What Do We Do In Practice?

[Horatio]

We have a couple of guys that have zero offensive game. Cant shoot, limited handle and one of them won’t even look at the basket most of the time. And yet, they get a ton of minutes.

 

[Platt81]

Omg….you must have taken a shot for every missed 3

Nope, I just don’t act like Chicken Little everytime they lose. There have been two losses by a combined 7 points, both down starters for against 1 loss teams. Frankly the ramblings and finger pointing in these circumstances come off far more like the ramblings of a drunk than my fair and accurate assessments.

For these two losses, there were two impressive wins over Auburn and VCU, but I’m sure you’d have some critique as to how those games could have went better too, bc again, some people are just simply negative about life.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Probably would’ve benefitted if we gave Hawkin’s minutes to Diggins.

Why? Hawkins was bad today but he's a much, much better shooter than Diggins. What problem would Diggins have solved?

 

[T-Squared]

Sadly, it is apparent that this squad is very limited offensively. The Huskies are gonna need better shooters (read as: create their own shot, hit open shots) before they take the next step. Interestingly, both Tyrese and Adama are not shy when it comes to putting a shot up - their absence hurt a lot tonight.

 

[Huskyforlife]

The only thing nobody can seem to answer is, how Hurleys coaching could've forced the shots to go in? It's not like the shots weren't open? What was he supposed to do? The defense was great, isn't that mostly coaching? Do yall even realize Andre was second on the team in made 3s today? Seems like coaching only gets brought up when things go wrong. Jim Calhoun didn't have some magic voo doo that made his players shots go in, the players did their part in executing open looks. Blame Hurley for not recruiting a transfer shooter if you need to blame him for that disaster. Even if his rotations are head scratching, not one player was making anything, so why does that matter in this case? Better sets and rotations weren't gonna solve our problems tonight.

39% FG, 3/21 14.3% from deep, 6/11 from the Free throw line, 55%. Never gonna win when players play this poorly.

 

[Huskyforlife]

People can talk about 3/23 all they want. If you can’t see that we are deer in the headlights in EVERY close game we are in, you are blind.

That is coaching and preparation. And for the dopes bringing up Nova last night, they found a way to win by 14.

They held cuse to 53 and made enough 3s to put up 67 even when shooting 27%. The math isn't that hard my guy. If we hit 27% of our 3s, wed also walk home the victor, and that's a terrible number as well. 27% is the kind of shooting game good teams have when they're off. You get it now?

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

I've just resigned myself to the fact that right now, it isn't possible for Hurley to be the coach that has creative solutions to problems late in games. He isn't going to throw in a 2-2-1 press to throw off the other team's rhythm for a possession, or think 2 steps ahead and be prepared for adjustments other coaches make like Calhoun did. He just doesn't have it in him.

Some coaches can't recruit, but are brilliant in games. Some coaches have transfers out the wazoo. Hurley is really, really good at everything except game day. We're a really, really good team at full strength. Our recruiting kicks ass. We've got enough to beat all but probably 5 teams in America on any given night. We're entertaining as hell to watch.

He's still not there yet.It remains his growing edge.

I'm not going to look it up, but I am wondering what are his best true road wins against opposing fans up until now, particularly since he's come to UConn. Did he beat Sampson in Houston once?

During the last 7 minutes, I had a sense that a victory would have been his best such win ever. He's new to this, and not very good at it yet.

I was amazed by how much leash he gave to the frenetic play, and how much variety we saw. I'd have liked some additional Johnson, and even a chance to see if Diggins could have brought some calm.

McClure & Sherman made at least 3 well-defended shots during the first half. The refs missed a goal-tending and a clean block. Cole had a shot bounce up to the top of the backboard in addition to the wedged ball. Jackson ran out of shot clock, the second time he took forever agonizing on a 3-point look. The first went in.

Huggins got bailouts, though Whaley definitely made plays that covered for others and made them look good.

Could have been a double digit win, but also could have been a fall-apart road loss. Whether there's visible growth from this is the pending question. MANY games this year could be like this.

Again, the excruciating loss syndrome. 28 points & 14 rebounds in street clothing. We have the pieces, and the pipeline is building.

 

[pj]

Maybe he learned that from Calhoun. Calhoun is the GOAT when it comes to building a program from nothing to a blue blood elite, but Calhoun used to do that as well and it infuriated me.

Calhoun was training guys to be on 100% of the time. Bench guys had to be ready to go in and perform, starters too.

