Re-watched Game: Thoughts and Areas of Improvement | The Boneyard

Re-watched Game: Thoughts and Areas of Improvement

nelsonmuntz

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This was definitely winning ugly, and to be honest, Depaul gave us the game with one boneheaded turnover after another.

Martin saved us on both ends. Defensively he had a great game. Offensively, he came up big a lot, and took just enough heat off Polley to give him a few looks.

Cole is good at running the offense, and he is a good 3 point shooter off the catch. He has to dial it back with some of his other shots. Cole has a low shooting percentage for a good shooter, and it is because he takes a lot of very low percentage shots.


Areas of Improvement

There are probably 3 teams in the Big East that UConn has a good chance to beat without Bouknight. Two of them are Butler and Depaul. UConn needs him back.

Depaul outrebounded UConn by 10. No team is going to win a lot of games giving the opponent 10 extra possessions. Depaul gave UConn a bunch of possessions back with silly turnovers or this would have been fatal.

Do we ever pass to the screener on the pick-and-roll?

I want to give love to ex-UConn players and coaches, but it is hard to do after watching Depaul twice this season. Depaul is kind of a mess. Freeman-Liberty, Moore and Weems are decent players, and the rest of the team looks athletic and skilled enough to win some of its games. Why is this team so bad? The 24 turnovers were gruesome, and they are averaging over 18 a game. Some of these turnovers were literally passes to no one. And some of their shot selection was so bad it should count as turnovers. They were taking long contested pullups early in the shot clock the whole game. It is a reflection on the coach when a team plays this sloppy. I hope Leitao turns things around. His next two games against Georgetown and Butler are a good place to start.
 
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This was definitely winning ugly, and to be honest, Depaul gave us the game with one boneheaded turnover after another.

Martin saved us on both ends. Defensively he had a great game. Offensively, he came up big a lot, and took just enough heat off Polley to give him a few looks.

Cole is good at running the offense, and he is a good 3 point shooter off the catch. He has to dial it back with some of his other shots. Cole has a low shooting percentage for a good shooter, and it is because he takes a lot of very low percentage shots.


Areas of Improvement

There are probably 3 teams in the Big East that UConn has a good chance to beat without Bouknight. Two of them are Butler and Depaul. UConn needs him back.

Depaul outrebounded UConn by 10. No team is going to win a lot of games giving the opponent 10 extra possessions. Depaul gave UConn a bunch of possessions back with silly turnovers or this would have been fatal.

Do we ever pass to the screener on the pick-and-roll?

I want to give love to ex-UConn players and coaches, but it is hard to do after watching Depaul twice this season. Depaul is kind of a mess. Freeman-Liberty, Moore and Weems are decent players, and the rest of the team looks athletic and skilled enough to win some of its games. Why is this team so bad? The 24 turnovers were gruesome, and they are averaging over 18 a game. Some of these turnovers were literally passes to no one. And some of their shot selection was so bad it should count as turnovers. They were taking long contested pullups early in the shot clock the whole game. It is a reflection on the coach when a team plays this sloppy. I hope Leitao turns things around. His next two games against Georgetown and Butler are a good place to start.
While I would agree with you on Depaul's terrible offense and really bad turnovers, I don't think you are giving Uconn's defense anywhere near the amount of credit it deserves. I watched the Butler-st.johns game and the Marquette-Providence game last night, and man is our defense good. These other teams don't come close to our defense, and that is the main reason Depaul was playing so poorly on offense, taking terrible shots, and turning the ball over at such a high rate.
While I do think Leitao has to do a better job with his group, you can't place the blame entirely on him for how bad that game was. Uconn defense deserves the majority of the credit. I feel like we can be in the game with every single D1 school if we continue to play defense that way we do.
 

Husky25

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Depaul outrebounded UConn by 10. No team is going to win a lot of games giving the opponent 10 extra possessions. Depaul gave UConn a bunch of possessions back with silly turnovers or this would have been fatal.

You think rebounding is important too?

Geesh, These scores of fans who don't think rebounding is important sure are difficult to come by.
 

Edward Sargent

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This was definitely winning ugly, and to be honest, Depaul gave us the game with one boneheaded turnover after another.

Martin saved us on both ends. Defensively he had a great game. Offensively, he came up big a lot, and took just enough heat off Polley to give him a few looks.

