Quarantine Replay Thoughts | The Boneyard

Quarantine Replay Thoughts

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So before I "distance teach" and home school my kid, I've decided to work out to a "classic" UConn game to keep me from going insane. As of now I'm just choosing random NCAA tourney games to relive. I'm three games in. TL:DR summary, thank god for TCF!

Game #1 --> Natty vs. GTech

Quick thoughts. I've been one of the first to criticize Taliek over the years both during his time and after he was immortalized (I'm doing it again.) But man, what a floor game he played. In the first half when the game was still a game, he absolutely controlled tempo, the break, hit a jumper to keep the D honest, and had that dagger and 1 (think he missed the FT, but still) that helped us build the big lead. What was even more telling was that when he went out for a blow and Ben had to run the point, we were a mess. BG turned it over on two straight occasions (narrowly missing a third) and defensively we were hurt.

Secondly, there was a stretch where CV was the best player on the court. Grabbed every board, played willing defense, deserved the hockey assist on several plays. When he wanted it, he let his immense talent show. I know he had a useful NBA career - useful being probably an understatement for 10 years and almost 7000 career points, but man I can't help but think that he really underachieved.

Game #2 --> 2nd Rd Dream Season vs. Cal

I remember the Dream Season pretty well even though I was only 9/10 years old and I thought I "knew" basketball pretty well. But watch this game to see how one player can dominate action without really stuffing the stat sheet. Nadav in the first half was amazing. Playing the passing lanes, swinging the ball quickly against their matchup zone, the countless tips rebounding either to himself or to just keep the ball alive and some beautiful passing for easy buckets or fouls. Freaking incredible performance and I think he only had four points in the half while we built up a 20 pt lead.

Game #3 --> 2nd Rd, 1995-96 vs. Eastern Michigan

Brian Tolbert was the best player on the court and I remember thinking then and now that this dude could play in the league. Wonder what happened to him? Other things. It's pretty clear why we were not going to advance in that tourney. Other than Hayward, that team was soft. And then when you remove Ricky as another ballhandler, we were severely hamstrung against teams that could D us up. You could tell that Doron was already exhausted from being the only ballhandler/creator on the floor.

That leads me to this... Rip was a better player than Ray at UConn. The championship aside but Rip did more. He could play the 1, 2, 3. He could create offense for himself or others. Ray averaged more assists but I find that to be a misleading number. Against strong/physical defense, Ray became solely a jumpshooter because his handle wasn't strong enough to create anything. Ray was 8-20 from the field but only 3-11 from 2. Against Miss. St the following game, he was 9-25 but only 5-15 from 2. In this game you could already see that the team could very easily struggle against a team that would slow it down and make someone other than Doron create something.

If you made it this far, I congratulate you! Hope everyone is well!
 

CTBasketball

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The most underrated rebound in UConn history was Jamal Coombs-McDaniel’s vs. Pittsburgh in 2011.
 
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What happened to uconnhuskygames.com? Get hit with copyright claims? Even the YT channel is wiped.
 
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That leads me to this... Rip was a better player than Ray at UConn. The championship aside but Rip did more. He could play the 1, 2, 3. He could create offense for himself or others. Ray averaged more assists but I find that to be a misleading number. Against strong/physical defense, Ray became solely a jumpshooter because his handle wasn't strong enough to create anything. Ray was 8-20 from the field but only 3-11 from 2. Against Miss. St the following game, he was 9-25 but only 5-15 from 2. In this game you could already see that the team could very easily struggle against a team that would slow it down and make someone other than Doron create something.

This, except the idea that Ray was solely a jump shooter. Ray was an explosive athlete and superior shooter, and used his athleticism to score in the open court and get to the rim against slower defenders, but he struggled to create his own shot in the half court against defenders who could match him athletically (not that there were many who could). He learned to do this once he got into the NBA, but he just didn't have that aspect to his game as a college player.

Rip could score on anyone, even if he wasn't in Ray's class as an athlete. He's still the most versatile scorer we've had, and given the de-emphasis on the mid-range game, I don't think we will see his equal.
 
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Game #2 --> 2nd Rd Dream Season vs. Cal

I remember the Dream Season pretty well even though I was only 9/10 years old and I thought I "knew" basketball pretty well. But watch this game to see how one player can dominate action without really stuffing the stat sheet. Nadav in the first half was amazing. Playing the passing lanes, swinging the ball quickly against their matchup zone, the countless tips rebounding either to himself or to just keep the ball alive and some beautiful passing for easy buckets or fouls. Freaking incredible performance and I think he only had four points in the half while we built up a 20 pt lead.

If you made it this far, I congratulate you! Hope everyone is well!

Hope you are hanging in there too boog. On the Cal game - I remember the head coach, Lou Campanelli, at the time made some comment a day or two before the game that our press was no big deal from what he saw or something like that. You KNOW JC used that as bulletin board material. That UConn team set the single season record with 484 steals. Needless to say we steamrolled them at HCC and gave the coach a nice sendoff. And yes, anyone who saw Nadav perform that one season knows how special a player he was. First time I ever heard the term "point forward". Incredibly high hoops IQ. He had like 140 steals on his own that year. Good times! :)
 
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This, except the idea that Ray was solely a jump shooter. Ray was an explosive athlete and superior shooter, and used his athleticism to score in the open court and get to the rim against slower defenders, but he struggled to create his own shot in the half court against defenders who could match him athletically (not that there were many who could). He learned to do this once he got into the NBA, but he just didn't have that aspect to his game as a college player.

Rip could score on anyone, even if he wasn't in Ray's class as an athlete. He's still the most versatile scorer we've had, and given the de-emphasis on the mid-range game, I don't think we will see his equal.

Maybe I phrased incorrectly as you stated what I was trying to say. Ray was a far superior athlete to Rip; graceful, a ridiculous leaper, etc. But when he met a tough defender he turned into a jumpshooter because he couldn't create off the dribble. Watch the games against GTown, that EMich game, and the Miss. St game. The shots he hit are open jumpers. Everything else was a contested/forced very low percentage shot. Rip was the superior all-around scorer with a better handle and playmaking abilities. Which brings up the question... If Rip was on the 94-96 teams, do we make a final four? I say definitively yes.
 
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Hope you are hanging in there too boog. On the Cal game - I remember the head coach, Lou Campanelli, at the time made some comment a day or two before the game that our press was no big deal from what he saw or something like that. You KNOW JC used that as bulletin board material. That UConn team set the single season record with 484 steals. Needless to say we steamrolled them at HCC and gave the coach a nice sendoff. And yes, anyone who saw Nadav perform that one season knows how special a player he was. First time I ever heard the term "point forward". Incredibly high hoops IQ. He had like 140 steals on his own that year. Good times! :)

We slaughtered them. There was a point in the first half where they had only attempted like 3 shots compared to our 12-15 because they just couldn't avoid turning it over. Like I said, I knew that Nadav was a good player but he did a zillion things that you wouldn't notice unless you were really watching him. Very Bird-ish.
 
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Weird, something must have changed since my bookmarked stopped working. Googled the site and was able to access it.
The site is bookmarked here above under "tcf's stuff" (between "Amazon" and "Donate") if people want to access it.
 

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