Memphis Post Game Thread

[G0UCONN]

Great game in many ways. Would have been unforgettable win. A few thoughts.

1. Reed is playing like one of the best centers in the country. Similar game to Sanogo on offense. Him and Johnson as a combo will be terrific (once Samson settles in).

2. Mahaney will be fine on O as we go. Bigger worry is the D. Memphis took it at him and he couldn't handle their athleticism. Still like Diarra more off the bench.

3. We showed great guts coming back down 13 with 4 minutes to go. As did Memphis in OVT down 4 and without their best player.

4. The Ts were a killer and can't have them. That said, not over the back by McNeeley. A great offensive rebound.

5. Memphis overall deserved the win as outplayed us most of the game but this falls under the "good loss" category.

In Hurley I trust. Next game....

 

[uconngb]

Great game in many ways. Would have been unforgettable win. A few thoughts.

1. Reed is playing like one of the best centers in the country. Him and Johnson as a combo will be terrific (once Samson settles in).

2. Mahaney will be fine on O as we go. Bigger worry is the D. Memphis took it at him and he couldn't handle their athleticism. Still like Diarra more off the bench.

3. We showed great guts coming back down 13 with 4 minutes to go. As did Memphis in OVT down 4 and without their best player.

4. The Ts were a killer and can't have them. That said, not over the back by McNeeley. A great offensive rebound.

5. Memphis overall deserved the win as outplayed us most of the game but this falls under the "good loss" category.

In Hurley I trust. Next game....

Holy optimism…are you lost??

 

[G0UCONN]

Holy optimism…are you lost??

Never panic in mid November. Especially with this staff, what this staff has proven, and the obvious talent and depth....

 

[DogMania]

I’m starting to wonder if the staff over indexed on elite “processing” with Mahaney at the sake of physical tools. You can’t teach size, speed and physicality, all of which he’s showing a severe shortage in competing with better athletes. People keep talking about TNewt needing a year to figure it out, yet fail to recognize he had plus physical traits for his position. The only way Mahaney becomes a net positive and not a liability is if he demonstrates intangibles that overcome the physical shortages. I honestly don’t know how they make it work.

I too am starting to wonder if they mis-evaluated Mahaney's skill (and lack of) set. He doesn't process things quick enough, is not strong enough or quick enough on offense to be an effective lead guard. He's a terrible defender, clear liability on that end of the floor. He can't get the minutes he's getting if that's what he's going to bring to the table most games. But what is the alternative?

Hass is best suited as an off the bench change of pace, though when he plays his best, he's an important contributor. And of course he can't play 40 minutes.

I think Mahaney is best suited in the Joey Cal role, but Hurley and the staff seemed to have brought him in for a role he's not suited for. I don't remember what other lead/combo guards were in the portal, but they would have been better off with a more physical one that could defend, handle, pass and drive the paint.

Some might wonder if they should have taken Koby Brea, but he's not a lead guard, albeit a prolific scorer. He would not have provided what UConn needs.

So what can they do? Either continue to put Aidan out there and try to develop him, or see what Nowell can do once he's healthy, and use Mahaney more in that Joey Cal role till he proves himself. Maybe mix Ross in as a big lead guard since he can handle it well. He certainly wouldn't defend a guard any worse than Aidan.

I really don't know what the answer is when we face teams with athletic guards. It's clear so far that Mahaney is a liability that must get better. It probably won't help him this season, but he needs to hit the weight room hard and get stronger, and needs a lot of work on his balance and foot work to improve his quickness and lateral movement. I watched him closely, and he's extremely bad at reversing direction once he's moving the other way. He is what he is, but can get better, but doubt he will improve enough in those areas for this season.

It's likely their best option is try to coach him up as best they can and provide better help (hedge defense was not good today) for him on D. Just no real answer when teams isolate a more athletic guard on him that drive right by him.

Don't we have an open 2024/25 scholarship? Any available mid-season ready to play Euro lead guards out there? . I'm kidding...well sort of.

