Pretty impressive win

[Jay-Bone]

Their star was a yet to be challenged freshman. Payton was a low-ranked 4 star who rather wanted to be in Oklahoma. I put my house on the +7.5 line. Good win, but should've won anyway, we've become this depraved.

 

[The Viking]

The defense is so much better this year.

Last year's team is probably 2-2 right now, maybe even 1-3.

 

[Guapo]

Well yeah and look - I’m really not usually a “omg team chemistry” guy as I’ve seen as many teams who hate each other’s guts/have a bad attitude be good as i’ve seen been bad, but....

It’s really clear that there were some bad elements on that team and they lacked leadership and toughness. And chemistry, really. That’s not the case with this team. Energy, effort and toughness is there with this team. They’re not the most talented group we’ve had but they’ve got all the signs of a team that’s got a shot to play above it’s own head - and again in a reset/rebuilding year - that’s all you can ask.

And it is sooooo refreshing

 

[aceboon]

Their star was a yet to be challenged freshman. Payton was a low-ranked 4 star who rather wanted to be in Oklahoma. I put my house on the +7.5 line. Good win, but should've won anyway, we've become this depraved.

Don't really understand the line about Pritchard, top 60 recruit last year and he decommitted from OK, why would he rather be there?

 

[Towney007]

Don't really understand the line about Pritchard, top 60 recruit last year and he recommitted from OK, why would he rather be there?

I don’t really understand any of it. Between the missed free throws and bunny layups they’d have won by about 12-15 points. They handled a team that they could beat. Should they have won by 20 or something?

 

[RollSkies96]

Liked the way Carlton played, especially in the first half. He made a few shots that have seemed to trouble UConn bigs in the past few years. He did foul out, and he has plenty of room for improvement, but hopefully he continue to develop into a good post player here.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Tremendous win that will have repercussions in March in terms of quality wins and strength of schedule (with opportunities for more quality wins this week).

The toughness was great, a near-complete 180 from last year's team that played soft and with minimal basketball IQ.

3-point defense was vastly improved from the first half to the second. That's going to be critical going forward if we continue to be unable to score from outside ourselves.

Gilbert looked much better and even finished around the rim a few times (though he also got blocked at least once).

Free throw shooting, with the exception of Gilbert, also was excellent in the second half. This team can do a lot of damage off the dribble-drive by finishing and/or drawing fouls.

That said, KO simply has to develop some kind of offense that isn't just the lead guard taking his man 1-on-1 off the dribble. 4 assists, or whatever we had, is pathetic at this level of basketball. We're going to need a Plan B at some point, and it almost cost us a win tonight as our offense completely broke down for most of the second half.

Team defense and rebounding is a vast improvement over the last few years, and we're not even into December. As the rotation tightens up (sorry, Mamadou), we should become even tougher and more cohesive on the defensive end as the year goes on. That gives us a pretty good floor, with offensive development the factor that will determine our ceiling.

Overall a big-time performance on the road in a critical early-season game -- very encouraging.

 

[superjohn]

I thought we would beat them and it killed me seeing so many people thinking we would get blown out. A lot of things to improve on but that was a damn good win on the road. That was Uconn basketball and we clearly have some dog in us and something to work with this season. MSU is a different challenge but let's show them again what Uconn hoops is all about.

 

[husky8273]

what time is game Fri?

11:59pm

 

[jayteeman]

This made me chuckle from the Oregon board

"Ollie is such a filthy ref baiter, and his team play like a bunch of scumbags. Their goal was to put it in the refs' hands from the opening tip, and it worked. Teams like that always give us trouble, and always will because Altman doesn't speak up. He's the best coach in the conference, but trashy coaches like Ollie always manage to turn everything into a game of who can get more calls. It's infuriating to watch.

I have zero respect for UConn. They're a really trashy team (with an extremely trashy coach) that I don't expect to do anything this year. They won't look as good when they play teams that have coaches that push back on refs for making terrible calls.

We played terribly, but we were clearly taken out of our rhythm early by the refs and all the fouls and free throws."

Oh, the classic Lou Holtz line:
"Never tell anyone your problems. 50% don't care, and 50% are glad you got the problem"

 

[Hankster]

I can’t believe I stayed awake without napping.

Scotch time.

I understand your pain. lol. Normally I am in LaLa land around 10.No way this time. This was one of the best games I have seen from a UConn time in awhile. Plus the Giants were on,so I was going back and forth during commercials. In fact, I don't know the score of that game yet.

 

[Marty Jackson]

POG was Alterique Gilbert for me, but 1A was Anderson.

Those 2 carried the team.

Larrier, despite his stat line, also was tough on D, caused a lot of turnovers, and he got to the line where he shot 7-8.

Absolutely shocked when they showed larrier with 18 points.
Quietest 18 points I've ever seen.

 

[freescooter]

Good win but I think Oregon is kind of like us. Pretty good team but nothing special trying to put lots of new pieces together. Winning out there was good though.

 

[Mr. French]

This made me chuckle from the Oregon board

"Ollie is such a filthy ref baiter, and his team play like a bunch of scumbags. Their goal was to put it in the refs' hands from the opening tip, and it worked. Teams like that always give us trouble, and always will because Altman doesn't speak up. He's the best coach in the conference, but trashy coaches like Ollie always manage to turn everything into a game of who can get more calls. It's infuriating to watch.

I have zero respect for UConn. They're a really trashy team (with an extremely trashy coach) that I don't expect to do anything this year. They won't look as good when they play teams that have coaches that push back on refs for making terrible calls.

We played terribly, but we were clearly taken out of our rhythm early by the refs and all the fouls and free throws."

Isn't it amazing?

We usually say the EXACT same thing (minus the annoying overuse of 'trashy') about the guy he's saying the opposite about.

 

[tzznandrew]

This will be an RPI Top 50 win by the end of the year. If they lose to MSU and get Arkansas, that will be as well, if they win it.

If they beat MSU, that will likely be an RPI Top 10 win, and UNC will as well. Worst case RPI Top 15.

So, the Oregon game was big, as we all know, because we don't have to worry about any DePauls or Portlands.