UConn vs Gonzaga for a Final 4 Berth

[Seamus84]

Attack Timme. Attack, attack, attack the basket. Newton off of pick and rolls, Jordan off of screens, and feed Adama/Clingan. We will encounter ZERO resistance. They will start over helping, and in the second half we bomb them from kick out threes back to Washington

1000%. He’s obviously a very skilled college player, but he can’t impact the game if he’s not on the court and they would be lost without him. Would love to see us use the pump-fake/lean-in to draw two fouls before the 10-minute mark.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

So it’s all different now obviously, but from a universal karma point of view I would’ve preferred ucla.

Ucla in elite 8 is revenge tour stuff from 95. We are awesome on revenge tour.

Gonzaga is the flip side, in 99 Gonzaga was an upstart playing great ball, and we had been knocking on door for almost a decade. We took them out ( like a trip to dentist) for our first FF and NC

2023 Gonzaga has been knocking on door for a decade and now upstart us ( we aren’t a upstart historically but last 7 years were bad and we are just newly “ back”) is playing as the other side of that equation.

We will beat them anyway.

I hear you on this but for whatever reasons the mojo Gods decided that this is not a revenge year. If they were to have made this a revenge year it would've been Kansas, not Arkansas last night getting steamrolled by us and UCLA would be waiting for their beatdown.

The mojo Gods have other things in store for us. Were should know better than to question their judgement.

 

[gsmooth]

Look at this nonsense.

JFC! I lost count of the number steps Timme took.

 

[Mike Honcho]

Gonzaga really doesn't guard. They win with excellent / efficient offense. #1 offense #73 defense. They're middling in rebounding. UConn is the better team but Gonzaga has some magic on their side. I expect UConn to win by 5-7 points.

They held UCLA to a stretch of 11+ min with no field goals in the 2nd half...

 

[upstater]

Interesting statistic from a Zags board:



This might indicate that UConn's defense tends to break down against elite level offense, and Gonzaga is the best there is.

I throw out every single thing that happened in the BE this year for UConn.

If I combine the OOC record of the last 2 times UConn made the E8 out of the BE (2011 & 2023), it's startling.

32-0 in OOC games.
22-16 in BE games.

This can't be a coincidence. I know there are 2 different coaches, but Hurley seems to have followed Calhoun's insistence that you don't play rockfight ball, that you have to learn how to defend honestly.

The records are startling if you're looking at the last 2x UConn had really good teams in the BE.

 

[Husky25]

There was a play in the 2nd half where it looked like he ran across the lane and scored. Looked like a travel to an old schooler like me, but with today’s version of traveling who knows.

He is going to be an issue.

Rodney Purvis must get red in the face, when he sees what is called. Though "The Ferrari" also had a tendency to step on the sideline.

 

[mrl2016]

I throw out every single thing that happened in the BE this year for UConn.

If I combine the OOC record of the last 2 times UConn made the E8 out of the BE (2011 & 2023), it's startling.

32-0 in OOC games.
22-16 in BE games.

This can't be a coincidence. I know there are 2 different coaches, but Hurley seems to have followed Calhoun's insistence that you don't play rockfight ball, that you have to learn how to defend honestly.

The records are startling if you're looking at the last 2x UConn had really good teams in the BE.

This year especially - I’m convinced the big east knocked UConn down a peg or two to elevate the conference. Rest of the conference had a rough OOC and we’re in need of some credibility. Maybe it’s just my tin foil hat but we had some of the least friendly whistles I’ve seen during our ugly stretch

 

[jibsey]

1000%. He’s obviously a very skilled college player, but he can’t impact the game if he’s not on the court and they would be lost without him. Would love to see us use the pump-fake/lean-in to draw two fouls before the 10-minute mark.

36 points 13 rebounds 4 assists. Hurley plays him straight up with Sanogo he gets in foul trouble. If we double him they have good 3 point shooters. Lots of pump fakes for Timme, he travels, passes well out of the box. Tough challenge. Find out soon.

 

[superjohn]

This year especially - I’m convinced the big east knocked UConn down a peg or two to elevate the conference. Rest of the conference had a rough OOC and we’re in need of some credibility. Maybe it’s just my tin foil hat but we had some of the least friendly whistles I’ve seen during our ugly stretch

I didn't like the whistles we were getting and I thought the clutching and grabbing helped some of the other teams against us but the top teams in the Big East were the best top of any conference. It's just a damn hard league to play in.

 

[Mots010]

They held UCLA to a stretch of 11+ min with no field goals in the 2nd half...

