not the best league in college basketball and you are going to lose games. It took a toll on them, but I watched several of the Xavier tourney games and they were outworking teams. Marquette did that for much of the year. The league is known for being tough and physical, but a lot of that comes from the players leaving everything on the floor all the time. It takes a toll on you and the other team.
 
upstater said:
I honestly don't believe any of this.

When the Fox announcers tell you they had a conversation with the refs pregame, and the report was that they'll teach Hurley a lesson, believe it.
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I know this will ignite all the facebook contributors who hate anyone who doesn’t worship the refs. One of the refs last night reffed quite a number of our BIG East games. There was an article somewhere else about the specific games. Despite popular beliefs , the refs so set the tone of a game. One of our refs last night was one of those incompetent refs.
 
Padutch5 said:
I know this will ignite all the facebook contributors who hate anyone who doesn’t worship the refs. One of the refs last night reffed quite a number of our BIG East games. There was an article somewhere else about the specific games. Despite popular beliefs , the refs so set the tone of a game. One of our refs last night was one of those incompetent refs.
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The former head of referees for the NCAA responded to last night's assignment with, "I'm at a loss for words."

Forgive fans for listening to people in the know talk about the situation.
 

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