Cole is good at running the offense, and he is a good 3 point shooter off the catch. He has to dial it back with some of his other shots. Cole has a low shooting percentage for a good shooter, and it is because he takes a lot of very low percentage shots.


Areas of Improvement

There are probably 3 teams in the Big East that UConn has a good chance to beat without Bouknight. Two of them are Butler and Depaul. UConn needs him back.

Depaul outrebounded UConn by 10. No team is going to win a lot of games giving the opponent 10 extra possessions. Depaul gave UConn a bunch of possessions back with silly turnovers or this would have been fatal.

Do we ever pass to the screener on the pick-and-roll?

I want to give love to ex-UConn players and coaches, but it is hard to do after watching Depaul twice this season. Depaul is kind of a mess. Freeman-Liberty, Moore and Weems are decent players, and the rest of the team looks athletic and skilled enough to win some of its games. Why is this team so bad? The 24 turnovers were gruesome, and they are averaging over 18 a game. Some of these turnovers were literally passes to no one. And some of their shot selection was so bad it should count as turnovers. They were taking long contested pullups early in the shot clock the whole game. It is a reflection on the coach when a team plays this sloppy. I hope Leitao turns things around. His next two games against Georgetown and Butler are a good place to start.
Two things, I think UConn's defense had a lot to do with the TOs as we kept speeding them up. Remember they haven't played a lot of games. Leitaos emphasis was on correcting the rebounding margin from the first game and they did that. I think they will be fine but like you curious how they do in their next few games.
 

McLovin

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Do we ever pass to the screener on the pick-and-roll?

No. It seems like we run all our screens just to run clock and NEVER look for the guy rolling to the hoop, often times missing a wide open big. I can probably count on one hand how many times we've used the screener on a pick-and-roll.

Maybe this is all part of a master plan. For 3 years, Hurley has his bigs set screens and never give them the ball on the roll, even if they are wide open, creating a feature films worth of tape that shows we refuse to hit the open rolling screener. Then in the big game we annihilate a team by catching them off guard. That is the only theory that makes sense to me.

In all seriousness though, it is frustrating.
 

nelsonmuntz

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While I would agree with you on Depaul's terrible offense and really bad turnovers, I don't think you are giving Uconn's defense anywhere near the amount of credit it deserves. I watched the Butler-st.johns game and the Marquette-Providence game last night, and man is our defense good. These other teams don't come close to our defense, and that is the main reason Depaul was playing so poorly on offense, taking terrible shots, and turning the ball over at such a high rate.
While I do think Leitao has to do a better job with his group, you can't place the blame entirely on him for how bad that game was. Uconn defense deserves the majority of the credit. I feel like we can be in the game with every single D1 school if we continue to play defense that way we do.

Generally, the team that wins the net possession battle (net turnovers + net rebounds) will win the game, but if the net possessions are close, then the team that wins the net turnovers has the advantage. A steal is worth more than a defensive rebound, because it is easier to switch from defense to offense from a steal, which leads to easier transition offense.

I believe the man to man has improved dramatically in the last year. I think our guards are still not great defensively, but the the team has finally figured out Hurley's help defense and it is pretty effective.

I do think Depaul was a decent defensively, so I wouldn't see they don't come close to us. They did keep switching with Moore, which lead to some mismatches for us but we didn't take advantage of them like we should have. We should have posted up whoever Moore was covering every time they switched him off Cole.
 

nelsonmuntz

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Two things, I think UConn's defense had a lot to do with the TOs as we kept speeding them up. Remember they haven't played a lot of games. Leitaos emphasis was on correcting the rebounding margin from the first game and they did that. I think they will be fine but like you curious how they do in their next few games.

I think Depaul has a lot more athleticism and overall talent than Butler and Georgetown. It is a bad sign for Leitao if he doesn't win the next two games.
 

Husky25

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Generally, the team that wins the net possession battle (net turnovers + net rebounds) will win the game, but if the net possessions are close, then the team that wins the net turnovers has the advantage. A steal is worth more than a defensive rebound, because it is easier to switch from defense to offense from a steal, which leads to easier transition offense.

I believe the man to man has improved dramatically in the last year. I think our guards are still not great defensively, but the the team has finally figured out Hurley's help defense and it is pretty effective.

I do think Depaul was a decent defensively, so I wouldn't see they don't come close to us. They did keep switching with Moore, which lead to some mismatches for us but we didn't take advantage of them like we should have. We should have posted up whoever Moore was covering every time they switched him off Cole.
While I remember the baseball pass for a jam on the other end, I also recall a lot of handoffs to Cole off defensive rebounds. The outlet pass is sort of an art. It is also largely lost at this point in time.
 
