Shabazz's passing display today!!!

[blackbird]

This team needs to get more players involved in the offense. At least Giffey and Daniels need more shots. (Seriously, our 65% three point shooter only got one three point shot today, because ????) But in general, they need to move more without the ball, and the guards need to stop dribbling the air out of the ball.

This team also needs to learn how to box out.

If they can do these two things, and shoot well from outside, I think this team could do some damage in the tournament.

 

[msgordon]

Marcus was amazing. His freshman yr he averaged 4.3 assists in 14 minutes! Bazz is certainly great but marcus was better at running the break, bazz tries to get a little too fancy sometimes whereas Marcus would always take his time and make the right read

 

[Giddyup5]

Marcus had this unique ability to create passing lanes and easy shots for his teammates. A lot of great PG need their bigs to move into place to create a opportunity. MW would move the defense itself to create passing lanes by his own movement. Truly was special to see. Shocked he didn't stick in the league.

 

[aceboon]

This team needs to get more players involved in the offense. At least Giffey and Daniels need more shots. (Seriously, our 65% three point shooter only got one three point shot today, because ????) But in general, they need to move more without the ball, and the guards need to stop dribbling the air out of the ball.

This team also needs to learn how to box out.

If they can do these two things, and shoot well from outside, I think this team could do some damage in the tournament.

At some point it needs to be acknowledged by some that maybe the reason that Giffey doesn't get enough shots up is because of himself. Granted, I think more could be done besides the PnR up top with Giffey, and at times the guards(mainly Boat) don't find him, but he needs to be more aggressive. In the Eurobasket Championships he was 7/10 from 3 in 5 games, and 18/30 overall, and he was playing 25 minutes a game so its not like he was playing in only spurts. At that clip, he probably should've been getting up more than 2 3s per game and 6 shots per game. So does this mean that there are two coaching staffs, UConn's and the German national team's, that don't know how to properly implement Giffey into the offense? Or is it a case of Giffey not being more assertive?

 

[ColoradoUCFan]

First half fast break Giffey dished to Bazz for the easy layup 2 on 1. Loved the unselfishness and personally wondered if Bazz thought that he owed those pointa to Giffey. Second half Bazz dished to Giffey for the fast break dunk instead of taking points himself. I immediately joyously screamed to my wife and mom that Bazz was paying Giffey back. Thought it was an awesome example of what I love about both guys.

Late first half I wanted to kill Boat when he dribbled into penetration, picked up his dribble, left his feat, and threw the ball away. All the while he had Giff sitting behind the 3 point line wide open, clearly in his site of vision, waiting to bail him out with a shot that had a 65% chance of going in. But, Boat refused to pass to him. I started wondering whether Boat ever passes to Giffey; which I'm going to more closely watch.

In regards to the last comment that it's Giffey's fault for not taking more shots, I have mixed feelings about. Giffey clearly is not selfish enough (neither is Daniels), but damn it KO runs zero plays for him. We run plays for Bazz, Boat, Daniels, Calhoun, but absolutely none for Giffey. Giffey's primary role in the set offense is to set high screens for the guards. But, KO doesn't have a single offensive play that culminates with Giffey taking the shot (yet). With Neils' play this year, KO needs to draw up a couple plays for Giffey.

 

[boog204]

...In regards to the last comment that it's Giffey's fault for not taking more shots, I have mixed feelings about. Giffey clearly is not selfish enough (neither is Daniels), but damn it KO runs zero plays for him.

Bazz is the only guy who EVER looks for Niels. Now, Giffey isn't as active off the ball as he could be, but Boat tends to pretend that Niels doesn't exist.

Have to disagree in principal on DD not being selfish enough. It's a double edged sword. While he probably is not getting enough shots (as with Giff partly his fault for not working enough to get open), every time he gets the ball a shot is going up. He started the game with a great spin in the post and then followed that up by getting the ball with his back to the basket around the 3 point line and was shooting fall-away jumpers on an ISO. It was like watching Melo on the Knicks. You knew there was zero chance that the ball was coming out. DD does this a lot. I have no problem with him taking "good" shots, but the "I'm going to back you down for 5-10 seconds" play is selfish.

One of the issues with this team, imo, is that we have four players who at times simply decide that they are going to shoot on a specific possession. Bazz can get away with it; but you see him get the ball, fancy dribble, and take a long jumper with zero passes on a possession. He can do this b/c he has game and create a shot. But Boat, DD, and Omar also have this tendency (especially Boat) where it becomes a little ISO demonstration that so rarely accomplishes anything. Boat had I believe three plays in the first half alone where he simply decided he was going to shoot; the worst being that horrific step back 3 where he threw it away at the last second to avoid the block. He dribbled that entire possession with zero intention of passing.

 

[mauconnfan]

Dorons half court to three quarter court or further chest passes were always on point and got UConn scores of free points a game. Donny and Rudy and Ray streaking down the court after a make or miss with a Sheffer pass off the in-bounds/rebound was a thing of beauty.

So right and that is a gift, not many PGs make that pass well……..Doron was also real good at setting up the pick and roll, finishing with a bounce pass right on cue as the defender hedged……he was real good!

 

[blackbird]

I think there are a few reasons Giffey doesn't get shots.

One, he isn't selfish enough. Which I honestly don't mind. Giffey takes shots when he has them, he just doesn't take bad shots. We'd be a better team if everyone but Bazz didn't take bad shots.

Second, we don't run plays for him and he's one of the guys that needs to be set up for shots in order to score. Because of this, he's always going to have less shots than his statistics show he should, because it's a little bit of work for the guards to get him open. But we don't run any plays for him, and we really ought to.

And similarly, other teams have noticed we have a 65% three point shooter. And they've noticed that nothing really ignites the crowd like a Giffey three. So it's something other teams focus on stopping. That means, that not only was it a little more work for our team to get Giffey a shot in the first place, but the opposing team is even making it harder.

And finally, our guards don't pass him the ball enough. Giffey moves without the ball. He stands at the three point line wide open. The ball isn't passed to him enough. No Bazz, I forgive. He's been excellent this year, and if he has a few times a game where he wants to take a shot..even if it's a bad one..he's earned that.

But every other player on the team needs to realize that an open jump shot for Niels is a better shot than an open jump shot for themselves. And sometimes it's worse than that. I've seen players take shots where they weren't open, when they could have easily passed it to Giffey for an open shot.