This is difficult to watch

[PhilG]

Losing so many offensive rebounds. Drummond/Oriaki are being shown up in the paint. Stokes is soooo much better than Drummond. We just do not seem to be in the game at all. Tenn does not look like a good team at all and we look worse. I wish JC could slap some intensity into these guys. Hope we can pull it out, but that seems to be the trend in recent games.

 

[hasheemthedream]

I can never understand why Jim Calhouns teams never run any plays to get guys open. Its fine when you have a Kemba walker who can go 1 on 5, but when your talking about Napier and Lamb it doesn't quite work out. It was dyson doing the same 2 years ago.

It seems like every possession its either Lamb or Napier trying to take their guy 1 on 1, nothing is coming easy from screens/cuts or just simple plays that you learn in high school to get yourself open.

Our best offense is when we fast break, just my opinion.

 

[nomar]

Has any player on our team NOT regressed over the course of the season? Is there anyone on the team that seems to be improving?

Lamb looks lost.

Napier is playing at a level that would put him on the bench if we had another PG. Today was an F. An F. Offfensively and defensively horrendous.

Drummond got better and then disappeared.

Roscoe & AO are shells of their former selves.

Olander started out great against crap opponents but can't box out a high-major big man to save his life.

DeAndre is the invisible man. I forget he's on the team sometimes.

Giffey's pretty invisible too.

Seriously, you'd think ONE player would step up.

What is going on in practice???????????????????????

 

[shakes65]

Game is over with 3:21 to go. We have no offensive movement, only one on one plays. I think other teams are beginning to figure us out.............you only have to guard two guys. Time to start watching UConn classics to see what it was like when we could move the ball and more than two guys might score. Watched the UConn- St. John's game of 1999 last night ---that was a lot more fun.

 

[Huskies2324]

Have to manage our expectations. Just expect a loss each game and if they win it's all upside. This team is really a disappointment and it appears they will continue to be so.

 

[nomar]

I HATE THIS duckING TEAM RIGHT NOW. Players and coaches.

I'm just really mad at them for making me waste two hours of my life watching that holocaust.

I'll get over it in a couple hours but right now I am steamed at the lack of effort and intelligence.

 

[metsfan2323]

This team plays alot like the 2006 team and that is not a compliment. Talented but inept bigs and we are out hustled constantly.

 

[Huskies2324]

Good thing they have 8 days off now as I don't want to hear or know about them for a while.

 

[cryjeremiah]

I know it's cliche and I know our guys were terrible, but that was honestly one of the weirdest and potentially worst officiated games I have seen in a while. I'm not crazy, right? Did anyone else think that?

 

[hasheemthedream]

It doesn't even seem like guys are having fun out there. You don't see any of the guys smiling like walker/napier last year. There has to be something going on behind the scenes. I am sure Oriakhi/Smith after being in the spotlight last year are not happy about Drummond coming in and stealing the show. They have done nothing to show they earn PT though so its their own fault.

It sucks to see such a talented team struggle, I hope they can bounce back.

 

[Huskies2324]

2 dollars!!!! I want my 2 dollars


3 points. I want my 3 points back!!!!

 

[RuffRuff]

2006 team was a a lot like this team - a ton of talent 3-5 with guys like Denham, Hilton, Rudy but not nearly enough depth at the 1/2. All we had was Marcus.

 

[sledog]

Agree with all above - and than some. Pleanty of slaggards among the team/coaches.

Is there anything short of a Selvie moment that can save this wonderful group of talent from destroying itself?? Even then...

KW must be WtFing himself from the stands
.

 

[blackbird]

The officiating was awful. Just awful.

IMO, we've got three problems with our offense.

1. The first is the coaches fault. It's a pathetic offense. It's either Giffey and Lamb curling off a screen or Napier and Lamb going one on one, or feeding AO. (Which is..just stupid in itself). It's almost always a problem for Uconn. Which means it's not the players fault completely. The last time I remember a good half court offense was with AJ. And Calhoun has flat out said that he just used to let Price do what he wants to do on offense.

And maybe that's Calhoun's plan. He likes his point guards to figure things out. AJ knew how to run an offense and get people to execute it. Kemba knew how to break down a defense if things weren't going well. Maybe he wants Napier to learn from his mistakes and learn what works. But IMO, it's a bad idea. Help Shabazz out, he's clearly extremely frustrated. We need to fix our offense, and it starts with creating one.

2. Our bigs have no idea how to execute on the very little fundamentals, and don't know what they heck they are doing on offense.

Three people know what they are supposed to do. Napier, Giffey, and Lamb. Giffey and Lamb are constantly trying to run off terrible screens to get themselves open. They either don't box out, or they don't post up, and half the time, they don't even know where they are supposed to be.

3. Shabazz. He's making a lot of dumb decisions. He pounds the ball. He doesn't move it at all. When Giffey or Lamb come off screens, he doesn't get them the ball at the right time. He struggles to get the ball in the post when someone is actually posting up.

