Resetting expectations

[Umami Zen]

We won and 8893 got his X-Mas tree.. Life is good

 

[Kolumbo]

We may or may not win the same number of games due to these injuries. Hopefully they return in due time and pick up where they left off and if we lose a couple along the way, so be it. Remember UCONN was 9-9 in conference play in 2011.

 

[Huskybass]

If injuries led to Diggins and Johnson getting real minutes, then there is certainly a silver lining. When Martin comes back, we will bully teams. And I have a feeling that Sanogo comes back with more of a share the ball attitude after watching a handful of games with real good ball movement.

 

[Umami Zen]

Chill

 

[nelsonmuntz]

bump

 

[TheRealKBuks]

if you think this team was too hyped after going toe to toe in a hostile environment without our 2nd and 3rd best players you'll never be happy. I'm proud of these guys played. Wish they executed better. Wish they could've made a three but I'm not upset with this game given the circumstances.

 

[polycom]

Nelson may be an impossibly stupid poster about many things including his love for Josh carlton but knows what he is talking about basketball wise.

 

[BigFanCT]

NIT with guys who continually make the same mistakes. Turning the ball over, taking awful shots, missing bunnies. Really. I’ll soften a bit on Hurley, but what do these guys practice and where are these recruits we are heralding?

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

if you think this team was too hyped after going toe to toe in a hostile environment without our 2nd and 3rd best players you'll never be happy. I'm proud of these guys played. Wish they executed better. Wish they could've made a three but I'm not upset with this game given the circumstances.

Do you think this team has enough talent and depth to beat a west Virginia team who frankly isn't that good without Sanogo and Martin? If we made a handful of the 3s we took, we would have won. The sad part is our over reluctance to keep shooting them when we couldn't make any.

 

[Banta55]

NIT with guys who continually make the same mistakes. Turning the ball over, taking awful shots, missing bunnies. Really. I’ll soften a bit on Hurley, but what do these guys practice and where are these recruits we are heralding?

I forgot you're a better coach

 

[BigFanCT]

I forgot you're a better coach

We lost to a really bad offense, guys making the same mistakes they’ve made their entire career here, no play calling. I’m sorry- but this was a bad loss.

 

[Marbles90]

if you think this team was too hyped after going toe to toe in a hostile environment without our 2nd and 3rd best players you'll never be happy. I'm proud of these guys played. Wish they executed better. Wish they could've made a three but I'm not upset with this game given the circumstances.

West Virginia is horrible. Every team loses players to injuries. Every team deals with bad shooting nights. Every team deals with bad calls by refs. Good teams find ways to win. Even in hostile environments.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I thought the team played well tonight. It is hard to win against major conference opponents with a complete roster. WVU might be a bit of a mess offensively, but they play ferocious defense and when the refs let them play, they are tough to beat. Especially by a UConn team missing 2 of its 3 best players.

 

[Husky Alien]

 

[TheRealKBuks]

West Virginia is horrible. Every team loses players to injuries. Every team deals with bad shooting nights. Every team deals with bad calls by refs. Good teams find ways to win. Even in hostile environments.

WVU was at full strength and this was our first true road game in 2 years against an old rival and a HOF coach and again without 2 of our 3 best. I wish we won too but but acting like we shouldve won this walking away is just wrong.

 

[Hoophound]

This game was a loss in my mind as soon as I knew Sanogo and Martin were out. As I stated in the thread on the gambling line, we’d need a huge game from Polley, Hawkins etc. to win. Huggins is too good of a coach, especially at home, to beat so short handed. While we have a lot of really good players, we don’t have a great one yet. Without a game changing guard/wing (think Hawkins in a year or two), we aren’t winning a rock fight in Morgantown most of the time.

Don’t be surprised if we lose to the Bonnies too. Sanogo and Martin are huge losses.

 

[JonnyRI]

Do you think this team has enough talent and depth to beat a west Virginia team who frankly isn't that good without Sanogo and Martin? If we made a handful of the 3s we took, we would have won. The sad part is our over reluctance to keep shooting them when we couldn't make any.

If the Queen had a pair she’d be the King.

That’s the problem with your If. We didn’t. Not by a lot.

