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After the deflating Cuse loss on Saturday, I told myself, "this team is probably going 3-3 down the stretch, they just don't have the horses to beat good teams". As a Philadelphia Eagle fan, I would know better than anybody else when a team just doesn't have it. Sometimes you can't quite put your finger on it, you think the talent is there, the pieces are in place, but something always seems to go wrong. When you need a stop, you don't get it. When you need a big shot? Don't get it. People forget, the margin between winning and losing in basketball, specifically the college level, is so slim. One guy making an adjustment in practice and hitting a few more shots than normal could lead to a winning streak.
Luck and the intangibles are just as important as talent in many ways. Take the 09-10 team and the 10-11 team as prime examples. The two best teams in the country in 2009-2010 were probably Syracuse and Kentucky. They played Kentucky in a neutral site and Syracuse in the dome. Against Cuse we got screwed by the refs and against Kentucky we were up one with about 20 seconds left when John Wall went by Stanley Robinson for a three point play. Win those two games, and chances are that team is remembered in a much more fond manner on this board. Obviously the 2010-2011 team won almost every close game, got almost every break, and seemed to be a gift from the basketball God's. I don't think I need to refresh anybody's memory.
Granted, you have to take the it factor into consideration. There is no clear definition, but if there was, the words "persistense" and "relentlessness" would probably be used. At least so far, this team seems to have neither. You wouldn't say they don't play hard, but the consistent intensity is lacking. They play hard for stretches, but they also have the tendency to fall asleep on screens, take bad shots, etc. The little things really make the difference.
On a second thought, we tend to forget as fans that this is such a young team. Before the season, many predicted the experience of winning a championship would cause this team to play composed, and many figured they would have had it figured out by now. If anything, it seems to have had the opposite effect. When you win the whole thing in your freshman year, sometimes it is difficult to not expect that same level of success to follow you throughout your later years. They will say that they do not take success for granted, but in my opinion, it is nearly impossible not to at such a young age.
Why does this cause me to think that this team will suddenly put it all together in the coming weeks? Because basketball is a game of rhythm. Everything about the game is contagious. Last year we had the ultimate conductor, the kid who took a group of talented musicians and blended them into a beautiful choir. They weren't one of those teams who dominated people or anything like that, and really, they probably weren't the best team. But anybody who watched knew that the team last year played the game the right way. It's funny, because many people are saying Kemba was the team in the midst of the current struggles, but really, that team eptimized basketball. By the time March rolled around, everybody had their role (Kemba as the alphadog, Lamb as Pippen, Roscoe and Alex as the dirty work guys, Giffey as the glue guy, Shabazz as the spark plug, Beverly as the senior leader, Chuck as the extra body who did all the little things, Olander as the zone buster) and without any of those pieces, the team likely wouldn't have resulted in much.
So really, that is just a complicated way of saying I think this team is going to begin to gel, because they have played together for a while, they still have that hunger in them, and I know they don't want to give up that title belt without any fight. Many of our favorite Huskies over the years made "the jump" late in their sophmore years. I remember watching Kemba pour 30 on Villanova two years ago and nudging my buddy next to me to say, "I think this kid gets it!". I had the same feeling with Drummond on Saturday, as he hit the glass, posted his man looking to score, and tried to break the rim on every dunk. For the first time all year, he looked mad.
On a similar note, you know Lamb and Shabazz will snap out of their shooting slumps eventually. We all know Bazz is a lot more of the guy from November than he is the guy from January. On Saturday I thought he played very well. I remember Lamb saying last year during the March run, "I really haven't been doing anything different, my shot is just falling". Anybody who has played basketball knows what he means. When the shot starts to fall, everything about the game begins to feel right, and every time you take the court you expect to succeed. This is something I'm confident Lamb will experience (again) over the next week, and I'm sure Daniels will experience at some point.
And not to do a homeless man's impression of The MakersMuppet, but fan support will play a big role in the teams success down the stretch. Madison Square Garden was shaking at times last year when Kemba was doing his thing. It was one of those great moments where Husky Nation came together to break the collective will of the other program. The fans willed (with the help of Kemba, obviously) the team to victory in the Cuse and Louisville games, when it would have been easy to lie down. We would not allow the team to lose, the mark of any great home crowd. You've all been in crowds like that, and you know exactly what I'm talking about.
In these final six games, four of them are at home, two against top 15 teams (Marquette/Cuse) and two against rivals (Cuse/Pitt). I want the *king house shaking in all of these games!! Even if you go overboard with the Bernie Fine jokes when Cuse comes to down, I don't care. We must make it clear to the team that losing will not be an option. I don't want any of the we saw during the Cincy game or Notre Dame game, where half the fans looked like they wanted to take a nap. I'm thinking more along the lines of the WVU game, where the crowd stood for nearly every possesion in the second half. If you're thinking of not going to these games because of the recent slide, slap yourself in the face and order the tickets right now. I know I'll be on hand for the Marquette and Cuse games at least. The "stand until they score" tradition must be stopped. It is a tradition that discourages people from willing the team on throughout the first half. It sends the wrong message: Gampel will not be loud during just one or two possesions, but during every possesion from here on out. With a decent home court advantage, this team can be unstoppable and take the momentum with them to MSG. And before you say, "But wait, the others in my section are quiet to, one guy can only make so much of a difference", remember that all it takes is one drunken jackass to fire up the whole stadium.
