They Fought Through It

[zls44]

The first half was a total disaster. But the kids got a lot of burn and showed a lot in the 2nd Half.

It'll take time, but they might get there.

 

[nomar]

Very important. For Jalen and the team.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Unless they go on some crazy run from here through the AAC regular season, it's going to come down to 3 games in Hartford in March.

Just not sure where this effort was the first 3.5 games.

 

[uconnfan68]

Saw enough heart to hold me over.

 

[Excalibur]

Very important. For Jalen and the team.

Jalen had as bad a half as anyone getting major minutes for us in 20 years. Impressive mental toughness to recover.

 

[Excalibur]

However, we also can't rely on shooting 60% all the time.

 

[Rocktheworld]

It will take too long for this team to dream about an at-large bid, but in 15 weeks who knows

Looking so fundamentally unsound with FTs, easy lay-ups, knowing the scouting report on D, it's not looking great

 

[BlueMAB]

I think they learned what type of intensity they need to win. If we get healthy, we're gonna be fine.

 

[superjohn]

It's going to be a really rough year but Jalen obviously has tremdous talent, Vance has a sweet stroke and they all competed in the second half. Hopefully they learned a lot about themselves tonight.

 

[Stinger92860]

We gave up 57 points in the 2nd half.

 

[RayRay19]

Defense needs to figure it out but got to say I loved the fire we played with. We could have packed up but more good than bad and hope this sparks a run for us.

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

brimah and facey and enoch really give u no offense other than lob alley oops. This team desperately needs a post presence

 

[TRest]

I'm hoping we play at a faster pace from now on. We score better when we aren't pounding the ball for 20 seconds and standing around.

 

[lange10]

We gave up 57 points in the 2nd half.

Gave up 58 but scored 64 (1 less than our season high). As someone alluded to...finally we saw some heart. That's all we could have asked for from these guys having gone down 18-3 and losing Terry.

Tonight tells me more of what I already knew. We have a boat load of offensive talent, we just aren't putting guys in position to succeed. Ok State plays extremely up tempo and basically takes half court sets out of the question. Our guys were simply playing basketball out there and the offensive talent showed. Ok State is going to win A LOT of games and we clawed back in the second half despite missing 2 of our 4 best players. We will be fine. It will take time, but we will be fine. We'll be the best team in the American come March.

Another takeaway (sorry to ramble but this is the only place to do so) is that Facey's PT needs to be cut substantially. When him and Brimah are on the floor together our offensive possessions are scary. It's virtually a 3 on 5. I know he's raw and thin but Durham has a nice stroke and if we're going to be dealing with growing pains all year I think the kid deserves 15-20 mpg to grow and get better.

Obviously not happy with a loss but they gave 110%. Jalen battled back from a brutal, brutal first 8 minutes. Rodney got his shot back and looked great. These injuries are going to pay huge dividends for Vital/Jackson down the line. I'm confident we can get the auto bid in March.

 

[UConn_Top_Dog]

Does anyone ever think that the immense pressure for us to win these early season games against Power 5 teams gets into the players heads and makes them play tight? Oklahoma St for example can play loose knowing they have many more opportunities to play top tier teams. While we have a top heavy schedule. I strongly believe our conference affiliation has more to do with how we play than we like to think. I am not blaming our horrible start 100% on this, but it must play a role. And honestly, ever since we joined the AAC we have only shown up in March when we play looser with nothing to lose and no expectations, having that "prove the doubters wrong" mentality. Really unfortunate and incredibly frustrating situation we are in.

 

[huskyharry]

Once Terry went down, they started playing less scared and more as a team. The second
half was exciting.

I did think that our out-of-bounds plays were poor. Pressure man-to-man defenses shoulder silt in layups but like everything the first half, the players were tentative.

 

[zls44]

Once Terry went down, they started playing less scared and more as a team.

Without Terry to defer to, or Jalen playing remotely well, they figured they'd have to take the load themselves.

 

[8893]

We have a boat load of offensive talent

I hope it arrives soon.

One decent half in garbage time does not an offense make. This may be the worst offensive team we've ever had.

 

[JSM1970]

Where is offensive talent? The front court is terrible. JA and Purvis are incredibly streaky, neither are really consistent offensive players. Gilbert can't shoot. Possibly Vance longer term. Not including Larrier until we know more.

I hope it arrives soon.

One decent half in garbage time does not an offense make. This may be the worst offensive team we've ever had.

 

[JSM1970]

I don't know the actual #s, would have to watch again, but in the last 6-8 minutes they almost never got a stop. OK State always had an answer, maybe a bad call here or there, but sure Ok State would say the same.

Gave up 58 but scored 64 (1 less than our season high). As someone alluded to...finally we saw some heart. That's all we could have asked for from these guys having gone down 18-3 and losing Terry.

Tonight tells me more of what I already knew. We have a boat load of offensive talent, we just aren't putting guys in position to succeed. Ok State plays extremely up tempo and basically takes half court sets out of the question. Our guys were simply playing basketball out there and the offensive talent showed. Ok State is going to win A LOT of games and we clawed back in the second half despite missing 2 of our 4 best players. We will be fine. It will take time, but we will be fine. We'll be the best team in the American come March.

Another takeaway (sorry to ramble but this is the only place to do so) is that Facey's PT needs to be cut substantially. When him and Brimah are on the floor together our offensive possessions are scary. It's virtually a 3 on 5. I know he's raw and thin but Durham has a nice stroke and if we're going to be dealing with growing pains all year I think the kid deserves 15-20 mpg to grow and get better.

Obviously not happy with a loss but they gave 110%. Jalen battled back from a brutal, brutal first 8 minutes. Rodney got his shot back and looked great. These injuries are going to pay huge dividends for Vital/Jackson down the line. I'm confident we can get the auto bid in March.

 

[8893]

Where is offensive talent? The front court is terrible. JA and Purvis are incredibly streaky, neither are really consistent offensive players. Gilbert can't shoot. Possibly Vance longer term. Not including Larrier until we know more.

Gilbert and Larrier are/were the best hope. By far.

 

[gtcam]

We gave up 57 points in the 2nd half.

UCONN scored over 60 in the 2nd half

 

[Kitaman]

What is great is that our fans down there were given a UConn show. I'm happy that they were rewarded (as if Hawaii is not enough) with some decent basketball in the 2nd half along with a close game at the end.

 

[lange10]

I hope it arrives soon.

One decent half in garbage time does not an offense make. This may be the worst offensive team we've ever had.

I'm going to agree to disagree big time with this statement. Jalen and Larrier are future 1st rounders. Alterique is a stud. Purvis is purvis - streaky but when he's on he can knock down jumpers and pour in 15-20 easily. Vance is a knockdown spot up shooter who seems to be a player who can develop into someone who can create for himself off the bounce. Vital has been a big surprise as well - strong, can finish at the rim, nice stroke. We have weapons...we just don't use them the right way when we run our boring half court sets which could be why you think they have no talent.

 

[Kembacity]

Unless they go on some crazy run from here through the AAC regular season, it's going to come down to 3 games in Hartford in March.

Just not sure where this effort was the first 3.5 games.

Understand NCAA basketball, we could lose every nonconference game, and even every conference game, but if we play great in the AAC tourney, this team is 100% capable of going on a run for a few days and stealing a tourney berth.

Thanks to this awful conference, I will not give up hope in a tournament berth until we have no scholarship players healthy. At worst, we'd have to beat a few decent teams, and an always gritty cinci team to earn a shot at the tourney