Post Game Thoughts on Temple Game

[tentoes4rings]

Wow I'm not sure what UConn team you've been watching xls. Love ya man but 13-5 would be unbelievable I'm thinking 11-7 in conference. The margin for error despite the great defense is so little even against lesser teams it's going to be a real rough ride.

How much can you love him if you don't even know his handle Mau?

 

[Milo65]

This team is young and will get better. Omar looks like he is starting to come around. Purvis is not as advertised, TSam is limited, our frontcourt is getting better. Freshman Boat, Freshman Napier and Freshman (insert player) all have given us fits. This team will mature. It's tough to win when you are starting mostly Freshmen and Sophomores.

 

[huskymagic]

Anyone who thinks they're even close to HAVING to win the tournament clearly hasn't watched any CBB this year.

They'll win 15+ in the AAC and one of the OOC games.

your out of your mind if you think this team is going to make the tournament beating unraked teams in the American conference. Sure if we had beaten Texas it wouldn't have been so dire, but for this team it is. This team is not capable of winning the AAC tournament anyway so maybe your prediction will come true.

 

[Ripper32]

This team isn't a tournament team. While they are there defensively, they are so disjointed on the offensive side. We don't have enough ball handlers or shooters.

 

[1999.2004.2011]

I don't want to over-react to the slow start so far, but our biggest obstacle for getting into the tourney is the fact that we aren't in the old big east anymore. In the past, we could weather a slow start because we had resume building games on the schedule against the likes of Syracuse/Pitt/Nova/GTown/Marquette/WVU that we could fall back on. It is going to be extremely tough for us to improve the resume without any signature OOC victories this season. I know that we have an RPI/BPI in the 40's (soon to drop), but it won't improve when we play teams in conference with 150+ RPI's

 

[Hi-Low]

Anyone who thinks they're even close to HAVING to win the tournament clearly hasn't watched any CBB this year.

They'll win 15+ in the AAC and one of the OOC games.

Stop it....16-3 the rest of the way and 15-2 in AAC?...have you watched THIS team? We have 11 road games....I don't care who you play on the road, not easy. This team will struggle to get 20 wins and need to win AAC tourney otherwise best-case we are a "play-in" type team.

Not saying we are horrible but we have 1 "good" win. Hamilton, Brimah & Facey are raw talents but we need them to be great right now and they're not. Purvis is still an unknown, 1 game great, next not so much.

I feel for Boat....the team is a year away...if he's healthy we have a shot still for some magic but it won't be easy.

 

[1999.2004.2011]

As it looks right now, the AAC may only be a two or three bid league (generously). Remember how the tournament committee looked upon our league last year with Louisville/UConn being vastly underseeded and SMU getting left out of the tournament entirely

 

[Gurleyman]

Uconn is 2-5 without the full team. They're 4-1 with them. This isnt freaking complicated

I usually skew towards sunny optimism, but we are 0-1 in the AAC (with a home loss), so 17-1 is the best we can do, and the only way we can win more than 15 in league is to be almost perfect - and in a league that won't raise our RPI much as we go. I don't expect Boat to be himself at Florida (if he plays), so I'm not expecting a win there, and it might not help much anyway since they are on the same slippery slope that we are down around 100 in the RPI (at least they have a couple chances against Kentucky). If we win both Florida and Stanford on the road, I'll adjust my analysis upward.

The bottom line is I just don't think this team is capable of navigating through 20 games without a couple hiccups, as offensively challenged as we are. There will be days, especially on the road, when we can't buy a bucket. I think we are better served to develop Hamilton as much as possible to be a go to guy late in the year, even if we lose another tight one or two as we live with his mistakes. He'll have to learn how to shoot the 3 with confidence consistently (I.e. forget about the last miss) and tighten up his dribble in traffic/read the collapsing D. I love Boat and know he'll leave it out there in his last game - be it early March or early April - but even healthy, he can't be the only guy who wants the ball late - only so much a 5-10 guy can do. Kemba did a lot himself, but he needed Lamb. Hamilton has all of the tools, but he just tends to let his last mistake or miss make him too hesitant to do it again. We don't have enough weapons for him to be hesitant.

I'd like to say that Purvis could develop too, but I just don't see it with him. He can't even get his shot off most of the time when he's got a defender matched up with him. He can be the third guy who attacks a broken down defense or shoots open shots on kickouts, but I'm not seeing a guy who can create on his own.

