Team is starting to get in a groove

[AfgHusky15]

I know thats hard to say that when we are 4-5 in our last 9 games but when looking at the actual games and how and who we have lost, its clear we are a much better team now then we were just a few weeks ago. Here is why:

Beating Florida at Gainsville will always be impressive no matter whether their ranked or not as long as Florida has Billy Donovan and a ton of 5 and 4 star players on their squad. Remember this was the same Florida team that was clobbering Kansas before their second half collapse. What was really impressive about this game was how UCONN beat the press. Huge improvement from what we saw in the WV game. Terrance handled the ball as well as I have ever seen him against the press. Omar's handle has clearly improved from last year as well, and aside from a few mistakes the team did a very good overall job on handling Florida's pressure.

Temple game: Was very impressive to see how UCONN hung in there and came back to tie the game without Boatright who means so much for the team for both the offensive and defensive side of things. I think Temple is a very good team and will be a very dangerous out in the tourny come March. If Boat was healthy we would have won that game.

Columbia: We beat Columbia by a wider margin then Kentucky. Columbia team looks like a very well run team that can take out any top 25 team on any night.

Duke: We played Duke better than any other team has in the country and that is including Wisconsin when Wisconson played them on their home court. (Not gonna talk about the refs during the uconn game...but man...smh)

Notes on Individual PLayer Improvements:

Calhoun: looks like he is going to be an important piece to this UCONN team. His confidence is up. Is handle is better, he is playing his best defense that I have seen, and he is helping on the boards and making smart decisions with the ball. We are much more dangerous team with him playing as well as he has. Can't wait to see how well he plays when he gets a few more games under his belt!

Purvis: Don't like his D one bit and don't like how trigger happy he is to run out on the break at times when he should be helping on the boards, but its great to see his confidence continue to build especially with his outside shot which is starting to go in on a consistent basis. If he continues to hit the threes on consistent basis along with Calhoun it makes Boat's job that much easier.

Amida: Loved his defensive presence and most importantly his 10 boards, against a big Florida team! Favorite stat of the game. Hopefully he continues to improve upon his rebounding. I rather see him get 10 + boards every night then 10+ points. Thats what we need him for and his blocking.

Samuel: Didn't have one assist in the game but like I mentioned earlier his ball handling was the best that I have seen from him yet. That is huge when facing the press going forward. The ice in veins when shooting those free throws late...loved it!

All of these individual improvements not to mention Kentan's progression over the past few weeks, coupled with how we have won and lost games during past few weeks really has me thinking we are starting to get in a groove, and that we will continue to improve as a team.

I think we are set for a big run going forward!

 

[dogpause]

Excellent post.

 

[JonnyRI]

Damn. Just when my irrational confidence in this team was gone, this post planted it back in my mind. A few more games (no, a few more games where we continue to improve, not just plateau) like this though before we can start dreaming of March.

 

[willie99]

Great work, my description would be much shorter.

It's just time doing it's thing

 

[djct1999]

Amazing how 15 minutes of intense defense and offense execution changes the psyche of this board. Hopefully it has a similar affect on the team. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. A groove? Really? I am sure quite a few of us on here, me included, thought the season was on the brink when Florida went on that 8-0 run to start the second half. I gladly admit that this team's resolve shocked me and I pray this helps catapult a great run filled with much of what we saw the last 15 mins, but all our ills are not cured. Not even close. Great win in more ways than one. But we are far from being in a groove. Don't get me re-engaged in all that was wrong with the Temple game.

 

[dogpause]

Maybe, but the Temple game showed this team's heart even if the execution was not good enough to win.

 

[Palatine]

The offense is sputtering forwards in lurches but it is (seemly) beginning to improve. The tools are there for a good offense, fingers crossed.

 

[3rdbass]

I have to disagree with two points op. OC dribbling looks about the same high dribbles to only his right but like his shot he is more assertive with them and no hesitation. Also, Rodney has been playing great on the ball D. He is really getting into his man. His problems are off the ball were he is getting lost.

 

[Scot-e]

We are a team that peaks in March- that's all fine and good but you have to win enough games to get a ticket- hopefully this is the start to a run that at least gets us invited or allows us to improve enough to win the AAC tournament. I'm in.

 

[husky91]

Someone posted it earlier. Brimah played 5 good minutes, not 35. He was awful in the 1st half. He only scored 3 points on a dunk and foul shot. He has 8 points against Duke, Tex and Florida. He did rebound much better late which was encouraging.

His 1st defense gave up more than 3 points. I can't believe he was complaining about his blocks statistic. What a joke.

How about this stat Brimah 1. That's how many times you've scored 10+ against top 25 teams.

