Maybe the loss helps | The Boneyard

Maybe the loss helps

uconnbill

uconnbill

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I may be pushing it by saying this, but they seemed very confident coming into the game and maybe this helps in some way heading into next weekend. Don't hang me for this take on the team and the game

Go Huskies
 
I don't know. I had a good feeling heading into this game. Creighton is just a little too tough for us. If you are saying this loss humbles us in some way and makes us refocus and work on things to get better, then yes I agree. But, you could have also made the case if we won tonight and won the tournament itself, It is good momentum heading into the NCAA Tournament. Historically, whenever we won the Big East Tournament, it led to a pretty deep run in the NCAA Tournament. Three out of our four National Championships started with a conference tournament championship. Thats no coincidence because that was always a way to see how well we were playing in March and It also gave us the confidence and experience for the big dance.
 
I think the team is still pretty green in some areas that the seniors can’t exactly make up for. We saw it tonight. They can still play with anyone, but just stinks to see a winnable game turn into a painful loss. Creighton at its best is a damn good team.
 
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CardiacAndre7 said:
Definitely knocks our fans down a peg. We were far too confident.
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I didn’t see any fan over confident about creighton. We were all expecting a tough, hard fought, classic game
 
uconnbill said:
I may be pushing it by saying this, but they seemed very confident coming into the game and maybe this helps in some way heading into next weekend. Don't hang me for this take on the team and the game

Go Huskies
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Had some similar thoughts. I also thought some things were coming a bit too easy as of late. Maybe a bit of fools gold. As far as your questiclon is concerned. Not sure if the loss helps us or not. Good thing is, we don't have to wait long to find out.

This game and the Nova should be a lesson for Bouk. Not just in his remaining UCONN career. He's gotta get more aggressive. Force contact. To be honest, I'm not sure if that's easily learned. It seems like the most aggressive players were born with the ability (I'm sure that's not true, just seems that way).

I did like that Bouk attacked a bit more in the 2nd half. Sometimes he wasn't effective, but I still appreciated the effort.
 
CardiacAndre7 said:
You serious? So many of you guys were saying we deserve a 4 seed, no one wants to play us, this is ours to lose yada yada yada. Noticed it after the G’Town game and continued through the Depaul game.
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Saying we deserve a 4 seed has nothing to do with over confidence, it’s true no top seed wants to see us in their bracket, and who said it was ours to lose? Lmao. All I heard and seen was that tonight was the real championship game. And it was
 
AntG168 said:
Saying we deserve a 4 seed has nothing to do with over confidence, it’s true no top seed wants to see us in their bracket, and who said it was ours to lose? Lmao. All I heard and seen was that tonight was the real championship game. And it was
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Well it does because we don’t and certainly didn’t deserve a 4 seed. We propped up our resume on big wins vs borderline okay teams. We’re 1-4 vs tournament teams. And no, tonight was not the real championship game.
 
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CardiacAndre7 said:
Well it does because we don’t and certainly didn’t deserve a 4 seed. We propped up our resume on big wins vs borderline okay teams. We’re 1-4 vs tournament teams. And no, tonight was not the real championship game.
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Technically no. But quality of team wise? Absolutely. Seeding is based upon opinion. Nobody assumed we were beating Creighton. It just isn’t true. And if you’re speaking on one person, then that isn’t enough to make a broad statement on the fanbase. Everyone knew Creighton would be a war
 
AntG168 said:
Technically no. But quality of team wise? Absolutely. Seeding is based upon opinion. Nobody assumed we were beating Creighton. It just isn’t true. And if you’re speaking on one person, then that isn’t enough to make a broad statement on the fanbase. Everyone knew Creighton would be a war
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I’m not sure what you mean quality of team wise. You don’t get seeded on talent.
 
CardiacAndre7 said:
I’m not sure what you mean quality of team wise. You don’t get seeded on talent.
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Quality of team in regards to tonight being the real championship game. Creighton is going to beat GTown tomorrow as we would have. We’re just significantly better teams than Georgetown
 
They hopefully learn from this. Figuring out what went wrong on the boards should be interesting. Dan Hurley needs to have the “son” talk with Bouk. If he wants to be great, then he needs to shoulder that burden, and it starts with body language and leadership attitude. He can’t pout and hang is head. Bad for the team.
 
