Memphis Post Game Thread

[husky429]

To be fair, he was excellent in the game's final six minutes.

He's gotta look for more than 3s and he'll be fine. No reason why he can be a mean SOB at the rim with his strength and improved handles.

 

[NCHusky91]

Year after year, basketball refs make bad calls based on assumptions, and that “over the back” was a prime example. That said, calling an official a “f— joke” is worthy of a T and would get you tossed from other sports.

 

[husky429]

Agree on Nowell. I'm not sure if it matters who starts at center, today was not a game for Samson Johnson. Samson can be effective against smaller quicker teams and we need to protect Reed from fouling out.

Samson will foul less in a bench role he's used to. Spark plug.

Reed's style of play is much more suited to be the 25mpg guy. He's also just a lot more talented.

 

[uconn_jack]

This is a stupid quote.

"I think it was the (expletive) calls," Hurley said. "I would expect to come to play in an event, and I don't know too many back-to-back national championship teams that get that type of a whistle."

https://athlonsports.com/college/uconn-huskies/dan-hurley-heated-reaction-viral-technical-foul-uconn-memphis

I have no problem with the first part of the quote. The second part, does come across as entitled.

 

[Hunt for 7]

I like BIG GUARDS BETTER!!!!…….we should all know better….RJ Cole good player but had his limitations. Thank goodness we have some coming in next year….

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Kevin Ollie let officials walk all over us for 7 years and they were more than happy to sodomize us on a regular basis.

Hurley needs to pick his spots better but pressuring officials gets results.

Kevin Ollie figured out how to get the calls against Martelli, Wright, Hoiberg, Izzo, Donovan and Calipari.

 

[bendm]

Will be interesting to look back on this in a few months, but immediately after the Memphis game here is my ‘optimal’ lineup:

• Diarra
• Ball
• McNeeley
• Karaban
• Reed

+Stewart as 6th man (maybe? Had a breakout game today)

Hindsight will correct me, but from my couch today (Nov 25) this seems like the best mix. Thoughts?

this has been clear for weeks

 

[SaeHusky]

I like BIG GUARDS BETTER!!!!…….we should all know better….RJ Cole good player but had his limitations. Thank goodness we have some coming in next year….

And Big Guards have an easier time of seeing the Lob action and making that pass

 

[Magic32]

Not gonna blame the referees but I wasn't a fan of the way they called the game. Good game plan from Memphis, they knew where they were quicker and pushed the issue.
I was surprised we didn't also go small sooner to try and match them or pick up defensive pressure sooner.
Curious why Stewart didn't get more court time.
Bad technical for Hurley.

 

[CL82]

don't blame the refs.

Oh I'm a blamin' the refs.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Newton struggled because we couldn’t decide if he was going to run the offense or Andre.

I mean, people posting in this thread were calling Newton “unplayable” in the Final Four last year. The same Final Four he was MVP of. We’re not exactly a measured fan base. It’s the program’s first loss since February.

Props to Memphis. They played great, shot the absolute hell out of the ball, and outcompeted the guys in white. They deserved it.

There was a lot of “be patient - it’s gonna take a while for this team to gel with all the new pieces” stuff on this board in the fall. It’s gonna be interesting to see how many people actually meant it.

The T was bad. Just can’t happen. The officials were also brutal. But make no mistake this would have been a theft of a W if they took it.

Reed was a stud. Thrilled to see Stewart break out. Karaban played well. Beyond that I’ve got pretty much nothing. Foul trouble killed Solo. McNeeley hit those big 3s in the last 2 minutes but was a ghost for 35+. Same with Hassan, for the first 35 or so minutes I thought it was the worst he’s looked in probably a year but he was tough at the end.

Long season. Lots to work on. They’re going to get better. Coming off 2 straight national championships I’m cool with enjoying the process.

 

[superjohn]

 

[bendm]

Danny normally hits on transfers but he might of missed a lot if he though Mahaney was anything more than a shooter. I guess he really thought he was good enough to play PG but so far even against lower competition Mahaney has had trouble with speed. He can't even get his own shot off which is what he does best.

seems like he was as wrong about Mahaney as he was right about Reed. his only transfer miss to date but it's a crucial one. Mahaney is playing like UConns worst starting PG since sterling gibbs

 

[drayenob]

No, fouls were called. Everything went against us. Same situation, Reed called for offensive, Solo called for reaching.

