That's what an exhausted team looks like

[ctchamps]

i don't know if it was fatigue, confusion, puckering, or whatever, but the team that was firing on all cylinders in the first half had no answers in the second. and Houston just poured it on with faster, stronger, and more physical play, especially on the perimeter. Pitino would use the same tactic against uconn's guards and Shabazz and Boathright had similar games.

Houston adjusted, and Uconn wasn't able to counter.

Enoch had 6 quick points in the first half. did he play in the second?
I'm not typically an AB basher, but last night was not his best game. He made Myer(sp) look like an All-American lottery pick.

We can joke about Calhoun's notorious quick hook, but Ollie needs to think about employing that tactic.

He gave AB quick hooks throughout the game. He's settled on keeping AB at the end of games to minimize opposing guards from driving into the lane and scoring. If you watch Steve, he plants himself in the post, seldom moving his feet to block shots. The result is either a foul or an easy layup by opposing quick players.

This was arguably Amida's worse game this season and that includes those games in which he fouled out quickly. It's a shame because this was a winnable game. But he wasn't alone. Pretty much everyone outside of Steve played below their average game particularly on offense. They had a lot of decent looks that they missed. Part of it is the pressure they put on themselves. This was an important game. Part of it is they have the type of personalities that tend to struggle when things start going wrong (except Vital imo) and a good part of it is fatigue both mental and physical.

I don't care what age we are, stress applied to our bodies impacts the bodies ability to perform and it's cumulative. It just the older we get the quicker the impact. But there is a threshold for everyone. Look at Nadal or Tiger. They were young when the stress caught up with them. These kids have played a lot of minutes. They've had to travel a lot. The argument regarding SMU having only six players is valid only if you conveniently overlook that those six players are above average for the positions they play. The primary six KO has to utilize are not of equal caliber. As good as Christian and Vance have been, and as good as the experience both are getting to help them in the future, I believe that if those two had season ending injuries instead of Terry and Alterique, the results would have turned out better this season because they are better players.

I strongly believe Jalen would not be as tired at this point of the season if Alterique was available as opposed to Christian. I'm obviously conjecturing and I want to make it clear that I love a player like Christian who is the epitome of gritty and plucky, but he is a back up type player and Alterique came in with star quality.

 

[AntG168]

Dude, a coaching masterpiece? Team won 20 games that season with Napier, Boat, Daniels, Giffey and a healthy Calhoun. Settle down.

It was an awesome job and you give KO credit for keeping the program together but come on they were good but a borderline NCAA team.

The title season is where Ollie gets his due and he gets credit for that no question asked.

NIT with Boat and company was a massive fail.

2nd round loss last season was an underachievement.

Missing the NIT this season is a massive underachievement.

I'm not in the fire Ollie camp but the trajectory of the program is doing down and it's not entirely based off of the W/L but the way we play. Little to no offensive continuity, scoring draughts, constantly falling behind and senior bigs who still can't box out.

Open your eyes.

Yes masterpiece. Calhoun did worse the year before with better talent. And v 20 wins in that big East was a great achievement. Who had them winning 20 games?

 

[Mots010]

Yes masterpiece. Calhoun did worse the year before with better talent. And v 20 wins in that big East was a great achievement. Who had them winning 20 games?

And recall that team was gutted by injuries at the end of the year. They lost Napier for a few, and I think a few others missed games towards the end. They lost a few games down the stretch missing some players, and still would have made the tourney if they were eligible.

My biggest issue with Ollie, is can he have this team ready to go with defined roles on day one next year? What happened to start this season was inexcusable. The injuries derailed things, but no way this team should have looked as bad as it did to start this season against Wagner and Northeastern. It looked like our guys just met each other a few hours before the game started.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Yes masterpiece. Calhoun did worse the year before with better talent. And v 20 wins in that big East was a great achievement. Who had them winning 20 games?

Maybe it's your expectations that need to be adjusted?

In Ollie's "masterpiece" UConn was 20-10 (10-8) with a KenPom rating of 49 and an RPI of 47 in 2012/2013.

Calhoun did worse in 2011/2012? UConn was 20-14 (with the 8th toughest SOS) and had a KenPom rating of 38 and an RPI of 33.

I consider myself pretty moderate when it comes to the Ollie spectrum, but the Ollie is a doing a good job crowd is equally annoying as the fire Ollie crowd.

The past 3 seasons have been nowhere near UConn standards. NIT, 2nd Round Loss and no postseason. We may have had some lack of depth but we certainly have had the talent to perform better than we have.

