Late Game Management

[I Bleed Blue]

We don't have enough good guards. When you play Martin/Ajax at 2G this much you don't have enough at the moment. Hawkins is the answer to that clearly but until he earns end of game trust we will continue to struggle. Where we really struggle is not having a trustworthy second ball handler or creator. Diggins or Gaffney. One has to step up. Cole has a lot on his plate. Foul trouble or injury from Cole puts us in a real bad spot.

I think we need to give Diggins and Hawkins and Samson Johnson some real run in the upcoming games. Let the talent loose.

Gaffney’s gotta step up on make way. Samson needs to be ready to play and push Akok when he’s not feeling it. He’s be mostly invisible the last couple games.

 

[UncleSpliff]

The last possession by Gaffney was ghastly. That’s the best we could do down 3 with 20 seconds left???

 

[gsmooth]

Honestly they should’ve gone to the hole immediately for 2 and crashed the boards for the put back. Polley want going to be allowed to shoot by izzo and sanogo wasn’t getting it in deep easily. Have a better plan than a guard who wasn’t playing well dribbling around aimlessly. Painful play calling. Did Jason Garrett get in the huddle?

Maybe Jason did. He wasn't there for the entire game, though. If he was, UConn wouldn't have broke 30 pts the entire game. You know the Giants have only broken 30 pts once since he became the offensive coordinator? Someone feel free to verify that.

 

[Horatio]

We don't have enough good guards. When you play Martin/Ajax at 2G this much you don't have enough at the moment. Hawkins is the answer to that clearly but until he earns end of game trust we will continue to struggle. Where we really struggle is not having a trustworthy second ball handler or creator. Diggins or Gaffney. One has to step up. Cole has a lot on his plate. Foul trouble or injury from Cole puts us in a real bad spot.

I agree. Hawkins, Diggins and even Gaffney and Jackson are gonna get fixed in the regular season with conference reps. You can’t correct much in a short tournament with this level of competition.

 

[UCfor3]

I think we need to give Diggins and Hawkins and Samson Johnson some real run in the upcoming games. Let the talent loose.

Gaffney’s gotta step up on make way. Samson needs to be ready to play and push Akok when he’s not feeling it. He’s be mostly invisible the last couple games.

Clearly Akok struggles with inside physicality. Not having Whaley today really stung.

 

[TeasedDonut]

Yes. Because he hasn't cracked the rotation by game 6 on a very deep team he clearly brought Diggins here to just sit on the bench for 4 years

The point is that right now is the time for him to crack the rotation.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Dan Hurley: a 7 point lead is already a 4 point deficit

 

[superjohn]

The last possession by Gaffney was ghastly. That’s the best we could do down 3 with 20 seconds left???

He's not a point guard, Diggins is. Going to have to develop him by giving him minutes.

 

[UConnStats]

Bright side is that we are clearly really good. This was us playing poorly. A few years ago that meant getting blown out by 40 by Arkansas. Little thanksgiving perspective. Booze time. Cheers everyone

 

[JMick]

Bright side is that we are clearly really good. This was us playing poorly. A few years ago that meant getting blown out by 40 by Arkansas. Little thanksgiving perspective. Booze time. Cheers everyone

We are really good. Only makes a loss like this more frustrating. It was a lot of factors that went into the loss today, but we're going to be fine.

 

[buddy]

Coaching cannot be blamed for errors like stepping out of bounds when shooting, unnecessary fouling, but the coaches line up combinations are questionable and as previously stated, poor late game management. I do believe however that this game was handed to MSU by the officiating crew. No question.

 

[UCfor3]

I wanted this one. If we lost to Baylor in the finals it wouldn't have bothered me much with 2 goood wins in the vault. Need to beat VCU tomorrow(assuming they lose). 1-2 would be a major letdown after yesterday.

 

[aburks41]

I wanted this one. If we lost to Baylor in the finals it wouldn't have bothered me much with 2 goood wins in the vault. Need to beat VCU tomorrow(assuming they lose). 1-2 would be a major letdown after yesterday.

Cannot come out flat tomorrow against a bad VCU team. We need to beat them by 20 and stay in the top 25

 

[LIuconn]

How did Hurley's URI teams perform in close games down the stretch?

