Miserable awful thoughts

[Stinger92860]

I must be in the minority. I thought the game was lost to a very good team. We learned a lot yesterday and if we get to play them late in the year the outcome will be different.

As far as the PR4' I see lots of stairs in their future followed by heads in garbage cans.

 

[partial]

I think I've said it before but with the all the guards we're playing we need to be able to make threes. There will never be enough space to drive if the other team isn't guarding the perimeter honestly. Second failing being able to score threes we need to defend well and currently the defense is not very good.

Now the good news is some of our guys do look like they can shoot, but they need time to adjust and be consistent. In addition to growth there is a fair chance that any given game boatright can go bonkers and carry the team. On the defense a fair bit of it is freshman mistakes: defending without playing team defense/fouling, you'll see guys just forget to follow their man. By the end of the season i think we could have something good but it might be a rough ride. The unfortunate thing is conference play isn't going to solidify our tournament resume and we need to make hay with our early non-conference games.

 

[johnhuskies95]

I'm going to ignore how they played against the press, because quite frankly( I'm starting to sound like Chief) there are only a handful of teams in the country that can pull that off for large stretches of a game, and I'm surprised that West Virginia is one of them. That's not going to be what undoes this team.

In order for UConn to be successful this season I think two things need to happen:

1) The defense needs to get better. I'm pretty confident this will happen. They've looked really bad for stretches. I think that Facey is still lost a little bit on rotations and help defense, and collectively they are not as in-sync as last year, although I think they'll get there. Brimah and Boatright are two really good building blocks to start with, and everyone else has the tools to be a good individual defender.

2) Boatright, Purvis, and Hamilton need to be on offensively every night. I'm not sure this is likely, but it's important. They're the three best individual offensive players on the team. To HuskyHawk, Boatright is absolutely good enough to carry a team. Hundreds of coaches in the country would kill to have Ryan Boatright on their team. So he's not Napier, but that's not exactly an insult. Napier is arguably the greatest UConn player of all time. Purvis was hurt last night, so it's hard to take anything from that, but he's been inconsistent throughout the early part of the season. He needs to figure out his part in the offense. Hamilton is a monster talent, and I'm not too worried about the turnovers. About half of those were against the press, and like I said above, I don't think that's something they'll be seeing too much this season. He's been lights out shooting the ball and he's a really good playmaker. I think a team can go far with him as a second or third option.

 

[Pudge]

I'm going to ignore how they played against the press, because quite frankly( I'm starting to sound like Chief) there are only a handful of teams in the country that can pull that off for large stretches of a game, and I'm surprised that West Virginia is one of them. That's not going to be what undoes this team.

In order for UConn to be successful this season I think two things need to happen:

1) The defense needs to get better. I'm pretty confident this will happen. They've looked really bad for stretches. I think that Facey is still lost a little bit on rotations and help defense, and collectively they are not as in-sync as last year, although I think they'll get there. Brimah and Boatright are two really good building blocks to start with, and everyone else has the tools to be a good individual defender.

2) Boatright, Purvis, and Hamilton need to be on offensively every night. I'm not sure this is likely, but it's important. They're the three best individual offensive players on the team. To HuskyHawk, Boatright is absolutely good enough to carry a team. Hundreds of coaches in the country would kill to have Ryan Boatright on their team. So he's not Napier, but that's not exactly an insult. Napier is arguably the greatest UConn player of all time. Purvis was hurt last night, so it's hard to take anything from that, but he's been inconsistent throughout the early part of the season. He needs to figure out his part in the offense. Hamilton is a monster talent, and I'm not too worried about the turnovers. About half of those were against the press, and like I said above, I don't think that's something they'll be seeing too much this season. He's been lights out shooting the ball and he's a really good playmaker. I think a team can go far with him as a second or third option.

I think it is far easier to press in the first 5-8 games of a new season than well into the year. A conference game? You can prepare and build towards breaking the press. This can be coached. Louisville, though, is an outlier in my mind. I do give Rick Pitino tons of credit here. He recruits many many kids that can play this. His press is more sophisticated (certainly than Huggins) and always has good solid Bigs. Huggins may have put together a group of guards that will serve him great this year. I like what I saw of WVU - I give them props for their play. But ... this is not an easy way to win through February and into March Madness; good teams will prepare and guys will learn their roles.

Yes, once upon a time, Calhoun did play this way.

 

[Paesano]

I don't care enough to look it up but does anyone know if Kentucky's starting 5 is older or younger than our's? Just curious.

 

[aceboon]

I don't care enough to look it up but does anyone know if Kentucky's starting 5 is older or younger than our's? Just curious.

2 juniors, 2 sophs who started every game last year, and a freshman. If you're going to go down the path of "UK isn't that experienced", I'm not really sure what you're point is. When you're roster is littered with top 20 players(and several top 5 players), you get less of a pass for your lack of experience. Its more ready made and instant impact talent.