 

[mauconnfan]

Someone posted it earlier. Brimah played 5 good minutes, not 35. He was awful in the 1st half. He only scored 3 points on a dunk and foul shot. He has 8 points against Duke, Tex and Florida. He did rebound much better late which was encouraging.

His 1st defense gave up more than 3 points. I can't believe he was complaining about his blocks statistic. What a joke.

How about this stat Brimah 1. That's how many times you've scored 10+ against top 25 teams.

Wow not sure where this venom came from. And the 5 minutes is well off the mark. He played solid through our run to the finish (minus that awful attempt at taking a charge baseline in the last minute or so on Walker) so a good 10-12 minutes and like it or not, we can say that about a lot of the guys who were on the court in Husky uniforms. He has a right to question a scorers stat when he knows what he did. It was obvious he had more than 2, he had those down the stretch. If he gets 3 pts, 10 rebounds and owns that pain like he did I could care less about getting 10 or more points - we won! Pretty tough time to hammer Brimah

 

[CAHUSKY]

Wow not sure where this venom came from.

It comes from him being a . put him on ignore and your time on the boneyard will improve significantly.

 

[Gurleyman]

Wow not sure where this venom came from. And the 5 minutes is well off the mark. He played solid through our run to the finish (minus that awful attempt at taking a charge baseline in the last minute or so on Walker) so a good 10-12 minutes and like it or not, we can say that about a lot of the guys who were on the court in Husky uniforms. He has a right to question a scorers stat when he knows what he did. It was obvious he had more than 2, he had those down the stretch. If he gets 3 pts, 10 rebounds and owns that pain like he did I could care less about getting 10 or more points - we won! Pretty tough time to hammer Brimah

Walker jumped into his body - AB wasn't set, so Walker did a good job drawing the foul by initiating contact. But I don't think AB was trying to draw a charge so much as he was stuck absorbing contact. Either way, it was good for us since a) Walker didn't focus on finishing since he sensed Brimah's presence and b) he's a terrible foul shooter and missed both. If we don't have Brimah on the floor, he probably has the confidence to go right to the rim (or shoot a short baseline floater) and not default to trying to draw a foul.

AB is our defensive anchor/QB (see quote from TSam below) and complaining about his points is like complaining about Ricky's in 1999. Some days he'll get you some unexpectedly, but it's not his role. UF scored 22 in the second half and Brimah played every minute (15 in the last 18 minutes after a quick start). Ergo, he played a great half.

“It was loud in there, we couldn’t hear the big guys calling out which defensive play to use. We just grinded it out. We were resilient. We went down (13), we didn’t lose our heads or anything, we just kept our composure.”

 

[James]

Amazing how 15 minutes of intense defense and offense execution changes the psyche of this board. Hopefully it has a similar affect on the team. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. A groove? Really? I am sure quite a few of us on here, me included, thought the season was on the brink when Florida went on that 8-0 run to start the second half. I gladly admit that this team's resolve shocked me and I pray this helps catapult a great run filled with much of what we saw the last 15 mins, but all our ills are not cured. Not even close. Great win in more ways than one. But we are far from being in a groove. Don't get me re-engaged in all that was wrong with the Temple game.

all that went wrong? oh you mean when our star player got injured? the catalyst on both ends? in a game we clearly could have won ...

 

[husky91]

Haha clown.

I can't Brimah has the audacity to complain about individual stats when he's been virtually invisible against good teams for 2 seasons.

Go to the NBA, I could care less, he'll be a bigger bust than Thabeet and Lamb

It comes from him being a . put him on ignore and your time on the boneyard will improve significantly.

 

[Pudge]

I don't care if they go on to the NBA. They ARE my Team for awhile & I love Amida Brimah's story & his personality. He is a key component of THIS Team; and the 2014 NC.

F--- you

 

[Fishy]

I don't think this team is in any sort of groove - this team is anti-groove.

They've yet to put together a complete game, let alone any sort of trend over multiple games.

They tend to operate in complete disfunction for a stretch, fall behind, eventually tighten up the defense and then either make it back (Florida, Dayton) or not (WV, Texas, Yale, Duke, Temple). Twelve games in, the opposition has still outscored UConn in the first half.

Yesterday was a must-win and they won - so far, so good. But now they have a four game stretch where they really have to go 4-0 or 3-1. Do that and we can say they're in a groove.

 

[djct1999]

all that went wrong? oh you mean when our star player got injured? the catalyst on both ends? in a game we clearly could have won ...

yep, that game.

 

[husky91]

You're fin' clueless. Why would Brimah be complaining about an individual statistic if he didn't care about things like the NBA. Get a clue.

