Memphis Post Game Thread

[Hunt for 7]

Is Liam going to be our vocal leader?

He looked a lot like Cam out there ripping into Samson telling him to be accountable and urging guys on in the huddle.

Yes it looked like that. He definitely had that assassin look to him late in the game. He is not going to shy away from big moments.

 

[mauconnfan]

I really remembered Mahaney being bigger and more athletic at St. Mary’s. Worried he will get exposed in the big east - got abused by Hunter

Everyone got abused by Hunter, he was 7-10 from 3, he made Diarra look silly a couple times he was playing out of his butt.

 

[UConnSwag11]

Singare needs to get Johnson’s minutes

 

[mauconnfan]

The quality won't be too bad. We'll get Colorado or MSU, which is a wash, basically, and then we could get either Auburn or ISU, another wash.

My fear is that this is another 2006, where we have a massively talented team with one unfixable Achilles heel. In 06, it was Marcus being the only ball handler. This year, unless Nowell can be the fix, we're going to have trouble with our perimeter D, and that's just how it's going to be. We're not big enough to guard big guards, and we're not quick enough to guard quick guards. We may be able to overcome this if Mahaney's offense balances out his D, but that's not happening yet.

Start Hassan, Solo, Stewart, AK and Reed tomorrow. Love McNeeley, but show Jaylin how much you appreciate the effort.

They didn’t do much of that after the first half. Not sure why Stewie didn’t play more 2nd half and OT, puzzling.

 

[bendm]

and Hurley has talked about Ross possibly being able to play point

Please no

 

[uconnfan68]

I really remembered Mahaney being bigger and more athletic at St. Mary’s. Worried he will get exposed in the big east - got abused by Hunter

Will Hunter go 7-10 from 3 again this year?

 

[SYF75]

With one starter returning this year and the rest contributors, some at times last year, losing 2 lotteries and a clutch vet of all clutch vet guards, I hate the loss but they'll be right in it all year. Samson Johnson will be great with the 1-2 punch of Reed, never thought Johnson would be the starter I think he was getting the benefit, but they got Reed for a reason. Hurley is who he is, time to make a point and back your kids is now. Long season and they'll take some lumps but great show today vs. a really good team.

 

[uchusky32]

We need better screening or screeners. The motion wasn't smooth most of the game.

 

[Brochacho]

Will Hunter go 7-10 from 3 again this year?

Does he get to play against Mahaney again?

 

[uchusky32]

Stew 5 rebounds 16 minutes. Ncneely 4 in 31. That can't stand going forward.

 

[Scoe]

I’d love for someone like Borges to dig into this to get details. If it really was said in a huddle at not a high volume and in a demonstrable way to show up the refs, boy…

I missed the 1st half what point of the game was it. isnt a ref supposed to give a team its space then go toward the huddle when it’s time to get back onto the court kind of like an ump breaking up a mound visit.

Just so confused what a trainer could say to draw a T. Refs do need to be held accountable for being unprofessional and yes Hurley needs to be held accountable as well.

 

[navery12]

After reading the first page I'm not sure I want to read the next 17. These overreactions are crazy

 

[Candyman]

Does he get to play against Mahaney again?

Terrible take. He was killing diarra and Ball.

 

[TheHorde]

I missed the 1st half what point of the game was it. isnt a ref supposed to give a team its space then go toward the huddle when it’s time to get back onto the court kind of like an ump breaking up a mound visit.

Just so confused what a trainer could say to draw a T. Refs do need to be held accountable for being unprofessional and yes Hurley needs to be held accountable as well.

I was following most of the first half online so I wasn’t even watching the ESPN feed when it happened.

 

[bigknight3]

Ah, the old "is a loss a good thing" argument. No, it's not.

Jim didn't make that argument Trumbull...

The outcome wasn't good but it will in fact make the team tougher.

 

[uconnfan68]

Does he get to play against Mahaney again?

I’d watch.

 

[Drame]

The refs blessed us by giving out a double technical on the Samson push and Hurley rewards them by ripping into them for a 50/50 over the back call on McNeeley.

People can only take so much and he argues EVERY call. This game was not on the refs.

Wasnt a 50/50 call at all. The memphis guy was just backing up undercutting McNeeley when he jumped. He wasnt in position either, just sliding right.

 

[DogMania]

Wow! 17 pages and counting. Here's my recap:

As I said during the chat, playing underwhelming competition leading up to this game is probably the primary reason they lost. They simply weren't prepared to play against the team as athletic, physical and skilled as Memphis.

Hurley is a great coach, but drawing that technical in that situation still shows a certain level of immaturity that he needs to grow out of. Who knows what the outcome would have been if he showed restraint? It did look like McNeeley bullied through the smaller rebounder before grabbing the rebound over him, but in many cases that level of physicality is not called. I wish the refs would have swallowed the whistle on many of the physical body contact throughout the game.

