I don't mind the basketball criticisms from Gottlieb - we were on one side of the court too much on some possessions, but as he pointed out, Harvard was forcing us that way by not letting the ballhandler come over the top of the high screen and we had to decide how to deal with that. There's a fine line between "taking what the defense gives you" and getting out of your offense. Ideally, the coaching staff will get to work on some halfcourt sets as a counter-measure to that strategy, but that's what happens over the course of a long season - you struggle against certain things and adapt. Shabazz did take a couple bad shots after we were up 16, and he was correct in saying that he has to have a better feel for the game in those situations. Gottlieb played point guard at a high level (he just couldn't make free throws), so his understanding of those nuances can make him a good analyst. But now that he's had some success in getting under our skin, he does some things just to get UConn fans riled up - picking against us all six times in the NCAA Tournament or rating Kemba a second-round NBA draft pick. He was pretty much the lone anti-Kemba voice last year, and ended up with some egg on his face, which is far better than any punch in the face.
Wild thread! It's an internet gunslinger shootout.
First off I was at the game, forgot to record it, so I can't really comment on how Gott came across. I've never really liked the guy and often thought his analysis was way off quite a bit. And yes, his UConn bashing over the years got tiresome. I've felt he's been a bit better lately with some of his analysis.
I didn't notice the one side of the court issue, but that doesn't mean he didn't pick up on something. I did notice that they seemed to stick too much with the high pick-and-roll and thought they should have gone to more low back screens and thrown the ball over the top for easy baskets. The got a couple of those in the 2nd half. Harvard played a lot of man D and seemed to stick close to our bigs. I think they could have pulled their 3, 4 & 5s up closer toward the foul line area, and quickly slide a back screen over to one of them and released the other toward the corner of the rim for some catch and dunks or short bank shots. At least that's what it looked like to me particularly in the 2nd half. I wish I had remembered to record the game, to see if that looked to be the case.
Getting back to Gott, in general, I along with most fans prefer positive commentary over negative. Not that I don't want to hear once in a while some comments on what a team or player is doing wrong, but I'd rather hear more about what they are doing right. Gott, as well as Billy Packer tend to be negative Nancy's and get tiresome to listen to even when they are right.
As for Raf, he's one of my favorites not only for his accurate insights, but because he's generally a positive analyst and even when he is critical it never sounds condescending or harsh. With that said, Raf and the other guy who did the prior game annoyed the heck out of me, constantly wondering why Lamb wasn't playing as much as they thought, completely clueless that Lamb was in foul trouble throughout the game. Very unlike Raf. I hope he's not slipping with age.
Lastly, I did find it interesting that Gott was the only one to pick UConn preseason #1. I don't know if he still feels that way. It was interesting to see that 16 out of the 17 voters had UNC #1 and most had UK #2. I guess on paper UNC did seem the favorite coming into the season. Based on what we've seen so far, they don't look as strong as most thought. UK has looked very tough. As I've mentioned in other threads, I'm just not that impressed with the field, just as I wasn't all that impressed last season. Our young team is playing well early on, though has much to work on. I think this team has just as much if not more upside than last season and it wouldn't shock me in the least to see them have a similar season ending run the ends with UConn again cutting down the nets.
They have all the pieces to get it done. Just not sure if all of them will be playing together at a high level when it counts most, though the one main common denominator is head-coach Jim Calhoun who knows how to get this type of team ready when it counts most.
