Nova Post Game Thread | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Nova Post Game Thread

YoungFree said:
I haven't posted in forever and I'm probably gonna get roasted for this but oh well:

I'm so glad this team doesn't give up like the fans do. Down 23 and only lost by 11. Sure, a win would have been better and playing two halves instead of one would have been better but they didn't quit.

All the negativity is blown out of proportion. 15-6, top 25 ranking, and a bid to the tourney on the table. Just chill. Glad the team fought.
Expand ...
This is the same thing that has happened EVERY game against Nova. Go down by 20, fight back valiantly, lose by 10-15 and Dan Hurley saying wait til next time. He and the program are pretenders
 
navery12 said:
There's a very large group of posters who are only a fan of UConn losing. Reading the threads created mid game was like stumbling onto a new board of accounts created within the past 2 weeks
Expand ...
You are such a Hurley @$$kisser it's crazy...are you on his payroll? All you do is dislike any one that has anything critical to say....I'm glad you think he did a good job today.
 
Healthy Cole, Dama and AJ.....4 points total at half.
Dama and Whaley 2 early fouls

This can just not happen.....we don't have enough answers for that scenario.
 
XLCenterFan said:
I tend to agree with you. However, while I was watching today's game, I had a thought. Who here remembers when KO was our coach and Nova came into the XL and buried us? Well I had the same feeling today. For all that has changed, a few things have stayed the same. Nova is still busting us up good. They are hands down the class of the BE...like we used to be. Until we get back to challenging Nova for the top of the conference, no one here will be happy.
Expand ...
Makes valid sense. To me there is a giant void between being upset at a loss and saying the program and coach is garbage like some folks keep saying.
 
BostonBay said:
This team will never make it the next level with Hurley. No improvement at all throughout this season. Hallmark of a poorly coached team. Same pattern year after year.
Expand ...
Coaches improve, too.

Wright had a stretch of 6 straight seasons where he didn't get Nova past the round of 32 and they weren't a top 50 team in any of his first 3 years.
 
.-.
NJHusky said:
You are such a Hurley @$$kisser it's crazy...are you on his payroll? All you do is dislike any one that has anything critical to say....I'm glad you think he did a good job today.
Expand ...
No, I think Hurley did an awful job today and got massively outcoached. I also just think you're incredibly dumb so that's why I keep disliking your posts
 
YoungFree said:
I haven't posted in forever and I'm probably gonna get roasted for this but oh well:

I'm so glad this team doesn't give up like the fans do. Down 23 and only lost by 11. Sure, a win would have been better and playing two halves instead of one would have been better but they didn't quit.

All the negativity is blown out of proportion. 15-6, top 25 ranking, and a bid to the tourney on the table. Just chill. Glad the team fought.
Expand ...
BostonBay said:
This team will never make it the next level with Hurley. No improvement at all throughout this season. Hallmark of a poorly coached team. Same pattern year after year.
Expand ...
100% agree
 
BostonBay said:
This team will never make it the next level with Hurley. No improvement at all throughout this season. Hallmark of a poorly coached team. Same pattern year after year.
Expand ...
Never is a long time. Bit of an extreme statement. The rebuild is not over yet.
 
Hurley can’t shoot the ball himself but if his teams are all about defense and toughness and this team neither was tough nor played serviceable defense, I’m not sure what else there is to say. I guess his excuse is going to be they’re tired from the bus ride?
 
Hurley prides himself on defense and gave up 46 in the paint and guys wide open all game. Don’t know why there are a ton of people defending him so much. He needs to change something up or we are at serious risk of not even making the tourney. Everyone saying “the sky isn’t falling” seem to forget there’s a only a month left in the season so there’s not a lot of time to improve.
 
.-.
YoungFree said:
I haven't posted in forever and I'm probably gonna get roasted for this but oh well:

I'm so glad this team doesn't give up like the fans do. Down 23 and only lost by 11. Sure, a win would have been better and playing two halves instead of one would have been better but they didn't quit.

All the negativity is blown out of proportion. 15-6, top 25 ranking, and a bid to the tourney on the table. Just chill. Glad the team fought.
Expand ...

Without Gillespie the last 8-10 and never had Moore they’re 2nd best player. There’s nothing good about this loss or the way they’ve been playing. 9-6 in games that count is what they are and the bubble is where they are heading.

Long way to go and I hope it all changes but you can’t like the fact they don’t do well against the better teams all that often.
 
