One Thing I Haven't Seen Mentioned

[elmcityboy]

Hurley has to be salivating right now realizing that this year's UConn team is so much more talented than his team last year at URI that took him multiple years to build up. Most people in the media think he got handed a dumpster fire, but the reality of it is he's got a 5 star point guard, another borderline 5 star senior shooting guard, an extremely talented transfer combo guard along with a whole slew of kids rated 100-150 who clearly have decided they'll go to war for their coach. I'm not saying this team has the talent to win a championship, but they certainly have enough to make a run to the Sweet 16 or Elite 8 if everyone stays healthy. It really is amazing what a little coaching will do with the same group of talent.

i'm not really thinking about the tournament right now, but i really agree with the first part here. i honestly think a lot of people on this board (let alone the national cbb audience) had forgotten how much talent there is on this team. the guards, obviously, but even the bigs!

can't wait to watch 'em again tonight.

 

[superjohn]

The ball has to go through the nets. Think CV in UKCM game. Think Jalen in this game.

The point is we had one of the most stagnant offenses in the country the past 2 years so every possession was a force/contested shot or our ballhandlers waiting until the last 5 seconds of shot clock to hoist a bad shot. Even 2014 when we won it much of our offense was halfcourt dribbling and throwing it around the perimeter until Bazz or Boat created at the end of the shotclock.

Hurley has completely changed this, he is instilling in them to get the ball and go off of a miss or make and don't let the ball stick in the halfcourt. We are getting open shots because the ball isn't sticking and everyone is making the extra pass.

 

[Essexdave]

Was at MSG last night and have only skimmed the boards this morning, but with credit to my son for pointing it out to me let me make one point that I haven't seen discussion on.

The most critical and underappreciated part of college basketball is point guard defense. Everyone talks about how point guard play wins championships, but the converse (inverse?) is just as true -- if you stop the other team's point from running the show the way their coach wants it run, you're going to win a lot of games. See, e.g., a '99 championship with Ricky Moore guarding the point, an '04 championship with Taliek Brown guarding the point and a '14 championship with Ryan Boatright guarding the point. The '11 championship was the only one of our championship teams that didn't play outstanding defense at the point, and in the run to the championship freshman Napier, not needing to score or lead yet, provided a good job of it for half the games. We had great teams with A.J. Price and Marcus Williams at the point, but neither of them were good defenders and their teams always feel short. The last two years, teams ran their offenses against us however they wanted to.

Both Alterique and Smith friggin got after it last night. Maybe not quite the level of strength that Taliek had, or lateral quickness that Boat and Ricky had, but they worked their butts off, and the fact that we could give one a break and keep the same level of pressure on the other team's point was remarkable. And yes, I know Carey scored a boatload of points but the points came because when the D as a whole broke down, he was the guy left free at the end. Their poor shooting percentage was largely attributable to not being able to get into their offense a high percentage of the time because of pressure at the point.

If we play with that intensity, and are as good a shooting team as we've looked to be so far, we will compete for the AAC championship this year. Credit to Danny Hurley for turning the intensity and attitude around so quickly, and KO has no one to blame but himself for the team attitude falling off the cliff, but you will never convince me that the last two years wouldn't have played out very differently if Alterique had stayed healthy.

Really good post.

 

[Edward Sargent]

Was at MSG last night and have only skimmed the boards this morning, but with credit to my son for pointing it out to me let me make one point that I haven't seen discussion on.

The most critical and underappreciated part of college basketball is point guard defense. Everyone talks about how point guard play wins championships, but the converse (inverse?) is just as true -- if you stop the other team's point from running the show the way their coach wants it run, you're going to win a lot of games. See, e.g., a '99 championship with Ricky Moore guarding the point, an '04 championship with Taliek Brown guarding the point and a '14 championship with Ryan Boatright guarding the point. The '11 championship was the only one of our championship teams that didn't play outstanding defense at the point, and in the run to the championship freshman Napier, not needing to score or lead yet, provided a good job of it for half the games. We had great teams with A.J. Price and Marcus Williams at the point, but neither of them were good defenders and their teams always feel short. The last two years, teams ran their offenses against us however they wanted to.

Both Alterique and Smith friggin got after it last night. Maybe not quite the level of strength that Taliek had, or lateral quickness that Boat and Ricky had, but they worked their butts off, and the fact that we could give one a break and keep the same level of pressure on the other team's point was remarkable. And yes, I know Carey scored a boatload of points but the points came because when the D as a whole broke down, he was the guy left free at the end. Their poor shooting percentage was largely attributable to not being able to get into their offense a high percentage of the time because of pressure at the point.

If we play with that intensity, and are as good a shooting team as we've looked to be so far, we will compete for the AAC championship this year. Credit to Danny Hurley for turning the intensity and attitude around so quickly, and KO has no one to blame but himself for the team attitude falling off the cliff, but you will never convince me that the last two years wouldn't have played out very differently if Alterique had stayed healthy.

Cuse would have done better if Howard played point, but I still don't think it would have been enough. Carey had a career night in points but had 0 assists, thus the rest of the scorers were playing one on one and that won't win many games as we already know from the last two years.

 

[jibsey]

We can’t give up on Yakwe but he looks lost with the ball in his hands. Hopefully he has more than foul value.