 

[Travelman6]

This has been a very depressing year. That was a big game (all things considered) and for a half, Uconn acted like it was....I am not really sure what happened in the second half. Well, lack of defensive boards and more poor shooting, but still.... But it is not very common for a good team to blow a lead like that, when they are up at least a dozen (39-27). To a team that considers itself good, it might happen once a year that you blow a double digit lead, MAYBE twice. Uconn has had a knack for that.

 

[ctchamps]

Yes masterpiece. Calhoun did worse the year before with better talent. And v 20 wins in that big East was a great achievement. Who had them winning 20 games?

How silly of you. Those twenty wins aren't much of an achievement. KO almost got the complete roster back from the prior season. He only lost Andre Drummond and Jeremy Lamb to the NBA, Alex Oriakhi, Roscoe Smith and most importantly Michael Bradley to transfers and Kyle Bailey, P.J. Cochrane and Ethan Waite to graduation.

We still had a junior Enosch Wolf and junior Tyler Olander returning so we didn't need significant bigs to replace Drummond and Oriakhi. And thus anyone arguing the APR sanction and restrictions mattered are extremely foolish particularly since those restrictions did not interfere with KO's ability to recruit Phil Nolan and Leon Tolksdorf.

You have to give @ConnHuskBask credit for observing that the glass KO started with was mostly full when so many of us look at those who left and believe idiotically that the program lost a significant number of important players and the glass was significantly empty.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

How silly of you. Those twenty wins aren't much of an achievement. KO almost got the complete roster back from the prior season. He only lost Andre Drummond and Jeremy Lamb to the NBA, Alex Oriakhi, Roscoe Smith and most importantly Michael Bradley to transfers and Kyle Bailey, P.J. Cochrane and Ethan Waite to graduation.

We still had a junior Enosch Wolf and junior Tyler Olander returning so we didn't need significant bigs to replace Drummond and Oriakhi. And thus anyone arguing the APR sanction and restrictions mattered are extremely foolish particularly since those restrictions did not interfere with KO's ability to recruit Phil Nolan and Leon Tolksdorf.

You have to give @ConnHuskBask credit for observing that the glass KO started with was mostly full when so many of us look at those who left and believe idiotically that the program lost a significant number of important players and the glass was significantly empty.

If @AntG168 is going to proclaim that he did better than Calhoun, it's just flat out untrue.

For all the players that left the 2011/2012 team, the 2012/2013 still had a lot of talent:

Junior Napier, Sophomore Boatright, Sophomore Daniels, Junior Giffey, Freshman (healthy) Calhoun.

KO did a nice job keeping the program moving forward, but that was an NIT (had they been eligible) team, plain and simple.

I'll reiterate that I still think KO is the man for the job, but aside Napier morphing into the best player in college basketball in 2013/2014, we haven't been able to run consistent offense, we start games poorly, we make dumb plays over and over again, our bigs can't box out and when we are faced with in game adversity we usually fall apart.

The talent the past few years isn't classic UConn, that's a given and can be attributed to the ban and scholarship reductions, but there is absolutely enough talent that 1 NCAA tourney appearance in that time span is an indication of poor coaching. We're getting worked over in an AAC schedule yearly. I think the only reason that all of us aren't recognizing the huge issue is that we are feasting on AAC dredges, where as putting together a few 12 win seasons in the old Big East would have turned some heads.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

Jalen was gasping for air within the first 7-8 minutes of the game. He really needs to work on his cardio in the off season.

I believe that Jalen was sick last week and looked like he was not really better to me. He seemed sluggish from the get go last night. His 3 point airball at the end of the game was not something we have seen from Jalen before that I recall. However, he did slam one on a fast break. I could be wrong for sure, but he did not seem to have his usual energy level.

 

[tykurez]

It can be both.

They played like collective garbage for the entire 2nd half. Purvis had a horrific game. Looked like he didn't want the touch the ball.

Jalen is playing 39.9 minutes a game. He also tweaked something in the second half.

Ollie did not do a good job adjusting to Houstons 2nd half game plan.

So they all had a poor 20 minutes and unfortunately on the road against a decent team, that's going to get you a loss.

But they can also be mentally and physically exhausted from only carrying 6-7 scholarship players since November. If you extrapolate any more from this season other than the fact that they've had a tremendous amount of bad fortune and are being forced to give guys 30 minutes a game that might only get 10 or 15 ... then you need to settle down.

 

[ctchamps]

If @AntG168 is going to proclaim that he did better than Calhoun, it's just flat out untrue.

For all the players that left the 2011/2012 team, the 2012/2013 still had a lot of talent:

Junior Napier, Sophomore Boatright, Sophomore Daniels, Junior Giffey, Freshman (healthy) Calhoun.

