Reason we Lost IMO

[DrewDog85]

Tired of arguing about whether it was a moral victory or whether or not we choked and most of all some dipstick saying JC should step down,,,

Here is what I saw;

1st Cuse guards look like men against boys, i.e. Jardine vs Boatright or Napier. I noticed SN out of position to cover 3pt shooter, that said, not sure it would have mattered

2nd AO bad fouls 1st half and early 2nd, thought him sitting hurt us, that being said I cringed when ball went into him and he took mid range shots

3rd Giffey didn't help much.

4th Hard to criticize Andre but he had a chance to really dominate on offense but seemed to go up soft

5th Tyler made some nice plays but I thought CJ Fair abused him on defense,, not sure what to do.

 

[RickyMoore21]

good points

 

[tzznandrew]

AO needs early success for a good game. Those 2 fouls killed him.

AD seemed to figure, after getting embarrassed by Melo, that he could/should dunk. That changed the game until he got hurt. But it seemed to take to long for that realization to happen.

Fair abused Olander. Offensively Olander played pretty well, but he can't go for all those fakes.

Their guards did seem to take advantage of ours. It was difficult to guard them, though, because their shots were falling, and so they had the choice, every play, to drive or shoot. That's impossible to stop.

Great team offense--and I mean really great--will beat a defense every time. It's what happens in the NBA. People act like they don't play D--they do, its just that if you're making an outside shot, and can drive, you are unstoppable in basketball.

 

[jibsey]

I liked what I saw, forget the score. We worked the ball for better shots and if we didn't miss so many tap ins who knows. Cuse is a mature seriously talented team that shot well at opportune times. No shame in this. In the right situation we could beat them.

 

[caw]

Tired of arguing about whether it was a moral victory or whether or not we choked and most of all some dipstick saying JC should step down,,,

Here is what I saw;

1st Cuse guards look like men against boys, i.e. Jardine vs Boatright or Napier. I noticed SN out of position to cover 3pt shooter, that said, not sure it would have mattered

2nd AO bad fouls 1st half and early 2nd, thought him sitting hurt us, that being said I cringed when ball went into him and he took mid range shots

3rd Giffey didn't help much.

4th Hard to criticize Andre but he had a chance to really dominate on offense but seemed to go up soft

5th Tyler made some nice plays but I thought CJ Fair abused him on defense,, not sure what to do.

I think SN played fairly well on defense, Boatright was abused.

I agree with everything else but a few other things that I think were the worst:

1. Whether by design or by fatigue Lamb stopped cutting/moving on offense and stood at the three point line for the last 5-6 minutes of the game. UConn was down 2 when this started. I'm not sure if it was Lamb's laziness/fatigue but I blame the coaching staff. Blaney either told him to do that or saw it and didn't make him do anything else.
2. Blaney did a pretty horrid job on the sideline at the end of the game. UConn was down 2 with 6:28 to go and lost by 18. That is inexcusable as a coach. It wasn't like Cuse's defense was much better, the players weren't moving on offense and the passing stopped.
3. Drummond/UConn's momentum disappeared when Drummond got injured and he was slower and ineffective when he came back. Drummond was dominating the game when that happened.
4. Daniels didn't play a minute, I'm not sure why. I see playing Giffey/Tyler/Roscoe more but not playing him at all was odd.

 

[tzznandrew]

1. Whether by design or by fatigue Lamb stopped cutting/moving on offense and stood at the three point line for the last 5-6 minutes of the game. UConn was down 2 when this started. I'm not sure if it was Lamb's laziness/fatigue but I blame the coaching staff. Blaney either told him to do that or saw it and didn't make him do anything else.

Is this possibly due to him tweaking his ankle?

 

[caw]

Is this possibly due to him tweaking his ankle?

I dunno, but him standing there for the whole clock really killed the offense. Napier, Lamb and Drummond all picked up minor tweaks this game.

 

[Prezidint]

I think SN played fairly well on defense, Boatright was abused.

Hate to say it. But I agree.
Jardine draining two in a row late to pull away, both with the Boat right in front him, was his way of saying, "you can't guard me little guy."

