We Look Different.... Significantly Different | The Boneyard

We Look Different.... Significantly Different

MexicoHusky

MexicoHusky

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Hurley said this a couple games ago. When Jackson returned. In a post-game interview I think. He said we are going to look significantly different in a month.

Man was he right. I'm not just talking about how we played. Or the style of basketball we played. That has changed and will continue to change. But we look like a completely different team. Jackson and Akok give us such a different look. Significantly longer and more athletic.

I'm not sure I've ever seen a team change so much mid season. It feels like we made a trade. Or signed a couple free agents mid season.

It's not all positive. Jackson and Akok and both young and/or rusty. So not everything is roses. It's just way different.
 
yup, coach told us. on the udder hand, he didn't need to say a word as any rational and thinking fan would know that if akok, ajax, and astar could rejoin us, then the sky is the limit.
as far as teams changing dramatically, it's usually injury related. this time, too. this ain't makeup or whatnot on the gal, it's plastic surgery, mebbe even exacting enuf to win her 'miss america.'
lol.
 
ClifSpliffy said:
yup, coach told us. on the udder hand, he didn't need to say a word as any rational and thinking fan would know that if akok, ajax, and astar could rejoin us, then the sky is the limit.
as far as teams changing dramatically, it's usually injury related. this time, too. this ain't makeup or whatnot on the gal, it's plastic surgery, mebbe even exacting enuf to win her 'miss america.'
lol.
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Yeah, it was predictable. But it still resonates a bit more when you actually see it.
 
Adding Jackson, Akok, and eventually Bouknight takes us from an average team to one of the most dynamic in the country. Want to try to outrun us? Fine. Good luck against Bouk/Jackson/Martin/Polley/Akok. Want to try to outmuscle us? Fine. We'll play Bouk/Jackson/Martin/Whaley/Sanogo. Small ball? Cole/Gaff/Bouk/Martin/Whaley.

This team can mix and match with any combination that teams try to throw at us. Come March, you're going to have to kill us 10 times before we're truly dead.
 
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Just wait and see how much different we look when Bouknight comes back...
 
It’s amazing what knocking down some shots can do for the teams confidence. That stretch from Akok felt like the catalyst of that game. No one I root harder for than him, he brings such a joy to the game, it’s infectious.
 
NDakotaHusky said:
Hurley said this a couple games ago. When Jackson returned. In a post-game interview I think. He said we are going to look significantly different in a month.
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Are you talking about this quote after the Seton Hall game? A little different than what you're referencing since he said once Jackson gets it and Bouknight is back the team is going to look different. I'm hoping that's the next game.

“He’s just scratching the surface,” Hurley said of the 6-foot-6 forward, who also missed a bulk of time in the offseason following knee surgery. “He’s dealt with so much ... Yeah, you saw glimpses of it. Obviously the splash play, which really got us going. He really doesn’t know what he’s doing out there. Once he gets a feel, and we get (James) Bouknight back, we’re gonna look much different.”
 
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Fatroony5 said:
It’s amazing what knocking down some shots can do for the teams confidence. That stretch from Akok felt like the catalyst of that game. No one I root harder for than him, he brings such a joy to the game, it’s infectious.
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From the highlights it looked like Xavier decided not to cover the the three point line. Akok had a three point free throw.
 
NDakotaHusky said:
Hurley said this a couple games ago. When Jackson returned. In a post-game interview I think. He said we are going to look significantly different in a month.

Man was he right. I'm not just talking about how we played. Or the style of basketball we played. That has changed and will continue to change. But we look like a completely different team. Jackson and Akok give us such a different look. Significantly longer and more athletic.

I'm not sure I've ever seen a team change so much mid season. It feels like we made a trade. Or signed a couple free agents mid season.

It's not all positive. Jackson and Akok and both young and/or rusty. So not everything is roses. It's just way different.
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Making shots makes you look different. But man am I happy to see our heads up. Now we just need to get gaffney some confidence and we’re all set
 
The Yard is a fun place after a W. If our offense plays like this we’re looking really good. Give us 80 points we’re gonna do damage. And everyone that played contributed.
 
