Positives of game

[scrappy2.0]

We couldve won that game despite just playing 1 half.
We have a star in Daniel Hamilton
Shonn Miller can be a stud.


Here are some solutions imho.

Right now I'd like the team to press and trap. Were coming out dead flat--we need to start the game with juice. Pressing and trapping for the first 4-5 minutes would be a jump start we need.

I think we should start D Hamilton at PG move Jalen Adams to 2 guard and play three guards with Gibbs as our sixth man. I think his role is best as a guy who can light it up off the bench.

Im very upset at our rebounding and how easily we were getting beat into the seams. I think employing a zone defense for stretches should mitigate some

We have to give this team to Daniel Hamilton. He needs to play 40 minutes. Hes unselfish and he really is unstoppable. I think if we can get into a groove with him as primary PG--all of the other guys will find better shots.


So in conclusion while there were bad moments and some poor metrics i.e rebounding--again I think we found something in STARTING Hamilton at PG and letting him dictate the game.

We see we need jump starts in energy and pressing and trapping is a solution

We could use a zone defense at times to help mitigate let downs and help with rebounding.

Its stupid to get down on the team right now. Im walking out saying d a m we could easily be 8-0. We have a STAR in D hamilton and YES we can make some alterations to strategy to help with energy!!

 

[Ts5034]

If they showed up to play in the first half of the Gonzaga game and the game tonight, those are more than likely wins. The technical on KO was rough. I just wish we got to see what could have been without that happening.

 

[bmayuc]

We couldve won that game despite just playing 1 half.
We have a star in Daniel Hamilton
Shonn Miller can be a stud.


Here are some solutions imho.

Right now I'd like the team to press and trap. Were coming out dead flat--we need to start the game with juice. Pressing and trapping for the first 4-5 minutes would be a jump start we need.

I think we should start D Hamilton at PG move Jalen Adams to 2 guard and play three guards with Gibbs as our sixth man. I think his role is best as a guy who can light it up off the bench.

Im very upset at our rebounding and how easily we were getting beat into the seams. I think employing a zone defense for stretches should mitigate some

We have to give this team to Daniel Hamilton. He needs to play 40 minutes. Hes unselfish and he really is unstoppable. I think if we can get into a groove with him as primary PG--all of the other guys will find better shots.


So in conclusion while there were bad moments and some poor metrics i.e rebounding--again I think we found something in STARTING Hamilton at PG and letting him dictate the game.

We see we need jump starts in energy and pressing and trapping is a solution

We could use a zone defense at times to help mitigate let downs and help with rebounding.

Its stupid to get down on the team right now. Im walking out saying d a m we could easily be 8-0. We have a STAR in D hamilton and YES we can make some alterations to strategy to help with energy!!

As I kept reading, it kept getting dumber and dumber.

DHam at PG takes him out of his most effective space at the foul line? Jalen at 2(he's our best creator)? Zone(forreal?UConn, dude)? Trapping/Pressing(this aint 1995, bruh)?

ugh nevermind

 

[4in16]

I don't get all the pessimism after 8 games, but if this team was really terrible they wouldn't be capable of making these double digit comebacks late against really good teams. Not throwing the towel in in December, this team is still better than last year's.

 

[MexicoHusky]

This team will have it's moment. Hopefully in the tournament.

 

[zls44]

Daniel Hamilton as point guard.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

 

[Horatio]

I do agree with this team using the press in certain situations. Didn't we use it to climb back into the Gonzaga game? We're deep enough to press and it may make up for the terrible half court defense and also provide easy baskets.

 

[uconngb]

We couldve won that game despite just playing 1 half.
We have a star in Daniel Hamilton
Shonn Miller can be a stud.


Here are some solutions imho.

Right now I'd like the team to press and trap. Were coming out dead flat--we need to start the game with juice. Pressing and trapping for the first 4-5 minutes would be a jump start we need.

I think we should start D Hamilton at PG move Jalen Adams to 2 guard and play three guards with Gibbs as our sixth man. I think his role is best as a guy who can light it up off the bench.

Im very upset at our rebounding and how easily we were getting beat into the seams. I think employing a zone defense for stretches should mitigate some

We have to give this team to Daniel Hamilton. He needs to play 40 minutes. Hes unselfish and he really is unstoppable. I think if we can get into a groove with him as primary PG--all of the other guys will find better shots.


So in conclusion while there were bad moments and some poor metrics i.e rebounding--again I think we found something in STARTING Hamilton at PG and letting him dictate the game.

