the reason our chemistry is not where we think it should be today

[willie99]

suspensions

we start the season with Boat missing 6 games, then JC misses 3 and has to stay away from the team for over 10 days, then Boat misses another 3 games

it's obvious that Boat is a very instrumental part of our success, and although I love George, he's not Calhoun and he doesn't bring the fire that this young team needs

we've been in a state of flux the whole season, let's hope that changes and we settle into rotations and rolls. When that happens, we'll be very good

I "can't wait" for Jimmy to do his thing once again

 

[hungry husky]

It could be that this team thinks they're hot and doesn't play hard enough to beat good times.

 

[auror]

Can we all agree it is Dyson and Selvie's faults?

 

[Ts5034]

Of course the suspensions of JC and Boatright didnt help anything. I really believe a lot has to do with the championship hangover too. Some of the players probably think they can just sleep walk through the regular season and then just flip the switch once the BET starts.

 

[Palatine]

It could be that this team thinks they're hot **** and doesn't play hard enough to beat good times.

Of all the things it could be, it's not that.

 

[art4life]

Of course the suspensions of JC and Boatright didnt help anything. I really believe a lot has to do with the championship hangover too. Some of the players probably think they can just sleep walk through the regular season and then just flip the switch once the BET starts.

This.

I've used the term "sleep walking" way too many damn times over the last few weeks describing this team (and yelling @ my TV during the games).

The alarm bells are ringin' boys.
It's time to Wake the duck* Up!!!!

 

[Kitaman]

Of course the suspensions of JC and Boatright didnt help anything. I really believe a lot has to do with the championship hangover too. Some of the players probably think they can just sleep walk through the regular season and then just flip the switch once the BET starts.

When faced with adversity you need a leader or an inspiring presence, without that its hard to make adjustments and overcome. I am speaking of leadership. We have been fortunate not to have many injuries but with the 'little' issues that we have we have not shown the maturity to preserver. JC/RB situation was more an opportunity for the team as opposed to being an excuse (which I hope it doesn't become). If that's the case then you can throw in losing Kemba also.

Good teams manage to get wins even without key players. And we are a good team or at least a team with good players. This is where senior leadership is surely missed. Unfortunately its an unsolved problem.

 

[blackbird]

There hasn't been any consistency with lineups either.

Three weeks ago, Giffey wasn't getting any minutes (and he should have been) Now he's pretty much playing the most minutes out of anyone at the 3 spot. (other than Lamb)

The only two people consistently in the starting lineup are Lamb and Napier. The only three people consistently being a part of the rotation is Drummond, Napier, and Lamb.

It's bad enough to be running a poor offense, but to do it when none of the players know how to play together makes things even harder.

I love JC. I think he's a fantastic coach. But I have no clue what he's doing this season. Young kids need structure and consistency. How he thought he could possibly bench three players who were huge factors from a national championship game (AO, Giffey, and Roscoe), replace them with freshman, and have chemistry be fine, is beyond me.

People want more changes? No. Find some consistency. Get a set rotation. I'd personally go with
Napier/Boat
Lamb/Boat
Giffey/Roscoe/DeAndre
AD/Tyler/Roscoe or Giffey if needed for a certain matchup
AO/Tyler

It's not that hard. Start those same guys the rest of the way. Allow poor Shabazz to figure out something he can do on offense, and get acclimated to his teammates, and the combo on the floor since JC apparently believes in letting his young point guard do whatever he wants on offense. There's no reason for Napier and Lamb to play 40 a night. They get tired by the end of games 30 is fine, give Boat the other 20. PLAY THE STARTERS TO FINISH THE GAME UNLESS SOMEONE ELSE IS REALLY HOT. Consistency.

I don't know what Calhoun is doing. You can't play whip around with a bunch of kids who have a target on their back because they won the national championship but don't have Kemba to depend on anymore.

And that's not even addressing how bad the offense is, which at some point, people have to stop blaming Shabazz and start looking at JC. Because it's not Bazz's fault that only two other guys (Lamb and Giffey) have any clue of what they should do on offense, nor is it Bazz's fault that the offensive structure is simply terrible. Run the ball, the rotation I suggested allows for enough players that running is something they can do, we no longer have to worry about Lamb and Bazz getting tired because we can REST them.

