Providence Post Game Thread

[Hunt for 7]

We are a bad defensive team.

We are so bad we should consider playing zone but we won’t.

We are a below average rebounding team without Liam.

We are a very good offensive team.

We have a ton of character.

We need more from our sophomores.

We did not play very well today.

We dropped 10 spots in one of the most advanced and accurate ratings algos after a freakin win.

 

[El Obrero]

We are a bad defensive team.

We are so bad we should consider playing zone but we won’t.

We are a below average rebounding team without Liam.

We are a very good offensive team.

We have a ton of character.

We need more from our sophomores.

We did not play very well today.

We dropped 10 spots in one of the most advanced and accurate ratings algos after a freakin win.

 

[superjohn]

We dropped 10 spots in one of the most advanced and accurate ratings algos after a freakin win.

Who cares?

 

[El Obrero]

You’re drawing ridiculous conclusions from one game. One grudge-match, conference rock fight, taking the court minus the obvious linchpin to the team’s entire offensive plan and with the coaches trying to adjust on the fly. But please, go ahead, I didn’t mean to interrupt.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Great gut check for the boys, but our poor D is going to put us in more tough spots if we don’t figure out how to handle spread iso offenses.

What is there to learn? Just don't get smoked at the point of attack, and then your help will do the rest. Unfortunately, UConn gets smoked at the point of attack, a lot.

UConn is roughly halfway through its season, and is currently 134 in KenPom's adjusted defensive rating. And the eye test is even worse. English runs a fairly vanilla scheme, and UConn gave up 84 points on 50% shooting to a Providence squad that is missing 2 starters, including its best player. This has to be the worst UConn defense, by far, since the beginning of the Calhoun era.

I am baffled at why UConn is so terrible defensively. This team is fairly athletic, and is skilled offensively so they know what they are doing on some level. I can't figure it out.

 

[Waquoit]

We are a bad defensive team.

We are so bad we should consider playing zone but we won’t.

We are a below average rebounding team without Liam.

We are a very good offensive team.

We have a ton of character.

We need more from our sophomores.

We did not play very well today.

We dropped 10 spots in one of the most advanced and accurate ratings algos after a freakin win.

Ignore

 

[El Obrero]

We are a bad defensive team.

We are so bad we should consider playing zone but we won’t.

We are a below average rebounding team without Liam.

We are a very good offensive team.

We have a ton of character.

We need more from our sophomores.

We did not play very well today.

We dropped 10 spots in one of the most advanced and accurate ratings algos after a freakin win.

You’re drawing ridiculous conclusions from one game. One grudge-match, conference rock fight, taking the court minus the obvious linchpin to the team’s entire offensive plan and with the coaches trying to adjust on the fly. But please, go ahead, I didn’t mean to interrupt.

 

[gmc1055]

Maybe I missed it earlier on as I joined the stream very late but Gampel seemed kind of empty and quiet

Why was this massive game scheduled over break?

I was there it wasn't empty or quiet

 

[Uconn77Duke74]

Reed was the deciding factor today. Providence spent all day shooting from inside the paint and he shut that down second half.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

This whole Boneyard PG/Off-guard ongoing debate just mystifies me.

When our current offense is humming, it’s because we have 3 (minimum) perimeter players capable of initiating the offense, playing off screens, passing, and driving into the lane if it’s there or things break down. Last year, it was Tristen, Cam, & Steph.

We didn’t bring Mahaney to be a PG. Nor an off guard. He was brought here to become the next great UConn guard. Because at St. Mary’s he showed he had the potential tools to do what we needed.

I think it’s just mainly been (1) our offense isn’t humming yet with the new roster yet, and (2) a much bigger learning curve than everyone has anticipated for Aidan…

Disagree with this take. Mahaney pretty much wasn’t asked to facilitate at all today, just score. That is what he is best at and is very different than what guys like Spencer and Castle were asked to do last year as guys who shared point duties with Newton. But that’s fine because this is a different team with different players and different skill sets. Mahaney was miscast early but the staff adjusted and hopefully this was the confidence boost Mahaney needed to get him consistently back to playing his game.

 

[DblCrossbar]

We’ve seen quite a bit of this so far. Refs pretty much refuse to call freedom of movement to start the game, contact gets wildly out of hand, and then the refs have to swing wildly the other direction to get the game under control again. I get it’s a fine line to set the tone on that stuff early without making it unwatchable but it shouldn’t be too much to ask to at least come close to that line.

Teams make adjustments to their game after the half. Why not the refs? They obv discussed the "tenor" as unacceptable in their own locker room and knew they could call a better truer game too.

 

[HooperScooper]

Gampel seemed quiet and it looked like there were a lot of empty seats for what should be a massive game

You know, if you repeat it more than once it doesn't make it true.

 

[FearThePups]

Stewie is playable in short bursts. I don't know what Dan Hurley does with Ross at this point other than use him for D only in last minute of a close game.

Maybe dabble with Abraham some. It’s not like Stewart or Ross are adding anything.

 

[HooperScooper]

The over and back . . . Wasn’t.

They showed the replay and Mahaney was in the front court and then his foot clearly went backwards and was on the half court line. Isn't that the rule? What am I missing?

 

[WhereistheDove?]

Teams make adjustments to their game after the half. Why not the refs? They obv discussed the "tenor" as unacceptable in their own locker room and knew they could call a better truer game too.

My point isn’t that refs shouldn’t make adjustments, it’s that the game should not be called in such a way at the start that requires such a significant mid-game adjustment.

 

[superjohn]

You know, if you repeat it more than once it doesn't make it true.

There was nobody there...

 

[DogMania]

To be fair, most said he couldn’t play point guard. Today, he excelled playing off the ball with Diarra.

