Jalen Adams & game-deciding 14-0 run... | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Jalen Adams & game-deciding 14-0 run...

Hans Sprungfeld said:
They played better last night than you write. Clean your own house first.
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They played great for the final 8 minutes of the game, which we've seen a lot of over the last few years.

One thing Ollie's teams know how to do is turn what could be a blow-out into a respectable-on-the-scoreboard loss. I suppose it should be heartening that last night was a could-have-been-a-morale-crushing-L that turned into a comfortable-on-the-scoreboard win, and that there were a few promising individual performances. But I can't quite get there.
 
Matrim55 said:
We've been saying this for four years...
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We have? No. They had a great D 4 years ago, and they played it well 3 years ago too. The 15-16s problem was offense, not defense. It was a mess.

Last year, I agree--but we had a slow-footed team last year. LOST ON D. This year's team is going to figure that out.
 
Matrim55 said:
They played great for the final 8 minutes of the game, which we've seen a lot of over the last few years.

One thing Ollie's teams know how to do is turn what could be a blow-out into a respectable-on-the-scoreboard loss. I suppose it should be heartening that last night was a could-have-been-a-morale-crushing-L that turned into a comfortable-on-the-scoreboard win, and that there were a few promising individual performances. But I can't quite get there.
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And I can't really begrudge your closing sentence.
 
Matrim55 said:
They played great for the final 8 minutes of the game, which we've seen a lot of over the last few years.

One thing Ollie's teams know how to do is turn what could be a blow-out into a respectable-on-the-scoreboard loss. I suppose it should be heartening that last night was a could-have-been-a-morale-crushing-L that turned into a comfortable-on-the-scoreboard win, and that there were a few promising individual performances. But I can't quite get there.
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That’s true. But with a glaring difference . Yes the last few years we put ourselves in a hole only to mount “ almost comebacks” almost every time. The players play looser down double digits. Felt like they were going to lose anyway, and didn’t play scared in light of that. The glaring difference is that the last couple years when we would get it close again the “ game pressure” would rear its ugly head again and we would go back to thinking too much on the court and making mistakes of “ too careful”


Last night when we came back, we blew right through the “ game pressure” moment , didn’t look at the scoreboard and kept pouring it on.

That in and of itself is encouraging.

KO is right when he said last night "we dont win this game last year"
 
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husky429 said:
Being too cool to try hard as a kod has been a thing for 100 years, man. Don't kid yourself. It may just look different to you than it did in your day.

Its hard to tell what Jalen's attitude is. How he presents publically may be very different than in the gym.

All these accusations about hos work ethic are mind boggling. None of us have a clue bc we haven't been in the gym with him.
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Kid played the most minutes last season and played at the end of the season even though he should have stayed on the bench because of his leg injury. So one scooter incident and a slow start to this season and people suddenly focus negatively on his demeanor and forget his heroic effort last year.

It's clear that KO is trying to develop Gilbert and Anderson. Jalen and CV got much quicker hooks than those guys. If he starts Jalen and CV and gives Jalen the keys from the start this game ends in a blow out even with Terry in foul trouble. Although it might be good for optics and give a short term boost this team goes further if Alterique becomes the third consistent option.

Interesting that most people commended Alterique's defense. He's an aggressive on ball defender, but he was lost on many defensive possessions. His player probably accounted for half or more of the threes given up by our guards. It's clear Alterique has a green light to shoot. Same as Terry preseason. KO is playing the long game, literally and figuratively. If Alterique clicks this team could surprise.
 
GetTheFacts said:
LOL @ Ollie for saying (yet again) that he wants to pick up the tempo offensively. Ranked 299th in tempo through two games.
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Tough to do when your best player is out of shape.
 
Matrim55 said:
I suppose it should be heartening that last night was a could-have-been-a-morale-crushing-L that turned into a comfortable-on-the-scoreboard win, and that there were a few promising individual performances. But I can't quite get there.
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You will. You don't really have a choice. Ultimately, you know that hope is better than the alternative; it's more fun.

Look at the mopes with the pitchforks. Do you want to be going into the PK80 hoping you are proven right with a miserable performance? How is that going to make your Thanksgiving? Bad enough you have to choke down some tasteless foul with enough salt and alcohol to kill a horse; do you really want to being looking forward to a crappy game to prove you right?

Or, do want to be pacing yourself all day, knowing that glorious moment awaits when you can melt into your recliner, tune out the rest of the world and dream about your beloved Huskies catching lightning in a bottle again?