UCfor3 said:
It will be equally amazing how the rhetoric will pull a 180 and go full crazy again if we lose our next game, especially if Bouk is still AWOL.
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Yep, and it can easily happen because all that’s required is we don’t make 3s. For all the talk about our offense being unleashed, the main difference between Providence and Xavier was just making 3s. We got 21 more points from 3s against Xavier than we did against Providence, even though we probably had better looks against Providence. Unsurprisingly, we scored 21 more points against Xavier than we did against Providence.
 
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AZHuskiePop said:
From the highlights it looked like Xavier decided not to cover the the three point line. Akok had a three point free throw.
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Only way to cover Akok in that rotation was to completely abandon the middle. The puny hedge did, indeed, give him a "3 point free throw".

It was the kind of hedge you would do on a guy you are super confident won't take, or can't hit the 3.
 
prankster said:
Only way to cover Akok in that rotation was to completely abandon the middle. The puny hedge did, indeed, give him a "3 point free throw".

It was the kind of hedge you would do on a guy you are super confident won't take, or can't hit the 3.
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Pairing Akok with Sanogo opened up the middle a bit for Adama. no team can double in and out.
 
Stinger92860 said:
Pairing Akok with Sanogo opened up the middle a bit for Adama. no team can double in and out.
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Think back to St. John’s when we went small to match them. It was a mistake as we all said. If we had Akok in that game, he is so long he can bother shooters without playing them close. And yet, nobody can guard him with a guard. Inside or out. He kills that strategy. The press hurt us vs PC and a guy like Akok who can catch a long pass to the middle makes it very hard to press us as well.
 
7774 said:
Yep, and it can easily happen because all that’s required is we don’t make 3s. For all the talk about our offense being unleashed, the main difference between Providence and Xavier was just making 3s. We got 21 more points from 3s against Xavier than we did against Providence, even though we probably had better looks against Providence. Unsurprisingly, we scored 21 more points against Xavier than we did against Providence.
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Disagree strongly, we played terribly against Providence. The main difference was Providence played a weak press from the opening tip and UConn walked it up the court often not starting the offense until there was near 10 seconds left on the shot clock. Against Xavier UConn played fast and got good looks right away. Making shots helps and they tend to go down when you play fast and free.
 
superjohn said:
Disagree strongly, we played terribly against Providence. The main difference was Providence played a weak press from the opening tip and UConn walked it up the court often not starting the offense until there was near 10 seconds left on the shot clock. Against Xavier UConn played fast and got good looks right away. Making shots helps and they tend to go down when you play fast and free.
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Agree with you. Cooley's press was more of a "nuisance" press vs an aggressive in- your -face press. They just wanted us to take time off the clock getting the ball up court(which we did). We didn't attack once at half court so they kept pressing until we went into our offensive sets as time was running down.

Yesterday there was an efficient flow to the offense that we haven't seen in awhile.

Looking forward to Tuesday's game.@Abe1 sayin' we might see JB on the floor.
 
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superjohn said:
Disagree strongly, we played terribly against Providence. The main difference was Providence played a weak press from the opening tip and UConn walked it up the court often not starting the offense until there was near 10 seconds left on the shot clock. Against Xavier UConn played fast and got good looks right away. Making shots helps and they tend to go down when you play fast and free.
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The other point is that we are such a good offensive rebounding team that we can afford some misses early in the shot clock because we can frequently get another shot or two out of the possession.
 
superjohn said:
Disagree strongly, we played terribly against Providence. The main difference was Providence played a weak press from the opening tip and UConn walked it up the court often not starting the offense until there was near 10 seconds left on the shot clock. Against Xavier UConn played fast and got good looks right away. Making shots helps and they tend to go down when you play fast and free.
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I agree we played terrible against Providence. We didn’t really play that well yesterday either, people just say we did because the 3s went in and we won. Cole made some huge, huge 3s late to keep that margin comfortable.

