UCLA Post Game Thread

[drayenob]

 

[UConn Dan]

 

[REB1094]

Hurley won’t change his underwear during the tournament because of the mojo. 0% chance he will change the starting lineup starting in the sweet 16

Quick hooks and situational rotations is the gameplan. If Solo comes out missing everything and playing bad defense, Ross comes in immediately. If Solo is hitting shots and playing good defense, he stays

 

[Iluvsuebird]

@RuffRuff Two of your takes are aging like spoiled cheese. Your criticisms of our bench and your take on Alex? boy I am very happy to call you out on both of those takes! I am sure you are as well!

 

[uconn_jack]

Not looking forward to playing him because he's a cheap shot player, in the sense I hope he doesn't make one that injures a player.

I wish we had a bruizer deep on the bench we could put out there early and send him a message

 

[uconnyankee]

THAT'S why we have Alex Karaban! He was on a mission from God.

"Ross the Boss" - Huge 3's, a slam, a steal at the end, a wicked dish to Reed, defense and also getting fouled (and draining those 3FTs). Did it all. Huge difference maker.

Malachi super solid game again. Way to step up kid. You did what we asked of you.

Nice to see Mullins get back going. Love it, but please please don't step out of bounds anymore.

Lotta lotta travelling calls on UConn. One of em was even real.

Fear of the Bear left our shooters open.

Glad Danny put Solo back in at the end

Oh and one more thing - shout out to Mick Cronin for the technical and the free points.

Feel like Braylon has been called for stepping on the line almost every game…. Are the courts just bigger in Indiana?

Also, how many travel calls last night on UConn? Seemed odd.

 

[uconn_jack]

I will say it again. Start Ross. No Solo.

Just stop.

 

[RuffRuff]

@RuffRuff Two of your takes are aging like spoiled cheese. Your criticisms of our bench and your take on Alex? boy I am very happy to call you out on both of those takes! I am sure you are as well!

For what it's worth, I made the call Alex would and needed to step up and be the guy last night against a pretty meh UCLA team. It was nice timing for Alex to have the best game of his career, no doubt. I'm happy for him. We could not rely on Solo/Mullins & knew they'd be keying in on Tarris.

As for the bench - Malachi did his part, Ross played amazing.

 

[Sibeerian]

Usually losing brings out the most negative characters, but some posters manage it after enormous wins. You have to admire their tenacity.

 

[Travelman6]

I had to get up at 5:00 am for work and made the tough decision to go to bed very early in the game. We were down three early in the first half when I went to bed. A woke up at least 6 times dreaming about different scenarios where I tried to find out if UConn won such as being at work, school etc. In all of them UConn won. I was thrilled to get up this morning and find out they won.

A couple things from the game stats, Hurley realizing SB didn't have it (0 for 5 shooting). The other is MS playing 32 minutes and scoring only 2 pts. That's a strange stat line. Getting 4 total points from the point between him and SD and still winning by 16 is crazy.

I woke up at 58-54 at exactly 4 am my time on the dot, I think 7:11 left or so. Stuck with them until it was clear they were winning, 69-57 around 1:40 left and went back to sleep but glad they won 11-3 portion of the game that I was up for.

 

[uconnyankee]

We got an extremely favorable draw with the Bilodeau injury, but we survive and advance.

We need to get healthy and make a few strategic adjustments this week (more Ross, run the offense thru the post, less Ball/Mullins 3s).

I really hope Danny doesn’t think that we can keep doing what we’re doing and hope that the 3s start dropping. That won’t get us by a real team.

If Mullins continues to shoot the midrange I’m fine with that.

 

[80shusky]

Great team win. Alex was awesome. Big one coming up with Michigan State. Go Huskies!

 

[RuffRuff]

Usually losing brings out the most negative characters, but some posters manage it after enormous wins. You have to admire their tenacity.

It's great to get to the second weekend - season of stamped success isn't complete. We need to collect one more win, and get to that game for a chance to get to the Final 4. Let's play up to our seed, and have that chance, and at least play well if not win.

