My main concern . . .

[Pudge]

This is all about Jalen Adams.

We - Kevin Ollie, staff and us (the Fanbase) - could not hand this 2015-2016 over to a talented PG (who frankly is written up as NOT playing PG 100% in prep). Sterling Gibbs was an excellent Fill. Regardless of this "he's Ollie's guy" or "he's Calhoun's guy"; you start with the premise that WE had a experience gap problem (and contrast that to some of the issues from last year). That is the start of this conversation. Maybe we never would have brought a Sterling Gibbs skillset in our Calhoun years. Doesn't matter. For a specific reason, we did.

We still have a bunch of guys who haven't been around for long. Both Hamilton and Purvis for one year of action. Gibbs and Miller for just this. And Facey is a long term development project. We have had Facey type before. Add to this the difficulty of taking Brimah OUT.

Game to game, you should expect progress in how we play defense; and how the Ollie staff sees this evolving. The disappointment is that we haven't seen that progress. But ... we have given Adams to capacity to develop at a more normal growth. I think he will.

 

[auror]

Not sure how these numbers are generated, but I watched Syracuse and gonzaga tear us up. Tulane made a run on us that made me think I wasn't watching UConn. Maybe its a question of us donkey stomping weaklings and sucking wind against good teams. Our best D against Temple was holding them to 40% at the line. Our best D on the year was Maryland. Need to bring that every night.

It's essentially points allowed per 100 possessions adjusted for opponent.

I would say you have selective memory. The other halves in the games in question, the Michigan game (held them to 0.92ppp, they average 1.14), Ohio St (held to 0.82), etc.

 

[InKembaITrust]

The only problem I have with our defense is that we rarely grab clean defensive rebounds.

Always seems like we never box out with the majority of our bigs being extremely wiry. The rebounds are always tipped around and chaotically corralled before we slowly outlet it to Gibbs who is horrific in transition, and half the time doesn't even attempt to get into the fast break b/c by the time we've finally secured the rebound the other team is already in their defensive set!

This type of effort with defensive rebounding (excluding DHam) results in us missing out on a number of fast break transition points.

I feel like this is the first Uconn team that does not capitalize a large percentage of their points from the fast break. Calhoun lived by this back in the day.

Were now more of a finesse, 3-point settling, 1v1 isolation offense in the half court. Not our historical style and it's not going to pan out well for us if we continue to play this way. I've said it several times and I'll keep saying it, START JALEN. I do not care about his inexperience, kid is the best chance we have at leading the fast break and has the natural born instincts to make things happen in the open court.

 

[BLUEDOGHOUSE]

I agree our defense is not as good as it should or could be. There are some reasons, 3 of them starters. I mean reality is you want to play "UConn style man" yet you have 3 guys that can't guard people all that well in the man. Sterling and DHam are slow to move their feet and stay from perimeter to the lane on their guy keeping themselves between their guy and the hoop. Kentan many times is not in position to make plays, back to the play at times not knowing when to leave to help. I mean they do a pretty nice job overall to hide these shortcomings actually.

Here's the deal though, Temple scored 55. It's not time to talk about the defense now is it?

KO on the coaches show tonight was asked about going zone by Joe D. KO said "When you lose your best perimeter defender (referring to Boat) you switch it up". Joe D. also asked the question about not fouling with a foul to give on the last Temple possession. KO answered that also.

 

[mauconnfan]

KO on the coaches show tonight was asked about going zone by Joe D. KO said "When you lose your best perimeter defender (referring to Boat) you switch it up". Joe D. also asked the question about not fouling with a foul to give on the last Temple possession. KO answered that also.

Well BDH?

 

[HooperScooper]

KO on the coaches show tonight was asked about going zone by Joe D. KO said "When you lose your best perimeter defender (referring to Boat) you switch it up". Joe D. also asked the question about not fouling with a foul to give on the last Temple possession. KO answered that also.

And he said????

 

[BLUEDOGHOUSE]

Well BDH?

KO said not exact words..."If I had to do it all over again I would have fouled in that situation (he did not say I would have instructed my players to foul... although that is PROBABLY what he meant..." That was part of his answer to the question. He quickly and without hesitation expounded on this initial comment to add this...." Sterling thought he could get the stop so decided not to foul." There is some contradictory verbiage here which amounted to confusion. Joe D. quickly commented on the risk of fouling an active shooter and sending them to the line in that situation and KO agreed with Joe D. They weren't instructed to foul in my opinion or SG would have.

Most of the coaches show tonight revolved around the loss being a learning experience for players and coaches. KO commented that Miller in practice today took a MUCH more active leadership role. He mentioned that AB is running with the team during practice. KO said he loves the energy Brimah brings in that regard and then stated "That is nice since we have guys that don't bring that type of energy". Probably referring directly to Hamilton on that 1.