UConn - Florida post game thread

[Kembacity]

Their backup center scored over him and made the “too small” gesture.

Castleton drove right at him and scored over him.

There were at least 1-2 other plays where they scored over him. It didn’t matter.

He was great tonight. I’m not being critical, it’s okay to admit he got beat a few times. He was still a net positive by a wide margin.

You sure you’re not being critical?

 

[SoFla Steve]

After the win, we move up to #2 in the KenPom rankings. Now waiting for the NET to update.

 

[fatlucy]

I was looking at Newtons stat line and it was fine until you get the turns. Last night he was able to bring the ball up but became hesitant after crossing mid-court. They need to get hom a screen or flash someone to the middle and pass the ball before the double comes. I expect to see this in the next game.

There were a few times he had no one to pass the ball to. There were no cuts.

 

[GetTheFacts]

I went to the game, and was extremely impressed. I did not foresee Clingan outplaying Castleton, who is supposed to be one of the best players in the SEC, if not the best. Sanogo more than held his own against him too. Jackson does so many little things well, and his ball handling has improved significantly. I think he slots in the primary PG role if it isn't happening already. Newton, Diarra, Alleyne, and Karaban were all basically non-existent and we still won by 21 points. This team is so legit.

 

[HungryHu5ky]

Newton has to start attacking the basket with floaters & contact lay ups he looking to pass too much especially with clingan in too many forces lobs when he should be looking for his own as Joey Cal does .. love the adjustment Hawkins made to take mid range shots & not settle for 3s coming off the screens that will push his game to another level .. can wait for Samson to come back we could use his athleticism & length I like Karaban but these last 2 games showed his weakness against better athletes

 

[BlueMAB]

You sure you’re not being critical?

This place....I can't believe i have to do this, and yet i'm not surprised I have to do this....again.

Here's the post I was responding to.

They couldn't do anything near the basket when Clingan was in there.

I posted a few things they did near the basket when Clingan was in there.

Did they not happen?

I also said. "He was great", and "he was a net positive by a wide margin."

You sure you're not intentionally misrepresenting my post by ignoring the positive things I posted?

Some of you are insanely sensitive when it comes to honest evaluation.

 

[HuskyHawk]

And, he got torched on defense a few times like @HuskyHawk said. Both things can be true.

It's funny how I have been called out as a bit of a fanboy of Akok and then Johnson. @superjohn has a man-crush on Clingan like I've rarely seen. He did have a good game, no doubt.

 

[superjohn]

It's funny how I have been called out as a bit of a fanboy of Akok and then Johnson. @superjohn has a man-crush on Clingan like I've rarely seen. He did have a good game, no doubt.

You've talked about Samson like he's Chris Bosh for a year straight. We all hope he's great but he's proven nothing in UConn games. Clingan has been a beast since he stepped on the court and is probably putting up some of the best per 40 #'s in the country. Talking a lot about someone who is dominating makes sense, what you've been doing for the past year with Samson doesn't make sense.

 

[dennismenace]

Well offensively we played like our C/C- game and we destroyed them.

Clingan was the best player on the court and player of the game and when he wasn't out there Sanogo was the best player on the floor along with Hawk. Hawk is becoming very Rip and Ray like with his constant movement/sprinting off off screens.

Our defense is always great and defense travels. Florida was totally demoralized with about 6 minutes left.

All of this happened with our point guards playing horribly and getting nothing from Karaban and Alleyne on offense. The point guard play was unacceptable and Hurley is going to be on them.

I just don't see many losses on the schedule this year, it's getting harder to envision losses when we can play that poorly on the offensive end and still mop up on the road.

Point guard play has to be better and Alleyne has to start giving us something on offense for us to really show how great we are. I know Hurley is all about defense but Joey gives us so much more than the other guys on offense. He was a gigantic pickup.

Great post and spot on. Alleyne is a head scratcher. He is a proven player and high % shooter.
I think Hurley needs some patience with some of these guys. Our other PG's looked like they were physically outmatched and so did Karaban at times. Same thing against Oklahoma State. Looked like Fla picked up on that and used the same strategy. Alleyne might remedy that being more muscular against some of the more physical teams. Love watching Joey C come in and fly around and bring the offensive spark with some great shooting. Big East will bring plenty of rock fights and we will need to bring some muscle in from time to time. In addition to Alleyne I still would like to see some minutes by Springs. Not a lot; just a little bit of enforcement for some teams. I don't agree with the rigid old school short rotation because our strength comes from our depth and commitment to team ball. Love seeing the unselfishness and our captains provide a work ethic and on floor leadership that is spectacular. They just keep coming at you in waves. As pointed out above Fla. totally demoralized in front of their fans at game end. LOL at DC doing the gator chomp at the end.

 

[Hoophound]

Newton is being way too unselfish. He needs to reclaim his mojo. Every team needs a lead guard and Newton has to be ours. If he starts playing the way he’s capable of, we’ll be nearly impossible to beat.

