Providence Post Game Thread

[sledog]

Making Blown Bunnies and FTs would remove much anx. Those missed FTs in the stretch were awful.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

This is based on nothing but wanting your hopes and narrative to be true.


A poster tried to lead you all to the water about how true this is or not. But yall mostly ignored him and he’s a lot smarter than me to continue harping on it.

If anyone on this board is basing things on nothing besides wanting their hopes and narratives to come true, it’s you boss.

 

[Vancat]

"A "home game" in sports is a match played at a team's own venue (stadium, arena, court, field) where they are the host, allowing them to play in front of their local fans and familiar surroundings, often leading to a "home-field advantage" over the visiting or away team.

Key aspects

• Location: Played at the team's designated "home ground" or facility."

 

[RuffRuff]

I don't even know how you would do it because Hurley never does it and I typically really don't like the idea of double bigs but I kind of wish we would see Reibe out there with Reed for a few minutes in these games against lesser opponents when we're stuggling. Eric is a starting level player and his style of play isn't redundant with Reed's.

Most promising thing to come out of this game is working Malachi & Reibe back into the mix with some intention. We just aren't good enough to not use every advantage we have. It was good seeing both of them have nice game - easily the most pleasant aspect of the game.

 

[RuffRuff]

"A "home game" in sports is a match played at a team's own venue (stadium, arena, court, field) where they are the host, allowing them to play in front of their local fans and familiar surroundings, often leading to a "home-field advantage" over the visiting or away team.

Key aspects

• Location: Played at the team's designated "home ground" or facility."

If you want to get technical, sure. If you want to talk NET, sure. But if you're talking who knows best (Vegas), you'll see that UConn got points for playing there. It's not like we're playing StJ at MSG. We played a team from Florida & Illinois.

 

[Gurleyman]

JC trusted all of his players in a way Hurley clearled didn’t. Look at the names of these players you using. They’re some of our best players ever. You think Hurley has ever benched Karaban, Newton, or other of his top players when they’re playing bad? The reason JC was able to do that was because he trusted EVERYONE in a way Hurley clearly does not.

And when you got benched by JC, you were going back in later. You just had to be held accountable for your mistakes. And again, EVERYONE was held to that standard. From Ray Allen to Chris Smith. Hurley only does that with marginal players and when he does it, you’re not getting back in the game as we saw last night.

I was alive and watched JC’s tenure just fine. You all are just not understanding the nuance of these two situations because of a “quick hook”. I’d much rather get a quick hook and go back in the game 8-10 minutes later knowing I have to do better than to get pulled and treated like I can’t get trusted to play again.



If you want to ignore the psychological affects of knowing you can get away with missing 14 shots compared and keep playing compared to miss you can make one mistake being aggressive and get pulled. Thats on you man.

If you are too soft to play through the possibility of getting a hook, you are too soft to be out there in March. Sorry.

Lot's of guys fell out of favor in JC's time. DeAndre Daniels was getting DNP-CDs at the end of Calhoun's tenure. Two years later, he's carrying us at times on the way to a title.

The one turnover wouldn't have mattered if he was doing a better job on the other end. Vaaks put Ross in a blender. Straight blow-bys, stepbacks, coming off screens, he got several feet of separation from him every single time.

But bottom line is that in 60 minutes this month, he has one basket. His stats in those 60 minutes are 5 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists. Play better. Produce. Earn more run. Smith was losing minutes and stepped up yesterday and got more.

 

[Lafayette]

Suffice it to say Hurley swaps Ross in on D and Stewart in on O near the end of tight games.

I trust Hurley more than the field on whether Ross is actually good at D or if Stewart is actually good at O.

These are role players. Neither is a starter if all healthy.

 

[uconngb]

For Illinois, Mullins & Reed were on minutes restrictions coming off injuries. Both had only 2pts. But because it was at MSG, it was a home game so Illinois had agreed that they would play to lose the game.

For Kansas, let's ignore the facts that we had to fly out to Corn Country to play a game 4 days after playing that tomato can team, Illinois. Also ignore that Tarris didn't play, and that we had to play at the Phog, one of the toughest places to get a win. Most important was that Peterson didn't play...but let's ignore the fact that Kansas' performance has been fairly inconsistent when he plays. Somehow, we won that game. Oh, by the way, Silas only had 2pts. But it doesn't matter because something something DP.

For Arizona, We started a green Freshman center after our starter got injured 4 days prior playing against that creampuff BYU team during a glorified home scrimmage at TDGarden. We didn't play our starting center and 5* guard. Our 3rd-string 6'7" "center" Koroma logged 12 minutes. But, all that's irrelevant because poor 5* Burries "hadn't yet figured out how to play yet", and also, poor AZ had to fly ALL THE WAY across the country (boo hoo, I bet they all had cramped legs and DVTs from that long flight)., and of course, they had to play an away game.

