New Haven Post Game Thread | Page 8 | The Boneyard

New Haven Post Game Thread

Shabazzkets said:
UConn will be fine but expectations need to be reset. This is nowhere near a championship caliber team like we saw a couple years ago. Which is fine, winning three in four is insanely hard to do.
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Do you realize how insane you sound posting this on November 4th after a game against New Haven that was never actually competitive?
 
RuffRuff said:
He has, but I do think this year is a good test to confirm whether his template was a product of a swath of talent that struck lightning(I know Temery thinks so), or repeatable. He has a very good, but not spectacular roster this year. There are still a lot of parts from a team that was disappointing last year. Now it's going to be about how quickly he can coach up a Demary to run PG and how fast can we get Mullins involved. Demary doesn't look like a natural PG to me right now - he's super intentional in how he passes the ball in at times, versus looking instinctive. Almost like he's aiming, trying too hard. And this whole not shooting thing to facilitate makes it seem even more like he has to think about it versus it just coming to him.
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There was a part of me last night that wondered if he was being less aggressive and looking to pass more just because it's early in the season and we were playing a cupcake. I remember Cam coming out and not shooting much his first couple games here because he wanted to facilitate and get other guys involved. I wouldn't be shocked if he took more of a facilitator role last night just to get some game reps with that mentality. There will be games he facilitates more, games where he looks to score more depending on opponent and script. Since he has less experience in the facilitator role, playing a whole game where he intentionally shuts down his scoring instincts to focus on facilitating helps him develop as an initiator of the offense. These are the games to do so.

If we get to BYU and he still isn't playing assertively, then I'll be quite concerned lol
 
nomar said:
11 assists on 27 baskets is not UConn basketball
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We could have had a few more. Statistician was sort of unkind. Early in the game, Demary threw the ball to Reibe and Stewart posting up deep on the low block - they made quick post moves but no assist was given, even though Demary gave them the ball in prime real estate. Reibe also didn’t get one on the dribble handoff to Karaban for a 3 late in the half when all AK did was dribble once in place and let it fly.

But we also had a couple putbacks where the initial play was good offense and would have been an assist, but we scored on the glass instead (first play of the game, Demary found Ball on a cut and he missed at the rim, but Stewart put it back in).
 
superjohn said:
We don't have 2 of our 5 best players, one of which is our low post beast and the other our best NBA prospect.

If you didn't already know this is not going to be an athletic team by UConn's standards you haven't been paying attention.
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Let me ask you this. How many New Haven players would make our team. Not starters, just make the team? If the answer is not at least 3, then not having starters is no excuse for what was a very poor performance overall. FWIW my number is 0.
 
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CTBasketball said:
What game were you watching? I saw Ross get blown by on the perimeter 2x. One time Solo was there to help with a weak side block. It’s low level basketball IQ and slow feet, a problem with most of our perimeter.
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If you’re talking about 38:25 Ross got the block first. Pretty heavy criticism for a play he recovered on to get a block.



I’m not sure the other play you’re referring to. But getting blown by 2x, one ending up in a recovery block, isn’t bad at all. It’s pretty good.
WhereistheDove? said:
He had another nice defensive game. Got beat on a couple drives where he was able to recover with his length and still either contest or block the shot. Has been nice to see. Offensively, well, he is who he is. I think the deficiencies are highlighted in a game like today where we didn’t have Reed, Mullins, and Demary was in foul trouble. Ross will be at his best when he’s our fifth option on offense, but having him and two of Reibe/Koroma/Smith/Millender puts more offensive pressure on him than is ideal.
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Id prefer him to force himself have to do something offensively. Feel like he’s at his best when he’s not thinking about it and just does it out of necessity.

It’s frustrating how much of it is simply confidence and he’s the only player out there with that issue. Like bruh, everyone else shoots and misses all the time with confidence. It’s okay if you take a few or have a couple drives that aren’t perfect.
 
BigErnMcCracken said:
Do you realize how insane you sound posting this on November 4th after a game against New Haven that was never actually competitive?
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There's always a lot of nonsensical overreactions here over a single game but I don't ever remember this volume of ridiculous takes in the past over a meaningless cupcake game where we don't have our roster intact.
 
RuffRuff said:
Demary doesn't look like a natural PG to me right now - he's super intentional in how he passes the ball in at times, versus looking instinctive. Almost like he's aiming, trying too hard. And this whole not shooting thing to facilitate makes it seem even more like he has to think about it versus it just coming to him.
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Been saying this could be a thing before the season started. He’ll end up okay it’ll just be a process.

Hopefully he comes around sooner than later.
 
