Thoughts on that tire fire.

[Cheeky]

The most important point in Fishy's post, IMO, is next year.
I posted about this a bit back.
Unless Jalen Adams in a day-1 stud, we're royally f---d next year.
Ball handling outside of Boat has been just awful this year.
Next year we're replacing a top 5 PG in the country with an untested, unknown freshman PG.
If you can't see the potential for disaster in that, then hats off to you because you're a much better UConn fan than me.

 

[Cheeky]

Ollie needs to see if he can get some of these guys to transfer.

Because we've got the 4 and 5 star commits stacked up to take their places?

 

[Storrsbred]

The most important point in Fishy's post, IMO, is next year.
I posted about this a bit back.
Unless Jalen Adams in a day-1 stud, we're royally f---d next year.
Ball handling outside of Boat has been just awful this year.
Next year we're replacing a top 5 PG in the country with an untested, unknown freshman PG.
If you can't see the potential for disaster in that, then hats off to you because you're a much better UConn fan than me.

Just get some Diaco acolytes over here. They can really spread the sunshine!

 

[partyATkemba]

UConn can be next year's Maryland. Trimble is their impact Freshman PG, who I envision Jalen matching his production. Brimah with a whole offseason of workouts (sans injury) will be huge for his development. Remember the player Thabeet turned into. Then we have Hamilton, who could be an all-American. I know Boatright is a stud, but let the kids improve, most do.

 

[jibsey]

UConn can be next year's Maryland. Trimble is their impact Freshman PG, who I envision Jalen matching his production. Brimah with a whole offseason of workouts (sans injury) will be huge for his development. Remember the player Thabeet turned into. Then we have Hamilton, who could be an all-American. I know Boatright is a stud, but let the kids improve, most do.

No no no for chrissakes! Besides Adams 2 more guards that can handle and create, minimum. Also besides Enoch another big who can try to give us post offense.

 

[partyATkemba]

No no no for chrissakes! Besides Adams 2 more guards that can handle and create, minimum. Also besides Enoch another big who can try to give us post offense.

Would love to bring in another ball handler, just saying we aren't in absolutely awful shape as everyone makes it out to believe. Stone would be enormous, but that's a pipe dream.

 

[KembaStepback]

Not to bring up officiating for the 100000000th time on this board, but I actually didn't think it was a poorly officiated game for 95% of it.

Being there, I couldn't tell if the kid deserved to be kicked out for hitting Purvis. The last play of the game, I know it was a foul, but officials NEVER call slight contact at that time, and I actually agree with it. If they called all contact, they'd basically be taking the outcome of the game into their own hands which is never a good thing. Other than that, they let the kids play. UConn only had what like 8 total fouls all game?

The play that comes to mind that was awful was the baseball slide the Memphis player took but somehow didn't get a travelling call. Literally everyone in the stadium saw it except the ref. My god that was bad.

As far as Dan Guest is concerned, I liked it. Sure he has no business in a game like that, and that's why it was an effective message. TSam, Purvis, and Calhoun were playing AWFULLY. No energy, bad shots, just awful. Ollie wanted to send a message.

 

[John]

That was the 2015 UConn Huskies to a tee.

Long stretches of lethargy, indifferent coaching, shots that would miss an ocean and strategically-bad defense in the last ten seconds. Oh, and Dan Guest.

That was a f---fest of horrible from start to finish.

Given how this season has gone, I expected that they'd take the momentum from the SMU game and throw it all away, but I figured they'd wait until Temple. Now, if they follow form, we get to see an uninspired 35 minutes in Philly topped by a five-minute rally that falls a little or a lot short.

And then the prospect of having to win four games in the AAC...not sure I can see these kids putting together two good games in a weekend let alone four.

Specifics...

1) The Dan Guest thing. Wow, did that go poorly. Guy was torched for six points and then thought he had the green light to fire up a three. I don't care why he was in the game, that was a huge mistake.

2) We shot 20 more free throws than Memphis and lost in a game where they scored 54 points. Do you know how many bad shots you have to take to squander that sort of gift? The answer is 34.

3) Somewhere along the way, a bunch of these guys got it into their heads that they're shooters. Someone needs to tell them otherwise. Calhoun is back to his habit of being a fern planted on the arc. Samuel should be fitted with blinders that prevent him from seeing the basket unless he's 18" from it. Purvis should not do whatever it is that he does when he has games like this.

4) F---.

5) The prospect of doing all this against next year without Boatright is terrifying.

6) In all likelihood, we're about ten days away from threads started by people who are outraged that we're a three seed in the NIT. We should have cyanide capsule around our next for situations like that.

7) Boat deserved better than this clusterf--- tonight. But how fitting that his last shot at Gample, assuming no NIT game there, was an obvious foul that went uncalled. That's about the 2000th time that's happened.

Epic Post. Best of the year? Possibly.

 

[John]

Yeah but this team has already turned at least 12 corners which by the way, appear to lead them back to the beginning 3 different times.

Yeah, but it's turning the twelve corners of the snow-covered labyrinth at the end of The Shining, where the last shot is Jack Nicolson dead and frozen staring up at the scoreboard.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Nolan played very well tonight

.

Stuffed the stat sheet: 2-2 shooting, 4 rebounds, 3 blocks, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 foul, 0 turnovers.

Dan Guest into the game on Senior Night? Check
Facey, Calhoun, Samuel, Nolan playing together in a close game 2nd half? Check
Moving toward the momentum building 6-11 match up to start the epic run toward NC5?

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Yeah, but it's turning the twelve corners of the snow-covered labyrinth at the end of The Shining, where the last shot is Jack Nicolson dead and frozen staring up at the scoreboard.

Or Spinal Tap in the bowels of a second-tier arena coming to the same door.

