Thought on the game

[Doctor Hoop]

7 of our blocks have an asterisk next to them in my notes. Opponent got control of the blocked shot and scored. In at least two cases, they scored a three off a block in the paint.

The frequency of blocks certainly has some mental/confidence effect for both teams. But it's not like every block diminished their score by a deuce.

We're one of the best shot blocking teams in the nation. It's what we do. Now if it wasn't that we scored more points than them we lose I'd accept that

My comment was part serious, part tongue in cheek. Yes, we are a good shot blocking team, but if you turn the ball over as much as we did, lose so many of the 50-50 balls during the game (especially at crunch time), shoot 50% from the line, fail to give adequate rest to the guys you need at the end, and struggle to run plays at the end, I don’t think your fabulous shot-blocking is enough. St Johns is a particularly smallish team, overall. That won’t be the case often.

 

[WestHartHusk]

Donny Marshall is hereby banned from mentioning that each UConn player is “good from the FT line”

How many different ways did they pronounce Champagnie’s name…I had about 6.

Not knowing his name is particularly egregious when you consider (1) he is really good, (2) he’s been around forever, and (3) he had a brother on the team so they had 2x the chance to learn it.

 

[Edward Sargent]

I'm feeling we are getting better. Don't know if this helps your angst but I am on the glass half full side right now. At 70 though these close games are putting more and more stress on my cardiovascular system. Thank goodness my kids got me a Peloton - getting fit while watching the Boys has been a bonus.

 

[Yardigan]

Ouch. Been there done that. I’ve learned need to add at least a one hour extension.

Easier is to just dvr the next program also

 

[Dove]

I would like to never go through another game like that again.

And this is how you reel in 31 LIKES.

 

[mauconnfan]

If it was for 16 TOs, many of them unforced, we win by double digits.

Big IF because unfortunately that’s who we are. We grab nice leads come out of the other teams time out and our guys start getting pretty and careless rather than continuing to just play solid basketball. It’s almost a given at this point it’s scary!

 

[Beak7774]

I always add 30 minutes, and when the start was delayed, I added another 30. The womens game was done in just over 1.5 hours. Maybe quarters can speed the games.

You guys oughta check out YouTube tv. It automatically goes to the end of the game even when it's overtime, double it, whatever. Never have to worry about extra hours and dvr space ever again

 

[RichZ]

I always add 30 minutes, and when the start was delayed, I added another 30. The womens game was done in just over 1.5 hours. Maybe quarters can speed the games.

Fewer timeouts called in a blowout. And no overtime helps keep the length of the game down.

 

[Chief00]

My comment was part serious, part tongue in cheek. Yes, we are a good shot blocking team, but if you turn the ball over as much as we did, lose so many of the 50-50 balls during the game (especially at crunch time), shoot 50% from the line, fail to give adequate rest to the guys you need at the end, and struggle to run plays at the end, I don’t think your fabulous shot-blocking is enough. St Johns is a particularly smallish team, overall. That won’t be the case often.

Quite frankly, I won’t hold these young guns up to the Bill Russell standard. But, a turnover always leads to a change of possession, a block shot sometimes does. Don’t get Chief wrong, I love shot blocking - particularly if it isn’t blocked out of bounds and leads to a fast break. It can also make one rush a future shot.
The foul shooting in the 50’s needs to be cleaned up fast. Perhaps guys were tired with all the Covid delays?
Jackson Jr is the best and worse passer on the team. We need him to clean up the showboat passes and the one to guys who can’t catch a pass with zip or one coming from a narrow field of vision.

 

[dennismenace]

In 2014 our secondary PG was TSam , a freshman, who wasn’t a top 100 recruit.
Who wouldn’t even be a UConn target today. Yet we possibly don’t win a NC without him.
We started to click two years ago when freshman Gaffney was inserted at PG. Both CV and Bouk improved their shooting when that happened. I called him a plain vanilla PG.
The question is why is he less effective at that position as a junior with more skills than as a cautious freshman.?
Your individual goal by your insertion into the lineup is to make the team more effective not to increase your stature as those can be conflicting outcomes.
With Gaffney less is more.