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I love Polley's shooting- sometimes he is just so deadly!- but teams can target him as he sits outside and take him out of the game somewhat. I'd like to see what happens if he adds more of an inside game, hanging out nearer the basket and carving out space. With his size and shooting ability, he might get quite a few points inside, and if he gets fouled, his FT shooting is great too.
 

Husky25

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I love Polley's shooting- sometimes he is just so deadly!- but teams can target him as he sits outside and take him out of the game somewhat. I'd like to see what happens if he adds more of an inside game, hanging out nearer the basket and carving out space. With his size and shooting ability, he might get quite a few points inside, and if he gets fouled, his FT shooting is great too.
Jaylen Brown turned these skills into a #3 overall pick and is (arguably) a top 20 NBA player, at the moment.

Polley is a better shooter and not as polished defensively as Brown was in college, but if you watch the Celtics, he hangs out on the wing and is mostly a spot up shooter with some skills to get to the rim with an average handle.
 
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Jaylen Brown turned these skills into a #3 overall pick and is (arguably) a top 20 NBA player, at the moment.

Polley is a better shooter and not as polished defensively as Brown was in college, but if you watch the Celtics, he hangs out on the wing and is mostly a spot up shooter with some skills to get to the rim with an average handle.
jaylen brown is an elite athlete and defender, and the reason he has made the jump this year to top-20 player is because he has become a better-than-average ballhandler. he actually wasn't a shooter out of college (29% from 3, 65% from the line) and has seriously improved that aspect of his game, as well.

i am high on polley as well, but he is neither brown nor (as another thread suggested) duncan robinson.
 

Husky25

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I don't see much of a resemblance between Jaylen Brown and Tyler Polley.
Of course not. That is because I wasn't really comparing the two, as is.

However, what if, as @Conndog suggests, Polley, "adds more of an inside game, hanging out nearer the basket and carving out space[?] With his size and shooting ability, he might get quite a few points inside, and if he gets fouled, his FT shooting is great too."

It's all academic. If Polley resembled Jaylen Brown, he wouldn't be in college right now, let alone playing for UConn.
 

Husky25

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jaylen brown is an elite athlete and defender, and the reason he has made the jump this year to top-20 player is because he has become a better-than-average ballhandler. he actually wasn't a shooter out of college (29% from 3, 65% from the line) and has seriously improved that aspect of his game, as well.

i am high on polley as well, but he is neither brown nor (as another thread suggested) duncan robinson.
It wasn't a true comparison. Jaylen Brown has all the skills @Conndog is looking for Polley to develop.
 
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Generally, the team that wins the net possession battle (net turnovers + net rebounds) will win the game, but if the net possessions are close, then the team that wins the net turnovers has the advantage. A steal is worth more than a defensive rebound, because it is easier to switch from defense to offense from a steal, which leads to easier transition offense.
They are called the four factors for a reason:
Field goal shooting, turnovers, rebounding, and free throw made frequency. (In that order of importance). It's really 8 factors, because each factor has a defensive component as well.

Turnovers and rebounding are the mechanism by which your team limits or increases the number of shots each team gets. Shooting and foul shot generation are the factors that influence how effective each team is with that shot volume. That's the whole balance of basketball from a macro perspective.
 

HuskyHawk

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Do we ever pass to the screener on the pick-and-roll?

No. Or perhaps some percentage lower than 1% of the time. It has been this way since Ollie's time and hasn't gotten any better. Screeners routinely move off the position before any defensive switch occurs. They typically shuffle to the side, instead of holding a solid screen and then aggressively rolling to the hoop. So nobody even bothers to defend the pick and roll as we run it. All we accomplish is to pull our big from rebounding or post up position.

Briefly last year we ran it with Akok as a pick and pop, with the screener popping behind the 3 point line. That has potential if we run it with the right guys (not Josh, Sanogo or Whaley).
 

HuskyHawk

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I love Polley's shooting- sometimes he is just so deadly!- but teams can target him as he sits outside and take him out of the game somewhat. I'd like to see what happens if he adds more of an inside game, hanging out nearer the basket and carving out space. With his size and shooting ability, he might get quite a few points inside, and if he gets fouled, his FT shooting is great too.