 

[Tommyboy]

Facey, Calhoun, Samuel, Nolan playing together in a close game 2nd half? Check

That was an epically bad offensive lineup.

 

[The Funster]

The SMU game was supposed to be a game that they could build on. I wasn't expecting another 28 points from Purvis but I also wasn't expecting tentative play or painfully awkward foul shots from him. I also did not expect the entire team to play so dysfunctionally on offense and defense. I'm tired of watching the team get off to piss poor starts and then playing catch up. I'm tired of watching the other team coming out and playing more confident and enthusiastic. I can only think the coaching staff is doing an awful job preparing the kids tactically and emotionally. Very disappointed.

 

[bobbygt]

The SMU game was supposed to be a game that they could build on. I wasn't expecting another 28 points from Purvis but I also wasn't expecting tentative play or painfully awkward foul shots from him. I also did not expect the entire team to play so dysfunctionally on offense and defense. I'm tired of watching the team get off to piss poor starts and then playing catch up. I'm tired of watching the other team coming out and playing more confident and enthusiastic. I can only think the coaching staff is doing an awful job preparing the kids tactically and emotionally. Very disappointed.

This team is maddeningly similar to the 2009-2010 team, not in terms of the personnel or the factors that have led to such a bad season, but the ups and downs are consistent.

The 'Best Dunks' thread brought me back to the Texas game in 09-10 and I remember how well they played. It was eerily similar to the SMU game this year- they played an almost flawless game, but they played so out of their minds- it isn't sustainable for a team with so many flaws.

Both teams also had two moments in the season where many of us thought they turned a corner:

2009-2010- They beat Texas in a rocking game and followed that up with three straight losses to PC, MQ, and UL
A month later, they beat #3 Nova, RU, and #8 WVU in a three game stretch, They followed this up with FOUR straight losses!

2014-15- After a bad OT loss to Temple, they beat Florida (away), @USF, and Cincy. Not murderer's row by any means, but two solid wins. They followed this up with two ho hum losses at Tulsa and Stanford.
Now we get last night after a game against SMU where they played out of their minds and yet it's just a return to 'normalcy'

Sorry for the long, redundant post. Maybe I just wanted to write something and Fishy did allude to it in his Tire Fire post- this team has at least been consistent in being frustrating to watch.

Hopefully next year will be better!

 

[Milo65]

3) Somewhere along the way, a bunch of these guys got it into their heads that they're shooters. Someone needs to tell them otherwise. Calhoun is back to his habit of being a fern planted on the arc. Samuel should be fitted with blinders that prevent him from seeing the basket unless he's 18" from it. Purvis should not do whatever it is that he does when he has games like this.

In two years T-Sam is 0-17 in three pointers....0% in two years. My 12 year old has a better shooting percentage from 3, against more pressing defense.

 

[Cheeky]

My 12 year old has a better shooting percentage from 3, against more pressing defense.

Has he committed anywhere yet? Does he like cold weather?

 

[Stainmaster]

Has he committed anywhere yet? Does he like cold weather?

Is he ready for people to be calling for him to transfer after one bad game?

 

[John]

Is he ready for people to be calling for him to transfer after one bad game?

nah, he's safe. They'll blame it on the coach.

 

[Calhoun's Court]

The SMU game was supposed to be a game that they could build on. I wasn't expecting another 28 points from Purvis but I also wasn't expecting tentative play or painfully awkward foul shots from him. I also did not expect the entire team to play so dysfunctionally on offense and defense. I'm tired of watching the team get off to piss poor starts and then playing catch up. I'm tired of watching the other team coming out and playing more confident and enthusiastic. I can only think the coaching staff is doing an awful job preparing the kids tactically and emotionally. Very disappointed.

Bottom line until proven otherwise you can't count on RP. He has had way to many lackluster performances this year.

I'm not counting on him going forward being anything more than what he has shown. Mediocre play most of the time with a good performance or two to keep you interested.

I thought coming in we could be getting an Earl Kelly type of player....so far he looks more like Emmett Kelly.

 

[Palatine]

TSam is due from the arc. He's 0-16. The next one has to drop.

 

[BLUEDOGHOUSE]

TSam is due from the arc. He's 0-16. The next one has to drop.

I have a better chance of hitting Powerball.

 

[johnhuskies95]

I understand he's been injured a fair amount, but Calhoun has been extremely disappointing for a top 30-35 recruit

 

[joober jones]

Samuel swished a 3 in a recent game just after the play was whistled dead. Maybe he can only sink them when they don't count.

 

[Cheeky]

As far as Dan Guest is concerned, I liked it. Sure he has no business in a game like that, and that's why it was an effective message. . . . Ollie wanted to send a message.

Guest gave up 6 points and clanged a 3 pointer 14" short in the 3 minutes he was in.

The only message sent by Ollie to Calhoun and Purvis and TSam after the 3 minutes of disastrous play by Mr. Guest was this:

"No matter how bad you are, your spot is safe because this Guest guy has the capacity to lose the game all by himself in about 5 minutes of run time."

Sending in the backup for 10 minutes and sitting the starter - that's a message.
Sending in a scrub for 3 minutes and sitting the starter and the backup - that's a f-up.

 

[Gampeltiles]

Bottom line until proven otherwise you can't count on RP. He has had way to many lackluster performances this year.

I'm not counting on him going forward being anything more than what he has shown. Mediocre play most of the time with a good performance or two to keep you interested.

I thought coming in we could be getting an Earl Kelly type of player....so far he looks more like Emmett Kelly.

Not thrilled with Purvis but watch where you are going. Do you want the Huskies' legacy to be that of Earl Kelley toting a gun around campus, multiple suspensions and, in general, Dom Perno's beyond horrible tenure (with deserved exception to Corny Thompson who deserved so much better)?