 

[huskymagic]

I agree to a point on KO, they are his players and his team. They have limitations in many areas which are the result of their own inabilities as well as his recruiting. They play really really fn hard though and this was the same team who beat Kansas by almost 30 and we had a chance despite our inability to put the ball in the hole never mind hold onto it. The defense made Temple work their butts off. That is the key for all games here forward.

Mauconn I agree Kevin Ollie needs to take a lot of blame for this loss. Omar playing well and he doesn't play last 12 minutes of the game. Kentan and Amida playing well throughout dominating the paint, and he subs Kentan or Amida at inopportune times for T-Sam or Sam Cassel Jr etc. It's crazy to do that when you have nonfactors coming in from the bench. The only guy that Kentan or Amida should be subbed for is Nolan when their in foul trouble or Rakim. Kevin Ollie thinks small ball with guards that can't play high D-1 level is the solution. We have two legit big men in Facey and Brimah and they need to get fed the ball a lot. Not only are they great talents but also positive energy individuals.

I cannot wait for Jalen Adams to come in next year that's all I have to say.

 

[UConn_Top_Dog]

If anyone deserves to be called the "X-Factor" its Facey. That kid brings a toughness and consistency lacking in our front line. His rebounding, defense, and flashes of offensive production are vastly underrated.

 

[mauconnfan]

If anyone deserves to be called the "X-Factor" its Facey. That kid brings a toughness and consistency lacking in our front line. His rebounding, defense, and flashes of offensive production are vastly underrated.

He and Hamilton both played good and rebounded great, thank God. But both left a few plays on the court and just need more minutes and confidence. They are good players to be building off for sure.

 

[Stainmaster]

Mauconn I agree Kevin Ollie needs to take a lot of blame for this loss. Omar playing well and he doesn't play last 12 minutes of the game. Kentan and Amida playing well throughout dominating the paint, and he subs Kentan or Amida at inopportune times for T-Sam or Sam Cassel Jr etc. It's crazy to do that when you have nonfactors coming in from the bench. The only guy that Kentan or Amida should be subbed for is Nolan when their in foul trouble or Rakim. Kevin Ollie thinks small ball with guards that can't play high D-1 level is the solution. We have two legit big men in Facey and Brimah and they need to get fed the ball a lot. Not only are they great talents but also positive energy individuals.

I cannot wait for Jalen Adams to come in next year that's all I have to say.

Omar's impaired vision? Nolan being hobbled?

We think these guys are immortal but sometimes that's not the case.

Also, if you're relying on Adams to completely fix the myriad of issues that were on display today, good luck with that.

 

[UconnU]

we are a terrible offensive team in the half court, luckily we are a great defensive team. Very surprising as guard depth was supposed to be our strength going into this year. As stated, we need another ball handler and another shooter(would love to add another guard who can do both for 2015 if they're any out there). I don't trust anyone other than Boat with the ball right now. Purvis is a turnover machine when he tries to create w/ the ball and he knows it, it's like hot potato when he gets the ball he looks to pass immediately because he has no confidence in his own handle. T-Sam has below average handle for a 1-2 but is serviceable, he just has no shot what so ever (although I thought today his stroke looked better, seems as though they have worked with him on mechanics). SC brings nothing right now. D-Ham is our best 2nd option but continues to make freshman mistakes and is a little streaky. Scoring from the 4-5 has been adequate.

On a positive note (defense) teams are extremely hesitant to go in the paint and our guards do a good job of ball pressure funneling opponents to our shot blockers. Teams are forced to make contested mid-range shots or deep 3s. Its very difficult to score against us. Teams know that they are going to be in a dog fight every game vs us.

 

[mauconnfan]

Good call on the other teams hesitancy getting into the lane or to the rim. A couple of blocks by AB and why were checking out the lane as they were dribbling in and either threw it back out or threw up a shot which had not chance. He does change to there when he's in there, this is why it's SO important to keep him out of foul trouble so he is roaming free at the ned when we have a chance.