He's really good at shooting 3's in transition. He's good at shooting open 3's off of the catch. I'd grade those as ++ and + skills respectively.

His defense is maybe average, if I'm being kind. His rebounding is double minus. His ball handling is a minus for a wing, better if you consider him a big (I don't). His ability to shoot off the dribble or create his own shot is not there, it's a minus. His passing ability, also a minus. His inside offensive game is non-existent. He can't hold ground down there or get position.

He seems like a nice kid, and we need those 3s to fall, but I don't know when I've seen a player be more overrated by a segment of the fan base at UConn.
 

SubbaBub

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This was definitely winning ugly, and to be honest, Depaul gave us the game with one boneheaded turnover after another.

Martin saved us on both ends. Defensively he had a great game. Offensively, he came up big a lot, and took just enough heat off Polley to give him a few looks.

Cole is good at running the offense, and he is a good 3 point shooter off the catch. He has to dial it back with some of his other shots. Cole has a low shooting percentage for a good shooter, and it is because he takes a lot of very low percentage shots.


Areas of Improvement

There are probably 3 teams in the Big East that UConn has a good chance to beat without Bouknight. Two of them are Butler and Depaul. UConn needs him back.

Depaul outrebounded UConn by 10. No team is going to win a lot of games giving the opponent 10 extra possessions. Depaul gave UConn a bunch of possessions back with silly turnovers or this would have been fatal.

Do we ever pass to the screener on the pick-and-roll?

I want to give love to ex-UConn players and coaches, but it is hard to do after watching Depaul twice this season. Depaul is kind of a mess. Freeman-Liberty, Moore and Weems are decent players, and the rest of the team looks athletic and skilled enough to win some of its games. Why is this team so bad? The 24 turnovers were gruesome, and they are averaging over 18 a game. Some of these turnovers were literally passes to no one. And some of their shot selection was so bad it should count as turnovers. They were taking long contested pullups early in the shot clock the whole game. It is a reflection on the coach when a team plays this sloppy. I hope Leitao turns things around. His next two games against Georgetown and Butler are a good place to start.


Miss a lot of layups and the other team outrebounds you. Without Bouk or a hot Polley, points outside the paint will be tough to come by.

We are going to live or die on the shot selection and efficiency of Cole and Martin.

Missing those layups is painful to watch.
 
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offense against the zone can improve but Bouk’s presence should help with that. They won because they played solid D and turned the ball over. Staff (and most of you for that matter) have light years better eye than me on improvements. Guaranteed they ain’t reading this crap to make adjustments tho haha.
 
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While I would agree with you on Depaul's terrible offense and really bad turnovers, I don't think you are giving Uconn's defense anywhere near the amount of credit it deserves. I watched the Butler-st.johns game and the Marquette-Providence game last night, and man is our defense good. These other teams don't come close to our defense, and that is the main reason Depaul was playing so poorly on offense, taking terrible shots, and turning the ball over at such a high rate.
While I do think Leitao has to do a better job with his group, you can't place the blame entirely on him for how bad that game was. Uconn defense deserves the majority of the credit. I feel like we can be in the game with every single D1 school if we continue to play defense that way we do.

No doubt UConns defense had something to do with it but I let's not pretend we are that much better defensively than those mentioned. Without Bouk I am nervous about the Johnnies game for instance because of what they bring defensively. They may not be overall as good as UConn, such as rotation and help etc, lots of ours thanks to Whaley but their guards harass other guards. They will be in their jocks at least at the top of the defense and our guys already have trouble starting the offense in deep always passing from the hash area, this will be even tougher. Like many other teams who like to put the pressure on just over half court if Cole/Gaffney can break the down and beat them to make plays they can be successful. If they don't we will be depending on Adams and Martin way too much to do their work. Johnnies is a huge game in regards to telling us what we can do without Bouk (who would've been the perfect answer against Andersens defense), the first big test. The PGs need to step up in this one for sure.
 
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I love Polley's shooting- sometimes he is just so deadly!- but teams can target him as he sits outside and take him out of the game somewhat. I'd like to see what happens if he adds more of an inside game, hanging out nearer the basket and carving out space. With his size and shooting ability, he might get quite a few points inside, and if he gets fouled, his FT shooting is great too.
He hat a nice put back against DePaul
But he 1-2 and Whaley 0-0 have to get to the FT line more often.
Team FT % is largely determined my who gets to the line.
 

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