Ollie finally lost them

[CAHUSKY]

If you've played competitive sports before, a similar situation has happened to you before where the mental focus and effort wasn't there. I don't think it has to do with heart at all. They were as many have pointed out, severely undermanned.

I was going to post the exact same thing last night. Anyone who played competitive sports have experienced the scenario you described.

 

[mpxc55]

It's still a loss to the dregs of the conference. If we are going to ridicule pc fans for excuses regarding their early season losses at least have the dignity to not turn around and do the same thing

 

[mauconnfan]

It's still a loss to the dregs of the conference. If we are going to ridicule pc fans for excuses regarding their early season losses at least have the dignity to not turn around and do the same thing

The dregs of the conference for years you mean in PC??? They had a bench we don't.......UConn is better with 1-6 healthy they are better with 1-9 healthy. And they were healthy for the BE.....and by the way duckk PC

 

[mpxc55]

Way to miss the point entirely

 

[Waquoit]

It's still a loss to the dregs of the conference. If we are going to ridicule pc fans for excuses regarding their early season losses at least have the dignity to not turn around and do the same thing

They also beat G'Town. Stuff happens. USF crushes Brown.

 

[mpxc55]

Exactly. Stuff happens. A lot of people are making the team out to be martyrs and we aren't the only team that gets hit with injuries

 

[freescooter]

I don't necessarily think Ollie lost them. I just think they were overwhelmed. It happens. You can "rise to adversity" only so many times, then mental and/or physical exhaustion takes over. You start thinking "Oh man, not again" and just finally give in. The other point, I think, is that while lots of teams have injuries, when they have several to key guys, they usually lose games. I didn't really think they would win last night and I'll be pretty surprized of they beat Providence on Saturday. The guys we are sending out there are just not all that good, or at least not as good as the guys who are hurt and the ones who are still healthy are being asked to do things they can't do that well. If Boatright were a better ball handler as Napier he'd be handling the ball and napier would be the off guard. If Nolan was a better front court player than Olander, he'd have been starting in the front court.

 

[mauconnfan]

Way to miss the point entirely

No I didn't...........just don't agree with your point as it's an open topic..........I hate people making "excuses" too whether it would be injuries or referees but they have a right here like it or not!! And your point on "if PC an then..." means nothing here.......that's all other than that you have your opinion too.............

 

[Inyatkin]

Of course every team has injuries, but not every team lost four underclassmen starters in the off-season in the middle of complete coaching and conference turmoil, which made finding short-term replacements tough. We were kinda thin to begin with.

 

[tzznandrew]

No I didn't...........just don't agree with your point as it's an open topic..........I hate people making "excuses" too whether it would be injuries or referees but they have a right here like it or not!! And your point on "if PC an then..." means nothing here.......that's all other than that you have your opinion too.............

I'm not really sure it's an excuse when you say: without our best players, we're not very good. I mean, that's not UConn related, that's fact related. I mean, was there some excuse involved with saying the 1999 Bulls weren't as good as the 1998 because Jordan and Pippen were gone?

 

[Inyatkin]

I'm not really sure it's an excuse when you say: without our best players, we're not very good. I mean, that's not UConn related, that's fact related. I mean, was there some excuse involved with saying the 1999 Bulls weren't as good as the 1998 because Jordan and Pippen were gone?

The 99 Bulls clearly lacked for effort. Also, defensive rotations.

 

[mpxc55]

No I didn't...........just don't agree with your point as it's an open topic..........I hate people making "excuses" too whether it would be injuries or referees but they have a right here like it or not!! And your point on "if PC an then..." means nothing here.......that's all other than that you have your opinion too.............

I'm just objectively pointing out there seems to be a double standard. I guess the pc complex has grown too large for you to see that.

 

[DanDar]

The 2004 team got blown out by Georgia Tech at MSG when Okafor was out with back spasms. That same year in the final, with Okafor back in, UConn was up by 25 before taking the foot off the gas. Injuries play a role.

When you lose your best player who happens to make everyone else better, and your first man off the bench and your small forward/shooting guard has an injured wrist which causes him to shoot 1-14, losses like this will happen. We were a hot rod with 3 spark plugs out in our V8. Ain't gonna win many drag races like that.

 

[EricLA]

Stuff happens. Crazy games all year - Miami recently lost to Wake. By 15 points. Wake is the 2nd worst team, or maybe the worst, in the ACC. Anyway, bummer we lost. If we had Shabazz, we probably win. Several people, myself included, said that anything over a .500 record for the season would be a huge success given the adversity this coach and this team faced this year. At 19-10, and 9-8 in the BE, we still have a shot at 20 wins, and we managed to beat Michigan State, Notre Dame and Syracuse.

This team has far surpassed even my most lofty ideas of what they might do this year. The team has been on the verge of being ranked for much of the season and again, if we had Shabazz, we are probably a NCAA team if we were to end 20-10.