That is a great question that the coaching staff has to ask both themselves and Gaff. Live in the solution and not the problem. Thanks for reminding us. I remember him back then very quietly but effectively playing point. He actually seemed to settle the team down and make them better. I don't recall him playing under hard pressure though and perhaps that's the chink in the amour which the opposition has found.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Donny Marshall is hereby banned from mentioning that each UConn player is “good from the FT line”

FTs and turnovers being the reason we consistently can't close game is a coaching problem.

If it was[n't] for 16 TOs, many of them unforced, we win by double digits.

If it wasn’t for the mediocre performance from the free throw line we win that game by double digits. Life’s funny like that huh?

Now if it wasn't that we scored more points than them we lose I'd accept that

We grab nice leads come out of the other teams time out and our guys start getting pretty and careless rather than continuing to just play solid basketball. It’s almost a given at this point it’s scary!

There is honestly offered observation in every one of these comments, but they do NOT tell the FULL story of this particular game.

Ever since the 2004 NC semi-final against Duke, I have harped on the Big 3 that results in UConn's success in closing out games:

Defensive Stops
Protecting the Ball (No Turnovers)
Made Free Throws

With those 3 in order, a game cannot be lost once the lead is secured. The other team cannot catch up. Victories come because the other team scores fewer points more so than UConn scoring more points.

In year 4 of the Hurley Era, I have added a 4th factor: NO POORLY-CHOSEN SHOTS. This could include too soon or too late or not at all in the shot clock, wild drives into the lane, non-squared up 3s, etc.

These are the things that drive us crazy.

At the end of regulation, with every horror from this thread already fully catalogued, the team was 10-19 from the FT line, had committed 16 turnovers, and allowed SJU to score 21 points in the closing minutes. Maximum OUCH!

So, how did overtime go?

After SJU made the first basket, RJ drove wildly into the lane and put up a cringe-worthy shot BUT he also drew a foul that ended the night for Sorio...and he made BOTH free throws. THEN, there was a defensive stop.

No play-by-play is needed from this point.

The game ended with St John's only having scored 7 points in OT.

The game ended with 17-26 free throws. That translates to 7-7 in OT.

The game ended with 16 turnovers. That means ZERO in OT.

THAT is how a close game becomes a solid victory. They did it. Go back and watch it if you didn't see it.

And yes, I too never want to see a game like the end of regulation again.

 

[Jaker]

Pain and suffering, all part of the process. LOL

 

[pj]

In games decided by less than 4 points or overtime, we're 3-4. That's not great but it's almost average. For a team that lacks ballhandlers, they're executing about as you'd expect. They have to get better at all periods of the game, not just the end.

 

[Chief00]

Good to see Hurley doing the staff huddle at the start of timeouts as Chief recommended. Jim did that and it worked out great.

 

[mauconnfan]

There is honestly offered observation in every one of these comments, but they do NOT tell the FULL story of this particular game.

Ever since the 2004 NC semi-final against Duke, I have harped on the Big 3 that results in UConn's success in closing out games:

Defensive Stops
Protecting the Ball (No Turnovers)
Made Free Throws

With those 3 in order, a game cannot be lost once the lead is secured. The other team cannot catch up. Victories come because the other team scores fewer points more so than UConn scoring more points.

In year 4 of the Hurley Era, I have added a 4th factor: NO POORLY-CHOSEN SHOTS. This could include too soon or too late or not at all in the shot clock, wild drives into the lane, non-squared up 3s, etc.

These are the things that drive us crazy.

At the end of regulation, with every horror from this thread already fully catalogued, the team was 10-19 from the FT line, had committed 16 turnovers, and allowed SJU to score 21 points in the closing minutes. Maximum OUCH!

So, how did overtime go?

After SJU made the first basket, RJ drove wildly into the lane and put up a cringe-worthy shot BUT he also drew a foul that ended the night for Sorio...and he made BOTH free throws. THEN, there was a defensive stop.

