UConn -2.5 v Nova | Page 2 | The Boneyard

UConn -2.5 v Nova

BigErnMcCracken said:
Why is it so hard just to admit that a win tomorrow would show something they haven’t shown yet this year? It doesn’t mean you hate the team or the players (there are plenty of posters who do that already).
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I understand what it shows. But win or lose my opinion of what this team can do the rest of the way will not change. I know how good it’s good is, I know it’s capable of winning the BET and NCAAT, I don’t need another game or a road win at Nova to tell me that.

If the BET and NCAAT was like the American East and held at campus sites sure I’d feel a tick better if they won, but they are not. And we have shown all we had to on a neutral court this year.
 
HeGotGame said:
I understand what it shows. But win or lose my opinion of what this team can do the rest of the way will not change. I know how good it’s good is, I know it’s capable of winning the BET and NCAAT, I don’t need another game or a road win at Nova to tell me that.

If the BET and NCAAT was like the American East and held at campus sites sure I’d feel a tick better if they won, but they are not. And we have shown all we had to on a neutral court this year.
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How would you feel if this losing this game was the difference between being the last 3 seed in the East, and being a 4 seed in the Midwest where we draw a very good 13 seed?
 
CTBasketball said:
How would you feel if this losing this game was the difference between being the last 3 seed in the East, and being a 4 seed in the Midwest where we draw a very good 13 seed?
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If we are the kind of team we hope we are we need to be able to step up and beat anyone. Can’t be afraid of a 13 seed. No matter where you are placed at some point you have to beat quality sooner or later. Nova at full strength at home tonight would be like playing in a Sweet Sixteen game regardless of their previous record for degree of difficulty. Do I need a win tonight to give me confidence in our prospects? No, but it need to be a close game at least.
 
jibsey said:
If we are the kind of team we hope we are we need to be able to step up and beat anyone. Can’t be afraid of a 13 seed. No matter where you are placed at some point you have to beat quality sooner or later. Nova at full strength at home tonight would be like playing in a Sweet Sixteen game regardless of their previous record for degree of difficulty. Do I need a win tonight to give me confidence in our prospects? No, but it need to be a close game at least.
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So we need to step up and beat anyone, but don’t need to win today.
Leaving Spongebob Squarepants GIF
 
jibsey said:
If we are the kind of team we hope we are we need to be able to step up and beat anyone. Can’t be afraid of a 13 seed. No matter where you are placed at some point you have to beat quality sooner or later. Nova at full strength at home tonight would be like playing in a Sweet Sixteen game regardless of their previous record for degree of difficulty. Do I need a win tonight to give me confidence in our prospects? No, but it need to be a close game at least.
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OK, would you rather have a Sweet 16 matchup against Houston or against Kansas State?

The difference between a 3 and 4 seed can be massive.
 
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Winning is better than losing. Either way, we’re very good. We have many weapons and lots of depth. Other teams would kill to have our roster. We can beat anyone in the country on a neutral court. Let’s play the games. I’m pumped. Go Huskies!
 
HeGotGame said:
I understand what it shows. But win or lose my opinion of what this team can do the rest of the way will not change. I know how good it’s good is, I know it’s capable of winning the BET and NCAAT, I don’t need another game or a road win at Nova to tell me that.

If the BET and NCAAT was like the American East and held at campus sites sure I’d feel a tick better if they won, but they are not. And we have shown all we had to on a neutral court this year.
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I love how Jackson has played recently. And a lot of credit to Jackson and Hurley for figuring it out.

But none of the teams abandoned him on defense quite like Creighton and Xavier did. I’m still concerned about really good coaches completely ignoring him and forcing him to beat us from the outside.

That’s why any comparisons to our out of conference neutral court wins are tough because no one defended us that way then.

A Nova and Creighton win would go a long way for validating our new offensive identity.
 
HeGotGame said:
You posted you were legitimately worried about making the tournament this year. This was in January. But yea, tell me more about people being in their right mind.

I could remind you about the final regular season games of 2011 and 2014. I could not limit it to Uconn and do the same for other teams who have won titles or gone to final fours, but you claim to watch college basketball so you know. q

The players are a lot tougher than the posters on this board, they are still not crying in their cheerios about the St. John’s game (like you) and losing a road game at Nova isn’t going to derail them or the season.
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Of all the people to go off on, @August_West is about the worst choice. Dude bleeds national flag blue.
 