 

[temery]

This long-held argument that constantly challenging the refs pays dividends in the long run is possibly the dumbest thing that keeps getting repeated here.

 

[uconnbill]

Love the way they fought back but they need to finish. Yes the call stunk butt thats happens at times.

 

[AidanFan20]

This long-held argument that constantly challenging the refs pays dividends in the long run is possibly the dumbest thing that keeps getting repeated here.

It's a fine line... Coaches have to "work the refs", but if they do it CONSTANTLY, said refs start ignoring said coach and maybe even turning on him.

Same goes for players and fans. Sometimes you just have to COOL it.

Living in the Bay Area, I watch Warriors games on the tube, and am always going, "Draymond, chill out!"

 

[auror]

Final question to Dan Hurley was why didn't Stewart play more in 2nd half

at 8:15 He said he looked "out of rhythm" and "skittish" (twice) in 2nd half

I didn't see that

Also, I dont think anyone mentioned him playing 2-3 in OT. I'm assuming it was to protect Samson and foul trouble in general. It was interesting though

He was in the game when Memphis went on their run to get the lead to double digits. He missed the front end of a 1-and-1.

 

[Robrio89]

Anyone who watched the first 4 games of our season, wasn’t surprised by this game. Every weakness we demonstrated through those games, was present here. And for all those who suggested the weakness of our scheduling leading up to this game was problematic, I agree. I felt zero confidence going into this tournament. Late comeback and OT was entertaining, but we never at any point held a competitive edge in this game. Yeah the foul calls did suck, but never did I think it was ultimately the refs. We fouled a lot during those 4 exhibition games, when we shouldn’t have. Didn’t Solo foul out of one of those game? And Samson Johnson?

The game, if anything, gave us better perspective as to where our team really is. Mahaney played poorly against low level competition, and here in this game, he was what Ajax was offensively during Big East play, but on defense. They exploited that weakness and it killed us all game. Samson Johnson? The guy with countless unnecessary offensive fouls from moving screens last year? 18 seconds in, foul. 3rd foul I believe it was, he shoved the guy to the ground under the hoop (not talking Dainja T). It took us forever to get into our offense. Our defense lacked most of the game. The positives? Reed is a monster. We needed him gravely. Stewart? Still a big game player. Sure he plays slightly above average otherwise, but if it is a tourney, Big East or otherwise, he shows up.

Hopefully the concession games prove us to be something better than this game. And hopefully Hurley goes back to blaming the players for fouls, regardless of how some of those calls were. They definitely didn’t make 29 bad calls

 

[ValleyGuy]

We need a PG. this isn’t 2022 where we just didn’t fully give Newton the responsibility. We just don’t have one on the roster.

Reed needs to be a focal point on this team moving forward. Our guard play overall is worriesome as everyone has weaknesses in their game.

We have one in Nowell. Hurley will give these older guys a shot. If it ain’t better by Christmas, watch his numbers increase

 

[ValleyGuy]

Hurley just brought a team that should have lost by damn near 20 in regulation to a situation where we win the game if not for consecutive pathetic calls from the officials. Not worried about Hurley

lol I don’t think anyone is worried about Hurley.

 

[Uconn77Duke74]

Maybe this loss will give us a season long "chip" on the shoulder that could almost never happen coming off of back to back championships. Hurley will use this as fuel going forward. I'd take the Huskies covering almost any spread today.

 

[Chasm64]

OT, UConn up 4 in a zone with Karaban in the middle. Open 3 pointer with AK having to come all the way out to contest. This is when I thought this would be a loss. AK was PO’d. Can’t believe all these pages and no mention of this.

 

[temery]

You mean like last year and the year before?

The cupcake complaint is silly. UConn pretty much always starts with cupcakes, as do many if not most top teams.