Boneyard is in peak form after the 1st game of the season. This is why I love the place. Insane commitment to insane takes from the jump.

All of you saying "this is not a championship team" after one game where we were down 2 starters plus an intriguing bench piece...did you already forget about the choppy start to the season and the January doldrums of the 2022-23 Championship team?

All of you fretting and whining about our subpar assist numbers being down (doomed!). How many assists do you think were lost by not having Reed in on the blocks for easy dump-in layups/dunks? How many more would we have had if we shot better from 3pt (which we very likely will, with Solo rounding into form, Mullins in the line-up, less missed bunnies, etc.)? Did you remember that Newton only had 3 & 1 assists in his first 2 games?

Buckle up and enjoy the ride. We're gonna be just fine.
 
RuffRuff said:
Do we really think Koroma gets much PT when Tarris is back?
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Somebody will. Tarris has a tendency to foul. He will likely be a 20 minute guy not a 30 plus guy. The way Reibe played, it won’t be him.
 
HW611 said:
Id prefer him to force himself have to do something offensively. Feel like he’s at his best when he’s not thinking about it and just does it out of necessity.

It’s frustrating how much of it is simply confidence and he’s the only player out there with that issue. Like bruh, everyone else shoots and misses all the time with confidence. It’s okay if you take a few or have a couple drives that aren’t perfect.
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I think Reed being back will open up some more options for him. Reed will draw a lot of attention and help in the paint (which Reibe just doesn’t right now), which will lead to more open looks for the perimeter players. Ross just needs to be ready to take that open shot or open lane when it comes. I don’t think the confidence we need from him is breaking his man down off the dribble.
 
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freescooter said:
Let me ask you this. How many New Haven players would make our team. Not starters, just make the team? If the answer is not at least 3, then not having starters is no excuse for what was a very poor performance overall. FWIW my number is 0.
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I wasn’t exactly thrilled yesterday - but the 2004 team with all the returning pieces in place and a preseason No. 1 ranking was tied with Yale at the half. And it wasn’t even a good Yale. Even two years ago we let a winless Mississippi Valley State hang around for most of the first half.

There’s enough encouragement from the exhibitions to allow for a bit of a lull playing a no name. If I had a concern, it’s more that we didn’t put a hammer down in the second half - I could handle being a little flat or not sharp on opening day, but wanted to see us take it to another gear that UNH couldn’t match, and it never came. Our best spurt to create separation was Solo making 6 FTs and Koroma getting an and one. Harder to find that next gear when your opponent can match it.
 
HooperScooper said:
Well.......I'm glad they have 2 more games against cupcakes before playing BYU.

I figured it would take some time to gel with so many new pieces. Demary looks confused what he's supposed to do as the PG.

What was with the defense? Looked like they couldn't really stay in front of people.

There's work to do.
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Hurley called that out, but I do wonder if his normal approach hurt us against this team. Hurley preaches defending the 3, and this team didn't take many and instead blew by our guys who were defending more like the threat was jumpshots. Learning experience to maybe back off slightly against quick guards who aren't great shooters.
 
A lot of things to be concerned about, yet we have to consider that UConn's starting center and most likely their best scorer were sitting in Catholic school clothing on the bench.
AK hit some important shots that stopped the bit of momentum that UNH had built at the time. AK had good numbers, again.
The Georgia bulldog left that edginess at home when it came to guarding his man on the perimeter.
Smith is a flash in driving to the hoop but like so many recent guards at UConn he needs to work on making sure the ball goes thru the hoop. He will be a sure asset as the season progresses.
Korona had flashes of great play but he needs to learn to dunk the ball and/or take it strong to the basket - missed 3 bunnies - he does bring a high energy level.
Maybe insisting that Ball generate an inside game is not a good thing - seems to have screwed up his perimeter shooting which is so important to this team. If you can't throw up a lob, please don't bother.....................................
Stewie had too much athleticism for any UNH player trying to guard him. A good game for him.
Ross is too high strung when he gets on the floor. Needs to harness that energy and he will be fine.
I like the way Millender plays and what a luxury having him as the 3rd option at the PG position.
Reibe is young and the more playing time he gets the better off UConn will be. He looked like he was just trying to survive yesterday because Posh was hitting some unreal shots. UConn needs to be looking for Posh's name in the portal next spring.
It's a win and only a win, a loss would have been like Maui 2024.
Dan Hurley knows the road is going to be bumpy for a while.
 