The officiating was pretty bad and tilted somewhat in Memphis's favor, but good teams know how to overcome that. This team will learn. UConn got into early and late foul trouble due to some questionable calls, but there were a lot where they just couldn't defend drives into the paint without fouling.

Mahaney was clearly a defensive liability out there. He also continues to process too slowly in the half court motion offense and needs to learn to be more decisive. With that said, his teammates were not exactly executing the half court sharply as they needed, to presenting good opportunities to receive the ball. Diarra was impacted by the same issue. Placing a lot of blame on those two guards in my opinion is a little harsh. Though if Hurley had a big physical guard who could handle the ball, that would have played well against an aggressive team like Memphis. They will need to figure this out or other teams will try to disrupt our half court offense by being aggressive on the ball.

I'm not surprised by the outcome. It reminded me of our first Big East game last year where they simply weren't prepared for it. And that season turned out pretty good. There are definitely a few weaknesses that they need to learn to overcome, but they certainly have a lot of talent where they can make up for it.

 

[Hunt for 7]

The person who learns the most from this might be Hurley. He knows he is right especially about the call on Liam, and I also think the call on Ball was wrong. He was vertical and the offensive player used his elbow to create space. It was way more vicious than the call against Reed.

It’s probably better that it happened early in the year. I think if Memphis plays like this they will be a top 40 KenPom team. So now Hurley will scale it back, Andrea will probably tell him it was not the best look for him today.

I think change has to come with the territory. He is the top tier now….he can scale back the on court dramatics because of who he has become. He just needs to figure out how to use the gravitas he has to command in a better way.

I think JC got away with it more because you never knew if he was yelling or mad about the refs or the players. He equally distributed his anger between the two so the refs had to pause to see who he was really directing the rage.

With Danny there is no guess work.

 

[Drame]

Well, the definition of "in the cylinder" changed from when it was called as a foul against Reed.

Hmmmm, what was the difference? The color of the jersey?

The difference was the initial call. Refs werent gonna change it.

 

[navery12]

I have no idea who should start at PG, but at this point I think Mahaney needs to be an off ball guard who comes off the bench. It's best for him to just come in for short spurts and be able to hunt shots. Time for a change there, otherwise nothing I thought before this game changed from that performance

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Wasnt a 50/50 call at all. The memphis guy was just backing up undercutting McNeeley when he jumped. He wasnt in position either, just sliding right.

I probably missed it then and have to go back and rewatch. Regardless the refs just did him a favor by calling that double tech and not allowing Memphis to get easy points.

He has to learn to pick his spots. As a championship coach the refs have been SUPER lenient with him this year so he has a lot of cache with them. But he has to learn to use it better. Because they are listening to him.

 

[bendm]

. I think if Memphis plays like this they will be a top 40 KenPom team.

They’re already top 30 if they keep playing like this they’ll be ranked all year and win the AAC easily

 

[uconngb]

I think he was saying he had hoped "bad Hurley" had retired.

Correct. In no way am I trying to run him out of town.

 

[Kitaman]

Wow! 17 pages and counting. Here's my recap:

As I said during the chat, playing underwhelming competition leading up to this game is probably the primary reason they lost. They simply weren't prepared to play against the team as athletic, physical and skilled as Memphis.

Hurley is a great coach, but drawing that technical in that situation still shows a certain level of immaturity that he needs to grow out of. Who knows what the outcome would have been if he showed restraint? It did look like McNeeley bullied through the smaller rebounder before grabbing the rebound over him, but in many cases that level of physicality is not called. I wish the refs would have swallowed the whistle on many of the physical body contact throughout the game.

The officiating was pretty bad and tilted somewhat in Memphis's favor, but good teams know how to overcome that. This team will learn. UConn got into early and late foul trouble due to some questionable calls, but there were a lot where they just couldn't defend drives into the paint without fouling.

Mahaney was clearly a defensive liability out there. He also continues to process too slowly in the half court motion offense and needs to learn to be more decisive. With that said, his teammates were not exactly executing the half court sharply as they needed, to presenting good opportunities to receive the ball. Diarra was impacted by the same issue. Placing a lot of blame on those two guards in my opinion is a little harsh. Though if Hurley had a big physical guard who could handle the ball, that would have played well against an aggressive team like Memphis. They will need to figure this out or other teams will try to disrupt our half court offense by being aggressive on the ball.

I'm not surprised by the outcome. It reminded me of our first Big East game last year where they simply weren't prepared for it. And that season turned out pretty good. There are definitely a few weaknesses that they need to learn to overcome, but they certainly have a lot of talent where they can make up for it.

I remember the days when your posts were a whole page. Your age is showing.