UNC Post Game Thread

[UConnSwag11]

Not a must win but A GREAT win

Castle is huugggeee for us on defense. Anything he can give us on offense is icing. Bringing up the ball, rebounding, and on-ball defending is going to make us even better.

Production like that from Solo eases concerns about depth

 

[Hey Adrien!]

I try really hard to be an "in the moment" type of guy, but all I can say is:

It's really fun filling out your March Madness bracket when you put UConn in your championship winner spot and then figure out the rest.

 

[UConnSwag11]

Clingan is obviously not even close to 50/70%. He struggles running up and down the floor, winces when he’s playing, barely can jump. Once we get him 100%, we’ll have a top 3-5 front court.

 

[UConnSwag11]

I’m hoping once Clingan gets healthy he won’t be jumping at pump-fakes and fouling

There was a foul disparity in the first half but UNC was also driving at guys and banging in the paint more. Didn’t really have an issue with the calls. That stretch to start the second half was BAD but once that settled down, I thought it returned to a nice flow that allowed a reasonable amount of contact. You will get no argument from me that the one stretch was very bad.

We also don’t draw fouls at a high rate like other teams so fouls will typically be lower for opposing teams.y

 

[Bogey02]

Fantastic win. This team is going to be something special when Castle is fully healthy, what a difference maker.

 

[UConnSwag11]

I give credit to Karaban for continuing to shoot. He made some big threes and adjusted his game to get better looks at the basket

 

[Stinger92860]

I think some credit has to handed out to the entire coaching staff

It’s no surprise than Cam looks better than he did at Rutgers. He is much more than a shooter. A few guys should take note and come back home!

 

[ValleyGuy]

UNC didn’t even give any effort rebounding and wanted no part of it.

Side note On the Big East Big 12 Battle, how is it that UConn Creighton Villanova Providence and St Johns all had to go on the road? Seems like the home court heavily favored the Big 12?

 

[djct1999]

Wait until we’re healthy, that’s all I’ll say.

Exactly. Played really well in spurts. We are knicked up everywhere. Castle playing himself back. Foul trouble and bad refereeing . I felt overall, we could play far better. And we won by double digits. My god. This team, if healthy, will be scary in March.

 

[djct1999]

I’m hoping once Clingan gets healthy he won’t be jumping at pump-fakes and fouling

We also don’t draw fouls at a high rate like other teams so fouls will typically be lower for opposing teams.y

Hard to draw fouls when you are draining threes!

 

[microfich]

Productive minutes for Diarra in hos homecoming. He's just too erratic for press breaking

6/5/4 in 16 minutes. He continues to impress - and make layups!

 

[djct1999]

karaban had such a good game, even with the long ball being off.

and how can you not love cam spencer. !!!

Karaban is a coach’s dream.

 

[traitor71]

Yep - the infamous Doherty-led 2002 UNC team came to Storrs and we demolished them 86-54.

I think there was a game in the Civic Center, maybe 05? I seem to recall our guys blocking an absurd number of shots, but they still escaped with a win.

 

[djct1999]

From a basketball obsessed outsider friend, "I think UConn may be better than last year. Smoother offensively, more depth, better discipline."

From another non UConn friend at the game, "UConn=really good. Pass, shoot, dribble, guard= 4 basic food groups."

He said it was 70% UConn fans all night and they were super strong during the game.

This really is a testament to what a great coach Danny really is. What has always made him successful is he knows who he is, what he wants, and how his teams are going to play. He recruits kids that fit his model. And it works. At UConn, with his ability to get 4 and 5 star studs that fit this model, he can become a legend!

 

[UConnTrumbull]

Haven’t read the comments, was at MSG. Great collective performance. I will tell you, everyone is gonna be talking about Cam and Alex, and rightly so. But Solo Ball was HUGE. I swear he hit every big 3 to keep the heels out of reach. What a player!

 

[HailUConn]

Solo is way ahead of freshmen curve, not surprising though he has the tools and dawg in him. He actually handled the ball pretty well in a couple possessions.

 

[djct1999]

Last night was so intense it almost brought back bad Danny. He was awfully close to getting t’d up.

 

[djct1999]

Rothstein needs to make this a shirt!

 

[nycscooby]

It was 50/50....MAYYYYBE a slight edge to UConn, but definitely not more than that.

Downstairs it was 50/50. In the 200s, way more Husky fans. My section (209) was 70/30 UConn fans. I would say overall about 60% UConn but way louder.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I watched a fair amount of URI games but I was more expecting suffocating defense and winning with toughness like we often did under Calhoun. I honestly didn't imagine he would be this good an offensive coach. It's awesome watching our offense.

It blows my mind. He never ran anything like this at URI. Once he finally had a roster that was his last year, we ran the closest thing to NBA offense I've seen from a college team. This team's offense is slightly behind, but Clingan just isn't Sanogo and we've been missing Castle.

But that's why I cautioned patience with the freshmen. What we run is hard to pick up and master, on both ends of the ball.

 

[RedStickHusky]

I’m hoping once Clingan gets healthy he won’t be jumping at pump-fakes and fouling

We also don’t draw fouls at a high rate like other teams so fouls will typically be lower for opposing teams.y

We draw plenty, they just don't get called.

 

[RedStickHusky]

It blows my mind. He never ran anything like this at URI. Once he finally had a roster that was his last year, we ran the closest thing to NBA offense I've seen from a college team. This team's offense is slightly behind, but Clingan just isn't Sanogo and we've been missing Castle.

But that's why I cautioned patience with the freshmen. What we run is hard to pick up and master, on both ends of the ball.

He's called it his epiphany after the New Mexico St loss; defense and toughness were not enough so he committed to paying more attention to offense. That and recruiting/portal success have created a beast.

 

[SubbaBub]

I hate moral victories, so the Kansas game sucked. Our guys were clearly beat up and yet managed to have a shot to win it in an environment where it clearly took them a few minutes to settle down.

Turn to last night, that same banged up team manhandled a very talented UNC squad. Easily a S16/E8 caliber team.

Newton carried the team vs Kansas but we can't ask for him to post 30 regularly. Nice to see Spencer, Karaban bounce back and Ball step up. Clingan and Simpson played really well despite serious foul troubles. I think this team will have to play outside in versus last year when our best was playing inside out. This years team is going to rely heavily on guard play beyind just shooting 3s.

Diarra and Castle also gave really quality minutes off the bench. Castle is going to be very good. Reminds me of a young Caron with his combination of skill and toughness.

Still felt like this game was pieced together around ton of negative plays and we were still head and shoulders better than UNC. This team gets healthy and continues getting contributions from all sides they will be a tough out.

What we don't have yet from last year is that sure fire we need a basket guy to break runs. Last year, we could always rely on Sanogo to score and then Hawkins during the tournament. So we'll need someone to be that guy.

Newton though is playing at a NPOY level.

 

[temery]

How much do you despise Cam Spencer if he’s playing against your team!

Not at all. He seems like a class act.

 

[HuskyHawk]

He's called it his epiphany after the New Mexico St loss; defense and toughness were not enough so he committed to paying more attention to offense. That and recruiting/portal success gave created a beast.

I get the paying attention to it, but what he's running is essentially NBA offense. Modern NBA offense a few teams in the NBA wish they could run (stars like ISO). No ISO, tremendous passing, huge assist/FG ratio, open man shoots. Our shot chart is astonishing. So I don't know where he got that, but I suspect it came from Luke, which means Luke is going to be gone. Maybe to the NBA eventually.