No play-by-play is needed from this point.

The game ended with St John's only having scored 7 points in OT.

The game ended with 17-26 free throws. That translates to 7-7 in OT.

The game ended with 16 turnovers. That means ZERO in OT.

THAT is how a close game becomes a solid victory. They did it. Go back and watch it if you didn't see it.

And yes, I too never want to see a game like the end of regulation again.

Good points. But let’s be honest we hardly deserved OT in the first place and if I were a Johnnies fan I’d be bitter it made it there. Go back to the Hall game where I argued with many here regarding the refs swallowing the whistle on the real obvious charge by Richmond at the end of regulation. Many here said they just won’t call that at that point of the game and while I disagreed it didn’t matter, they missed the 3 we went into OT. Well look hard at that foul call on Wheeler and it wasn’t half as bad as the charge. Don’t get me wrong I will take it, but it’s one you just shouldn’t get at the end of a game. We got unbelievabley lucky and I hope this team takes advantage of that.

 

[RichZ]

Good points. But let’s be honest we hardly deserved OT in the first place and if I were a Johnnies fan I’d be bitter it made it there. Go back to the Hall game where I argued with many here regarding the refs swallowing the whistle on the real obvious charge by Richmond at the end of regulation. Many here said they just won’t call that at that point of the game and while I disagreed it didn’t matter, they missed the 3 we went into OT. Well look hard at that foul call on Wheeler and it wasn’t half as bad as the charge. Don’t get me wrong I will take it, but it’s one you just shouldn’t get at the end of a game.

I gotta disagree. The clock should have no bearing on the whistle. Refs swallowing their whistle in the waning moments gives the advantage to the fouling team.

 

[Peacefrog]

In games decided by less than 4 points or overtime, we're 3-4. That's not great but it's almost average. For a team that lacks ballhandlers, they're executing about as you'd expect. They have to get better at all periods of the game, not just the end.

Perhaps, but one of the issues has been that we’ve turned comfortable leads into close games. To wit, the 11 point lead with ~5 minutes to go in this game. We shouldn’t have had as many games be decided in the last minute as we have.

 

[mauconnfan]

I gotta disagree. The clock should have no bearing on the whistle. Refs swallowing their whistle in the waning moments gives the advantage to the fouling team.

Ok that was my point. The charge by Richmond running over RJ, which was ignored in the SHU game, was twice as bad as the Wheeler foul on Sanogo the other night. That’s the reality of how they normally referee and they shouldn’t. Hence why I believe we got lucky on a touch foul.

 

[pj]

Perhaps, but one of the issues has been that we’ve turned comfortable leads into close games. To wit, the 11 point lead with ~5 minutes to go in this game. We shouldn’t have had as many games be decided in the last minute as we have.

Yes. My point is that, given the strengths and weaknesses of the team we have, it may be more useful for the coaches to focus on turning that 11 point lead at the 5:00 mark into a 16 point lead, than to focus on improving performance in the last few minutes.

A team with Bazz and Ryan Boatright, that never turns the ball over and hits 100% of its free throws, can expect to win the last few minutes consistently. It is set up to win a ballhandling/turnover and free throw shooting contest. Our team is not - we commit turnovers and miss free throws - so we have to expect to lose that phase of the game.

The best thing we can do to help our late game performance is to get a second ballhandler who's a 90% free throw shooter. Those don't grow on trees, and we don't seem to be growing one on our bench.

We should avoid outright incompetence at late game situations, but the first 35 minutes gives 7x more opportunities than the last 5 minutes, and if we get a 3% improvement in performance there it will increase our winning chances more than a 10% improvement in the last 5 minutes. And I think it's easier to obtain that improvement.

 

[Chief00]

Yes. My point is that, given the strengths and weaknesses of the team we have, it may be more useful for the coaches to focus on turning that 11 point lead at the 5:00 mark into a 16 point lead, than to focus on improving performance in the last few minutes.