Finally, if you think this team doesn't have at least one more run in them you're out of your mind. Don't kid yourself: Calhoun will be back. He's pissed about this whole APR stuff, as am I. He'll hear about people projecting UConn to fall back into the "wilderness" and he'll get pissed off. 6-0, you heard it here first.
Luck and the intangibles are just as important as talent in many ways. Take the 09-10 team and the 10-11 team as prime examples. The two best teams in the country in 2009-2010 were probably Syracuse and Kentucky. They played Kentucky in a neutral site and Syracuse in the dome. Against Cuse we got screwed by the refs and against Kentucky we were up one with about 20 seconds left when John Wall went by Stanley Robinson for a three point play. Win those two games, and chances are that team is remembered in a much more fond manner on this board. Obviously the 2010-2011 team won almost every close game, got almost every break, and seemed to be a gift from the basketball God's. I don't think I need to refresh anybody's memory.
Granted, you have to take the it factor into consideration. There is no clear definition, but if there was, the words "persistense" and "relentlessness" would probably be used. At least so far, this team seems to have neither. You wouldn't say they don't play hard, but the consistent intensity is lacking. They play hard for stretches, but they also have the tendency to fall asleep on screens, take bad shots, etc. The little things really make the difference.
On a second thought, we tend to forget as fans that this is such a young team. Before the season, many predicted the experience of winning a championship would cause this team to play composed, and many figured they would have had it figured out by now. If anything, it seems to have had the opposite effect. When you win the whole thing in your freshman year, sometimes it is difficult to not expect that same level of success to follow you throughout your later years. They will say that they do not take success for granted, but in my opinion, it is nearly impossible not to at such a young age.
Why does this cause me to think that this team will suddenly put it all together in the coming weeks? Because basketball is a game of rhythm. Everything about the game is contagious. Last year we had the ultimate conductor, the kid who took a group of talented musicians and blended them into a beautiful choir. They weren't one of those teams who dominated people or anything like that, and really, they probably weren't the best team. But anybody who watched knew that the team last year played the game the right way. It's funny, because many people are saying Kemba was the team in the midst of the current struggles, but really, that team eptimized basketball. By the time March rolled around, everybody had their role (Kemba as the alphadog, Lamb as Pippen, Roscoe and Alex as the dirty work guys, Giffey as the glue guy, Shabazz as the spark plug, Beverly as the senior leader, Chuck as the extra body who did all the little things, Olander as the zone buster) and without any of those pieces, the team likely wouldn't have resulted in much.
So really, that is just a complicated way of saying I think this team is going to begin to gel, because they have played together for a while, they still have that hunger in them, and I know they don't want to give up that title belt without any fight. Many of our favorite Huskies over the years made "the jump" late in their sophmore years. I remember watching Kemba pour 30 on Villanova two years ago and nudging my buddy next to me to say, "I think this kid gets it!". I had the same feeling with Drummond on Saturday, as he hit the glass, posted his man looking to score, and tried to break the rim on every dunk. For the first time all year, he looked mad.
On a similar note, you know Lamb and Shabazz will snap out of their shooting slumps eventually. We all know Bazz is a lot more of the guy from November than he is the guy from January. On Saturday I thought he played very well. I remember Lamb saying last year during the March run, "I really haven't been doing anything different, my shot is just falling". Anybody who has played basketball knows what he means. When the shot starts to fall, everything about the game begins to feel right, and every time you take the court you expect to succeed. This is something I'm confident Lamb will experience (again) over the next week, and I'm sure Daniels will experience at some point.
And not to do a homeless man's impression of The MakersMuppet, but fan support will play a big role in the teams success down the stretch. Madison Square Garden was shaking at times last year when Kemba was doing his thing. It was one of those great moments where Husky Nation came together to break the collective will of the other program. The fans willed (with the help of Kemba, obviously) the team to victory in the Cuse and Louisville games, when it would have been easy to lie down. We would not allow the team to lose, the mark of any great home crowd. You've all been in crowds like that, and you know exactly what I'm talking about.
In these final six games, four of them are at home, two against top 15 teams (Marquette/Cuse) and two against rivals (Cuse/Pitt). I want the *king house shaking in all of these games!! Even if you go overboard with the Bernie Fine jokes when Cuse comes to down, I don't care. We must make it clear to the team that losing will not be an option. I don't want any of the we saw during the Cincy game or Notre Dame game, where half the fans looked like they wanted to take a nap. I'm thinking more along the lines of the WVU game, where the crowd stood for nearly every possesion in the second half. If you're thinking of not going to these games because of the recent slide, slap yourself in the face and order the tickets right now. I know I'll be on hand for the Marquette and Cuse games at least. The "stand until they score" tradition must be stopped. It is a tradition that discourages people from willing the team on throughout the first half. It sends the wrong message: Gampel will not be loud during just one or two possesions, but during every possesion from here on out. With a decent home court advantage, this team can be unstoppable and take the momentum with them to MSG. And before you say, "But wait, the others in my section are quiet to, one guy can only make so much of a difference", remember that all it takes is one drunken jackass to fire up the whole stadium.
Finally, if you think this team doesn't have at least one more run in them you're out of your mind. Don't kid yourself: Calhoun will be back. He's pissed about this whole APR stuff, as am I. He'll hear about people projecting UConn to fall back into the "wilderness" and he'll get pissed off. 6-0, you heard it here first.
