We are officially in our January slump | Page 2 | The Boneyard

We are officially in our January slump

superjohn said:
Not a single UConn championship team shot 80% from the line.
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I would like to see what we've shot in March. I seemingly remember some outstanding free throw shooting in the tournament
 
Michigan, Arizona, Duke, etc. already have and/or will struggle vs lowly conference foes on the road. Like every year. Not ideal but at the same time nothing to see here.
 
I think Hurley with his constant talk of championships is part of the problem with us struggling or some players not playing up to their potential. The season is 4 parts. Pre BE, BE regular season, BE Tourney and NCAAs. Focusing on getting the win each week and getting better as a team is the way to go. I hope players are enjoying the ride and what they have accomplished and not feeling too much pressure for end of season goals that are still a ways away. We won the pre BE. The teams in the BE are playing tough D. Very physical. We are doing well so far but just keep the focus on the next game. It may relieve the pressure and let the talent takeover. Also Thank God we have Silas. He is very steady.
 
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Not alone in the Jan slump. Hall lost to Butler at home, Iowa State lost to Cinci, North Carolina lost to Cal, and ready for this... Cuse lost to BC.
 
bendm said:
Going undefeated and getting the #1 overall seed is the goal. Gimme Duke while Zona and UM face off on the other side of the bracket.
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I don’t want only 1 loss going into the NCAA Tournament. No team has won it all with less than 2 losses since the 1975 Indiana team. A few teams have entered the NCAA Tournament with less than 2 losses but none of them won it all. Including the supposedly invincible 1999 Duke team.

I don’t think the Huskies need to go undefeated the rest of the way to get the overall number 1 seed, or just any 1 seed, because I don’t think anyone else is going through the season without a few more losses.
 
bendm said:
Going undefeated and getting the #1 overall seed is the goal. Gimme Duke while Zona and UM face off on the other side of the bracket.
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Cutting down the nets in April is the goal. Gaudy little things like a full season with only one loss are pretty, but unnecessary accessories.
 
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This is BIG EAST basketball. The conference portion of our schedule has been a slog for us since we rejoined because there simply aren’t enough ranked teams. It’s way easier for teams to get up for playing a top -5 UConn team than it is for us to get up for playing an 8-9 Georgetown team. And because they don’t match up talent wise, they try to out physical us.

Every year this fanbase - me included - loses sleep/overreacts over our play in Jan/Feb, yet we seem to be pretty good at figuring it out in Mar/Apr.
 
uh-no said:
we are barely beating garbage big east teams...record or not, this team has serious offensive issues.
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You're over reacting, like haven't also beat ranked out of conference opponents....
 
Not for nothing, but it definitely feels like the 22/23 team slumping in January but this team is putting up Ws instead of Ls.

I look at it this way: We know what our floor is. It's time to start finding out what the ceiling is. There's no way Karaban, Mullins and Ball continue to shoot 20% from three. Free throws need a bump and that's something that can be worked on. Obviously, the turnovers were better today, but also something that needs some correction.

Winning while playing bad basketball isn't the worst outcome. Just need to start ramping up.

I'm still very confident.
 
For a team that has so much depth the starters play an awful lot of minutes. Karaban does not have to play 35- 38 minutes a game.
 
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It’s a very individually talented squad, but the pieces don’t seem to fit together very well at times. Not sure Danny has the team figured out. I also think they are drinking their own kool aide and believe they can coast and turn it on and off when they want.
 
giddyup said:
It’s a very individually talented squad, but the pieces don’t seem to fit together very well at times. Not sure Danny has the team figured out. I also think they are drinking their own kool aide and believe they can coast and turn it on and off when they want.
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It's a team built around 3 elite shooters, who have combined in the last 5 games to have 1 game where they made 13 threes at 54%, and in the other four games combined for 12 threes at 17%.
 
I think we’re fine - there are two major issues right now:

1. The team is exhausted playing these games where every single opponent treats it as their Super Bowl and play so hard. While this will also be true in the BET and NCAAT, we can get up for those. Plus in the NCAAT the games will be called normally, to our benefit.

2. Solo Ball’s shooting is killing us. 0-5 from 3 today. Hate to say it but he can’t be starting anymore. Maybe that will be the change he needs.
 
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Just to be clear, the OP is not worried. Just pointing out Hurley's teams seemingly struggle in January. Not sure why, my best guess is that conference opponents hate us and give us their best shot

In a weird sort of way, I guess that's what helps us prepare for March
 
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UCan3 said:
If we hadn’t beaten so many “not garbage” OCC opponents to start the year, I’d be more concerned than I am.
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we were certainly great to start. we have fallen off a cliff offensively. I don't know if it's these other schools playing better than expected, or teams figuring out how to defend us....but it's not a good sign that we have to win close games. it means we're not good enough to win by larger margins.

To the comparisons to 2023....yes...they lost and this is better than losing....but the big east this year is also significantly worse than it was 3 years ago....and just beccause a team CAN pull out of a slump does not mean we have to expect it.

This team has been bad lately and they have a much further way to go now to be a title quality team than they did a month ago.
 
i trust AK and mullins to take a lot of shots. solo is dealing with a wrist and his track record as an elite shooter is rather short. they could be using this time to run out the death star lineup with stew mullins more but it seems like they are playing a hurt solo instead.
 
I had that feeling of the January swoon a few minutes after the game.

Each of the past four or five seasons we fans have panicked over player rotations and roles and by the time the aeason was done, we've been wrong.
For example, we watched AJ and Adama struggle and then figure it out.

So, my mid-January misplaced rotation says I want Stewart replacing Ball in the starting lineup.

I'd like to see what 10 weeks of Demary, Mullins, Stewart, Karaban and Reed can do as a group.

Smith, Ball, Ross, and Riebe off the bench.

Ball does seem to have fragile confidence. No way ahead shooter as good as him should ever be this bad for this long. His mechanics are fine but he is passing up open looks no shooter should ever pass up.
 
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