That's what I'm talkin' about!

[DogMania]

They went back to moving the ball around and trusting all 5 players on the floor. They showed a lot of energy on offense. That was entertaining compared to the past have dozen games.

 

[DogPoundSr]

Agreed, it was fun. It looks like they figured out where to deliver the ball to Amida. He changed the game. He's the taller form of the energizer bunny.

One of these games Omar will get his shot back. I feel bad for him but his day will come too.

 

[boog204]

The energy was huge; haven't seen the team play free, loose, and have fun in quite a while. Brimah was obviously fantastic, but Nolan played very well, too. The offense had a bit more motion and ball movement and less one on one isolation play. Defensively, we were outstanding. This was a huge confidence game especially as we embark on Memphis and the 'Ville. Best 40 minutes of the year...

 

[DogMania]

Agreed, it was fun. It looks like they figured out where to deliver the ball to Amida. He changed the game. He's the taller form of the energizer bunny.

One of these games Omar will get his shot back. I feel bad for him but his day will come too.

Hey, good to see a post from you, DPSr. You got to see a very entertaining game.

I'm not sure why it took so many games for them to make this adjustment from less isolation and more ball movement, but nonetheless, they made it for at least one game. Hopefully it will carry over to then next few games and beyound.

 

[ctchamps]

Hey, good to see a post from you, DPSr. You got to see a very entertaining game.

I'm not sure why it took so many games for them to make this adjustment from less isolation and more ball movement, but nonetheless, they made it for at least one game. Hopefully it will carry over to then next few games and beyound.

Our guards have been getting hand checked all season. It should have translated into them getting opposing teams into foul trouble and a free throw fest. I think the staff changed play from last season to this to take advantage of the new foul rules. The losses to Houston and SMU were reality checks.

I still expect to see some bumpy moments over the next few weeks. But I expect more and more games of this nature.

And just think LK, NG and SN did not have great shooting nights. What happens if they put everything together?

 

[mauconnfan]

Our guards have been getting hand checked all season. It should have translated into them getting opposing teams into foul trouble and a free throw fest. I think the staff changed play from last season to this to take advantage of the new foul rules. The losses to Houston and SMU were reality checks.

I still expect to see some bumpy moments over the next few weeks. But I expect more and more games of this nature.

And just think LK, NG and SN did not have great shooting nights. What happens if they put everything together?

The energy was phenomenal and yet without shooting the ball particularly well, they were still a very good team. Passion is everything and they had fun which I think this team really needs to do more than anything. The faces changed from guys with weights on their shoulders to kids having fun running around playing a game!

 

[upstater]

The energy was phenomenal and yet without shooting the ball particularly well, they were still a very good team. Passion is everything and they had fun which I think this team really needs to do more than anything. The faces changed from guys with weights on their shoulders to kids having fun running around playing a game!

Exactly.

I started a couple threads in the last couple days prior to the game that were about this. One was about the energy that Amidah brought to the game, and I also saw some development in his game in the few games prior. Yesterday was a breakout, but you could see it coming from him.

I also wrote about the Chelsea soccer team yesterday and how they flipped that same switch yesterday morning. So much of sports is mental.

That period around the holidays is always a killer for college athletes. Lot of down time. You even see it in college football bowl games where clearly some teams simply do not want to be there.

 

[upstater]

I was/am a big Calhoun backer. My November/early December posts should prove that.

But I think it's time to move him out of the rotation at this point. His lack of offense is now severely impacting his defense as well. At the very least I saw him working early in the season. Now that part is gone too.

The rotation should now be: Napier, Boatright, Giffey, Daniels, Brimah, Kromah with the most minutes, Nolan/Olander as needed behind Brimah. 8 guys. I see Samuel at this point as being as worthy of PT as Calhoun.

I am not down on Omar for his career here. I saw too much good play from him as an injured freshman. His freshman upside was better than anything Giffey or Kromah give us this year, but it's not going to happen for Omar this year. He needs a whole offseason to develop, a whole offseason to get healthy and get his head in order.

 

[ctchamps]

@mauconnfan and @upstater.

Great points about energy.

I've observed generating energy isn't always easy. I believe we can say with some confidence that it is easy to affect positive thinking and therefore suck out our ability to generate positive energy. (One of the reasons I love the hire of Diaco and KO is that they are not energy vampires.)

The beauty of the Boneyard or any forum is that we can easily glimpse the range of human behavior and how particular situations impact us.

I read commentary in this forum to learn about my passion, the UConn Huskies. But I also read what is posted to learn about our reactions to situations. It's obvious from our responses that many people struggle to stay positive when there is adversity. I'm not condemning people for not being stoic. I'm pointing out that if we, as passive observers, are struggling to maintain a positive mindset, it should be easy for us to understand that players will struggle as well when things start to go wrong. Why do we insist they do something most of us can't do?

Team play requires a delicate balance between an individual's abilities and a reliance on others. It is easy to upset the balance of optimum performance when one is dependent only on oneself such as in the sports of tennis or golf. The balance of optimum performance is much easier to disturb when an individual is reliant on others to succeed. The expression a "chain is as strong as it's weakest link" is very evident in observing a team sport such as basket ball. If we have quite a divergent range of opinions about players and teams physical skills, which we observe, it is obvious will have an even greater range of opinions about the state of players minds, which we can't observe directly.

