Open Practice Tuesday

[80shusky]

Couple quick points. This team needs lots of teaching and the coaching staff does that. Cobb needs to play more. Ollie constantly imploring players to talk to each other on defense. Polley is as clueless defensively during practice as he is on the court, that's probably why he doesn't get many minutes. Carlton still learning but seems to listen to what he is bring taught. DO very vocal during practice. Some leadership qualities, probably due to his maturity, again probably why Ollie uses him at certain times during the game.

Thanks for the first hand observations!

 

[80shusky]

Vital is on concussion protocol (did not practice).

Jalen was the last to show up for practice (just after practice started/3 minutes into warm ups). He also missed every jump shot (maybe every shot) during the competitive part of practice.

Polley was the first player on the court. Maybe 10 minutes before everyone else. His Tim Wakefield knuckle ball shot was hitting at an 80% clip from three before practice started.

Cobb brought 100% more intensity than anyone else at practice (agree with Kathy he deserves PT based on practice). He still was last in sprints though .

Josh Carlton looked like he was sleepwalking/zombish the whole practice (unfocused). zzzzzzzzzzzz

We have a "scout team" (including some team managers) who wear red shirts and play offense while some of our second team are on the sidelines. The ball movement from that crew was atrocious. Meaning lazy lob like passes around the perimeter not putting much pressure on the defense to move.

KO tried to emphasize communication on the "switch" concept when playing half court D (I will leave it at that....)

Larrier missed almost every shot and looked very flat. Needs a good S & C coach more than any player in UConn history.

Sid has the potential to be very very good. Just needs to be coached up. My gut says this kid is legit. Knew that anyways.

Still rooting for KO though. I hope we can end the season respectfully.

Thanks BDH!

 

[BLUEDOGHOUSE]

Vital on concussion protocol isn't good. He had issues like this last year too. I hope he can play in the next game as we need him.

We all (well 99% of us) love our Huskies.

I was torn to even post on this thread at the risk of coming off TO negative. With confidence of the team at an all time low it feels counter productive even as a fan to go this route. Should have passed.

I am banning myself from posting for 1 x 96 hours.

 

[Kathy]

False with Jalen, he hurt his ankle in whichta state game if you were watching. He was late 3 minutes because when he arrived with the other guys he didn’t warm up he went to go get his ankle taped with The trainer. The managers were just defensive dummy’s, there not going to make a scholarship player stand there and play defense or stand there and pass the ball, they wanted all players working on the close out,defense and switch stuff when working on defensive scheme.

God point on Jalen waa going to memtion it this morning. And there was defensive drill early that was working on defending Tulsa inbounds play.

 

[Chief00]

God point on Jalen waa going to memtion it this morning. And there was defensive drill early that was working on defending Tulsa inbounds play.

Yeah, the coaches are saying they hear my inbound plays criticisms - defending them better is a step in the right direction. The next step is actually developing some of our own - that will lead to baskets.

 

[notthestuff]

For the most part I agree with all the points you made. There are some obvious areas however where the coaching staff falls short from an X’s and O’s standpoint. I think KO’s offense works with more talent, but the lack of inbounds plays and inability to break a press against the trap is coaching and just a couple of the things that drive me nuts when watching games. You don’t need great ball handlers to get out of a trap and break a press. Solid passing and having guys in the right spots on the floor can break even the best press defenses.

Anyway, to your point these are only things that make the team look bad but it’s not why we’re getting blown out. The talent level and constant mental mistakes are the reasons we’re so bad.

I really don't disagree with anything your saying. I'd just add two things. Even though they don't show in bounds plays consistently throughout the game they do actually dedicate practice time to situational in bounds plays based on clock and score. They'll take time where KO draws up plays on the fly and they go try to execute. What they don't seem to have is a catalogue of effective plays to go to in non timeout situations. This may be philosophical based on feeling you don't want your best plays scouted for when you really need them. Though that doesn't really matter much when you are never in a close game....

I also hear your point on the press and the need for better positioning and passing. One thing I think that really hurts this team is how atrocious a ball handling team they are. I've never seen a team of D1 players that, get stripped, dribble off their feet, and just flat out lose control of the ball as often as this group. You need to at least be a threat to use your dribble to keep the defense honest otherwise they can be over aggressive or sag off completely both of which make the passing lanes much tighter. This doesn't help half court offensive execution either.