We see we need jump starts in energy and pressing and trapping is a solution

We could use a zone defense at times to help mitigate let downs and help with rebounding.

Its stupid to get down on the team right now. Im walking out saying d a m we could easily be 8-0. We have a STAR in D hamilton and YES we can make some alterations to strategy to help with energy!!

D Ham does not have the handle to be PG. unfortunately, our best and only PG is Jalen. Gibbs is an off the ball guard who can't play D......I think rotation needs to be Gibbs and Purvis and Jalen needs 30....more out of necessity than anything else. Guard play and rebounding are our big weaknesses.....both were exploited tonight.

 

[TheChamps990411]

D Ham does not have the handle to be PG. unfortunately, our best and only PG is Jalen. Gibbs is an off the ball guard who can't play D.I think rotation needs to be Gibbs and Purvis and Jalen needs 30....more out of necessity than anything else. Guard play and rebounding are our big weaknesses.....both were exploited tonight.

To add i think our rotations on defense need to be better. It was absolutely embarrassing at times how lanes were wide enough for a friggin semi to drive through. I still think this team has a ways to go but i think this game actually helped us. We played against one of the best teams in the country, were dead in the water at the half but got to within 3 with momentum on our side.

If this team could play 40 minutes like they did in the second half of this game we`re as good as anyone. Will that happen? Who knows. Im hoping these are just early season growing pains and it starts to click come january.

 

[Fishy]

First, forget pressing and trapping. The new rules make trapping problematic and if we truly commit to a press, Amida will foul out in 45 seconds of playing time.

Second, DH needs to be moved off the ball. We have him standing up top with the ball - he has zero chance of beating a guard off the dribble and the entire world is now cued in to the pump fake/half-step and pass that now summarizes our half-court offense.

Commit to playing Adams.

Let Gibbs go where he's comfortable and let DH head to the wing where he has a chance to be disruptive.

In the front court, throw a chair at Miller if he spends more than two seconds at a clip behind the arc. Glue a set of brass balls onto Amida and convince him that he has to play well against everyone, not just the Coppin States of the world. Keep using Facey and get Enoch on the floor when you can. Buy three extremely comfortable chairs for Nolan, Cassell and Calhoun. Regard them as you would a fire alarm. Break glass only in emergency.

KO should write a note to his future self and hand it to an assistant coach. The note should say, "Never play Nolan, Calhoun and Cassell together".

Tonight, Turgeon brought in Tremble and Carter. Ollie reacted by taking out Hamilton and Enoch and bringing in Nolan and Calhoun. It didn't work. He gave the trio of doom 12 minutes of playing time in the first half - we lost the half by 16. They got zero in the second. Against Gonzaga, they got 11 minutes in the first half which we lost by 14 - second half, zero.

Substitutions seem to be made on the basis that substitutions are something you do in basketball. Shorten the rotation - eight looks like it works, while 11 clearly doesn't.

 

[zls44]

We have him standing up top with the ball - he has zero chance of beating a guard off the dribble.

I originally thought this meant Amida. I then tried to picture it. Then I was trying to figure out why you brought it up.

Then I realized Grand Central Street Halal was probably a factor in my congintive failure.

 

[tzznandrew]

Second, DH needs to be moved off the ball. We have him standing up top with the ball - he has zero chance of beating a guard off the dribble and the entire world is now cued in to the pump fake/half-step and pass that now summarizes our half-court offense.

It's not fair to compare KO to one of the greatest coaches of all time...but I just can't help but wonder what JC would do with DHam's awful pump fakes. There was one that was so mechanical and lazy he didn't even more his body to sell it.

It's like he has some sort of weird Tourettes of the hand or OCD at this point. Does he turn the lights on and off three times before he comes to the court in addition to the mandatory two pump fakes before the shot? Can someone find out, because it honestly wouldn't surprise me, and at least it would explain the otherwise inexplicable.

If he were decisive with the ball, this is a different team. But neither he nor Purvis are, at least until they're down double figures.

 

[Conndog]

Maybe some kind of partial zone like a triangle & 2 up front? Enoch might develop better defensive skills if he has zone area as responsibility, team rebounding should improve too. Also, last time we won the NCAA, granted we had Bazz & Boat and Giffey, all great defenders (Daniels did his part too), whenever an opposing player got past their man there was someone else already sliding up to cut him off to stop penetration. I agree that Calhoun and Cassell and Nolan should just sit, they add nothing offensively or defensively when they play. If we are going to count on an 8 player rotation learning how to play together and help each other, then they need the minutes to develop a game and not worry about coming out. I still think Facey can become a better player if he has minutes and maybe they could develop some actual offensive plays that enable him to participate more. We should be able to improve our defense, and somehow we need to get more offensive production from our bigs.