The “walk it up the court and not start the offense until there were 10 seconds left” got us 62 shots against Providence. We took 63 shots against Xavier with the “fast” offense. Per Kenpom our pace was quicker, but nothing crazy. It wasn’t our quickest pace of the year or anything.

We won because we got 20 more points from 3s on the same basic quality of shots. People are acting like we didn’t get good shots against Providence but Polley was WIDE OPEN 5-6 times and just missed.
 
8893 said:
The other point is that we are such a good offensive rebounding team that we can afford some misses early in the shot clock because we can frequently get another shot or two out of the possession.
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Yes, if we aren’t playing 5 out. I hate seeing outside shots go up while the bigs are out screening and handing off.
 
7774 said:
I agree we played terrible against Providence. We didn’t really play that well yesterday either, people just say we did because the 3s went in and we won. Cole made some huge, huge 3s late to keep that margin comfortable.

The “walk it up the court and not start the offense until there were 10 seconds left” got us 62 shots against Providence. We took 63 shots against Xavier with the “fast” offense. Per Kenpom our pace was quicker, but nothing crazy. It wasn’t our quickest pace of the year or anything.

We won because we got 20 more points from 3s on the same basic quality of shots. People are acting like we didn’t get good shots against Providence but Polley was WIDE OPEN 5-6 times and just missed.
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I thought we played well yesterday, maybe the best we've played for the 31 middle minutes all season long, we outscored them by 24 points in those minutes. UConn played fast and got good looks early in the shot clock. Polley missed a lot of open looks against Providence but we played a slow stagnant game, we got shots late in the clock and even had shot clock turnovers. UConn had 9 assists and 11 turnovers in Providence game. UConn had 21 assists and 11 turnovers against Xavier. Against Providence we lost the rebounding battle by 4. Against Xavier we won the rebounding battle by 5.
 
superjohn said:
I thought we played well yesterday, maybe the best we've played for the 31 middle minutes all season long, we outscored them by 24 points in those minutes. UConn played fast and got good looks early in the shot clock. Polley missed a lot of open looks against Providence but we played a slow stagnant game, we got shots late in the clock and even had shot clock turnovers. UConn had 9 assists and 11 turnovers in Providence game. UConn had 21 assists and 11 turnovers against Xavier. Against Providence we lost the rebounding battle by 4. Against Xavier we won the rebounding battle by 5.
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Yeah I agree we played better, and don’t get me wrong, I‘m way happier with where this team is at than most people on this board. But we didn’t play so much better that we could have shot 3s at the level we did against Providence, Seton Hall, St Johns, or Creighton and still won. If we shot like those games this would have been a loss and the board would be destroying Hurley for letting Jackson shoot so much from the perimeter. It would be killing Gaffney, who played fairly awful yesterday. There would be tons of posts about free throws since Whaley missed the front end of a 1:1; then Gaffney missed the front end of a 1:1, then Martin went 0-2, then Cole went 1-2.

But none of that is really happening, because we made 3s.
 
7774 said:
I agree we played terrible against Providence. We didn’t really play that well yesterday either, people just say we did because the 3s went in and we won. Cole made some huge, huge 3s late to keep that margin comfortable.

The “walk it up the court and not start the offense until there were 10 seconds left” got us 62 shots against Providence. We took 63 shots against Xavier with the “fast” offense. Per Kenpom our pace was quicker, but nothing crazy. It wasn’t our quickest pace of the year or anything.

We won because we got 20 more points from 3s on the same basic quality of shots. People are acting like we didn’t get good shots against Providence but Polley was WIDE OPEN 5-6 times and just missed.
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I have to agree with this analysis. Everything appears better when we make shots. I did feel like we ran a little better and hit the boards better, and we brought better toughness. , But at the end of the day it was that 3 pt shots were falling that made the difference.

let’s face it, we still ran that weave outside the 3 pt line. But the guys hit 3 pt shots as the clock wound down. If we don’t hit shots against PC it’ll be a struggle.

That said, I think PC shot better than they typically do in that game. I’m looking for us to pull out a W.
 
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