We need to face reality

[BugsyCT]

When you're not as talented, you have to outwork your opponent and play harder. I saw everyone playing hard in the beginning of the year, but now that's like a mirage, very frustrating.

I don't think overall lack of effort has been the problem - they played their tails off the last several games (especially the Cincy game). It's like you said - they're just not a good team. Those early wins over the cupcakes and the Cuse were nice. (Looked so much better than last year when we struggled to beat even an intramural team.) Then reality kicked in once we started meeting the P5 schools - the weaknesses showed, the losses piled up and took a lot of starch out of this team IMO. (That Nova game looked like a tossup for the first 25 minutes and then they absolutely destroyed us with that run.)

Unforced turnovers, lack of solid inside production from our frontcourt, too much heroball, lack of basketball IQ, even learning how to win when you've become used to losing is a huge mountain to climb. Now we're in conference play and struggling to get a win against anybody. All this team can do is keep working to get better, but it's gonna be a rough ride the rest of the way.

 

[huskeynut]

This is basically the same team back from last year. A team that was below .500. Its what Hurley inherited. Why people thought because we have a new coach there would be this massive turn around is beyond me.

We have a lack of talent to compete. We don't have a front court that can compete. Its going to take at least 3 years to turn over the team and be competitive.

 

[Kenny11]

This is basically the same team back from last year. A team that was below .500. Its what Hurley inherited. Why people thought because we have a new coach there would be this massive turn around is beyond me.

We have a lack of talent to compete. We don't have a front court that can compete. Its going to take at least 3 years to turn over the team and be competitive.

You could be right but Hurley wasn't hired to get UConn to be competitive in 3 years. UConn nation is negative enough as it is...3 years is not going to fly.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

I’m not worried. After we win our next two games, we’ll all be back on board for expecting an AAC tourney championship and a deep run in the dance.

 

[60'sfan]

This is basically the same team back from last year. A team that was below .500. Its what Hurley inherited. Why people thought because we have a new coach there would be this massive turn around is beyond me.

We have a lack of talent to compete. We don't have a front court that can compete. Its going to take at least 3 years to turn over the team and be competitive.

Well, they've added Alterique, Sidney, Tarin Smith and Brendon Adam's. Two of these are top 100 I think?

 

[HanDurley]

I don't think overall lack of effort has been the problem - they played their tails off the last several games (especially the Cincy game). It's like you said - they're just not a good team. Those early wins over the cupcakes and the Cuse were nice. (Looked so much better than last year when we struggled to beat even an intramural team.) Then reality kicked in once we started meeting the P5 schools - the weaknesses showed, the losses piled up and took a lot of starch out of this team IMO. (That Nova game looked like a tossup for the first 25 minutes and then they absolutely destroyed us with that run.)

Unforced turnovers, lack of solid inside production from our frontcourt, too much heroball, lack of basketball IQ, even learning how to win when you've become used to losing is a huge mountain to climb. Now we're in conference play and struggling to get a win against anybody. All this team can do is keep working to get better, but it's gonna be a rough ride the rest of the way.

I just remember the first few games of the year we came out with tenacious defense. Feeding off energy, closing out, pressuring, that's all effort. Carlton falls to the ground and Hurley runs over and picks him up, etc...I just feel like I haven't seen that same energy lately. I could be wrong though. Maybe the losses are catching up to them?

 

[jimva]

Thoughts from a very casual fan.

I have said before that Jalen reminds me a lot of Tony Robertson. When it was his time to shine, despite his abilities, we learned that he just wasn't that guy. Jalen is the same personality, so we need to get over it and accept him for who he is. A very good player but not a leader.

I agree with comments regarding the lack of talent on the team, but thought last nights loss was all about intensity and effort on defense. We let them blow by us time and time again and nobody manned up. If we had the same defensive intensity we had against Cincinnati, we would have won that game last night.

 

[Stainmaster]

Living in Pittsburgh, it's a bit more difficult to swallow how poorly this year's UConn squad has performed compared to the local U, which was nothing but God-awful last year and lost most of the few decent players it had. Go ahead and dump on Capels if you will, but he's got his kids believing, even if having 5 xfers is not the way you want to build a program out of the box. Pitt is 2-3 vs Top 50 with two close losses vs 1-6 for our boys., with some blowouts. Only bad loss for them is Niagara.

With Ollie offeree Au'Diese Toney starting to boot...

 

[HuskyHawk]

I just remember the first few games of the year we came out with tenacious defense. Feeding off energy, closing out, pressuring, that's all effort. Carlton falls to the ground and Hurley runs over and picks him up, etc...I just feel like I haven't seen that same energy lately. I could be wrong though. Maybe the losses are catching up to them?

I saw it against Cincinnati for sure. And for halves of games against several others, but not a full game.

I truly think they are trying to figure out how they need to play. It's undeniable that the ball movement and off the ball movement, even last night, is 1000X better than last year. Assists aren't up as much as they should be, because we miss everything. Jalen made a stellar move laterally in the lane and fired a strike to Sid in the corner for a wide open 3. Missed.