Hey Brimah, here's another individual stat -- 2 points and 5 rebounds in the Final 4, both games. 25 minutes and 8 fouls.

Just celebrate the win.

I don't care if they go on to the NBA. They ARE my Team for awhile & I love Amida Brimah's story & his personality. He is a key component of THIS Team; and the 2014 NC.

F--- you

 

[husky91]

Go reread the threads genius, go find one that doesn't point to FTs being the reason for the L. And we shot better than FL did yesterday. Just be freaking consistent. This thread is ridiculous. Groove? We hit some 3s, made FTs and the other team missed 12 FTs. The frontcourt scored 7 points.

Isn't a "groove" after at least 2-3 consistent things.

yep, that game.

 

[imno1]

I don't think this team is in any sort of groove - this team is anti-groove.

They've yet to put together a complete game, let alone any sort of trend over multiple games.

They tend to operate in complete disfunction for a stretch, fall behind, eventually tighten up the defense and then either make it back (Florida, Dayton) or not (WV, Texas, Yale, Duke, Temple). Twelve games in, the opposition has still outscored UConn in the first half.

Yesterday was a must-win and they won - so far, so good. But now they have a four game stretch where they really have to go 4-0 or 3-1. Do that and we can say they're in a groove.

They do tend to make watching every game a fun ride if you like roller coasters.

 

[uconn_jack]

Well, I'm pretty sure Brimah did have more than just two blocks, that seems to be the one stat that sometimes gets under counted in games. I don't think he was complaining so much as he was surprised he was only credited for two. He may not have scored much, but he is starting to get doubled sometimes when he gets the ball, so that's a good thing. Will need to get stronger and smarter to be able to handle that and learn how to kick it out when need be. The stat I liked from him this game and the one he should be most proud of are the 10 rebounds, this is the most important thing for him to build on.

I think you are being very hard on someone two months into his sophmore year, someone who has only been playing organized ball for a few years and who was out of commission this summer with surgery and couldn't work on his game. Yes he is still very raw, but this kid had grown significantly over the past year from when we first saw him. Add to it that he has a genuine passion for the game, is very vocal and a great attitude, and he is a keeper. He is a smart kid, and I am sure his basketball IQ will continue to grow. If he can get stronger and be able to control that long body of his a little better, he should have a very high ceiling.

 

[AfgHusky15]

I don't think this team is in any sort of groove - this team is anti-groove.

They've yet to put together a complete game, let alone any sort of trend over multiple games.

They tend to operate in complete disfunction for a stretch, fall behind, eventually tighten up the defense and then either make it back (Florida, Dayton) or not (WV, Texas, Yale, Duke, Temple). Twelve games in, the opposition has still outscored UConn in the first half.

Yesterday was a must-win and they won - so far, so good. But now they have a four game stretch where they really have to go 4-0 or 3-1. Do that and we can say they're in a groove.

I agree with you that they have yet to put together a complete game, and that is what has me thinking that we are due to bust out, something Ollie has emphasized over the past few weeks.

Since the Coppin State game, we have yet to put together a complete game, and what are the results:

- Played Duke better than anyone else, including #2 Wisconsin at Wisconsin, and when we played Duke it was Omar's first game back in which he played very little. Its clear already Calhoun is an important piece to this team, and he is only going to improve going forward.

- Beat a very good Columbia team by a wider margin than Kentucky

- Team minus Boat almost beat a very good Temple team that is already in its groove.

So once the team puts a complete game together we well be a very good team and a very very tough out in March.

My point is watching the individual growth of the players over the past few weeks (Kentan's career high game, first double double, Terrance going 6-6 from the line making clutch free throws late and beating the press, Boat making clutch free throws late in the game, Brimah having 10 boards against a big athletic team (not going to menton is 40 point outburst going 13-13 from the field and 16-18 from the line), Purvis knocking down threes, OMAR Coming!)as well improving team chemistry it is clear the team is getting better and only starting to hit its groove.

It is easy to say a team is in a groove when they win 4-5 games in a row, but watching these past few weeks its clear we are improving, and are about to go on a strong run.

March is still a few months away, and I am very confident that by that time we will be able to consistently play complete games. As uconn fans we know better than any other fan base that March is the only month that matters.

 

[uconn_jack]

"Getting into a groove" might be a little strong, but I am starting to see flashes of what they can be when they are all healthy. Keep in mind that this team STILL has not played a game with all their key rotation guys healthy or available, makes it very hard for a team to get comfortable and effective if their roles, especially with three key starters having moved on. With Omar making some shots and playing more aggressively and Purvis starting to play within himself a little better, I think they will really start to gel over the coming month.

 

[CTBasketball]

I would say we went on a groove in the second half. That's about it.