I could go on, but I think that's enough.

mic drop

 

[Mr. French]

This is based on nothing but wanting your hopes and narrative to be true.


A poster tried to lead you all to the water about how true this is or not. But yall mostly ignored him and he’s a lot smarter than me to continue harping on it.

I just want to step back and recognize this post: HW611 is telling me that I AM posting about my hopes and narratives. Yes, you read that right. The single biggest “hopes and narratives” poster in the history of this board.

 

[uconngb]

I'm not throwing them out completely, but I'd prefer to lean on games in the current and how teams have evolved over half the season, alongside the metrics. This UConn team is going to have to be a pretty drastic exception to a KP rule that has been really consistent. That early season schedule was very favorable to UConn as we had a lot of returners, and most on neutral sites that were essentially home games.

For instance, I was a lot higher on Purdue back then when they obliterated Texas Tech. Now, I think TT would win on a neutral court and the much better team, while Purdue has been exposed. TT had a variety of new players to work in, while Purdue had a large core of returners. A lot can change in two months. In our case, while we're winning, the quality of hoops as it comes to a title contender has not looked great, for awhile (40 OKP). It's unlikely you'll find many in the media that don't see it similarly, because they're not using their favorable imagination to assess.

I think what we've learned about you is that you go as the wind blows

 

[Mr. French]

If anyone on this board is basing things on nothing besides wanting their hopes and narratives to come true, it’s you boss.

Oops, you beat me to it.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

JC trusted all of his players in a way Hurley clearled didn’t.

I just don't believe you watched UConn when Calhoun was the coach. You can say no one else understands the game like you do because you played high school basketball but I just can't take comments like this seriously.

 

[HW611]

I just want to step back and recognize this post: HW611 is telling me that I AM posting about my hopes and narratives. Yes, you read that right. The single biggest “hopes and narratives” poster in the history of this board.

When you say stuff with no information or facts behind it like “this coach did this stuff too, I remember.”

It’s hopes and narratives. I don’t do that. But it’s easier to try and crack a joke than actually backup what you say on this board.

Lot's of guys fell out of favor in JC's time. DeAndre Daniels was getting DNP-CDs at the end of Calhoun's tenure. Two years later, he's carrying us at times on the way to a title.

Deandre is a topic that’s already been discussed on this board. Calhoun gave him all the opportunity in the world and he wasn’t ready for it. He played 25+ minutes in 4 of his first 5 games of his career.

It is not the same thing that we’re discussing. But I understand nuance his hard for some of you all.

@Mr. French you see how real life facts and data is used here?

 

[Mr. French]

When you say stuff with no information or facts behind it like “this coach did this stuff too, I remember.”

It’s hopes and narratives. I don’t do that. But it’s easier to try and crack a joke than actually backup what you say on this board.


Deandre is a topic that’s already been discussed on this board. Calhoun gave him all the opportunity in the world and he wasn’t ready for it. He played 25+ minutes in 4 of his first 5 games of his career.

It is not the same thing that we’re discussing. But I understand nuance his hard for some of you all.

@Mr. French you see how real life facts and data is used here?

No no, no one would ever accuse you of hope and narrative discussion.

 

[boog204]

JC trusted all of his players in a way Hurley clearled didn’t. Look at the names of these players you using. They’re some of our best players ever. You think Hurley has ever benched Karaban, Newton, or other of his top players when they’re playing bad? The reason JC was able to do that was because he trusted EVERYONE in a way Hurley clearly does not.

And when you got benched by JC, you were going back in later. You just had to be held accountable for your mistakes. And again, EVERYONE was held to that standard. From Ray Allen to Chris Smith. Hurley only does that with marginal players and when he does it, you’re not getting back in the game as we saw last night.

I was alive and watched JC’s tenure just fine. You all are just not understanding the nuance of these two situations because of a “quick hook”. I’d much rather get a quick hook and go back in the game 8-10 minutes later knowing I have to do better than to get pulled and treated like I can’t get trusted to play again.



If you want to ignore the psychological affects of knowing you can get away with missing 14 shots compared and keep playing compared to miss you can make one mistake being aggressive and get pulled. Thats on you man.

On your first reply, you are, imo, very wrong in your assertion. I used the "big" names to counteract your AK leash ridiculousness. JC benched Brian Fair a million times. Look up his career. Fair always had big scoring games when JC was sick or ejected, and Howie coached. Antric Klaiber a million times. Cyrulik. Marcus White never played a second until Blaney took over for a period. Remember Marcus Cox? He got nine seconds to prove himself, made mistakes, got in trouble, and transferred five minutes later. Murray Williams was allowed one mistake and then was out. For four years. Hilton was allowed one mistake before being pulled for three years. Do you remember Ryan Thompson? We were hard up with injuries, and he got some minutes. Hit a 3, was heady. Then made a mistake and was benched for the rest of the game and barely played again. I mean, we could go on and on and on and on. I'm sorry, I really don't think you remember JC very well if you think he trusted everyone and gave them all a leash.

