How is a big supposed to defend?

[jmp33]

Three fouls this half. Bigs are standing with hands up. How are the supposed to defend?

 

[ChrisSmith]

I have no idea where SVT was fouled on that play. 17-9 foul calls. Almost impossible to a win a game like that.

UConn is playing horribly as well, but the officiating is compounding it.

 

[selles]

Three fouls this half. Bigs are standing with hands up. How are the supposed to defend?

The disparity in how it's been officiated inside is absurd.

 

[HuskyHawk]

The disparity in how it's been officiated inside is absurd.

Not that it would change the outcome when we shoot and handle like garbage, but the refs should be ashamed. Louisville can do anything on D, and even some fairly nasty UL offensive fouls are called on UConn's D. It's atrocious.

 

[Oxford Bob]

Then commit a F'ng foul. We're gonna get called for a foul anyway. Our bigs are so soft. Harrell is having his own personal dunk-a-thon, HAMMER him. Every time he dunks, he grandstands to the crowd, HAMMER him. He steps in the lane, HAMMER him. Knock his ass down time after time.

 

[tzznandrew]

Then commit a F'ng foul. We're gonna get called for a foul anyway. Our bigs are so soft. Harrell is having his own personal dunk-a-thon, HAMMER him. Every time he dunks, he grandstands to the crowd, HAMMER him. He steps in the lane, HAMMER him. Knock his ass down time after time.

Well...considering how fast we're fouling out as it is...

 

[VAHuskyFan]

No excuses for the fact that we lost. Louisville outplayed us plain and simple.

With that said, the officials permitted Louisville to play far more physical than Connecticut in this game and that fed into the blowout.

The hand-checking rule was completely MIA, and the refs called phantom fouls on our bigs while swallowing their whistles when we went into the paint. That forced us outside to settle for contested three point plays and changed the entire tenor of the game.

This year's UConn team plays a finesse game and wins by drawing fouls and racking up points at the FT line. No way we were ever going to stay in contact with the game called the way it was today. The good news is that we are not going to see this flavor of "might makes right" officiating in the NCAA tournament. My only concern is the psychological effect of getting blown out in our last regular season game. Still think we get over it and are able to make a push in the AAC tournament.

 

[tzznandrew]

It's happened to Calhoun teams before, and they usually have responded alright. Now let's see how an Ollie team responds in a tough environment against a good opponent.

 

[DogMania]

I didn't think officiating had any impact on this game. The way you defend bigger and more physical players is to not let them get such good inside position with or without the ball, something UConn did poorly today. Harrell abused our bigs like none other this season. We just don't have an answer on the floor or the bench. Adding Lubin who's listed at 6-8, 210 (though 210 doesn't seem accurate based on the video clips I've seen of him. He sure looks more like 230+) will help. Adding 10 to 20 pounds to Brimah & Nolan will help as well. Just no answers available this season against big and athletic front courts. Let's just hope we don't face any teams that are huge and athletic in the post and big and athletic in the perimeter (which have given Bazz and Boat trouble). Just hard to avoid those types of teams when you still have to face as many as 9 teams over the next few weeks if we're fortunate to survive and advance.

 

[Chief00]

I didn't think officiating had any impact on this game. The way you defend bigger and more physical players is to not let them get such good inside position with or without the ball, something UConn did poorly today. Harrell abused our bigs like none other this season. We just don't have an answer on the floor or the bench. Adding Lubin who's listed at 6-8, 210 (though 210 doesn't seem accurate based on the video clips I've seen of him. He sure looks more like 230+) will help. Adding 10 to 20 pounds to Brimah & Nolan will help as well. Just no answers available this season against big and athletic front courts. Let's just hope we don't face any teams that are huge and athletic in the post and big and athletic in the perimeter (which have given Bazz and Boat trouble). Just hard to avoid those types of teams when you still have to face as many as 9 teams over the next few weeks if we're fortunate to survive and advance.[/quote

Dogmania, let's not kid ourselves we need another talented Big and a Bigs man's coach to change the culture - get back to being a top rebounding team again.

 

[SeattleHoop]

We guard their bigs by recruiting guys that are at the same level and strength. The unfortunate truth is, our recruiting has been down the last few years when it comes to big men.
Ollie is trying to change that though, and Lubin who is 230+ is a good start.

