Road Issues

[BFieldHusky]

Here are our road wins since 2017-2018 season:

East Carolina (twice)
Tulane

That's it.

 

[pj]

Is that including 2017-18 (Ollie) or only the 1.5 Hurley seasons?

 

[BFieldHusky]

Is that including 2017-18 (Ollie) or only the 1.5 Hurley seasons?

Includes Ollie. Hurley has only won at East Carolina.

 

[dannyHAM]

This terrifies me going into next year. I know we have reinforcements coming in, and the new recruits are playing well but this is unacceptable for UConn.

 

[Austin316]

Shocking we haven’t beaten South Florida or Tulsa away.

 

[UConnSwag11]

We now have the talent. Hurley needs to reevaluate his lineups, subs and subbing strategy, using timeouts, and sets. We do not have a player who can go get you a bucket when needed or is unquestionably the lead dog. I believe Bouknight and Akok can be both.

Our freshman and incoming freshman are big, athletic, and talented. Our starting lineup going forward should be

Gilbert Gaffney Bouknight Akok, Whaley.
I can see putting Bouk at the two as he can also handle the ball and have vital at the three. We need to ball handlers on the court at all times.

And until our defense steps up, Akok cannot come off the court unless he’s exhausted

 

[8893]

Wow. That really puts things in perspective.

Or, as they say in Spinal Tap, "Too much [bleeping] perspective."

 

[HuskyHawk]

Wow. That really puts things in perspective.

Or, as they say in Spinal Tap, "Too much [bleeping] perspective."

Perhaps we need to go to 11?

 

[superjohn]

That just shows you it isn't really about talent. Winning on the road is about toughness. These guys are so soft mentally, any sign of adversity and they fold like a cheap suitcase. It's time for them to man up but unfortunately I don't see it happening.

 

[gtcam]

We now have the talent. Hurley needs to reevaluate his lineups, subs and subbing strategy, using timeouts, and sets. We do not have a player who can go get you a bucket when needed or is unquestionably the lead dog. I believe Bouknight and Akok can be both.

Our freshman and incoming freshman are big, athletic, and talented. Our starting lineup going forward should be

Gilbert Gaffney Bouknight Akok, Whaley.
I can see putting Bouk at the two as he can also handle the ball and have vital at the three. We need to ball handlers on the court at all times.

And until our defense steps up, Akok cannot come off the court unless he’s exhausted

Yes - lets sit the leading scorer and rebounder - that makes sense. And starting Whalley is not the answer, he will have 3 fouls before the 1st TO.
Akok should be out on the court longer but until he learns how to set a screen properly he will never stay in the game
I remember when Diarra and Enoch would set illegal screens, the rants about how stupid the coach(es) must be to have them continually do so. Akok couldn't stay in the game because he committed two on Saturday and has done so in numerous other games. If he would only come to a complete stop rather than continual motion.............................
Our freshman and incoming freshman are big, athletic, and talented
I agree but only in current UConn standards - the freshmen are being abused by bigger athletic and talented players in every league game
Andre Jackson is a freak athlete but needs a lot of muscle to compete at the upper D1 level and Brown is big but very raw - both are a good start in a better recruitment direction. Spriggs might be a diamond in the rough

 

[HuskyHawk]

That just shows you it isn't really about talent. Winning on the road is about toughness. These guys are so soft mentally, any sign of adversity and they fold like a cheap suitcase. It's time for them to man up but unfortunately I don't see it happening.

I really wish Diarra hadn't had his health issues. He was the one guy we had who had the right mindset. Physical and tough. I honestly hope Sid playing more against USF was a sign. He needs to play with more consistent effort, but he's not soft. He doesn't shy away from contact at all.

 

[MuchoDogYears]

One change that I feel strongly that DH needs to make in game management is to stop sitting a player in the first half after picking up a 2nd foul.

I can see using this strategy down the road in a couple years when we hopefully have a deep talented roster.

Actually, I’ll qualify this statement. Its fine to use this strategy with this current roster as the starters aren’t measurably better than the bench, with one huge exception.

Akok.

He has to play 35-40 minutes and never be benched unless he’s gassed. He’s our best player and there’s no sub that can come in for him without there being a huge drop off.

That’s where the USF game turned, when DH took Akok out with 2 fouls in the first half.

 

[HuskyBandDad]

One change that I feel strongly that DH needs to make in game management is to stop sitting a player in the first half after picking up a 2nd foul.

I can see using this strategy down the road in a couple years when we hopefully have a deep talented roster.

Actually, I’ll qualify this statement. Its fine to use this strategy with this current roster as the starters aren’t measurably better than the bench, with one huge exception.

Akok.

He has to play 35-40 minutes and never be benched unless he’s gassed. He’s our best player and there’s no sub that can come in for him without there being a huge drop off.

That’s where the USF game turned, when DH took Akok out with 2 fouls in the first half.

So the other 98% of coaches who sit players with 2 fouls are wrong too?
Maybe if the refs did not suck and stopped calling cheap fouls then I might agree with you.

 

[Excalibur]

So the other 98% of coaches who sit players with 2 fouls are wrong too?
Maybe if the refs did not suck and stopped calling cheap fouls then I might agree with you.

