Theme with Most of our Losses

[DogMania]

Now defending without fouling has been a problem all season even in their wins, but two themes have been clearly evident in most of their losses:

1. Inability to knock down their open and lightly contested 3s.

2. Inability to finish in the paint and at the rim.

There were so many shots last night that were just a smidgen off, that just didn't go down. Last couple seasons more times than not, those were going in, especially during winning time.

They can score in bunches, but their draughts and inconsistency has been a constant sorrow.

 

[Glastonhusky]

Now defending without fouling has been a problem all season even in their wins, but two themes have been clearly evident in most of their losses:

1. Inability to knock down their open and lightly contested 3s.

2. Inability to finish in the paint and at the rim.

There were so many shots last night that were just a smidgen off, that just didn't go down. Last couple seasons more times than not, those were going in, especially during winning time.

They can score in bunches, but their draughts and inconsistency has been a constant sorrow.

No 1 is the thing I never would have predicted. I knew our D wouldn't be the same without Castle and Clingan but with AM coming on board along with Alex, Solo and the rep that Liam had coming in, I thought we would be able to just out score other teams. I was expecting scores in the 80's or 90's most games. shows what I know.

 

[WallStreetHusky]

Theme of all of our losses, and a lot of our wins, being down big in the first half.

 

[UCfor3]

Now defending without fouling has been a problem all season even in their wins, but two themes have been clearly evident in most of their losses:

1. Inability to knock down their open and lightly contested 3s.

2. Inability to finish in the paint and at the rim.

There were so many shots last night that were just a smidgen off, that just didn't go down. Last couple seasons more times than not, those were going in, especially during winning time.

They can score in bunches, but their draughts and inconsistency has been a constant sorrow.

Pretty much all of players that drive to the basket play below the rim and are not very long or super athletic. Tough to finish against Kalk or anyone with those qualifications. Pretty much all of our shooters outside of Solo are very streaky or prone to slumps.

 

[Scoe]

Theme of all of our losses, and a lot of our wins, being down big in the first half.

Every single game can only climb out of so many holes.

 

[uchusky32]

The D problem. Lack of foot speed and lateral movement.

Missing at the rim. We play below it. Even LM. Has LM dunk in a game?

 

[auror]

If you don't make 3s or 2s, you generally lose, yeah.

 

[UC0NN]

LM makes a lot of smart plays. He makes the right move in the lane, but he can't finish. Not strong enough to finish in big east play. Needs to put on some muscle too.

 

[jdb50]

We as a team are slow. That is a big part of our defensive issue. We tried to drive it but AK and LM are not going to rise over most defenders. Yesterday we again wound up with multiple shot clock violations which goes to players passing up open shots and too much passing it around between the key and halfcourt before we attack. Liam tried to generate offense when we stalled but he puts his head down and rarely passes so everyone just watches him. These are common themes when we struggle, plus the team wide poor 3 point shooting nights. Empty possessions.

 

[jibsey]

Hurley is unhappy but he put this together.

 

[uconngb]

Now defending without fouling has been a problem all season even in their wins, but two themes have been clearly evident in most of their losses:

1. Inability to knock down their open and lightly contested 3s.

2. Inability to finish in the paint and at the rim.

There were so many shots last night that were just a smidgen off, that just didn't go down. Last couple seasons more times than not, those were going in, especially during winning time.

They can score in bunches, but their draughts and inconsistency has been a constant sorrow.

Now defending without fouling has been a problem all season even in their wins, but two themes have been clearly evident in most of their losses:

1. Inability to knock down their open and lightly contested 3s.

2. Inability to finish in the paint and at the rim.

There were so many shots last night that were just a smidgen off, that just didn't go down. Last couple seasons more times than not, those were going in, especially during winning time.

They can score in bunches, but their draughts and inconsistency has been a constant sorrow.

 

[housekeys]

It has to be our defense and specifically the inability of UConn to play 1 on 1 defense. Hot players go off and there is no one for UConn that is able to stop them. Creighton game first half is a perfect example.

