Memphis Post Game Thread

[ctbro1999]

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

You know, to have such a mixed bag as far as the starters aside from Karaban having a bad/off game and the opponent shooting 55% overall AND from 3, I still believe this team has the talent to at least make a realistic shot at a 3-peat. We saw stretches where we looked like a team that could 3-peat. But also stretches were we looked like dog butt.
Lots of work needs to be done between now and March, but I still believe the lump of clay we have can be molded into a masterpiece statue by the end of the season.

 

[Kitaman]

Samson has no excuses. He is a 4 year player. To expect a significant improvement is tough. Lobs, blocks, tiring out big men with his energy is the most we can expect.

That's fine for a backup but not a starter. He had his chance. Sad that he played against Sanogo and Clingan daily and this is the result of those matchups with two NBA teammates.

Could make 6th man of the year in the BE if he embraces his role as a bench player (again). That is his ceiling to me. Not a diss but just 4 years of observation.

 

[boog204]

Ok, I've held off to let the smoke clear...

Positives:

Reed was great. Hope all of you that trashed his signing and said we should have gotten Cliff or Ballo can reevaluate. Tarris averaging 14 and 10 on the season in a little over 20mpg. And, he'll be here for one more year.

We had no business being in overtime with a chance to win. Big ups for coming back when we were thoroughly outplayed the majority of the game.

Memphis is a team of experienced, talented, mercenaries. They will win games this year. And lose some head scratchers as well. Haggerty is a stud, Hunter and Rogers are already 1000pt scorers, and their bigs are all seniors who were starters at other places. We have a lot of new faces and the old faces (sans Alex) are trying to take on new/bigger roles. It will come.

Concerns:

Memphis is/was significantly more athletic than us at almost every position. There were times where 1-5 they were quicker, stronger, tougher. They were chippy and honestly, I thought we looked soft for the first 35 minutes of the game. It made things very difficult on both ends. Ross and JStew add some athleticism, but who sits?

Our guards, up until the last 10-15 when Hassan turned it around were not very good. Mahaney, for the first time to me, was a complete liability on the defensive end. We'll be fine, but I think we're seeing the effect of not having three lead guards on the court as we did last year. We still put points in but there were some half court struggles because our guards were picking up their dribble and stagnating.

Goes without saying that both SJ and DH with absolutely idiotic moments at the most inopportune time. This is a senior and HOF-caliber coach having no composure whatsoever. To add onto SJ, he's got to find a way to stay on the court and be a some sort of a factor. Again, this is a byproduct of having three outstanding triple threat guys last year in the pick and roll game. We just don't have those guys this year.

Officiating was bad both ways. Getting beat off the dribble consistently against athletic guards will yield lots of fouls. We watched Tristen draw fouls for two years on iffy calls. Live with it. But bad officiating isn't to blame for fouling three point shooters and poor execution.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

That video doesnt show what that tweet says it does. Where are the refs?

The quote seems like it comes at the very end. I’m not sure who else would he be talking to. Would it be better if it was said to a player or another coach?

He has got to learn to relax. Thought the meditation he was promoting with Jay Bilas was suppose to help with this.

 

[Drame]

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

Wrong. All the top teams are playing at least one competitive game by the fifth game of the season. If we had done that we wouldnt be in the losers bracket playing teams with lower kenpom.

 

[Conndog]

Ross needs reps. He has the tools to be way better than Mahaney at guarding drives. Memphis guards were seeking contact and throwing shots at the rim and getting every call. A lot were fouls, many were no calls.

Ross did get beat couple of times- not by much, he was a split second slow responding to opponent’s move- but so was every other UConn defender. With more playing time to get seasoned, and maybe set defensive position one foot farther away so he has more of a cushion to respond to the initial drive- I think the players in general stand too close initially. But yesterday, Memphis guards were killing either way with their attacking drives or bombing from outside.

i forgot that Reed had picked up foul #5 before overtime and wasn’t available for OT. If he was in the game instead, the OT would have gone differently. I think he too will improve on defense and not foul so much, like that time he fouled the shooter in the corner.

UConn needs to work on some things, both players and head coach, but that still was a awesome comeback!

 

[ctbro1999]

Ok, I've held off to let the smoke clear...

Positives:

Reed was great. Hope all of you that trashed his signing and said we should have gotten Cliff or Ballo can reevaluate. Tarris averaging 14 and 10 on the season in a little over 20mpg. And, he'll be here for one more year.

