Thoughts on the lack of assists?

[Marty Jackson]

commentators made it a big deal, and I suppose if we lost, it might get more air time around here.
Really surprised with Adams and Gilbert we aren't seeing more penetration and dishing, or some crazy highlight reel passes. even the back door alley-oops seem absent for the most part. Instead they seem intent on penetrating and scoring.

I think I like this better than just sitting on the perimeter and chucking bricks off the rim but this seems to limit our offensive potential.

 

[elmcityboy]

i think it's partially a product of our poor shooting:

guys missing open looks = assists lost on the box score.

i don't have the wherewithal to count how many times that happened last night, but i imagine it was at least a handful.

 

[UConnSwag11]

commentators made it a big deal, and I suppose if we lost, it might get more air time around here.
Really surprised with Adams and Gilbert we aren't seeing more penetration and dishing, or some crazy highlight reel passes. even the back door alley-oops seem absent for the most part. Instead they seem intent on penetrating and scoring.

I think I like this better than just sitting on the perimeter and chucking bricks off the rim but this seems to limit our offensive potential.

not worried about it. our guards were eating them off the pick and roll the entire game. why fix something that isn't broken? the ball movement was good and our bigs were in foul trouble. I don't see it being a problem going forward... i hope not

 

[B1GEast]

The guards just penetrated and scored. No need to pass the ball when you have a good look at the rim inside the paint.

If anything, that lack of assists stat looks bad for the Oregon defense, not Uconn's offense

 

[August_West]

This

i think it's partially a product of our poor shooting:

guys missing open looks = assists lost on the box score.

i don't have the wherewithal to count how many times that happened last night, but i imagine it was at least a handful.

Plus this

not worried about it. our guards were eating them off the pick and roll the entire game. why fix something that isn't broken? the ball movement was good and our bigs were in foul trouble. I don't see it being a problem going forward... i hope not

= case closed


No issues here. You do what works. And man teams are going to have fits handling us On P n R this year.

This is the way Ollie’s been trying to play for years. He wants at least 3 or 4 guys on the floor who can kill you off bounce at all times. I’m glad he’s got the horses to do it . now we get to find out if it is a winning formula. It doesn’t look like one when you don’t have smart guys tight with ball, it may end up looking like genius if it is successful.

 

[ctchamps]

not worried about it. our guards were eating them off the pick and roll the entire game. why fix something that isn't broken? the ball movement was good and our bigs were in foul trouble. I don't see it being a problem going forward... i hope not

Agree. Coaches watched tape of Oregon, observed their weakness and exploited it. If TL had a better shooting night there would have been more kick outs.

Kids played Husky tough but you could tell they had nerves with the number of free throws they missed.

Winning, especially beating good opponents, increases confidence.

This team is still tight. Combo of lot of new faces and a hangover from last season’s bad performance. When Jalen really believes this years team is not going to bite him like last year his game results will put him in AA status.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Not concerned because our penetration was working so well. BC only had 55 passing yards vs us last week, but they ran for 340 yards. Do you think they’re concerned by the lack of passing yards?

 

[UConnSwag11]

This


Plus this



= case closed


No issues here. You do what works. And man teams are going to have fits handling us On P n R this year.

This is the way Ollie’s been trying to play for years. He wants at least 3 or 4 guys on the floor who can kill you off bounce at all times. I’m glad he’s got the horses to do it . now we get to find out if it is a winning formula. It doesn’t look like one when you don’t have smart guys tight with ball, it may end up looking like genius if it is successful.

Yup. Next thing he would love is to have a wing/big like daniels and Giffey for the pick and pop. Hoping that can be larrier and polley this year. Maybe carlton

 

[uconngb]

Not concerned because our penetration was working so well. BC only had 55 passing yards vs us last week, but they ran for 340 yards. Do you think they’re concerned by the lack of passing yards?

Good analogy

 

[HuskyHawk]

First, whoever kept stats was a moron. There were a few more than recorded. Second, while penetration was working, it got very sloppy and we missed too many layups. If not for the absurdly tight calls, we lose this game with that strategy. Against a team like Cinci, that fouls you twice on every offensive possession, the refs won’t call it this way. Oregon was strange in that I’ve never seen a team push off so much on offense. They got called several times, and got away with it a ton too.

I’ll withhold judgment until I see more games, but we won’t go far against quality teams without better ball movement and shooting.

 

[Fishy]

I watched the game again this morning.

The broadcast team was derailed by something in the boxscore and not anything on the floor.

Ideally, you’d rather have more than four assists, but you also like to win games and UConn won. So I don’t care.

The worst habit our offense has at times is that it goes east-west 30’ from the basket. A low-major has no trouble defending that offense because it’s so incredibly passive. If it was too aggressive last night, well, good.

It still wasn’t good offense, but it was a less bad offense and when combined with a much-improved defense, it was less bad enough.

 

[UConnRock]

UConn was running a motion offense with high post pick & roll. The shots in this offense revolve around penetration and pull ups which reduces assist numbers. If the penetration and pull ups were not working assist numbers would rise.

Oregon only had 7 assists, with Pritchard having only 1.

 

[Chief00]

This


Plus this



= case closed


No issues here. You do what works. And man teams are going to have fits handling us On P n R this year.

This is the way Ollie’s been trying to play for years. He wants at least 3 or 4 guys on the floor who can kill you off bounce at all times. I’m glad he’s got the horses to do it . now we get to find out if it is a winning formula. It doesn’t look like one when you don’t have smart guys tight with ball, it may end up looking like genius if it is successful.

Agree on many points - but at end of day we also need players who can pop and shoot off pick and rolls schemes. Against, MSU Gilbert will struggle getting a shot off inside I think.

