That hurt

[superjohn]

This one hurts because it was so winnable. With Daniels I have no doubt we win and Bazz picked the wrong time to have his worst game. Even a decent performance by Bazz or Boat and we win. It also sucks because Bazz lost conference player of the year to Kilpatrick.

 

[scotty0330]

Yup Cincinnati record alone puts his comfortably ahead of Bazz at this point

 

[kelde1wd]

Cinch defense was good and we missed shots. Bazz with an off game and no DD. We still had a chance. Regular season title is gone now but we can still make some postseason noise. Finish strong, show well in conference tourney, get a good NCAA seed, and take no prisoners.

 

[OkaForPrez]

Credit Cinci or taking bazz away. Switching screens took away his penetration. The bigs were able to effectively challenge his shot on the mismatches.

Kromah/Giffeye played so well that I'm not sure we would have been too much better with Deandre on the floor.

 

[mauconnfan]

Nah it's on UConn …….some bad possessions and some bad shots………i have no credit for Cincy on this one it's ours to win!

 

[Hi-Low]

Painful....once Cincy got the lead you knew they weren't giving it back. Shots didn't fall....Cincy guards the 3 well. Boat drove straight into 3 guys at the basket too much when we had the lead, he leads a lot to be desired when primary ball handler.

 

[boog204]

Cinci is a really good defensive team and we just never had any rhythm in the 2nd half. Our shot selection got pretty poor down the stretch and I'm still trying to figure out why Boat passed up a good look on that last possession. Seemed like an open 3 to me, he hesitated and then Giff had to force one.

 

[BearJWS]

Blew it in the 2nd half. Bazz took some bad shots, but he seemed to be the only aggressive one in 2nd. Kromah & Giffey were aggressive in the first half, but in the 2nd half, no one else stepped up. Kromah was a layup machine in the first half.

Brimah was solid. Thought he had more rebounds & blocks than given credit for. His last foul was bogus, thankfully Cinci missed both foul shots. Wish he got more lobs near the rim, since he seems to be solid there. Oh well...

 

[uconnforlife]

We weren't gonna beat a top 10 team on the road with our best player having his worst game of the season and one of our 3 best players not playing....just wasn't gonna happen

 

[joober jones]

Nolan can't breathe without getting called for a foul. Especially on the one play where he didn't even move and 3 Cincinnati guys just flopped around. Should've been an offensive rebound and a jam. Instead it was foul #2.

 

[The Viking]

I didnt' realize just how bad Napier was in this game until I saw the box score. 5-19, 2-12 from 3's dear god. Only 2 rebounds and 3 assists.

If he's just "meh" and not "horrific" we easily win.

Kilpatrick is the best player in the conference, what a performance. We needed a Ricky Moore tonight to stop him.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

No DD, not much of a bench, tough opponent at home, and a close game. Sophomore coach too. What hurts is that it'll affect seeding. If it were old BE, I'd accept it as proof that the team is ' tough enough' and then remember that tough teams often get bounced earlier in the NCAA tourney.

 

[Danzz]

Cinch defense was good and we missed shots. Bazz with an off game and no DD. We still had a chance. Regular season title is gone now but we can still make some postseason noise. Finish strong, show well in conference tourney, get a good NCAA seed, and take no prisoners.

We missed shots because they played great perimeter defense and were not going to let Bazz beat them. Sometimes you just have to tip your hat to the other team. We are still in good shape but all the Freescooter types will be showing up until our next win.

 

[SixRings]

Winnable game lost in the last 6 minutes. Love him but Bazz played some street ball at times.

 

[mauconnfan]

We missed shots because they played great perimeter defense and were not going to let Bazz beat them. Sometimes you just have to tip your hat to the other team. We are still in good shape but all the Freescooter types will be showing up until our next win.

I like where we are but they're defense to me was nothing special……Bazz missed shots and actually took a couple bad ones…….Boat had a wide open look and ins tea djuked with the ball instead of shooting………UConn's better I have no doubt…..Kilpatrick can't play better period and we still had a W in our hands…….next time its ours!

 

[gtcam]

This one hurts because it was so winnable. With Daniels I have no doubt we win and Bazz picked the wrong time to have his worst game. Even a decent performance by Bazz or Boat and we win. It also sucks because Bazz lost conference player of the year to Kilpatrick.

I thought the voted POY after season, do we not see Cinci again?
It was a tough loss but that is a real tough place to play and Cinci will say UCONN played them the toughest
We left too many points at the ft line, missed 4 breakaway layups and the palming call as well as the breakaway where Giffs whiffed at the ball and Boat gave up were critical plays

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Nah it's on UConn …….some bad possessions and some bad shots………i have no credit for Cincy on this one it's ours to win!

Agreed. I give them credit for the winning streak they're on but that is a raggedy team that UConn should have beaten.

 

[SaeHusky]

Bazz played the whole 2nd half - he clearly could have used a breather. I thought Samuel looked good in his brief appearance in the 1st half. Overall we came up a little short on a night when our best player had his worst shooting game and our 2nd best player was injured

 

[Kitaman]

Just couldn't finish. Bazz looked winded and seemed to be pressing. Great effort but it hurts in that we lost (we didn't get beat). Got to finish now, it's February. No excuses.

 

[jbdphi]

Kromah/Giffeye played so well that I'm not sure we would have been too much better with Deandre on the floor.

Completely agree with this. If we had Daniels you take away critical minutes / stats for these other two.

 

[PAHusky]

Good effort overall. Like what I saw from Kromah obviously, Giffey played well, Samuels and Facey put in decent shifts in their limited minutes and Brimah showed some more progress. Boat's game was a microcosm of his entire season; sometimes totally passive, sometimes aggressive (even too aggressive at times), some nice shots, some bad takes to the rim, a big three towards the end and then a bonehead play to seal the game. As much as it pains me to say it, this loss falls in large part of Bazz. I'm one of the first to heap praises on him, and everyone has a bad game, but we could really, really have used even a decent performance by him tonight. He had a few nice drives but 2-12 from three is horrific, especially when you consider one of those was the first shot of the game and a lot of those were forced, early in the shot clock, barely touching the rim, straight up air balls or some combination thereof. I thought everyone else, with the exception of maybe Boat, played to their potential or close to it, which is a large part of why we were up the entire game. We really needed Bazz to step up in a big way a few times in the second half and he didn't. He'll bounce back. Tough loss. Losing to SMU and Houston was frustrating, this one was arguably rougher. Would have looked really good to have beaten a top ten team on the road. Still a lot of season left though, and we played well for a large portion of the game

 

[Jaybo]

Down two bazz takes what look to me like a wide open three and misses, we were only down two didn't need the three,then giffs last three point shot was ugly, overall good game in terms off not being blown out on the road to the number seven ranked team in the country,but it just feels like we left a little to much on the table.

 

[mauconnfan]

Giffs 3 was ugly but almost went in……he was set up for ugly by Boat though who needed to shoot it while open instead of dribbling…….if not because he was open then because they needed time to rebound the ball……..

Not on Boat though Jackson may have been hovering a little closer than we think and he closes fast with his length.

 

[UConnDad]

Bazz usually makes more 3 pt. attempts but I felt some of them were from much deeper than he normally takes them. Always wondered about that jump back kick form but when they're going in who cares. We should have won. Last 5 1/2 minutes we didn't play well.

 

[David 76]

We got away from what had worked in the first half. But I have no doubt we are the better team. With Daniels back and a better game from Shabazz, we are good.