 

[dennismenace]

N

No tech on uf coach early was a very clear sign of what the night would bring.

LOL That outburst was a little scary; he looked like a psycho in a horror movie and I was wondering where that was going to end.

 

[ctchamps]

Crazy how much the guards were turning it over tonight. That made it feel like we were playing like crap through a few stretches of the game.
Is alleyne a 10 minute per game guy now?

No! On rewatch I iso'd his defense. It was excellent. Also liked his two drives to the basket even though they weren't successful i liked that he went to the hoop strong. He'll be an important cog in the team effort and victories. Just needs to find his confidence making threes.

 

[ctchamps]

It’s still relatively early in the season. Dare I say that we might get better as the season progresses? Obviously a lot of comments here on Allenye, Newtown and Diarra and their contributions to date. What I will say is they are transfers and might still be in the process of adjusting. Yes you can make the case that Joey C is also a transfer but maybe it was just an easier transition for him? I can only imagine the ceiling if we can get more offense from those three transfers.

My feeling is that the coaches are now trying to get Newton and Diarra away form iso scoring and more into drive and assist or 4 out hitting the curl player. It's a learning curve. That's why the long leash in spite of the turnovers.

Defense on the other hand has no leash and the timeout and quick hook for Diarra showed that.

Alleyne played stellar defense and set up some great screens on offense. I didn't notice it in live game action because my eyes focused on the other players but focused on him during replay watching. He's going to win us some games sooner or later similar to Polley on offense but unlike Polley he'll be a significant contributor on defense in most games.

 

[karstenkibbe]

It's funny how I have been called out as a bit of a fanboy of Akok and then Johnson. @superjohn has a man-crush on Clingan like I've rarely seen. He did have a good game, no doubt.

You had downright man-love for Akok and man-hate for Polley!

 

[ctchamps]

Newton has to start attacking the basket with floaters & contact lay ups he looking to pass too much especially with clingan in too many forces lobs when he should be looking for his own as Joey Cal does .. love the adjustment Hawkins made to take mid range shots & not settle for 3s coming off the screens that will push his game to another level .. can wait for Samson to come back we could use his athleticism & length I like Karaban but these last 2 games showed his weakness against better athletes

To belabor the point I've already been making in this thread I believe the coaches are trying to transform Newton's game away from a scoring guard to a passing guard.

He's had to be the primary scorer on offensively challenged teams. The coaches want to expand his tool belt. The triple double was fools gold. The coaches and team were working on other aspects of of the teams play so Newton continued doing what he did best. Now they are working on driving and getting assists to our bigs.

You see it with Hawkins, Andre, Diarra and Joey C as well. Joey is the player who has demonstrated he's best at it currently. But the others will be there. I've noticed a lot of fans in this forum want Andre to drive to the basket. I think he's deliberately avoiding that to set an example for the other players working on this aspect of the game. Andre is a team first leader. Probably the first one since Rickey Moore who is less invested in his personal stats but does anything the coaches asks of him.

They could have pulled Newton or told him to revert to his style but they stuck with the game plan on national tv against an NCAA 8-9 seed. That's how good this team is. Most teams don't have that luxury to work out their kinks against above average opponents for the entire game.

 

[superjohn]

To belabor the point I've already been making in this thread I believe the coaches are trying to transform Newton's game away from a scoring guard to a passing guard.

He's had to be the primary scorer on offensively challenged teams. The coaches want to expand his tool belt. The triple double was fools gold. The coaches and team were working on other aspects of of the teams play so Newton continued doing what he did best. Now they are working on driving and getting assists to our bigs.

You see it with Hawkins, Andre, Diarra and Joey C as well. Joey is the player who has demonstrated he's best at it currently. But the others will be there. I've noticed a lot of fans in this forum want Andre to drive to the basket. I think he's deliberately avoiding that to set an example for the other players working on this aspect of the game. Andre is a team first leader. Probably the first one since Rickey Moore who is less invested in his personal stats but does anything the coaches asks of him.

They could have pulled Newton or told him to revert to his style but they stuck with the game plan on national tv against an NCAA 8-9 seed. That's how good this team is. Most teams don't have that luxury to work out their kinks against above average opponents for the entire game.

There's no way the staff is telling Andre to turn down taking it to the rim, taking it to the basket and finishing is still the major deficiency in his game and the staff worked on it all summer with him. Unfortunately it has yet to translate in games.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

There's no way the staff is telling Andre to turn down taking it to the rim, taking it to the basket and finishing is still the major deficiency in his game and the staff worked on it all summer with him. Unfortunately it has yet to translate in games.

Yeah, to add to this, if he shows that more in games, teams are going to have to respect it more, which will draw help defense and open up more easy looks for Sanogo/Clingan.

 

[BlueMAB]

They could have pulled Newton or told him to revert to his style but they stuck with the game plan on national tv against an NCAA 8-9 seed. That's how good this team is. Most teams don't have that luxury to work out their kinks against above average opponents for the entire game.

