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No more excuses for Boat

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It's been said, but lightning struck twice with Kemba and Bazz and it ain't striking a third time. Boatright is a supremely talented player and probably the next guy enshrined in the Huskies of Honor, but you only have to look at the missed free throws down the stretch against Texas and Yale to know he isn't cut from the same cloth as those two. Very few are.
 
amory said:
It's been said, but lightning struck twice with Kemba and Bazz and it ain't striking a third time. Boatright is a supremely talented player and probably the next guy enshrined in the Huskies of Honor, but you only have to look at the missed free throws down the stretch against Texas and Yale to know he isn't cut from the same cloth as those two. Very few are.
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That's a little cold. El-Amin and Bazz both dribbled off their own legs with less than two minutes left in intense-pressure NCAA games (Bazz with 1:30 to go, down by 3 to St. Joe's - KEA 1:50 to go, up by 3 to Gonzaga. Those were both THE key games those teams had to win (99 to get to the FF, 14 just to at least have some success in the NCAA - I think a loss to Nova would have been easier to swallow). Their teammates made plays to bail them out around their mistakes, or both their legacies would be a lot different.

Kemba obviously had a pretty impeccable run, but he did foul a 3-point shooter up 3 in the last five seconds of the BE title game (even if that resulted in us losing, I think we would have universally forgiven him).
 
Gurleyman said:
That's a little cold. El-Amin and Bazz both dribbled off their own legs with less than two minutes left in intense-pressure NCAA games (Bazz with 1:30 to go, down by 3 to St. Joe's - KEA 1:50 to go, up by 3 to Gonzaga. Those were both THE key games those teams had to win (99 to get to the FF, 14 just to at least have some success in the NCAA - I think a loss to Nova would have been easier to swallow). Their teammates made plays to bail them out around their mistakes, or both their legacies would be a lot different.

Kemba obviously had a pretty impeccable run, but he did foul a 3-point shooter up 3 in the last five seconds of the BE title game (even if that resulted in us losing, I think we would have universally forgiven him).
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Bazz, as a freshman, also had that turnover in the Final Four game vs. Kentucky up 2 with about 20 seconds to go in the game after trying to dribble through traffic and having it bounce off T Jones' leg. Fortunately, he was able to redeem himself at the end of the game with that 1-and-1.
 
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tcf15 said:
Bazz, as a freshman, also had that turnover in the Final Four game vs. Kentucky up 2 with about 20 seconds to go in the game after trying to dribble through traffic and having it bounce off T Jones' leg. Fortunately, he was able to redeem himself at the end of the game with that 1-and-1.
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And . . . . . . . for the next two years Bazz was a finger pointing junkie, jacking up bad shots and not looking at all All American-ish. Perhaps he was honing things for his senior year. By his senior year he had been playing with 2 Championship players for 3 years and 3 players (Nolan, Omar, DD) for 2 years.

Boat is playing with all newbies except Omar. Nolan is invisible (and sadly doesn't count). Why people especially fans can't empathize with Boat's dilemma is beyond me.

I actually feel sorry for him, as he had NBA aspirations even in high school and he has no one helping him enhance his resume.

We should all be saying thank God he got a ring, because he deserves it with this season and what's he's 'left with.'
 
Do we realize how spoiled we are to have had not one, but two flat-out superstars in the past few years? Just because Boat isn't as dominant as either Kemba or Bazz doesn't mean we as a fanbase got slighted.
 
Putting aside what Boat is missing by not having anyone remotely close to playing Robin to his Batman, somehow it's also lost on people that Giffey played at an All-American level for the last two months of the season, and Daniels finally awoke in the NCAAs.

Hell, even Two-Rings-Tyler Olander provided some experience, which is sorely lacking this season, period.
 
.-.
amory said:
It's been said, but lightning struck twice with Kemba and Bazz and it ain't striking a third time. Boatright is a supremely talented player and probably the next guy enshrined in the Huskies of Honor, but you only have to look at the missed free throws down the stretch against Texas and Yale to know he isn't cut from the same cloth as those two. Very few are.
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seriously? it was not boats fts that lost us the Texas and Yale games. However it was the fts that lost us the Temple game and who missed them? See nobody brings up the Temple game but the Texas has been brought up time and time again to crap on Boat.
 
Fwiw boat played far better @cincy last night than Bazz did @cincy last year.
 
The only thing I hate seeing on here about Boat is that once he has a great game everyone's like, "Oh that's one of the best PG's in the nation. Why was he left off ESPN's top PG list? He deserves that mid-season Wooden Award watchlist."

And then once he has a bad game, "Boat is injured. Dude c'mon stop bashing Boat he's playing on one leg."

It's the oddest thing I've ever seen. Boat is a hell of a player, but he's not invincible to the point where he only has bad games because of his past injuries...
 
dante said:
seriously? it was not boats fts that lost us the Texas and Yale games. However it was the fts that lost us the Temple game and who missed them? See nobody brings up the Temple game but the Texas has been brought up time and time again to crap on Boat.
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I think there's a higher level of expectation for a senior who's been there. Not sure that ripping on a freshman in that spot for the first time is warranted. We don't go to OT in the first place if he didn't go 2-2 at the line in the last minute of regulation.