 

[djct1999]

Daniel Hamilton as point guard.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

Have you seen what happens when he gets the ball on the top of of the key? Let me tell you:
A) he drives and scores
B) the defense collapses on him and he throws an alley oop
C) the defense collapses on him and he kicks it out to a wide open Purvis.

In other words, this offense absolutely should run through DHam. As a true stretch, DHam is sadly our only true playmaker. Adams, when he plays under control, could be. Purvis, although he doesn't make others around him better, can create his own shot. The other 3 on the floor, no matter who it is, needs help getting shots. DHam is that help. When the ball is in hand, the offense is more fluid.

 

[boog204]

While the half-court offense is a trainwreck, what has gotten me more disturbed is how hideous our guards are defensively. Tremble and Suliamon got into the lane AT WILL all night. Gibbs has slow feet, Purvis overplays, and DHam is James Harden most of the time. You can't have that. Then to make matters worse, our bigs are extremely poor at rotating. If you blink hard enough Amida is leaving his feet for the block shot and Miller, while at times excellent defensively, has some pretty bad lapses as well. I don't want to talk about Facey here as defensive rotation is clearly a new concept for him.

In the half court O, I tell DHam that the triple double flirtation thing was really cool. But we are better team with DHam getting 18 and 4 assists as opposed to 12 and 6 assists. We need him to be our scorer as everyone else is just too streaky. DHam's unselfishness is very admirable, but it is an issue to my eyes that he gets into the lane to pass more often than not and isn't prepared to make a "scoring" move. That's why you get those awkward pump fake, jab step, no chance of going in bank shots that you got in the first half.

The second part of this has to be on KO. I said this in another thread, but Turgeon aggressively attacked our screen/roll game b/c he knows that our guards do not give the ball up to the screener. Why? B/c it's Amida screening 24 feet from the hoop. It took KO an entire half to get the screener to slip to create that opening and allow our offense to have some semblance of fluidity. The result? Turgeon had to have his bigs not be so aggressive on their hedges and we could actually get some openings. It was completely ridiculous watching us run the same, exact ineffective set every possession in the first half. And on top of that, it was completely ridiculous watching Gibbs and Purvis try to dribble around a double team.

Lastly, and sadly for me, I think last night completely exposed some major flaws. For one, Maryland was far more athletic and quicker than us. Maryland is very good, but I was shocked at the difference in athleticism in their guards and bigs and ours. Another thing is that our guards really do not handle the ball very well. Gibbs, Purvis, and Hamilton are all a little shaky with the ball. As a result, they are pretty wild going to the hoop. DHam can get away with it b/c he is more talented. Lastly, our defense, especially on the perimeter, was just awful. No ball pressure and any time we cut the lead to a manageable point, Trimble would just penetrate and dish for a layup or draw a foul. He did it whenever he wanted. It was like watching Kemba or Bazz when they knew that they were just better than everyone else.

 

[Kembacity]

That technical on KO situation was pretty rough. There were a number of calls that I thought didn't go our way, but that foul called on Adams right when we had momentum was brutal, and they didn't need to call it. The player had no issue getting the ball and getting free from Adams, I'm sick of watching games where we drive to the hoop 3 times in a row with some contact and get 0 calls. I'm not asking for all calls where there's some contact, but they didn't call that game evenly, they called Jalen on a foul under the hoop where he didn't touch the ball or the player.

So I had a tough time coming to terms with the fact that if they didn't whistle Adams for that call, MD has the ball up 3 with like 2-3 minutes left, we could have easily stolen that game and Trimble would have had no idea what happened, smiling that -eating grin all night like he was on top of the world.

In the end, we missed tons of shots we should have made, and it seemed to be their destiny game: so many loose balls and potential steals went right back into their hands luckily, and it seemed like every possible way you can almost miss a shot but have it still go in happened for them during that game. Very frustrating night, but I hope KO can put together this team, the potential is there, need less 'freshman' moments from both of the young guys too

 

[scrappy2.0]

Have you seen what happens when he gets the ball on the top of of the key? Let me tell you:
A) he drives and scores
B) the defense collapses on him and he throws an alley oop
C) the defense collapses on him and he kicks it out to a wide open Purvis.