Having said that, if you look at the box score of all our losses, the key stat is FTA disparity and turnovers and they seem to be correlated in some way.

Team	FTM-FTA	UConn FTM-FTA	UConn turnovers
Memphis	29-40	19-24	10	3 out-of-conference losses
Colorado	18-28	10-13	9	FTA disparity is 98 vs 48
Dayton	27-30	7-11	5	8 TO avg/game
@Villanova	12-13	2-4	13
Creighton	14-15	5-5	8	In 7 BE losses
@Xavier	17-24	13-17	13	FTA disparity is 129 vs 102
St John's	12-16	14-22	18	13 TO avg/game
@Seton Hall	13-16	16-21	16
@St John's	21-27	23-29	18
Creighton	13-18	2-4	6

Overall FTA disparity 224 vs. 150 in all 10 losses. When UConn does not turn it over, they tend to send the other team to the line. When the FTA disparity is more even, the problem seems to be UConn TO's. IDK. Also UConn turns it over much more in losses in-conference than out-of-conference. Below, the high-major wins.

Team	FTM-FTA	UConn FTM-FTA	UConn turnovers
Baylor	12-19	26-33	7	FTA disparity is 62 v 70 UConn
@Texas	15-24	11-16	14	9.6 TO avg/game
Gonzaga	15-19	18-21	8

 

[caw]

IMO there are three sets of games here.

Fluke games UConn should have won (SHU and Nova) where things happened that never should have happened. Just flukes you can’t really draw conclusions from at all. I’d argue Memphis and Colorado fall here also with the technicals/over the back calls. These are the games that you look at after the season and just kick yourself for losing. There is no line that ties these games together and all were winnable without complete choke jobs.

Then you have injury games where Diarra and McNeeley were out, hurt or acclimating to being back. These also coincided with Karaban’s extreme funk. I’d say three games fall here X, SJU and Creighton. All in all you don’t put much thought into these games bc UConn was hobbled.

Then you have the three games UConn was just beat SJU, Creighton and oddly Dayton. You can argue the Creighton game was bad calls but they lead almost all game. Two of those teams are arguably just better than UConn this year. One is a top five team and the other has Hurleys number.

That’s just my opinion though.


Sorry, transposed Dayton and Colorado

 

[7774]

IMO there are three sets of games here.

Fluke games UConn should have won (SHU and Nova) where things happened that never should have happened. Just flukes you can’t really draw conclusions from at all. I’d argue Memphis and Colorado fall here also with the technicals/over the back calls. These are the games that you look at after the season and just kick yourself for losing. There is no line that ties these games together and all were winnable without complete choke jobs.

Then you have injury games where Diarra and McNeeley were out, hurt or acclimating to being back. These also coincided with Karaban’s extreme funk. I’d say three games fall here X, SJU and Creighton. All in all you don’t put much thought into these games bc UConn was hobbled.

Then you have the three games UConn was just beat SJU, Creighton and oddly Dayton. You can argue the Creighton game was bad calls but they lead almost all game. Two of those teams are arguably just better than UConn this year. One is a top five team and the other has Hurleys number.

That’s just my opinion though.


Sorry, transposed Dayton and Colorado

You’re forgetting the fluke games we won but probably shouldn’t have, like both games against Marquette.

 

[mauconnfan]

Horrid first halves is more than likely the theme. They come out play great until the 16 minute time out and then crap the bed for 8-10 minutes. Scary pattern but it’s even there for many wins.

I will say this for the 8-9 game this will be a team as good as Creighton or better so one and done if that doesn’t change. Add to the other teams fire is we are still in their minds looking for a 3 peat. Whoever it is wants that scalp!

 

[willie99]

We're much better when we play hard on defense. Our problem is that we only play hsrd in stretches, usually in the 2nd half after we've dug a hole for ourselves.

Play desperately for 40 minutes, we'd be significantly better

 

[Rico444]

I hate to say it, but this team doesn't have the mental toughness that most UConn teams have. They have a really hard time stopping the bleeding.