Agreed. Maybe I'm giving Hurley too much credit, but I think he saw Newton struggling and said "let's let him play through it because we can still beat these guys". AJax looked much more comfortable bringing the ball up, but only did it a few times, and once he crossed half court (for half court sets), he gave the ball to Newton and they began their set.

I wouldn't be surprised if Hurley was playing the long game by letting Newton struggle and continue to play because it will pay off by March.

 

[Get a Job]

This team is spectacular and just spanked an SEC team on the road, an impressive feat no matter what. Did anyone else get the feeling, though, that this Florida team is really bad? Or at least pretty bad? They looked to me like the worst of our non-cupcake opponents.

 

[awfuldan]

Oscar Tshiebwe, Drew Timme and the rest of the top 20 bigs in men's college basketball

So many elite big men returned to college hoops that it made life difficult for Sam Vecenie.

theathletic.com

Before the season started, The Athletic ranked Colin Castleton as the 7th best big man in all of college basketball (Adama Sanogo at #12 - bulletin board material???)

In last night's game, he was the third best big man on his own home court. Dominated.

 

[auror]

Oscar Tshiebwe, Drew Timme and the rest of the top 20 bigs in men's college basketball

So many elite big men returned to college hoops that it made life difficult for Sam Vecenie.

theathletic.com

Before the season started, The Athletic ranked Colin Castleton as the 7th best big man in all of college basketball (Adama Sanogo at #12 - bulletin board material???)

In last night's game, he was the third best big man on his own home court. Dominated.

To be fair, Castleton was pretty good last night. Especially that stretch to start the second half. He was probably the third best player on the court. He was one of the main reasons our offense looked kind of weird at times, guards were afraid to drive into the paint, and he kept reading the lobs and picking them off. Their defense kept him on an island to stay on shooters though, and eventually we just had enough reps to get done. And he did struggle finishing over Clingan, but so has everyone else.

 

[djct1999]

I think the biggest positive from this game is the ease we seemed to have won the game while our offensive execution was the worst its been maybe all season. It didn't matter. This team is so good defensively and pushes the ball up the floor so well and fast that even on an "off" night we can dominate. And we did. Our depth is remarkable. In every game this year we had a key guy or 2 have an off night and it doesn't matter. They are so well coached, so prepared, and so team orientated, its a joy to watch them compete. This group is special. Still so many positives. I felt Newton and Diarra really struggled. Unfortunately, it felt that the two early fouls took Karaban out of the game. Overall, just another impressive night by an impressive group.

 

[SubbaBub]

A small cloud on the horizon was that Florida's defense was pretty effective in stretches against UConn, especially against our pick-and-roll. Future opponents looking at that game film may try to mimic that in-your-face man-to-man defense, and then making late commits on the help defense. One way to play that for UConn is to pick-and-pop instead of roll, and have a cutter on the weakside.

It will be interesting to see how the coaches adjust, because we are going to see a similar defense again.

The most effective approach will be to deny the ball inside, hope none of the perimeter players go off and clean the defensive glass. They can also hope both Sanogo and Clingan get in foul trouble but that requires an offensive big man and a one way official.

The Perdue center looks tough, but he's playing munchkins. I think we could wear him out even if we couldn't completely stop him.

The other potential for a loss is a hot 3pt shooting team combined with our tendency to lose focus and waste possessions. We could have won that game by 60.

 

[ctchamps]

Agreed. Maybe I'm giving Hurley too much credit, but I think he saw Newton struggling and said "let's let him play through it because we can still beat these guys". AJax looked much more comfortable bringing the ball up, but only did it a few times, and once he crossed half court (for half court sets), he gave the ball to Newton and they began their set.

I wouldn't be surprised if Hurley was playing the long game by letting Newton struggle and continue to play because it will pay off by March.

It was because AJ kept giving it back to Newton I made my statement. Glad you pointed it out. Game looked far more disjointed than it had to but UConn still wins big. The coaches won't sacrifice wins for March but otherwise they're using opponents to work out kinks and improve. Games won't look as pretty during this stage as they could if we just let players play to their strengths instead of trying to balance out their games. Every good team will do it but we have such depth doing will be less likely to be at the expense of Ws and we can do it for much longer periods in games.

 

[ctchamps]

There's no way the staff is telling Andre to turn down taking it to the rim, taking it to the basket and finishing is still the major deficiency in his game and the staff worked on it all summer with him. Unfortunately it has yet to translate in games.

I get your point. My opinion is time will come when we'll get this from Andre and people will be questioning why he didn't do it sooner. Watch the game closely and look at Andre's twitch reaction to drive to the basket and do exactly as you mention only to immediately stop. I maintain coaches are working on our players to fine tune the ability to get the ball to Sonogo or Clingan.

They're priortorizing certain plays over others now.