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As much as we are all disappointed with the loss, especially the last 6 1/2 minutes when they had it down to just 2 points, there is one significant silver lining I see with this game.
They had some long stretches of success in the SU game that the coaching staff can now point the players to and get them to focus on executing on a more consistent basis. I didn't feel that way throughout many of the prior games leading up to the SU game. I guess they had a few stretches in the UL game, but IMO, not nearly as sustained as in the SU game.
UConn has a bad stretch during the middle of the first half where they went down by 10, then battled back to get it to down to 3 with 1:40 to go, before hitting wall #2 allowing SU to go on a 7-0 run to close the half up by 10. I thought they played very well in the 2nd half, getting to one-possession-down at the 6:30 mark. But Scoop Jardine's back to back 3s, which stretched the lead out to 8, were like two hard lefts to the head that staggered UConn from which never recovered. I think that's when the TV went haywire. If Tyler hit that 2nd FT, allowing our D to set up, or maybe even forcing SU into a TO (I don't recall them calling a TO after the 2nd miss), maybe UConn gets another stop and the last 6 1/2 play out differently, thought that's not the point of this post. Tyler didn't help matters by immediately turning it over, leading to Jardine's 2nd 3 pointer.
On a side note, it's amazing how important it is to have shooters who you can count on to knock down a 3-point dagger or two. We had that back in the day with Shad and I wish Lamb and Boatright, and even Bazz could do that for UConn. Early in the season we were getting that from Bazz & Lamb, but our 3 pt shooing has been MIA till Saturday where they went 8-19. Note that SU countered that big time shooting the 3, 10-16...wow, that's stroking it an incredible clip (%).
Getting back to my original point here, I believe there is a lot that this team can take from the SU game and build on.
Having two in a row at home, against a struggling DePaul team and hot Marquette team, gives them a shot at building some critical momentum. If they can get their BE record to 7-7 and begin to feel good about themselves, the coaching staff and team can really focus on just 4 games to make their NCAA statement.
They had some long stretches of success in the SU game that the coaching staff can now point the players to and get them to focus on executing on a more consistent basis. I didn't feel that way throughout many of the prior games leading up to the SU game. I guess they had a few stretches in the UL game, but IMO, not nearly as sustained as in the SU game.
UConn has a bad stretch during the middle of the first half where they went down by 10, then battled back to get it to down to 3 with 1:40 to go, before hitting wall #2 allowing SU to go on a 7-0 run to close the half up by 10. I thought they played very well in the 2nd half, getting to one-possession-down at the 6:30 mark. But Scoop Jardine's back to back 3s, which stretched the lead out to 8, were like two hard lefts to the head that staggered UConn from which never recovered. I think that's when the TV went haywire. If Tyler hit that 2nd FT, allowing our D to set up, or maybe even forcing SU into a TO (I don't recall them calling a TO after the 2nd miss), maybe UConn gets another stop and the last 6 1/2 play out differently, thought that's not the point of this post. Tyler didn't help matters by immediately turning it over, leading to Jardine's 2nd 3 pointer.
On a side note, it's amazing how important it is to have shooters who you can count on to knock down a 3-point dagger or two. We had that back in the day with Shad and I wish Lamb and Boatright, and even Bazz could do that for UConn. Early in the season we were getting that from Bazz & Lamb, but our 3 pt shooing has been MIA till Saturday where they went 8-19. Note that SU countered that big time shooting the 3, 10-16...wow, that's stroking it an incredible clip (%).
Getting back to my original point here, I believe there is a lot that this team can take from the SU game and build on.
Having two in a row at home, against a struggling DePaul team and hot Marquette team, gives them a shot at building some critical momentum. If they can get their BE record to 7-7 and begin to feel good about themselves, the coaching staff and team can really focus on just 4 games to make their NCAA statement.
