- Joined
- Aug 24, 2011
- Messages
- 3,050
- Reaction Score
- 6,252
I realize the team had its adversity. JC's suspension and health. Boatright's suspensions. Bazz's injuries. AD had his set back with the broken nose. The team needing to find it's identity of life after Kemba. Guys were in new roles this year even though they had solid experience coming of the 2011 NC. They were very young still, sophs and freshmen.
With all that said, I'm disappointed with how poorly the rebounded the ball. IMO the results in that areas doesn't match up with their talent and personnel. They should have been better. Some disagreed with me in the chat, that I felt the staff did not hold them accountable for not boxing out. I rarely criticize the coaching staff, but if I was coaching them, the moment one of them didn't box out, I'd hall their ass to the bench, chew them out, encourage them back up and send them back out. If it meant sitting them longer at the expense of the team earlier in the seasons, I'd do it. Some said they saw JC do that with some of the players, but I don't recall seeing it much. Even if it was one of the guards not putting his body between his man and the long rebound, I'd sit him and tell him if he wants to play more he's got to do the little things. I felt this team lost a lot of games because of the little things. All it takes is giving the other team a couple extra shots to beat you. We lost a lot of games where one or two more plays would have make those Ls, Ws.
Poor execution on offense. I felt they used way too much dribble penetration and not enough motion offense. Without Kemba Walker, only Boat is equipped for that offense, and even he's too young for the team to relay on him. Isolating lamb out on the perimeter to break his man off the dribble simply didn't work, or at least work enough. They should have run more plays where they set multiple screens for him, and where there were secondary parts of the set where he even sets screens for the other players who had the ability to catch, curl and shoot or drive. Bazz, Boat, Scoe, Giffey and Daniels can do that but the offense wasn't run to execute such. We see other teams run multi-motion sets successfully and I can't help but wonder why can't our team do so. We certainly had the talent. At most we'd see them run one guy through a screen or two while the rest just stood there. Once it didn't work they'd reset and try it again or simply spread the floor out or run that high pick and roll over and over again. Maybe I'm dead wrong, but I just think they didn't run the best offense for the personnel they had. It's not like they haven't run what I'm talking about here at UConn. The 99 tam ran it to perfection. And other JC coached teams have run the multi-motion offense frequently.
Perimeter D was spotty all season long. Part of that was due to Bazz being banged up and gutting it out on one leg. Part of it is a by produce of having a small backcourt. But a big part was simply not outworking their opponent which has been a marque of JC coached teams. Typical of this season, ISU outworked us most of the night beating us to loose balls or spots on the floor for rebounding zones, etc.
Poor finishing team. Wow, AD missed two point blank bunnies. Unlike last year where they simply made that one more play than the other team, this team squandered lots of open and lightly contested looks. I thought they were going to be a good shooting team. I think they started out shooting the ball well at the start of the season, but they struggled in that area most of the season. For example, they made SU work much harder for their shots than SU made it on UConn. The problem was our Huskies didn't make the most of those good looks.
I'm disappointed with the lack of both team and individual improvement. Is it the players fault? Is it the coaching? Is it that the players are simply only as good as what we saw. I think they're better than what they showed up throughout most of the season.
I didn't expect a repeat NC, but had hoped for an Elite 8 or at least a S-16. Bowing out in their first game is not what I had expected. I still believe their talent warranted a better ending. Part of it is due to not overcoming the adversity mentioned above, but part might stem from a lack of coach-ability or a lack in some area of coaching this season.
Really what are our choices? This team is really no better than a first round tournament team? This team is better than it showed? I'm very concerned with what next year might look like with defections and/or not as much upside as I had hoped. Hopefully the returning players will show a dramatic improvement and will have a better outcome next season.
With all that said, I'm disappointed with how poorly the rebounded the ball. IMO the results in that areas doesn't match up with their talent and personnel. They should have been better. Some disagreed with me in the chat, that I felt the staff did not hold them accountable for not boxing out. I rarely criticize the coaching staff, but if I was coaching them, the moment one of them didn't box out, I'd hall their ass to the bench, chew them out, encourage them back up and send them back out. If it meant sitting them longer at the expense of the team earlier in the seasons, I'd do it. Some said they saw JC do that with some of the players, but I don't recall seeing it much. Even if it was one of the guards not putting his body between his man and the long rebound, I'd sit him and tell him if he wants to play more he's got to do the little things. I felt this team lost a lot of games because of the little things. All it takes is giving the other team a couple extra shots to beat you. We lost a lot of games where one or two more plays would have make those Ls, Ws.
Poor execution on offense. I felt they used way too much dribble penetration and not enough motion offense. Without Kemba Walker, only Boat is equipped for that offense, and even he's too young for the team to relay on him. Isolating lamb out on the perimeter to break his man off the dribble simply didn't work, or at least work enough. They should have run more plays where they set multiple screens for him, and where there were secondary parts of the set where he even sets screens for the other players who had the ability to catch, curl and shoot or drive. Bazz, Boat, Scoe, Giffey and Daniels can do that but the offense wasn't run to execute such. We see other teams run multi-motion sets successfully and I can't help but wonder why can't our team do so. We certainly had the talent. At most we'd see them run one guy through a screen or two while the rest just stood there. Once it didn't work they'd reset and try it again or simply spread the floor out or run that high pick and roll over and over again. Maybe I'm dead wrong, but I just think they didn't run the best offense for the personnel they had. It's not like they haven't run what I'm talking about here at UConn. The 99 tam ran it to perfection. And other JC coached teams have run the multi-motion offense frequently.
Perimeter D was spotty all season long. Part of that was due to Bazz being banged up and gutting it out on one leg. Part of it is a by produce of having a small backcourt. But a big part was simply not outworking their opponent which has been a marque of JC coached teams. Typical of this season, ISU outworked us most of the night beating us to loose balls or spots on the floor for rebounding zones, etc.
Poor finishing team. Wow, AD missed two point blank bunnies. Unlike last year where they simply made that one more play than the other team, this team squandered lots of open and lightly contested looks. I thought they were going to be a good shooting team. I think they started out shooting the ball well at the start of the season, but they struggled in that area most of the season. For example, they made SU work much harder for their shots than SU made it on UConn. The problem was our Huskies didn't make the most of those good looks.
I'm disappointed with the lack of both team and individual improvement. Is it the players fault? Is it the coaching? Is it that the players are simply only as good as what we saw. I think they're better than what they showed up throughout most of the season.
I didn't expect a repeat NC, but had hoped for an Elite 8 or at least a S-16. Bowing out in their first game is not what I had expected. I still believe their talent warranted a better ending. Part of it is due to not overcoming the adversity mentioned above, but part might stem from a lack of coach-ability or a lack in some area of coaching this season.
Really what are our choices? This team is really no better than a first round tournament team? This team is better than it showed? I'm very concerned with what next year might look like with defections and/or not as much upside as I had hoped. Hopefully the returning players will show a dramatic improvement and will have a better outcome next season.