That Sleepers media clown that's always hating on Reed probably still has trash to talk about him though.

 

[jimva]

I think people are actually worried

Why?

 

[ctbro1999]

Wrong. All the top teams are playing at least one competitive game by the fifth game of the season. If we had done that we wouldnt be in the losers bracket playing teams with lower kenpom.

We did not play a "real" team until the 6th game of the season in '22-23 (UNC Wilmington was the best team out of the first 5 games at KP #152)

We played 3 cupcakes last year before playing Indiana and Oregon in PK85. Do you really think since we "only" played 3 buy games last year before playing Indiana, that somehow benefited us compared to if we had played 1 more cupcake? If we didn't play LeMoyne, somehow we would have played better yesterday?

 

[ctbro1999]

Why?

Because a small slice of fans overreact and think the world is ending every time the team hits a speed bump.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Really hope Alex or some leader points to SJ’s box score and says “This can’t happen again, you’re a Senior.” 0 rebounds and 5 fouls in itself is ride-the-pine worthy, but a tech on top of it is icing on the cake.

 

[jibsey]

Really hope Alex or some leader points to SJ’s box score and says “This can’t happen again, you’re a Senior.” 0 rebounds and 5 fouls in itself is ride-the-pine worthy, but a tech on top of it is icing on the cake.

I watched him not be able to hold onto balls in the post because he’s not very strong and has weak hands. What does being a senior have to do with that? He has no post scoring moves. Can you will that to not happen? He has a 4 year history of dumb and early fouling. He’s just going to flip a switch here?
I expect he can do some good things for this team in the same role he had last year, as backup.

 

[RuffRuff]

And then when he has an awesome game we'll bring it back.

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.

 

[ctbro1999]

I watched him not be able to hold onto balls in the post because he’s not very strong and has weak hands. What does being a senior have to do with that? He has no post scoring moves. Can you will that to not happen? He has a 4 year history of dumb and early fouling. He’s just going to flip a switch here?
I expect he can do some good things for this team in the same role he had last year, as backup.

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

 

[RedStickHusky]

Mahaney will be fine but he needs to be off-ball, he does not initiate and drive the ball like we need him to.

Need someone to drive the ball.

Teams are going to isolate Mahaney whenever he plays... Maybe if we still had DC.

 

[RuffRuff]

Samson has no excuses. He is a 4 year player. To expect a significant improvement is tough. Lobs, blocks, tiring out big men with his energy is the most we can expect.

That's fine for a backup but not a starter. He had his chance. Sad that he played against Sanogo and Clingan daily and this is the result of those matchups with two NBA teammates.

Could make 6th man of the year in the BE if he embraces his role as a bench player (again). That is his ceiling to me. Not a diss but just 4 years of observation.

With Samson it’s not about a years of service thing as much as just a skills thing. He’s just a pretty uncoordinated kid with less than ideal hand eye. You can’t coach that up, you have to work around it and play into strengths. Issue is this years roster can’t play into his strengths like last year did, at least not yet.

 

[TheHorde]

With Samson it’s not about a years of service thing as much as just a skills thing. He’s just a pretty uncoordinated kid with less than ideal hand eye. You can’t coach that up, you have to work around it and play into strengths. Issue is this years roster can’t play into his strengths like last year did, at least not yet.

Even his rebounding fundamentals are questionable. His second foul was due to not properly boxing out on the defensive end.

 

[HuskyHawk]

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.

 

[Connecticut13]

There were lots of good things - namely, Karaban, Reed, Stewart and a late surge from McNeeley despite the tough start.

Still huge questions about our backcourt.

We know what we have in Diarra - a solid, if unspectacular, point guard. But Mahaney looks completely overmatched. And Solo looks fine at best - but a bit too much like Rodney Purvis 2.0. He needs to get to the basket, rather than strictly be a 3-point shooter. Every shot Solo took was from the perimeter. And he needs to defend. His size and strength are currently being wasted.

Right now, Ross is just an athlete. He's got the chance to morph into an Andre Jackson type, but he's not there right now. At the very least, he needs to be a lock-down defender this year.

Samson needs to play the same role as last year, with Reed starting. I like Samson's shot-blocking and his court vision, but we need a true post-presence in Reed. It opens up the perimeter.

 

[dogpause]

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.

 

[HuskyHawk]

The problem is I'm just not sure Mahaney is going to turn into a very good point guard and it makes us a lot less athletic because it's keeping one of Liam, Solo, Jaylin off the floor and it's keeping Hass off the floor when he's in there.