That is the very point I was going to bring up. Mahaney had a very good game. Created some good scoring opportunities for himself and knocked down both of his 3s.

Defensively he struggled most of the time due to his lack of lateral and change of direction movement and overall lack of strength. He did draw an offensive foul and stayed in front of his man a few times. He's been worse on D, so I guess today he showed some improvement. Hope he can hit the weights and protein shakes hard in the off season.

Props to him for being a big part of this win and getting rolling on the offense end. He did a solid job of bringing up the ball from the backcourt, but still doesn't show much PG skills. There's little doubt Hurley brought him in hoping he could give us some PG play and thus far it looks like that hasn't worked out as he had hoped.

IMO, it's making lemonade out of lemons at this point. If Aidan does learn to run the offense, begin to get assists and improve his D, then I'll change my position on him. Don't get me wrong. I love his contributions of creating offensive for himself, which is gravely needed with McNeeley out and hope that continues. The issue is he's not the answer for backing up Diarra who is logging ridiculous PT or when he's not due to foul trouble. Hopefully Nowell can find the floor and contribute as our backup PG at some point in the season when needed or Mahaney can improve his lead guard skills just enough to give us 10 or so minutes at the 1.

I'm very happy for Aidan who deserves props and I hope this is the beginning of him playing well off the ball and with confidence. Just wanted to note that like many other Boneyarders, we still think he was a bit of a swing and miss as a PG and capable defender, but am rooting for him to prove us wrong. I'm always willing to eat my share of crow. Loved his offensive production today. We don't win today without it.

 

[jibsey]

Our guards get beat off the dribble. That is physicality and speed. I don’t know how Hurley fixes that. Clingan was back there to block them from scoring last year. I think if Johnson just held his ground and didn’t go for fakes he could do some of that but he has to be in the paint for that.

Hurley just quoted, approx: “ teams are just driving against our players that are not good individual on ball defenders.”

 

[FearThePups]

They showed the replay and Mahaney was in the front court and then his foot clearly went backwards and was on the half court line. Isn't that the rule? What am I missing?

Can we all agree to end this nonsensical back and forth?

 

[Excalibur]

Disagree, Hurley envisioned Mahaney as the starting point guard. That's why Mahaney was our starting point guard at the start of the season. Hurley admitted as much today and that he messed things up in the beginning with trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Mahaney was on ball a little today but they mainly had him off ball where he was allowed to do what he does with his scoring.

I think the admission is that he can’t be the only ball handler and be expected to bring the ball up, act as a distributor, and run offense. That’s not his skill set. But neither is he a catch and shoot 2 like Ball or Hawkins who is comfortable running off of screens to get open shots. He’s an attacking score first guard. Neither a natural 1 nor a natural 2.

The staff has managed in the past to figure out how to craft the offense to fit the skills of the guys on the roster (see Jackson, Andre). They’re figuring it out here.

 

[cp176]

This was a big time gut check game. Mahaney played hard and well. Teams know how to create matchup problems for him but that is why Reed is on the floor. My takeaway from this game is that we have a tough hard nosed team that is no where near as deep as I thought we were. Diarra and Reed were big time gamers and Karaban was there when we needed him. Without McNeeley this team currently isnot very deep at all. 7 maybe 8 but not very often.

 

[pj]

I think the admission is that he can’t be the only ball handler and be expected to bring the ball up, act as a distributor, and run offense. That’s not his skill set. But neither is he a catch and shoot 2 like Ball or Hawkins who is comfortable running off of screens to get open shots. He’s an attacking score first guard. Neither a natural 1 nor a natural 2.

The staff has managed in the past to figure out how to craft the offense to fit the skills of the guys on the roster (see Jackson, Andre). They’re figuring it out here.

The skills he has will be essential to this team while McNeeley is out. It's not clear they add a lot of value with McNeeley playing 35 minutes. It would be great if Mahaney can broaden his game.

 

[Excalibur]

What is there to learn? Just don't get smoked at the point of attack, and then your help will do the rest. Unfortunately, UConn gets smoked at the point of attack, a lot.

UConn is roughly halfway through its season, and is currently 134 in KenPom's adjusted defensive rating. And the eye test is even worse. English runs a fairly vanilla scheme, and UConn gave up 84 points on 50% shooting to a Providence squad that is missing 2 starters, including its best player. This has to be the worst UConn defense, by far, since the beginning of the Calhoun era.

I am baffled at why UConn is so terrible defensively. This team is fairly athletic, and is skilled offensively so they know what they are doing on some level. I can't figure it out.

I just think it comes down to a lack of size (not just height) in the backcourt, and to a lesser extent at power forward. Hurley is also so committed to limiting the number of 3-point attempts that we refuse to help off of shooters on penetration and we crowd guys on the catch, inviting them to drive by us.

It’s why our gaudy shot blocking numbers are an illusion. When teams are taking as many shots near the basket as they are against us, even an average block percentage will produce a lot of blocked shots. Along with those blocks comes all of the bad stuff that comes from too much penetration (high shooting percentages, offensive rebounds, dishes for easy dunks, fouls, etc.).

 

[CTBasketball]

We are a bad defensive team.

We are so bad we should consider playing zone but we won’t.

We are a below average rebounding team without Liam.

We are a very good offensive team.

We have a ton of character.

We need more from our sophomores.

We did not play very well today.

We dropped 10 spots in one of the most advanced and accurate ratings algos after a freakin win.

 

[navery12]

They showed the replay and Mahaney was in the front court and then his foot clearly went backwards and was on the half court line. Isn't that the rule? What am I missing?

That his back foot never crossed half court, so it can't be a back court violation