 

[Okafour rings]

This game was a loss in my mind as soon as I knew Sanogo and Martin were out. As I stated in the thread on the gambling line, we’d need a huge game from Polley, Hawkins etc. to win. Huggins is too good of a coach, especially at home, to beat so short handed. While we have a lot of really good players, we don’t have a great one yet. Without a game changing guard/wing (think Hawkins in a year or two), we aren’t winning a rock fight in Morgantown most of the time.

Don’t be surprised if we lose to the Bonnies too. Sanogo and Martin are huge losses.

Excuses. We didn't need those two to win, we just needed the players on the floor to execute. 3 for 21 from the arc?? Stupid turnovers on fast breaks with no one around cost us 6 points

 

[jibsey]

Not too upset over this today but we will be in a war with all BE teams until we get our starters back. Could have to climb out of a hole by then.

 

[Jaker]

AKOK has to step up to win games like todays.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Things that UConn did well:

1) Pushed the pace. While it is hard to believe that a 56-53 game had a fast pace, the only time it felt like we were scoring was in transition. If WVU got back, UConn was stuck and the chances of getting a decent shot were equivalent to the chances of a shot clock violation.

2) Controlled the ball (other than Hawkins). WVU, in Morgantown, with the refs letting them play, is a bad recipe for ball control, but 16 turnovers (12 if you don't count Hawkins) is not a terrible number given the circumstances. Hawkins was a mess. More on that later.

3) Defense - The free throw defense was spectacular, but kidding aside, holding WVU and a hall of fame coach to 56 points on sub 40% shooting when our offense was as grim as it was is impressive.

4) Heart - for all the screwing up there was tonight, the team fought it out until the very end.

Things that were a problem:

1) Offensive execution - UConn doesn't really run a set offense. Hurley is a player's coach offensively and lets them have a lot of freedom. That is fine when Bouk and Martin and Sanogo are out there beating their guy 1-on-1. It is a bit more problematic when Cole is the only scorer on the floor, and he can't shoot off the bounce. It looks like Hurley made some kind of adjustment in practice, because we were running a few flex like plays off back screens. Or maybe Whaley was just running around setting screens. Who knows? In any event, UConn sprung a few 3 point shooters to clang misses. One more of those goes in and it is a different game at the end.

Why does it always look like Akok is crowding his teammates and bringing a double team to the ball? He may have the worst sense of spacing of any UConn starter I can remember.

Anyway, this could have been worse. Losing your best player is a killer for any basketball team, and UConn has lost 2 and it wasn't a great team to begin with. Anyone remember the 1999 game when Hamilton missed the game at Syracuse? That team was a wrecking crew and it scored 42 points without its best player.

2) Hawkins and Jackson were completely out of control the whole night, and Hurley still let both play almost 30 minutes. How does Jackson only have one TO? I could have sworn he had 3. Hawkins was completely lost on the court. To be expected with frosh, but Hurley is stuck with him now with no bench.

Hurley should have played Polley and Gaffney more. Experience wins games like this over talent, and for all Polley's and Gaffney's limitations, and least they know what they are doing out there. Jackson is just a big strong athlete running up and down the court, and Hawkins appears to have a bad case of the yipps.

If Diggins can't play in a game like tonight's, when is he going to play?

3) Hurley - He didn't coach a bad game. We had to try to score in transition, and Hurley was trying to push the pace. It looked like there were some offensive adjustments. I would have liked more experience on the court for more minutes, but Hurley was making calculated bets and they didn't pay off.

The problem is that being an OK coach is not enough in the Big East. Bob Huggins will be in the Hall of Fame someday. Smart, Willard, Cooley, Anderson, and McDermott are all very good coaches. They have roster issues, but Patrick Ewing and Lavall Jordan are both very good game coaches. Where does Hurley rank in the list of Big East coaches in terms of his gameday management? Ahead of Stubblefield because he is an unknown and maybe Travis Steele because he chokes sometimes. That is probably it.

Hurley doesn't suck on gameday, but not sucking is not good enough.

 

[The Viking]

One thing he could do is get a technical once in awhile. Seemed there were a lot of Ticky tacks on us and Hurley played too nice.
Every time there was a commercial they closed the arena shot by constantly showing Huggins work over the ref.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

One thing he could do is get a technical once in awhile. Seemed there were a lot of Ticky tacks on us and Hurley played too nice.
Every time there was a commercial they closed the arena shot by constantly showing Huggins work over the ref.