KO did a nice job keeping the program moving forward, but that was an NIT (had they been eligible) team, plain and simple.

I'll reiterate that I still think KO is the man for the job, but aside Napier morphing into the best player in college basketball in 2013/2014, we haven't been able to run consistent offense, we start games poorly, we make dumb plays over and over again, our bigs can't box out and when we are faced with in game adversity we usually fall apart.

The talent the past few years isn't classic UConn, that's a given and can be attributed to the ban and scholarship reductions, but there is absolutely enough talent that 1 NCAA tourney appearance in that time span is an indication of poor coaching. We're getting worked over in an AAC schedule yearly. I think the only reason that all of us aren't recognizing the huge issue is that we are feasting on AAC dredges, where as putting together a few 12 win seasons in the old Big East would have turned some heads.

I think missing a good player at the five position has severely handicapped KO and thus my ability to assess how good of a coach KO really is. Initially it was the APR. But when he finally was able to recruit two players who I felt were good enough for me to make any determination what type of coach KO could be, one player, Juwan suffered his second ACL and the other player, Zach, had to be cut loose. So I hear you on the results of the teams and they bother me as much as I believe they bother you, but I wish these circumstance hadn't happened so that I could make what I consider a proper evaluation of KO, his ability to develop players and his ability to coach games with decent players.

 

[QDOG5]

How bout we go with UConn is a .500 team with .500 talent. Exhaustion, Brimah, Rodney, freshman etc. are all part of the bigger picture that this is a mediocre team. They've been trending upward in the second half of the season but are nonetheless not talented enough to do great things. Very frustrating but it is foolhardy to think this squad is going to do something special at the end of the season. I'll be happy with a .500 record and an NIT invite.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Zone is a problem because it makes it harder for our poor-rebounding team to rebound.

Umm...what? Compared to having our center standing on the 3 point line like last night, guarding a big who can shoot? Honestly when Brimah is in, he should never move more the 6 feet from the basket.

 

[AntG168]

If @AntG168 is going to proclaim that he did better than Calhoun, it's just flat out untrue.

For all the players that left the 2011/2012 team, the 2012/2013 still had a lot of talent:

Junior Napier, Sophomore Boatright, Sophomore Daniels, Junior Giffey, Freshman (healthy) Calhoun.

KO did a nice job keeping the program moving forward, but that was an NIT (had they been eligible) team, plain and simple.

I'll reiterate that I still think KO is the man for the job, but aside Napier morphing into the best player in college basketball in 2013/2014, we haven't been able to run consistent offense, we start games poorly, we make dumb plays over and over again, our bigs can't box out and when we are faced with in game adversity we usually fall apart.

The talent the past few years isn't classic UConn, that's a given and can be attributed to the ban and scholarship reductions, but there is absolutely enough talent that 1 NCAA tourney appearance in that time span is an indication of poor coaching. We're getting worked over in an AAC schedule yearly. I think the only reason that all of us aren't recognizing the huge issue is that we are feasting on AAC dredges, where as putting together a few 12 win seasons in the old Big East would have turned some heads.

Què¿? Remembering history is important here. DeAndre Daniels and Niels Giffey were not viewed as they are viewed now at the start of the 2012 season. Going into that season we expected to have an talented but irratic shabazz who wasn't a leader, and a young athletic yet inconsistent boat. Ollie coached those kids up. That's where your failing to give him credit. Going into the season that team wasn't supposed to be that good in that big East. Ollie had those guys beating top 25 teams knowing they had no hope of the tourney. You undersellimg how big of an accomplishment that was. Calhoun had a loaded squad with tourney aspirations and did slightly better by the numbers, but his team underacheived while Ollie's overachieved

 

[HuskyHawk]

Maybe it's your expectations that need to be adjusted?

In Ollie's "masterpiece" UConn was 20-10 (10-8) with a KenPom rating of 49 and an RPI of 47 in 2012/2013.

Calhoun did worse in 2011/2012? UConn was 20-14 (with the 8th toughest SOS) and had a KenPom rating of 38 and an RPI of 33.

I consider myself pretty moderate when it comes to the Ollie spectrum, but the Ollie is a doing a good job crowd is equally annoying as the fire Ollie crowd.

The past 3 seasons have been nowhere near UConn standards. NIT, 2nd Round Loss and no postseason. We may have had some lack of depth but we certainly have had the talent to perform better than we have.

And that season of Calhoun's was in his bottom 5 or so at UConn in terms of coaching. So doing worse than that isn't a "masterpiece". It's what I would call "mediocre". This season isn't even mediocre.

