Jackson and Martin missed front ends in the last two minutes

[Palatine]

That is the only thing that bothers me about this game. Four points would have made this very comfortable.

Tough game, no one except Cole had it going on. We made enough plays, got enough rebounds to win. But guys can not miss free throws in the last two minutes. Especially not guys who need to need to be in at the end. Gotta clean that up.

 

[glastonbury50]

Either bucket would have covered the spread.

 

[UCLJ0211]

Hurley said it in the post game too- there’s not gonna be many nights when everyone except RJ is off offensively. Just one more player playing to their “normal output” makes this a 20-pt win.

 

[UConnSwag11]

Wouldn’t have had to worry about those if we made the 30 bunnies we missed

 

[wheelerdog]

Martin is the last guy I want to see at the line. I’ll take everything else he gives us.

 

[uconngb]

Martin is the last guy I want to see at the line. I’ll take everything else he gives us.

Including the 3 missed one foot shots and the stone handed turnovers??? He’s wayyyy too inconsistent for a guy his age.

 

[cohenzone]

That is the only thing that bothers me about this game. Four points would have made this very comfortable.

Tough game, no one except Cole had it going on. We made enough plays, got enough rebounds to win. But guys can not miss free throws in the last two minutes. Especially not guys who need to need to be in at the end. Gotta clean that up.

Impossible to “clean up”. A missed foul shot is usually not off by more than a half inch. Not too many 100% foul shooters. Both Martin and Jackson have made both ends of a 1-1. Not tonight. Hurley had the correct players on the floor. That’s all he can do. No doubt Cole is the most reliable of them, but sometimes it can’t be in the best shooter’s hand. Once they got the rebounding and defense in order, it wound up really coming down all night to something the coach can’t fully fix, taking the right shot and then making it. For the most part the shot selection was ok. Shooting was awful. A team always looks great when the ball goes through the hoop, not so much when it doesn’t, but tonight with 50 seconds left losing was unlikely. Not ideal for sure, but when Cole made both ends the game was over. Tough league and a bumpy road.

 

[jdb50]

RJ is our most consistent player and thank God we have him. Other players have won games for us this year but for the rest of the season we need those players to bring offense game in game out. It is not a talent issue it is a focus/ mental concentration issue. Front ends on one and ones are huge in the big games.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Big majority of shots looked rushed, even wide open ones.

The final 8 & 4 minutes played out like the first 4 & 8, as though there wasn't a closeout or overall game plan.

Coaching staff actually called one regrouping timeout, but otherwise once again held onto two remaining timeouts as though they were cellphone rollover minutes.

A well-coached closeout team would stall DePaul in the mid-40s and get itself to upwards of 60 or more, mostly by protecting the ball and making foul shots, rather than actually going after points in a haphazzard fashion. Frustrates me.

 

[Hankster]

That is the only thing that bothers me about this game. Four points would have made this very comfortable.

Tough game, no one except Cole had it going on. We made enough plays, got enough rebounds to win. But guys can not miss free throws in the last two minutes. Especially not guys who need to need to be in at the end. Gotta clean that up.

I actually thought it was curtains after they missed those. The first half didn't bother me at all. DePaul all season has been playing teams close in the first half. Even leading at half. Then the blow out in second half. However different story last nights game. Not going to lie, I was nervous.

 

[mauconnfan]

That is the only thing that bothers me about this game. Four points would have made this very comfortable.

Tough game, no one except Cole had it going on. We made enough plays, got enough rebounds to win. But guys can not miss free throws in the last two minutes. Especially not guys who need to need to be in at the end. Gotta clean that up.

Honestly the fact Martin got the ball and not Cole means they weren’t prepared to get fouled. This needs to be drilled into them at the end of the game and expectations should be met. It’s a detail they missed and could kill them against a good team where you’re too comfy with an 8 point lead with 40 seconds left.

 

[7774]

That is the only thing that bothers me about this game. Four points would have made this very comfortable.

Tough game, no one except Cole had it going on. We made enough plays, got enough rebounds to win. But guys can not miss free throws in the last two minutes. Especially not guys who need to need to be in at the end. Gotta clean that up.

The worst part on the Martin play was he had Polley wide open 6 feet to his right and didn’t pass it to him until he had already been fouled. You really need to pass it there, but that’s just the stuff you have to live with from Tyrese because he doesn’t have a natural feel for the game on offense.

 

[imno1]

The worst part on the Martin play was he had Polley wide open 6 feet to his right and didn’t pass it to him. You really need to pass it there, but that’s just the stuff you have to live with from Tyrese because he doesn’t have a natural feel for the game on offense.

i Must be watching a different Tyrese Martin.

 

[CTBasketball]

Are our players allowed to have bad games or are they expected to be perfect every outing?

 

[7774]

i Must be watching a different Tyrese Martin.

Guess so.

 

[mauconnfan]

Are our players allowed to have bad games or are they expected to be perfect every outing?

Bad games shooting the ball happen no doubt. But crappy overall team defense and shoddy ball handling/passing shouldn’t for a team that understands they’re not great unless they pay attention. For much of last night they didn’t pay attention to the detail. Very fortunate it was a DePaul team missing their best. And even more important they had a huge step up game from RJ.

 

[microfich]

Kids are inexperienced humans, not robots. Give them a break.
DePaul did a great job on defense and played enthusiastic ball. We couldn't match that but our depth proved out.
We're getting use to having a target on our back again and that we won this game is proof enough of growth.