I don't think you can leave him on the floor the whole time, but there were opportunities to get him back out there, particularly as things started to get away from us inside of 10 minutes.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I don't think you can leave him on the floor the whole time, but there were opportunities to get him back out there, particularly as things started to get away from us inside of 10 minutes.

I feel like Hurley and Ollie both have a reluctance to burn a time out to stop a run. Dan knew a lineup change was needed to halt momentum, sent a guy to the table. Then another. Then a third. But the bloodletting continued with no stoppage to allow those subs in for a few minutes. That can't happen. If you don't want to burn a TO, coach one of your guys to foul. When you've decided a change is needed it needs to happen quickly. They built an extra 10 points or so of lead during those few minutes.

 

[husky429]

Yes - lets sit the leading scorer and rebounder - that makes sense. And starting Whalley is not the answer, he will have 3 fouls before the 1st TO.
Akok should be out on the court longer but until he learns how to set a screen properly he will never stay in the game
I remember when Diarra and Enoch would set illegal screens, the rants about how stupid the coach(es) must be to have them continually do so. Akok couldn't stay in the game because he committed two on Saturday and has done so in numerous other games. If he would only come to a complete stop rather than continual motion.............................
Our freshman and incoming freshman are big, athletic, and talented
I agree but only in current UConn standards - the freshmen are being abused by bigger athletic and talented players in every league game
Andre Jackson is a freak athlete but needs a lot of muscle to compete at the upper D1 level and Brown is big but very raw - both are a good start in a better recruitment direction. Spriggs might be a diamond in the rough

Re: akok's noving screens. The guards are taking off before he's set. As much their fault as his. Also one was a terrible call.

 

[Tenspro2002]

So the other 98% of coaches who sit players with 2 fouls are wrong too?

Yes.

 

[superjohn]

Re: akok's noving screens. The guards are taking off before he's set. As much their fault as his. Also one was a terrible call.

Exactly. Akok was visibly pissed at his teammates.

 

[Tenspro2002]

That just shows you it isn't really about talent. Winning on the road is about toughness. These guys are so soft mentally, any sign of adversity and they fold like a cheap suitcase. It's time for them to man up but unfortunately I don't see it happening.

It's this, and unfortunately there's not much Hurley can do about it except accelerate the roster turnover and bring in that KEA, Jeff Adrien type.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Perhaps we need to go to 11?

That's one more, in'it?

 

[HuskyHawk]

Re: akok's noving screens. The guards are taking off before he's set. As much their fault as his. Also one was a terrible call.

Our screens have been a comedy of errors for several years. Normally the screener takes off before the ball handler gets there or, the ball handler swings so far around the screener it has no effect at all.

 

[Chief00]

Exactly. Akok was visibly pissed at his teammates.

He’s a smart, serious dude. He’s not perfect but he gets it most of the time. Some of the other guys on the other hand .......
We need to re-examine everything when we travel. Our routine, practice, our hotels (that’s changing with the conference move anyways), the time spent at the away location. Even if we don’t know what may be contributing (other than talent, strength deficiency), we might get lucky randomly shaking things up. Something isn’t working.

 

[Dooooooomed]

I get not wanting to travel too much in the OOC, but I also think it's dumb to not play a single true road game prior to conference play. Schedule a December series with Pitt/WVU/UVA/VTech.

 

[McLovin]

Re: akok's noving screens. The guards are taking off before he's set. As much their fault as his. Also one was a terrible call.

One change that I feel strongly that DH needs to make in game management is to stop sitting a player in the first half after picking up a 2nd foul.

I can see using this strategy down the road in a couple years when we hopefully have a deep talented roster.

Actually, I’ll qualify this statement. Its fine to use this strategy with this current roster as the starters aren’t measurably better than the bench, with one huge exception.

Akok.

He has to play 35-40 minutes and never be benched unless he’s gassed. He’s our best player and there’s no sub that can come in for him without there being a huge drop off.

That’s where the USF game turned, when DH took Akok out with 2 fouls in the first half.

I'd be curious to know what percentage of Akok's fouls this year are offense fouls on picks. I'd bet its close to 25%. He hardly ever fouls on the defensive end. Our defense is leaps and bounds (pun) better when he is in there as a shot blocking threat.

 

[UConnSwag11]

Yes - lets sit the leading scorer and rebounder - that makes sense. And starting Whalley is not the answer, he will have 3 fouls before the 1st TO.
Akok should be out on the court longer but until he learns how to set a screen properly he will never stay in the game
I remember when Diarra and Enoch would set illegal screens, the rants about how stupid the coach(es) must be to have them continually do so. Akok couldn't stay in the game because he committed two on Saturday and has done so in numerous other games. If he would only come to a complete stop rather than continual motion.............................
Our freshman and incoming freshman are big, athletic, and talented
I agree but only in current UConn standards - the freshmen are being abused by bigger athletic and talented players in every league game
Andre Jackson is a freak athlete but needs a lot of muscle to compete at the upper D1 level and Brown is big but very raw - both are a good start in a better recruitment direction. Spriggs might be a diamond in the rough

You can't have Gilbert, Polley, and Vital on the floor together at this moment.