 

[jibsey]

What about screening for Polley or Hawk? Guys who can make shots.

 

[karstenkibbe]

What about screening for Polley or Hawk? Guys who can make shots.

We aren’t ineffective. We simply don’t do it. No hard, clean screens for our shooters. No screen and roll for our bigs. I think the offensive output yesterday was a bit smoke and mirrors compared to reality.

Anyone else notice our (nonexistent) offensive sets coming out of second half timeouts?

 

[UCfor3]

Going to have to make Hawkins a much bigger part of the offense and going to have to play Diggins for us to reach our potential.

100% spot on. Deferring to experienced players only make sense if they are playing like experienced players and not blowing leads at the end of games. If we are gonna do that anyway we might as well live or die with the upside of youth at some point.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Turning point for me was Jackson at the line with 1:41 to go up 4. Makes the first ft to go up 5 but misses the second however Mich St gets called for a lane violation so he gets to retake. Misses the 2nd again and Sanogo fouls Marble while going for the rebound giving Mich St a 1&1 while taking just 1 second off the clock.
If Jackson makes either of those 2nd free throw attempts OR Sanogo doesnt foul and Mich St is forced to play a full possession on offense, I think we still win the game

Exactly this.

Even if MSU scores on the other end, we're up 3-4 with about 1:20 on the clock and can take it under a minute.

Most likely scenario is MSU has to foul, or at worst we get a last shot at the win in regulation.

 

[MTBingNinja]

Awful. Awful awful awful. Hurley will never be a complete coach until he learns how to close games out. We have the guys to do it this year. He simply doesn’t know what to run to close them out.

Frustrating. Hurley is turning into the Aaron Boone of late game decision making. I was hoping Murray was going to add his Xs and Os to resolve this chronic issue.

 

[jimva]

I think Hurley did a great job. I think we lost because Whaley was out. Everyone one else, except Gaffney played great.

To all the Hawkins should be starting - STOP!

He will be a great UCONN player in the end. This was his third game. Tons of potential, but he needs to earn Hurley’s trust. That is a time thing not an ability thing. It will happen. If he keeps on current trajectory I think he will be a +/- 30 min a guy come January.

 

[Conndog]

For the life of me, stop giving Sanogo the ball with <10 seconds on the shot clock when he’s 10 feet from the basket. Or teach him to pass.

How about take Sanogo out period if it’s close and crunch time? Having Polley, Hawkins, Martin, AJ, and Cole gives us plenty of firepower and good free throw shooting. If you need height and interior defense, sub Whaley for anyone other than Cole. Maybe we close out the game and Sanogo will get the message too.

 

[Ctedgeman]

Great point about sanogo's foul on the free throw. That was the game right there for me. Gave MSU 2 free points and no time off the clock.

Today we had what I will just call CV-itis (I love CV by the way). The guys who were keeping us in the game are the same ones who made bonehead plays at the worst possible times. Frustrating...

 

[bmayuc]

Remember when we were struggling in the crunch with CV, and freshman bouk became our crunch time guy?

Just saying if hurley doesn't improve in situational coaching we could give hawk the ball. At least he will get a quality look.

 

[rcarj]

I'm all for giving Hawkins minutes but he wasn't exactly playing great today either

He can create more offense than polley. Polley is fine, but can’t create his own shot.

 

[gtcam]

There’s no way we should have lost that game. I wanted the Baylor test bad. Michigan state sucks this year and they beat us ugggh.

First - MSU doesn't suck and Izzo took Dan Hurley to the shed in the final minutes
This team will not be successful against the better teams on their schedule if they continually throw the ball to Sanago who decides that it is he and only he that will play hero ball and throw up prayers from 10 to 15 feet with 3 players collapsed on him. It's an absolute shame that Sanogo either can't or won't take a look and see what two players are open when that happens. How Dan Hurley can watch that and not address it is beyond belief.
The team needs a 3 pt basket and Hawkins is nailed to the bench - he may not have had a good shooting day but he and Polley are the only 2 capable of hitting a shot under pressure.
To be outscored the way they did at the end is embarrassing. Screw the stupid shirts that say the cumulative time of the Creighton NBE tourney loss and Maryland loss - thats on Bouk in my mind, The final 2 minutes of this debacle is a huge dark moment. I will say it again - Dan Hurley needs an established D1 coach as a mentor to help him deal with the pressure of big games and how to coach with a clear mind during these times. He won't make it if he continues on this path.
RJ Cole needed some relief today and Gaff gave him little and using Martin as a point guard isn't the answer. Rahsool never saw the floor - thats BS - he couldn't have been worse than Gaff
Speaking of Martin - what a ticker that kid has - thank God he played today
The officiating all tournament has been horrible in all the games. That outside ref had no business making that call on RJ but that isn't what cost UConn the game.
Tomorrow is another day - UConn should beat VCU but if they aren't ready that team will run them off the floor