Solo clearly fouled the Memphis player's elbow with his head

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Hurley needs to schedule a tougher game earlier on. Too much pressure built up and his head exploded.

This would make a lot more sense if it wasn’t November. These are the tougher games earlier on. But I’m also not capping our season as a “second weekend team” based on a November loss, so reasonable minds can differ.

 

[Deepster]

The tech was not a joke. He probably shoulda already had 2 techs. He was abusing the Refs.

So there’s a ton of blame to Hurley for the tech and I’m not absolving him. But…if that behavior is unacceptable then call it when he did it early and often all game. Why wait until there’s 40 seconds left to decide it’s over the line?

 

[TheHorde]

Oh I'm a blamin' the refs.

Would Coach K have gotten a T there in that situation in 1993? Would John Wooden have in 1968? I doubt it highly on both counts. And I recall K mouthing some pretty bad stuff in 2004 in the Final Four.

 

[upstater]

Two thoughts --

It looks like we may have whiffed on Mahaney. It happens. Nobody bats 1.000.

If the officials were going to T Hurley up, then they should have done it earlier. Not on the initial reaction to an objectively atrocious call.

Again, we said the same thing with players in the past. He has had big games against tough competition . This isn't him.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

We can't base our season on Mahaney learning how to become a very good point guard and improving a ton on defense. Newton is simply bigger than him, more physical, and was getting 5 assists per game before he came to UConn and he had the advantage of playing alongside Spencer and Castle who had size and could play point, and Jackson the year before who had size and could play point.

Offensively, Newton and Mahaney when they first joined UConn were totally different too.

At East Carolina, Newton didn't yet have the offensive savvy, precision and efficiency that he had by the time he finished at UConn, but he was already a willing bucket-getter who was "the guy" at ECU when the team needed a bucket. That's one thing that I held onto when he was struggling early on at UConn...no matter what he did, I always knew he was an excellent end-game closer.

Mahaney's constant coming into UConn: career 37% from three. No matter his struggles early on, he will consistently be a threat from the perimeter and, at worst, be a spacer off the bench.

 

[storrsroars]

This is a stupid quote.

"I think it was the (expletive) calls," Hurley said. "I would expect to come to play in an event, and I don't know too many back-to-back national championship teams that get that type of a whistle."

https://athlonsports.com/college/uconn-huskies/dan-hurley-heated-reaction-viral-technical-foul-uconn-memphis

There's a small part of me that is thinking DH is "eh, two point deficit is too easy. Let's make it four and see how they respond."

 

[UCTitleTown]

The lineup should be Reed, Karaban, Stewart, McNeeley and Nowell. Bench contributions from Ball, Johnson and Ross. Need to shorten the rotation. Some may say, Nowell hasn't played enough to start yet. We've all seen him play. He's our only true point guard and plays both ends of the court. Mahaney should get Joey C. volume of minutes.

 

[Savos]

It's been interesting to see Hurley manage his growing ego with his ongoing success as a coach. Might be time for some therapy...

 

[husky429]

He ain't wrong.

 

[Hunt for 7]

Oh I'm a blamin' the refs.

So is Hurley that’s good enough for me. I am officially blaming the officials…..this board right now is keeping me from losing it like my 16 yr old son did on that over the back call.

 

[HuskyHawk]

It obviously needs to change. I'm a big supporter of Mahaney because I know he's better than what he's shown but when he's on the court with some of these lineups it makes us look fairly unathletic. We play faster with Diarra on the court but I want Hass to remain our disruptor off the bench and Samson clearly needs to join him coming off the bench for the speed lineup. The problem is Mahaney's best role is off the bench as well but as a scorer/shooter.

I'm not sure what the fix is but I want Liam, Solo, and Jaylin on the court together with their length and athleticism. Ross too but he's still raw. Nowell needs a fairly long look at point guard or we need to go more positionless I think. Liam and Jaylin both can handle and pass. Can we do things without a traditional point guard for long stretches?

If we play our best 5 players there’s no PG. if we play our best 6 players there’s still no PG. That would be less of a problem if Ball was a better facilitator. Against this press I don’t think it works. It may be a lineup we can play situationally though.