St. John Post Game Thread

[ClifSpliffy]

seen in the haiku 'st johns. all hat, no cattle.' tru dat.
heard with aboot 3 seconds to go. mg 'u still think that we're gonna win?'
puhleeez, girl. it's the johnnies. we'll toss it in to adama, and he'll either make it or get fouled. too easy.' not exactly what happened, but close enuf. only st john's, behind the entire game yet magically ahead with seconds left, could still be expected to blow it. twas ever thus.
the more important question is 'why did 5 guys play 35+ minutes?'
as a fan of coach, i think some long range planning was the reason, and nuthin else. donnie said sumthing like 'they'll be playing 15 games in ten days, or 6 games over the weekend.' something like that, meaning here comes the grind.
the starters are set - adama, rj, ajax, whale, and tmart. i think coach decided to take the opportunity and give them as much together time as possible, with all the start and stop of the past few weeks, and let their flow become indelible for them, as the road ahead will not be favorable for a continual 35+ minute by the group. actually, near impossible.
good move coach. a man with a plan.
the fab five, plus jalen, tyler, akok, and hawk as backups, situation dependent. 9 players.
that's our squad, and i like our chances.

 

[F101Voodoo]

Part of that reflects the reality of 3 key Red Stain players having fouled out.

That limbered things up a bit, IMHO.

That is true. I got so happy and relieved that we were ahead I did forget that.

 

[dennismenace]

AJ's TOs are more errors of commission, not omission. I think he'll improve on decisions when to pass, and I think his teammates will anticipate his passes better. But I also don't think you want to discourage him from throwing those darts as so many of them work.

The thing I noticed late was that when SJU wanted to press, the couldn't do a thing with AJ. He could easily pass or dribble out of the pressure. We could've used that in a couple of earlier games when Gaff was in late.

He is really starting to get more and more confident with the ball. He really has a high ceiling and a lot of grit. In time he is going to be a terror along with Sanogo. This game was a confidence builder for some of these young guys.

 

[dennismenace]

So I got to watch my first UConn game at floor level last night because August is the man.

Some random thoughts:

• You really need to watch a game at court level to appreciate how athletic these guys are. Across the board, for both teams. I was a middling JV/Varsity player in high school. I'd be scared sheetless out there vs. those guys. Everything is so quick, defense is so ridiculously tough. Makes you understand more how even a Top 50-100 recruit needs some time to adapt to the college game.

Great post!

 

[F101Voodoo]

Not every JC team was a good free throw shooting team. 2003-2004 I believe shot 62% from the line. We are shooting .742 this year, a pretty good %. I agree last night we missed some crucial ones but we are usually not bad.

I am NOT blaming Sonogo boho may have had the game of his life but some people will zone in on the fact “IF” he made both shoots the game would have won in regulation.

 

[jibsey]

Julian Champagnie kept the Johnnies in it against a tough UConn team

I was about to have a very unpleasant night.

 

[coachn]

That shot that TM missed and was rebounded by AS was that a play drawn up by the coaches for a deliberate miss?
If that's the case brilliant. We ought to have this in playbook and do it more often.

 

[storrsroars]

That shot that TM missed and was rebounded by AS was that a play drawn up by the coaches for a deliberate miss?
If that's the case brilliant. We ought to have this in playbook and do it more often.

Donny said Dan Hurley drew it up in order for TMart to get fouled and go to the line.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Donny said Dan Hurley drew it up in order for TMart to get fouled and go to the line.

Exactly. And he was fouled, with no call. It was also drawn up with a rebounder on the opposite side and enough time left to get an offensive rebound and put back or foul, which obviously worked.

 

[gtcam]

That shot that TM missed and was rebounded by AS was that a play drawn up by the coaches for a deliberate miss?
If that's the case brilliant. We ought to have this in playbook and do it more often.

No way they draw up a miss 2 when down by 1 with less than 5 seconds on the clock. No guarantee that 1st shot gets off with enough time for a putback. If anyone on coaching staff says it was drawn up they need their head examined. Sanogo should have made that put back in any case

 

[HuskyHawk]

No way they draw up a miss 2 when down by 1 with less than 5 seconds on the clock. No guarantee that 1st shot gets off with enough time for a putback. If anyone on coaching staff says it was drawn up they need their head examined. Sanogo should have made that put back in any case

Deliberate. No. That’s stupid. Shoot with enough time for an Offensive rebound while moving a guy with 16 rebounds into a spot to get one. Yes.

 

[polycom]

So I got to watch my first UConn game at floor level last night because August is the man.

Some random thoughts:

• You really need to watch a game at court level to appreciate how athletic these guys are. Across the board, for both teams. I was a middling JV/Varsity player in high school. I'd be scared sheetless out there vs. those guys. Everything is so quick, defense is so ridiculously tough. Makes you understand more how even a Top 50-100 recruit needs some time to adapt to the college game.
• 
  
• Andre is slowly realizing that he doesn't have to make an amazing tricky pass when he pushes the pace. He can actually take it to the hole and score and/or get fouled. There were 2 times where he pushed pace after a rebound, and could have just took it coast-to-coast for a highlight jam, but tried a pass and made a turnover. But there were a couple times where he made the right decision and took it to the rack. Again, at court level, it's so obvious as an observer to see how freakishly athletic he is and how very few players can stop him on a break. Don't know why he doesn't think so, but I think the light is turning on. I think AJ in 4-6 games is gonna be there.
• 
  
• Also related to AJ...his handle is much better than expected watching up close. Thought Posh was gonna eat him up but nope.
• 
  
• Champagne is soooo silky smooth. Gonna be a impact NBA player. We played really good D on him all night but he is just that good. He's gonna get his points vs. even elite college defense.
• 
  
• I thought we did a great job on Posh.
• 
  
• our blocking game is top-notch. It's reason #1 why I have no issue with our hard-hedging. If/when someone gets into the paint, there's very few easy baskets.
• 
  
• Seeing the hard-hedge in real-time at court level...unless you're an elite ballhandler/passer, you're going to at least partially soil yourself when you find yourself in it.

Now that you've seen cbb courtside go to an NBA courtside then come back here and read people tell you that they play better defense in CBB than in the NBA and you too can rip your hair out.