 

[jimva]

Some crazy takes and overreactions here, but this is the boneyard and we are arrogant and spoiled. My takes from the game:

• Reed is better than Johnson in almost all situations
• Johnson is what he is and can continue to provide the energy he did last year but it’s wrong to ask more of him than that
• right now Mahaney is not the answer at PG, but don’t know if there is a better option at this point. Maybe gets better or someone else develops as season progresses.
• Liam is a freshman and played like one in the first half, but came up big in the last 3 min.
• the “sophomores” are good and I think will develop as season progresses. While they didn’t play a lot last year they did practice a lot in the system and should know it.
• Hurley’s T didn’t lose this game. That happened through play/coaching decisions over the previous 40 min. But it was a bad look.
• Memphis is a better team than their current ranking and they deserve credit for a great game.
• going forward every team we play is going to try to replicate their plan until we figure it out. I think we will.

For all those with the crazy takes. We won it all last year in a dominant fashion. We also got smacked around be Seton Hall. And before anyone says we only lost because Clingan got hurt. I was at that game and we were getting smacked around before he got hurt.

I don’t think we are as good a team as last year, but might be good enough, only time will tell. There will be bumps in the road and some frustrating/maddening loses, but here were some last year, and the year before.

 

[JerseyAlum]

I think college fans have been conditioned by college refs being terrible and not enforcing the cylinder rule, as a defender you have to give space

Then how do they call the fouls on UConn when we rebound, they body us, then we turn and get the foul?!?!? Same rules should apply.

 

[freshler40]

Why do we care about starters? I want Reed for 25 minutes, Samson for 15. I think that’s fair. Johnson can be good, but he has to defend better.

Johnson needs to command and hold his space. Zero rebounds from any center have to be concerning. He also overcommits on defense then tries to make up for it. This showed up in several late fouls against Reed as well. Reed is a major force, great hands and moves to the ball well. What an impressive find he is.
It's noted that we played the overtime and late game without a center. Nice game planning by Hurily to have this option in our preparation.

 

[Umami Zen]

With 3 minutes to go in game-Down 11- Thought they had just given up. Were being out-played. Glad they gutted it out and made it a game. Got punched in the head. Got off the mat. Kept playing. A good sign.

Memphis guards are experienced-Tough-Street smart-And know how to "read the refs" and get their calls. Were shooting lights out and getting to the FT line.

Reed is the real deal. This season -After 5 games-Samson has more fouls than rebounds. Can't defend in the post.

If you want Jaylin to play. One of Karaban/McNeeley/Reed has to be on the bench. Or we'll get torched by the opposition's guards. Foul trouble changes that dynamic like the first half today.

Mahaney needs to improve but had 1 TO in 24 minutes. The team has to present themselves-get open-not have their backs to the PG -create space from the defender to accept a pass when initiating offensive sets. Didn't happen.

Dan has to accept his part of the responsibility for the L. IMO-Thought the last trap/last play of the game with 3 or 4 seconds on the clock was a steal by Stewart but refs were not going to let that happen.

Lots to work on in the film room. Let's get a W on Tuesday.

 

[TheShot1990]

Some positives from this game, in no particular order:

-I think we have 3 guys who are ready and willing to take & make big shots, maybe even 4: Alex, Solo, Liam, and Hass

-All of Hass's 3s looked pure...even the crunch time ones. His 9/10 FTs and perfect during crunch time can't be discounted. We don't even have a chance to tie or win that game without his performance in crunch time

-We saw some of the past 2 years' beautiful offense here-n-there. It was mostly with Alex finding cutters or drive/kicking, but its there. Even Samson had a great high/low dish to a cutter.

-Reed needs to be our starter. Guy is just a force on offense and had some ridiculous post moves against a quality 5. What a felonious coaching job Howard did at Michigan

-Stewart looked absolutely fabulous in the 1st half in a long run forced by most of the starters getting into foul trouble. I need to rewatch the 2nd to really try and figure it out but he should have gotten more minutes.

-Our press was very very effective and disruptive. Hopefully we throw it at a team every now and then as a different look and not just when we are behind and desperate.