Kemba has the magical ability to ignore his teams weakness and generate passion in spite of those weaknesses. But he is the overwhelming exception to the rule. The vast majority of us cannot do that.

Bazz is almost on the opposite end of the spectrum. Bazz is impacted when the team underperforms. And it isn't because he's selfish. Just the opposite. It is more important for Shabazz to help others succeed than the average sports player. He takes it personally when his teammates struggle. He feels he's failed them. Unfortunately when that happens he gets down on himself, which has the negative consequence of impacting his team mates who look up to him. And then he goes into a spiral of getting down on himself for starting the cycle. Even the unsophisticated among us Boneyarders with regards to human behavior, observe this and want him not to be impacted when things go wrong. Of course it's easy to see what others need to do. It's easy to insist others change even when we are unable to do it ourselves.

Personally I like both Kemba's and Bazz's personalities and what they bring to the game. We are very lucky to have had leadership with both of these widely divergent personalities. We've seen that Kemba's skills and personality resulted in a national title. Shabazz can not be expected to accomplish that result by becoming Kemba. He's a different player, a much better passer and shooter, but not as strong at driving to the basket. And he's much more invested with how his team mates perform than Kemba. In summary there are advantages and disadvantages with each of these guys.

I've isolated just one player, Bazz, on this team. If more and more players develop, and maximize their skills, the group will perform better. That will generate more excitement and hence more optimizing of skills and play. If this team can get just slight improvement with a couple of players, it is my opinion, that Bazz can take that slight development and help the players develop quicker than Kemba could. Where Kemba could work in spite of major deficiencies with the team, Bazz can't. But if a team reaches a certain point of development, Bazz can get more out of the team than Kemba. It will be interesting to see if this team can get pass this thresh hold.

This team is composed of a lot of players who want to play perfectly. When a perfectionist makes a mistake, one of two things happen. The optimum is they recognize the mistake, work on it, and not let it impact the overall performance. On the other hand DD, OC, TO and to a lesser extent, LK go into funks when they make mistakes. NG is hesitant to put himself into situations that could cause him to make mistakes, but he gets over them quickly. SN and RB can get into funks but get themselves out of it easier than the first group. AB, is more like Kemba. PN is probably as well.

I love the way KO is handling this group. I don't know if he consciously examines personalities or whether he is one of those gifted people who instinctually knows people and how to develop them. But he's handling these guys as good as any coach reasonably can. Personally I'm glad he hasn't given up on OC. I'm making a wager of a water balloon with you guys that OC will be an important contributor before this season is over.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Bazz is almost on the opposite end of the spectrum. Bazz is impacted when the team underperforms. And it isn't because he's selfish. Just the opposite. It is more important for Shabazz to help others succeed than the average sports player. He takes it personally when his teammates struggle. He feels he's failed them. Unfortunately when that happens he gets down on himself, which has the negative consequence of impacting his team mates who look up to him. And then he goes into a spiral of getting down on himself for starting the cycle. Even the unsophisticated among us Boneyarders with regards to human behavior, observe this and want him not to be impacted when things go wrong. Of course it's easy to see what others need to do. It's easy to insist others change even when we are unable to do it ourselves.

This is an excellent, insightful analysis of Bazz's personality and how it translates to the basketball court. Those of us who played at any level can probably identify with it to some degree.

It's obvious that Bazz feels drained, personally, by the struggles of the team. Unfortunately, that then feeds back to the team losing confidence, playing tentatively and without energy. We saw it in the Houston and SMU games. We saw it in 2012, when he essentially gave up on his ability to lead that dysfunctional group.

When Bazz is feeling good about things, whether due to external reasons or because things are going well on the court, the team responds accordingly, like we saw last night.

He's just a guy whose emotional weather is always visible and the team responds to it, as if Bazz is telling them how they should be feeling about themselves. It's amazing the impact a strong leader can have on his followers.

 

[ctchamps]

This is an excellent, insightful analysis of Bazz's personality and how it translates to the basketball court. Those of us who played at any level can probably identify with it to some degree.

It's obvious that Bazz feels drained, personally, by the struggles of the team. Unfortunately, that then feeds back to the team losing confidence, playing tentatively and without energy. We saw it in the Houston and SMU games. We saw it in 2012, when he essentially gave up on his ability to lead that dysfunctional group.

When Bazz is feeling good about things, whether due to external reasons or because things are going well on the court, the team responds accordingly, like we saw last night.

He's just a guy whose emotional weather is always visible and the team responds to it, as if Bazz is telling them how they should be feeling about themselves. It's amazing the impact a strong leader can have on his followers.

He's a strong leader that is quite different, than Kemba and both are quite different than the leaderships of Caron, Emeka or Khalid.

There are lot of different ways people can maximize potentials in themselves and others. I loved JC. He was able to get a lot out of players and teams most of the time. I believe KO will also be successful and do it is own special way.