Thoughts after a tough loss | The Boneyard

Thoughts after a tough loss

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Our defense is really good, I mean we can defend anyone. There's a reason we are able to play with Texas, Duke and Temple despite our inefficiencies on offense. Upon will always fight down that end and make teams work and they proved it once again.

FT shooting killed us, just dreadful to go 8-19 with all of the practice and no reason for it. It wasn't the reason the lost but the numbers jump out at you as part of it.

Inbounds plays on both ends hurt too. No way Brown gets the corner jumper off for 3 in the first half if people do their job. And the dunk - on Samuel as much or more than anyone. Please watch it again. He has the inbounder and he's pointing to people where to go. If he does his job and looks at the inbounders eyes he gets in the way of the pass but instead it goes right by his hip with no hands or legs out - awful job! Now I will pick on the coaching staff. You're team has proven not be that smart on inbounds on your end vs their offense - come back out of the TO in a zone. Pack it in with 1 second and make them make a "throw" from deep. And another knock (hate to do it) on KO/staff - go talk to JC or look at old film. We scored a lot in the past on inbounding the ball, now we're lucky to get it to one of our guys.

Offense is not going to be really good against good teams because our guys are so limited. Not all mind you but most and when you have so many limited guys on the court at the same time. Don't know how it will change, it gets better with Boat in the game no doubt but others till need to improve dramatically. Dam needs to know what he's going to do with the ball rather than hoping Brimah's gong to be there for the alley oop. Shoot it Daniel. Rodney, strange player. Made a couple nice moves didn't finish but also wasn't strong with the ball a couple of times. He and Daniel need to be sure of what they are going to do with it. Liked when Facey just shot the ball but he hesitates way too much and is unsure. Think if he gains some confidence and just goes up he will be an option. Brimah made a couple nice moves and probably should've seen it a few more times if only because he was a better option than it being in TSams hands coming down on the shot clock.

Intelligence is lacking - in a basketball sense of course nothing else. They have a lot of guys who just don't do smart things when smart things are required. Going for steals when they shouldn't, throwing passes that make them look they're running skeleton offense at practice, dribbling through crowds and baseline with no apparent plan. All kinds of things in the mental part of the game which they need to get so much better at but makes it real tough to win if you can't make the right decisions. Sometimes this never gets better with players, hopefully we will see the light by years end.

Good news is we're UConn fans. Yogi said it best, it ain't over til it's over. Never know and with a young team like this it can only get better. We've seen ugly so maybe the light goes off in the nick of time?
 
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I am still enjoying this team. They are playing hard and getting better. I am amazed that they found a way to tie the game without Boatright in there. Most of the minutes last year went to upperclassmen(Giffey, Daniels, Shabazz, Boatright, Kromah). We made better decisions, took better shots and looked forward to getting to the free throw line. This year comparatively, we are very young.(Facey, Samuel, Cassell, Purvis, Brimah). We make a lot of mistakes, don't take good shots or have bad shooters taking too many shots and we are afraid of the free throw line. Everything is correctable. KO is a great coach and motivator. If Boatright injury is not too bad, I still say we will be OK.
 
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You knew this game was going to be a rock fight from the start.

Lack of Ball handling and bad passing is killing us.

How many empty trips per game where we don't even get a shot and end up with a turnover.

Between empty trips and the bad FT shooting no wonder why we are playing sub 60 point games every night.

At lease we came back (and hung in tough) with out Boat -that's a positive.
 
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Glad you brought up intelligence, besides obviously missing Bazz, that is where you are really seeing the difference in not having guys like Giffey, Daniels, and Kromah around. Those guys all had their limitations but they generally played within themselves and made smart plays. We just have too many young or inexperienced guys making back breaking critical plays, DHam turning it over on an inbouds pass, Purvis going for a gamble on a steal, getting burned, and the D giving up a basket, multiple guys miscommunicating on switches leading to in bound scoring plays or in 2 lossses game ending 3s, Facey not feeling comfortable passing to DHam on the first look and then throwing it away for a fast break opportunity on the other end leading to two free throws. I can live with guys struggling on offense, but all this little sh t is killing them.
 
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Glad you brought up intelligence, besides obviously missing Bazz, that is where you are really seeing the difference in not having guys like Giffey, Daniels, and Kromah around. Those guys all had their limitations but they generally played within themselves and made smart plays. We just have too many young or inexperienced guys making back breaking critical plays, DHam turning it over on an inbouds pass, Purvis going for a gamble on a steal, getting burned, and the D giving up a basket, multiple guys miscommunicating on switches leading to in bound scoring plays or in 2 lossses game ending 3s, Facey not feeling comfortable passing to DHam on the first look and then throwing it away for a fast break opportunity on the other end leading to two free throws. I can live with guys struggling on offense, but all this little sh t is killing them.

You named a couple I was thinking about. Even Boat early with that long pass to Purvis and his need to dribble between a triple team. Facey getting a rebound from 3 feet away and passing it to TSam for yet another 3 footer rather than going up for a dunk or a jump hook. Samuel driving right to the lane then throwing it to, to NOONE, because he thought someone should be there. Amid having inside advantage rebounding 2-3 ties today and ball in hands and not getting a shot off or actually even possessing it.

You called it, the smarts of Niels, Lasan and DD as they never seemed to force it, is something we miss more than we thought. Playing the game with your brain rather than just athleticism is a must to be good, especially really good!
 
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