 

[PAHusky]

we are a terrible offensive team in the half court, luckily we are a great defensive team. Very surprising as guard depth was supposed to be our strength going into this year. As stated, we need another ball handler and another shooter(would love to add another guard who can do both for 2015 if they're any out there). I don't trust anyone other than Boat with the ball right now. Purvis is a turnover machine when he tries to create w/ the ball and he knows it, it's like hot potato when he gets the ball he looks to pass immediately because he has no confidence in his own handle. T-Sam has below average handle for a 1-2 but is serviceable, he just has no shot what so ever (although I thought today his stroke looked better, seems as though they have worked with him on mechanics). SC brings nothing right now. D-Ham is our best 2nd option but continues to make freshman mistakes and is a little streaky. Scoring from the 4-5 has been adequate.

On a positive note (defense) teams are extremely hesitant to go in the paint and our guards do a good job of ball pressure funneling opponents to our shot blockers. Teams are forced to make contested mid-range shots or deep 3s. Its very difficult to score against us. Teams know that they are going to be in a dog fight every game vs us.

Our team this year reminds me in a lot of ways of Cinci last year. Fairly atrocious in the half court on offense with one proven scoring option (Kilpatrick/Boat), but every game turns into a rock fight because the defense is on point

 

[joober jones]

Ollie probably provided them all with a New Year's Shakin' Eve in the locker room post game.

 

[August_West]

We're

 

[Marty Jackson]

This team isn't a tournament team. While they are there defensively, they are so disjointed on the offensive side. We don't have enough ball handlers or shooters.

Tell me this wasn't the typical sentiment after the smu game last year.

No doubt this team needs to win given the situation and lack of ranked teams on the remaining schedule, but I'm not going to count an Ollie coached team out. Ever.

 

[storrsroars]

your out of your mind if you think this team is going to make the tournament beating unraked teams in the American conference. Sure if we had beaten Texas it wouldn't have been so dire, but for this team it is. This team is not capable of winning the AAC tournament anyway so maybe your prediction will come true.

In pretty much any other year it wouldn't bother me that UConn misses the dance. It's not a great team and arguably not even a good team at this point. Certainly they can get better and I'd expect they will come mid-February. But it'll be too late to make up missed opportunities. Hopefully they can at least pull out an NIT bid.

However, in past years you could simply say, "Wait till next year". You knew UConn would recruit well, the team would bounce back and the projected stars would become actual stars. With the portapotty conference we're now in, I'm not sure that's going to be the case. A losing season coupled with a loser conference is not going to be a positive for recruiting. Color me concerned.

 

[mauconnfan]

In pretty much any other year it wouldn't bother me that UConn misses the dance. It's not a great team and arguably not even a good team at this point. Certainly they can get better and I'd expect they will come mid-February. But it'll be too late to make up missed opportunities. Hopefully they can at least pull out an NIT bid.

However, in past years you could simply say, "Wait till next year". You knew UConn would recruit well, the team would bounce back and the projected stars would become actual stars. With the portapotty conference we're now in, I'm not sure that's going to be the case. A losing season coupled with a loser conference is not going to be a positive for recruiting. Color me concerned.

You'd be crazy not to be I guess. KO and staff have it figured out but it gets much tougher to close if his 3rd is not successful in a down conference, I totally agree. Not on him, but the ammo for the opposing recruiters is now full.

 

[Calhoun's Court]

Nothing that a couple guards who can handle the ball and hit an occasional 3 couldn't fix.

We are always best when we have 2 guards that can handle the ball starting.

Somehow someway we have to get back to that.

We spent a ton of time dreaming of Diamond Stone- but we NEED guards going forward.

This year I can't come up with 2 ballhandlers who i would trust on the current roster.

Would love to see Dorsey for instance in addition to Adams come in-basically another ballhandler at the guard position.

 

[Slasher]

104 in the RPI after the Temple game. It's an uphill climb for sure.

 

[CTBasketball]

There's nothing I love more than excuses after tough losses.

Anytime you have 16 turnovers and score 2 points in overtime, YOU'RE NOT BEATING ANYONE. I don't care if Boat was there or not - 2 points in OT would not even beat the 1913 Helm's Champion Syracuse Orangemen.

 

[storrsroars]

There's nothing I love more than excuses after tough losses.

Anytime you have 16 turnovers and score 2 points in overtime, YOU'RE NOT BEATING ANYONE. I don't care if Boat was there or not - 2 points in OT would not even beat the 1913 Helm's Champion Syracuse Orangemen.

But the Helms Champion Syracuse Orangemen would've only scored in the low 30s, so there wouldn't have been an overtime.

 

[NC_Uconn_Fan]

Tell me this wasn't the typical sentiment after the smu game last year.