CTBasketball said:
How would you feel if this losing this game was the difference between being the last 3 seed in the East, and being a 4 seed in the Midwest where we draw a very good 13 seed?
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Did I say I want to lose? I want to win by 100.

My point is this game doesn’t change my opinion on how far this team can go. To your point it also doesn’t change if it’s a 3 or a 4.

Obviously the goal is to win out and maybe get a 2. But if we are a 2, 3, or 4 i still know what this team is capable of no matter what they do today.
 
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Giddyup5 said:
I love how Jackson has played recently. And a lot of credit to Jackson and Hurley for figuring it out.

But none of the teams abandoned him on defense quite like Creighton and Xavier did. I’m still concerned about really good coaches completely ignoring him and forcing him to beat us from the outside.

That’s why any comparisons to our out of conference neutral court wins are tough because no one defended us that way then.

A Nova and Creighton win would go a long way for validating our new offensive identity.
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Hurley has changed how we use him on the offense, he's basically living on the baseline. Other teams have ignored him from time to time and he's made them pay by getting offensive boards, catching lobs from guards that are penetrating, and being available when other teams double Sanogo for an easy dump off and dunk. He's also been screening which either gets open looks for our shooters if his defender doesn't come up to the perimeter, or has opened up the paint if he does.
 
Giddyup5 said:
I love how Jackson has played recently. And a lot of credit to Jackson and Hurley for figuring it out.

But none of the teams abandoned him on defense quite like Creighton and Xavier did. I’m still concerned about really good coaches completely ignoring him and forcing him to beat us from the outside.

That’s why any comparisons to our out of conference neutral court wins are tough because no one defended us that way then.

A Nova and Creighton win would go a long way for validating our new offensive identity.
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I know you love nothing more than to hate on Jackson, but why do you think teams aren't completely ignoring him? We've changed our offense, specifically the positioning of Jackson and Karaban, so that Jackson can't be ignored on offense. He's not hanging around the 3 point line anymore, he's cutting to the basket and getting himself in spots where he can make passes for wide open shots or gets to the basket for layups/dunks
 
Tenspro2002 said:
Wow, I'm surprised. Not because the line is wrong, but because I think that's actually pretty appropriate.

We've usually gotten a lot more credit than we deserve, especially for games that should be close. Our first game was -14.5. Based on home/road, you'd have expected this to be like -7.5.

They're either dinging us for underperformance in this kind of spot (finally), or giving Nova a lot of credit for their recent play.
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Yeah, for once I actually agree with the line regarding uconn - if we didn’t look so good the past two games it would’ve been nova -3 guaranteed
 
navery12 said:
I know you love nothing more than to hate on Jackson, but why do you think teams aren't completely ignoring him? We've changed our offense, specifically the positioning of Jackson and Karaban, so that Jackson can't be ignored on offense. He's not hanging around the 3 point line anymore, he's cutting to the basket and getting himself in spots where he can make passes for wide open shots or gets to the basket for layups/dunks
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Spot on. Teams didn't magically start abandoning a successful defensive scheme... we changed our offense.
 
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August_West said:
Rest assured coaches are cooking up a counter to that change. This is where Hurley will have to have the guys prepared with counters to that. In a timely fashion.
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429 said on that chat that Karaban can’t make a layup off one foot and that whoever taught him how play basketball did a terrible job. I admit I have said some stupid things here or on the chat but really?
 
August_West said:
Rest assured coaches are cooking up a counter to that change. This is where Hurley will have to have the guys prepared with counters to that. In a timely fashion.
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The only counter they can run is to defend Jackson, which is what we want them to do. They can either defend him, and it opens the lane up for Newton, Hawk, and Karaban to drive the ball, or they can leave him alone, which opens up the lobs and layups for Jackson. I suppose a zone could be another option, but so few teams play zone nowadays that I wouldn't expect anyone to implement it only to try to stop us, and probably not this late in the year. Even if they do, Hawkins would be salivating at how easily he would get open 3s.
 
Tenspro2002 said:
Wow, I'm surprised. Not because the line is wrong, but because I think that's actually pretty appropriate.

We've usually gotten a lot more credit than we deserve, especially for games that should be close. Our first game was -14.5. Based on home/road, you'd have expected this to be like -7.5.

They're either dinging us for underperformance in this kind of spot (finally), or giving Nova a lot of credit for their recent play.
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It’s also interesting because vegas has been pretty much 1:1 with kenpom on our games this year but we’re 5 point favorites there.
 
