Were injuries the biggest factor in the 2021 disappointment? | The Boneyard

Were injuries the biggest factor in the 2021 disappointment?

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We played 23 games last season. Cole, Whaley, Sanogo, and Gaffney appeared in all 23.

We started the season with Polley and Akok returning from major injuries. Akok would appear in 7 games never playing more than 10 minutes. His absence was a huge loss for the Huskies front court in the 2021 season. He had one blocked shot all season.

Polley was inconsistent in the first few games. He came back to be a solid performer off the bench. However, he had the worst 3-point shooting percentage of his college career.

James Bouknight missed 9 games, almost all of January and half of February. The team was .500 in his absence. In the first game of the conference tournament he was badly dehydrated and suffered full body cramps. He never really recovered. In the BET and NCAA he shot 14-41 from the field, 1-13 from the arc, 10-15 from the stripe, all well below his season averages.

Andre Jackson, who was expected to be a major contributor, missed 7 games with a broken wrist robbing him of valuable playing experience. Perhaps worse, was a preseason knee injury, which took away his off-season practice time, slowed his integration onto the team.

I won’t mention Covid ( I just did) as it affected every team in the nation. But UConn went through two Covid pauses and missed three other games because of Covid pauses by opponents.

All teams have injuries. Few have major injuries to their best player, two other starters and their 6th man. Many Huskies fans may feel 2021 was an opportunity missed. In fact, it is not unreasonable to say that injuries were the main factor the Huskies failed to meet expectations.
 
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Good question. I think Bouk's injury was devastating to both the team, and to James. We had a lot of positive momentum going, and an abundance of confidence right before James got hurt. After he returned, the air was out of the balloon, the momentum and confidence seemed lost and never really came back. I doubt it will significantly hurt Bouk's value in the draft, but he was so valuable to the team that his absence at such a crucial time was too much to overcome.
 
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It seemed like we could never get in a groove because someone was always getting hurt or getting covid. If we we're actually healthy all year I think we take 2nd place behind Nova.
 
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Youth and lack of playing together (team experience) were also a contributing factors.

Cole (sure he practiced), Martin and Sanogo were new and all were starters. Add to that Gaffney didn't make the jump to start at the point guard, so his familiarity with a lot of the players was negated.

But to me the lack of a true bonifide leader was a huge factor in our play this year, and I'll go as far to say a contributing factor in our losses and close games. Leadership could have overcome any inexperience or lack of team familiarity. I noticed in some of the huddles (on the floor) no one took control of the situation or the discussion. In fact, the speaker varied a lot. Perhaps the leader was Bouk, Cole or even Whaley, but at the end of the season it was still a guess. Hell I don't even know who the appointed Captain(s) was last season.
 
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Yes, they would've been a different team with Bouk, Akok, and Jackson. They finally looked to be finding their footing and then Bouknight had to be carried to the locker room for an IV and Cole broke his face next game. It would be nice to have an injury free year, it hasn't happened since 2013-2014.
 
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We played 23 games last season. Cole, Whaley, Sanogo, and Gaffney appeared in all 23.

We started the season with Polley and Akok returning from major injuries. Akok would appear in 7 games never playing more than 10 minutes. His absence was a huge loss for the Huskies front court in the 2021 season. He had one blocked shot all season.

Polley was inconsistent in the first few games. He came back to be a solid performer off the bench. However, he had the worst 3-point shooting percentage of his college career.

James Bouknight missed 9 games, almost all of January and half of February. The team was .500 in his absence. In the first game of the conference tournament he was badly dehydrated and suffered full body cramps. He never really recovered. In the BET and NCAA he shot 14-41 from the field, 1-13 from the arc, 10-15 from the stripe, all well below his season averages.

Andre Jackson, who was expected to be a major contributor, missed 7 games with a broken wrist robbing him of valuable playing experience. Perhaps worse, was a preseason knee injury, which took away his off-season practice time, slowed his integration onto the team.

I won’t mention Covid ( I just did) as it affected every team in the nation. But UConn went through two Covid pauses and missed three other games because of Covid pauses by opponents.

All teams have injuries. Few have major injuries to their best player, two other starters and their 6th man. Many Huskies fans may feel 2021 was an opportunity missed. In fact, it is not unreasonable to say that injuries were the main factor the Huskies failed to meet expectations.
Covid.
 
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I don’t know. I think we kind of were what we were. Maybe we get a couple more wins but When Bouknight came back we were playing well. We just weren’t good enough to beat the good teams. Remember we played Creighton 2 times with Bouknight and Villanova 1 time only with him. I don’t buy the Jackson loss because really if you are honest you have to admit he can’t shoot. And we needed shooters. Great athlete but we will see about his basketball skills.
 
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Agree with @TheChamps990411

It was from covid stoppages from last season and this season. Last year, Bouk and CV started to gel when covid halted the season. Gaffney was still inconsistent taking over from Gilbert but was showing some progress.

This year, the covid stoppages halted everything including practice time. They hurt the younger players and the younger teams more than the experienced ones.

Nova and Creighton were both experienced and I think got them over the top when we played them.
 
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No. We were a top-30 team, 1-2 win team in the tourney.