Positive Thoughts:
  • Started well. Played level until Sanogo’s 2nd foul. Sanogo avoided a 3rd when he came back in.
  • Liked the effort to come back in the 2nd. Fell short but hopefully some lessons were learned. This team can’t win with lazy D and sloppy turnovers.
  • Hawkins played with confidence in the second half and even played mediocre D and had a nice assist. This is what I was hoping he’d be. Bodes well.
  • Martin made some shots and looked at least 2/3 of early season Martin pre injury. Need consistency from him.
I‘m trying to be less negative. So I’ll hold those thoughts. There is more than enough of that going around. Including people blaming Cole for reasons that escape me (perhaps extreme stupidity on the part of those posters).
 
HuskyHawk said:
Positive Thoughts:
  • Started well. Played level until Sanogo’s 2nd foul. Sanogo avoided a 3rd when he came back in.
  • Liked the effort to come back in the 2nd. Fell short but hopefully some lessons were learned. This team can’t win with lazy D and sloppy turnovers.
  • Hawkins played with confidence in the second half and even played mediocre D and had a nice assist. This is what I was hoping he’d be. Bodes well.
  • Martin made some shots and looked at least 2/3 of early season Martin pre injury. Need consistency from him.
I‘m trying to be less negative. So I’ll hold those thoughts. There is more than enough of that going around. Including people blaming Cole for reasons that escape me (perhaps extreme stupidity on the part of those posters).
Expand ...
Good points here, and pretty much the way I see it as well. The turnovers cost us dearly, as they will against good teams. Why we don't take better care of the ball with largely a veteran squad is beyond me. Why are we passing into traffic, and in situations where even I can telegraph them sitting on my couch, never mind the opponent? Also, I noticed many times we played rock solid, even suffocating defense, but Villanova just patiently probed and poked until they found a weak spot and cashed in, often late in the shot clock. We need to improve on closing out each possession on defense rather than breaking down in the final seconds. And it seemed we uncharacteristically did poorly on the offensive glass as if we were a bit tentative at times. Also, what has happened to Andre's confidence on offense? It seems like he's regressed as he's second-guessing himself, even passing up good shots to pass the ball to someone else instead? I feel as if the majority of the team's woes as of late can be attributed to lack of confidence/focus rather than lack of talent.
 
For me, the problem isn’t necessarily the loss today, even though I feel we can beat Villanova, they are still expected to be the class of the big east. Losing the other night to Creighton is what bothers me. We should have won that game and we also were in the Providence and Seton hall games and feel we should have pulled those out also. I expect to win those games and at least put up a good fight against Villanova where as we expect to see them again in the bet and everyone is anticipating it. I expected that kind of a season at least this year, but I’m afraid it may be a repeat of last year. Actually we will probably win one game in the tourney.
 
YoungFree said:
I haven't posted in forever and I'm probably gonna get roasted for this but oh well:

I'm so glad this team doesn't give up like the fans do. Down 23 and only lost by 11. Sure, a win would have been better and playing two halves instead of one would have been better but they didn't quit.

All the negativity is blown out of proportion. 15-6, top 25 ranking, and a bid to the tourney on the table. Just chill. Glad the team fought.
Expand ...
Some of the posts today may seem negative, yet a lot of posts are just frustration posts. Come Monday, you can better determine the nature of posters.

As for me, I wanted us to represent the UConn brand on National TV even if losing, and we didn't. That's very frustrating to me.
 
.-.
I think we need to start Hawkins and move Whalley to the bench. We can't have both IW and AS out with two fouls 5 minutes into the game. Also, we need three willing 3 point shooters(Cole, Hawk, Martin) on the floor so teams don't collapse their defenses. Also, I'd like to see UConn space the floor and run some pick and rolls with Cole and Sanogo. Just a two man game with shooters available outside. Running the pick and roll with shooters might get Polley some open threes with his feet set on a kick out because running him off screens has not been successful recently.
 
Yes, foul trouble limited us, but why did they get in foul trouble? 1) too many touch fouls 30 feet from basket, 2) they always go for Nova's shot fakes and jump in the air, I guess trying to make a spectacular block. This is on coaching and needs to be fixed.

The lazy passes that were intercepted, this too can be fixed. Maybe coach can implement some drills where they practice bounce passes?

Why is it so hard to AJ to get into the lane and take a jump shot? He tried the runner once from just inside the foul line, too far. He had other chances and passed out. He has to try shooting there.

Not a good shooting night to say the least, and other teams will just pack it in if we can't keep them honest by hitting shots. There must be some strategies to get better shots. Why is Nova able to get so many 1-on-1 shots?
 
If you didn't see this game coming, you haven't been paying attention.