 

[AntG168]

It can be both.

They played like collective garbage for the entire 2nd half. Purvis had a horrific game. Looked like he didn't want the touch the ball.

Jalen is playing 39.9 minutes a game. He also tweaked something in the second half.

Ollie did not do a good job adjusting to Houstons 2nd half game plan.

So they all had a poor 20 minutes and unfortunately on the road against a decent team, that's going to get you a loss.

But they can also be mentally and physically exhausted from only carrying 6-7 scholarship players since November. If you extrapolate any more from this season other than the fact that they've had a tremendous amount of bad fortune and are being forced to give guys 30 minutes a game that might only get 10 or 15 ... then you need to settle down.

And another false claim. That was not an NIT team
They would have been headed to the tourney

 

[AntG168]

And that season of Calhoun's was in his bottom 5 or so at UConn in terms of coaching. So doing worse than that isn't a "masterpiece". It's what I would call "mediocre". This season isn't even mediocre.

Yes in damn near 30 years. Give KO 30 years and I'm sure this season will be his worst by far

 

[HuskyHawk]

Yes in damn near 30 years. Give KO 30 years and I'm sure this season will be his worst by far

You missed the whole point. The season you called a "masterpiece" wasn't as good (with mostly the same players) as one by Calhoun I said was among his five worst.

I am not in the "fire Ollie" camp, and anyone who is should have their head examined. But holy crap people, he isn't setting the world on fire. Not having this team, preseason top 20 (and justifiably so) ready to play two cupcakes to start the season is simply unforgivable. I'm glad he finally got them to play better, but why is it always so short lived? Why can't they be consistently good under Ollie? My view at this point is that 2014 is the outlier, it's the aberration. He's gotten less than he should have out of his talent in every other season.

 

[AntG168]

You missed the whole point. The season you called a "masterpiece" wasn't as good (with mostly the same players) as one by Calhoun I said was among his five worst.

I am not in the "fire Ollie" camp, and anyone who is should have their head examined. But holy crap people, he isn't setting the world on fire. Not having this team, preseason top 20 (and justifiably so) ready to play two cupcakes to start the season is simply unforgivable. I'm glad he finally got them to play better, but why is it always so short lived? Why can't they be consistently good under Ollie? My view at this point is that 2014 is the outlier, it's the aberration. He's gotten less than he should have out of his talent in every other season.

I understand we agree on most points. My disagreement comes when you say "mostly with the same players" that's untrue. He lost his entire front court, along with the best player in Jeremy lamb. Those are major subtractions

 

[AntG168]

You missed the whole point. The season you called a "masterpiece" wasn't as good (with mostly the same players) as one by Calhoun I said was among his five worst.

I am not in the "fire Ollie" camp, and anyone who is should have their head examined. But holy crap people, he isn't setting the world on fire. Not having this team, preseason top 20 (and justifiably so) ready to play two cupcakes to start the season is simply unforgivable. I'm glad he finally got them to play better, but why is it always so short lived? Why can't they be consistently good under Ollie? My view at this point is that 2014 is the outlier, it's the aberration. He's gotten less than he should have out of his talent in every other season.

All in all Ollie has been good
But I agree with you he can be better....we NEED him to be better. But I just think it's unfair to subtract his 2 best years and judge him solely on the other 3

 

[Marty Jackson]

He gave AB quick hooks throughout the game. He's settled on keeping AB at the end of games to minimize opposing guards from driving into the lane and scoring. If you watch Steve, he plants himself in the post, seldom moving his feet to block shots. The result is either a foul or an easy layup by opposing quick players.

This was arguably Amida's worse game this season and that includes those games in which he fouled out quickly. It's a shame because this was a winnable game. But he wasn't alone. Pretty much everyone outside of Steve played below their average game particularly on offense. They had a lot of decent looks that they missed. Part of it is the pressure they put on themselves. This was an important game. Part of it is they have the type of personalities that tend to struggle when things start going wrong (except Vital imo) and a good part of it is fatigue both mental and physical.

I don't care what age we are, stress applied to our bodies impacts the bodies ability to perform and it's cumulative. It just the older we get the quicker the impact. But there is a threshold for everyone. Look at Nadal or Tiger. They were young when the stress caught up with them. These kids have played a lot of minutes. They've had to travel a lot. The argument regarding SMU having only six players is valid only if you conveniently overlook that those six players are above average for the positions they play. The primary six KO has to utilize are not of equal caliber. As good as Christian and Vance have been, and as good as the experience both are getting to help them in the future, I believe that if those two had season ending injuries instead of Terry and Alterique, the results would have turned out better this season because they are better players.