And, didn't Dan Hurley literally JUST bench Solo for his play? C'mon man. I also remember Newton being sat down a bit in his first year here. He only played 18 minutes against St. John's, with Diarra taking 20, and sat a bit against Seton Hall, playing only 19 with Diarra taking 21 with Hass being lauded for his toughness in that game vs. Newton. So, yeah, I do think Dan Hurley has benched his top players when they're playing badly. He just did it, and he did it with Newton as well.

The other factor is, you bench AK, so Stew comes in and does what exactly? He's not a good rebounder, and he's inconsistent as a scorer and defender. He is a good passer. But if he's shying away from the ball, what's the point? If we had another productive 4 type, maybe we'd see less of AK when he's struggling. But the drop off to Stew is vast. The irony is, Stew has as much, if not more, pure skill than AK. But the rest is on him.

Lastly, maybe, just maybe, trust that Dan Hurley kinda knows what he's doing? Last year, people were freaking out that Abraham or Nowell or even freakin' Yousouff weren't being given a chance. How are they all doing now? Nowell and Yousouff are playing 12 and 8 minutes respectively for their step down teams. Abraham, while still having a lot of potential, is not exactly tearing it up for GTown.

 

[superjohn]

I just don't believe you watched UConn when Calhoun was the coach. You can say no one else understands the game like you do because you played high school basketball but I just can't take comments like this seriously.

This sounds like jealousy. He played high school basketball in Connecticut for crissakes. He's forgotten more about the game than any of us including Hurley will ever know.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Imagine what this place would have been like if we lost last night.

 

[boog204]

In fact, my comparison of the 2 coaches would tell me Hurley has been way more positive and forgiving of Ross/Stewart/etc. mistakes and game play than JC would have been. Ross probably would have been nailed to the bench and never touched the floor again.

The defensive issues of last year would've had Solo, Ross, and Stew seeing very few minutes, imo, in the JC regime.

 

[ucp990411]

You guys sure do have lots of free time for these arguments

 

[Inyatkin]

Making Blown Bunnies and FTs would remove much anx. Those missed FTs in the stretch were awful.

This feels like I wandered onto the wrong board somehow

 

[Mr. French]

On your first reply, you are, imo, very wrong in your assertion. I used the "big" names to counteract your AK leash ridiculousness. JC benched Brian Fair a million times. Look up his career. Fair always had big scoring games when JC was sick or ejected, and Howie coached. Antric Klaiber a million times. Cyrulik. Marcus White never played a second until Blaney took over for a period. Remember Marcus Cox? He got nine seconds to prove himself, made mistakes, got in trouble, and transferred five minutes later. Murray Williams was allowed one mistake and then was out. For four years. Hilton was allowed one mistake before being pulled for three years. Do you remember Ryan Thompson? We were hard up with injuries, and he got some minutes. Hit a 3, was heady. Then made a mistake and was benched for the rest of the game and barely played again. I mean, we could go on and on and on and on. I'm sorry, I really don't think you remember JC very well if you think he trusted everyone and gave them all a leash.

And, didn't Dan Hurley literally JUST bench Solo for his play? C'mon man. I also remember Newton being sat down a bit in his first year here. He only played 18 minutes against St. John's, with Diarra taking 20, and sat a bit against Seton Hall, playing only 19 with Diarra taking 21 with Hass being lauded for his toughness in that game vs. Newton. So, yeah, I do think Dan Hurley has benched his top players when they're playing badly. He just did it, and he did it with Newton as well.

The other factor is, you bench AK, so Stew comes in and does what exactly? He's not a good rebounder, and he's inconsistent as a scorer and defender. He is a good passer. But if he's shying away from the ball, what's the point? If we had another productive 4 type, maybe we'd see less of AK when he's struggling. But the drop off to Stew is vast. The irony is, Stew has as much, if not more, pure skill than AK. But the rest is on him.

Lastly, maybe, just maybe, trust that Dan Hurley kinda knows what he's doing? Last year, people were freaking out that Abraham or Nowell or even freakin' Yousouff weren't being given a chance. How are they all doing now? Nowell and Yousouff are playing 12 and 8 minutes respectively for their step down teams. Abraham, while still having a lot of potential, is not exactly tearing it up for GTown.

Dude, you just don't understand the nuances.