No doubt this team needs to win given the situation and lack of ranked teams on the remaining schedule, but I'm not going to count an Ollie coached team out. Ever.

we haven't beat anyone yet. Dayton is our best win, our conference is not good. Temple would have been a good win and we lost again. Last hear we had a signature win vs Florida. Nothing this year. Rpi is over 100 with not much chance to get into the top 50. Not giving up on the team but being realistic about our ncaa chances. Lets get better and win AAC tournament and guarantee a spot.

 

[jibsey]

Not going to focus on the team's lack of success or obvious shortcomings on New Year's Day, closing my eyes........ I'm on the parade route lifting up my grandkids to see Bazz as the team float goes by, confetti.................ahhh

 

[4in16]

I'm not predicting all wins but to eliminate them before playing smu 2x, @temple, @ Stanford, cincy 2x seems premature (I know optimistic), but those could all be top 50 wins by seasons end. Lot's of ball to be played and a lot of teams are gonna lose games teams with worse worst losses than Yale (still painful) but I mean even Lunardi has them 6-7 teams out at this point (again means nothing to committee) but it's still to early to rule them out. Boat is obviously key but steal a win in the swamp get some confidence, forget the horrible free throw performance and focus on the games in front of you, and beat temple on their home floor to end the season, optimistic yes impossible no

 

[Waquoit]

On the plus side, I thought Tower of Power did the best National Anthem since the Phantom of the Opera guy over a decade ago.

 

[gtcam]

Absolutely. Or do you think Boatright doesn't score five points the last 30 minutes?

Because that's what you'd be arguing.

I really love your positive attitude and I usually fish from the same boat - my buddies think I drink too much UConn Kool-Aid

But this year there are just too many deficiencies that some of us weren't thinking were going to show their ugly face.
Firstly, we have been fed the line that RP was the next coming of JC himself and to date, my 2000 Subaru Legacy with 300K miles has proven to be more of a race car than this Ferrari.
Second, many were counting on SC Jr to be something better than a D3 prospect who reportedly can shoot the lights out but seems to wither under the lights of D1 competition.
Third, AB has had his bright spots but does not yet possess the BBall IQ needed to be effective overall on D and his hands are still plain horrible. Sure he was limited this past summer but I expected a higher level from him.
DHam is a delight BUT he is still a freshman and is prone to freshman errors - what bothers me is that he doesn't seem to be taking corrective actions.
Omar took to long to jump into the game - I can't get into the young man's head but I really don't think he had much physically wrong with him since start of the season - I truly hope he returns to at a minimum what he showed us as a freshman.
Boat has been, in my estimation, a pure surprise and exciting, however, he is a leader and as a leader must bring his A game defensively from minute one through the end. That will play huge with the rest and hopefully stop these lethargic start to nearly every game. I believe the offense builds through the defense.
TSam needs to remember what he did last year during that magical tourney run that had many of us fall in love with the guy. He now looks like someone trying to do things he simply isn't prepared to bring to the table. You can add P Nolan into this equation also - rebounds are scarce and much needed PN.
Facey - I can't say I was expecting more but I really think if he put on a few ponds of muscle and found a bit of a mean streak - he could be a really good player - he needs to touch the ball more
This team has a very shallow bench and even though most UConn teams have never been a bench oriented team - I feel this year could have that need.

Boat isn't Bazz but can hold his own. DHam has a lot of DD in him but I really think overall DHan is/will be better. What this team needs is a Neils G. We don't have, at this time, that guy who can shoot, pass, rebound and give 100%.

 

[Gurleyman]