Waquoit said:
Seriously? It's been like that forever. Weeknight or cupcake games those fans don't show in Gampel. A weeknight AND cupcake games are worse. Not an issue in Hartford because the drive home is much shorter.
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Yeah, seriously. Are you telling me in Hartford the seats would be filled for a game like this?
 
superjohn said:
There's always a lot of nonsensical overreactions here over a single game but I don't ever remember this volume of ridiculous takes in the past over a meaningless cupcake game where we don't have our roster intact.
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Indeed. Continuity isn't what it was 10 years ago. Each team is pretty new and they need time. Meanwhile, I remember losing to Wagner on opening night in 2016. That was actually concerning. This is just a poor performance that Hurley will use to help the team.
 
WhereistheDove? said:
I think Reed being back will open up some more options for him. Reed will draw a lot of attention and help in the paint (which Reibe just doesn’t right now), which will lead to more open looks for the perimeter players. Ross just needs to be ready to take that open shot or open lane when it comes. I don’t think the confidence we need from him is breaking his man down off the dribble.
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I agree Reed’s gravity will open it up for everyone, including Ross, and will provide a dump off option too on drives.

Don’t think Ross needs to take anyone one on one. But most of the time he gets the ball is on the move or with an opportunity to attack a close out.
 
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It was a bad game. Period. We got up 28-15 and then basically played them even for over 20 minutes until 70-55 and then we closed on a 9-0 run. Against a team making their DI debut.

But let's see how we've done in our first cupcake game the last several years and how it boded:

2025: 92-56 over Sacred Heart. Bad D in the first half maybe portended season-long issues.
2024: 95-52 over NAU. Consistent, pretty dominant.
2023: 85-54 over Stonehill. D was stout early, offense so-so.
2022: 99-48 over CCSU. High-flying and dominant, actually masked season-long issues on offense.
2021: 102-75 over CCSU. Misleadingly explosive on offense and mediocre on defense.
2020: 89-67 over Sacred Heart. Disconcertingly close at halftime portended slow start to the year, but the team developed immensely.
2019: 80-70 over Morehead State. Bad game by a bad team.
2018: 70-58 over Colgate. Bad game by a bad team.
2017: 58-67 loss to Wagner. Say no more.
2016: 100-56 over Maine. So-so first half, pulled away early 2nd. Maybe emblematic of some inconsistency.
2015: 66-53 over Bryant. Bad game by a mediocre team.

So, of those 11 examples, there are several cases -- though mostly among teams that were much worse than this one -- of a bad start being representative of the team's performance. There are also a few where the game wasn't representative, though mostly, but not always, in the direction of the team being worse than implied. There's also one case of a team developing over the year. And, of course, missing 1-2 starters is a factor.

We shouldn't dismiss some obvious warning signs, but full-blown panic is unwarranted.
 
RuffRuff said:
He has, but I do think this year is a good test to confirm whether his template was a product of a swath of talent that struck lightning(I know Temery thinks so), or repeatable. He has a very good, but not spectacular roster this year. There are still a lot of parts from a team that was disappointing last year. Now it's going to be about how quickly he can coach up a Demary to run PG and how fast can we get Mullins involved. Demary doesn't look like a natural PG to me right now - he's super intentional in how he passes the ball in at times, versus looking instinctive. Almost like he's aiming, trying too hard. And this whole not shooting thing to facilitate makes it seem even more like he has to think about it versus it just coming to him.
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I kind of wonder if he is going to be Coach K- won back to back then won 3 more championships plus went to 4(?) more Final Fours or will he be more Billy Donovan. Back to back and never got to the winner’s circle again. Only made the Final Four one other time. Finally went to the NBA where he has been moderately successful I guess, though I concede that the NBA is a different sort of beast with the draft, salary cap and so forth, free agency limits and coaches are less important than effective GMs. I think if you ask who was the better coach nobody would say Donovan, though.
 
Shabazzkets said:
UConn will be fine but expectations need to be reset. This is nowhere near a championship caliber team like we saw a couple years ago. Which is fine, winning three in four is insanely hard to do.
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I agree but one of our experts decided to go the name calling route when I made a very similar comment in the chat. I know Reed and Mullins will make us a better team but when you have trouble guarding guards who are just barely Division 1 quality for a whole game first game or not that is unfortunately a very bad look and is concerning. It’s defense freaking stay in front of your man.

Yes we can and should be optimistic and a few 10-0 runs where we could have defended better should not be a bridge too far of an expectation for a team with what is supposed to have a very high ceiling.

The BY experts can take all their shots at this take as I know they will and I hope they are right but we looked very pedestrian against a team playing their first division one game.

Another team that had a first bad game against a low level opponent was Michigan St.

Personally I have reset my expectations of this team hope I am wrong but man that was an ugly game.
 