Some general observations:

-Memphis definitely played like a team of dudes with dozens (for some, hundreds) of CBB games of experience. Even though they don't have a lot of team experience, their gameplan/offense (lots of iso-driving, iso-creating 3's) didn't demand a lot of cohesiveness

-I thought Bilas did a real nice job announcing and commenting on players and refs. He thought the Tarris offensive foul was lame and should've been a play-on, the Liam OTB was a trash call, didn't like the foul calls on Solo (when his face got in the way of a Memphis elbow), and Liam's strip-steal at the end of the game (but understood why the called it). He likes us and gives us a pretty fair shake. Rightly pointed out how Memphis was just absolutely abusing Mahaney as the weak link on the defense whenever he was on the floor.

-The Memphis Centers (Cisse in particular, I think) were really chippy & chirpy. They were constantly slapping away Reeds/Samson's hands, trying to instigate sheisse, talking tons of trash. On more than one occasion, it drew the refs over, who every time seemed to let them continue their antics and gave warnings to our dudes. It's gamesmanship, I know, but still kinda lame, and it finally culminated in Samson's T. Thankfully, it got bailed out by the dumb Memphis dude running over and bumping Samson after he pushed Cisse (?), who, although he couldn't be budged by Samson Johnson all game in the paint, reacted as if Samson hit him with a classic Street Fighter Hadouken blast...

I woke up this morning and was about to throw myself out the bedroom window (it's only on the 2nd floor) till I read these comments. All outstanding observations. Agree, face-in-the-cylinder is not a foul.

I would like to read JustbrewitMan's Brief's more often.

 

[Hankster]

That call was embarrassing. Clean rebound by McNeeley and then Solo got popped in the jaw by a swinging elbow just standing there. And was called for a foul. Sad!

The foul on McNeeley for the rebound was a head scratcher. Ref was planning that. When our boys got it close the ref's took it away. And the player for Memphis who was knocking down three's was the game. He gets half of them we win.

 

[FreeKlaiber]

to those that say the T wasn't justified, they don't understand actual basketball. You cannot flop around on the floor and show up three officials with whistles, doesnt matter how bad the call was or what point in the game it is. If you cross a line and show them up like that, you will get T'd. Especially after berating them for 2 hours. Try to think of all the other times you saw a coach rolling around on the floor after a bad call, and didnt get a T. I'll wait

wasn't a fan of his postgame comments, but he's instilling the season long chip

 

[RuffRuff]

With 3 minutes to go in game-Down 11- Thought they had just given up. Were being out-played. Glad they gutted it out and made it a game. Got punched in the head. Got off the mat. Kept playing. A good sign.

Memphis guards are experienced-Tough-Street smart-And know how to "read the refs" and get their calls. Were shooting lights out and getting to the FT line.

Reed is the real deal. This season -After 5 games-Samson has more fouls than rebounds. Can't defend in the post.

If you want Jaylin to play. One of Karaban/McNeeley/Reed has to be on the bench. Or we'll get torched by the opposition's guards. Foul trouble changes that dynamic like the first half today.

Mahaney needs to improve but had 1 TO in 24 minutes. The team has to present themselves-get open-not have their backs to the PG -create space from the defender to accept a pass when initiating offensive sets. Didn't happen.

Dan has to accept his part of the responsibility for the L. IMO-Thought the last trap/last play of the game with 3 or 4 seconds on the clock was a steal by Stewart but refs were not going to let that happen.

Lots to work on in the film room. Let's get a W on Tuesday.

Samson has hands like two cedar planks. It’s getting to the point where he cannot do little things like catch a ball, and hold onto it. He fumbled multiple feeds where he looked well positioned to get an easy bucket. He can’t hold onto rebounds. He was fine disguised in an all time great roster getting fed lobs, but now exposed. His ceiling is a 15 minute bench guy. If he gets more time than that it’s not because he’s a good basketball player. Everything with him looks amazingly awkward - footwork, catching a ball, the most simple aspects of basketball. Meanwhile Tarrris got a rebound and dribbled it up court yesterday. These two guys aren’t even in the same league, nevermind questioning who should start.