We're okay. This game means nothing.

[bendm]

We clearly chose not to recruit over anyone who had been loyal to us during the last two championship runs. That probably has come back to hurt us but was still the right decision. Make the best of this very flawed team and reload next year. We have enough shooters to win a few tourney games if the match ups are right.

Staff brought in Mahaney to be the starting PG so technically Diarra was recruited over, it just didn’t work out as staff envisioned. But As bad as the Mahaney move has been it would have been an even bigger disaster if Diarra wasn’t up to it. Diarra has been better than anyone could have expected, nagging injury not withstanding.

I firmly believe that if Mahaney were playable as our backup PG for 10mpg we’d be in a much different spot right now and have a much brighter outlook but even that was/is too much to ask. He’s the new Rahsool Diggins.

 

[jibsey]

Staff brought in Mahaney to be the starting PG so technically Diarra was recruited over, it just didn’t work out as staff envisioned. But As bad as the Mahaney move has been it would have been an even bigger disaster if Diarra wasn’t up to it. Diarra has been better than anyone could have expected, nagging injury not withstanding.

I firmly believe that if Mahaney were playable as our backup PG for 10mpg we’d be in a much different spot right now and have a much brighter outlook but even that was/is too much to ask. He’s the new Rahsool Diggins.

Nowell was a 4 star point guard. By this time of first year he should have been Contributing…,, a lot. For injury or whatever reason we’ve gotten zero. I certainly don’t blame all our troubles on his position but with an injury and miss on Mahaney it’s catastrophic especially with turnovers.

 

[bendm]

Nowell was a 4 star point guard. By this time of first year he should have been Contributing…,, a lot. For injury or whatever reason we’ve gotten zero. I certainly don’t blame all our troubles on his position but with an injury and miss on Mahaney it’s catastrophic especially with turnovers.

Sure I’d be ecstatic with 10mpg COMBINED from Mahaney and Nowell backing up Diarra. So sad.

 

[Rico444]

We beat Marquette on the road without Liam and with Diarra hobbled. We had a real chance to beat St Johns with Diarra hobbled and Liam's first game back

Once Liam is fully back up to speed (which seems like it's going to happen quickly), and Diarra is healthy, I don't see why we can't make a BET run even if we start in the 4/5 game

I think our defense prevents us from being a real title contender right now, but there's a lot of season left to be played. Let's enjoy the ride while we have it, let's go Huskies!

The problem is Diarra may not get any healthier than he already is. With him like this we have practically zero dribble penetration, which leads to no open shots, which leads to shot clock violations and forced shots. It's going to be really hard for us to have success against good defenses with Diarra limited like this.

 

[UCan3]

It's a good loss and we still had moments of brilliance, just not enough of them. Some things need to be fixed. Some of them can't be fixed so we need work arounds.

We need to work on in-bounds plays. And the team needs to keep their heads up when the other team decides to press. We were caught off guard on a number of occasions and it disrupts our offense. Hurley and Murray need to find new ways to get Solo open. He got taken away in the second half. He is going to see more and more attention. Reed needs to stay close to the basket on offense. We are less effective when he goes out to hedge. Samson let his bad habits reappear.

We really crashed the boards last night and it worked. McNeeley needs to keep attacking the glass. Both our PGs need to be more aggressive. When we attacked their defense early in the shot clock we were much more effective. We still haven't figured out our best pace. It needs to be slow enough to limit TOs and fast enough develop rhythm.

No one got hurt. Our chemistry will improve as we get healthy. Just win enough games to go into the BET strong. The only thing that matters is March.

Another way to look at it to build on your post is:

This is why we play the regular season isn’’t it? Have your weaknesses exposed by high quality teams, learn, and toughen up for the Big East Tourney and the NCAA Tournament.

You don’t want to wait to find out that you can’t win these types of games until it counts!

I too, look at last night as a learning opportunity for the team to figure out the standard the team needs to play - to make a deep run in the tournament.

I’m disappointed in the loss as we all are but not discouraged.

We have certain players I hope that are learning we NEED them to play better.

Some have figured it out - Reed being one.

