Memphis Post Game Thread

[temery]

Tough I am lol

You better start eating your spinach. ;-) Or use a coma. Or a comma. I can't remember which is which and I'm not gonna look it up.

 

[Conndog]

Well, if Mahaney so far isn’t satisfactory playing point, then either he needs more time to improve, or someone else needs to play that position. Diarra is experienced, but he can’t play whole game, plus he is shorter than ideal. Also, it would improve things if point guard can take it inside more. I haven’t seen enough of Nowell but a lot of people are high on him, so I’d like to see him get more minutes. But he too is short. What about experimenting with Ross at the point? Didn’t he play some point prior to college? I thought he had a growth spurt- his height is fantastic and he certainly is athletic. Would love to see him do to his opponent what the Memphis guards did against UConn yesterday.

 

[TheHorde]

You better start eating your spinach. ;-) Or use a coma. Or a comma. I can't remember which is which and I'm not gonna look it up.

Touché.

 

[uconnfan68]

Well, if Mahaney so far isn’t satisfactory playing point, then either he needs more time to improve, or someone else needs to play that position. Diarra is experienced, but he can’t play whole game, plus he is shorter than ideal. Also, it would improve things if point guard can take it inside more. I haven’t seen enough of Nowell but a lot of people are high on him, so I’d like to see him get more minutes. But he too is short. What about experimenting with Ross at the point? Didn’t he play some point prior to college? I thought he had a growth spurt- his height is fantastic and he certainly is athletic. Would love to see him do to his opponent what the Memphis guards did against UConn yesterday.

He did nothing yesterday... only non-zero was minutes played.

 

[temery]

When he picked up his 1st foul 18 seconds into the game, I knew it was gonna be a rough one for him.

In Samson's defense, he only played 14 minutes according to the box score. His foul troubles allowed Reed to have a monster night. Credit Samson ;-) jk.

I totally get the frustration about Samson's mind boggling fouls. But I'll take undisciplined aggressive defense over allowing uncontested shots, free passes, etc.

And the OT technical - the kid he pushed ran into him from behind. It was a reflex reaction. No excuse for pushing the player, but it wasn't simply blind aggression. My guess is the refs saw this when considering the follow-up technical, which was a little lame.

I love Samson. It's not easy to be the best you can be, after three seasons of Helter Skelter playing time. I'm glad Hurley seems to be giving him a chance to settle in to a stronger role.

Samson will be a big part of this year's success.

 

[RuffRuff]

Haven’t really seem anything out of Ross that exhibits the kind of bounce you need to play the 1 or 2, and to fill that much needed void. He’s a 3, who is clearly still developing and towards what feels more like the Swiss Army knife profile. What this team is dying for right now is great ball handlers that can create, and defend. He got beat twice yesterday on plays Memphis cleared the floor to take him one on one. Not really sure what he brought to the floor yesterday, being a Reggie Lewis clone and all.

 

[Steve UConn72]

The reality is that many teams RIGHT NOW are pretty much equal to us, especially after losing NBAer's Cam, Clingan and Castle and our All American Newton. We are still under construction with freshman, new starters with our All American Karaban.

Memphis was ready and we seemed rusty and out of synch. Typical of new players learning to play with each other facing a talented D1 team. I did not see failure, just uncertainty and executional mistakes (both fixable).

Just saying, this is not our February Team. I just hope fans didn't miss the preview late in the game. Championship DNA was still on display tonight.

"new players learning to play with each other," yes. But didn't I hear that Memphis has 13 new players this year? Granted, they are mostly older, but still, they have to learn to play together. At this point, they seem to be ahead of our efforts to do so.

Speaking of new players, anybody ready for a rule that you can't go into the portal more than twice?

 

[UCONNFAN179]

The sophomore leap NBA talent hype was 100% bonafide hot air.

To be fair, he's probably guarded by Solo and Mahaney in practice so he probably does look like an NBA all star there

 

[Greedo]

Does anyone have a link to a video of the foul on Liam that got Hurley the T? I DVRed the game but it cut off after regular time so I couldn’t see OT.

