Kevin, get a technical when it means something,

[auror]

Not sure why Enoch didn't get more burn in the 2nd half after showing very well in the 1st. After watching their guards/wings beat our perimeter defenders time after time off the bounce and with our team battling foul trouble I thought KO really missed the boat to go more zone at a critical juncture in the 2nd half. This would have also ensured Brimah would be patrolling the paint rather than floating around doing lord knows what out there.

@King Husky @mauconnfan @UConn990411

I watched the replay.

Enoch's first stint came early, about 3 minutes in. He looked good. Active, was flashing quick against the zone. Hands up ready to catch. 2 layups and a no hesitation catch and shoot make. Boxing dudes out.

He came back in and played like the last 8 minutes of the half. Really long shift. Much less impact this time, but was fine on defense and mostly boxing people out. I only saw one or two rebounds, but he was active.

Now for the 2nd half...

Enoch comes in with 14 minutes left. First possession we're in zone, shot clock goes down to 1 and Gray finishes in the lane right over Enoch. He had hands up, maybe trying to take a charge, but didn't really challenge the shot. That was Houston's first lead of the game.

A possession or so later on offense, Enoch is supposed to set a screen on offense but doesn't react. You can see Ollie eventually visibly waves him forward. Play starts, he rolls to basket, gets good position on O-board, but it bounces the wrong way. Then his man beats him down court and we're lucky to deflect the pass.

The teams go back up and down the court, including Vital making a nice steal that bounces to Enoch and he grabs it. Enoch looks exhausted. He's left in despite other subs, then immediately gives up the 3 to the white guy on the inbounds play. Totally has no clue where the guy is. The guy didn't even make a move to get to that spot. He was standing there the whole time. It also wasn't like they decided not to guard him out there, he just literally never picked him up and had no idea where he was.

He makes a decent pass on offense on next possession after catching a pass Amida might not catch, but Adams misses the shot.

He gets subbed out, 12 minutes left. He doesn't come back in until 1 minute left after Facey fouls out.

In-between, we played our starters and then a small-ball zone-busting lineup with Adams, Purvis, Vital, Vance at the 4 and Brimah. I can definitely see the logic of this as we were down by a significant amount, and we do hit a couple 3s at that point to get back in the game. But Vance got killed on the defensive boards in this stretch. A gamble that failed, I'd say. He did look a bit tired in the 2nd half like the rest of our guys.

 

[mauconnfan]

All of this debate begs the question, when is Glen Miller going to get fired? If he were to get fired who would be the new associate head coach and would Donyell move up the road to coach our big men?

I didn't hear about Donyell being a really good big mens coach where did you get that? Oh yeah what am I thinking he's 6'9" he has to be.

 

[King Husky]

Warning: The below is not for the casual fan

One reason Brimah has regressed in shot blocking and intimidation is we don't funnel when we play Miller's variety of gimmick zones. These zones also leave us totally out of position for rebounds. But, Glen is tone deaf on these issues since he is a Bigs Coach in name only.

I am not excusing Brimah's very poor play - it's on him. However, these make a bad situation worse.

Interesting point about the funneling.

 

[Silk31]

@King Husky @mauconnfan @UConn990411
In-between, we played our starters and then a small-ball zone-busting lineup with Adams, Purvis, Vital, Vance at the 4 and Brimah. I can definitely see the logic of this as we were down by a significant amount, and we do hit a couple 3s at that point to get back in the game. But Vance got killed on the defensive boards in this stretch. A gamble that failed, I'd say. He did look a bit tired in the 2nd half like the rest of our guys.

Vance was asked to guard Dotson 1 on 1 for large stretches of the game...an obvious mismatch for many reasons and no surprise that Dotson roasted us again. Now this isn't Vance's fault by any means. He's limited athletically and with a full roster and Purvis not in foul trouble he wouldn't be drawing that kind of defensive assignment. That goes back to my point that defensive rebounding issues aside we needed to play more zone due to them exposing matchups vs us in the 2nd half.

 

[Chief00]

Interesting point about the funneling.

I try to cater to the casual fan audience but occasionally I will get more technical.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

I try to cater to the casual fan audience but occasionally I will get more technical.

Well done. I actually laughed out loud.

 

[Chief00]

Well done. I actually laughed out loud.

Thank you!

 

[Stainmaster]

All of this debate begs the question, when is Glen Miller going to get fired? If he were to get fired who would be the new associate head coach and would Donyell move up the road to coach our big men?

Stop it, Chief will be in heat if you keep talking like that!

 

[Chief00]

Stop it, Chief will be in heat if you keep talking like that!

Donyell is not the fit - and besides he is doing the Head Coaching thing now.

Miller does a lot of stuff no one else on the staff wants to do or is capable of doing.

Scouting reports, gimmick zone defenses, tracking fouls and timeouts, going over class schedules and tours of facilities.