People bring up Tristen but Tristen was a point guard coming in. He had a 22 point triple double with 5 steals in his fourth game at UConn against Buffalo. He's just a lot bigger/more physical than Mahaney and he wasn't getting targeted all the time on defense. Mahaney has a couple things working against him. He's trying to learn the toughest position for the most advanced offensive team in the country as someone who isn't a natural point guard. At the same time he's getting targeted on defense because he's the slightest and least athletic guy on the court.

I just worry they may be trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. The team and Mahaney are too talented to have the whole season depend on something that may not be a fit. I trust the staff because they've been right about basically everything but we're really going to have to start seeing it work and 6 of the next 7 games are against big time teams.

I agree 100%. When he decided to come here I never imagined he's be anything but a SG. Then Ball evidently made a leap and Hurley tried to work Mahaney into the starting lineup. I don't think that will continue much longer. He's the backup SG on this team. The microwave off the bench. We got lucky with Cam being able to facilitate despite not being a PG.

Diarra needs to start and they need to try a lot harder to run offense through McNeeley up top, as they did Castle last year. I have more faith in McNeeley learning that role. Use him like the Celtics use Tatum to some extent. When Nowell is healthy they need to get him some minutes and see if he can run the team at PG.

It's a challenge for Hurley to figure out. From a talent perspective I think I'd rank our guys
McNeeley, Alex, Stewart, Ball, Ross, Reed. Not sure who's next. There's not a true facilitator among our top 6 players. Last year we had 3. So he has to try to get Liam, Solo and/or Ross to own that. Ross should be practicing at PG right now.

 

[upstater]

Since the 80s. The fact that you’re “worried” is just mind boggling. No wonder he entertained the Lakers job..

I'm worried about him. Not UConn. Hurley has been very open about everything to do with the referees and his relationship in the past. If you think this is OK, you're not listening to...

... Hurley!

 

[RuffRuff]

I agree 100%. When he decided to come here I never imagined he's be anything but a SG. Then Ball evidently made a leap and Hurley tried to work Mahaney into the starting lineup. I don't think that will continue much longer. He's the backup SG on this team. The microwave off the bench. We got lucky with Cam being able to facilitate despite not being a PG.

Diarra needs to start and they need to try a lot harder to run offense through McNeeley up top, as they did Castle last year. I have more faith in McNeeley learning that role. Use him like the Celtics use Tatum to some extent. When Nowell is healthy they need to get him some minutes and see if he can run the team at PG.

It's a challenge for Hurley to figure out. From a talent perspective I think I'd rank our guys
McNeeley, Alex, Stewart, Ball, Ross, Reed. Not sure who's next. There's not a true facilitator among our top 6 players. Last year we had 3. So he has to try to get Liam, Solo and/or Ross to own that. Ross should be practicing at PG right now.

Reality is that Solo really hasn’t made any leap. He doesn’t create off the dribble, at all. This leaves even more pressure on the PG. The overall blend in the backcourt lacks balance. At some point DH will have to explore a 3 as a 2 or a freshman into the rotation. Need to create mismatches as opposed to suffering from them.

That loss wasn’t on the Hurley T. Memphis outplayed us for 85% of that game. They set the tone with physicality and grit from the tip, which any BE should embrace.

 

[JerseyAlum]

I wonder how much the early T allegedly on the UConn trainer really set Hurley off more than usual and set the stage for what happened later and how the game was officiated late. Is there a history with this crew and Hurley, I wonder?

Does not matter. That first one was inexcusable. the trainer should know better than to mutter something about the officiating. No excuse “oh he was barely audible” cuts it. The foul on Ball was a jole and the foul on Liam was moreso a joke given the tic tac fouls they called on us the whole game but not Memphis.

Still, inexcusable of Hurley to act demonstrably about the officials ever. Does not matter if they tore Sampson apart but no fouls were called for him.

You instill that in players to remain calm regardless but as a coach you need to walk the walk.

 

[upstater]

Wrong. All the top teams are playing at least one competitive game by the fifth game of the season. If we had done that we wouldnt be in the losers bracket playing teams with lower kenpom.

I don't get the math here.

This Memphis game WAS our first competitive game. It doesn't really matter that they played 3 cupcakes or four. They treat them like exhibitions anyway.

This argument makes no sense to me.

If they scheduled one or two less cupcakes, we'd be saying this is an early season competitive game.