 

[Husky Alien]

No 1 is the thing I never would have predicted. I knew our D wouldn't be the same without Castle and Clingan but with AM coming on board along with Alex, Solo and the rep that Liam had coming in, I thought we would be able to just out score other teams. I was expecting scores in the 80's or 90's most games. shows what I know.

With all that you mentioned, you would think that. However, it goes to show how important Clingan was to our team. He was a space eater, rebounder and shot blocker that would clean up the defensive lapses of others. REED imo can be somewhat like him as long as he does not make mental defensive lapses.

 

[Travelman6]

They are pretty much firmly in the 8/9 game. In years like this it's almost like a 10 is better than an 8.

 

[Tyler2Rings]

How many games have we had 4 scoreless minutes

 

[Chin Diesel]

Pretty much all of players that drive to the basket play below the rim and are not very long or super athletic. Tough to finish against Kalk or anyone with those qualifications. Pretty much all of our shooters outside of Solo are very streaky or prone to slumps.

The D problem. Lack of foot speed and lateral movement.

Missing at the rim. We play below it. Even LM. Has LM dunk in a game?

This is a very below athletic team. No one is an elite athlete at their position.

 

[caw]

You’re forgetting the fluke games we won but probably shouldn’t have, like both games against Marquette.

Perhaps I should have called them losses by a single possession where UConn had legitimate chances to win the game at the end and didn't. I shortened to fluke games. UConn played in five such games all year. They went 1-4.

I am counting the Butler game as it was OT but not the PC game as PC hit a shot in the final seconds to make it a single possession game.

UConn won a decent number of close games this year but as shown above did not fair well in single possession games.

 

[navery12]

How many games have we had 4 scoreless minutes

I don't know if anywhere tracks that specifically but this is probably the closest stat to that. We're surprisingly pretty good at not allowing other teams to go on 10-0 runs, which would presumably be the outcome of extended scoreless droughts.

This chart is a few weeks old, our current numbers would put us at the Houston logo.

 

[navery12]

Perhaps I should have called them losses by a single possession where UConn had legitimate chances to win the game at the end and didn't. I shortened to fluke games. UConn played in five such games all year. They went 1-4.

I am counting the Butler game as it was OT but not the PC game as PC hit a shot in the final seconds to make it a single possession game.

UConn won a decent number of close games this year but as shown above did not fair well in single possession games.

But that's the problem with arbitrarily picking and choosing what games count to make a point. Why does the Providence game get excluded for a last second shot to make it a 1 possession game, but Baylor doesn't count for Hassan making 2 FTs with 1 second left to turn a 2 point win to 4? Winning a bunch of games by 4-6 points instead of 3 doesn't mean we sucked in close games

 

[REB1094]

The 2023 team had glaring weaknesses that were mostly buttoned up by late January/early February. imo, the switch flipped in H2 of the Xavier home game when Sanogo started running the offense at the perimeter so teams couldn’t just ignore AJax to overload the paint. Ironically enough, the C having the ball at the perimeter is one of our major frustrations this year

I don’t think the glaring weaknesses have been fixed this year, and it might just be a personnel issue

Not going to beat the dead horse on misjudging several players, but I’m not sure what playbook adjustment can be made on March 16th to help the team score. Our only playmakers are Liam (can catch fire at any time but frankly has been inconsistent and has regressed to <40% shooting) and Diarra (6th man with 1 functioning leg who was forced into the role). I understand the computers love our offense, but my eyes notice how many times we need to fight an uphill battle because we couldn’t score for 5 minutes and the opposing team went up double digits. This includes inferior competition like Nova, GTown, DePaul

Our defense doesn’t need as much detail. It’s not good and a much bigger issue. When the team gives a full 40 minutes of focused and high effort defense, it doesn’t look too bad. But that rarely happens

I think this team is a coin flip right now. If we’re 100% on, we look really good and can make a run. If we’re off for 5-10 minutes this week, we’re getting rolled in the 8/9 game

So I’m just going to sit back, enjoy the ride, and cheer on my favorite team