Our on the ball defense was brutal.

[Palatine]

The lay up line returned. They went around our guards like turn styles. One game ago it was brilliant. Yesterday it was awful. Wish I could figure that out.

We did enough to win. That part was good. But man, complete regression yesterday. Wow!

 

[UConnStats]

Frustration was written all over our guards' faces and I think it boiled over a bit and caused our defense to slip. Whaley's weak side defense was amazing down the stretch and one of the big keys to the game after his bizzaro-world 1H.

 

[Chin Diesel]

The lay up line returned. They went around our guards like turn styles. One game ago it was brilliant. Yesterday it was awful. Wish I could figure that out.

We did enough to win. That part was good. But man, complete regression yesterday. Wow!

Tulane has some of those beefier guards like Cumberland of Cincy. Their guards could just barrel their way in to the chests of our guards and get separation to get off shots.
There's a reason why Hurley likes bigger guards. Right now Gaffney doesn't have the lower body strength to stay vertical but keep a guard from backing him down. We all know Gilbert is small and can't do much to keep an opposing guard out of the lane. Bouk ain't strong either. Vital and Adams are the only two strong enough to be physical without having to push and foul and Adams is playing more 3/4 due to injuries.

 

[mauconnfan]

Tulane has some of those beefier guards like Cumberland of Cincy. Their guards could just barrel their way in to the chests of our guards and get separation to get off shots.
There's a reason why Hurley likes bigger guards. Right now Gaffney doesn't have the lower body strength to stay vertical but keep a guard from backing him down. We all know Gilbert is small and can't do much to keep an opposing guard out of the lane. Bouk ain't strong either. Vital and Adams are the only two strong enough to be physical without having to push and foul and Adams is playing more 3/4 due to injuries.

As I stated in another thread AG was really good but he was helping too much because others weren't good at all. But he made some plays, flicked some balls out of bigs hands and even guarded a couple bigs after helping. Adams can be good at times but he relaxes at times like the end of the half where he completely fell asleep. But his toughness is needed as you say because of stronger guards who aren't as quick as they are pushy. Gaff has a long way to go, doesn't guard the quick first step well gets beat too much. Not sure if it's because he can't or he just need to get more consistent I do hope it's the latter.

Just hope the tourney feel helps them understand no game left this year will allow them to play defense like yesterday because if they do they're going home.

 

[Lefty2one]

It was an easy trap game. Our intensity was lacking all afternoon.

Coming off a raucous capacity crowd at Gampel against a Top 25 team to playing a Sunday 4 PM game in an arena that looks like Quinnipiac's, in front of maybe 1,500 fans, against a team near the bottom of the conference standings. Not making an excuse or saying it's acceptable, but it certainly played a role.

It's part of the rebuilding process. These games won't happen in a few years--partially because we won't be playing teams as bad as Tulane at the end of the regular season--as we continue to learn how to win. The bright side is that we absolutely would have lost this game six weeks ago.

 

[Stinger92860]

No intensity to start, therefore the early TO by Dan Hurley. I also thot weakside was poor except at the end of the game.

 

[mauconnfan]

No intensity to start, therefore the early TO by Dan Hurley. I also thot weakside was poor except at the end of the game.

All help defense was real bad yesterday agree. Even Whaley missed a couple assignments. Need to pick it up from the whistle Thursday.

 

[krinklecut]

After Tulane started drilling 3s, we closed up the perimeter, opening the lane and screwing up weakside D. There were a few times I saw where guards sprinted out of the lane while someone was driving to defend the kickout, each time leading to an easy layup.

 

[businesslawyer]

We played with little to no intensity yesterday, and Gaffney and Bouk were total no shows. Luckily, we were good enough offensively to come out with the win, Vital played great again and Adams, Carlton and Gilbert contributed more than their share to make up for the frosh.

It was a team who only won 1 road game until the last two weeks, and a trap game emotionally, and they got it done. I won't dwell on it but if we put in an effort like that in any post-season tournament we'll be done. Most importantly, Bouk took a game off. Now it's time to take a step forward.

 

[gtcam]

When both Gaff and Bouk are out there together and the opposing team has guards who take it to the hoop or in some cases, are mobile at all, the man on ball D is horrid. Hopefully these young guys learn how to play D with their feet real soon.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

I think yesterday was more a matter of playing in a high school gym 1500 miles from campus three days after the most intense game of the season than anything else.