Providence Post Game Thread

[CL82]

They were awful today. But Gaffney hasn’t been awful all year, nor has Polley, and we haven’t seen anything from Johnson or Diggins while they are in that should convince anyone that they will help us win more than Polley and Diggins right now.

And if it isn’t clear to you, Hurley, like many coaches, want players who can defend first and foremost.

Weight, coaches value defense? Who knew? Apparently not Polley who is a notoriously weak defender in that Gaffney who struggled to keep his assignment in front of him… and, I guess, not Hurley, who didn’t take either of them out for their defensive lapses.

In any event, his point was a valid one and is being talked about by a lot of posters, not just him.

 

[hayman522]

They were awful today. But Gaffney hasn’t been awful all year, nor has Polley, and we haven’t seen anything from Johnson or Diggins while they are in that should convince anyone that they will help us win more than Polley and Diggins right now.

And if it isn’t clear to you, Hurley, like many coaches, want players who can defend first and foremost.

What Gaffney was doing out there look like defense to you!

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Which let’s face it he does a lot

And yet is really the least of our worries.

 

[navery12]

I’m hoping someone with influence reads it. It lost the game today.

No. It didn't.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

We gave up under 60 points and blocked six shots. We didn’t lose this game because Hurley is forcing a defense his players can;t play on him

Why does this board, once it turns on someone, have to turn him into a Three Stooges caricature?

Agreed - the opponent shot 39% FG and 32% 3PT, we outrebounded them by 4, had 3 more assists, 5 more blocks, and we were outscored by 14 pts in the paint and yet had 6 more fastbreak points. How did we lose? Because we shot 31% FG and 27% 3PT. Clearly our shooting sucked and was the reason we lost; not the defense.

 

[AdamaNation]

Looking forward to the day Hurley tries something new with the lineup. This ain’t working. We have 2 maybe 3 contributors.

I need aj to grab offensive boards instead of trying to tip all of them in. From any distance. He seems to improve on everything we complain about within a week or so, so since he is an obvious yarder… AJ. Hold the ball off the o boards!!!

 

[Chief00]

Chief’s was disappointed after Jackson hit 2 threes late, others tried to take it upon themselves. That’s when AJ’s drive is set-up.
AJ has showed progress this game on ball security and listening to Chief’s advice that you don’t get points for degree of difficulty. It was nice that Jackson mom gave up some of her seats to the Hawkins family, who aren’t able to see the team as frequently. That’s the type of teamwork Chief likes to see. It may mean nothing to some beloved casual fans, but it’s great when players and families support one another. Our better teams have had that with Kemba’s parents and Bazz’s mom, etc.

 

[Chief00]

Note - ESPN adjusted their boxscore to show Polley 1-7 from three, which reflects more Chief’s eye test during the game. That’s 14%.

Hawkins was 0-3, but he didn’t have 5 years in D-1 to figure it out. Polley got twice as many minutes (24 to 12). That’s on Danny.

Give Cole credit for 8 assists and Jackson for 14 rebounds. The two things that stood out in the boxscore in a positive direction. The next guy in assists was Gaffney with 2.

The bottom line is Cole, at this level should be a second or third option. But he’s our first option, out of necessity, especially with Sanogo out. He can only do that by taking a high volume of shots while making a low %. It’s not his fault, since that shouldn’t be his role.
It’s not a winning formula against decent teams. PC has two possible NBA players in Watson and Reeves. Combined they did much of the scoring for PC, along with Croswell. They did it more efficiently than we did.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Never been more embarrassed to be a part of this university. They will never see a dime from me. Pathetic.

This will surely motivate the team to perform better in the future. It was very important that you used the word "never" two times. Your words will go onto the locker room bulletin board, and lead the team to victories that will replace your withheld dimes. Thank you for posting this.

Cold and Whaley ( I think) missed 4 FT’s. In the last 4 minutes. Even if the team made half of those they missed this game could have looked different in the end. A long time ago in the last ice age Calhoun got so pizzerias at missed foul shots he made the team practice foul shots until they smartened up.