 

[CTBasketball]

Every guard on this team seen that press before. Its a very common, 2-2-1 press. It forces the ball to the sides of the court by the centerline and you get double teamed, forcing a bad pass. You learn how to break that in low level AAU, and apparently TSam is the only one who got that learning experience when he was younger.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

From just about anyone else this would be a mystifying observation. From you it sounds about right.


[QUOTE="nelsonmuntz, post: 1140312, member: 833"I disagree about the press handling comment from Fish. I bet most of the 19 turnovers occurred in or near the paint. I think we were ok with the press[/QUOTE]

 

[WillB4]

All of the above and whatever someone needs derive angst from.

There will a few more losses, there will be a lot more wins.

Loosen up the sphincter, the bowels have to work or it will poison your mind.

 

[Shabazzkets]

For me the "good news" from last night is that the mistakes are fixable.:

--Hamilton is too good to turn the ball over as much as he did last night. That will correct itself.
--Calhoun, if he can recapture his freshman year form, should be able to connect on open 3s better than anyone on the team currently. That will stretch the court.
--They will not shoot that poorly from the line again, IMO.
--The freshmen will improve as the season goes on.
--Last year's team was poor at times early in the season as well, and that team still ended up in a pretty good spot.

I have a lot of concerns--the lack of perimeter shooting, several weak defenders in the regular rotation, Purvis being completely unimpressive, doubts about Ryan's ability to "pull a Kemba," etc.--but in the end I still have a lot of faith that Ollie can have this team ready by March. I only hope that the weakness of the conference doesn't result in UConn's March playing out in the NIT.

 

[DogMania]

So basically switching Facey for Lubin would have led to us kicking WV's ass huh? Why do you even bother typing? Seriously?

By the way, hows that "DHam can't shoot because All I can do is pay attention to his old high school stats and can't bother to see what he's doing right in front of my eyes" working out for you?

You are the worst, most annoying poster ever, hands down. Unless you are a 12 year old girl, your grammar isn't cute or cool, it's f- cking stupid. Really, really, extra f- cking stupid.

You are annoying beyond belief, disrespectful towards others and a know it all (telling posters they need to open their eyes, or that they must not have played ball if they don't agree with you). And yet you don't contribute anything meaningful.

Let me make my point clear in a way you can understand: youz don't knowz Huskydood. Youz ares super annoying. Pleaze go beat youselvz to death with both a dictionary and a book of common sense.

Apparently I'm not the only one that gets annoyed trying to decipher Chappy's posts. Now you were a bit harsh, 33, on poor old chappy, but he does come off as he's all knowing.

I called him out in the other post where he claims that DHam is a horrible jumpshooter. I'm assuming you were referring to that one too. So far DHam has been pretty consistent from deep, and I think he has a really nice stroke. But then again, what do I know? I think dementia must be setting in, since I must not have a clue what my eyes are seeing.

 

[DogMania]

Call me a pom-pom wearer, but I came away from this game with a lot of optimism. WV plays a style that is tough to be prepared for so early in the year, especially when you're replacing 60% of your starting lineup from last season. Better shooting would have changed everything. Our shooting has not been good so far this season

DHam had 8 of our 21 turnovers, mostly on being too aggressive with his passes. However, he also looked like he could win games singlehandedly.

Our passing wasn't all that bad, and at times it was beautiful. WV is going to get TO's.

We're going to be a tough out come March.

All good points, dogpause. I was surprised to see in the Box that DHam had 8 TOs. That's a killer on the Assist:TO ratio. I'm sure he hadn't seen that type of defensive intensity before, or at least not very often. There's no doubt, they were unprepared to handle the pressure they faced and will learn to handle it better moving forward. They were clearly taken out of their offense. Throughout most of the game, I wasn't sure they were even running anything. This is where Bazz would have settled the team and got them into their offense. Hopefully Boat will learn to do likewise. It's the first time that this team is his, so we need to give him and his teammates time to put it all together.

 

[Thirty Three]

Apparently I'm not the only one that gets annoyed trying to decipher Chappy's posts. Now you were a bit harsh, 33, on poor old chappy, but he does come off as he's all knowing.

I called him out in the other post where he claims that DHam is a horrible jumpshooter. I'm assuming you were referring to that one too. So far DHam has been pretty consistent from deep, and I think he has a really nice stroke. But then again, what do I know? I think dementia must be setting in, since I must not have a clue what my eyes are seeing.

I was a bit harsh based on just his post in this thread. It was a pent up, cumulative rant though (based on all of his idiocy). I had to finally get it out. I couldn't help it.

 

[The Funster]

Yeah we got killed but we did get it down to 2 with about 4 left in the first half. The lack of a good second handle will hurt. It was evident from more than just the press too. Everyone not named Boatright was unable to put the ball in the hands of our bigs in an acceptable fashion which led to TOs as well. What I did see was Boat pulling DHam and someone else aside on a few occasions to talk to them. Teaching moments.