Effectively working the refs is one of the hardest things for a coach to do. Usually, the refs for a non-conference game are from a third conference, but I believe that most refs work for more than one conference. As a result, the visiting team usually does not have a lot of leverage on the refs in an OOC game if the refs just want to go native.

Calhoun's technical in the 2003 Sweet 16 is the most effective use of a strategic technical foul that I can remember, but the reality is that UConn still lost that game.

 

[SeattleHoop]

This isn’t the worst loss in the world and this was a tough game to win for reasons already stated here.

But here’s a point I’d like to make.

At a certain point, we either start playing like a Top 10 program or we keep playing like a fringe top 25 program.

I know we are missing two big time starters. But we need to take it to another level to reach the heights of 1999-2009 which is what I’ve personally been hoping for, for a while now.

That probably won’t happen this year. And I think many have been hoping for that too

I still am not sure i see the right personnel for that even with all of our starters.

It’s an energy/mindset thing first, before anything else.

When Ben Gordon or AJ price, or Jerome Dyson, or Jeff Adrien or Emeka Okafor had the ball in their hands, there was a different energy there. A predatory killer energy. Even our sixth men in the past like Rashad Anderson had it.

I see that in very few of our players on this roster.

I don’t see it in Tyler Polley. I don’t see it in Gaffney. I don’t see it in Akok.

Maybe Adama, Reese, Cole and Jackson have it a little bit.
But the point is, I’m not sure yet. Something is missing still.

I love this team and we still may go far this year and I really hope we do obviously

I just don’t know if we are at the level that myself and many on this forum want this team to be…yet.

We are getting closer each year though. You can see it and feel it.

We are all bracing for that breakthrough and so it’s normal to be disappointed after not seeing it quite yet

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

I would have hoped to have seen a bigger improvement from some of our guys returning.

 

[Hoophound]

We won’t get where we want to be until we have a pure pg facilitating and a wing that is able to dominate games. I think we’ll see the real beginning of it next year as Hawkins and Diggins begin the trend.

 

[SeattleHoop]

We won’t get where we want to be until we have a pure pg facilitating and a wing that is able to dominate games. I think we’ll see the real beginning of it next year as Hawkins and Diggins begin the trend.

I think you may be right here. It feels like we have 90% of the puzzle put together but are still missing a few pieces to complete it.

Maybe we have them but they just haven’t materialized yet, as you are saying

 

[EnochRoot]

if you think this team was too hyped after going toe to toe in a hostile environment without our 2nd and 3rd best players you'll never be happy. I'm proud of these guys played. Wish they executed better. Wish they could've made a three but I'm not upset with this game given the circumstances.

I’m upset about the fact they came out of a timeout and had to fling a wild shot as the shot clock wound down. I’m upset that they relentlessly shot 3s despite the fact nobody (outside of Cole hitting two consecutive 3s earlier in the 2nd half) could make a shot. I’m upset there are no set plays for Cole to run out of a timeout. I’m upset this team successfully sets only like 10% of its screens and picks. I’m upset this team is loaded for bear with players who jump first and think second while playing defense.

WV is not a good team, but they executed the plays they needed to and came away with the W.

 

[freescooter]

This changes almost nothing for me, Martin missing the first 4 BE games on the long end of his timetable isn't a big deal. We can beat Providence, Marquette, Xavier, Butler without him. TBD on Sanogo but even if he never played another game this season I'd expect a top 4 finish in the Big East and comfortably in the tournament

That’s a pretty big step back from expecting to challenge Villanova for the league title and a 3 or 4 seed. But ok if that’s nothing…

To be honest I never thought we were Villanova’s equal, though I don’t think anyone in the league really is. Plus playing non-league games we played ought to give one pause anyway. Undefeated against teams in the 300 range. 3-2 against teams people have actually heard of and the wins were not exactly dominating against some fairly mediocre teams.

 

[willie99]

I'm happy to see many of my Boneyard brothers are not drowning in their tears. As UConn fans, we all know or should know when it matters most, and how chemistry is a work in progress

I'll give the kids a pass, they never really experienced what basketball excellence looks like, save for maybe a couple of glimpses

Learn to enjoy the ride people, there will always be bumps along the way