UConn at Providence Thoughts

[kansashusky]

This will be a very telling game, and I think we will learn a lot about this years team.

Can Dan Hurley gain some momentum against Ed Cooley? Cooley is 9-2 against Hurley in his coaching career, and has typical had Dan's number. This is obviously Dan's most talented team, so it will be interesting to see if he can keep a level head and out X&O Cooley. I wish our offense was more continuity instead of a zillion sets, because I think we become predictable and easy to scout. Will be interesting with a couple days of practice, if we see any new offsenive wrinkles.

Can Adama get back on track against a quality big? I don't really mind his scoring numbers lately, though they have been down the last three games. But he hasnt been rebounding like he should, and teams have figured out how to scheme him out of the paint and take him outof games. He has not shot hardly any free throws lately ( a teamwide trend that is disturbing). He will be facing one of the most talented bigs in the Big East in Hopkins. I will be interested to see how he plays.

Outside of Villanova, we have not shot a quality amound of freethrows. This has been due to simply not getting to the basket and settling for threes. Can we have someone get to the hole? Our FGP has been sub 50% since LIU and that puts so much pressure on our three point shooting when we are not getting to the FT line.

Rebounding has also dipped as of late. Again, when we go to the glass off of missed layups, we can do a better job rebounding becuase the defense has shifted. When we jack up threes, its hard to rebound.

I want to see us start to truly develop a rotation. Is it awesome that Joey C can come in and light it up occasionally, yes. But guys have to start knowing thier role and we need to develop an identity. The only identity we have right now is depth, but we need to fine tune how we utlize it.

Providence took a while to gel, but they are now rolling and this is a dangerous match up. It will be telling to see how this team rebounds and gets back to business. It has been awhile since we have seen a clean game start to finish.

 

[wheelerdog]

I believe this week will tell us how far we're going in March. Let's get 2

 

[superjohn]

I want to see us start to truly develop a rotation. Is it awesome that Joey C can come in and light it up occasionally, yes. But guys have to start knowing thier role and we need to develop an identity. The only identity we have right now is depth, but we need to fine tune how we utlize it.

Our depth is what makes us so good, for some reason coach went away from it last game and has slashed Clingan's minutes in Big East games when his minutes should be going up more. I would like to see him go back to using our bench, it's a major weapon.

 

[REB1094]

The last couple games has sent a very clear message to every BE coach on how to play UConn.

On defense, deny Sanogo the ball and let somebody else take the shots. On offense, make Sanogo guard on the perimeter by any means necessary.

Honestly I don't know what the fix from Hurley should be. Maybe let Sanogo play drop coverage like Clingan. Maybe swap into a zone when they bring him for high screens. And on offense if Andre can make his shots then that's a great counter, otherwise maybe playing smaller lineups with shooters to force defenses to space

Providence is a great game to get back on track. They've been surging recently (7 wins in a row after a slow start), and it'll be a hostile environment but they aren't the #1 threat in the Big East. Not a must win by any means, but one that is needed to set the tone for the rest of the season. Also another Q1 win on the resume would be great

 

[JustbrewitMan]

I’ve gotten so many chuckles at all the posters who in the past 24h are shrieking “we’re taking too many 3s!!!”…but these are the same ones that had continuously lamented over the last year how we had “no outside shooting game last year and how we needed to develop this to take it to the next level”

Spoiler alert: a 4-out offensive strategy will often result in ~50% of shots being 3s. As long as we continue to shoot at a ~37% or better clip, we are gonna keep winning a ton of games.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

The last couple games has sent a very clear message to every BE coach on how to play UConn.

On defense, deny Sanogo the ball and let somebody else take the shots. On offense, make Sanogo guard on the perimeter by any means necessary.

Honestly I don't know what the fix from Hurley should be. Maybe let Sanogo play drop coverage like Clingan. Maybe swap into a zone when they bring him for high screens. And on offense if Andre can make his shots then that's a great counter, otherwise maybe playing smaller lineups with shooters to force defenses to space

Providence is a great game to get back on track. They've been surging recently (7 wins in a row after a slow start), and it'll be a hostile environment but they aren't the #1 threat in the Big East. Not a must win by any means, but one that is needed to set the tone for the rest of the season. Also another Q1 win on the resume would be great

Some very good thoughts.

Honestly, I think Sanogo may have just had himself an off game on defense vs. Xavier. These young men have this happen occasionally.

He seemed to be a step slow, caught in the middle a lot. In contrast, He had played switches and hedges with much more precision and aggression prior to the X game.

I’m curious to see how he responds vs PC.

 

[AntG168]

Really want/need this win

 

[Zanzman]

I think Providence is in for a world of hurt

 

[kobebeanbryant]

Would be a disaster of a loss

 

[Deepster]

Cmon, folks. Its only Providence.

