UConn vs Texas Post Game Thread...

[Rocktheworld]

Diarra threaded the needle with some absolute dimes today. By far his most consistent performance running the offense. Great game from him.

He needed that

 

[Kemba15]

Tre Johnson is one of the best offensive players in the country if not best scorer. He led their team with 4 assists. It’s not his fault their coach doesn’t run any sets. 2nd half he almost brought them back. Their guards are terrible.

Hes there for a year and will be 2nd pick in the draft. He’s a mini KD. The handle and shooting. You’re acting like he was missing those bad shots. Missed like 2 threes late. If his team could stop us when they were scoring then it would have been a game. They were 8-9 to start the half. We happen to almost match them at 8-12.

Ace Bailey is the better KD comparison in this draft IMO. Tre feels more like Cam Thomas-ish

 

[mauconnfan]

Very impressed with Dan. He’s changed his sideline behavior dramatically and the team seems to be enjoying it as well!

 

[Ports21]

Not only the production but the commentary seemed to be pro Texas. Wonder if it has something to do with them owning the SEC network. Either way glad we don’t have more ESPN games.

You think it's bad for a basketball game, wait til you tune into a football game!

 

[husky429]

Tre is nasty. I suspect he'll be a fine passer once he has a decent coach that doesn't just shrug and say "go get it" on the sideline.

 

[RuffRuff]

Tre Johnson is a mega talented kid coming into a Rodney Terry offense with a number of new pieces. He has to play the part, and a top 6/7 pick. Plays with fire and you can tell winning matters to him.

Miscellaneous:

Travis Knght and Jake Voskuhl in the first row behind UConn bench, not far from Bill Murray. Grabbed a pic with Bill after.

Liam’s mom is very popular with the players, I think she hugged every one that came out after the game.

Aidan 6’2” max and that may be a stretch.

Matt Mconaghey showed up in a burnt orange suit late first half, floor seat.

Lots of KD stuff in the stores.

Texas does a fight song with the team on the floor and crowd after the game, even after the loss. I found that unique.

Danny finally getting to a point where if they want to win this year, he’s going to focus coaching up a much smaller group of guys and teaching them how to play together. Too hard getting many pieces working in symphony. With that you saw a more refined, better executing team yesterday. Maui may have been a breaking point in trying to overextend the whole “depth” piece. Reality is that the bench guys just aren’t there yet.

Stew had blunders on D, and you could see why the short leash at times. One time playing Weaver, who took a pick from AKs guy, rather than play the obvious under, he just ran into it causing confusion and Weaver got an easy layup. Nailed a timely three, but his shot is a knuckle ball with no rotation. Athletic big kid but still very unrefined, and feels really young.

Ross played good d on Tre in his few chances, he just offers very little offensively.

Youssef gave us 8 really solid minutes. Did everything you could ask.

I think it’s safe for say that unless AM has an epiphany it’s unlikely we see him as much more than what we saw yesterday in key matchups, which was 6 minutes (2 turnovers).

 

[yungdowork]

A good test for how good a kid is going to be is how good is he now. If Tre Johnson was as good as you say he is, he should lay waste to his entire schedule.

The kid is 18 for several more months and is averaging over 21 a game on 48/43/83 shooting. This feels like a level of hating I can’t even fathom

 

[80shusky]

Great win! Singare with some really useful minutes to close out the first half. Karaban was Karaban. The bigs played well. Ball had a nice shooting game. The defense was improved. Diarra was fantastic with 11 assists and great on ball defense. That is the first time I've seen Tre Johnson play and he's a stud. A big turnaround game for them.

 

[UCONNFAN179]

A cup usually works well

Dare I say, a Solo cup?

 

[jdb50]

Just wondering if not bringing in Mahaney and Ross into the game at the same time is a bad idea. That went sideways quick and I was running out of profanities to yell at the screen. With the way fouls are called on us Singare is going to have to keep contributing. As others pointed out he did well up top on offense with handoffs and screens. He was ready to go mentally. We knew Texas was going to shoot better in the second half so it was huge to weather their initial 3 point barrage and get a win on the road.

 

[cp176]

Tre Johnson is a mega talented kid coming into a Rodney Terry offense with a number of new pieces. He has to play the part, and a top 6/7 pick. Plays with fire and you can tell winning matters to him.

Miscellaneous:

Travis Knght and Jake Voskuhl in the first row behind UConn bench, not far from Bill Murray. Grabbed a pic with Bill after.

Liam’s mom is very popular with the players, I think she hugged every one that came out after the game.

Aidan 6’2” max and that may be a stretch.

Matt Mconaghey showed up in a burnt orange suit late first half, floor seat.

