I'm not surprised we lost tonight...

[AntG168]

You were saying in the days before the game that this would be a bad loss

It’s is a bad loss. Have you read this board? It being a bad loss, and me not being surprised we did lose are not the same thing

 

[superjohn]

Jackson needed to guard Hopkins from the tip. Protect Karaban on defense and his offense makes him an asset. Throwing him up against these athletic fours and letting them feast is 1) exhausting him and 2) killing his confidence. I said YESTERDAY (check my posts) that we shouldn't have Karaban on Hopkins. It was obvious and has been for weeks.

I liked the decision to try some double-big, but it doesn't work if Jackson is also in the game.

IMO we needed to play Clingan more minutes in the first half... but that's easy to say in hindsight.

Amen.

To gameplan this game and decide you're putting Karaban on Hopkins is insane and somehow I kind of expected it.

We need to play Clingan more minutes every game.

 

[Edward Sargent]

Jackson needed to guard Hopkins from the tip. Protect Karaban on defense and his offense makes him an asset. Throwing him up against these athletic fours and letting them feast is 1) exhausting him and 2) killing his confidence. I said YESTERDAY (check my posts) that we shouldn't have Karaban on Hopkins. It was obvious and has been for weeks.

I liked the decision to try some double-big, but it doesn't work if Jackson is also in the game.

IMO we needed to play Clingan more minutes in the first half... but that's easy to say in hindsight.

Jackson with two four in four minutes?

 

[Edward Sargent]

Jackson with two four in four minutes?

I meant two fouls in four minutes

 

[superjohn]

Doesn't this mean that Karaban would in turn be guarding Noah Locke?

If you have someone filling in the defensive help for Karaban at the 4, then Karaban cannot be on the floor. The 4 is literally the only position he "can" guard

Yes. We both posted before the game you can't have Karaban on Hopkins and that Jackson should be on Hopkins with Karaban on Locke.

 

[husky429]

Jackson with two four in four minutes?

He wasn't guarding Hopkins when he got 2 fouls and only did guard him for a short stretch in the second. Not sure what your point is here.

 

[husky429]

Yes. We both posted before the game you can't have Karaban on Hopkins and that Jackson should be on Hopkins with Karaban on Locke.

Or at least change ypir defense to protect Karaban. Play more pack line or double aggressively down low. Letting Hopkins get his wasn't a viable strategy before the game even started. It's important to teach toughness and taking matchups personally... but that only gets you so far.

Alex simply can't guard this type of player. He's still a freshman developing strength and speed. He isn't a bad defender, just not as versatile as others.

 

[REB1094]

When Manny Bates had Karaban on offense, a help defender came before we could blink and it led to 0-2 showings including an airball. Butler stopped trying to hunt that mismatch after

I understand a low post double is very different than a perimeter double, but I’d like to see Karaban getting some help when he’s at a disadvantage

Teams lock up our offense by shading Sanogo and making it hard for him to get to his spot. Not sure why we can’t do something similar other than a stubborn reliance on strict man to man defense

Not a knock on Karaban. He’s an excellent player, especially for a freshman. But he’s been physically outmatched several times this year and is being left on an island. He’s resilient, but not much he can do against these guys except foul or give up a basket

 

[jake14mw]

but I am surprised we got our doors blown off. We did absolutely nothing right tonight. We couldn't get open shots, our ball movement was garbage, and we didn't have an answer for Hopkins (don't tell me Johnson-he couldn't handle Stonehill).

I bought the hype after the 14-0 start that we were the best team in the country. We are not. Houston likely is, but we may have blown our realistic chance of getting a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament. We are going to lose more games and if we lose just two more, a #1 seed is likely out of the question. We need an iso guy when we need a bucket and the ball movement is poor. I don't know if that is Hawkins or Newton, but we need to figure it out pronto. Our style works well if we get open a lot and take a lead. This team will not be able to come back from deficits. We need to figure it out.

I agree with much of what you said, but if we only lose 2 more games for the rest of the year, will will definitely be a #1 seed.

 

[yungdowork]

Karaban is still learning how to defend guys that are both skilled and more athletic than him, but Hopkins was always going to take more than one Husky to stop. There's a reason this was his 5th 20-pt game of the season. Couple that with the fact that he had the best FT shooting game of his career and made both his 3's, and he drops 27.

I think one of the bigger issues is our shot selection down the stretch. I know we have some shooters, and we are going to shoot a lot of 3's, but this is 2 games in a row where we've shot ourselves out of contention by taking too many 3's when the game was still in reach.

 

[superjohn]

Or at least change ypir defense to protect Karaban. Play more pack line or double aggressively down low. Letting Hopkins get his wasn't a viable strategy before the game even started. It's important to teach toughness and taking matchups personally... but that only gets you so far.

