Thoughts from yesterday…….

[husky91]

Nolan was sick and his minutes were very few though not a good comparison……maybe Tyler with 25 minutes and 1 board would be better suited for that…...

Not off any bandwagon, was never expecting anything huge. Best thing is adapt style to more of a 4 guard set almost. If they run classic sets they are doomed, the interior players are so ineffective it impacts the whole offense. Just get some combo of them to play defense and rebound.

As for Tiger, I predict again now be goes 0-4 in majors in 2014, his only reasonable chance in next 2 years is Open @ St Andrews in 2015.

At least you can watch Tiger Woods in some tourney's soon since you jumped off the bandwagon!! lol

 

[ctchamps]

And we can't rebound…….can't ruin without the ball. And how many clean rebounds do we actually get where you could throw an outlet? Half the time we're running down rebounds in the corner………they could run but our guards are our best rebounders so that's all we need to know!

And this is the weak link with this team on offense and defense. I agree Boat, Bazz and Neils need to stick to their players like glue but then the team gets torched on rebounding and second chance points. At least rebounding has been fairly even over the last several games but that is because players are hedging. It's a matter of pick your poison. Early in the season perimeter defense was terrific but the negative rebounding margin was horrible.

On the offensive end its four on five. I felt badly for Bazz yesterday because, as you stated, he should have had at least six assists if there was a reasonable front court player. And had they completed those plays there would have been a lot more. The SMU game was the first game I saw Bazz's body language slump at the end of the game. Sad that some people feel Bazz is about Bazz. He's about the team and winning and he lacks the personnel that can take advantage of his gifts.

This team lacks a Jake that can set picks. They can't set picks to ball screen so how are they going to set picks to get Giffey free. Giffey and Tyler are really the only two players capable of setting decent picks and lately they have been getting fouls for moving screens. So even Giffey has shied away from being aggressive with them. Tyler sets decent screens and would be great for a pick and roll except when he's at the basket he has no ability to leap and gets blocked every time.

Making all the suggestions we want for KO misses the salient point that there really isn't the personnel to carry out the suggestions.

 

[boog204]

This team lacks a Jake that can set picks. They can't set picks to ball screen so how are they going to set picks to get Giffey free. Giffey and Tyler are really the only two players capable of setting decent picks and lately they have been getting fouls for moving screens. So even Giffey has shied away from being aggressive with them. Tyler sets decent screens and would be great for a pick and roll except when he's at the basket he has no ability to leap and gets blocked every time.

Huge point there... None of our big men can screen at all. What I'd give for Dan Cyrulik, Souley, or any of our other backup big men from the past who would set screens, give hard fouls, and have a clue.

 

[Kitaman]

it is really ridiculous to consider that our best rebounder for the past two years has been a marginally athletic 6-0 point guard.

This is astounding, don't our tall players have any pride? This is being punked to the maximum and actually sickens me. I keep saying Boat needs to take the bigs home with him all summer break.

 

[ctchamps]

We don't realize how much we miss Wolf. He was a real presence in the middle and could actually make some shots. they have no one like him now. Brimah could be the guy, but he is very raw right now.

I felt Wolf had potential and was looking forward to seeing if he could develop more in his senior season. But there was nothing he demonstrated last season that indicated he would have been the solution at the five this season. And we lose yesterdays game by a bigger margin if LK didn't play lock down D on Young. No Kromah if Wolf kept the schollie. I have no problems with the way the University handled Wolf.

 

[ctchamps]

This is astounding, don't are tall players have any pride? This is being punked to the maximum and actually sickens me. I keep saying Boat needs to take the bigs home with him all summer break.

Follow the skills required to rebound. Boxing out, watching the ball, anticipating how the ball will careen on a failed shot, and getting the body to meet the ball as it comes off the board or rim. Furthermore, there is the skill needed to focus on these aspects of rebounding at the same time of being aware of where various players are situated on the court. In other words have focused vision and global vision. All of this should be done as a reflexive action. The fundamentals can be learned, but not everyone can get those fundamentals down to the reflexive level.

Mau pointed out the times in which several UConn players went for the ball at the same time resulting in turning the ball over to the other team. There was one play in which Brimah was getting an offensive rebound parked right in front of the rim, hand almost touching the rim and DD came from the middle of the key and jumped over Brimah and knocked the ball out of his hands. He's done this several times. One of DD's problems imo is that he cannot see what's happening on the court when he focuses on the ball. This isn'tbecause of effort. It's a flaw to his make up.

 

[jleves]

I felt Wolf had potential and was looking forward to seeing if he could develop more in his senior season. But there was nothing he demonstrated last season that indicated he would have been the solution at the five this season. And we lose yesterdays game by a bigger margin if LK didn't play lock down D on Young. No Kromah if Wolf kept the schollie. I have no problems with the way the University handled Wolf.

A better solution than Kromah for Wolf is if the decisions for Wolf and Olander were reversed. Plus being an instate kid, Olander could probably afford to walk on....