  1. Wright is going to outcoach Hurley. He's the best coach in America and he's been at Nova 20+ seasons. His teams execute phenomenally. They are always greater than the sum of their parts. Right now, we are the antithesis of that.
  2. Until Hurley stops building rosters like it's 1992, Nova will be a bad match-up for us and we'll struggle to beat them. Having two traditional bigs on the floor is playing right into their hands but we don't have the personnel to go small. Polley at the four does not work for long stretches. We don't have enough guards to put Martin there.
  3. Broken record #1: Roster construction is a disaster.
  4. Broken record #2: Not addressing backup PG/having a contingency plan if Diggins wasn't ready is probably the biggest black eye on Hurley's tenure so far. A gross oversight.
  5. Broken record #3: this team is largely reliant on Ollie 3-star recruits and a low-major and a mid-major transfer. We need better talent.

Separately, don't forget that Wright had a slow start his first few years at Nova. Hell, Nova was six games under .500 in conference play over the final three seasons of the real Big East. For nearly 15 years they were largely a disappointment in March. There is hope for Hurley, but he needs to start showing development and proving that he's learning from his mistakes.

With COVID, what's the eligibility impact for Cole and Martin? Was it only last year's seniors who were given an extra year or was it every player? Those two are definitely done after this season, correct?
 
.-.
uconnfan68 said:
Game was over after 4 minutes with both Sanogo and Whaley on the bench with 2 fouls. That’s when Hurley should have been T’d up.
Expand ...
Can't wait to watch the replay, looked to me that all 4 calls were touch fouls. They have not been making those calls all year and today they do. Those fouls took our gameplan away. And then AJ goes up for a dunk, gets blocked but lots of body contact and no call.
 
All in favor of playing Hawkins more. We need more shooting and he’s the most likely place to see improvement between now and the end of the season. If he can find his handle and settle down a bit, defenses will need to account for him which will help open things up for other guys.

Whaley had a bad game playing with early foul trouble. But he had a truly great game against Creighton. If he had gotten just a little help from anyone else, we win that game. I don’t think playing him less is the answer.

Not sure what Polley gives us besides reasonable on-man defense. Our issue is offense and it’s basically 4-on-5 for us when he’s on the court. He doesn’t shoot the three well enough to fill that specialist role. (He’s 6th on the team in 3PT% for players with 30+ attempts.) He contributes nothing in terms of rebounds or assists and doesn’t attack the basket to get to the line. He was a good shooter earlier in his career. That was supposed to be his role on this team, but it hasn’t been working for two years now and I’m not sure hope is a plan at this point.

Jackson can be frustrating but he has the ability to create and is the second-best rebounder on the team. You live with his mistakes and keep playing him.
 
Last edited:
BostonBay said:
This team will never make it the next level with Hurley. No improvement at all throughout this season. Hallmark of a poorly coached team. Same pattern year after year.
Expand ...
The year after year pattern prior to this year was - get better each year. We seem to have hit a plateau. Improvement isn't linear. We are what we are right now. A bubble team. If RJ comes back next year we will likely be a bubble team next year too. If he doesn't we will be a .500 team. 2-3 years from now , from a talent perspective we might have a breakthrough. We will need coach to also grow and improve. If so, 2-3 years from now we could be anywhere from sweet 16 to champion.
 
Lefty2one said:
They were ticky-tack fouls, but I don't think those early fouls made a difference. Nova was going to run us regardless.
Expand ...
Yeah it didn't make a difference, we were in the game while Samson played. Maybe Sanogo and Whaley play more aggressive defense without the 2 fouls, but we were not winning today without divine intervention
 
Brochacho said:
We really didn’t play that bad and Nova was down a key player then lost Gillepsie. Played tough but this team isn’t a contender come March unless we have favorable matchups.

We have one ball handler and minimal spacing and are not as sound fundamentally as a team like Villanova - not much we can do this year.

Play the freshmen, let them grow.
Expand ...
Until Hawkins proves he can stand still and not drop the ball I’m going to be suspect. At least polley the only somewhat similar player isn’t a turnover machine. Every single possession. All if his other pluses aren’t going to show until he proves he can handle the ball. It’s hard to watch now. I think the last 2 games were the trap games a said they were. We win them in good fashion we would have had a real shot at this one. Our guys played hard all the way but a bit timid. Hurley got outcoached by the best coach in basketball. Who’d a thunk it?! Beat Marquette. Remember 2011 and the mighty slump? Let’s see. Pieces are here confidence needs to rediscovered and a plan should be brewing from the likes of our elite assistants.
 
.-.
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
168,305
Messages
4,562,315
Members
10,457
Latest member
caw2


Top Bottom