Alex simply can't guard this type of player. He's still a freshman developing strength and speed. He isn't a bad defender, just not as versatile as others.

Yep. It should've been obvious Karaban wouldn't be able to guard him going into the game and it was apparent right away when the game started. It's not about toughness when you simply aren't capable of doing something, it's just setting the kid up for failure.

It's all on the coach, not on Karaban.

 

[uconnever]

Andre is maybe the most talented and versatile defender in the country. Give me a break.

That may be true but he has trouble staying on the floor and if you put him on an agressive larger player like Hopkins coach knows that for sure AJ isn’t mentally ready for a challenge like that. Too overzealous. Sometimes you have to protect him from himself so we can have him for other parts of the game. Give Karaban help put AJ on him here or their junk defense whatever but solely AJ would have been dumb. We have nothing for Hopkins.

 

[husky429]

We have nothing for Hopkins.

AJ has shut down almost every star player he has guarded this year. Give me a fraggin' break. Have you even bothered watching our games?

Andre Jackson isn't "mentally ready for a challenge?" The kid is our team leader and best defender, bar none. If he isn't mentally ready for a challenge, no one is.

 

[Hungryhusky99]

AJ has shut down almost every star player he has guarded this year. Give me a fraggin' break. Have you even bothered watching our games?

Andre Jackson isn't "mentally ready for a challenge?" The kid is our team leader and best defender, bar none. If he isn't mentally ready for a challenge, no one is.

Honest question. What stars has he really shut down?

 

[huskyfan224]

When Manny Bates had Karaban on offense, a help defender came before we could blink and it led to 0-2 showings including an airball. Butler stopped trying to hunt that mismatch after

I understand a low post double is very different than a perimeter double, but I’d like to see Karaban getting some help when he’s at a disadvantage

Teams lock up our offense by shading Sanogo and making it hard for him to get to his spot. Not sure why we can’t do something similar other than a stubborn reliance on strict man to man defense

Not a knock on Karaban. He’s an excellent player, especially for a freshman. But he’s been physically outmatched several times this year and is being left on an island. He’s resilient, but not much he can do against these guys except foul or give up a basket

I saw a handful of help/doubling and guess what the result was……you guessed it, a foul!

 

[AntG168]

This idea that AJ couldn’t make Hopkins night difficult is hilarious. We had an answer, Hurley just didn’t use it

 

[SwingDog]

Just curious, what adjustment would you make with our personnel.

Not trying to be funny. I really don’t know how to do it without going zone.

Is going zone, and doing it correctly, such a crazy idea? At least having it in your back pocket if you need it?

 

[StllH8L8ner]

I saw a handful of help/doubling and guess what the result was……you guessed it, a oul!

 

[tentoes4rings]

Jackson needed to guard Hopkins from the tip. Protect Karaban on defense and his offense makes him an asset. Throwing him up against these athletic fours and letting them feast is 1) exhausting him and 2) killing his confidence. I said YESTERDAY (check my posts) that we shouldn't have Karaban on Hopkins. It was obvious and has been for weeks.

I liked the decision to try some double-big, but it doesn't work if Jackson is also in the game.

IMO we needed to play Clingan more minutes in the first half... but that's easy to say in hindsight.

Jackson continues to pick up incredibly silly fouls though. The first two were little reaches, including reaching through a player’s legs to try to steal the ball away. I’d be fine with him bumping guys or committing other physical fouls but last night he committed some reminiscent of his first year and a half. We clearly need him on the floor most of the game.

 

[huskyfan224]

Jackson continues to pick up incredibly silly fouls though. The first two were little reaches, including reaching through a player’s legs to try to steal the ball away. I’d be fine with him bumping guys or committing other physical fouls but last night he committed some reminiscent of his first year and a half. We clearly need him on the floor most of the game.

There was foul on Providence before that second foul on Jackson happened, so it technically never should’ve happened

 

[uconnever]

AJ has shut down almost every star player he has guarded this year. Give me a fraggin' break. Have you even bothered watching our games?

Andre Jackson isn't "mentally ready for a challenge?" The kid is our team leader and best defender, bar none. If he isn't mentally ready for a challenge, no one is.

Didn’t say he isn’t mentally ready he is more than capable, just not for someone whom he is clearly at a disadvantage to guard in the post. This is why I trust Hurley and the staff, because when I hear things like this, I know not every thought was put into it. You’re right on so many levels, except AJ would have been eaten alive down low and fouled out too soon and I think the staff knew that. He would have had his chance also but he got two quick fouls early. But cmon you trying to really tell me AJ can handle Hopkins down low after watching that game last night? There’s no way. And no one hates to admit that more than me I can’t stand anyone not UConn. AJ is too important as a whole to risk playing him on someone who can bully him down low. It’s simple it’s not that he’s not good enough, he’s not big enough. He’s not Superman.