 

[mauconnfan]

Then commit a F'ng foul. We're gonna get called for a foul anyway. Our bigs are so soft. Harrell is having his own personal dunk-a-thon, HAMMER him. Every time he dunks, he grandstands to the crowd, HAMMER him. He steps in the lane, HAMMER him. Knock his ass down time after time.

Thanks Bob…….+1

I totally agree and now I see your avatar might be hotter than mine….you're pissing me off!

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Thanks Bob…….+1

I totally agree and now I see your avatar might be hotter than mine….you're pissing me off!

Scrolled back up to see the avatar on this little phone screen. Thanks for the heads up. Figuring that reading all posts will be as unfun as the game.

 

[RichZ]

At least twice, Harrel appeared to be standing on the baseline when he caught a pass and then took two steps in and had a basically uncontested/uncontestable dunk.

 

[dsturdy5]

I didn't think officiating had any impact on this game. The way you defend bigger and more physical players is to not let them get such good inside position with or without the ball, something UConn did poorly today. Harrell abused our bigs like none other this season. We just don't have an answer on the floor or the bench. Adding Lubin who's listed at 6-8, 210 (though 210 doesn't seem accurate based on the video clips I've seen of him. He sure looks more like 230+) will help. Adding 10 to 20 pounds to Brimah & Nolan will help as well. Just no answers available this season against big and athletic front courts. Let's just hope we don't face any teams that are huge and athletic in the post and big and athletic in the perimeter (which have given Bazz and Boat trouble). Just hard to avoid those types of teams when you still have to face as many as 9 teams over the next few weeks if we're fortunate to survive and advance.

I was going to post something like this. With all of the running around and chasing the ball this defense was doing, UConn's bigs were left with their heads spinning. On top of that, they lost track of the Louisville bigs on the endline several times because they had to continually make up for the smaller guys running around like maniacs. UConn's guards couldn't keep the Louisville players in front of them one on one which resulted in the bigs not being able to do their work and force the Louisville bigs off of the spot early.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I didn't think officiating had any impact on this game. The way you defend bigger and more physical players is to not let them get such good inside position with or without the ball, something UConn did poorly today. Harrell abused our bigs like none other this season. We just don't have an answer on the floor or the bench. Adding Lubin who's listed at 6-8, 210 (though 210 doesn't seem accurate based on the video clips I've seen of him. He sure looks more like 230+) will help. Adding 10 to 20 pounds to Brimah & Nolan will help as well. Just no answers available this season against big and athletic front courts. Let's just hope we don't face any teams that are huge and athletic in the post and big and athletic in the perimeter (which have given Bazz and Boat trouble). Just hard to avoid those types of teams when you still have to face as many as 9 teams over the next few weeks if we're fortunate to survive and advance.

Agree on the solution, disagree there was no impact. Late in the game UConn had trapped Harrell well behind the basket. Brimah had great position sealing off the basket and was standing still for a few seconds before Harrell made his move. Harrell put his shoulder down, slammed into Brimah in the chest, knocking him back. Then he shot, post contact, and got a basket and a foul on Brimah, who did not move. If that isn't an offensive foul, there is no such thing as an offensive foul.

It didn't affect the outcome because our guards were awful, but officiating certainly affected the score. This should have been a 10 point game if called fairly.

 

[mauconnfan]

Agree on the solution, disagree there was no impact. Late in the game UConn had trapped Harrell well behind the basket. Brimah had great position sealing off the basket and was standing still for a few seconds before Harrell made his move. Harrell put his shoulder down, slammed into Brimah in the chest, knocking him back. Then he shot, post contact, and got a basket and a foul on Brimah, who did not move. If that isn't an offensive foul, there is no such thing as an offensive foul.

It didn't affect the outcome because our guards were awful, but officiating certainly affected the score. This should have been a 10 point game if called fairly.

No doubt there were some missed calls and they give Harrell that space to do with what he wants I agree……happened twice for sure, once where he literally power dribbled straight back into the play from the baseline drilling Amidah who took it straight up, it was a charge if he fell but should have at the very least been a no call but instead somehow the bull in a China ship got an "and 1"? Happened twice for sure - refs suck, they ran with the energy the crowd was feeding and the Cards were playing with, nothing ever down the other end as Jones, Hancock and Smith reached away and everyone slapped away……..didn't want to discus after an can of whoop a** hit our guys because it meant nothing in the long run……..we were awful and deserved nothing but the officiating was atrocious ……..if they get the wrong crew in the dance that doesn't put up with their crap they can exit early quite honestly but for some reason Pitino is in the K level of acceptance by the stripes!