Plan A, B, and C, or why Hurley is the best

[uh-no]

Purdue, Illinois, and Alabama all totally flopped when Uconn took away their plan A, since they had no plan B. When Edey got tired, Purdue had no way to adjust, as Uconn was running them off the line. When bama couldn't get their shots off in the second half, they had no adjustment. When illinois couldn't get clingan in foul trouble they doubled down.

The reason Uconn is successful is because we don't settle for having just a plan A which might beat you, but multiple plans to mitigate eventualities. Obviously clingan is our plan A. But foul trouble or fatigue was a huge risk. To mitigate, we had samson johnson, who was, if I'm counting correctly. +4 on the game. When he got in foul trouble, we had a plan C, karaban at the 5. I believe that lineup was only -2.

The entire rest of the conutry could not handle Edey, and yet we were able to come up with three separate center plans which all were able to hang with purdue. I honestly believe if we had to, we could have won that game without Clingan, and that's incredible.

Hurley is the best in the country, and quickly climbing the best ever board.

 

[TheHorde]

It’s reminiscent of what Belichick would do at the top of his game. He would dissect what an opponent loves to do and makes them most successful, and then takes that away. It’s hard to sometimes take everything away, but if you take away one key thing you can win. Purdue was successful with Edey as the focal point in previous years, but didn’t go to another level until they surrounded him with quality three point shooters. The staff decided to take that away. As we saw in last year’s tournament, Purdue is beatable without that shooting. Brilliant game planning.

 

[dennismenace]

Purdue, Illinois, and Alabama all totally flopped when Uconn took away their plan A, since they had no plan B. When Edey got tired, Purdue had no way to adjust, as Uconn was running them off the line. When bama couldn't get their shots off in the second half, they had no adjustment. When illinois couldn't get clingan in foul trouble they doubled down.

The reason Uconn is successful is because we don't settle for having just a plan A which might beat you, but multiple plans to mitigate eventualities. Obviously clingan is our plan A. But foul trouble or fatigue was a huge risk. To mitigate, we had samson johnson, who was, if I'm counting correctly. +4 on the game. When he got in foul trouble, we had a plan C, karaban at the 5. I believe that lineup was only -2.

The entire rest of the conutry could not handle Edey, and yet we were able to come up with three separate center plans which all were able to hang with purdue. I honestly believe if we had to, we could have won that game without Clingan, and that's incredible.

Hurley is the best in the country, and quickly climbing the best ever board.

"Carpenter" in more ways than one. The strength is the unity and unselfishness to apply winning tactics. This is beyond astonishing.

 

[upstater]

It’s reminiscent of what Belichick would do at the top of his game. He would dissect what an opponent loves to do and makes them most successful, and then takes that away. It’s hard to sometimes take everything away, but if you take away one key thing you can win. Purdue was successful with Edey as the focal point in previous years, but didn’t go to another level until they surrounded him with quality three point shooters. The staff decided to take that away. As we saw in last year’s tournament, Purdue is beatable without that shooting. Brilliant game planning.

That is the theory. Take away the thing they rely on, but then that's coupled with, exploit their weakness relentlessly. I was watching some soccer this weekend, some Liverpool, and the whole field tilted to the left flank. They had people wide open on the right and they just refused to go that way. They knew what they could get on the left.

It must suck to be the weak link on a soccer team.

 

[TheHorde]

That is the theory. Take away the thing they rely on, but then that's coupled with, exploit their weakness relentlessly. I was watching some soccer this weekend, some Liverpool, and the whole field tilted to the left flank. They had people wide open on the right and they just refused to go that way. They knew what they could get on the left.

It must suck to be the weak link on a soccer team.

UConn has the luxury of having one of the very few big men that can play Edey straight up without quickly fouling out or giving up 50. And has the luxury of having very big guards in Castle and Newton that are very difficult to get good looks against. Diarra is also a lock down defender. This was a bad matchup for Purdue.