 

[cohenzone]

No doubt, we are the worst coached, fundamentally unsound, bad decision making 15-4 team ever. It’s a wonder they put on the right uniforms. Honestly, watch every game and you can pick apart just about any team if you want to. Things happen in the moment (Chris Weber anyone) and even the best foul shooters in world history miss around 10% and some at the end of close games. Polley is a very good foul shooter and he missed one yesterday. It wasn’t near the end, but it counted.

 

[Scoe]

Unacceptable performance last night you will have those it’s a matter of how you respond to it, so that it’s not a trend of things to come.

 

[CTBasketball]

Let’s be honest this and Creighton are trap games. I’m not thrilled with the performance either, but just get us to Saturday 16-4. Don’t care how we do it.

 

[mauconnfan]

Unacceptable performance last night you will have those it’s a matter of how you respond to it, so that it’s not a trend of things to come.

This for sure. Creighton is much better than DePaul despite those that believe they played great defense. Can’t look past that game to Nova one at a time. As we run into the thick of the schedule these games can’t happen. We will now see what our team and staff are made of. Like our chances but need to see it now people need to step up versus the top end of the Big East. There’s no target on UConn right now these teams don’t know JC, national titles they believe they can beat us. Time to prove them wrong! Let’s see

 

[mauconnfan]

Let’s be honest this and Creighton are trap games. I’m not thrilled with the performance either, but just get us to Saturday 16-4. Don’t care how we do it.

Creighton shouldn’t be, actually this team hasn’t proven anything to have “trap” games. If they can have those then they will not be ready for what’s coming up.

 

[Palatine]

Impossible to “clean up”. A missed foul shot is usually not off by more than a half inch. Not too many 100% foul shooters. Both Martin and Jackson have made both ends of a 1-1. Not tonight. Hurley had the correct players on the floor. That’s all he can do. No doubt Cole is the most reliable of them, but sometimes it can’t be in the best shooter’s hand. Once they got the rebounding and defense in order, it wound up really coming down all night to something the coach can’t fully fix, taking the right shot and then making it. For the most part the shot selection was ok. Shooting was awful. A team always looks great when the ball goes through the hoop, not so much when it doesn’t, but tonight with 50 seconds left losing was unlikely. Not ideal for sure, but when Cole made both ends the game was over. Tough league and a bumpy road.

Are you implying you can not improve FT shooting? That it can NOT be cleaned up? It's random? You must have missed Ricky Moore's career.

FT shooting is the only thing in basketball that is exactly the same every single time. Good teams close out games from the line. If we want to be a championship team, making FTs at the end of games is critical. It's necessary.

 

[CTBasketball]

Creighton shouldn’t be, actually this team hasn’t proven anything to have “trap” games. If they can have those then they will not be ready for what’s coming up.

Agree they shouldn’t, but I think it’s easy to overlook DePaul/Creighton when you have a date with Villanova on the road.

 

[Waquoit]

We'll shoot better from 3 the next game. Return to the mean works both ways.

 

[navery12]

Agree they shouldn’t, but I think it’s easy to overlook DePaul/Creighton when you have a date with Villanova on the road.

It's still possible against Creighton but I think last night was the wake up call they needed for Tuesday. They saw they can't just show up and expect to beat an inferior opponent with their talent alone. I expect them to be ready

 

[Kolumbo]

Shinola happens. Texas was up big on Tenn and eked out a win. Imagine suffering through this:
Texas 49-32 with 8:00 left
Texas 51-35 with 5:33 left
Texas 52-51 final

 

[Kolumbo]

This is the only thing that bothers me. 5 game winning streak against DePaul, Georgetown, Butler and St. John's. The next 4 games will be revealing.

 

[cohenzone]

Are you implying you can not improve FT shooting? That it can NOT be cleaned up? It's random? You must have missed Ricky Moore's career.

FT shooting is the only thing in basketball that is exactly the same every single time. Good teams close out games from the line. If we want to be a championship team, making FTs at the end of games is critical. It's necessary.

You think that practicing foul shots a million times will make every one Bill Sharman? If that were so, everyone would be Bill Sharman including Wilt who got fouled as much as anyone and totally sucked at the line. You think these guys don’t do tons of foul shooting drills in practice and on their own? Who besides Donyell would you have had at the line in that Florida NCAA game and that wasn’t even a 1 and 1 and I’ll betcha if you watch a tape of that he wasn’t off by more than an inch. Guys miss foul shots. If they didn’t they would just put the points up. Obviously you try to get the ball into the hands of your best foul shooters in close end game situations. But it can’t always work that way because there is that sticky little problem of another team on the floor trying to prevent it the same way our team tries to do. And even the “right” guy doesn’t make 100%.

 

[F101Voodoo]

That is the only thing that bothers me about this game. Four points would have made this very comfortable.

Tough game, no one except Cole had it going on. We made enough plays, got enough rebounds to win. But guys can not miss free throws in the last two minutes. Especially not guys who need to need to be in at the end. Gotta clean that up.

I will say this again. During the Calhoun reign when h foul shooting went into the Porta Potty he made them practice that out. In a couple games their foul shot “attitude” turned around. Coaches (include. Assistants) need to determine if the problem is technique or lack of focus. Technique is more conducive to a fix than lack of focus.

And no , no reasonable person expects 100% FT shooting.