Your two typos made me smile. Little else in this thread has done so. I'm not making fun of you (that's for the other two, and those who exaggerate about other people rather than express how personally upset, angry, and sad they feel.

I was angry, upset, and sad when I watched many needlessly rushed shots that were poorly chosen. Liked the assisted baskets much more. I wouldn't be able to articulate what game plan was developed for today's game.

I do wonder what word "pizzerias" was supposed to be. I need a laugh after what I saw today. .
Are you apologizing because you have something to do with how he coaches?
Why are you sorry?

Is "horrid" better or worse than "putrid?"
How about awful?

Are you embarrassed?
What does it mean when someone writes "pathetic" as a complete sentence?

 

[willie99]

Stick polley to the bench til graduation

If he misses his first shot or two, I concur. If he's not sticking shots, he's counter-productive

 

[T-Squared]

And if it isn’t clear to you, Hurley, like many coaches, want players who can defend first and foremost.

If that’s the case why is Polley on the floor? The guy can’t defend. He also doesn’t rebound, and he’s horrific from 3.

 

[M.S.G.]

I'm frustrated like everyone else but reading this board gives me a headache.. I showed my wife the new threads last night and she said our fan base should be ashamed of ourselves.

We missed shots. It's that simple. PC is pretty good. Missing 4 straight FTs is just as much to blame as the 3-point shooting.

The sky is not falling, stop being jerks.

 

[tennmike]

After cutting it to 2 with the ball with 40 seconds left in the game… Martin jacks up a contested 3… Gaffney wastes 20 seconds off the clock dribbling at the top of the key and passes it to Cole for a contested 3… and Polley misses a contested 3. This team doesn’t know how to win close games.

Gaffney has not sense of urgency...no situational awareness. We're down four and he's dribbling like there's all the time in the world. Why in the hell is Floyd Jr. red shirting and Diggens glued to the bench?

 

[Fatroony5]

Hard to win games scoring 53 points, no clue why people are pointing to the defense, that hasn’t been the issue this season. I get Hurleys allegiances to the older guys that have proven it in practice and all that. Just think at a certain point when those guys aren’t playing well, the younger players should be cutting into their minutes. You can stagger line ups to get Diggins in there with the right guys and Samson as well. It’s not panic time by any means, I just want to see certain guys minutes cut a bit if they’re going to continue to struggle like this.

 

[F101Voodoo]

This will surely motivate the team to perform better in the future. It was very important that you used the word "never" two times. Your words will go onto the locker room bulletin board, and lead the team to victories that will replace your withheld dimes. Thank you for posting this.

Your two typos made me smile. Little else in this thread has done so. I'm not making fun of you (that's for the other two, and those who exaggerate about other people rather than express how personally upset, angry, and sad they feel.

I was angry, upset, and sad when I watched many needlessly rushed shots that were poorly chosen. Liked the assisted baskets much more. I wouldn't be able to articulate what game plan was developed for today's game.

I do wonder what word "pizzerias" was supposed to be. I need a laugh after what I saw today. .

Are you apologizing because you have something to do with how he coaches?
Why are you sorry?

Is "horrid" better or worse than "putrid?"
How about awful?

Are you embarrassed?
What does it mean when someone writes "pathetic" as a complete sentence?

That was supposed to say “Calhoun was so PISSED off at missed foul shots ( spell check interpreted my word ‘ pizzed ‘ as “pizzeria” ) . . If you are me no I am not apologizing. My point is that Calhoun took corrective steps when the team committed FUBARS. Hope Hurley does also as we expect him to.

PS Spell check sometimes FUBARS things up. My bad for not reading before hitting button.

 

[Lefty2one]

Calling out the defensive effort when you hold the opposition under 40% FG is rich. Sure, there were some poor stretches, but our defense is near the bottom of the list of reasons that we lost this game. Seems like a coaching platitude out of Hurley. We shot what, 15% in the first half? 31% for the game. We have one reliable/consistent backcourt player and he's a Howard transfer. Martin is reasonably reliable but has his duds, and he's a URI transfer.