JC had to realize that despite the fact that this team is extremely talented, they are young. And they need him to be the leader. And they need him to address some of these issues that maybe our more mature point guards in the past would have addressed.

 

[HuskyFan32]

Of all the things it could be, it's not that.

I'm pretty sure it is this. Maybe not thinking they're hot shi* but we dont play hard for whatever reason. How else can you explain giving up 15 offensive boards a game and literally never getting a loose ball. Nobody boxes out. That would require effort.

 

[Gurleyman]

A lot of it is that Bazz and Lamb together make for a bad combination from a pure emotion/energy standpoint. Neither is fiery and neither has Kemba-like quickness, so they don't give off the impression of intense effort. I never questioned that they were playing hard last year, but their roles were more limited and they could play off Kemba. This year, the best guy we have from a play hard/emotion standpoint is Alex, but his season derailed on him. Next best choice is Boat, but he's a freshman, who comes off the bench and has been in and out of the lineup. Drummond has that potential in him, but he's just too raw.

It's also a very young team (especially with Alex not providing veteran leadership) and young teams can often hit speed bumps -- long scoring droughts, letting leads skip away, three-game losing streaks, "hero shot" syndrome, etc. When we try to play hard, we play stupid -- dumb reach in fouls, trying to block shots we have no shot at blocking, leaving our men to go for steals we can't get.

There's so much more we could be doing offensively - Lamb should be running the Rip offense, not isolated in clearouts where he's less effective (especially when a second defender enters the play). Attack off the curl coming off screens when the defense isn't set. Other people then get open playing off a Rippish Lamb - the screener flashing to the basket or someone else flaring out for an unguarded jumper. We ran so many effective cross-screens for Emeka where he could catch and finish in one motion on the low block and we could be doing that for Andre rather than posting him up, when he doesn't have many moves. It's just getting a bit late in the year to turn into something we're not (although Rip's freshman year was an example of the offense suddenly looking much better in March for the NIT than it had all year, once he started to get it and find a rhythm).

 

[Ts5034]

I also think it would work out better for this team if Shabazz took more of a Taliek Brown 2004 type role rather then trying to be Kemba Walker 2011. I dont want to see another box score with Shabazz having more FG attempts then Lamb.

 

[selles]

There's so much more we could be doing offensively - Lamb should be running the Rip offense, not isolated in clearouts where he's less effective (especially when a second defender enters the play). Attack off the curl coming off screens when the defense isn't set. Other people then get open playing off a Rippish Lamb - the screener flashing to the basket or someone else flaring out for an unguarded jumper. We ran so many effective cross-screens for Emeka where he could catch and finish in one motion on the low block and we could be doing that for Andre rather than posting him up, when he doesn't have many moves. It's just getting a bit late in the year to turn into something we're not (although Rip's freshman year was an example of the offense suddenly looking much better in March for the NIT than it had all year, once he started to get it and find a rhythm).

I love this piece of your post. Love it. It's as simple as...we have 2 potential top 10 picks...run the offense through them. Lamb is option 1, Drummond is option 1A. Run things through them. Yes, there are issues with it. Lamb needs to rediscover the catch and shoot (or drive) instead of the fake and dribble every time he catches the ball. But that's coachable. So coach it. Drummond may miss quite a few shots. But live with it, because ultimately he will hit them. To me this is the solution. Lamb is 1, Drummond is 1A. Everything else plays off that. Start there and Boat and Bazz will have a ton of wide open 3's. And they will bury teams.

 

[Gurleyman]

The difference between what Jeremy is doing now and what Rip used to is that Jeremy will come off a couple screens, and if isn't there, that's it. Offense stops and we go to a clearout. It took Rip 25 seconds of moving to get open sometimes, and even then, sometimes it meant someone else got the ball. Lamb makes himself too guardable. He should never, ever be 6-8 (unless he's in heavy foul trounle or box-and-oned effectively where other guys are getting better looks). If he's hitting his shots - he has to get more shots. And that means more mid-range floaters when defenders rush out at him coming off screens. A missed mid-range floater over a shot-blocker is often a nice easy putback for someone else.

