Thoughts from yesterday…….

[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.