A team with Bazz and Ryan Boatright, that never turns the ball over and hits 100% of its free throws, can expect to win the last few minutes consistently. It is set up to win a ballhandling/turnover and free throw shooting contest. Our team is not - we commit turnovers and miss free throws - so we have to expect to lose that phase of the game.

The best thing we can do to help our late game performance is to get a second ballhandler who's a 90% free throw shooter. Those don't grow on trees, and we don't seem to be growing one on our bench.

We should avoid outright incompetence at late game situations, but the first 35 minutes gives 7x more opportunities than the last 5 minutes, and if we get a 3% improvement in performance there it will increase our winning chances more than a 10% improvement in the last 5 minutes. And I think it's easier to obtain that improvement.

Agree, hitting free throws and eliminating turnovers are two keys to closing a game. Quite frankly, no question about that.
Chief has also been preaching building leads beyond 8-10 earlier, so we have less 2-4 point spread games to lose, because we are not real good at that.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Good points. But let’s be honest we hardly deserved OT in the first place and if I were a Johnnies fan I’d be bitter it made it there. Go back to the Hall game where I argued with many here regarding the refs swallowing the whistle on the real obvious charge by Richmond at the end of regulation. Many here said they just won’t call that at that point of the game and while I disagreed it didn’t matter, they missed the 3 we went into OT. Well look hard at that foul call on Wheeler and it wasn’t half as bad as the charge. Don’t get me wrong I will take it, but it’s one you just shouldn’t get at the end of a game. We got unbelievabley lucky and I hope this team takes advantage of that.

My post only sought to note that the team factually & actually demonstrated the ability to (1) make defensive stops, (2) not turn the ball over, and (3) make free throws. This kind of play needs to be paramount in the final 8 and 4 minutes of any game where the team has the lead.

As to your point on super-late fouls, the final play wasn't my idea of a good shot, but it did push the ball to the basket where Martin got contact that went uncalled, and then after his rebound, Sanogo got contact that was called. Maybe the refs declined to swallow the whistle twice.

Even though I wince at poorly-chosen shots, I'm also seeing that our opponents are imperfect and have bailed out some of the bad shots with fouls. I just want the team to stabilize, solidify, and strengthen enough to provide done headroom to see if ballhandling and PG issues can thereafter improve enough for competing against the highest level competition in the coming months.

 

[Tenspro2002]

In games decided by less than 4 points or overtime, we're 3-4. That's not great but it's almost average. For a team that lacks ballhandlers, they're executing about as you'd expect. They have to get better at all periods of the game, not just the end.

We need to be about 5-2 in those games (or maybe 3-2, with not letting two of those games get to that point) to get into the national conversation.

 

[Chief00]

My post only sought to note that the team factually & actually demonstrated the ability to (1) make defensive stops, (2) not turn the ball over, and (3) make free throws. This kind of play needs to be paramount in the final 8 and 4 minutes of any game where the team has the lead.

As to your point on super-late fouls, the final play wasn't my idea of a good shot, but it did push the ball to the basket where Martin got contact that went uncalled, and then after his rebound, Sanogo got contact that was called. Maybe the refs declined to swallow the whistle twice.

Even though I wince at poorly-chosen shots, I'm also seeing that our opponents are imperfect and have bailed out some of the bad shots with fouls. I just want the team to stabilize, solidify, and strengthen enough to provide done headroom to see if ballhandling and PG issues can thereafter improve enough for competing against the highest level competition in the coming months.

Our problems are ironically the early fouls often committed 25 feet from the basket, which make us sit Adama and not build a lead to avoid the end of game drama that we aren’t great at.

 

[jibsey]

Johnnies we're fortunate too, hitting so many 3's in a row to get to OT.

 

[uconnfan68]

I'm feeling we are getting better. Don't know if this helps your angst but I am on the glass half full side right now. At 70 though these close games are putting more and more stress on my cardiovascular system. Thank goodness my kids got me a Peloton - getting fit while watching the Boys has been a bonus.

Is it hard to ride and drink, or does the lack of needing to steer cancel that?