I really love your positive attitude and I usually fish from the same boat - my buddies think I drink too much UConn Kool-Aid But this year there are just too many deficiencies that some of us weren't thinking were going to show their ugly face. Firstly, we have been fed the line that RP was the next coming of JC himself and to date, my 2000 Subaru Legacy with 300K miles has proven to be more of a race car than this Ferrari. Second, many were counting on SC Jr to be something better than a D3 prospect who reportedly can shoot the lights out but seems to wither under the lights of D1 competition. Third, AB has had his bright spots but does not yet possess the BBall IQ needed to be effective overall on D and his hands are still plain horrible. Sure he was limited this past summer but I expected a higher level from him. DHam is a delight BUT he is still a freshman and is prone to freshman errors - what bothers me is that he doesn't seem to be taking corrective actions. Omar took to long to jump into the game - I can't get into the young man's head but I really don't think he had much physically wrong with him since start of the season - I truly hope he returns to at a minimum what he showed us as a freshman. Boat has been, in my estimation, a pure surprise and exciting, however, he is a leader and as a leader must bring his A game defensively from minute one through the end. That will play huge with the rest and hopefully stop these lethargic start to nearly every game. I believe the offense builds through the defense. TSam needs to remember what he did last year during that magical tourney run that had many of us fall in love with the guy. He now looks like someone trying to do things he simply isn't prepared to bring to the table. You can add P Nolan into this equation also - rebounds are scarce and much needed PN. Facey - I can't say I was expecting more but I really think if he put on a few ponds of muscle and found a bit of a mean streak - he could be a really good player - he needs to touch the ball more This team has a very shallow bench and even though most UConn teams have never been a bench oriented team - I feel this year could have that need. Boat isn't Bazz but can hold his own. DHam has a lot of DD in him but I really think overall DHan is/will be better. What this team needs is a Neils G. We don't have, at this time, that guy who can shoot, pass, rebound and give 100%.

A couple minor quibbles amongst your fair points. I think Brimah is about as good as could be reasonably expected offensively after what we saw of him last year. He makes some post shots now - jump hooks with both hands, etc. and can hit face up jumpers. He's been pretty good at the line, too. All of these are pretty big steps forward. He's tripled his scoring average (although the Coppin State outlier inflates that), and he's at least an option on the low block - last year, he never got post feeds at all. But I do think we could have expected a better rebounder at this point - something in the 6-7 range and not 4 - and a little better discipline with fouls.

Hamilton has been up and down, but he has made a few corrections early on. He doesn't leave his feet to pass any more like he did numerous times against WV, and he doesn't go to the spin move in the lane when D is collapsing - that move was effective for him early until it was scouted, and then he started losing the ball when he couldn't see the help as he was spinning. Early in the year, he had some really lazy passes on the perimeter with no zip on them that were stolen, and I haven't seen those in a while. He's still not great at reading the help defense reaching, but as he builds experience, I think he'll get a better sense for that and protect the ball, but you're right that he's repeatedly had the ball stripped by help defenders and he needs to get better at it. His turnover count was high yesterday, but I can live with a couple of them - particularly the one he had pushing the ball in overtime after his defensive rebound, which was mostly unlucky - if he got through that one last seam like he almost did before a desperate Temple reach, we'd have gotten something good in transition. I want him to push the ball there - he's been very effective all year pushing on his own rebounds and we weren't getting anything in the halfcourt. He also got one trying to throw an inbounds pass to Brimah, but he was out of options and we were low on timeouts. I'd rather have the 5 count than a live ball turnover, but easy to say from my couch.

With Boat, several folks are calling for him to play at maximum intensity from the tip every time, but the tradeoff is that there's a certain game management responsibility that someone of his importance has, now that Bazz isn't around. You can't go balls to the wall for 40 minutes at both ends and have enough in the tank for plays in winning time. Yes he's incredibly fit, but you can look at Ricky's title game performance in 1999 (who was incredibly fit himself) - he was balls to the wall at both ends in the first half and was flat out exhausted in the final minute of the half. Missed a front end while gasping for air and gave up seven points to Langdon on two possessions by being slow on close outs. And that was 20 hard minutes, not 40. Second half he reverted back to his stopper role and took it easy on offense and had enough left to make the plays on D in winning time. There's a reason Jordan facilitated all the time in the first quarter, and that Kobe didn't want to waste energy chasing Ray around on defense or that LeBron would often switch onto the toughest defensive assignment at the end when it was needed. They understood game management. You also don't want to come out too aggressive until you get a sense for how the game is going to be called. A stupid hand check foul or bumping the cutter foul early, and you have to rachet down the intensity on someone else's terms, instead of turning it up on your terms when you sense your team needs a lift. If you're Terrence Samuel - you give your max on D every minute you're out there - or if you're Boat last year and know that Bazz will handle a lot of the late game management, you can afford to push yourself past the fatigue point. I'm not saying allow easy blow bys or be lazy, which he's done a couple times and is a fair point, but 94 feet of intense defensive pressure on every dribble from the tip isn't a good strategy for your most important offensive weapon, if you need him to make the plays at the end.