So, Are We Good Again?

[auror]

First game in a long time I wasn't able to watch. Fill me in? Seems like Jackson was really good early on and Martin and Cole took over after? Did we run good offense?

First half we had pretty good offense overall. Some transition, a couple pick and roll feeds. Some Adama (though his first 2 shots were rushed). Martin picking his spots well. Abusing their white PG Kolek on switches. Martin hit a big 3 as time expired at the half to offset a mini-Marquette run to close the half. Marquette was also kinda getting whatever they wanted against us. A few blown defensive assignments and miscommunications on switches (Adama, Jackson, Martin all guilty).

2nd half we built a lead with defense forcing a couple transition opportunities, Akok hitting his 2nd 3, and Cole taking over a bit (3, midrange pullup, and-1 in transition). Marquette slowly climbed back into it by grinding us on defense, getting really physical, and posting up Justin Lewis on offense who was beasting over and through Whaley. Due to their D, we started settling for 3's and missed 5 in a row, a couple, despite a couple of them being wide open.

They cut it to 1, then we traded FTs for buckets for a bit, and it was at 2 when they missed a wide open dunk underneath the basket. Hurley started doubling Lewis and that shifted Marquette's offense in a different direction. Then Cole hit a big shot and Martin hit a couple, and we won somewhat comfortably despite a bunch of tight play down the stretch.

 

[NCNutmeg]

Good resilience, happy with the result. Take it an run to the next one. Tough game for Gaffney, seems to be out of place in the offense. Forces a lot of things. Am I the only one who gets nervous when Jackson throws overhand baseball passes to a guy 10 feet away from him?

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

Can't wait for next year!!!

lol can we just watch and enjoy this team's journey first?

Did my post indicate I wasn’t enjoying this year’s team? Lol
Is next year a forbidden topic? I’m excited about this year’s team and next year’s team.

I said we have an elite 8 ceiling and it should be even higher next year. Don’t lump me in with the “this year’s a wash but just wait til next year” people.

 

[gtcam]

UConn won. Martin and Cole put the team on their back the last 2 minutes and brought them across the finish line. Period.
If the team plays the same and the coaching staff coach the same, it's going to be a long cold winter
This team is much better than it shows at times

 

[KingAG]

Auburn was a good win, MSU was not a bad loss. That wasn't very hard.....

Jay-Bone doesn’t speak for the board as a whole. That’s wasn’t very hard…..

 

[Brochacho]

Not if you ask the Boneyard, even after a quad 1 conference road win.

Quad 2. Hopefully Marquette can string some wins together and be one though.

 

[BugsyCT]

But will we ever be ranked again this season yet?

 

[auror]

Quad 2. Hopefully Marquette can string some wins together and be one though.

It was quad 1 yesterday and is currently 1 spot from quad 1.

 

[Jay-Bone]

Jay-Bone doesn’t speak for the board as a whole. That’s wasn’t very hard…..

Simmer down now. Trigger much? I didn't know you were the board's PR.

 

[August_West]

The highs are too high after wins and the lows too low after losses. We're not a horrible team but we're not going to a Final Four either. The way this board reads after games you would think those above statements were simultaneously true.

This.

To answer OP’s question. Yes we are good. But at this point only just good. Tough call on where this team goes from here. We can continue to improve and tighten up things and maybe some slumping players ( Hawkins gaff, Polley) come out of those slumps. 2.5 months left in season plenty of time we can have that happen. Then this good team moves up to really good. That’s what I’m hoping.

But another part of me has the suspicion that we are who we are: a decent defense, poor shooting, mistake prone, crunch time allergic squad and we are going to lose a bunch of tough games where we have been in them until winning time and then fall short. We do have some glaring flaws. Including guard play ( RJ is great but those circus shots he was making yesterday is not something you can hang your hat on game in and game out) . Maintaining leads, valuing possessions, shooting, and running good stuff at critical moments. We make so many mistakes at crunch time. Including our wins. We survived Martin with 2 offensive fouls and RJ getting trapped over 1/2 court twice ( how does that still happen ?!!?) in crunch time last night simply because Marquette missed 3 bunnies including a gimme dunk 3 trips in a row. While I liked last nights win I still don’t like the way we look in critical moments.

 

[Austin316]

First game in a long time I wasn't able to watch. Fill me in? Seems like Jackson was really good early on and Martin and Cole took over after? Did we run good offense?

Not gunna lie it was a VERY sloppy game on both ends. Our shot selection was horrendous but the buckets were somehow going in for Cole. He played well. Martin stepped up but there were plenty of times where we had a player open for a pick and roll, particularly Akok, that would have gotten him more involved, but that’s the only hit I have on Martin. He contributed with 25 pts and was our difference maker. Marquette played sloppy but got many offensive plays from their big down low. That guy Lewis is All Conference material. Hell be a problem for any BE team. They also rebounded extremely well. They tried pressing a few times but you can tell Hurley worked on that with the guys and we were able to beat it. Sanogo looked like he’s still shaking off some rust. He coughed the ball up a couple times. Hawkins still finding himself. Jackson played great in first half

Overall, we won. It wasn’t pretty but it was reassuring that we aren’t going to quit after the Providence game. Shots fell and we hit our free throws. Nothing flashy.

