Is wed Tulsa game must win

[Milo65]

13 wins, book it. Believe it or not, there are still some WTF losses out there. An Ollie trademark. He will be back next year, Gilbert going down gave him a life line. Next year is make or break. As much as I want him out, his ring and the injuries will save him.

 

[whaler11]

The 3-point shooting definitely killed us, too. If we even get a 35% effort from 3 instead of 18%, or if they shot 35% instead of 48% from 3, we win.

That's why I'm not taking this game as hard as the rest of the board. If we play like this for the remainder of the year, we'll win the vast majority of our conference games...

I don’t know if there is anything to carry forward out of it of value but I agree they played better today than pretty much any other game except maybe Oregon?

Certainly the best they played at XL.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

There were definitely a few very bad calls. Ones that are stuck in my head was a WSU guy sliding under CV on what should have been an and-1 opportunity for a charge. Also Jalen got a rebound ripped out of his hands and he somehow got called for a foul. WSU got a called for a foul (that should have been intentional) that wiped out a fast break. Jalen was driving and getting hit all night but wasn’t getting to the line. A couple missed goaltends. It’s amazing they played that stifling of defense and got every rebound while committing 4 fouls the entire second half.

 

[HooperScooper]

The 3-point shooting definitely killed us, too. If we even get a 35% effort from 3 instead of 18%, or if they shot 35% instead of 48% from 3, we win.

That's why I'm not taking this game as hard as the rest of the board. If we play like this for the remainder of the year, we'll win the vast majority of our conference games...

You can point to 1 or 2 stats from every game and say the outcome could have been different. But in fact it wasn't. If it's not 3 point percentage it will be something different.

Look at the free throws from today's game. UConn was shooting about 75% before today and went 11-13 for 84.6%. WSU was shooting 77% but went 4-12 for 33% today. So say UConn went 9 or 10 for 13 and WSU went 9 or 10 for 12 instead and you're looking at a 16 point loss instead of 10. Do you see why what you're saying doesn't really have any bearing on other games. The fact is UConn has lost many games this season because of many different reasons and it will continue to be that way unless they get better at a lot of things.

 

[RayRay34]

Every game is a must-win, always.

 

[UConnDan97]

You can point to 1 or 2 stats from every game and say the outcome could have been different. But in fact it wasn't. If it's not 3 point percentage it will be something different.

Look at the free throws from today's game. UConn was shooting about 75% before today and went 11-13 for 84.6%. WSU was shooting 77% but went 4-12 for 33% today. So say UConn went 9 or 10 for 13 and WSU went 9 or 10 for 12 instead and you're looking at a 16 point loss instead of 10. Do you see why what you're saying doesn't really have any bearing on other games. The fact is UConn has lost many games this season because of many different reasons and it will continue to be that way unless they get better at a lot of things.

Of course it had a bearing. It means if we make 2 more shots or if they make 2 less. That's all. Over 38 minutes, that's what separated us. The last 2 minutes was the foul game, which always had to happen...

 

[UConnDan97]

Oh boy. Now I see why you have been predicting undefeated seasons since 1983.

And you've been a Massengill for much longer...

 

[BlueDogs]

13 wins, book it. Believe it or not, there are still some WTF losses out there. An Ollie trademark. He will be back next year, Gilbert going down gave him a life line. Next year is make or break. As much as I want him out, his ring and the injuries will save him.

This was supposed to be the make or break year, if I recall. It's always just one more year... I call BS.

 

[Saab04]

And you've been a Massengill for much longer...

Let’s just say you are the most optimistic person in the universe. But, there is nothing to be optimistic about. And, I promise you more than 15 boneyarders disagree with your optimistism.

 

[intlzncster]

Of course it had a bearing. It means if we make 2 more shots or if they make 2 less. That's all. Over 38 minutes, that's what separated us. The last 2 minutes was the foul game, which always had to happen...

But that happens every game. Every game there's a 'reason' for the loss. It's still a loss. If they shoot 40% from 3 and go 0 for whatever from the free throw line, they might still lose to an opponent.

EOD the only stat that matters is who had more points.

 

[Milo65]

This was supposed to be the make or break year, if I recall. It's always just one more year... I call BS.

I hope you are right, I didn’t think Diaco was going out either.

 

[Sea Goat]

There are no must-win games any more.

Thank you. If there was a "must win" game I would argue that Auburn was it. If Auburn wasn't, then Whichita was...

The "thousand yard" stares from our coaches in the second half told me everything. It is over for KO and his BFF assistants...