 

[Huskyfan4evr]

Really need to figure out a way to shut down Hopkins. I’m not sure Karriban has the strength to stop him alone without foul trouble again.

 

[Mister P]

I’m thinking a double digit win to get back on track. We have just too much talent and I think the players will be po’d after losing against X in a tough environment.

Hurley will also be out for revenge against Cooley and he should have the team locked in. I would hope and expect him to run up the score if the game plays out that way.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Providence is not Xavier. Providence has inflated offensive statistics based on recent wins over bad Butler and Depaul teams, but they are very defendable. Cooley will throw a junk defense or two at UConn to try to throw Hurley off, so Hurley has to be prepared, but Providence should not be able to stop UConn either.

 

[gsmooth]

Really want/need this win

Oh yes. I am going to the game against Providence. I really want the win against Creighton, too

 

[gsmooth]

This will be a very telling game, and I think we will learn a lot about this years team.

Can Dan Hurley gain some momentum against Ed Cooley? Cooley is 9-2 against Hurley in his coaching career, and has typical had Dan's number. This is obviously Dan's most talented team, so it will be interesting to see if he can keep a level head and out X&O Cooley. I wish our offense was more continuity instead of a zillion sets, because I think we become predictable and easy to scout. Will be interesting with a couple days of practice, if we see any new offsenive wrinkles.

Can Adama get back on track against a quality big? I don't really mind his scoring numbers lately, though they have been down the last three games. But he hasnt been rebounding like he should, and teams have figured out how to scheme him out of the paint and take him outof games. He has not shot hardly any free throws lately ( a teamwide trend that is disturbing). He will be facing one of the most talented bigs in the Big East in Hopkins. I will be interested to see how he plays.

Outside of Villanova, we have not shot a quality amound of freethrows. This has been due to simply not getting to the basket and settling for threes. Can we have someone get to the hole? Our FGP has been sub 50% since LIU and that puts so much pressure on our three point shooting when we are not getting to the FT line.

Rebounding has also dipped as of late. Again, when we go to the glass off of missed layups, we can do a better job rebounding becuase the defense has shifted. When we jack up threes, its hard to rebound.

I want to see us start to truly develop a rotation. Is it awesome that Joey C can come in and light it up occasionally, yes. But guys have to start knowing thier role and we need to develop an identity. The only identity we have right now is depth, but we need to fine tune how we utlize it.

Providence took a while to gel, but they are now rolling and this is a dangerous match up. It will be telling to see how this team rebounds and gets back to business. It has been awhile since we have seen a clean game start to finish.

Adama should and will guard Croswell or Clifton Moore. Neither of those guys can shoot beyond 7 feet. Sanogo and Clingan should be more comfortable defending on this game. As long as our guards don't get beat off the dribble our centers should be fine on D. Karaban will have to hit his 3s because I am not sure he can guard Hopkins without help.

 

[Gurleyman]

I’ve gotten so many chuckles at all the posters who in the past 24h are shrieking “we’re taking too many 3s!!!”…but these are the same ones that had continuously lamented over the last year how we had “no outside shooting game last year and how we needed to develop this to take it to the next level”

Spoiler alert: a 4-out offensive strategy will often result in ~50% of shots being 3s. As long as we continue to shoot at a ~37% or better clip, we are gonna keep winning a ton of games.

You’re not always going to shoot as well on the road - and in our three road games (Florida, Butler, Xavier) we have had 9, 4 and 9 free throw attempts. Our defense masked that in the first two, but not at X (and since we won big in the first two and lost in the third, we weren’t fouled on purpose).

One reason JC, for better or worse, stayed away from four out most of his career is that he believed that rebounding traveled - playing big meant you weren’t as susceptible to variance in unfamiliar gyms (the 2012 team with Drummond and Oriakhi showed that philosophy was starting to show cracks - and we won in 2014 playing four out because we had no choice with our personnel). But the same underlying philosophy needs to be there to some degree - when we don’t shoot well, we need to get our points through other means - putbacks, fast breaks, getting to the basket, getting to the line. Or just simply lock down on D and make enough shots to win a tight one.

Our 3 percentage is more like 34 if you take out the cupcake outliers. I don’t think that’s good enough to average 7 FTA on the road, or hypothetically in a cavernous dome at the final four. Perhaps that number will improve to the upper 30s, though, as our guys continue to gel, get more comfortable with their roles, and take higher percentage shots. Our offensive efficiency hasn’t been a big issue this year in the metrics and we are 14-1, of course, so we don’t have to tear it all down or anything - but it’s a touch concerning that we’ve been trending in the wrong direction lately. We needed a Joey C explosion against Georgetown and if AJ misses that corner three up 2 against Nova, we’re in a war down the stretch.