 

[tentoes4rings]

I found it interesting that Hurley said last night at full strength that this team can be “a monster”. Clearly looked a lot better last night despite some really bad turnovers and questionable shots. Between Adama, Martín, Jackson, Akok, Hawkins, we won’t face too many teams with considerably better athletic talent. I still think for this team to be at its peak, Diggins and Johnson need to be integrated into the rotation and Polley, Gaffney and to a degree, Whaley’s minutes need to be reduced.

 

[Rico444]

You think the board is too high after a win? This board?

Did you see the thread that got made after one of our wins against a cupcake asking if this team could win the national championship? It's not the same people being too high after a win and too low after a loss, but it's prevalent after each.

 

[HuskyinWRNY]

A nice solid road win after an atrocious loss shows some mettle.

hang on to your socks, its going to be like this all year

 

[Jaydumo20]

It has been made clear we will never be in the top 25 again, we did not belong in the top 25 before the PC game, Hurley cannot coach, and we will finish under .500 in the BE. No reason to play out the games, the yard has spoken.

Win at Xavier next week you will see how big of phonys there are around here when they are acting like they never doubted this team.

Keep posting. I used to think some of your comments were baselessy optimistic, but now I think we would all have more fun watching these games with your frame of mind. Whether we win at Xavier or not, this team IS better than past years and we DO have a lot to hang our hats on. It's true

 

[Kolumbo]

Final 4 Baby!! Some seem to have a problem with emotion. That's college basketball.

Seriously, I'm most excited to see how Jackson, Hawkins, and hopefully a couple other guys who didn't play a single minute last night progress over the season.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

This.

To answer OP’s question. Yes we are good. But at this point only just good. Tough call on where this team goes from here. We can continue to improve and tighten up things and maybe some slumping players ( Hawkins gaff, Polley) come out of those slumps. 2.5 months left in season plenty of time we can have that happen. Then this good team moves up to really good. That’s what I’m hoping.

But another part of me has the suspicion that we are who we are: a decent defense, poor shooting, mistake prone, crunch time allergic squad and we are going to lose a bunch of tough games where we have been in them until winning time and then fall short. We do have some glaring flaws. Including guard play ( RJ is great but those circus shots he was making yesterday is not something you can hang your hat on game in and game out) . Maintaining leads, valuing possessions, shooting, and running good stuff at critical moments. We make so many mistakes at crunch time. Including our wins. We survived Martin with 2 offensive fouls and RJ getting trapped over 1/2 court twice ( how does that still happen ?!!?) in crunch time last night simply because Marquette missed 3 bunnies including a gimme dunk 3 trips in a row. While I liked last nights win I still don’t like the way we look in critical moments.

what happened to ur dagger trey handle? mebbe u and ur phenotype pals are, umm, guilty of the charges at hand? sounds like ur laid up for bit, get well soon. and oh, since u'll be sittin on ur duff, mebbe try to enjoy watching our games, and not going all microanalytical every second, like some of the wackadoodles here?
a whole pantload of youse went all looneytune freakout after the pc loss,
where we didn't have the whole squad on the floor.
it's in the posts for all to see.
did we fire hurley yet? i sure hope not, cuz this team is fun and good.
what more can a non-greedy fan ask for?

 

[tentoes4rings]

what happened to ur dagger trey handle? mebbe u and ur phenotype pals are, umm, guilty of the charges at hand? sounds like ur laid up for bit, get well soon. and oh, since u'll be sittin on ur duff, mebbe try to enjoy watching our games, and not going all microanalytical every second, like some of the wackadoodles here?
a whole pantload of youse went all looneytune freakout after the pc loss,
where we didn't have the whole squad on the floor.
it's in the posts for all to see.
did we fire hurley yet? i sure hope not, cuz this team is fun and good.
what more can a non-greedy fan ask for?

Some of you guys need to give it a rest. I swear there’s a crew of you that just salivates over the potential to come here and attack anyone that voices legit concerns about the team, even after wins vs decent at best opponents. Does this team and staff have the potential to be really good? No doubt. Do posters who see winnable games vs West Virginia and Providence slip away have the right to have very legit frustrations? Yes. I think many of you enjoy coming here to attack people more than the actual wins themselves. Chill out and just enjoy the games.

 

[KingAG]

Some of you guys need to give it a rest. I swear there’s a crew of you that just salivates over the potential to come here and attack anyone that voices legit concerns about the team, even after wins vs decent at best opponents. Does this team and staff have the potential to be really good? No doubt. Do posters who see winnable games vs West Virginia and Providence slip away have the right to have very legit frustrations? Yes. I think many of you enjoy coming here to attack people more than the actual wins themselves. Chill out and just enjoy the games.

It goes both ways. There’s a crowd who’d rather be right than see us win

 

[slepers]

Gaffney just isn't a very good player, atleast in terms of getting us where we need to be. He is no threat offensively and it's not like he's an incredible defender to make up for it. His offensive game is limited to wide open 3's and layups in transition. That is Hurley's main recruiting miss so far is taking him over Isaiah Wong and Al Amir Dawes

Explain again why we didn’t get Ryan Gomes

 

[tentoes4rings]

It goes both ways. There’s a crowd who’d rather be right than see us win

I agree it goes both ways but I believe 95% of us all have the same goal in mind, to see the program we love win games and represent the school and state well in the process. Losses can be raw and we need a forum to vent sometimes. As a result, dogs don’t get kicked, loved ones don’t get yelled at as much. So a coach who makes 3 million per year takes some criticism in the process, it could be a lot worse. I don’t think the kids have been attacked too much this year, and a high percentage of us are still rooting like hell for them.