And if my aunt had balls....

We have what we have and somebody needs to put his big boy pants on and step up asap. Omar and DD could use some big boy pants too.

 

[mauconnfan]

I felt Wolf had potential and was looking forward to seeing if he could develop more in his senior season. But there was nothing he demonstrated last season that indicated he would have been the solution at the five this season. And we lose yesterdays game by a bigger margin if LK didn't play lock down D on Young. No Kromah if Wolf kept the schollie. I have no problems with the way the University handled Wolf.

I disagree besides his foul trouble he had by far the most potential and it showed in a a couple games he was able to maintain minutes in. He could pass the ball, he hedged pretty well on D and just because he was big and 7' he made a difference as drivers backed it out many times. Much smarter and did things that weren't in the scorebook……he's not here so it is what it is but he would have helped a lot! Having said that I have no issues with the way it was handled either….

 

[mauconnfan]

A better solution than Kromah for Wolf is if the decisions for Wolf and Olander were reversed. Plus being an instate kid, Olander could probably afford to walk on....

And if my aunt had balls....

We have what we have and somebody needs to put his big boy pants on and step up asap. Omar and DD could use some big boy pants too.

^^^^^^^^^^

THIS

 

[ctchamps]

I disagree besides his foul trouble he had by far the most potential and it showed in a a couple games he was able to maintain minutes in. He could pass the ball, he hedged pretty well on D and just because he was big and 7' he made a difference as drivers backed it out many times. Much smarter and did things that weren't in the scorebook……he's not here so it is what it is but he would have helped a lot! Having said that I have no issues with the way it was handled either….

I guess we're agreeing with one another and saying it differently. Although the things you mentions are the things I liked about Wolf's game and without enumerating them like you have, they are the things I felt would have made him the best option at the five this season. I said this in many threads over the summer when everyone was conjecturing about what was going to to happen to him. But even with my stance that he would be a positive this season, I've seen too many players who didn't live up to my expectations. Needless to say we'll never know.

 

[Dove]

Calhoun was fiery.

Ollie seems like a smoldering ember. Cool to look at but mellow.

The coach puts his stamp on a team and we may be seeing something here that might be chilling...err...telling.

Lotsa games to go but what we're hoping for seems like a long shot. For Omar, Niels and Omar to give us double digits each night?

 

[jdb50]

Calhoun was fiery.

Ollie seems like a smoldering ember. Cool to look at but mellow.

The coach puts his stamp on a team and we may be seeing something here that might be chilling...err...telling.

Lotsa games to go but what we're hoping for seems like a long shot. For Omar, Niels and Omar to give us double digits each night?

If KO is going to get some of these guys to change he is going to have to sit their butts down for a whole game like Geno has done in the past.

 

[mauconnfan]

If KO is going to get some of these guys to change he is going to have to sit their butts down for a whole game like Geno has done in the past.

Geno has like 10 of the best players in the country I think he can afford some "lessons" here and there…….not quite the same in the mens world

 

[uconnfan68]

Geno has like 10 of the best players in the country I think he can afford some "lessons" here and there…….not quite the same in the mens world

And they actually listen to him... I'm sure KO has had a different message than the play has shown.

 

[huskiesnyc]

If KO is going to get some of these guys to change he is going to have to sit their butts down for a whole game like Geno has done in the past.

Yep and especially against Houston when we were getting absolutely demolished out of the gates. I was hoping he would yank the entire starting lineup and put in the bench like Calhoun did against USF in 2010.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Bazz lost about 6-8 assists on beautiful looks to people, cross court passes, looking the defenders away all kinds of stuff but no one attacked or shot the ball immediately. Ashame…….

How many times did our Huskies have 2-3 guys on a rebound at the same time and never come up with one?

Deandre Daniels - finish like a man once please. He is so weak with the ball again it's frustrating as hell. So much talent but soft as a baby's a* …….like many of our bigs afraid to get fouled would rather double pump, get smaller and throw up BS rather than go hard, shoulder in and get fouled and hopefully an "and 1"…..

These three things you mentioned were my biggest takeaways too. Bazz should have had 8 assists in the first half. You can't give guys easier looks than he does. He's being wasted. Some of his looks were off the charts. The shot from three he got for Kromah in the first half where he drew the entire SMU team to one side of the court and threw a blind dart from the baseline about 40 feet to a guy who was wide open behind him at the top of the arc was unreal. Brick city, of course.

On a related note, the smallest guy in the rotation - Boat - is the only one who takes the ball to the rack with a purpose. The rest of them tie themselves up in knots avoiding contact and then end up in a heap on the ground with a fast break the other way.

And then rebounding. These guys looks like they're playing in quicksand when a shot goes up. SMU is not a good team - they're decent, and they have a great coach - but you can't win games when you force a team into 30 seconds of a ratty possession, force them to take a horrible shot, and then give them three more chances because no one is quick enough to the ball to get a rebound. It's just a killer. They looked so damn slow and unathletic as a team yesterday.