Lots of KD stuff in the stores.

Texas does a fight song with the team on the floor and crowd after the game, even after the loss. I found that unique.

Danny finally getting to a point where if they want to win this year, he’s going to focus coaching up a much smaller group of guys and teaching them how to play together. Too hard getting many pieces working in symphony. With that you saw a more refined, better executing team yesterday. Maui may have been a breaking point in trying to overextend the whole “depth” piece. Reality is that the bench guys just aren’t there yet.

Stew had blunders on D, and you could see why the short leash at times. One time playing Weaver, who took a pick from AKs guy, rather than play the obvious under, he just ran into it causing confusion and Weaver got an easy layup. Nailed a timely three, but his shot is a knuckle ball with no rotation. Athletic big kid but still very unrefined, and feels really young.

Ross played good d on Tre in his few chances, he just offers very little offensively.

Youssef gave us 8 really solid minutes. Did everything you could ask.

I think it’s safe for say that unless AM has an epiphany it’s unlikely we see him as much more than what we saw yesterday in key matchups, which was 6 minutes (2 turnovers).

I would really like to see what Ross can do defensively. If he makes his layups and dunks and doesn't turn the ball over, it might be his defense that gets him on the floor.

 

[gtcam]

Kinda odd the Tre Johnson hate. He shot/is shooting efficiently, he’s not just a chucker. He trash talked, who cares? I like that part of the game, I like when Solo hits and 3 and gets up in his guy’s face and lets him know. He also was trying to pump up/bring some energy to his team. Kid is a huge talent, weird comments.

He played the game as if it were an AAU game - all he cared about was his offense - kid plays little to no defense for the most part. He'll make $ playing the sport but he needs to understand there are other parts of the game he needs to look at. KD? nah Great scorer but there are plenty of those at the next level. Still - he carried that team for a while but with him and Kaluma (sic) scoring 80% of their points is eye opening.

 

[RuffRuff]

I would really like to see what Ross can do defensively. If he makes his layups and dunks and doesn't turn the ball over, it might be his defense that gets him on the floor.

There seems to be a variety of things he needs to clean up to feel trusted, including not fouling. Hurley is moving into the “trust” part of the schedule. If they’re putting Hassan on a 6’6” offensive weapon over Ross, then you know right there they don’t fully trust Jayden.

The Tre hating is ridiculous. Seems like a great kid. If anything they were clearing out the floor for him and Kaluma and playing 2 on 2 basketball at times. When I mentioned he was the most talented kid on the floor, which he was, on the BY chat you’d think I called their kid a name. Legit mocks have him as high as 5th pick. He’s a freshman, not a finished product. Objectivity people - try it on for size.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

He played the game as if it were an AAU game - all he cared about was his offense - kid plays little to no defense for the most part. He'll make $ playing the sport but he needs to understand there are other parts of the game he needs to look at. KD? nah Great scorer but there are plenty of those at the next level. Still - he carried that team for a while but with him and Kaluma (sic) scoring 80% of their points is eye opening.

I think you’re hyperbolizing this for what you wanted to see rather than what you actually did see. He kept them in the game, brought energy to the team, made some nice passes as well. Kid is really, really good.

 

[ctbro1999]

I'm really glad Solo showed signs of hope on defense. And he showed he's more than a 1-dimensional catch and shoot 3 guy.

 

[RuffRuff]

I'm really glad Solo showed signs of hope on defense. And he showed he's more than a 1-dimensional catch and shoot 3 guy.

Played great - wasn’t a lot of stress in him defensively, but did a much better job. Staff has to now focus on coaching him up and putting pressure on him to defend and stay focused.

Much better variety on offense as well. Missed one chippey but was a nice take. Even on the AK missed pass to him in the corner, broke to the basket to get the pass and AK missed it. Really encouraging.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

I'm really glad Solo showed signs of hope on defense. And he showed he's more than a 1-dimensional catch and shoot 3 guy.

I really liked that he had at least 3 nice takes to the hoop last night on either dribbles or cuts.

I'm waiting for his epiphany to happen where he remembers in-game that he has an ~45" vertical leap, a 7'+ wingspan, and some muscle and uses them to attack the defender and the rim with violence. He threw up a floater on one drive when I would have loved to see him try to just dunk over the dude.

 

[Umami Zen]

I get the fact that Abraham is a freshman. Coaches see what is going on in practice. Casuals don't. Would like to see him get some run -esp. for his D/Boards/energy.. Could he underperform what Ross is currently giving us?

Realize its a long shot - game scripts-foul trouble-matchups,etc. Gotta keep him engaged in the process

 

[Candyman]

Second pick? Top six, sure, but #2 is going to be contested this year.