Our transition defense is poor, and we miss a ton of shots, especially threes with long rebounds. Defensive fundamentals are lacking. Guys are getting tired on the defensive end and while it looked like we had a deep bench pre-season, we are down two bigs, and guys like Polley have completely lost confidence in their shot. Sid plays super hard and can't hit the broad side of a barn.

I think most of the problems, including defense, stem from poor shooting. We defend much more effectively after made baskets. There are many other issues of course, but that is our biggest impediment to winning games like the ones we lost to Tulsa and USF. The other losses were to teams that are better than us.

 

[alphasigko]

So here is this team's MO which I have observed: In most of the games this team has lost, they have played a competitive 1st half, i.e. AZ, Nova, Cinn and Tulane. Then in the beginning of the 2nd half they come out completely flat and languish in 2nd gear. The opponent goes into 4th gear and proceeds to bury them going up by 10 to 15 points in less than 5 minutes. This team then gets down on themselves, or panics, and the shots are rushed and missed, passes hurried which create turnovers, stupid fouls are committed, and the deficit only gets worse. They continue this poor play until with 5 minutes to go, they magically wake up and put on a futile all out effort that closes the gap, but comes up just short of winning (they actually tied Cinn but lost in OT). They also did this in the last game of the season against Houston 2 seasons ago.

Perhaps Hurley needs to get them up for the start of the 2nd half rather than the slow way they seem to start that part of the game. Thoughts on this theory?

 

[buddy]

Fans want to see improvement on a game to game basis. What we have seen is regression. Maybe it is just a temporary patch and things will improve this season. I think a lot of the negativity is because it is like the groundhog day movie for UConn basketball fans.

 

[AllAbout5]

UConn can win a national title in the AAC, just like it did in 2014.

They were coming straight out of the Big East. No one has been really good in the AAC in the past two years besides Cincinnati

 

[BUConn10]

In regards to the free throw point. It’s been almost 7-8 years now but UConn hasn’t stopped playing Big East brand defense as a program, unfortunately we aren’t in the big east anymore, and the AAC and neutral refs are ACTIVELY trying to put a lid on that style of aggressive hands on play. At some point you have to realize the landscape has changed and adapt or die.

 

[Caronimo]

I just remember the first few games of the year we came out with tenacious defense. Feeding off energy, closing out, pressuring, that's all effort. Carlton falls to the ground and Hurley runs over and picks him up, etc...I just feel like I haven't seen that same energy lately. I could be wrong though. Maybe the losses are catching up to them?

Cupcake games. We can't defend the paint against real teams with stronger and more skilled players.

 

[CL82]

Some teams have athleticism and lack of basketball IQ and skill.

Some teams have basketball IQ and skill and no athleticism.

Some teams have both.

We have neither. That’s why we’re bad.

This post made me laugh and feel a little sad. Well done.

 

[Bonehead]

Some thoughts that I need to get off my chest after watching these kids play and reviewing the yard. We need to be realistic with what is happening here and who this team is, because our bias and unrealistic expectations are just letting us down.



2- Conference: Yes we so badly need to be in a better conference, as that directly affects the types of recruits we get.

Ollie had a top 20 recruiting class and Hurley has a top 10 class now.

Are you saying those coaches recruited the wrong type of recruits even though those classes are ranked so highly?

 

[BuffaloHusky]

I’ve made this point before but because the guards are playing pressure defense without enough rim protection, they tend to foul when there is penetration. On top of that, the guards also tend to get tired and that partially explains our shooting woes. The solution is length, depth and talent.

 

[CTBasketball]

Ollie had a top 20 recruiting class and Hurley has a top 10 class now.

Are you saying those coaches recruited the wrong type of recruits even though those classes are ranked so highly?

40% of that recruiting class currently plays minutes for UConn. Could argue the players were right but the coaches were the issue.

 

[HanDurley]

Ollie had a top 20 recruiting class and Hurley has a top 10 class now.

Are you saying those coaches recruited the wrong type of recruits even though those classes are ranked so highly?

I'm saying if you compare the talent from any of our championship teams to now...there is a huge drop off. That is expected when comparing OBE and AAC, however. I'm not sure if it's the type of guys they are recruiting or just the culture, but it's obvious that something needs to change on that end in order for us to be successful.

 

[Adios]

I agree on defense. It is certainly not a strong point for us. Here are some stats and our rankings within the conference
As of now we rank in the following categories within the conference as follows(out of 12 teams):

Field Goal Pct 10
Field Goal Pct Defense 9
Blocked Shots 8
Assists 12
Steals 9
Assist/TO ratio 11
Defensive Rebounds 10
Attendance 10

I was surprised by assists. We are dead last in the conference. I guess Jalen or Alterique can make a perfect pass only to have one of our bigs miss the shot or turn the ball over. I was also a little surprised and disappointed by attendance. I guess the fans have not bought into the team yet.

We've had trouble winning any regular season title for a while now. Even lacking regular season titles towards the end of Calhoun's tenure.

Quite amusing how entitled sports fans can feel. Not you, just saying in general.

 

[glastonbury50]

I think Vital is a pretty good player but yeah outside of those 3, i dont think we have much else.

Ill take a player like Vital any day of the week. As far as having complaints about players. I have the least for him. He is what he is.