Am I disappointed that we lost? Of course - I root for us to win every game. Am I disappointed in the team or the coaches? No way. This team has shown more heart than anyone ever had a right to expect. Lesser teams could have folded and pissed the season away. Not these guys. Easiest team to root for (IMHO) in the history of the program. These guys may not win any "awards" this season, but they came together in as great a way as any UCONN team in our storied history...

I get the disappointment that we lost, but how anyone can NOT be so proud of the entire team (coaches included) is lost on me. I'm just grateful for the unbelievable ride they gave us this year. Seriously, it is an honor to be a UCONN fan with regards to this team.

 

[sparky]

We barely beat them at home with us at full strength. Boat is overmatched on the floor without Napier. We were limping the whole game and the guys did what they could. Ollie couldn't lose what he didn't have-players.

 

[partial]

I don't think one game is really enough to make that proclamation. This was going to be a tough game for all the reasons already mentioned and I'm sure that even Al Pacino talking about inches would not have been able to motivate this team further.

As an aside way before somebody put a ring on it, when i got drunk enough i more or less recited that speech to hit on the ladies(at least what i could slur my way through):

 

[joober jones]

I don't necessarily think Ollie lost them. I just think they were overwhelmed. It happens. You can "rise to adversity" only so many times, then mental and/or physical exhaustion takes over. You start thinking "Oh man, not again" and just finally give in. The other point, I think, is that while lots of teams have injuries, when they have several to key guys, they usually lose games. I didn't really think they would win last night and I'll be pretty surprized of they beat Providence on Saturday. The guys we are sending out there are just not all that good, or at least not as good as the guys who are hurt and the ones who are still healthy are being asked to do things they can't do that well. If Boatright were a better ball handler as Napier he'd be handling the ball and napier would be the off guard. If Nolan was a better front court player than Olander, he'd have been starting in the front court.

Looks like he will be starting our last game, as TO was described as "doubtful" due to his injury from last night.

 

[nomar]

This is what I was worried about happening all year and it finally happened. The kids have finally given up. Giffey and Napier provide most of the grit for this team. With both out they don't have the talent or passion. No excuse, this is the type of game that should eliminate a team from the NCAAT (not that UConn is eligible).

It will be interesting to see if Ollie can get them back.

Good poster. Horrendous Post. Yikes.

 

[Hume]

Basketball is a team game. Defense needs a team effort. As much heart as RJ has he is at best a mid major level talent, and does not have the speed or the ability to play good defense at this level. Allen, regardless of his scholarship is a walk-on and Nolan was a work in progress that has shown signs of improvement in small bursts but is not ready to be a major contributor on offense or defense yet. Add Calhoun to that with his wrist bothering him to the point that he was focusing on it the whole game and it left you with two people on the floor that had the skills to play defense at this level. Is it any wonder that they shredded our defense?

All year long we have been playing with a very small margin of error due to our team being undermanned. With the loss of Wolf it got even smaller, when Calhoun hurt his wrist it became smaller still. Shabazz's injury made the margin become razer thin, and Giffey sliced into it more. The fact that the team couldn't balance on that edge this last game doesn't mean that Ollie lost the team, it just means that for one game we didn't have the ability to negotiate it. If nothing changes for Saturday except we also lose Olander, there is a good chance that we will fall off that edge again.

Somewhere we have to realize that the reason teams that are undermanned lose games is because they aren't as good and will miss shots, and be beaten on defense. I get the feeling that although we know that going into a game when we actually see it we can't accept it and get mad at the players and coach like they should be able to overcome their deficiencies. For the most part by hard effort and coaching we have done that for a good part of the year. But sooner or later, just like if you were playing Jenga it you keep taking pieces away from the structure it will fall, no matter how sturdy the hand guiding it is.

 

[Pudge]

I think it is BS Original Post Theme.

How in hell can you think that you can continue to play at such a very high level (beat SU, play Marquette damn close; lose to NC State at end; lose to UNM close; beat Washington; OT to Georgetown; etc) ... and keep that going if you lose several key players and keep playing some that are basically incapacitated. Be proud of 2012-2013; look forward to the Real Kevin Ollie Program coming to a CT venue soon.

 

[Hume]

I'm just objectively pointing out there seems to be a double standard. I guess the pc complex has grown too large for you to see that.

I though I would look at the two teams and there injuries during those loses to see if there is a double standard. Uconn lost to USF, which has an RPI of 131. During that game they were without their leading scoring, there 5th and 7th leading scorer, and there 4th leading scorer although playing was ineffective due to wrist injury. PC lost to Penn State which has an RPI of 174, Brown - RPI of 235, Depaul - RPI 196, and BC - RPI of 125. For the Penn State game they were without Cotton, Council and Dunn, their 1st, 4th and 6th scorer, so that was pretty close to a wash. Against BC they were without Council their 4th leading scorer. Against Brown they were without Cotton, their leading scorer. Finally against Depaul they were without only Kofone their 9th leading scorer.

So I don't think there is a double standard. PC lost to worse teams and with the exception of 1 game did that with only one key player out. I will give them the Penn State game as they were playing short handed like Uconn was the last few games.