 

[navery12]

Our 3 percentage is more like 34 if you take out the cupcake outliers.

This is not true. We shot 35.6% on 28 attempts per game in the 9 legit OOC games/BE play and 38% 26 attempts per game in the 6 cupcake games

 

[CTBasketball]

This is not true. We shot 35.6% on 28 attempts per game in the 9 legit OOC games/BE play and 38% 26 attempts per game in the 6 cupcake games

You’re grilling him for 1.6% lol are you an Ivy League professor?

You’re not always going to shoot as well on the road - and in our three road games (Florida, Butler, Xavier) we have had 9, 4 and 9 free throw attempts. Our defense masked that in the first two, but not at X (and since we won big in the first two and lost in the third, we weren’t fouled on purpose).

One reason JC, for better or worse, stayed away from four out most of his career is that he believed that rebounding traveled - playing big meant you weren’t as susceptible to variance in unfamiliar gyms (the 2012 team with Drummond and Oriakhi showed that philosophy was starting to show cracks - and we won in 2014 playing four out because we had no choice with our personnel). But the same underlying philosophy needs to be there to some degree - when we don’t shoot well, we need to get our points through other means - putbacks, fast breaks, getting to the basket, getting to the line. Or just simply lock down on D and make enough shots to win a tight one.

Our 3 percentage is more like 34 if you take out the cupcake outliers. I don’t think that’s good enough to average 7 FTA on the road, or hypothetically in a cavernous dome at the final four. Perhaps that number will improve to the upper 30s, though, as our guys continue to gel, get more comfortable with their roles, and take higher percentage shots. Our offensive efficiency hasn’t been a big issue this year in the metrics and we are 14-1, of course, so we don’t have to tear it all down or anything - but it’s a touch concerning that we’ve been trending in the wrong direction lately. We needed a Joey C explosion against Georgetown and if AJ misses that corner three up 2 against Nova, we’re in a war down the stretch.

This is all accurate. We didn’t adapt on Saturday, didn’t recognize we weren’t getting calls, and kept playing our usual gameplan.

 

[navery12]

You’re grilling him for 1.6% lol are you an Ivy League professor?

This is all accurate. We didn’t adapt on Saturday, didn’t recognize we weren’t getting calls, and kept playing our usual gameplan.

Not the point I was making, point was there was not a significant difference in how we shot from 3 in the cupcake vs non-cupcake games

 

[Northbound]

Going to be a telling game.

Cooley has plenty of success against DH and some of the PC guys have had success against UConn. Would expect them to have a lot of confidence coming into the game.

Do not think it will be an easy game - rivalry games rarely are.

 

[Gurleyman]

Not the point I was making, point was there was not a significant difference in how we shot from 3 in the cupcake vs non-cupcake games

Fair counterpoint. Stonehill skews the balance since we had a rough shooting effort on opening day - I eyeballed the more recent numbers and glossed over that one (we’re 34 percent in Big East so far). I was also mentally considering Buffalo a non-cupcake, but probably still giving them too much respect from their 30-win season a couple years ago. They aren’t that good anymore.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

One reason JC, for better or worse, stayed away from four out most of his career is that he believed that rebounding traveled - playing big meant you weren’t as susceptible to variance in unfamiliar gyms (the 2012 team with Drummond and Oriakhi showed that philosophy was starting to show cracks - and we won in 2014 playing four out because we had no choice with our personnel). But the same underlying philosophy needs to be there to some degree - when we don’t shoot well, we need to get our points through other means - putbacks, fast breaks, getting to the basket, getting to the line. Or just simply lock down on D and make enough shots to win a tight one.

Agree with everything you’re saying here but in JC’s defense I don’t think he ever wanted to play Drummond and Oriakhi together. Both were traditional centers, he was just trying to get the best players on the floor. Probably a good example of how Sanogo and DC lineups wouldn’t work.

The roster was a really weird fit that year.

 

[prankster]

Cmon, folks. Its only Providence.

I have watched them play twice this season.

They will not be a push- over.

 

[Deepster]

I have watched them play twice this season.

They will not be a push- over.

Yeah. As astute as I'm sure your analysis of them may be, I'm still not concerned.

 

[Brochacho]

I think we are clearly the better team. But we also have had some sort of Big East funk.

Butler (bad) - only up 4 with 9 minutes left
Georgetown (abysmal) - down 2 with 9 minutes left
Villanova (mid) - up 2 with 3 minutes left
Xavier (good) - lost by 10

We aren't playing like a 1 seed right now and Providence is clearly an above average team at least. So really I don't know what to expect.