 

[Excalibur]

Hero ball is unfair. He’s generally been taking good shots, he’s just not making them.

“Hero Ball” has become a fallback criticism for anyone missing a shot. Player takes an off balance shot at the end of the shot clock, and half of the chat room says it’s “hero ball”. Guy gets past his defender and doesn’t finish — “hero ball”. Player misses open jump shot — “hero ball”.

It’s become one of the phrases that indicates that a poster should be ignored.

 

[FLDawg16]

Has anyone talked about those travel calls? I've never seen so many get called especially when not even moving

 

[uconnever]

Jayden Ross should 100% be starting and getting starter minutes. Take that to mean what you will.

Why?, because he did what bench players are supposed to do? May be him who needs to be picked up next game. Team game. Leave it as is. Whomever isn't playing well, will get substituted out, like always. Why lose Solo mentally when you and I both know, we don't win it all without everyone's help throughout. Let Solo start and hopefully get it going and let Ross keep doing what he is doing. Same as every one else on the team. You hot, you play, you not, you sit. Easy without fracturing the team chemistry you built all season.

 

[RuffRuff]

Why?, because he did what bench players are supposed to do? May be him who needs to be picked up next game. Team game. Leave it as is. Whomever isn't playing well, will get substituted out, like always. Why lose Solo mentally when you and I both know, we don't win it all without everyone's help throughout. Let Solo start and hopefully get it going and let Ross keep doing what he is doing. Same as every one else on the team. You hot, you play, you not, you sit. Easy without fracturing the team chemistry you built all season.

Someone made a good point - may take some pressure of him not starting, waiting to be yanked.

 

[Excalibur]

Someone made a good point - may take some pressure of him not starting, waiting to be yanked.

Just as likely that a player views coming off the bench as “instant offense” as requiring him to jack up shots.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Those two other guys were decent players.

 

[Tyler2Rings]

Has anyone talked about those travel calls? I've never seen so many get called especially when not even moving

I thought they missed a few more travels by Karaban. He's gotta be careful not to move the pivot when he has the ball up top looking for a pass in the flow of our offense

 

[tzznandrew]

They beat NC State who had fewer wins and 13 losses didn't they? Who did NC state beat that makes them more worthy than the Hall? The ACC got 8 teams in and all but 1 are on the couch at home. And the one remaining was getting slapped around by Siena till the end. The committee is enthralled with the ACC for some reason.

Who cares merely about total wins and losses?

NC State was 5-9 in Q1 with wins @ Clemson, @ SMU, and against a healthy UNC.
Seton Hall was 1-6 in Q1 with 0 wins against the Top 3 teams in the Big East (0-7).

If you're going to pick a team, objectively, that gets in, it is 100% NC State. Who also had better metrics across the board in addition to having a better resume.

 

[housekeys]

Concerning Tarris Reed Jr, his free throw shooting has been really good in the tournament, and that is a subtle and important factor in our wins. Nothing kills momentum like poor FT shooting, not to mention how rare it is for UConn to be given attempts. Hope this is not a jinx.

 

[B1GEast]

Ross has been such an X factor

 

[tzznandrew]

Has anyone talked about those travel calls? I've never seen so many get called especially when not even moving

Refs were hyper-vigilant. I'd say excessively so. Some of those calls were like holding in football... you can essentially call them on every play.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Someone made a good point - may take some pressure of him not starting, waiting to be yanked.

If we were fully healthy last night, it may have been a good move to start the game with both Ball and Mullins on the bench, letting both know that they would be substituted in at the first stoppage.

This would have demonstrated that we weren't singling one out for the Furman game, it would have taken pressure off and it may have given each a little chance to see how the opponent was approaching the game.

Regardless, it no longer matters and we're still playing. We don't need to be at our peak immediately. We need to improve at each step until we get to our peak. This tournament could unfold in a manner similar to 2014. If it does, I for one will be thrilled.