 

[UConnNick]

I'm watching the Wisconsin @ Ohio State game. Tulsa is also playing USF at home, and at this point barely ahead by one point. It made me think of teams and games we played this season that were winnable but we lost. Why we lost is the big question. We have been looking to put the blame on something or someone. Injuries certainly played the biggest role, but it has been frustrating to see us lose games which could have or should have been wins regardless. Games like Ohio State, Georgetown, Tulsa and others against teams not all that much more talented than we are. And there's no excuse for losing to Wagner and Northeastern at home when we were at full strength.

I'll acknowledge we have underachieved, even taking the injuries into account. We should be better than a team flirting with an overall .500 record. Who's fault that is presents a very complicated set of problems.

Ollie probably deserves the brunt of the blame, although he has held things together, because we could easily have tanked the entire rest of the season after Larrier and Gilbert went down.

Players? Wildly inconsistent from game to game, but they've generally played hard. Some of the blame has to fall on them.

Certain players that are seniors have never improved during their tenure at UCONN. Again, some of the blame for that falls on the coaching staff, but those players should share in some of the blame for that. At this level, you need to be self aware enough to try and correct some of your own personal deficiencies.

I'm not buying into the tired excuse because plenty of teams run with short rotations, especially at this time of year. If we are either mentally or physically gassed, or both, at this point in the season, that's a conditioning deficiency.

I think it's crazy to call for Ollie to be fired, but I also think that next season should be a make or break one for him, assuming we make it through the entire year relatively injury free. He deserves some slack this year due to the rash of season ending injuries, but perhaps not quite as much as some are willing to give him.

Going forward, anybody who thinks we have much of a chance against the elite AAC teams is being wildly optimistic. We have absolutely sucked vs Cincinnati and SMU, and to a somewhat lesser extent vs. Houston, and I expect we will continue to. The only way we win the AAC tourney will be through some virtually unimaginable perfect storm of early round upsets that miraculously take SMU and Cincy out of it. Otherwise, we eventually have to beat one or more of them. That's not happening. I hope I'm wrong and everyone can throw this back in my face afterward, but I'm afraid that's the cold, hard reality we face this season. We definitely lose in the AAC tourney, and our NIT chances I'd rate as a toss up at this moment.

 

[Travelman6]

I'm not buying into the tired excuse because plenty of teams run with short rotations, especially at this time of year. If we are either mentally or physically gassed, or both, at this point in the season, that's a conditioning deficiency.

That is exactly what it is. Not sure why many people seem to shy away from this topic or even demean those who so much as suggest it. But that is the big issue at this point of the season. There is no reason why anyone should be sucking wind, bending over, hands on knees, at this juncture in the season. These are 20 year old kids, the tired excuse is a cop out. I wonder about the conditioning. I was a college athlete. Coach drove us (players) out in his van, asked us to get out, gave us instructions, told us to run back to campus and drove off. We had to man up, it was a nice 13 mile run back, weeded out those who could not suck it up. I am not saying that is what Ollie should do exactly. But he needs to figure something out early in the season to get these kids to the point where a game is almost like a break compared to the practices (that is how I felt). Have these kids run hills until they are puking (I ran hills in high school, it is tough but works wonders). Take a page from Bellick, he does hill work outs, those players DON´T get tired. Any way, do something starting with next year, because there is no excuse to be gassed before the game is even close to being done in late February.

 

[Tommyboy]

I'm not buying into the tired excuse because plenty of teams run with short rotations, especially at this time of year. If we are either mentally or physically gassed, or both, at this point in the season, that's a conditioning deficiency.

That is exactly what it is. Not sure why many people seem to shy away from this topic or even demean those who so much as suggest it. But that is the big issue at this point of the season. There is no reason why anyone should be sucking wind, bending over, hands on knees, at this juncture in the season. These are 20 year old kids, the tired excuse is a cop out. I wonder about the conditioning. I was a college athlete. Coach drove us (players) out in his van, asked us to get out, gave us instructions, told us to run back to campus and drove off. We had to man up, it was a nice 13 mile run back, weeded out those who could not suck it up. I am not saying that is what Ollie should do exactly. But he needs to figure something out early in the season to get these kids to the point where a game is almost like a break compared to the practices (that is how I felt). Have these kids run hills until they are puking (I ran hills in high school, it is tough but works wonders). Take a page from Bellick, he does hill work outs, those players DON´T get tired. Any way, do something starting with next year, because there is no excuse to be gassed before the game is even close to being done in late February.

I agree with these for most of the guys, but I think Jalen is just drained physically and emotionally. He is literally asked to do everything with little to no breaks or our team falls apart. The other players have no excuse. For an example like SMU, they have a 7 man rotation but they all handle their business and do their jobs and no one player is asked to do as much as Jalen is.

 

[Travelman6]

I can forgive Jalen to an extent, and more for the mental factor. I hope this prepares him well for next year if he comes back (he should).

 

[mauconnfan]

Adams should be exhausted. Rodney is never tired. Vital is never tired. Vance is never tired. Kentan is never tired. Amida doesn't look tired to me all that often. Juwan and Steve have had injuries which could relate to decreased practice time and potentially less then stellar condition.

Not sure of the crazy out of shape talk is. They just aren't that good and have done really well with who they are and what they throw on the court.

 

[Jaker]

damned if you do, damned if you don't