NCAA 2 UCONN 0

[zls44]

I actually think the leader of the team has to be Oriakhi. Which sounds preposterous. But the team has looked best when he has been a leader on the court, demanding the ball, boxing out, etc.

 

[mauconnfan]

Both times zls....lol

 

[UCweCONN]

I especially love this comment given the fact in another thread you were calling on the coaching staff to press Tennessee which is something they clearly can not do with Boatright being out and making them shorthanded.

You're missing my point. When I say we need to get away from being a half court team to a running, trapping, and pressing team, I am talking about a fundamental change when Boatright is back, not saying this is why we lost to TN. I am looking at the big picture for this team, not game to game.

 

[60'sfan]

It wasn't Boatright's absense in this game. There was absolutely no offense from our forecourt, and zero points from our bench.
Uconn was taken completely out of any of it's offensive sets. I doubt Boat would've made much difference had he played.
We desperately need to get the ball to our big guys in the right places. That, unfortunately, isn't happening.

I agree. We spend too much time dribbling the ball around the perimeter while our front court watches. I think the problem is that Nappier is handling the ball way too much. He dribbles one way and then the next and when he doesn't see anyone open, he throws up a contested jump shot. He cannot seem to penetrate like Kemba and Boatright do. If we don't find a way to get the bigs involved in the offense, it will be a long season. Despite talent like Drummond, Oriakhi, Smith, Olander and Daniels available, we have become a one dimensional team with Nappier and Lamb taking all of the shots.

 

[Chief00]

Quite frankly, I told you guys "it was going to be bad" with the NCAA - and yes it continues to be. Our current ban on the 2012/13 post season both hurts recruiting and the possibility that certain guys come back. Putting the Boatshow in drydock - has had the expected consequences - after that one initial game - when guys played off emotion.

Having said that I hear the NCAA will be coming down with a ruling this week - don't know the penalty. I hear by mid-week but the NCAA's practice has been to wait until late Friday - to screw UC as much as possible from a game prep perspective - before a Saturday game. Given the way they operate it will be at least 3 games - since that's what he missed. Basically, they have the word of an ex-boyfriend who also happens to be a convicted felon. In any court w/o collaborating evidence that would be a case a prosecutor would pass on - but this is the NCAA - and Emmert has a deep grudge against UConn when he was VP of Academic Affairs against Calhoun in particular. Now apparently they do feel they have some evidence - have no idea how solid. But of course this is the NCAA and nothing matters other than what they choose to arbitrarily do.

Of course, it is ok for Cam Newton's father to take money - much more than the value of Ryan's Mom's plane ticket. Why Ryan is responsible for a decision of an adult that I believe occurred when he was a minor is beyond me - yet that standard is not held for Cam. Yes, all that high minded verbage is sheer garbage.

Calhoun has now lined up some big guns though on Boatshow's side - so the NCAA actions may not be the usual w/o consequences for them.

Emmert also thought he could score points with the media taking the high road on enforcing penalties/raising academic standards (be it selective in both cases). Now that strategy has appeared to have backfired since Emmert's academic friends (wrapped in self importance) read the NYT and it ain't exactly playing out as he had hoped - is my guess.

We need Boatshow's energy plus that makes other guys realize they can expend energy. Our team is not mature enough to know how to play smart and hard yet conserve energy/not make dumb fouls.

If Boatshow is not back for ND game - we need to make a statement at the XL - BE IT TEE SHIRTS OR WHATEVER....ANY THOUGHTS ON THAT???

 

[caw]

It wasn't Boatright's absense in this game. There was absolutely no offense from our forecourt, and zero points from our bench.
Uconn was taken completely out of any of it's offensive sets. I doubt Boat would've made much difference had he played.
We desperately need to get the ball to our big guys in the right places. That, unfortunately, isn't happening.

I do agree with a lot of this post.

However, I have to disagree with the idea that Boatright doesn't give a lot to this team and is a huge difference. I think Lamb and Napier are both working without a safety net right now which is hurting their play tremendously. Everyone is saying, "UConn runs a slow offense with a lot of dribbling." but UConn is also trying to slow the game down right now so they aren't completely exposed for having zero depth in the backcourt.

Let's take the Cincy game first: Boatright being there for 25-30 minutes allows UConn to match up with Cincy's 4 guard offense with Napier/Lamb/Boatright/Giffey, which may or may not have worked but it allows the option. It was that offense which hurt UConn the most.

Against Tennessee, you could see Lamb and Napier were tired and they had to put in Allen for more minutes than you would like (though he was decent, he gave up a huge 3).

Overall, Boatright is also another player who can break down the defense and create shots for Drummond/Oriakhi/Smith/etc. Giffey is a good passer/shooter but can't create for others. Napier looks dead on his feet and Lamb looks like he is trying to conserve energy for the second half the past few games. The same can be said for the first few games without Boatright.

I have no idea if UConn wins those games with Boatright (because the defense was pretty good against both teams) but offensively he would be a huge help.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

Hard to get offensive production out of the front-court when your guards are taking so many shots.

 

[mauconnfan]

Again people missing the point - noone has stepped up and proven to deserve touches or demanded the ball in the post. You can't do it just because....