Assuming Flagg is #1, Bailey, Harper, Demin and Traore (is he eligible?) are all guys I’d consider over Johnson depending on the team.

He will be 2 through 5. Harper and Dylan are better overall but neither of them are better scorers.

 

[Candyman]

Tre Johnson = KD? Really, that is what you are going with?

Every good athlete is the best player in the history of all players when they are freshmen. If every player that was anointed the next Lebron/KD/Steph/Chris Paul/Dirk by the fans turned out to be that good, every NBA and G League team would be 3 deep with first ballot Hall of Famers at every position. Back when high school recruiting was more important for roster building, the Boneyard would average anointing 2 freshman a year who were mortal locks to be the next Ray/Rip/Emeka/Kemba/Shabazz because Boneyard posters had watched a highlight video of our commit lighting up a no-defense AAU team at a tournament at some basketball barn in PA or CA. How many of them turned out to be that good? I count one Ray, one Rip, one Emeka...

At a national level, there are 20ish of these "they could be the best of all time" players running around college right now, and another 100-150 that announcers regularly discuss as being locks for the NBA. The math doesn't work. Also, the actual best players of all time are often not anointed. No one thought Curry would be this good, every team in the NBA could have picked Giannis but passed (the Bucks didn't even want the pick), Jokic and Brunson were second rounders, Gilgeous-Alexander was a mid-first rounder, etc. It is highly likely that of the Top 10 players in the NBA in 2030, virtually no one has tagged 3 or 4 of them as even potential future NBA all-stars today. If people like you could predict this stuff, being an NBA GM would be a lot easier.

A good test for how good a kid is going to be is how good is he now. If Tre Johnson was as good as you say he is, he should lay waste to his entire schedule. That is what KD did. Heck, that is what Carmelo did as a Frosh. If that kid was as good as you say, the kid should have had 3/4's of his points on layups and wide open shots, rather than have to hit half a dozen prayers like he did yesterday. If that kid can't shake 2024/2025 UConn's sketchy defense, how is he going to get away from NBA defenders? But you think he is the next KD? Sure.

The kid is a selfish player. He may be athletic or a good shot maker, and maybe he will develop, maybe he won't. Right now, in December 2024, he is making his teammates worse than they would be otherwise.

First, if you could read I said a mini KD. That's my comparison, never said he will be the next KD. He has a similiar game and if you cant see that than you don't know ball.

He went by a bunch of our players, did you watch the game? We had a small guard on him so he shot over the top. I watched a few of their games. They have 2 loses and your acting like they are losing a ton of games. He def doesnt make them worse. Their coach makes them worse. He runs iso ball for him.

 

[CT2SC]

I thought Singare set some nice screens up top and managed the hand-offs well. He gave us a very important 8 minutes.

I agree. Especially considering this was his first real minutes of actual game time not counting garbage time. Game experience matters a lot. Look at how raw a guy like Ross is still and how much more he’s been on the floor than Singare. I hope they find opportunities to get him some minutes so he can continue to develop.

 

[superjohn]

There seems to be a variety of things he needs to clean up to feel trusted, including not fouling. Hurley is moving into the “trust” part of the schedule. If they’re putting Hassan on a 6’6” offensive weapon over Ross, then you know right there they don’t fully trust Jayden.

The Tre hating is ridiculous. Seems like a great kid. If anything they were clearing out the floor for him and Kaluma and playing 2 on 2 basketball at times. When I mentioned he was the most talented kid on the floor, which he was, on the BY chat you’d think I called their kid a name. Legit mocks have him as high as 5th pick. He’s a freshman, not a finished product. Objectivity people - try it on for size.

Caring about Waylon's opinions on anything is maybe even stranger than typing in the game chat during the game from the arena.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The kid is 18 for several more months and is averaging over 21 a game on 48/43/83 shooting. This feels like a level of hating I can’t even fathom

Lots of players have good shooting splits at this point in the season because they are playing cupcakes. 4 of the games Texas has played are against KenPom 347 or worse, in other words, among the 17 worst teams in college basketball.

The kid eats the whole shot clock against double teams while teammates are wide open. That is bad team basketball and disrespectful to his teammates no matter how good he is.

Maybe he will be good, maybe he will be one of the dozens of can't miss NBA prospects every year in college who ends up missing. For now he is just an athlete and pretty good shot maker who doesn't know how to play team basketball. That last part is typically learned by now, so not a great sign if he doesn't have it.

 

[Candyman]

Ace Bailey is the better KD comparison in this draft IMO. Tre feels more like Cam Thomas-ish

I was referring to his scoring. The handle and the shot , long arms and the way he shoots all reminds me of KD.