Keys to Ville Game

[BFieldHusky]

Thoughts for tomorrow? Tough spot playing them on the road on senior day. Sometimes the emotion of senior day can hurt the home team, but most times it helps them. Ville has had our number for a couple of years. Really could use this win to boost our resume, and obviously help with our conference tournament seeding.

A lot of us focused on the officiating in the first game, but the other huge factor in the game was how badly we got outrebounded. If we had held our own on the boards, that would have been a 4-5 point game, rather than the double digit outcome. I am concerned as Hazzell has been playing like a beast lately, and we have struggled rebounding the ball the last couple of games.

Have to play solid D for 40 minutes, hold our own on the boards, limit turnovers (Ville lives off of this) and I think we need Daniels or Giffey to have a big game against their zone.

 

[upstater]

Have to play solid D for 40 minutes, hold our own on the boards, limit turnovers (Ville lives off of this) and I think we need Daniels or Giffey to have a big game against their zone.

The key will be efficiency and most of all toughness. UConn needs to make the most of its chances, perhaps slow it down, and then when the inevitable Louisville run comes, they can't wilt as they have in the past. They have to punch back finally. I'd like to see UConn come in sky-high for this game.

 

[tykurez]

They let Louisville control the tempo on Jan 18th. They were attacking all game, and UConn was on its heels.

The good news is that we've definitely improved our rebounding since then. The bad news is that they haven't had a chance to attack many zones since then ... and when teams do throw it at them they still get flummoxed by it (see UCF).

Add to the fact that Louisville has just plain had their number and it's senior night (well, day really) .... it's going to be a tall task.

The one saving grace - I've seen many a team stumble on senior night.

 

[Yonick]

One thing that HAS to happen, that DID NOT happen the last time we played is Daniels has to show up and at least get 12-14 points 6-7 rebounds, and a few blocks.

 

[AfgHusky15]

One word...BOARDS....when we out rebound our opponents we are undefeated

 

[tcf15]

Daniels has had this game circled on the calendar since the schedule was announced, as evidenced at 3:00 in this vid:


Hopefully we see good Daniels tomorrow.

 

[Huskies320]

Don't let Montrezl Harrell beat us

 

[Marat]

Yes rebound the ball, box out Hazzell and the others better, AB to have a dent in this game by serving as rim protector and rebounder, after missed offensive shots please get back quickly to defend transition baskets, and DD please close out the regular season like how you played against Georgetown last year and Memphis in game 1. It all starts with defense and as KO says "Ten Toes In" !

 

[Jerry1714]

Control Harrell, he is my biggest worry about them.

Also, not letting them shot 33 FTs again would be nice.

LVille did not even play well last time we played them, they shot terribly from 3 and from the the line and had a lot of TOs, which is scarey

 

[Marat]

I really want to send them to the ACC with a bad taste of UConn in their mouth.

Remember Boat ?

 

[Payday]

I really want to send them to the ACC with a bad taste of UConn in their mouth.

Remember Boat ?

So do fans throughout the conference...

 

[superjohn]

Harrell might be the toughest guy for us to matchup with in the country.

 

[huskiesNhoos]

Samuel And kromah should be used in this game. They have both been successful getting to the basket and could really open up some kick out looks for bazz giffey and boat

Edit: bazz and boat have been successful too, but have not looked to attack quite as much as Samuel/kromah

 

[HomeKing93]

One word...BOARDS....when we out rebound our opponents we are undefeated

Actually, we outbounded SMU at Gampel and we lost, but I get your point. I think that loss was more about us shooting under 30% from the floor.

We definitely cannot have a repeat of the rebounding effort vs. Louisville the first time if we have any chance to win.

 

[SirHypeAlot]

@Marat thought the same thing myself

 

[chapwilvaug72]

zone them sporadically

 

[sparky]

Hit the open shots, win the boards and increase their TO's while holding our's down .

 

[Palatine]

Harrell killed us. And he did a lot of it on open jumpers. We need to do a better of of making him work harder and contesting his shots.

Boxing him out might also be a good idea.

 

[caw]

There are a few things that are important in my opinion but the main thing is mentality. Napier and Boat need to attack. That was the difference in the first half of the last game. Smith and others on UL attacked and UConn shot. Not a bad idea when UConn is such a good shooting team but it's part of what lead to the foul discrepancy. When Napier and boat started attacking in the second half of the second half UL had a hard time containing them without fouling.

Second, don't miss cheap buckets. In particular the Daniels missed dunk and the Brimah missed alley opp really hurt UConn last game. The first seemed to kill Daniels confidence and UConns momentum. The second allowed UL to extend the lead to 7 instead of cutting it to 3, from my memory.

Third, composure. I thought it was good aside from Ollie's Ts and the 5 minutes after, for most of the team. Daniels was way too jacked up though from the start.

Fourth rebounding. Having Daniels available (hopefully no foul trouble) should help here but honestly this isn't a huge concern of mine. UL will likely win this battle, UConn just needs to try and limit the difference.

Fifth, hope Harrell isn't hitting jumpers. He hit a few shots last game that are/were not in his scouting report.

 

[Vuce]

Most everyone outside of this board will expect Louisville to win this one. Hopefully the guys play loose and let it flow. A loss won't kill us but a win would do wonders. I feel like Uconn doesnt have much pressure on them in this one.

 

[mcs333]

First and foremost protect the ball. Ville is 3rd in the nation forcing to's. They also ave. ten steals a game. They had 17 steals against SMU and forced 23 to's. SMU shot51% but they turned it over too much. We ave. ten to's a game. Need to be around that #.

Limit O boards. Ville get an O board 36.5% of the time. We need to keep that % under 30.

They have two weaknesses, they foul a lot, 20 per game because of their assertiveness. Need to get them in foul trouble. Also they are not a VGA foul shooting team.

Limit their three point baskets. They ave. 8 per game. They had 13 against SMU.

Finally we need to make shots. We were better last game but we still need to shoot around 50%.

 

[housekeys]

Samuel And kromah should be used in this game. They have both been successful getting to the basket and could really open up some kick out looks for bazz giffey and boat

Edit: bazz and boat have been successful too, but have not looked to attack quite as much as Samuel/kromah

Agree about Samual and Kromah, but for different reasons. If we are going to match their "toughness" we need to play defense the way they do. They defend to the point of fouling and if we are to do the same, it can not be Napier or RB doing it. We will need lots of bodies that are willing to mix it up on defense. No matter what, we need to be aggressive on offense and defense. If we lose, let it be because we had 3 of our guys foul out, not because we made only a 3 trips to the foul line.

 

[Danzz]

W

One word...BOARDS....when we out rebound our opponents we are undefeated

We don't have to necessarily outrebound them, we just can't get overwhelmed on the boards. If we can keep the boards close or have an advantage I like our chances. I would also like to see Kromah on Smith. Defense will be the key for us both on the boards and on the perimeter.
We really need a great effort from DD for the entire game and keep the turnovers to a minimum.

 

[Strummer]

Boneyard man love for Giffey at all time high.

He goes for 5 threes.

We win on last second shot by Boatright.

Daniels throws down a monster dunk in traffic along the way.

Fan rushes the court to get in Ollie's face and K Free throws him over the scorer's table.

Omar hits his first shot attempt. Smiles broadly.

The run begins.

 

[Senore]

I think you guys need Daniels to step up. He hasn't played well against UofL that I can remember. He tempts with a classy 3 or a good drive, then he has seemed to disappear against us. Boat, Bazz -giffey - these guys always bring it. It could be a good time to catch us.