Boat was 3-4 in the last minute vs Texas (pretty reasonable to accept 3-4) and we get a stop either time and we win. Yale was a day he probably shouldn't have played, but we defend the 3 off the o/b play, and we probably win. We overcame Bazz's turnover and missed bunny late against St. Joe's, or Kemba's 5-19 against Butler, because we did other things well. Basketball is rarely flawless under pressure - the key is to make good things happen around the inevitable mistakes/hiccups and then they become masked.
 
amory said:
It's been said, but lightning struck twice with Kemba and Bazz and it ain't striking a third time. Boatright is a supremely talented player and probably the next guy enshrined in the Huskies of Honor, but you only have to look at the missed free throws down the stretch against Texas and Yale to know he isn't cut from the same cloth as those two. Very few are.
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Wow
Bazz, Kemba, KA, Ricky M, Talik - the list goes on, they ALL had missed fts, bonehead plays to cost games.
So Boat is the only one?
As far as I am concerned they are all cut out of the same UConn blue cloth
 
.-.
Forte said:
Outside of Hamilton I don't see many players around him that have the talent level UConn is use to.
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Gimme a break... UCONN has plenty of talent on this team... when you got new guys in the rotation an adjustment period happens... Do you remember how the teams that won National Championships for us performed the following year? Not so good... So don't give me that crap that Boat is the only talent on this team... Chemistry is an issue right now with this squad... understanding how to play along side each other, when to shoot... when to pass while under durress... we're a mess... but it's growing pains.. which is expected for the Men's team.. We don't reload like Kentucky, or like our own WBB squad... We'll be fine in the long run... We got kids that are here to learn and grow, normally for all 4 years, sometimes 3 years, rarely one and dones pan out here... Tough year but I like UCONN MBB just fine... No stress.. Next year will be different...
 
CTBasketball said:
The only thing I hate seeing on here about Boat is that once he has a great game everyone's like, "Oh that's one of the best PG's in the nation. Why was he left off ESPN's top PG list? He deserves that mid-season Wooden Award watchlist."

And then once he has a bad game, "Boat is injured. Dude c'mon stop bashing Boat he's playing on one leg."

It's the oddest thing I've ever seen. Boat is a hell of a player, but he's not invincible to the point where he only has bad games because of his past injuries...
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He was playing great.

Then he got injured.

Then he wasn't playing great.

What else should we conclude?

Bazz hurt his hand last year.

And had 10 games of sub 40% shooting from the floor.
 
upstater said:
He was playing great.

Then he got injured.

Then he wasn't playing great.

What else should we conclude?

Bazz hurt his hand last year.

And had 10 games of sub 40% shooting from the floor.
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What I'm saying is that if Boat has a bad game vs. Houston, some will say he's injured and that's why he played poorly. Even though he got his head over the rim on a block last night.
 
I'm honestly with the Boat excuses anymore. TOs is the biggest problem on the team and as a leader Boat should lead by example especially with this problem. He is guilty of making many lazy passes himself and it allows his teammates around him to feel more comfortable. As a senior that is frustrating to still see him make those lazy passes like the one Clark picked off for an easy breakaway dunk. There is plenty of talent on this team so I don't want to hear that. They just need to be pushed and set up in the right spots which Boat isn't doing right now. I said at the beginning of the season if this team wants to be successful Boat has to be more of a distributor and show he can be an NBA PG. He has not shown that.

At the beginning of the season he was killing it but nobody was showing up and now he IS getting some help. Maybe not last night but in previous games we have had other guys step out without a good performance from Boat. I'm done making excuses for him. He's the leader and PG he needs to start playing like it more.
 
CTBasketball said:
The only thing I hate seeing on here about Boat is that once he has a great game everyone's like, "Oh that's one of the best PG's in the nation. Why was he left off ESPN's top PG list? He deserves that mid-season Wooden Award watchlist." And then once he has a bad game, "Boat is injured. Dude c'mon stop bashing Boat he's playing on one leg." It's the oddest thing I've ever seen. Boat is a hell of a player, but he's not invincible to the point where he only has bad games because of his past injuries...
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His injuries (ankle sprain, deep thigh bruise) have been the sort of things that limit you athletically - speed off the bounce, lift on the J, explosiveness to the rim. At his height and with his type of skills, it reduces what he can do. He's played hurt for the team, but been less effective in doing so, where the selfish thing to do would be to sit it out and make sure you don't look exposed or have bad days in front of scouts. His shot looked way off on the Tulsa/Stanford trip - mid range pull ups that were not even close. I can't crawl inside Boat's brain, but I imagine that still being within two weeks of his thigh bruise meant he didn't have his legs under him or his mechanics back. Rip slumped for a couple weeks after his in 1999, and I think we understood that then he wasn't himself yet.

Yesterday that's not an issue - Boat seems back to 100 percent (or darn close) and just didn't play well or assertively yesterday until late. He turned up the intensity to level 5 with 10 minutes to go - the play where he got spiked from behind on the fast break was actually when where he showed high level athleticism to get the ball and escape from the pack and the guy made a great play coming from behind. He was trying to take the game over - we just didn't get enough stops in the last 10 minutes, and the guys he passed to wide open in the last 10 minutes (RP in the corner, OC in the corner, Dan Hurley at the elbow, AB underneath) didn't make the shots or maybe we'd have really made a run at it. His bad pass that was stolen was a lapse in concentration that can't happen, true.

He's clearly trying to follow the Bazz model and facilitate early and then turn it up, but I think he has a harder time flipping the switch than Bazz did. It isn't necessarily easy to crank it up and play well on cue. I'm not sure he should play that way, especially now that we are 11-8. He should maybe come out aggressively, establish his offense and get in a good rhythm, then look to facilitate.
 
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