 

[willie99]

most of the problems listed in this thread are corrected when that chemistry thing clicks

fine tuning is the difference between winning and losing

 

[UconnDon]

Can we all agree it is Dyson and Selvie's faults?

Not sure about Dyson, but Selvie can't avoid blame for 2011/12.

 

[willie99]

Selvie won a BET and played in the E8

Dyson never won a BET or NCAA game, and should have been the lead man when AJ went down vs SD. We couldn't even beat SD without AJ

I don't see how these guys are connected, unless someone is blaming him for the Baxter flop, when Selvie knocked the 385 pound Baxter 30 feet by simply lifting his elbow

 

[Dribbles]

Selvie won a BET and played in the E8

Dyson never won a BET or NCAA game, and should have been the lead man when AJ went down vs SD. We couldn't even beat SD without AJ

I don't see how these guys are connected, unless someone is blaming him for the Baxter flop, when Selvie knocked the 385 pound Baxter 30 feet by simply lifting his elbow

Jonnie - a man for all seasons!!

 

[Burnsbros23]

I blame the walkons they don't cheer hard enough.

 

[sledog]

I took my wife to see the SH game in Newark. At one point, during a UConn posession, she commented: 'they're just standing around'.

QED

 

[ctchamps]

The difference between what Jeremy is doing now and what Rip used to is that Jeremy will come off a couple screens, and if isn't there, that's it. Offense stops and we go to a clearout. It took Rip 25 seconds of moving to get open sometimes, and even then, sometimes it meant someone else got the ball. Lamb makes himself too guardable. He should never, ever be 6-8 (unless he's in heavy foul trounle or box-and-oned effectively where other guys are getting better looks). If he's hitting his shots - he has to get more shots. And that means more mid-range floaters when defenders rush out at him coming off screens. A missed mid-range floater over a shot-blocker is often a nice easy putback for someone else.

This and your previous thread are really insightful imo. The big problem is that JL doesn't seem to be able to handle all the bumping and thus he seems to stop running, whereas Rip kept motoring. I love the idea of setting screens for AD, but from my perspective AO and RS don't screen very consistently or as well as Josh did. Tyler is much better at setting screens but the combo of TO and AD is a liability on the defensive end.

What has happened over the past several games is the team tries to run the offensive plays that they do in practice. Unfortunately, even when they get open, the degree of made shots has been poor. As a result they abandon the offense midway in the second half and that is when they do more isolation shots and SN tries to take over.

 

[sparkdog]

Some nice solid screens by the big guys would help with Lamb getting some looks. I was at the game on Sunday and did not see one solid screen by the bigs.

 

[Gurleyman]

This and your previous thread are really insightful imo. The big problem is that JL doesn't seem to be able to handle all the bumping and thus he seems to stop running, whereas Rip kept motoring. I love the idea of setting screens for AD, but from my perspective AO and RS don't screen very consistently or as well as Josh did. Tyler is much better at setting screens but the combo of TO and AD is a liability on the defensive end.

What has happened over the past several games is the team tries to run the offensive plays that they do in practice. Unfortunately, even when they get open, the degree of made shots has been poor. As a result they abandon the offense midway in the second half and that is when they do more isolation shots and SN tries to take over.

Good points about Josh - a big-to-big screen can also just be switched, so we would sometimes have the cross screen come from the wing with Denham or Rashad. Or even once in a while from Ben, who would fake like he was the primary option running out to the perimeter, but would instead set a screen (Ben was a weight-room demon and could handle a hit from a big guy, though). It was a veteran team (except Josh), and the timing of the play always seemed to be just right where Emeka would come open, and the ball would arrive at just the right time where all he had to do was catch and finish - no post move needed. Andre has a soft finishing touch (sometimes too soft), so if we could get him in those positions, he could finish them, but it is a small window of opportunity to get the ball in there before the defense recovers and it requires good timing from everyone on the floor.