 

[UConnDan97]

Let’s just say you are the most optimistic person in the universe. But, there is nothing to be optimistic about. And, I promise you more than 15 boneyarders disagree with your optimistism.

I didn't say only 15 disagree. I said 15 spew their constant nonsense. They pollute every thread on the board...

 

[UConnDan97]

But that happens every game. Every game there's a 'reason' for the loss. It's still a loss. If they shoot 40% from 3 and go 0 for whatever from the free throw line, they might still lose to an opponent.

EOD the only stat that matters is who had more points.

Of course the win matters! Believe me, I feel ill when we don't win. What I'm saying is that the basketball was better today. Certainly a hell of a lot better than against Auburn, but also better than pretty much every game we've played this year. That's at minimum what I want to see: improvements from the players and the coach. I got both today...

 

[UConnDan97]

But that happens every game. Every game there's a 'reason' for the loss. It's still a loss. If they shoot 40% from 3 and go 0 for whatever from the free throw line, they might still lose to an opponent.

EOD the only stat that matters is who had more points.

By the way, I know that my earlier comment comes across like I'm saying, "if my aunt had testicles, she'd be my uncle." But what I'm saying is if both teams shot to their 2017-2018 averages from the perimeter. Wichita State is shooting 40% and we're shooting 31%. Today, they did better than their average (48%) and we did much worse (18%). If we shot our average makes from those open looks, we win and the entire tone of this board would have changed about a lot of other aspects that are otherwise irrelevant to today's game. That's all I'm saying...

 

[DAC17]

7-9. Write it down now.

 

[freescooter]

Oh come off it...they're college athletes who play a national non-conference schedule. They're used to it.

If you wouldn't make that excuse for UConn, don't make it for anyone else.

Though I have no doubt you’ll use it if we get pounded at Wichita. That and they’re a tournament team.

 

[freescooter]

Thank you. If there was a "must win" game I would argue that Auburn was it. If Auburn wasn't, then Whichita was...

The "thousand yard" stares from our coaches in the second half told me everything. It is over for KO and his BFF assistants...

I agree. I think he knows he is over his head.

 

[UCweCONN]

I agree. I think he knows he is over his head.

I've posted it before, but I'll say it again. I don't think KO wants to do this anymore. He'd be very open to a buy out discussion. He's worn out and he doesn't know how to right the ship. It's not fun for him anymore, and it sure as hell isn't fun for us.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

If recent history continues, we'll far behind early (by a large amount) and play basically even from that point forward (for another embarrassing, 15+ point loss), I want to see effort, a sustained effort from opening tip to final buzzer. I know we are limited at a few spots. I realize that an extremely low basketball IQ permeates the roster. There is however no reason this team can't work their collective backsides off for the en

 

[whaler11]

I've posted it before, but I'll say it again. I don't think KO wants to do this anymore. He'd be very open to a buy out discussion. He's worn out and he doesn't know how to right the ship. It's not fun for him anymore, and it sure as hell isn't fun for us.

Did the Easter Bunny pass this along to you?

Why wouldn’t he take his buyout if they fire him?

 

[sammydabiz]

Yeah man WSU cruised the whole way. Especially when we tied it with like 8 min left or were actually leading at the 12 min mark. If the roles were reversed and this was a game vs Central you’d be saying we barely won.

Perspective
It was a total of like 93 seconds where we were leading throughout the game... It was never as close as you'd like to believe. WSU cruised playing away with no shoot around. But by all means go on believing we truly had a chance. Our offense would say otherwise...

 

[imno1]

Back to the OP. We will beat Tulsa. Mark it down

 

[UCweCONN]

Did the Easter Bunny pass this along to you?

Why wouldn’t he take his buyout if they fire him?

I don't mean he won't want money. I'm sure his ex will drag him to court if he doesn't. I mean he's looking for a face saving way to leave with some dignity and if the administration approaches him they could work out a lesser buyout while he moves on the an NBA job as an assistant or front office guy. I'm not pretending I have inside info. I'm just pretty good at reading people and if you look at KO from years one and two and look at him now, he's not the same person or coach. He's lost the spark.

 

[Edward Sargent]

I didn’t think they got jobbed by the refs today.

This game distilled it down to something very simple for me:

Every time UConn would make a run - WSU made a shot. On the road in front of a full house - everytime they needed to make a shot they did.

Wichita is good because they can make shots and UConn is not because they can’t.

Good summation of our problem. They had three shooters on the floor at all times and we had none