And kudos to St. John’’s. They played well enough to win and made the shots they needed to in a hostile environment. Can’t take anything away from them - well played!

This game - the loss - I’ve already forgotten about it but my eyes will be on the next 3 games to see how much they are willing to elevate their effort on both sides of the ball!

 

[Marat]

The problem is Diarra may not get any healthier than he already is. With him like this we have practically zero dribble penetration, which leads to no open shots, which leads to shot clock violations and forced shots. It's going to be really hard for us to have success against good defenses with Diarra limited like this.

Sad, but true.

 

[gsmooth]

The problem is Diarra may not get any healthier than he already is. With him like this we have practically zero dribble penetration, which leads to no open shots, which leads to shot clock violations and forced shots. It's going to be really hard for us to have success against good defenses with Diarra limited like this.

winner, winner, chicken dinner with this post. That is the much bigger concern. Before he was hobbled, Diarra was playing really well. However, he played all the high leverage/high stress impactful PG minutes in the games and we all knew there was a chance he could get worn out. If we knew he could be close to 100% by March we wouldn't sweat it as much, but from what Hurley said, it sounds like they have to make the best of Diarra being hobbled for the rest of the year. Diarra and McNeeley are UConn's most indispensable players on this year's team.

That's why we are all lamenting the fact there is not another pure PG on this roster that can play as Nowell is injured and Mahaney just isn't a PG, which IMO, the staff miscalculated their ability to convert Mahaney into a PG.

 

[businesslawyer]

It's a good loss and we still had moments of brilliance, just not enough of them. Some things need to be fixed. Some of them can't be fixed so we need work arounds.

We need to work on in-bounds plays. And the team needs to keep their heads up when the other team decides to press. We were caught off guard on a number of occasions and it disrupts our offense. Hurley and Murray need to find new ways to get Solo open. He got taken away in the second half. He is going to see more and more attention. Reed needs to stay close to the basket on offense. We are less effective when he goes out to hedge. Samson let his bad habits reappear.

We really crashed the boards last night and it worked. McNeeley needs to keep attacking the glass. Both our PGs need to be more aggressive. When we attacked their defense early in the shot clock we were much more effective. We still haven't figured out our best pace. It needs to be slow enough to limit TOs and fast enough develop rhythm.

No one got hurt. Our chemistry will improve as we get healthy. Just win enough games to go into the BET strong. The only thing that matters is March.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I won’t ever understand saying that losing a chance for a conference title doesn’t matter. I can’t believe Hurley or the players would agree with that opinion, but who knows.

 

[cp176]

This game taught me nothing new about this team and certified Marquette was flukey.

This team has zero killer instinct in them and displays zero consistency, which likely stems from a void in terms of leadership. It was the same issue at Xavier at Villanova home v Creighton.

SJU was begging to give that game away the first ten minutes of the second half.

Despite that, we have veterans leaders running out of control fast breaks and coughing the ball up and not hustling back.

Solo can’t do it himself. Liam can’t do it himself. Alex, Samson, and love you Hassan fighting through injuries but the 3 oldest guys on the team can’t no show. And most of the turnovers were self inflicted. Minimal pressure meant to just soak up shot clock made everyone jittery and scared. Can’t even get the most important rebound of the game!

The team is still tourney good but unless there are serious changes in terms of either health, shooting ability, ball movement, and ball handling, this team will not be seeing the second weekend or Saturday of the BET.

I do think that when you play a good hard nosed team like St. John’s that likes to get out and go, you can’t spend a lot of time celebrating your threes or you will pay for it in transition. They were better than us and overall their record speaks for itself.

 

[connVA]

I haven't gone all the way back through the thread to check but I feel like we need the meme of the dog drinking coffee in the burning kitchen

 

[REB1094]

The problem is Diarra may not get any healthier than he already is.

Unfortunately I didn't think of that. We need him vs Creighton but hopefully we can rest him against Seton Hall and give him another week off

 

[Palatine]

We need Mahaney to play his role. Make a couple of assists, less than a couple of TOs, score 5-7 points. Give Diarra some rest. We had way too many free loaders against St John's. Yes, he was hurt against St John's. We still need him to do more than come in throw the ball away and go back to the bench.

