John A.: Does UConn have enough to win title? Geno says yes

[HoopsFan21]

Any bets on whether Dee Kantner is in the house on Monday?

Is it a "Big Monday" game? You'd have to give odds for someone to take the other side of that bet. I think Louisville is already in the bonus.

 

[Suebird10fan]

This team can lose games, let's not get silly. Even UConn for as good as they are once you take away enough players the chances of losing go up. If they play like they did yesterday at Louisville, they will lose. I watched them lose to St. John's at home not so long ago.

When Louisville went to Dallas it was a single digit game deep into the second half. If Louisville plays like that against UConn, Louisville will be crushed.

 

[pvdoggy]

If they play like they did yesterday at Louisville, they will lose.

I don't know why people think UConn played bad yesterday. I thought they played well the whole game.
The reason the scores were closed mid way through the first half was because SMU was making many good
long shots, despite good defense. I don't think you can do anything about that, just ask Baylor last year.
At some point you have to give your opponent some credit, otherwise what is the point of even playing.
When UConn outside shots did not fall, they adjust and attack the basket, and scored, and scored, and....
I say if they play like yesterday at Louisville, they will beat Louisville w/o much trouble.

 

[Icebear]

They started slow and were standing around for much of the first 12 minutes at both ends of the court. Once they started playing they were fine.

 

[doggydaddy]

They started slow and were standing around for much of the first 12 minutes at both ends of the court. Once they started playing they were fine.

Hopefully not opening a can of arms, but I didn't see them standing around for much of the first 12 minutes. I'm not even sure what you mean by that.

 

[Icebear]

As I was watching the game early on they went through an extended period with very little movement and certainly little aggressive movement, kind of just trotting around in the offense not really trying to cut hard and make things happen and settling for long jump shots. When this is going on the players fail to move to the ball on passes leaving them long and vulnerable. The defensive end is always better but the zone seemed slow at times and lacking communication. Man to man as always was better. They were being out hustled by SMU to loose balls.

I and another person noted it in the game thread.

Geno noted the issues about the first half, as well

 

[DobbsRover2]

As I was watching the game early on they went through an extended period with very little movement and certainly little aggressive movement, kind of just trotting around in the offense not really trying to cut hard and make things happen and settling for long jump shots. When this is going on the players fail to move to the ball on passes leaving them long and vulnerable. The defensive end is always better but the zone seemed slow at times and lacking communication. Man to man as always was better. They were being out hustled by SMU to loose balls.

I and another person noted it in the game thread.

Geno noted the issues about the first half, as well

Kind of agree that UConn's hard-cutting post action was not so evident in the first ten minutes of the SMU game, but the Mustangs had a lot to do with that. After losing by 60+ in CT, they were determined early on to put up more of a fight, and they were definitely banging hard in the paint trying to keep UConn from throwing the ball in easily, and UConn was settling for long shots that weren't dropping. Might be a tendency to back off a bit to cut down the risk of another injury, as Stewie and others went down hard at some points. What bothered me more was the spate of double dribbling calls on certain UConn players who don't have frequent TOs.

Also wonder about the situation in which you have a devastating play that you might not want to show off now because you'd rather save it for the tournament. By "saving it" I mean not making it such a frequently used weapon that future opponents will be gearing up the defense to stop it. The Stef lob from the top of the key into a cutting Stewie under the basket (and vice versa) is one of the plays that an ND could focus their efforts to prevent, and once the preferred option gets snarled up, then the possession sometimes starts to get a little slowed down.

 

[Icebear]

Kind of agree that UConn's hard-cutting post action was not so evident in the first ten minutes of the SMU game, but the Mustangs had a lot to do with that. After losing by 60+ in CT, they were determined early on to put up more of a fight, and they were definitely banging hard in the paint trying to keep UConn from throwing the ball in easily, and UConn was settling for long shots that weren't dropping. Might be a tendency to back off a bit to cut down the risk of another injury, as Stewie and others went down hard at some points. What bothered me more was the spate of double dribbling calls on certain UConn players who don't have frequent TOs.

Also wonder about the situation in which you have a devastating play that you might not want to show off now because you'd rather save it for the tournament. By "saving it" I mean not making it such a frequently used weapon that future opponents will be gearing up the defense to stop it. The Stef lob from the top of the key into a cutting Stewie under the basket (and vice versa) is one of the plays that an ND could focus their efforts to prevent, and once the preferred option gets snarled up, then the possession sometimes starts to get a little slowed down.

I agree Dobbs that SMU had a lot to do with it. The worst period went from the first media timeout to the 4th.

One thing I predicted and happened steadily since the early season is more and more contact in the middle and more and more ignoring the points of emphasis in the middle. This has returned to congestion in the lanes.