UCLA sans two starters. That's a pretty big qualifier. Honestly, Gonzaga was lucky as hell to win that game yesterday. They choked HARD in the last minute, and got bailed out by a 30 foot three.

Take any two starters off our team for tomorrows game, and Gonzaga would have a big edge on us.

 

[HuskyBaggins]

Great year for Clingan. He gets back on D and runs the break well and of course his rim protection. Only major shortcoming is his free throw shooting. I'm quite sure that will improve by next year.

He basically just suffers from inconsistency due his size and all the moving parts. His stroke is actually very good. If he played more minutes and got to the line more, he'd be more comfortable

 

[WestCoastHusky]

It will be a tough game for us. We are peaking at the right time, and we should win this one if we can play the type of defense we are capable of.

 

[tzznandrew]

Interesting statistic from a Zags board:



This might indicate that UConn's defense tends to break down against elite level offense, and Gonzaga is the best there is.

Maybe. But all those were close games and both Marquette and Xavier have better defense than Gonzaga by those same metrics.

 

[tzznandrew]

They held UCLA to a stretch of 11+ min with no field goals in the 2nd half...

UCLA, with 3 major injuries and a short bench, was worn out. UCLA got a lot of good looks and either came up short (most of the time) or over-compensated and were long.

It was pretty impressive, but watching it live it felt like UCLA ran out of steam.

 

[tzznandrew]

36 points 13 rebounds 4 assists. Hurley plays him straight up with Sanogo he gets in foul trouble. If we double him they have good 3 point shooters. Lots of pump fakes for Timme, he travels, passes well out of the box. Tough challenge. Find out soon.

Again, Timme is great, but he was doing that against UCLA's backup—who also didn't really have backup himself because of the injury.

Timme is really good. If he puts those stats up against Sanogo and Clingan I'd be really impressed. And to be clear, I think he scores 20+. They'll just be a very difficult 20+ relative to what he got last night.

 

[Umami Zen]

Wear Timme down with Adama/DC and or send him to the bench with foul trouble.. Zags D is not as good as Arkansas D and our guards should be able to get their shots in their spots.. Share the ball/hit the boards/stay out of foul trouble.. Onto Houston..

If we play as efficiently on offense as we did vs Arkansas.. Which I thought was one of our most complete offensive games in the last few years.. Its lights out.. Just don't think its realistic to expect that kind of performance every night. A decent offensive game with strong defense and boards gets us two more games.

 

[RichZ]

99

Slap me upside the head with a Knitted sock full of rocks. I was only 50 something back then, and my memory ain't all that good any more.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

 

[auror]

Interesting statistic from a Zags board:



This might indicate that UConn's defense tends to break down against elite level offense, and Gonzaga is the best there is.

I've been a bit worried about the same thing.

 

[UCfor3]

As mentioned by Seth Davis this morning, Timme is a mediocre defender and will have trouble with the two-headed monster of Sanogo and DC. I just hope that Sanogo and DC can stay out of foul trouble with Timme and his excellent footwork.

I'm betting Timme pulls them outside a bit and faces up more than usual. He has great moves and footwork on the block but he may have trouble getting deep position on Sanogo. Adama is a brick wall to try and back down in the post. Hopefully the refs let them bang a bit and don't call a lot of ticky tack fouls down low.

 

[gsmooth]

I've been a bit worried about the same thing.

That's why I wanted UCLA. I think UConn plays better on offense with less pressure knowing that their opponents can be stopped and not scoring at more than 1 PPP. Gonzaga is going to be a tough test for UConn's D. UConn might have to simply beat them in a shootout.

 

[Conndog]

Pitino was the best coach we’ve face this year but he didn’t have the talent to match. Few is the best coach that we’ve faced where the talent matches. I think we can win but it’ll be a battle. Especially limiting turnovers and staying out of foul trouble. Doesn’t seem like they care for defense, kind of like UNC of years past. Hopefully we can get out in transition and run them into the ground like we did Arkansas

For me, cutting down turnovers is a big key. Also, our bigs need to not foul Timme who utilizes a lot of shot fakes. Stay grounded when guarding him, don’t jump or try to block a shot- just make any shot opportunity a difficult one & grab the rebound.

 

[HuskyBaggins]

Slap me upside the head with a Knitted sock full of rocks. I was only 50 something back then, and my memory ain't all that good any more.

Blasphemy!!! You forgot the opponent in UConns first trip out of the elite eight to the final four??!?! I remember the chair I was sitting in for that game

 

[HuskyinWRNY]

Holy crap, ridiculous

 

[UConnSwag11]

They take 20 threes a game and make 8