EnochRoot said:
I mean, you're not wrong, but it really needs to be pointed out that this New Haven team (barring injury) will probably make a lot of noise in the NEC. They were picked to finish last, and that's just the role of the D2 team making the jump. Pasha was at a CC last year. He's not a D2 guy. He plays the 4 like an early 80s NBA player with his back to the basket.
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They'll end up in the 6-12, 8-10 range in the NEC this year. That's as much noise as they'll make.
 
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RuffRuff said:
He has, but I do think this year is a good test to confirm whether his template was a product of a swath of talent that struck lightning(I know Temery thinks so), or repeatable. He has a very good, but not spectacular roster this year. There are still a lot of parts from a team that was disappointing last year. Now it's going to be about how quickly he can coach up a Demary to run PG and how fast can we get Mullins involved. Demary doesn't look like a natural PG to me right now - he's super intentional in how he passes the ball in at times, versus looking instinctive. Almost like he's aiming, trying too hard. And this whole not shooting thing to facilitate makes it seem even more like he has to think about it versus it just coming to him.
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Yeah, but lightning striking twice? I mean, of the top 8 guys in 2023, we lost 5 of them, including multiple NBA players. It's not like Florida 2006 to 2007 or Duke 1991 to 1992 who basically ran back the same lineup.

Newton, Karaban, and Clingan (in a much bigger role) were the main holdovers. Diarra barely.

If this team doesn't pan out, Hurley is definitely going to get more questions about misplaced loyalty (this time to guys like Ross and Stewart) like he did 5 years ago when he held onto Whaley and Polley in significant roles. Though, one hopes that this year's team has enough talent (not just depth) that if they're not performing at an elite level he can play others.
 
UCann said:
Looking around the top 25 scores, other teams are winning these cupcake games by 30-40+ points. And scoring way more than 79 points. I think we have a lot to be concerned about.
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You might want to jump off the wagon before it gains momentum. Come back next year and hopefully it's a better outcome for you. Round up the rest of the naysayers while you're at it.
 
I have on the BY long enough to have seen some incredible over reactions. But the reaction after this game takes the cake:
  • To the dude that said he would have lost to Florida or Arizona: NO s---. Where they missing two starters last night?
  • To the army of negative willies that are lamenting about an offense that everyone predicts to be top 5 in the country: Chill out! We are one dimensional without The Bear. Our offense is going to look much different when we have an inside out game, as we did in 22 and 23. The inside game will yield open looks, creating the beautiful offense that we are used to.
  • To the folks hating on our D: All due respect, you are missing the forest past the trees. Last night we played solid (not spectacular) defense without fouling as we did in the first two games. That is called PROGRESS. Yes they were making tough shots. In Basketball, that will happen. And again, our starting Center is out.
  • Reibe having one rebound is hard to excuse or defend. So I will not even try. However, The Bear is coming back. All is good.

If a couple of the missed 3's go in early in the second half, the final score would have been more like we expected, and some of you would not have such high blood pressure.

Among the things I need to see improving:
  • Solo has to play better. His 3 point shot must improve.
  • Silas looks at 80%. This was only his second game back, though. You can tell he is going to be nasty good.
  • Reibe and Malachi must improve their finishing around the basket. Too many missed layups.
 
freescooter said:
I kind of wonder if he is going to be Coach K- won back to back then won 3 more championships plus went to 4(?) more Final Fours or will he be more Billy Donovan. Back to back and never got to the winner’s circle again. Only made the Final Four one other time. Finally went to the NBA where he has been moderately successful I guess, though I concede that the NBA is a different sort of beast with the draft, salary cap and so forth, free agency limits and coaches are less important than effective GMs. I think if you ask who was the better coach nobody would say Donovan, though.
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Who knows - I just know this is a big year for Dan Hurley. He's gotten a lot of flowers, deservingly. Last year was a healthy pass, deservingly. Now he has a very good roster that goes into the mix with 12-14 other teams capable of winning the whole thing. This is where you show your stuff.

And if he doesn't have the year he hopes, how does he handle it?
 
RuffRuff said:
He has, but I do think this year is a good test to confirm whether his template was a product of a swath of talent that struck lightning(I know Temery thinks so), or repeatable. He has a very good, but not spectacular roster this year. There are still a lot of parts from a team that was disappointing last year. Now it's going to be about how quickly he can coach up a Demary to run PG and how fast can we get Mullins involved. Demary doesn't look like a natural PG to me right now - he's super intentional in how he passes the ball in at times, versus looking instinctive. Almost like he's aiming, trying too hard. And this whole not shooting thing to facilitate makes it seem even more like he has to think about it versus it just coming to him.
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If it's so easy to blow every team out in 2 straight NCAA tourneys with a spectacular roster, how come no one else has ever done it?
 
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