If you want to know if we're going to win a game all you have to do is look at the trio of Polley, Gaffney, and Hawkins. In our three losses they've combined for...

173 minutes
45 points
15% FG (7/45)

That is absurd. Hurley has to get a shorter leash with Polley and Gaff and mix up the lineup more.

To overcome this, we need Cole or Sanogo to be dominant. If they aren't, most games will be a coin toss. Yesterday we lost that toss: we couldn't throw the ball in the ocean, missed clutch FT, had butterfingers at the wrong time.

We are still relatively early in the season and without Sanogo, but there are glaring flaws with this roster (that many acknowledged going into the season) and they aren't being minimalized thanks to Hurley's coaching.

 

[uconnfan68]

No. It didn't.

Ok, I give up. We won.

 

[80shusky]

Defensively this team is great. The problem is a brutal lack of any kind of offensive execution at all. I think coach is waiting for a player or two to step up and just take over these games with individual play on offense but that player is not currently on the roster.
With this defense and eventually Sanogo back I'm still bullish on a good season though.

 

[dennismenace]

Despite all the negatives from missed free throws, poor shooting, mental mistakes etc. I firmly believe that we could have won this game at the end. That said; with Sonogo we almost surely would have won. He would have made a huge difference and probably could have given us enough for a comfortable margin of victory with or without the player they were missing. Keeping this in mind helps me to look forward more positively to the future. PC has a big team. Sonogo would have made a huge difference in that respect and he also makes Whaley a better player sharing the load. BTW, AJ had 14 boards. We are going to be OK but Danny needs to get his act together on the offense and get Diggens (ballhandler with speed) into the lineup and more time for Hawkins. Polley's stat sheet is appalling. Gaff was once again invisible; especially at the end. You can't seem to depend on some of our guys when the bigger games are on the line Thinking he can just sit Johnson and Diggens for the season is really lame and stubborn.

 

[F101Voodoo]

Defensively this team is great. The problem is a brutal lack of any kind of offensive execution at all. I think coach is waiting for a player or two to step up and just take over these games with individual play on offense but that player is not currently on the roster.
With this defense and eventually Sanogo back I'm still bullish on a good season though.

Never give up hope of any kind. I kept hope alive through two types of cancers. Maybe I will live to see another championship but if not I will will still hope for UConn wherever I end up.

 

[the Q]

Gaffney has not sense of urgency...no situational awareness. We're down four and he's dribbling like there's all the time in the world. Why in the hell is Floyd Jr. red shirting and Diggens glued to the bench?

The designed play took way too long.

Maybe he should’ve abandoned it.

But it seemed like a bad play design as well considering how long it took to free Cole up.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

That was supposed to say “Calhoun was so PISSED off at missed foul shots ( spell check interpreted my word ‘ pizzed ‘ as “pizzeria” ) . . If you are me no I am not apologizing. My point is that Calhoun took corrective steps when the team committed FUBARS. Hope Hurley does also as we expect him to.

PS Spell check sometimes FUBARS things up. My bad for not reading before hitting button.

No apology was contemplated when I asked. I really did find "pizzeria" an island of amusement in a sea of angst.

 

[Umami Zen]

Easy to say--Hard to do.. Coaches have to coach--Players have to play. Winning plays during crunch time need to happen. No excuses.

 

[T-Squared]

I think Hurley feels obligated to play Polley because Hurley is loyal to his players and Polley was loyal to the program. For the program to grow contributions are needed from players that are nailed to the bench. Those players don’t get to grow because their time is taken by guys like Polley and Gaffney.

 

[OkaForPrez]

I'm frustrated like everyone else but reading this board gives me a headache.. I showed my wife the new threads last night and she said our fan base should be ashamed of ourselves.

We missed shots. It's that simple. PC is pretty good. Missing 4 straight FTs is just as much to blame as the 3-point shooting.

The sky is not falling, stop being jerks.

I can't tell if this is the way its always been and I'm getting older and less tolerant of it? I think I've got more people ignored than not now.