And, there is a basis for optimism, both for this season and for the recruits on the horizon.

At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Again.
 
Matrim55 said:
Yeah, but that's part of what has me down. The result has changed (against weak competition), but has the process? If the same things keep going wrong, then how much progress will we really make?
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We'll see.
Don't join the crowd angling to be the first in with a broad negative take.
 
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upstater said:
We have? No. They had a great D 4 years ago, and they played it well 3 years ago too. The 15-16s problem was offense, not defense. It was a mess.

Last year, I agree--but we had a slow-footed team last year. LOST ON D. This year's team is going to figure that out.
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Last year's team's issues were less about being slow and more about having neither the depth nor the cumulative fouls to play hard D for 40 minutes. Let's give this a little time before jumping either on or off the bandwagon. The play hasn't been great but there are pieces that have shown things that can lead to optimism.
 
Hans Sprungfeld said:
We'll see.
Don't join the crowd angling to be the first in with a broad negative take.
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I'm definitely not gonna be that guy. Just felt it building during the preseason and the first two games, and needed to get it off my chest.

To be clear: I am glad that Jalen bailed us out last night, and hope that it spins forward into a commanding win against BU. I also take some heart from the fact that we went out and got some big, beefy rebounders this summer to address another long-standing concern, and I will hope that Jalen's leadership can knit this bunch together over the course of the season the way Shabazz did in 2014.
 
I mean, can we talk about the game? Too many people care more about criticizing other posters than they do talking about the game. You don't agree with someone, either ignore them or engage them. It doesn't hurt to accept and debate differing opinions.
 
Here's my blissfully ignorant take:

I was out at a work event last night and was taping the game. Got in the car around 8:25 p.m. for the ride home and promptly got a text from a friend who assumed I was watching the game, complaining that we couldn't throw the ball in the ocean. I realized then that I might not enjoy watching what sounded like a crappy performance, so I decided to tune in to Joe D for the radio broadcast for the drive.

There was just under 8:00 minutes to play and the Stony Brook lead grew from two to nine in a flash. Joe D was saying how poorly Jalen had played in the first half and I was disheartened. Then Jalen fed Polley for the three, and then converted his own and-one for a traditional three-point play to cut it to six. I immediately voice texted my buddy that it was "put up or shut up" time for Jalen, and that if he couldn't will us to win the game from that point our season was probably shot.

He did. He was supposed to. It's a start. I was heartened by it.

And from the sounds of it, much of it resulted from coaching moves that had DO setting screens for Jalen. I was heartened by that, too, as well as reports of better play from Gilbert (defending and getting to the rim), decent shots from Terry when he wasn't in foul trouble and solid contributions from Anderson.

I think we've got stuff to work with. Better stuff than last year. So, I have hope.
 
Matrim55 said:
Yeah, but that's part of what has me down. The result has changed (against weak competition), but has the process? If the same things keep going wrong, then how much progress will we really make?
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I totally agree with the pattern of play UCONN has fallen into in recent years. I will say though, we do have only 2 guys back who've played for the school. Most haven't even played much D1 before. To top it off, they've got 2 critical players coming off major injuries and even longer downtime.

It's a motley crew at the moment. To expect it to be smooth would be a stretch.

The one thing that stands out is that lack of urgency from the gun. That can be corrected. Whether it will is another story.
 
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Jalen thought he was still on suspension for the first half and looked disengaged, but he came around second half even when the sny commentators wanted Ollie to get him out of the game lol
 
The Funster said:
I mean, can we talk about the game? Too many people care more about criticizing other posters than they do talking about the game. You don't agree with someone, either ignore them or engage them. It doesn't hurt to accept and debate differing opinions.
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Now that's a unique idea.

The team (and the coaching staff) I watched believed they were going to win this game, did not get their psyche in a funk when they were unable to close the gap and regain the lead, had players being substituted in and out like it was a hockey game, its bench stayed engaged and all the players and coaches never looked back when a path to victory was created by a couple of made shots and a defense that was sufficiently intense to stifle the other team finally appeared on the court.

For sure they need these positives to exist from the opening tip, up to the players and the coaching staff to make it happen, or they will lose too many games they have the ability to win.
 