 

[PAHusky]

Facey has been our most consistent player all year. No one was talking about him this summer, but he's been everything we could ask for and more at the 4. Chap saying Lubin would have made any sort of difference is laughable; Lubin looks like he could be a good contributor down the line but CofC and Dayton rattled him, he would have been a mess last night. To me, the most dissappointing players so far are TSam and, to a lesser extent, Brimah. To me, TSam really hasn't brought much to the table beyond what he did last year, and he's been really error prone. His defenders know that he can't shoot - I don't think he's made a three and he badly bricked a few jumpers yesterday - and when he gets in the lane he seems indecisive compared to last season. His defense has been solid, but for a pg who can't shoot he doesn't seem to be super comfortable running the offense when Boat gets a blow, which is worrying. I'm sure he'll figure it out, but here's hoping that happens sooner rather than later. As far as Brimah, he's a complete beast on the defensive end and even cut back on the fouls last night, but his rebounding for a guy that size is borderline atrocious. I think our full offensive potential depends a lot on us running, and when our guards and wings are forced to do the rebounding we start the break infinitely slower.

 

[8893]

I was a bit harsh based on just his post in this thread. It was a pent up, cumulative rant though (based on all of his idiocy). I had to finally get it out. I couldn't help it.

I enjoyed your rant, mostly because it reaffirmed the virtues of the "ignore" feature, which I have used for chap for the past few weeks. He is the only poster for whom I have ever used this feature. I highly recommend it.

 

[CallMeBruce]

I enjoyed your rant, mostly because it reaffirmed the virtues of the "ignore" feature, which I have used for chap for the past few weeks. He is the only poster for whom I have ever used this feature. I highly recommend it.

Not the only poster for me, but the one I'm enjoying it the most with.

 

[johnhuskies95]

Facey has been our most consistent player all year. No one was talking about him this summer, but he's been everything we could ask for and more at the 4. Chap saying Lubin would have made any sort of difference is laughable; Lubin looks like he could be a good contributor down the line but CofC and Dayton rattled him, he would have been a mess last night. To me, the most dissappointing players so far are TSam and, to a lesser extent, Brimah. To me, TSam really hasn't brought much to the table beyond what he did last year, and he's been really error prone. His defenders know that he can't shoot - I don't think he's made a three and he badly bricked a few jumpers yesterday - and when he gets in the lane he seems indecisive compared to last season. His defense has been solid, but for a pg who can't shoot he doesn't seem to be super comfortable running the offense when Boat gets a blow, which is worrying. I'm sure he'll figure it out, but here's hoping that happens sooner rather than later. As far as Brimah, he's a complete beast on the defensive end and even cut back on the fouls last night, but his rebounding for a guy that size is borderline atrocious. I think our full offensive potential depends a lot on us running, and when our guards and wings are forced to do the rebounding we start the break infinitely slower.

Uh, no, Boatright has been the most consistent player this year.

 

[PAHusky]

Uh, no, Boatright has been the most consistent player this year.

Boatright has been our best player, Facey our most consistent.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Boatright has been our best player, Facey our most consistent.

Boatright has outplayed Facey in every game. Let's not all get stupid here.

 

[intlzncster]

rockski picked wrong nite to snooze

If he was actually snoozing there would have been no problems.

 

[intlzncster]

If UConn shot free throws in the tourney the way they did last night, St. Joe's might be national champ. If they shot wide open threes last season like they shot last night, Ollie would now be
an assistant coach in Oklahoma.
Did Ollie hire Diaco to work on the teams shooting?
Either Cassell or Calhoun has to be a knock down three point shooter even if they do nothing else.

No, but he did graduate the 3 best shooters from the year before, and replaced them with guys who are not so much.

 

[intlzncster]

Boat/Bazz type guards will struggle against a physical press like WVU's just because of their size. Hamilton is they type of guy you need to break that press, and he hadn't seen anything like it before. I suspect if we were to see a similar press in 2 months we wouldn't have any issue with it.

Don't agree here. Small guards like Smith and Siva from Ville crushed presses.

 

[intlzncster]

1. Boatright is not Shabazz. He's a darned good PG, but the press exposed him and his shooting, even FTs, was awful. He isn't a guy who can carry a team, he's a really good complimentary piece.

I think you're underselling Boat. Boat appeared drained to me. Likely because he's running this team without any compliment himself. Bazz had Boat; Boat doesn't have that.

And Bazz wasn't very good against the press either last year.

3. Brimah is better than last year, but I have not seen the huge leap we heard about, just incremental improvement.

People thought Brimah wouldn't miss a beat given offseason improvement. Unfortunately, we are forgetting or discounting the fact that he had offseason shoulder surgery. We discounted that with Omar last year, and you saw the results. Brimah essentially had a very limited offseason.