 

[MuchoDogYears]

Dan Hurley’s quote today scares the crap out of me. He literally said Karaban should keep shooting and take 14 shots. And that he doesn’t care if he misses.

How can he so quickly forget that Karaban shot 14 times against Marquette and missed 13 of them!

As the saying goes doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.

Dan Hurley should take the pressure off Karaban instead of adding to it, by sitting Karaban and bring him off the bench until he shows that he can put the ball in the basket.

 

[jake14mw]

If you are saying that the LOSS doesn't mean that much, I sort of get that. It certainly does mean something. The loss itself probably drops us down one line in the seeding. Every GAME means something. You watch the game to see how they are playing and most importantly use them as a gauge as to how we can play in March. This GAME was the second one in a row with a ton of turnovers. It was another game where Alex was not Alex. If we can't get a lot more from the PG position, and Alex doesn't play like Alex, then the prospects for March are dim. That means a lot to me.

 

[AntG168]

The Hass situation has severely altered the course of this season. Healthy Hass I thought we had enough to make a run. I don’t see it now. If when Nowell is healthy he should get the lion shares of the minutes. Time to prioritize the future. Same goes for Stewart/Karaban and Reed/Johnson. Stewart and Reed need more floor time. We had an historic run with these guys. But it’s time for the future in my opinion.

 

[mauconnfan]

We need Mahaney to play his role. Make a couple of assists, less than a couple of TOs, score 5-7 points. Give Diarra some rest. We had way too many free loaders against St John's. Yes, he was hurt against St John's. We still need him to do more than come in throw the ball away and go back to the bench.

Agree but that’s what Diarra did too and they were both hurt. I mean I’m all for he’s a warrior but doesn’t mean it’s ok to throw it away 6 times. Mahaney looked very nervous to me vs the Johnnies pressure.

What we need is Nowell healthy with a longer rope.

 

[mauconnfan]

Dan Hurley’s quote today scares the crap out of me. He literally said Karaban should keep shooting and take 14 shots. And that he doesn’t care if he misses.

How can he so quickly forget that Karaban shot 14 times against Marquette and missed 13 of them!

As the saying goes doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.

Dan Hurley should take the pressure off Karaban instead of adding to it, by sitting Karaban and bring him off the bench until he shows that he can put the ball in the basket.

What he should have said was I can’t believe we didn’t get more than 7 shots for Tarris!

 

[Gurleyman]

Dan Hurley’s quote today scares the crap out of me. He literally said Karaban should keep shooting and take 14 shots. And that he doesn’t care if he misses.

How can he so quickly forget that Karaban shot 14 times against Marquette and missed 13 of them!

As the saying goes doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.

Dan Hurley should take the pressure off Karaban instead of adding to it, by sitting Karaban and bring him off the bench until he shows that he can put the ball in the basket.

Dan Hurley is right (imo). We only have so many weapons and when one of them refuses to even put bullets in his gun, everyone else’s job gets harder.

I do not want to see Karaban pass on an open look to swing it to Diarra in the corner. I do not want to see him come open on a flare screen and fake a shot and go nowhere and put Liam in jail with the shot clock winding down.

We don’t have someone who can break down the D (unless Liam becomes that guy). Our system is designed to run Euro offense to try to get shooters shots. We have enough role players - we aren’t running plays to get Diarra, Johnson or Ross open looks. The guys who are supposed to shoot need to shoot. When you run stuff and shoot when you’re supposed to, other players can anticipate the shot and work to get offensive rebounding position. Or people can cut into the gaps created by defenders trying to take away the shot.

Karaban can’t be so mentally soft that he can’t handle missing. He’s hurting his teammates by deferring to guys who then get the pressure on them. He’s hurting his teammates by not being a threat who demands defensive attention.

Diarra got a turnover in the corner because St. John’s didn’t think AK was going to shoot, they didn’t respect him, and they took away the next pass. A pass to an injured non-scorer was a greater threat to them than an open AK. If that was Liam or Solo in that spot, Diarra would have been wide open.