 

[CTBasketball]

One thing I neglected to mention. Memphis did something that only one team has done to us previously, they switched on every matchup. Kansas did that last year. Hurley called it out. It takes away our off the ball screen game (which we didn't execute well either). Leaves us with more situations where guys need to attack a mismatch and I think we were often hesitant.

So I'm curious to see whether Colorado attempts to pull that off or not. If they aren't switching we probably get a lot more open looks outside. Still worried about the defense, it's not that good right now.

You need the right personnel to pull it off, but it doesn’t help we are not as athletic as we were the last two years.

 

[Conndog]

Haven’t really seem anything out of Ross that exhibits the kind of bounce you need to play the 1 or 2, and to fill that much needed void. He’s a 3, who is clearly still developing and towards what feels more like the Swiss Army knife profile. What this team is dying for right now is great ball handlers that can create, and defend. He got beat twice yesterday on plays Memphis cleared the floor to take him one on one. Not really sure what he brought to the floor yesterday, being a Reggie Lewis clone and al

 

[jibsey]

Nobody here is saying it’s definitely Nowell that would change our guard situation. The only way to do it is actually see him, but Hurley and the staff have seen him a lot in intense practices against starters and so far they don’t believe he can do it I’m guessing. Either that or Shirley’s loyalty to Maheney is to give him more rope. I don’t that’s wrong either but the next 4-5 games will be big for Maheney.

 

[Conndog]

Just thinking outside the box a little- you are probably right, Ross might not be a good point guard possibility.

 

[jimva]

Love Hurley, but he didn't just cost us the game, he cost us the opportunity to play other higher level teams in this tournament, and the lessons it would have provided. He's lucky he can't/won't be suspended. Could've been a huge victory and building block. It will still be remembered for the great comeback, but it was a cake without icing.

Stewart moves up in the rotation. He gives us some extra muscle too. He needs to hire a PR person, or put his face on a billboard.

Reed is really polished at both ends. Love him. He'll be playing a lot more minutes. Can't believe the Michigan fans weren't more upset about losing him.

Mahaney moves down, but can earn his way back. He needs time to adjust to a higher level of competition, and a more complex system.

Ross needs more minutes so he can develop. He's hardly played.

Liam turned the corner and is an intense competitor.

Ball, like Stewart, has a quiet confidence and takes davantage of every opportunity to shine. They add muscle to our lineup too.

Sampson is better when he come in off the bench. His quickness plays better as a relief pitcher, and his tendency to foul won't put us in a hole. We keep expecting him to be Donovan or Adama, which he's not. Time to invest some minutes in Singare too.

Karaban has displayed more growth than I thought was possible. He's better in every facet of the game. Is he the most mature player we've ever had and maybe the most intelligent too? Coaching material some day.

Hurley did not cost us the game. The teams play and coaching decisions the previous 40 min did. This fact doesn’t change my feelings about his actions, but to put the cost of losing on a 30 second outburst at the end of the game is confusing disappointment with his behavior and all that went on during the game.

 

[walski]

The loss is on Danny, but not for the T. Everyone in the world could see that Mahaney and Samson weren’t working, but Danny played them way too much to start the second half.

It really reminds me of how he kept playing all those minutes w Carlton. I don't care what he did in Houston, he couldn't play here.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

Death, taxes and the boneyard comparing a UConn player to a great from 30 years ago based on a Hurley quote and one nice play against a tomato can.

Lesson be learned for future years - a breakaway dunk against St Mary’s school for the blind of Oklahoma doesn’t translate to looking a lot like Ray Allen.

I know you're being hyperbolically funny here, but it is undeniable that the kid has a solid fundamental skillset and has elite athleticism.

He only got 101 minutes of live game time last year, and only 3 games with over 10min. Almost all were garbage-time meaningless minutes

He came out of the gate strong to support the hype, but he's still obviously gonna need game reps to figure things completely out.

I expect him to pay important roles on D and O as we head into Big East play and beyond. And to show more flashes of play that remind us of the best of past UConn greats!

 

[freshler40]

In Samson's defense, he only played 14 minutes according to the box score. His foul troubles allowed Reed to have a monster night. Credit Samson ;-) jk.

I totally get the frustration about Samson's mind boggling fouls. But I'll take undisciplined aggressive defense over allowing uncontested shots, free passes, etc.

