San Diego St. Matchup | Page 4 | The Boneyard

San Diego St. Matchup

Make the players watch the Creighton game at least twice. Creighton let SDSU off the hook on all of their hand checking and bumping by not forcing officials to make a call. We have to go right into the SDSU defender's arms every time they try to grab UConn. We should be in the bonus with 8-9 minutes left in both halves.

It always comes down to the refs with you, doesn’t it? I guess that’s because you don’t know anything about actual basketball.
 
Assume SDSU is going to play their best game of the Tournament. We just have to bring ours. What Barkley said before yesterday's game was correct. We are good enough to win 4 out of 5 against these teams but a good Coach/Team can always pull out a one game win if you let up.

Our key as usual is good defense, playing sharp, unselfish and limiting turnovers. If the shot isn't falling don't step outside your game to force it. We have options and Hurley seems to have found a formula to plug them in at the right time.
 
I also remember a George Mason team that was supposed to be a walkover, especially given the greatest talent UConn put on one team.

I like our chances, and if UConn plays it’s game we should win on paper. But SDSU is tough, resilient, and mature. They will come out with a belief they can win. They won’t just give this NC to UConn.

I think the staff has this team focused and ready to play. The players don’t seem phased by who the competition is.
I’m guessing/hoping Dan Hurley is reminding them every second there’s no relaxing right now, there’s no taking it for granted, and that they need to prepare like they’re taking no prisoners Monday night.
GO HUSKIES!
 
Against Miami I told all my friends as long as Jackson doesn’t get in foul trouble and we don’t let them get into the bonus early we’d be fine. BOTH of those things happened (and Hawkins was basically one of the zombies from Thriller) - Jackson sat for 15 mins in the first half and Miami was in the bonus for the last 8-9 mins. We went into the half up 13 and won wire to wire.

Jackson is the most indispensable player we have. He stays out of foul trouble - we’re in great shape. Guessing he will be tasked with guarding Bradley. If we make our 3’s and don’t get too 3 happy (since we can pound this team down low with Sanogo just like every other team, SDSU only has Mensah to defend him) we should be comfortable. SDSU’s biggest advantage is they’re all scrappy veterans, almost all seniors and a couple Juniors in their rotation. They won’t crumble easily but they aren’t built to dig out of a big hole if we can go up 15 on ‘em.

Shout out to Alleyne who played awesome defense in AJ’s Absence and has been our most valuable sub after Clingan.
 
Keep Hawkins away from the calamari in the buffet line tonight and we should be good to go..
 
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I also remember a George Mason team that was supposed to be a walkover, especially given the greatest talent UConn put on one team.
How did that 2006 UConn team look in the games leading up to George Mason?

How many players on that UConn team could initiate offense?

This is going to be a rockfight. SDSU is good, otherwise they wouldn't be here.

We match up just fine with them.
 
Dont like the matchup. SDSU is a very experienced, physical team that grinds it out and knows how to win close games. Plus, they must feel like they are a team of destiny right now with how they are winning close games including last second shots.

I also dont like the comments coming from UConn players. They are saying things like it doesnt matter who we play, if we stick to what we're doing, we'll be good. Umm, thats exactly not the way to win close games. You need to be very tactical in terms of what sets you are going to run with a minute left, and who is going to take the last shot - and that is all predicated on the specific matchups. Again, almost all of our 8 losses was due to NOT executing well in the last 90 seconds. Taking bad shots, etc. I hope it doesnt come to this, but I think it will.

I think it will be a close, rock fight, grind type of game, and frankly that is not Hurley's strength. He will have to exorcise his last demon - winning a tight game against a very good team - to earn immortality.
 
Assume SDSU is going to play their best game of the Tournament. We just have to bring ours. What Barkley said before yesterday's game was correct. We are good enough to win 4 out of 5 against these teams but a good Coach/Team can always pull out a one game win if you let up.

Our key as usual is good defense, playing sharp, unselfish and limiting turnovers. If the shot isn't falling don't step outside your game to force it. We have options and Hurley seems to have found a formula to plug them in at the right time.
Maybe I just don’t know enough about the SDSU coach but in the interviews, etc. that I’ve seen with him I’m not impressed or convinced he can outcoach Hurley.
 
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Jackson sat for 15 mins in the first half and Miami was in the bonus for the last 8-9 mins.
I don’t think Miami got into the bonus. If we did get 7 fouls then I don’t remember them shooting any 1 for 1s as a result. Dodged a bullet there for sure.
 
I don’t think Miami got into the bonus. If we did get 7 fouls then I don’t remember them shooting any 1 for 1s as a result. Dodged a bullet there for sure.
I remarked in the chat that Miami spent a lot of time in the bonus but without getting to the line. We really tightened up our D and played smart without fouling, something we didn't do well earlier in the year (or BE refs were more committed to the narrative).
 
This is a perfect match for UConn in the championship. FAU wouldn't have won, but would've been tougher. There will obviously be no letdown in the championship. SD State is a very good defensive team, but they have two problems: they don't match up surprising with UConn, and they simply won't be able to score enough points to win. My guess is something along the lines of 62-46 with Hawkins and Clingan being the stars tomorrow
 
FAU would have been the much easier matchup. San Diego State has one of the best defenses in the country and shut down Alabama"s explosive offense. We were literally a second away from a walk in the park Final. This Final should be a tossup.
FAU scared me. Jalen would have spilled all our secrets. Plus we would have been playing 4 out all night.
 
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I also remember a George Mason team that was supposed to be a walkover, especially given the greatest talent UConn put on one team.

I like our chances, and if UConn plays it’s game we should win on paper. But SDSU is tough, resilient, and mature. They will come out with a belief they can win. They won’t just give this NC to UConn.

I think the staff has this team focused and ready to play. The players don’t seem phased by who the competition is.
Come on. Not a fair comparison. Everyone knew that teams flaws and they had trouble with almost every team they played in that tournament. Hell, they were down double digits to the 16 seed. Yeah, that team had a lot of talent, but they were too worried about their NBA futures and as it turned out, Rudy Gay was the only guy on the team who actually had one.
 
I also dont like the comments coming from UConn players. They are saying things like it doesnt matter who we play, if we stick to what we're doing, we'll be good. Umm, thats exactly not the way to win close games. You need to be very tactical in terms of what sets you are going to run with a minute left,
Sure. And "being tactical" is what COACHES do, not players.
 
I don’t think Miami got into the bonus. If we did get 7 fouls then I don’t remember them shooting any 1 for 1s as a result. Dodged a bullet there for sure.
Both things are true. That was part of his point
 
Can someone tweet to Kyle Boone that UConn has a 7-2 guy coming off the bench that has had a big impact on games? No mention of the big guy in this write up. He compares benches and only mentions Alleyne and Calcaterra. How is it possible to not even mention Clingan?

 
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Not sure if this qualifies as anything more than a weird coincidence but Jim Dutcher (father of San Diego State's head coach) replaced Bill Musselman (father of Arkansas head coach who we beat in round three) as head coach at the university of Minnesota 48 years ago.
 
We can’t lose the offense rebounding battle like we did tonight. That was easily the biggest surprise for me.
I know we should get every rebound but we did win the rebounding 40-31
 

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