 

[Captbluefin]

This team lacks a Senior/5th year guy who leads.
We also have enjoyed upperclassmen in the backcourt who can get a bucket to stop the bleeding.

We have neither and is showing. Playing against these teams with multiple upperclassmen transfers playing against our freshmen and sophomores.

 

[cullaville]

It's a good loss and we still had moments of brilliance, just not enough of them. Some things need to be fixed. Some of them can't be fixed so we need work arounds.

We need to work on in-bounds plays. And the team needs to keep their heads up when the other team decides to press. We were caught off guard on a number of occasions and it disrupts our offense. Hurley and Murray need to find new ways to get Solo open. He got taken away in the second half. He is going to see more and more attention. Reed needs to stay close to the basket on offense. We are less effective when he goes out to hedge. Samson let his bad habits reappear.

We really crashed the boards last night and it worked. McNeeley needs to keep attacking the glass. Both our PGs need to be more aggressive. When we attacked their defense early in the shot clock we were much more effective. We still haven't figured out our best pace. It needs to be slow enough to limit TOs and fast enough develop rhythm.

No one got hurt. Our chemistry will improve as we get healthy. Just win enough games to go into the BET strong. The only thing that matters is March.

I hit the like button instead of the reply button.

There is no such thing as a "GOOD LOSS"

 

[WeAreUCONN]

let’s just say this season means nothing and move on.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Agree but that’s what Diarra did too and they were both hurt. I mean I’m all for he’s a warrior but doesn’t mean it’s ok to throw it away 6 times. Mahaney looked very nervous to me vs the Johnnies pressure.

What we need is Nowell healthy with a longer rope.

Yes. I think we get that this week. He’s our best defensive guard. Give him rope and at least 15 mpg.

Mahaney isn’t a PG. He’s a slightly undersized shooting guard. He’s about what Joey C was. Offense off the bench. Problem is he can’t handle aggressive pressure teams like St. John’s. So that was not a good matchup for him.

Probably should have played Ross a little more. He can throw over those guards and beat the press.

 

[UofCT]

The Hass situation has severely altered the course of this season. Healthy Hass I thought we had enough to make a run. I don’t see it now. If when Nowell is healthy he should get the lion shares of the minutes. Time to prioritize the future. Same goes for Stewart/Karaban and Reed/Johnson. Stewart and Reed need more floor time. We had an historic run with these guys. But it’s time for the future in my opinion.

I think going with Stewart and Reed helps us this season too.

 

[3rdbass]

This has to be the joke post of the year. The game doesn't mean anything? Really? Losing to St. John's at home with a tough game against Creighton away coming up. This was a must win to keep us doing well and far from the bubble. We can't afford to lose games like this especially when up 14 in the first half. Totally disappointing and shows how far we have to go to be serious contenders. We showed we can be pressed on offense and turn the ball over and can't be a lock down defensive unit when stops are needed.

 

[Kembafan]

It's a good loss and we still had moments of brilliance, just not enough of them. Some things need to be fixed. Some of them can't be fixed so we need work arounds.

We need to work on in-bounds plays. And the team needs to keep their heads up when the other team decides to press. We were caught off guard on a number of occasions and it disrupts our offense. Hurley and Murray need to find new ways to get Solo open. He got taken away in the second half. He is going to see more and more attention. Reed needs to stay close to the basket on offense. We are less effective when he goes out to hedge. Samson let his bad habits reappear.

We really crashed the boards last night and it worked. McNeeley needs to keep attacking the glass. Both our PGs need to be more aggressive. When we attacked their defense early in the shot clock we were much more effective. We still haven't figured out our best pace. It needs to be slow enough to limit TOs and fast enough develop rhythm.

No one got hurt. Our chemistry will improve as we get healthy. Just win enough games to go into the BET strong. The only thing that matters is March.

It’s not so much that the game was important, it’s that the team seems lost. Especially on offense, they often look like they don’t know what to do. Going into the season I wasn’t concerned about offense at all. But now… all a team has to do is guard us tight on the perimeter and we can’t score. Or press us and we’ll turn it over.