 

[the Q]

It’s clear the guards really aren’t going to create their own shot if they can’t get a straight line drive to the lane.

Something that worked really well has been Martin posting up a guard like Bonzi wells in the late 90s.

Might go to that at this point

 

[Improviser]

Unless Akok

First - MSU doesn't suck and Izzo took Dan Hurley to the shed in the final minutes
This team will not be successful against the better teams on their schedule if they continually throw the ball to Sanago who decides that it is he and only he that will play hero ball and throw up prayers from 10 to 15 feet with 3 players collapsed on him. It's an absolute shame that Sanogo either can't or won't take a look and see what two players are open when that happens. How Dan Hurley can watch that and not address it is beyond belief.
The team needs a 3 pt basket and Hawkins is nailed to the bench - he may not have had a good shooting day but he and Polley are the only 2 capable of hitting a shot under pressure.
To be outscored the way they did at the end is embarrassing. Screw the stupid shirts that say the cumulative time of the Creighton NBE tourney loss and Maryland loss - thats on Bouk in my mind, The final 2 minutes of this debacle is a huge dark moment. I will say it again - Dan Hurley needs an established D1 coach as a mentor to help him deal with the pressure of big games and how to coach with a clear mind during these times. He won't make it if he continues on this path.
RJ Cole needed some relief today and Gaff gave him little and using Martin as a point guard isn't the answer. Rahsool never saw the floor - thats BS - he couldn't have been worse than Gaff
Speaking of Martin - what a ticker that kid has - thank God he played today
The officiating all tournament has been horrible in all the games. That outside ref had no business making that call on RJ but that isn't what cost UConn the game.
Tomorrow is another day - UConn should beat VCU but if they aren't ready that team will run them off the floor

The only D1 coach as mentor I can think of is Jim Calhoun. Do you think Hurley would have him sitting on the bench and would JC do that? You do need in game presence for this idea to work. If JC would agree, it would be an interesting. Calhoun had Blaney. Would Hurley want Calhoun?

Otherwise, do you pay Larry Brown or Pete Gillen or some retired coach?

I don't think Seth Greenberg would leave the studio.

 

[uconngb]

Unless Akok

The only D1 coach as mentor I can think of is Jim Calhoun. Do you think Hurley would have him sitting on the bench and would JC do that? You do need in game presence for this idea to work. If JC would agree, it would be an interesting. Calhoun had Blaney. Would Hurley want Calhoun?

Otherwise, do you pay Larry Brown or Pete Gillen or some retired coach?

I don't think Seth Greenberg would leave the studio.

Larry Brown already filling that role for Penny. JC would be interesting. Hurley needs something. He’s really, really bad in end of game situations.

 

[huskyfan224]

A lot of this is frustrating and avoidable for sure. However, I don’t care what people will say, Hurley doesn’t make them miss bunny after after bunny after bunny after bunny. It was hilarious watching how many point blank misses occurred that changed momentum throughout the entire game


Like dude, make a layup, you are a Division 1 basketball player

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Honestly they should’ve gone to the hole immediately for 2 and crashed the boards for the put back. Polley want going to be allowed to shoot by izzo and sanogo wasn’t getting it in deep easily. Have a better plan than a guard who wasn’t playing well dribbling around aimlessly. Painful play calling. Did Jason Garrett get in the huddle?

End of the first half play was poor.

And the inbounds play with 10 seconds left on the click was poor.

This is a clear weakness. Things start too late, and aren't even tied into a well-called play.

It's of my greatest frustrations as a UConn fan, not just w/Hurley.