I strongly believe Jalen would not be as tired at this point of the season if Alterique was available as opposed to Christian. I'm obviously conjecturing and I want to make it clear that I love a player like Christian who is the epitome of gritty and plucky, but he is a back up type player and Alterique came in with star quality.

very fair...
I think that had you switched Kemba or even Shabazz with Jalen, the outcome may have been different.
I'm not making this a comparison of ability other than to say, Kemba and Shabazz had an ability to take the team on their back and carry them. They refused to lose. Whether it was making those on the floor better, or taking the ball into their own hands, there was a confidence in them that they were not going to lose. I think Gray on Houston showed that last night. Tough first half, kept his team close, started to feel it, and then boom!

We've seen flashes of that from Jalen, but a game like last night is where we didn't see it (for what ever reason)... Jalen needs to be that player every night. I think he'll get there, but last night should be an example of him not being that leader.
Until he does, we're going to see these stretches of pure listlessness.

 

[tjc1888]

You missed the whole point. The season you called a "masterpiece" wasn't as good (with mostly the same players) as one by Calhoun I said was among his five worst.

I am not in the "fire Ollie" camp, and anyone who is should have their head examined. But holy crap people, he isn't setting the world on fire. Not having this team, preseason top 20 (and justifiably so) ready to play two cupcakes to start the season is simply unforgivable. I'm glad he finally got them to play better, but why is it always so short lived? Why can't they be consistently good under Ollie? My view at this point is that 2014 is the outlier, it's the aberration. He's gotten less than he should have out of his talent in every other season.

Same players???? LOL. They lost Drummond, AO, Jeremy Lamb and Roscoe Smith.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

So you're saying they weren't tired for the first 20 minutes, had 15 minutes of rest at halftime, and then were suddenly tired?

UConn played great from minutes 1-20, and then Houston erased a 10-point deficit in 6 minutes. Being tired doesn't add up here.

Wouldn't it make sense for fatigue to kick in the deeper the game goes? More energy in the first 20 minutes, less in the last 20 minutes makes sense to me.

This team is short-handed and it is catching up to them. Mental mistakes and shots that fall just short are often signs of fatigue.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

very fair...
I think that had you switched Kemba or even Shabazz with Jalen, the outcome may have been different.
I'm not making this a comparison of ability other than to say, Kemba and Shabazz had an ability to take the team on their back and carry them. They refused to lose. Whether it was making those on the floor better, or taking the ball into their own hands, there was a confidence in them that they were not going to lose. I think Gray on Houston showed that last night. Tough first half, kept his team close, started to feel it, and then boom!

We've seen flashes of that from Jalen, but a game like last night is where we didn't see it (for what ever reason)... Jalen needs to be that player every night. I think he'll get there, but last night should be an example of him not being that leader.
Until he does, we're going to see these stretches of pure listlessness.

I think third year Jalen will be even better. Kemba and Bazz were much better in year 3 than they were in years 1 and 2. Bazz lead us to a title as a Senior. I think Jalen is farther along than Bazz at this point of their respective careers. That's not to say Jalen will be better, but he has the time to make that possible. Bazz had that killer-we-aren't-losing ability. Jalen may never quite get to Bazz's level in that regard, but again this is just his second season.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Same players???? LOL. They lost Drummond, AO, Jeremy Lamb and Roscoe Smith.

I didn't mean "same players" exactly, but same level of talent. Napier and Daniels were much improved, as was Boatright. The 11-12 team may have been a little better, but Drummond never really fit.

 

[CTBasketball]

You guys look at W's and L's too much.

2012/2013. We had a lot of bounces go our way. Our offense was working the shot clock and having Shabazz jack an isolation jumper or having Boat throw his body at the rim. Having a once-in-a-lifetime college player like Shabazz certainly improves your chances. Boat was fairly inconsistent all year, but dependable to get into the paint. We couldn't rebound for and pretty much grinded out half of our close games. Hence the 20-10 and mid-pack Big East finish. That season was a grind. It wasn't a "happy-lucky" 20 win season. We fought for every game, caught a lot of teams on their toes.

Our offense is still dependent on hitting 3's and a lot of pick and roll isolation situations. You see the downside now of not having Shabazz and a slasher that can finish at the rim. I would argue our rebounding is better now than 2012/2013 by far.

KO has fiddled around with certain set plays this year but nothing has stuck. Having two All-American worthy guards makes wonders for your offense and can mask a lot of coaching inabilities - I don't think KO has worked his way around this.