Rico444 said:
The only counter they can run is to defend Jackson, which is what we want them to do. They can either defend him, and it opens the lane up for Newton, Hawk, and Karaban to drive the ball, or they can leave him alone, which opens up the lobs and layups for Jackson. I suppose a zone could be another option, but so few teams play zone nowadays that I wouldn't expect anyone to implement it only to try to stop us, and probably not this late in the year. Even if they do, Hawkins would be salivating at how easily he would get open 3s.
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There are other components. I could see a coach deciding to hound Sanogo at the top. He’s been very effective operating there , but with very little ball pressure . Easy counters to someone doing it, but the battle is recognition and adjustment.
 
August_West said:
There are other components. I could see a coach deciding to hound Sanogo at the top. He’s been very effective operating there , but with very little ball pressure . Easy counters to someone doing it, but the battle is recognition and adjustment.
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Oh yeah there will be other counters for sure, but I don't see anything as substantial as what they did to Jackson earlier this year.
 
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Rico444 said:
The only counter they can run is to defend Jackson, which is what we want them to do. They can either defend him, and it opens the lane up for Newton, Hawk, and Karaban to drive the ball, or they can leave him alone, which opens up the lobs and layups for Jackson. I suppose a zone could be another option, but so few teams play zone nowadays that I wouldn't expect anyone to implement it only to try to stop us, and probably not this late in the year. Even if they do, Hawkins would be salivating at how easily he would get open 3s.
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Great post @Rico444.

Teams have two choices with Jackson. Play him straight up and gamble it will throw Uconn's offense off, or continue to play off him, and have UConn run the same offense they have for the last 6 weeks.

You can only change your defense game plan on defense so much when you have a dominant 3 point shooter in Hawkins, a stretch 4, and 2 very good post players.
 
August_West said:
There are other components. I could see a coach deciding to hound Sanogo at the top. He’s been very effective operating there , but with very little ball pressure . Easy counters to someone doing it, but the battle is recognition and adjustment.
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I don't think this would work. UConn may struggle for 2-3 minutes with this, but if they send a back cut, it will be layup city. Hard to double a guy at the logo/FT line on the floor.
 
FWIW--Its been interesting to watch Hawk and Andre working the new scheme.. Hawk believes there is no better option on the floor to put the ball in the hole than himself--shooter's mentality.. But with Karaban and Andre reversing roles--I've noticed Hawk looking a little bit more for Andre on the baseline/dunker's spot.. If Andre could learn to rub his defender off picks down low(like Hawkins is now doing).. He could be so much more efficient than he's already shown.

What I find so intriguing is the trust that you have to have established with Hawk to "deserve" a look from him..a pass from him.. I believe Andre has got that trust.. Looks to me like they're having a lot of fun and success with the scheme.. Not to mention the rest of the team for other reasons.
 
ucp990411 said:
429 said on that chat that Karaban can’t make a layup off one foot and that whoever taught him how play basketball did a terrible job. I admit I have said some stupid things here or on the chat but really?
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He can't make layups off one foot, particularly his right. He uses a jump stop even when he's ahead of the opponent in transition. For such a fundamentally sound player, it's a glaring weakness.

It's not my fault you have no eye for evaluating skills. That would be excuseable if you weren't also being a tool about it.
 
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Rico444 said:
The only counter they can run is to defend Jackson, which is what we want them to do. They can either defend him, and it opens the lane up for Newton, Hawk, and Karaban to drive the ball, or they can leave him alone, which opens up the lobs and layups for Jackson. I suppose a zone could be another option, but so few teams play zone nowadays that I wouldn't expect anyone to implement it only to try to stop us, and probably not this late in the year. Even if they do, Hawkins would be salivating at how easily he would get open 3s.
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Transition defense is something opponents will look to tighten up to stop that. We have been extremely effective when Jackson runs in transition with the ball, and gets to the dunker-ish, turns his back to the baseline and initiates the offense from there. If they could that spot away from him, we'd get a few less easy buckets.

Like anything... easier said than done. But it's what I'd try to do.

Other things I'd so... force Karaban left, double with Newton and Alleyne's man (streaky... hope for the best), try to force Alleyne and Hawkins into mid-range shots, and try to force Sanogo away from the top of the key. He clearly put in the work to learn to operate there... not nearly as effective on the wing.

Reality is that if 3 of Hawkins, Newton, Alleyne and Karaban are hitting shots... we probably aren't losing.
 
Is roast pork really worth it? Debating where to get lunch down here.
 
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