 

[uh-no]

UConn has the luxury of having one of the very few big men that can play Edey straight up without quickly fouling out or giving up 50. And has the luxury of having very big guards in Castle and Newton that are very difficult to get good looks against. Diarra is also a lock down defender. This was a bad matchup for Purdue.

that's what i'm saying. even without clingan in the game we STILL outplayed them....and even withotu clingan or johnson, we still hung with them. that's incredible.

 

[TheHorde]

that's what i'm saying. even without clingan in the game we STILL outplayed them....and even withotu clingan or johnson, we still hung with them. that's incredible.

I really think we could have played close to even with them if Singare was in there. Even if only for a few minutes.

 

[Poe]

The lack of adjustments was shocking. They all just kept doing the same thing that wasn’t working.

Purdue with 1-7 from three and only ONE player with an assist was mind blowing. I know our defense is elite but that is absurd.

 

[uh-no]

The lack of adjustments was shocking. They all just kept doing the same thing that wasn’t working.

Purdue with 1-7 from three and only ONE player with an assist was mind blowing. I know our defense is elite but that is absurd.

they're not good enough to do anything else. it's why they lost last year....painter doubled down on edey with no plan B, and played him 40 minutes into the ground every game. It got them to the tile, which is saying something, but was never going to get them past a well coached team.

 

[TheHorde]

The lack of adjustments was shocking. They all just kept doing the same thing that wasn’t working.

Purdue with 1-7 from three and only ONE player with an assist was mind blowing. I know our defense is elite but that is absurd.

I agree with another commenter that said something along the lines of hoisting up contested threes would have been a Hail Mary strategy they could have tried. But with our length and athleticism on the perimeter, not only would it probably not have worked, I think UConn might have won by 25-30 points. They had to hope we turned the ball over and simply missed shots. We shot well and didn’t turn it over much. Look at the amount of hall handling we had. This team had virtually no weaknesses.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Purdue, Illinois, and Alabama all totally flopped when Uconn took away their plan A, since they had no plan B. When Edey got tired, Purdue had no way to adjust, as Uconn was running them off the line. When bama couldn't get their shots off in the second half, they had no adjustment. When illinois couldn't get clingan in foul trouble they doubled down.

The reason Uconn is successful is because we don't settle for having just a plan A which might beat you, but multiple plans to mitigate eventualities. Obviously clingan is our plan A. But foul trouble or fatigue was a huge risk. To mitigate, we had samson johnson, who was, if I'm counting correctly. +4 on the game. When he got in foul trouble, we had a plan C, karaban at the 5. I believe that lineup was only -2.

The entire rest of the conutry could not handle Edey, and yet we were able to come up with three separate center plans which all were able to hang with purdue. I honestly believe if we had to, we could have won that game without Clingan, and that's incredible.

Hurley is the best in the country, and quickly climbing the best ever board.

The thing about our strategy is that we have Plan A, B, C, D, and E within a single offensive set. We don't have to commit to a gameplan on offense and then change things if it fails, because it never fails for 40 minutes. We run variations, we screen or slip, we cut or back-cut, we put defenders on our back and drive to the rim or we pull up and throw a lob. It's impossible to stop everything.

On defense, we're so stout at every position that we only have to have a few quirks in our team D -- straight up or doubling. Against Edey, we only doubled occasionally, and only did it when the game was close, as we were willing to concede 2s to deny 3s and did that all game. And the doubling was clever -- never off of the man immediately next to Edey and always from a diagonal so that we had time to switch and recover.

So I would say it's not because we had backup plans, but our primary plan was so intricate and nuanced already that it was impossible to counter.

 

[uh-no]

So I would say it's not because we had backup plans, but our primary plan was so intricate and nuanced already that it was impossible to counter.

ehhh. I'd say more like we have multiple plans on every level. within an offensive set, which set to run, how to play with a given personnel on the floor, and which personnel on the floor.

You could see this getting built over the course of the year. We got beat by kansas' pressure, then UNC came ouut the next game and tried to replicate it, and we had already made the adjustment, and just crushed them on cuts. The speed with which this team could adjust just went through the roof over the course of the year....and you could see it in the pre/post halftime splits in the tournament.

It takes a special coach and a special team to do that