Lamb probably can't be Rip all the time because Rip was in many ways a uniquely-conditioned athete - and when Boat has been out, it would ask too much of Lamb to be constant motion for 40 minutes. But the key to what Rip always did was that every move or cut he made would then set up a different move or cut and he would become unpredictable. If you overplayed the curl, he'd fade to the corner. If the defender trailed him around the screen, he'd roll to the basket and use that one-step advantage to shoot a mid-range shot. It feels like Lamb has tried to either shoot with no dribbles (off the catch or the spot-up), or clear out and try to attack off a lot of dribbles. There's not enough in between - and that's why he's becoming too guardable. Deny him the initial shot off the catch, and then play good position defense and you're fine. There's not a lot to think about. And that little floater of his should be in the defense's mind all the time when they fly out at him.

If the scouting report said "do not let Lamb get into the teeth of the defense and get a clean look from 10-15 feet", his man would give him a little more space outside and be less aggressive bumping him fighting around screens. Right now, the scouting report is "give up the dribble-drive if you need to." Going into this season, I never would have thought that'd be the case.

 

[Chief00]

I think Wolf has fostered some discontent on the team. There is of course tension since the coaches wanted him to give up his ship, which he refused to do. Saw Wolf and Alex sharing comments on the bench last game. I like Alex but he needs to get another mindset and quite frankly the way to do it is grab every rebound that Andre can't get.

 

[ctchamps]

Good points about Josh - a big-to-big screen can also just be switched, so we would sometimes have the cross screen come from the wing with Denham or Rashad. Or even once in a while from Ben, who would fake like he was the primary option running out to the perimeter, but would instead set a screen (Ben was a weight-room demon and could handle a hit from a big guy, though). It was a veteran team (except Josh), and the timing of the play always seemed to be just right where Emeka would come open, and the ball would arrive at just the right time where all he had to do was catch and finish - no post move needed. Andre has a soft finishing touch (sometimes too soft), so if we could get him in those positions, he could finish them, but it is a small window of opportunity to get the ball in there before the defense recovers and it requires good timing from everyone on the floor.

Lamb probably can't be Rip all the time because Rip was in many ways a uniquely-conditioned athete - and when Boat has been out, it would ask too much of Lamb to be constant motion for 40 minutes. But the key to what Rip always did was that every move or cut he made would then set up a different move or cut and he would become unpredictable. If you overplayed the curl, he'd fade to the corner. If the defender trailed him around the screen, he'd roll to the basket and use that one-step advantage to shoot a mid-range shot. It feels like Lamb has tried to either shoot with no dribbles (off the catch or the spot-up), or clear out and try to attack off a lot of dribbles. There's not enough in between - and that's why he's becoming too guardable. Deny him the initial shot off the catch, and then play good position defense and you're fine. There's not a lot to think about. And that little floater of his should be in the defense's mind all the time when they fly out at him.

If the scouting report said "do not let Lamb get into the teeth of the defense and get a clean look from 10-15 feet", his man would give him a little more space outside and be less aggressive bumping him fighting around screens. Right now, the scouting report is "give up the dribble-drive if you need to." Going into this season, I never would have thought that'd be the case.

You are an Einstein amongst us toddlers. Posts like this used to be the rule rather than the exception. A lot of posters in this forum strike me as being really intelligent, but boy do many dumb down their analysis of the team. There have been several surveys taken over the years regarding posters people really like to read and your name (nyhuyskyfan in the past) frequently comes on or near the top. So even if people aren't necessarily responding to you directly many are reading your insightful and detailed posts.

 

[Danzz]

suspensions

we start the season with Boat missing 6 games, then JC misses 3 and has to stay away from the team for over 10 days, then Boat misses another 3 games

it's obvious that Boat is a very instrumental part of our success, and although I love George, he's not Calhoun and he doesn't bring the fire that this young team needs

we've been in a state of flux the whole season, let's hope that changes and we settle into rotations and rolls. When that happens, we'll be very good

I "can't wait" for Jimmy to do his thing once again

Willie, those are excuses not reasons. We have to start rebounding, staying home on defense, pass to shooters in good position and figure out some way to get Lamb more shots.