And the OT technical - the kid he pushed ran into him from behind. It was a reflex reaction. No excuse for pushing the player, but it wasn't simply blind aggression. My guess is the refs saw this when considering the follow-up technical, which was a little lame.

I love Samson. It's not easy to be the best you can be, after three seasons of Helter Skelter playing time. I'm glad Hurley seems to be giving him a chance to settle in to a stronger role.

Samson will be a big part of this year's success.

Have you seen an optometrist lately? He can't hold his ground. He doesn't have an eye of rebounds. Hope I'm wrong but this is four years later.

 

[BlueandOG]

Hurley did not cost us the game. The teams play and coaching decisions the previous 40 min did. This fact doesn’t change my feelings about his actions, but to put the cost of losing on a 30 second outburst at the end of the game is confusing disappointment with his behavior and all that went on during the game.

I disagree. The team was in position to win until his outburst. His T put us in a hole that the team could not climb out of.

 

[TheHorde]

Nobody here is saying it’s definitely Nowell that would change our guard situation. The only way to do it is actually see him, but Hurley and the staff have seen him a lot in intense practices against starters and so far they don’t believe he can do it I’m guessing. Either that or Shirley’s loyalty to Maheney is to give him more rope. I don’t that’s wrong either but the next 4-5 games will be big for Maheney.

We desperately need guard penetration on offense and the ability to stop guard penetration against us defensively.

 

[DRBackup]

To your point, one thing about the Memphis team today, was they had a number of 4-5 year transfers. Think of the value a 5th year Cam Spencer brought. Of course there are freshmen who can compete, but as you say it is rare.

Indeed, by KenPom's data, they have the 6th most D1 experience in the country. Their average player has 3.11 years D1 experience. UConn is middle of the pack at 1.73

 

[DRBackup]

Well…So is Hurley.

Not the same thing. I know you think you're being witty, but its not the same thing.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Not the same thing. I know you think you're being witty, but its not the same thing.

Not trying to be witty. He was acting unprofessional for much of the game. Refs aren’t told to ignore everything. They made bad calls, Hurley let them know quite demonstrably every time. It was a matter of time before he got punished, they gave him a very long leash.

 

[DRBackup]

“The whistle favored Memphis the entire game…”
Every losing team’s fans always think the refs had it in for them

Hate to break it to you, but 40 FTA is objectively more than 24 and 29 PF is objectively more than 21. That's not an opinion.

 

[TheHorde]

Not trying to be witty. He was acting unprofessional for much of the game. Refs aren’t told to ignore everything. They made bad calls, Hurley let them know quite demonstrably every time. It was a matter of time before he got punished, they gave him a very long leash.

Hurley has an emotional stake in his team so it’s understandable at least to some degree for him to get angry and agitated. Did he take it too far? Sure. Referees are not supposed to be that emotionally invested. I haven’t heard one explanation that changed my mind on the Ball getting elbowed play that went to the monitor replays. In my opinion, the officials let a grudge they had against Hurley allow a bad call to stand. And that’s not even touching on the Liam phantom over the back foul call. If there was ever a time for a good actual makeup call that was based on sound officiating, that was it.

 

[superjohn]

I know you're being hyperbolically funny here, but it is undeniable that the kid has a solid fundamental skillset and has elite athleticism.

He only got 101 minutes of live game time last year, and only 3 games with over 10min. Almost all were garbage-time meaningless minutes

He came out of the gate strong to support the hype, but he's still obviously gonna need game reps to figure things completely out.

I expect him to pay important roles on D and O as we head into Big East play and beyond. And to show more flashes of play that remind us of the best of past UConn greats!

People compared him to Dr. J, Ray Allen, Reggie Lewis and someone said he's a guaranteed top 10 pick after this season and the best athlete he's ever seen at UConn.

This was based off of 14 points against UNH. They were really impressive minutes and his one baseline move was a big time NBA move but he has a ways to go and he was getting compared to all-time great NBA players based off of a cupcake game.

I like his longterm potential and he has really good athleticism, should become a really good defender, plus a shot that looks like it will be good but he still looks very raw. Handle looks loose, blow byes on defense, and he seems to be playing a little skittish.