8893 said:
Here's my blissfully ignorant take:

I was out at a work event last night and was taping the game. Got in the car around 8:25 p.m. for the ride home and promptly got a text from a friend who assumed I was watching the game, complaining that we couldn't throw the ball in the ocean. I realized then that I might not enjoy watching what sounded like a crappy performance, so I decided to tune in to Joe D for the radio broadcast for the drive.

There was just under 8:00 minutes to play and the Stony Brook lead grew from two to nine in a flash. Joe D was saying how poorly Jalen had played in the first half and I was disheartened. Then Jalen fed Polley for the three, and then converted his own and-one for a traditional three-point play to cut it to six. I immediately voice texted my buddy that it was "put up or shut up" time for Jalen, and that if he couldn't will us to win the game from that point our season was probably shot.

He did. He was supposed to. It's a start. I was heartened by it.

And from the sounds of it, much of it resulted from coaching moves that had DO setting screens for Jalen. I was heartened by that, too, as well as reports of better play from Gilbert (defending and getting to the rim), decent shots from Terry when he wasn't in foul trouble and solid contributions from Anderson.

I think we've got stuff to work with. Better stuff than last year. So, I have hope.
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There is no reason why Larrier and Adams shouldn't be all conference level players. I think there is a chance that Gilbert may have that ability as well, but he's going to have to shake a lot of rust off first before we know for sure.

If you have 3 really good players, you can win a lot of games. It then takes contributions from role players and coaches who find them the right roles. This is not talent like we used to have but this is a team that has enough talent to win a lot of games if everything comes together right.
 
Matrim55 said:
I hope he proves me wrong, but I am so frustrated at four straight years of starting the season like this because we continually start games like this. We are inevitably out of it until the furious second-half comeback.
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Bump.
 
tzznandrew said:
The early season losses last year were inexcusable, but also, in some sense, understandable. Just a ton of new parts. I am willing to write off some of the ugly losses of last season after that because they didn't have 2 of their best 3 players, and for some of them they didn't have Jalen either.

If they lost this game...I mean, Jesus.
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We are not recruiting at a high D1 level. Period. The frosh class for '18 - '19 is sub standard as is this group. Pollyanna has left the building.
 
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So I guess its still KO fault that Adams is missing wide open shots to start the game and not being aggressive taking it to the rim. KO also told him to attempt to one arm an alley oop dunk off of a set play instead of dunking it easily with two hands. Do it for the gram, I guess..
 
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Think Adams took a secondary roll tonight. I don't know if it was by design or not but I'm okay with it. Last year he had to do everything in every game and he got worn out. Let's see what happens the upcoming tournament.
 
aceboon said:
So I guess its still KO fault that Adams is missing wide open shots to start the game and not being aggressive taking it to the rim. KO also told him to attempt to one arm an alley oop dunk off of a set play instead of dunking it easily with two hands. Do it for the gram, I guess..
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He runs hot and cold, sometimes he is into defensively and other times he is just out there. Not sure there’s been a Kemba or Napier type junior season bump.
 
James said:
He runs hot and cold, sometimes he is into defensively and other times he is just out there. Not sure there’s been a Kemba or Napier type junior season bump.
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PK will say a lot, he's really got to bring it next week and not if the team falls behind by double digits. With Kemba and Bazz you saw it right off the bat with their improvement junior year, so far not seeing it with Jalen's game or his mental approach. KO did say he had to take a ton of time off due to his ankles being cooked by the end of last season, but between the scooter nonsense and him not being there the first half of 2 games he hasn't started the year how I expected, and its not because KO is wasting his talent.
 
aceboon said:
PK will say a lot, he's really got to bring it next week and not if the team falls behind by double digits. With Kemba and Bazz you saw it right off the bat with their improvement junior year, so far not seeing it with Jalen's game or his mental approach. KO did say he had to take a ton of time off due to his ankles being cooked by the end of last season, but between the scooter nonsense and him not being there the first half of 2 games he hasn't started the year how I expected, and its not because KO is wasting his talent.
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Bazz still frustrated the hell out of me for the first halves of many games through his last year. I was stunned that he was able to string together enough consistent performances for us to win it all.
 
James said:
He runs hot and cold, sometimes he is into defensively and other times he is just out there. Not sure there’s been a Kemba or Napier type junior season bump.
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That's the disappointment, I think a lot of people expected the light to switch on by now where he is showing he has the dog in him the whole game and always leading, it hasn't happened. Kemba and Bazz were always serious, Jalen needs to become that kind of killer or he will never realize his full talent.
 
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