 

[noelle]

it's really one thing after another with this team. these past two games they've just been bad at finishing, uncharacteristically so. Alex was 0-7 at the rim vs providence which is kind of amazing, and other than the two centers they went 0-10 at the rim. okay a lot of that is just failed put backs after o rebounds, but you figure they have to be better than 0-10.

 

[Mr. French]

This feels like I wandered onto the wrong board somehow

Would be more entertaining, I bet.

 

[TheShot1990]

Making Blown Bunnies and FTs would remove much anx. Those missed FTs in the stretch were awful.

"Please remove all blown bunnies before entering the stadium"

 

[HW611]

On your first reply, you are, imo, very wrong in your assertion. I used the "big" names to counteract your AK leash ridiculousness. JC benched Brian Fair a million times. Look up his career. Fair always had big scoring games when JC was sick or ejected, and Howie coached. Antric Klaiber a million times. Cyrulik. Marcus White never played a second until Blaney took over for a period. Remember Marcus Cox? He got nine seconds to prove himself, made mistakes, got in trouble, and transferred five minutes later. Murray Williams was allowed one mistake and then was out. For four years. Hilton was allowed one mistake before being pulled for three years. Do you remember Ryan Thompson? We were hard up with injuries, and he got some minutes. Hit a 3, was heady. Then made a mistake and was benched for the rest of the game and barely played again. I mean, we could go on and on and on and on. I'm sorry, I really don't think you remember JC very well if you think he trusted everyone and gave them all a leash.

And, didn't Dan Hurley literally JUST bench Solo for his play? C'mon man. I also remember Newton being sat down a bit in his first year here. He only played 18 minutes against St. John's, with Diarra taking 20, and sat a bit against Seton Hall, playing only 19 with Diarra taking 21 with Hass being lauded for his toughness in that game vs. Newton. So, yeah, I do think Dan Hurley has benched his top players when they're playing badly. He just did it, and he did it with Newton as well.

The other factor is, you bench AK, so Stew comes in and does what exactly? He's not a good rebounder, and he's inconsistent as a scorer and defender. He is a good passer. But if he's shying away from the ball, what's the point? If we had another productive 4 type, maybe we'd see less of AK when he's struggling. But the drop off to Stew is vast. The irony is, Stew has as much, if not more, pure skill than AK. But the rest is on him.

Lastly, maybe, just maybe, trust that Dan Hurley kinda knows what he's doing? Last year, people were freaking out that Abraham or Nowell or even freakin' Yousouff weren't being given a chance. How are they all doing now? Nowell and Yousouff are playing 12 and 8 minutes respectively for their step down teams. Abraham, while still having a lot of potential, is not exactly tearing it up for GTown.

I appreciate you actually having real examples and talking points around this than other posters usual snark with nothing behind it.

The reason Calhoun was able to bench his star players and hold them accountable the way he did is because he trusted the guy behind him to be able to play. Hurley doesn’t do that with his guys because he doesn’t trust the guys behind him to do that. It’s why we can identify a new NBA/HOF/AA in almost every generation of JC’s tenure because he held stars accountable enough to genuinely get better. Meanwhile Karaban still looks the same as he does as a sophomore and can do anything he wants on the court without repercussions. Because he gets babied.

I’m not going to lie to you (because I have no reason to and act like I know something I don’t for the sake of board ego), I don’t know most of the names you listed. If they played in the 90s I pretty much didn’t watch them. I do know Marcus White and his issue was that Dehnam Brown and Rashad Anderson were better than him. He wasn’t going to play guard minutes behind Ben Gordon or Taliek Brown and he wasn’t taking PF minutes from Josh Boone, Charlie, or Hilton. The next year he had to compete with those same guys except Rudy Gay came. He transferred. His opportunity was about him being buried on the depth chart.

With Hilton you’re talking about a guy who started 22 games his freshman year. Again, another case where JC gives a guy the opportunity and rope to prove himself and it’s up to him to sink or swim. He was a sinker and next year two freshman came in who were better and as a junior he had a bench role where he received plenty of opportunity playing almost the same amount of minutes as a freshman Donovan Clingan. At a center position where minutes are limited because you can’t play other position like a guard or forward can.

With Ross and Stew we are talking about two guys we NEED having this kind of leash. We aren’t talking about players who are #3 at the position on the depth chart but two direct backups that if we can’t trust, that means we’re running our starters into the ground.

I actually appreciated Hurley benching Solo and commented on that. So we’re aligned there. My one observation on that is how it might've been confusing for him because of the vets before him he probably saw play with impunity as long as we won.

The point in benching someone is not “this other player is better and will help us win more”. It’s about sending a message that the way you’re playing is not acceptable and you need to do better. When Calhoun benched Dyson in that clip it wasn’t because he thought Beverly was going to contribute things he didn’t. And it’s not like he left him on the bench long, he was back in 3 minutes later.