Trying to restore sanity

[cullaville]

The prime objective of any team pursuing a high seed in the NCAA tournament is NO BAD LOSSES. We have two (Colorado and Dayton). Amazingly, Villanova does not count as a bad loss.

Losses to St. John’s and Creighton don’t kill a team on Selection Sunday, but bad losses do.

Not that I expect UCONN to win every game but any loss is a bad loss.

 

[pj]

Hurley believed he could coach up defense, now his belief is being tested. He has another month to do it. If the team gets healthy and Hurley pulls the defense together, we'll be competitive. If we are still impaired and the defense doesn't come together, we'll lose.

The officiating has been much more favorable to us / our style of play in the NCAA tourney in both of the last two years. If that recurs, we will look a lot better in the tourney. We'll be one of the wild card teams that has potential to surprise.

 

[RuffRuff]

Hurley believed he could coach up defense, now his belief is being tested. He has another month to do it. If the team gets healthy and Hurley pulls the defense together, we'll be competitive. If we are still impaired and the defense doesn't come together, we'll lose.

The officiating has been much more favorable to us / our style of play in the NCAA tourney in both of the last two years. If that recurs, we will look a lot better in the tourney. We'll be one of the wild card teams that has potential to surprise.

Only way to watch this season is to hedge potential disappointment with a macro appreciation of where this program is and will be, and with a healthy dose of reality that it's really hard to be amazing 3 years in a row when your rosters are taking off for the NBA. Hurley can't turn water into wine year over year, no one can. Sure it's easy to say coulda shoulda in hindsight, feels good to feel smart based on retrospect. F, if I had a high functioning crystal ball I'd be a hall of fame coach. Right now it's game to game, hoping this team finds a groove at just the right time to make some noise. In the meantime, we can all have fun being lunatics on the Boneyard. Isn't that what this place is for? If not, maybe us lunatics can branch off and start our own board called the Little Red Asylum.

We have a stud recruiting class coming in, best staff in the country and slowly seeding the NBA with little Husklets to adorn the wall. Life is good. If we don't make the run we're all hoping for, next year looks really promising. We can then pull for all our little brothers to have some time in the sun, and enjoy the beautiful product known as college hoops.

Think about this: Kansas, a blue blood, won a title and has been preseason number 1 the last two years. They have what many consider a HOF coach. They've had 3 guys drafted off the last two teams (McCullar, Furphy, Dick), and what many consider the best portal classes those two years, an AA among them. They've had two burger boys (Bidunga & Jackson). They flamed out early last year and don't look at all like a contender this year. UNC was preseason number 1 in 2023 and didn't even make the tournament. A lot of things have to happen to win it. This stuff ain't easy, it's built for some parity and what makes the last two years glorious.

 

[homunculus]

So are you claiming that we are so bad/pure defensively that we do not "grab, hold, or shove" on defense? We commit a million fouls a game because we cannot keep anyone in front of us. Watch us play defense. We commit fouls off the ball, too, that are not called. Hell, I don't think Samson has executed a legal screen in two years.

I concur that the freedom of movement thing is not called. But it's not called on us either. If teams are getting wide-open looks or having a layup line its because of our poor defense. Not some officiating bias. Also, isn't it a bit contradictory to state that Memphis was so physical and getting away with stuff and then say our offense was "fine" and "good"? If it was such a horrendous oversight by the officials, then how did we still drop 90+?

Yeah, I tried to cram too much into one post and lost my own thought. So I’ll do the more direct tldr:
1) Mahaney was the starter at PG and did well against one of the more aggressive defenses we’ve played. The narrative that he is not capable of contributing is false.

2) Teams have absolutely been using an overtly physical approach with us and it’s been largely working. Yeah we commit fouls, Samson sets poor screens, but he’s not grabbing fistfuls of jersey or clotheslining people. We need to adjust. I believe we can.

There’s a finer line between missing the tournament and winning the championship than people want to admit. I’m not talking kenpom and seed, I’m talking team adjustments and light bulbs coming on. It’s possible.

 

[1999GoodSon]

With all things considered, the three-peat rebel yell will go down in Husky lore of the best example of "your mouth writing a check your ___ can't cash

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

With all things considered, the three-peat rebel yell will go down in Husky lore of the best example of "your mouth writing a check your ___ can't cash

 

[NJHusky]

We don't have the horses on defense to close out those games. I think everything else is fluff, honestly. We've managed to score without AK playing up to his potential, and even with Mahaney barely knowing how to tie his own shoes before the game against high-major competition.

We just can't defend... I mean, CENTRAL has a better defensive rating than us. There are only a handful of high-major teams with worse defense than us. We don't cause turnovers (#238), foul too much (#337), can't defend the 3 (#293)... Our 2pt defense and defensive rebounding are top-100, but not elite. And not enough to make up for how much our perimeter defense is killing us.

Solo, Mahaney and Jaylin's defense are horrendous. Hass is hobbled and AK was never great. Liam is improving, but a freshman. Ross is fine but flawed too. There's just too many pieces to hide on defense for this team to be anything but alright at the end of the day.

I still enjoy watching them play, but championship expectations aren't there for me.

Great post. If we get to the S16 I will be happy

 

[aceboon]

1) Colorado is one of the worst power conference teams and that was already clear when UConn played them so to even have a loss against them is not good. 2) Outside of the Memphis game Karaban playing like hot dog water in every single one of those close losses is cause for alarm considering you can't expect any kind of consistent good play from him.

After back-to-back I'm good with just making the tourney and any win will be enough for me, but given what we've seen this season you kinda expect how this season will end...