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This loss doesn’t help us at all. A win could have helped to dispel the notion that we can’t beat good / ranked teams. Unfortunately it played out like so many others against good competition the past few years.... close by not quite good enough. Hurley is going to need to start winning some of these games... next year will be his 4th year and I believe he’s 3-13 against ranked teams and I’m sure it’s much worse vs RPI top 50.
 
uconnbill said:
I may be pushing it by saying this, but they seemed very confident coming into the game and maybe this helps in some way heading into next weekend. Don't hang me for this take on the team and the game

Go Huskies
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My feelings exactly. This team needs to learn what it means to play hard for a full 40 minutes and not let down. They let Creighton back into the game.

Creighton are a solid good team that you have to beat; they will not beat themselves.

It's a bit late but if they learn this than hopefully we can see UConn playing past the first weekend of the NCAA tournament.
 
Loss gives Dan Hurley material to use for the "chip on the shoulder" vibe going into the Big Dance.

Learn from your mistakes and move on.
 
UncleSpliff said:
This loss doesn’t help us at all. A win could have helped to dispel the notion that we can’t beat good / ranked teams. Unfortunately it played out like so many others against good competition the past few years.... close by not quite good enough. Hurley is going to need to start winning some of these games... next year will be his 4th year and I believe he’s 3-13 against ranked teams and I’m sure it’s much worse vs RPI top 50.
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That is a what I see. Hurley still can’t figure out how to win big games. Was Hurley terrible last night? No. Did he make mind blowing adjustments to counter Creighton? No. In fact he left the B team on the floor at a critical stretch, probably sat Adama way too long when he was the only guy who could score reliably inside, was getting killed on the boards and never went double bigs, didn’t put a leash on Gaffney went Cole went down, and probably (debatable) should have extended the game much earlier to get more possessions with a stone cold team. This outcome is a repeating narrative against quality teams. I hope he gets over the hump. Don’t become the Cincy Leprechaun.
 
Team isn’t far off from being a great team, they need to take a course in clutchology. Destiny and UConn mystique means nothing if you beat yourself.
 
I think the loss may reshape expectations to a lesser achievement level and the team may try to over achieve those, which could be a good thing. National talking heads and UConn twitter/social media were just over hyping us and I think it got to the players a bit. A reset may be what they need to come out hungry next week, but so damn excited to be dancing again!
 
.-.
NDakotaHusky said:
Had some similar thoughts. I also thought some things were coming a bit too easy as of late. Maybe a bit of fools gold. As far as your questiclon is concerned. Not sure if the loss helps us or not. Good thing is, we don't have to wait long to find out.

This game and the Nova should be a lesson for Bouk. Not just in his remaining UCONN career. He's gotta get more aggressive. Force contact. To be honest, I'm not sure if that's easily learned. It seems like the most aggressive players were born with the ability (I'm sure that's not true, just seems that way).

I did like that Bouk attacked a bit more in the 2nd half. Sometimes he wasn't effective, but I still appreciated the effort.
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Bouk should be glued to the film room watching Immanuel Quickley tape and the guys ability to draw fouls and get to the line
 
dogpause said:
Creighton really impressed me. They have an almost professional demeanor in the way they play -- very poised, and very disciplined.
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Agreed. They were pretty locked in from the start. Even when we were up 11 early and they couldn't buy a shot, I noticed how patient and disciplined they were. And their players, especially Zegarowski, were looking up at the scoreboard after every possession to keep an eye on where they stood and what they needed to do at that moment.

It was almost like our team, like the media and much of our fan base, expected to waltz in to a coronation for our rightful place atop the Big East in our first season "back," and they failed to appreciate that Creighton has been to the finals of the BET for the last three years in a row. They simply wanted it more than we did and they already appreciated that you don't get wins handed to you at this time of year; you have to take them.
 
Kemba'sYogurt said:
I think the team is still pretty green in some areas that the seniors can’t exactly make up for. We saw it tonight. They can still play with anyone, but just stinks to see a winnable game turn into a painful loss. Creighton at its best is a damn good team.
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The elephant in the room is that wasn’t Creightons best effort. They left a lot of points at the stripe and behind the arc. Some was our defense sure but they also missed some wide open looks from guys who typically shoot better.


The good news is that was a C game by our new standard. A lot went wrong. Adama’s foul trouble was a major factor and imo self inflicted. I disagree with some who think the calls on him were wrong. He bulled into Mahaney on that moving screen call. Losing our PG in winning time is a big deal and primarily on the defensive end. Z went to work on Gaffney. That was game planned.

Creighton is a tough matchup because they do the things we do well just as well. They are big athletic play tough D and go after the ball.

They sent three defenders at Bouknight when he got the ball at the top of the key. In a tournament format teams won’t have time to scheme that.

I’m melancholoy this morning because a BET win in our reunion year would have been special, but I’m not discouraged. Let’s see what matchups we draw.
 
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