 

[bmo22]

I really don't disagree with anything your saying. I'd just add two things. Even though they don't show in bounds plays consistently throughout the game they do actually dedicate practice time to situational in bounds plays based on clock and score. They'll take time where KO draws up plays on the fly and they go try to execute. What they don't seem to have is a catalogue of effective plays to go to in non timeout situations. This may be philosophical based on feeling you don't want your best plays scouted for when you really need them. Though that doesn't really matter much when you are never in a close game....

I also hear your point on the press and the need for better positioning and passing. One thing I think that really hurts this team is how atrocious a ball handling team they are. I've never seen a team of D1 players that, get stripped, dribble off their feet, and just flat out lose control of the ball as often as this group. You need to at least be a threat to use your dribble to keep the defense honest otherwise they can be over aggressive or sag off completely both of which make the passing lanes much tighter. This doesn't help half court offensive execution either.

It’s good to hear KO is still teaching situational inbounds plays in practice. There’s no reason they shouldn’t be running something on every inbounds play during games though. Every imaginable inbounds play under the hoop has been run before, so I’m not sure why they’d be worried about their plays being scouted. Most teams run similar breaks from under the basket and they still work at a high clip. It’s difficult for a defense to defend because in most cases the perimeter defenders have their backs to the ball and basket. The offense has the advantage and it’s an opportunity for easy buckets using back screens and basket cuts. For a team that has such difficulty creating offense in half court sets you would think KO would focus on this a little bit more.

All of that said I had a chance to go to an open practice during the 2014-2015 season and I was very impressed with how KO ran practice. It just hasn’t been translating to the games for some reason.

 

[len0322]

It’s good to hear KO is still teaching situational inbounds plays in practice. There’s no reason they shouldn’t be running something on every inbounds play during games though. Every imaginable inbounds play under the hoop has been run before, so I’m not sure why they’d be worried about their plays being scouted. Most teams run similar breaks from under the basket and they still work at a high clip. It’s difficult for a defense to defend because in most cases the perimeter defenders have their backs to the ball and basket. The offense has the advantage and it’s an opportunity for easy buckets using back screens and basket cuts. For a team that has such difficulty creating offense in half court sets you would think KO would focus on this a little bit more.

All of that said I had a chance to go to an open practice during the 2014-2015 season and I was very impressed with how KO ran practice. It just hasn’t been translating to the games for some reason.

I think you point about it not translating to games is spot on.
JT3 made commentary very clear during WSU game Sat nite.
JT3 made a point to talk about how they fell off Shamet after he drained a three.
Seems like KO was preaching to do the exact opposite in practice.

This has been a tough season....hoping we can close out thhe season by playing what was UCONN brand of basketball and build for the future.

 

[HuskyBandDad]

Having been to many practices over the past 8 years (including ones not open to public) I would guess Jalen was getting worked on by James (the trainer) and that's why he was last into the gym

No No. He crashed his scooter again.

 

[gtcam]

I think you point about it not translating to games is spot on.
JT3 made commentary very clear during WSU game Sat nite.
JT3 made a point to talk about how they fell off Shamet after he drained a three.
Seems like KO was preaching to do the exact opposite in practice.

This has been a tough season....hoping we can close out thhe season by playing what was UCONN brand of basketball and build for the future.

I'm not sure I would take what JT3 says as gospel
1. he took a great program and drove it into the ground
2. one of the reasons he was "deciding to go in another direction" was the fact that GU folks complained about his recruiting and game prep as well as his game decision making.
Not saying he can't have merit as an analyst but nobody has accused him of being any sort of basketball scholar.

BTW GU had an issue getting the ball in bounds at least 4 times down the stretch vs Butler last night and had it stolen twice. They said it has happened to GU numerous times this year so I guess P. Ewing is as bad as KO.

I don't think KO is "preaching" the opposite in fact, JT3 did say a few times that UConn's players must not be translating what KO is teaching in practice and said he had the same issue with young players at GU- he made that very clear