But I'll give Bazz some credit here. He's being asked to do a lot. And when's the last time we had a point guard run the team well his first year. IMO, AJ was the best pure point guard we've had, and Kemba the best player at point guard we've had, and both of them were awful the first year they ran the team by themselves. And there's obviously problems with Calhoun's offense, that goes beyond anything a really really intelligent and mature point (AJ) can fix. The kid is also very frustrated right now. Too much is on his shoulders.

Here is what I think needs to happen.
How far we get into the tournament depends on AD, IMO. Lamb's a great player (he's not ready to leave yet) but he's not going to help us get a deep run by himself. AD is the x factor here. He's young, but he needs to grow a lot in these next ten games.

IMO, the offense needs to run through him. For godsakes address the fact that the guy can't set a screen, and doesn't post up. Teach him how, and make him do it. IMO, he should be the first option on offense. Work inside out. He's incredibly skilled. If you get him the ball near the basket he can usually make a move to get a pretty good shot. He's also capable of passing, so teach him the kick out. Those are three really simple things, that he doesn't do, that he needs to do before he can get to the next level anyway.Run sets to have Lamb or Giffey curl off a screen and look to get the ball to Drummond. Play PnR with Drummond. Post Drummond up. After the team is comfortable with that, then look to get better shots for Lamb, and passing to Giffey when he's posting up or by himself at the three point line, just so we're more balanced.

 

[SJ]

2 dollars!!!! I want my 2 dollars


3 points. I want my 3 points back!!!!

Even if the shot clock had been running Lamb obviously made that 3 within 35 seconds. If we had that one shot counted, we would have won.

 

[joober jones]

I think one of the main issues this team has is the absence of Beverly (off the court) and Walker (both on and off) they really molded the team into a cohesive unit and all of the players were quoted as mentioning that on several occasions. It seems like once again we're having on our hands a bunch of guys who don't get along and don't communicate. We're losing games from the neck up.

 

[bobbygt]

The 2006 team would have pieces of this team in its stool.

 

[zls44]

The officiating was awful. Just awful.

IMO, we've got three problems with our offense.

1. The first is the coaches fault. It's a pathetic offense. It's either Giffey and Lamb curling off a screen or Napier and Lamb going one on one, or feeding AO. (Which is..just stupid in itself). It's almost always a problem for Uconn. Which means it's not the players fault completely. The last time I remember a good half court offense was with AJ. And Calhoun has flat out said that he just used to let Price do what he wants to do on offense.

And maybe that's Calhoun's plan. He likes his point guards to figure things out. AJ knew how to run an offense and get people to execute it. Kemba knew how to break down a defense if things weren't going well. Maybe he wants Napier to learn from his mistakes and learn what works. But IMO, it's a bad idea. Help Shabazz out, he's clearly extremely frustrated. We need to fix our offense, and it starts with creating one.

2. Our bigs have no idea how to execute on the very little fundamentals, and don't know what they heck they are doing on offense.

Three people know what they are supposed to do. Napier, Giffey, and Lamb. Giffey and Lamb are constantly trying to run off terrible screens to get themselves open. They either don't box out, or they don't post up, and half the time, they don't even know where they are supposed to be.

3. Shabazz. He's making a lot of dumb decisions. He pounds the ball. He doesn't move it at all. When Giffey or Lamb come off screens, he doesn't get them the ball at the right time. He struggles to get the ball in the post when someone is actually posting up.

But I'll give Bazz some credit here. He's being asked to do a lot. And when's the last time we had a point guard run the team well his first year. IMO, AJ was the best pure point guard we've had, and Kemba the best player at point guard we've had, and both of them were awful the first year they ran the team by themselves. And there's obviously problems with Calhoun's offense, that goes beyond anything a really really intelligent and mature point (AJ) can fix. The kid is also very frustrated right now. Too much is on his shoulders.

Here is what I think needs to happen.
How far we get into the tournament depends on AD, IMO. Lamb's a great player (he's not ready to leave yet) but he's not going to help us get a deep run by himself. AD is the x factor here. He's young, but he needs to grow a lot in these next ten games.

IMO, the offense needs to run through him. For godsakes address the fact that the guy can't set a screen, and doesn't post up. Teach him how, and make him do it. IMO, he should be the first option on offense. Work inside out. He's incredibly skilled. If you get him the ball near the basket he can usually make a move to get a pretty good shot. He's also capable of passing, so teach him the kick out. Those are three really simple things, that he doesn't do, that he needs to do before he can get to the next level anyway.Run sets to have Lamb or Giffey curl off a screen and look to get the ball to Drummond. Play PnR with Drummond. Post Drummond up. After the team is comfortable with that, then look to get better shots for Lamb, and passing to Giffey when he's posting up or by himself at the three point line, just so we're more balanced.

Everything you wrote here was fantastic.