I don't have a problem with Hurley using his judgment about when to give Cole a rest. What matters is March and he has to get the team ready, which means in part putting the bench into situations where they have to perform. I'd fault him more for not playing Diggins during Cole's 4 minutes on the bench. We'll need Diggins to be able to play end of game with a lead - he needs time on the court to get ready. Two minutes of film each game to study afterward would do him good. The Gaffney-Diggins tandem when Cole rests makes more sense to me than CG Gaffney playing with a bunch of wings.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Nobody wanted to shoot, and when they took wide open shots they missed. Not much more to it than that

But the whole nobody wanting to shoot is coaching and practicing plays to pihtnwhere players are comfortable shooting the ball in the right spots.
Too often isnthe wrong player with the ball in the wrong spot as shot clock winds down. That is all coaching from play designs, to practicing to identifying which players are successful in which spots. Last night was a constant square peg and round hole.

 

[Husky Alien]

But the whole nobody wanting to shoot is coaching and practicing plays to pihtnwhere players are comfortable shooting the ball in the right spots.
Too often isnthe wrong player with the ball in the wrong spot as shot clock winds down. That is all coaching from play designs, to practicing to identifying which players are successful in which spots. Last night was a constant square peg and round hole.

And you went a bit @ClifSpliffy on us there, did a double take when reading this.

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

Probably would’ve benefitted if we gave Hawkin’s minutes to Diggins.

Man Hawkins has talent but wow he is raw. He needs some serious refinement.

I think it's probably a confidence thing with Hawkins, that and he probably got by with his handles in highschool but needs to tighten them at this level.

 

[Chin Diesel]

And you went a bit @ClifSpliffy on us there, did a double take when reading this.

Couple of typos. New cell phone and still getting used to keyboard.

 

[LBird33]

The problem is that we rarely draw fouls when going to the hoop.

Last night they overly relied on shooting threes. They were clearly cold would have liked to see more high percentage shots closer to the hoop

 

[LBird33]

Amazing how many turn on Hurley. The team was missing 2 starters playing at a tough WV home court with young players that will continue to improve. They lost by 3.

Used to happen with Calhoun too. I can remember after a loss someone would criticize him for pulling players too fast etc etc lol

 

[LBird33]

Don’t underestimate Huggins as a coach. When he was at Cincy he had less talented teams overachieving year after year.

 

[husky429]

He's still not there yet.It remains his growing edge.

I'm not going to look it up, but I am wondering what are his best true road wins against opposing fans up until now, particularly since he's come to UConn. Did he beat Sampson in Houston once?

During the last 7 minutes, I had a sense that a victory would have been his best such win ever. He's new to this, and not very good at it yet.

I was amazed by how much leash he gave to the frenetic play, and how much variety we saw. I'd have liked some additional Johnson, and even a chance to see if Diggins could have brought some calm.

McClure & Sherman made at least 3 well-defended shots during the first half. The refs missed a goal-tending and a clean block. Cole had a shot bounce up to the top of the backboard in addition to the wedged ball. Jackson ran out of shot clock, the second time he took forever agonizing on a 3-point look. The first went in.

Huggins got bailouts, though Whaley definitely made plays that covered for others and made them look good.

Could have been a double digit win, but also could have been a fall-apart road loss. Whether there's visible growth from this is the pending question. MANY games this year could be like this.

Again, the excruciating loss syndrome. 28 points & 14 rebounds in street clothing. We have the pieces, and the pipeline is building.

He isn't new though. He's a decade into his career and pushing 50. I think he is what he is... and what he is is a hell of a recruiter, talent manager, a hard worker, but not a game day coach. It is what it is.

 

[MTBingNinja]

The Gaffney air ball followed by the Cole 3 where the ball got stuck in the 1st half....all I could do was smile, shake my head, and grab 2 more beers from the fridge

Had to go for the Fireball, beer wasn’t going to do it for me last night

 

[MTBingNinja]

I agree. He can recruit and motivate. He’s terrible at X’s and O’s. I basically expect it by now. Biggest play of the game, out of a timeout, and we can’t even get a look.

I thought Murray would help out with this

 

[MTBingNinja]

Amazing how many turn on Hurley. The team was missing 2 starters playing at a tough WV home court with young players that will continue to improve. They lost by 3.

We win the game if Sanogo and Martin are on the court, but we had enough depth where we should’ve won the game. This one is on the players more, lousy shooting percentage.

 

[nycscooby]

Nope, I just don’t act like Chicken Little everytime they lose. There have been two losses by a combined 7 points, both down starters for against 1 loss teams. Frankly the ramblings and finger pointing in these circumstances come off far more like the ramblings of a drunk than my fair and accurate assessments.

For these two losses, there were two impressive wins over Auburn and VCU, but I’m sure you’d have some critique as to how those games could have went better too, bc again, some people are just simply negative about life.

Check back after our coming losses.

Every team can have a bad shooting night but it goes
deeper than this.