Boat needs to, and I believe will, get better at timing the defensive jump. At his size, guys are going to want to shoot over him. It's up to him to prove that he will use his amazing vertical to make the shot tough. I think. He will.

 

[mauconnfan]

First half put us in a tough situation. Quite honestly they may have outplayed the Cuse minus the real bad plays by mainly 2 guys. Andre threw to awful passes which resulted in points and he also had a chance to finish 3 or 4 shots strong and elected to throw up little finger rolls and layups instead resulting in zero points. The guards were getting he and Alex the ball but no conversion except the dunk by AO. Roscoe was the other culprit with 2 horrible passes resulting in breakaways and a travel in which he had a 2 on one because of a breakdown in the Cuse zone. He was timid and this hurt. Besides those plays and losing points both ways our offense was looking pretty sharp in many ways I thought. Cuse is too good to allow runouts...................

 

[husky91]

I don't follow the Giffey point? He's had like 2 good games in 60 @ UConn. I don't follow any of the fascination with him.

 

[mauconnfan]

I don't follow the Giffey point? He's had like 2 good games in 60 @ UConn. I don't follow any of the fascination with him.

How many bad or awful games has he had? Doubt anyone has a fascination but he rarely if ever hurts you. Not looking for oodles of minutes but maybe a few more. If he played in the 1st half instead of Roscoe I promise we're only down 3-4 instead of 10!!!

 

[Dogbreath2U]

How many bad or awful games has he had? Doubt anyone has a fascination but he rarely if ever hurts you. Not looking for oodles of minutes but maybe a few more. If he played in the 1st half instead of Roscoe I promise we're only down 3-4 instead of 10!!!

Agree....I really want to see Roscoe play well, but 3 breakdowns were killers. AD made multiple unforced errors, and Boat had 2 late in first half. This team just does not have a margin for error that will allow for those kind of mistakes. The way our guys kept fighting back was impressive, but we couldn't get stops/they just were not missing.

The worst was freakin' CBS (although maybe not seeing the latter part of the game was a plus).

 

[mauconnfan]

Agree....I really want to see Roscoe play well, but 3 breakdowns were killers. AD made multiple unforced errors, and Boat had 2 late in first half. This team just does not have a margin for error that will allow for those kind of mistakes. The way our guys kept fighting back was impressive, but we couldn't get stops/they just were not missing.

The worst was freakin' CBS (although maybe not seeing the latter part of the game was a plus).

Sorry guys but Western Mass CBS had no issues......my brother was complaining and calling me from Meriden also.................forgot about RB's bad plays too a little out of control there but he was real good early too..............some good signs Db2u

 

[caw]

I don't follow the Giffey point? He's had like 2 good games in 60 @ UConn. I don't follow any of the fascination with him.

Giffey is just too passive.

 

[huskymagic]

Tired of arguing about whether it was a moral victory or whether or not we choked and most of all some dipstick saying JC should step down,,,

Here is what I saw;

1st Cuse guards look like men against boys, i.e. Jardine vs Boatright or Napier. I noticed SN out of position to cover 3pt shooter, that said, not sure it would have mattered

2nd AO bad fouls 1st half and early 2nd, thought him sitting hurt us, that being said I cringed when ball went into him and he took mid range shots

3rd Giffey didn't help much.

4th Hard to criticize Andre but he had a chance to really dominate on offense but seemed to go up soft

5th Tyler made some nice plays but I thought CJ Fair abused him on defense,, not sure what to do.

which is why I said that the 2 little guards will hurt our guards because it will expose our guys defensively against bigger guards like Syracuse has. CJ Fair was a killer today, and someone who was overlooked by the CBS crew. He was the one that really hurt us all day.

 

[mauconnfan]

Giffey is just too passive.

Passive but error-free works sometimes too.............he's pretty intelligent out there and yeah I'd like to see him do a little more with the ball but he's aggressive to the boards and a good defender who finds the ball.

 

[husky91]

It seems like he just throws it around on the perimeter.