In other words, this offense absolutely should run through DHam. As a true stretch, DHam is sadly our only true playmaker. Adams, when he plays under control, could be. Purvis, although he doesn't make others around him better, can create his own shot. The other 3 on the floor, no matter who it is, needs help getting shots. DHam is that help. When the ball is in hand, the offense is more fluid.

Dead on my man. Daniel Hamilton is like a mini Lebron James. The guy is EASILY EASILY the best passer playmaker on the team. He gets his shot off AT WILL. Others struggle. And while he gets his shot off at will hes a VERY willing passer which NO ONE else on this team is. The ENTIRE game needs to be dictated by Hamitlon--just like Napier and WAlker. Can he have help bring the ball up--sure at times wed have 3 guards--but there is NO DOUBT NO DOUBT that he should have the ball in his hands the majority of the time. We get better spacing better shots and we play better. Hes the ONLY PG we have right now and hes GREAT!!!

The press and trap and a little zone are strategic moves that will give a boost to energy and mitigate some of the lapses of half-court defense. Im not saying P+T all game. Its like football--we are playing at a faster pace for a few moment in each half.

 

[Horatio]

"The press and trap and a little zone are strategic moves that will give a boost to energy and mitigate some of the lapses of half-court defense. Im not saying P+T all game. Its like football--we are playing at a faster pace for a few moment in each half".

Thank you

 

[boog204]

Dead on my man. Daniel Hamilton is like a mini Lebron James. The guy is EASILY EASILY the best passer playmaker on the team. He gets his shot off AT WILL. Others struggle. And while he gets his shot off at will hes a VERY willing passer which NO ONE else on this team is. The ENTIRE game needs to be dictated by Hamitlon--just like Napier and WAlker. Can he have help bring the ball up--sure at times wed have 3 guards--but there is NO DOUBT NO DOUBT that he should have the ball in his hands the majority of the time. We get better spacing better shots and we play better. Hes the ONLY PG we have right now and hes GREAT!!!

The press and trap and a little zone are strategic moves that will give a boost to energy and mitigate some of the lapses of half-court defense. Im not saying P+T all game. Its like football--we are playing at a faster pace for a few moment in each half.

I feel like the ball is in DHam's hands most of the time anyway so I'm not sure what the argument is? Our typical offensive set yesterday --> Gibbs brings ball up, screen roll w/ Brimah or Miller, Gibbs trapped, dribbles away and throws to Purvis who tries to drive, then passes to Hamilton who takes his man one on one for a shot or kick out. Do you want DHam just having the ball in his hands all the time?

 

[Point6]

I don't know if this is posted elsewhere but this NY Times article, given that it emphasizes UConn's MSG history, hopefully is a slight positive on the realignment front. That's all i got.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/s...ns-long-history-at-madison-square-garden.html

 

[Jaker]

If they showed up to play in the first half of the Gonzaga game and the game tonight, those are more than likely wins. The technical on KO was rough. I just wish we got to see what could have been without that happening.

All 3 losses were very winnable and our "C" game should of beaten Cuse

 

[djct1999]

Here is a positive:
Although, we have lost three games to three quality opponents, we have played in those games as poorly as this team could play and STILL had the chance to win all 3. I am not one for hypotheticals, but what if this team finally gels? What if these kids actually play to their ability? Up until this point, these what ifs have been non-existent and we still had the chance to win. Just sayin.

 

[intlzncster]

If he were decisive with the ball, this is a different team. But neither he nor Purvis are, at least until they're down double figures.

One of their biggest problems actually. Playing w a sense of urgency right out of the gate.

Other people have said it, but UCONN has played like crap in the three games we've lost. And they've been right in it at the end of each game. The reasons for poor play are various and sundry, but fortunately many of those issues are fixable. They just have to be address, completion of which remains to be seen.

 

[boog204]

Here is a positive:
Although, we have lost three games to three quality opponents, we have played in those games as poorly as this team could play and STILL had the chance to win all 3. I am not one for hypotheticals, but what if this team finally gels? What if these kids actually play to their ability? Up until this point, these what ifs have been non-existent and we still had the chance to win. Just sayin.

It is a positive if you spin it that way. But it's also a red flag that the worst three games we've played this year are against the three best teams. The spin there is that we are nowhere as good as we think we are and seem to be totally unprepared in the first half.

 

[Jaker]

We are scoring more points than last year, that is a positive.