It's entirely possible that I'm an idiot, but . . .

[Cheeky]

. . . I don't think this loss is a big deal or a very bad thing.

First, it gives us good tape on what we need to do to improve ball handling in a press. We were flat out awful at times. They ran 2 or 3 guys at Boat and we had nobody step up early. Later, TSam did a decent job of breaking the press. Earl, however, we looked lost. Good learning opportunity.

Second, Daniel Hamilton, despite his 40 turnovers, is a beast, and I love this kid. Thank you for coming to UConn, and I love watching you play. He will get better from this. He clearly is a natural. He will review and assess and in April he will make better decisions.

Third, this was one of those - everything went the wrong way - games. They happen. I'd much rather have them happen in November than March. It seemed like they hit every free throw, we missed early. They hit open 3s. We clanged open 3s. They got easy put backs. Us, not so much. Lose balls seemed to bounce away from us. Purvis was less than 100%. The hit a handful of WTF shots. It happens. It happened to us tonight.

Fourth - Facey is going to be very good. Kid has a nose for the ball, height, ups, and good hands. Great natural talent. Really like watching him play.

This team looks good to me. Today showed that we need to practice ball handling and breaking the press. Ollie will do that. We will get better. I think that this loss may end up making us a better March team, because, without having been pressed by a competent team, we may never have had to work on the press break.

It didn't kill us - made us stronger. And so on.

 

[Fishy]

No loss in November is really that big of a deal.

Given our conference, this sort of thing will be held against us far more than, say, Notre Dame's loss to Providence, but it's not a disaster.

 

[champs99and04]

You may be an idiot but this is far from an idiotic post. Daniel Hamilton makes one or two plays a game that cause my jaw to drop. The way he's able to slice into the teeth of the defense, contort his body, and rise up over the defender for a beautiful jump shot is something that is very, very rare in any college player, forget a freshman. I'm trying really hard not to go too overboard with my praise, but he makes it tough. Obviously the eight turnovers are a learning point. Frankly, I thought one of the biggest mistakes they made in the second half was not going to him more often.

We all felt Facey would rebound the cover off the ball, but I've been very impressed with his touch around the rim. Whenever he catches the ball in the paint he immediately goes back up with it.

For whatever reason, UConn teams always seem to struggle with the press, especially early in the season. WVU exposed some deficiencies in our complementary ball-handlers (Purvis being healthy would have probably helped at lot). Terrence needs to get a lot more comfortable dealing with that sort of pressure, otherwise we're going to get pressed to death.

 

[Silk31]

I will be concerned if we go 0-4 vs Duke, Texas, Florida and Stanford, or 1-3 and that lone win being against Stanford.

We need to come away with some resume building wins early because the putrid AAC wont be providing us any of those chances this season

 

[Cheeky]

Given our conference, this sort of thing will be held against us far more than,

Christ Fishy. You ought to consider refraining from posting when you are PMSing - seriously - you have posted some major doom recently.

 

[AstarIsBorn31]

Frankly, I thought one of the biggest mistakes they made in the second half was not going to him more often..

I dont get why we dont run him off more screens for jumpers inside the 3... Instead we try to run some sort of motion around the arc then just have boat run off a brimah screen late in the clock ... That works too but it wont be as successful as it was with Senor Bazz who could pull up from anywhere....

 

[David 76]

What odds are you laying for the Idiot bet?
No, I agree with you. I wish folks were a little less "we win another championship and RP, Dan Hurley, AB, and Sam Jr go to the NBA" or "everybody except Boat sucks, we are stuck in a lousy conference and eagles will eat our livers every morning"
We are a young, pretty talented team with a chance of becoming very good. Which is kinda what we do lately.

 

[ibleedhuskyblue]

Dan Hurley is obviously fantastic, but i hope KO can get him to stop leaving his feet before having somewhere to go with it. That alone caused him to make at least 3 turnovers today. He is tall enough that he doesn't need to do that. He sure is good though. I can't wait to see how much better he gets later this season.

TSam, RP, and Sam Jr have to make some shots. No one shot well from any distance outside of 6 inches, so i'll chalk it up to unforgiving Puerto Rican rims.

 

[AstarIsBorn31]

The double rims def took some of Boats free throws... I enjoyed the games so far and we shall learn from this.. That WVU dunk at the end tho was sooooooo lame... I was hoping T sam transformed into Stanley Robinson and threw the hammer but I guess lay ups are cool too...

 

[Greathusky]

When you have games like this, I think about the Louisville loss last year before the tournament run.
Don't try to predict the future using the past.
Breathe in, breathe out, move on.

So much for our zen moment...

 

[Jerry1714]

It's November, no big deal, young team, we were not going undefeated.

WVU is a good team too