As for RS, yes, for every decent play there are 3 negative ones. I like him as a kid and his effort, but he's a tweener and really in a tough spot. Maybe a summer with the weights and focus on post moves can get him to a decent college 4.

How many bad or awful games has he had? Doubt anyone has a fascination but he rarely if ever hurts you. Not looking for oodles of minutes but maybe a few more. If he played in the 1st half instead of Roscoe I promise we're only down 3-4 instead of 10!!!

 

[Henry]

Tired of arguing about whether it was a moral victory or whether or not we choked and most of all some dipstick saying JC should step down,,,

Here is what I saw;

1st Cuse guards look like men against boys, i.e. Jardine vs Boatright or Napier. I noticed SN out of position to cover 3pt shooter, that said, not sure it would have mattered

2nd AO bad fouls 1st half and early 2nd, thought him sitting hurt us, that being said I cringed when ball went into him and he took mid range shots

3rd Giffey didn't help much.

4th Hard to criticize Andre but he had a chance to really dominate on offense but seemed to go up soft

5th Tyler made some nice plays but I thought CJ Fair abused him on defense,, not sure what to do.

Ball movement was better. Unfortunately, we will never get a chance to see this team mature. With the ban next year, Lamb and Drummond will be gone. They need to step it up this year or it will be a long 2-3 years.

 

[FeedTheDove]

Can we please acknowledge that cuse shot 60% today? And 63% from 3? Thats not the reason why we lost by 18, but it IS the reason why we lost. Jesus, fab was even pulling these top of the key jump shots out of his ass. Cuse played a great game today, and we were right with them. But when a team shoots that well, youre not going to win. Even without the downhill dash with 4 minutes left

 

[Chief00]

Against the better teams Tyler helps on offense but hurts our defense.

 

[caw]

Passive but error-free works sometimes too.............he's pretty intelligent out there and yeah I'd like to see him do a little more with the ball but he's aggressive to the boards and a good defender who finds the ball.

I agree, I meant that is his flaw and the reason he doesn't put up more stats. I think he could be a bit more aggressive.

 

[caw]

which is why I said that the 2 little guards will hurt our guards because it will expose our guys defensively against bigger guards like Syracuse has. CJ Fair was a killer today, and someone who was overlooked by the CBS crew. He was the one that really hurt us all day.

He wasn't being defended by anyone that could even be considered a guard though. He was destroying Olander and Roscoe.

 

[TheChamps990411]

i just cant believe we failed to score 70 points yet again! this game although a loss is a loss and im not one for moral victories i will say for this team to be on the road against what could be the best team in america who plays the best zone defense in the country and to be able to stay with them for 36 min has to be a positive moving forward. im also in meriden and didnt get to see the collapse and honestly im glad i didnt. the whole thing is kind of bizarre but hey on to wednesday.

 

[champs99and04]

AO needs early success for a good game. Those 2 fouls killed him.

AD seemed to figure, after getting embarrassed by Melo, that he could/should dunk. That changed the game until he got hurt. But it seemed to take to long for that realization to happen.

Fair abused Olander. Offensively Olander played pretty well, but he can't go for all those fakes.

Their guards did seem to take advantage of ours. It was difficult to guard them, though, because their shots were falling, and so they had the choice, every play, to drive or shoot. That's impossible to stop.

Great team offense--and I mean really great--will beat a defense every time. It's what happens in the NBA. People act like they don't play D--they do, its just that if you're making an outside shot, and can drive, you are unstoppable in basketball.

Syracuse no doubt played great offense, but do you think they shoot 58% if UConn plays D like they did in the title last year? Probably more like 40-45%.

 

[60'sfan]

Ball movement was better. Unfortunately, we will never get a chance to see this team mature. With the ban next year, Lamb and Drummond will be gone. They need to step it up this year or it will be a long 2-3 years.

I think there is a good chance that Daniels transfers too. He is not playing much at all and no post season next year makes staying less appealing.

As far as the game is concerned, I think Syracuse could have pulled away any time they wanted to. They reminded me of Uconn '99. Khalid and Rip would look at each other at the end of the game and say, "Winning time." Syracuse is deep, experienced and talented and right now Uconn is no match for them.