However, we lost to a team that we matched up terribly with.
True, but you can also look at it as if we didn’t have the injuries, maybe we rack up a few more wins and are a 5-6 seed instead of a 7, and maybe we get a better matchup in the NCAA Tournament.
 
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The biggest factor is the huge majority of people posting here are idiots, so when we made shots and looked good the board went into “we’re elite/do we even have any weaknesses?/only a couple teams scare me/Lunardi is a moron for thinking we’re over seeded/Bilas must never watch us if he thinks Maryland is tougher” mode.

But we were never that team.

We also weren’t the garbage pile people now pretend we were just because the last image in their mind was 40 minutes of missing every shot.
 
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Akok anybody?

kemba is not quite right after injury with the garbage Celtics but he’s still great and not forgotten
 
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Akok anybody?

kemba is not quite right after injury with the garbage Celtics but he’s still great and not forgotten

When I saw Akok in the Xavier game, I thought, good God he's doing his Kevin Durant impression, hitting threes, slashing to the basket.

And POOF!!! it was gone.
 
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I seemed to have Forgotten how much time Jackson missed overall especially that preseason injury, and while he wouldn’t have magically been a great shooter, he probably could have been much better. If he’s over all the injuries maybe we see a huge jump from him. Or maybe he will be the type of kid who’s hurt twice a year who knows.
I think our biggest detriment was we never developed any type of identity at the offensive end of the floor except for being a good offensive rebounding team. To me that’s partly due to the injuries, partly due to the pauses, and partly due to the coaching. We were wildly inconsistent in all aspects of offensive though out the season with the exception of the rebounds. I think those three factors in whatever percentage are why.
 
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We played 23 games last season. Cole, Whaley, Sanogo, and Gaffney appeared in all 23.

We started the season with Polley and Akok returning from major injuries. Akok would appear in 7 games never playing more than 10 minutes. His absence was a huge loss for the Huskies front court in the 2021 season. He had one blocked shot all season.

Polley was inconsistent in the first few games. He came back to be a solid performer off the bench. However, he had the worst 3-point shooting percentage of his college career.

James Bouknight missed 9 games, almost all of January and half of February. The team was .500 in his absence. In the first game of the conference tournament he was badly dehydrated and suffered full body cramps. He never really recovered. In the BET and NCAA he shot 14-41 from the field, 1-13 from the arc, 10-15 from the stripe, all well below his season averages.

Andre Jackson, who was expected to be a major contributor, missed 7 games with a broken wrist robbing him of valuable playing experience. Perhaps worse, was a preseason knee injury, which took away his off-season practice time, slowed his integration onto the team.

I won’t mention Covid ( I just did) as it affected every team in the nation. But UConn went through two Covid pauses and missed three other games because of Covid pauses by opponents.

All teams have injuries. Few have major injuries to their best player, two other starters and their 6th man. Many Huskies fans may feel 2021 was an opportunity missed. In fact, it is not unreasonable to say that injuries were the main factor the Huskies failed to meet expectations.

Did they fail to meet expectations? Per the computers, only about 20 teams played better basketball over the course of the season despite all our injuries and stoppages. Yes, the ending of the season was disappointing, but how many people really expected that only 22 teams or so, per Ken Pom, would play better than us over the course of the season? Without even factoring in our injuries.
 
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Please lose the computers. I’m begging you. We were a nice team. Not great. Probably Top 35-40 ish. Bouknight was an exciting player. But we had really good games without him such as Xavier and Butler and a couple of dogs with him, Maryland being exhibit A. We lacked a consistent 2nd scorer. We lacked guards who could control a game. And for all his talent Bouknight really didn’t show the ability to take over a game, though I think that would have come in time. If the games were played on a screen, maybe we are top 20 but alas, they are played on the basketball court. We were about what we were. We drew a tough match with Maryland but otoh we were probably seeded a bit higher than we deserved too.
 

pepband99

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blah blah blah blah blah

All teams have injuries. Few have major injuries to their best player, two other starters and their 6th man. Many Huskies fans may feel 2021 was an opportunity missed. In fact, it is not unreasonable to say that injuries were the main factor the Huskies failed to meet expectations.

Many? Maybe the multiple citizens in your head. Me? I just wanted a bubble=less selection sunday, and signs we're improving. 2 check marks, for me.
 
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I was frustrated by COVID breaks and injuries. I was not disappointed with the season or the performance of the team and DH. We finished 3rd in Big East our first year back and made it back to the Tournament, finally.
 

HuskyHawk

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The biggest factor? Yes. Especially if you consider Akok, had he never been hurt, and developed playing over the last year. That would be a complete game changer for our lineup. Losing Bouknight and Jackson also hurt, although only for part of the season. Lack of adequate depth hurt there.

But it wasn't the only reason. The pieces still didn't quite fit what Hurley runs. Josh is a really useful and productive guy in the right system, but can't do what DH wanted. He didn't really adjust this year, as he did two years ago, to get the most out of some of these guys. Then you can add Covid, we played fewer games than many teams, had more pauses, and I think that hurt us. Limited practice time had to hurt as well.
 

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