 

[Mr. French]

i think it's partially a product of our poor shooting:

guys missing open looks = assists lost on the box score.

i don't have the wherewithal to count how many times that happened last night, but i imagine it was at least a handful.

That's true, but add to that it seemed yesterday guys were looking for their shots on drives almost exclusively, very few kick out 3s, and as you said, the ones we had, we missed.

Definitely not a GOOD sign, but the announcers made it seem like we didn't pass once in our offenses, which wasn't the case they just had nothing else to say.

 

[UConnSwag11]

Agree on many points - but at end of day we also need players who can pop and shoot off pick and rolls schemes. Against, MSU Gilbert will struggle getting a shot off inside I think.

Then he drops 10 dimes tonight and scores off turnovers. The Adams and larrier eat

 

[Chief00]

I watched the game again this morning.

The broadcast team was derailed by something in the boxscore and not anything on the floor.

Ideally, you’d rather have more than four assists, but you also like to win games and UConn won. So I don’t care.

The worst habit our offense has at times is that it goes east-west 30’ from the basket. A low-major has no trouble defending that offense because it’s so incredibly passive. If it was too aggressive last night, well, good.

It still wasn’t good offense, but it was a less bad offense and when combined with a much-improved defense, it was less bad enough.

Agree 100%. It was the game plan to beat them off the dribble. However, its so important for our guards to hit foul shots when the refs call fouls on the penetration. The Bigs will also need some touches, except Big Dave, to keep them happy. Big Dave reminds me of Jake that way - he doesn’t command touches. Cobb and Carlton will want to see the ball on occasion.

 

[MexicoHusky]

An emphasis of KO coming off the BU game was more dribble penetration and less 3s. We got that in a huge way. They drove the ball right down the middle relentlessly. Maybe as much and as good as UCONN has ever done.

So in one game the team went from not driving enough to driving as much as a team can drive. I'm not sure I've ever seen our team respond to the coaches instructions like this. With that in mind i have very little to complain about.

We won a road game most expected us to lose. And the team listened to the coaches and implemented what they asked like I've never (or rarely) seen. I could not be happier.

I'm now curious what KOs post game comments where. What did he not like about last night's game. Will this team continue to effortlessly implement what KO wants like they did against Oregon? If yes, we are really going to like this group of players.

So i don't really care about our low assist numbers. I definitely don't care what the broadcast announcers think. If anything I'm impressed with our ability to win and defy traditional basketbell logic. The logic that says ball movement = good offense. We had good offense. We also had almost no ball movement. It didnt matter. Our 4 guards are the game plan. They provide an advantage that defies basketball logic.

 

[Tenspro2002]

not worried about it. our guards were eating them off the pick and roll the entire game. why fix something that isn't broken? the ball movement was good and our bigs were in foul trouble. I don't see it being a problem going forward... i hope not

Except it wasn't the entire game. We scored about 10 points over 13 minutes to start the 2nd half while turning a 9-point lead into a 5-point deficit. The lack of adjustment almost cost us the game.

Fortunately, we finished the game strong and got some timely buckets and free throws.

But KO simply has to develop another option for when "go 1-on-1 off the dribble" isn't working.

 

[James]

bad offensive team right now but the defense is very intriguing and that’s Ollie’s strength as a coach. Setting screens higher up to allow ag and co to get ‘downhill’ faster could help, also just hitting shots.

 

[Stinger92860]

I watched the game again this morning.

The broadcast team was derailed by something in the boxscore and not anything on the floor.

Ideally, you’d rather have more than four assists, but you also like to win games and UConn won. So I don’t care.

The worst habit our offense has at times is that it goes east-west 30’ from the basket. A low-major has no trouble defending that offense because it’s so incredibly passive. If it was too aggressive last night, well, good.

It still wasn’t good offense, but it was a less bad offense and when combined with a much-improved defense, it was less bad enough.

Less bad enough is good enough when you win!

 

[nomar]

I watched the game again this morning.

The broadcast team was derailed by something in the boxscore and not anything on the floor.

Ideally, you’d rather have more than four assists, but you also like to win games and UConn won. So I don’t care.

The worst habit our offense has at times is that it goes east-west 30’ from the basket. A low-major has no trouble defending that offense because it’s so incredibly passive. If it was too aggressive last night, well, good.

It still wasn’t good offense, but it was a less bad offense and when combined with a much-improved defense, it was less bad enough.

"The Less Bad, the Bad and the Ugly"

 

[aceboon]

I also counted 7 assists in the highlight clip of the made field goals, not the 4 in the box score.

 

[Excalibur]

Don't overlook the number of foul calls as well. Tough to get assists when you're fouled as soon as you get close to the lane.

Anyway, it's only a concern if it becomes a pattern. Last night the orders were to attack off the dribble and the players followed orders.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

I watched the game again this morning.

The broadcast team was derailed by something in the boxscore and not anything on the floor.

Ideally, you’d rather have more than four assists, but you also like to win games and UConn won. So I don’t care.

The worst habit our offense has at times is that it goes east-west 30’ from the basket. A low-major has no trouble defending that offense because it’s so incredibly passive. If it was too aggressive last night, well, good.

It still wasn’t good offense, but it was a less bad offense and when combined with a much-improved defense, it was less bad enough.

#lessbadenough UConn 17-18

 

[UChusky916]

As others have stated, we got good looks at the rim with penetration off pick and roll isolation plays. Ollie kept drawing them up forcing them to stop it and Oregon failed to adjust.

A few times the drives were out of control, but on a lot of the misses there were fouls and we hit the glass hard offensively to make up for it.

I would like to see more penetration and kick-outs or dishes. Doesn't have to be for a 3. Loved Gilbert finding Anderson for a easy dunk off his penetration, we need more of that.