Up 5 or 6 I believe midway through second half, our half court D is suffocating them. Momentum clearly on our side, finally a couple of shots fall in consecutive possessions. We get two turnovers that result in a missed practically half court alley-oop to AJ that goes through his hands and then a long ill timed pass to Hawkins I believe. We make those two scores and it’s a 9 or 10 point lead and perhaps we close out? Instead we fumble the opportunities and it becomes a tied or one point game. Just poor decision making at critical times.

And the ball handling is really atrocious like shocking for a high D1 program.

Expect every opponent to extend pressure out to the perimeter, overplay the wings and double RJ to try and keep the ball out of his hands. Seems very effective.

Yes, this loss on the players for sure.

But, when we have Whaley, Jackson and Akok on the floor at the same time we are going to really struggle to score.

 

[navery12]

But the whole nobody wanting to shoot is coaching and practicing plays to pihtnwhere players are comfortable shooting the ball in the right spots.
Too often isnthe wrong player with the ball in the wrong spot as shot clock winds down. That is all coaching from play designs, to practicing to identifying which players are successful in which spots. Last night was a constant square peg and round hole.

To a point it is, but I think that's over simplifying it. It's the plays like Samson Johnson passing up an open 3 to dribble the ball into 3 defenders and lose it. Or the multiple times players passed up a good shot with 3 on the shot clock to force up a bad shot from someone else. The offense looked good for the first 25-30 minutes or so in the way you're talking about, shots just weren't falling

 

[HuskyFich]

we can say Hurley struggles late in games. But it’s also because we don’t have an alpha to slow the other team down. It’s not the final 4 minutes that are killing us, it’s the adjustments coaches are making to Cole at halftime.

We literally have no one we can be confident in to bring the ball up, create their own shot, or facilitate the offense through ball movement except Cole, and he’s 6’0 in shoes on a good day.

Really need improvement from Hawkins and AJax. Going into the season we were expecting strong minutes from 6 players we are not getting right now.(AJax, Hawkins, Diggins, gaffney, akok, polley)

Let’s be honest, they’re all VASTLY under performing compared to BY expectations. I believe things will change, but this team may not truly hit its stride until February

 

[husky429]

we can say Hurley struggles late in games. But it’s also because we don’t have an alpha to slow the other team down.

We had an alpha last year and had the same problems. It was probably worse.

 

[GetTheFacts]

I don't really buy the excuse that we should give a pass to Hurley just because we're missing two key players. Nearly every player on this roster was a former top 100 recruit, the talent is there. He needs to find a way to win games where we are clearly the better team. It's even MORE puzzling because all we heard in the off-season was "45:07", yet we're just as bad this season at closing out games in big spots.

 

[Chin Diesel]

To a point it is, but I think that's over simplifying it. It's the plays like Samson Johnson passing up an open 3 to dribble the ball into 3 defenders and lose it. Or the multiple times players passed up a good shot with 3 on the shot clock to force up a bad shot from someone else. The offense looked good for the first 25-30 minutes or so in the way you're talking about, shots just weren't falling

Those are exactly the plays I'm talking about. In practice it should be made clear that Johnson shouldn't be trying to dribble from the corner to the baseline to try and get to the basket. He's playing against high level D1 defenders who know how to use end lines and side lines as extra defenders and put you in a bad spot. I'm not real keen on Johnson trying the dribble from the 3 point line to the hoop right now at all.

I didn't mind his top of the key 3 as a trail man on a fast break. Do I wish he would have set his feet and taken a better shot? Sure. But if he is going to be a stretch 4, it's now normal for that player to take a 3 at that point in a possession.

 

[Get a Job]

I was amazed by how much leash he gave to the frenetic play, and how much variety we saw. I'd have liked some additional Johnson, and even a chance to see if Diggins could have brought some calm.

You and me both, brother. You and me both.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Couple of typos. New cell phone and still getting used to keyboard.

Good for the mojo:
"Pihtnwhere isnthe" is
the new "Fort the ead."

 

[Hungryhusky99]

Those are exactly the plays I'm talking about. In practice it should be made clear that Johnson shouldn't be trying to dribble from the corner to the baseline to try and get to the basket. He's playing against high level D1 defenders who know how to use end lines and side lines as extra defenders and put you in a bad spot. I'm not real keen on Johnson trying the dribble from the 3 point line to the hoop right now at all.

I didn't mind his top of the key 3 as a trail man on a fast break. Do I wish he would have set his feet and taken a better shot? Sure. But if he is going to be a stretch 4, it's now normal for that player to take a 3 at that point in a possession.

Those are not the plays to worried about imo. He is a freshman playing his first minutes against higher level competition and he made a dumb mistake, it is going to happen. If these things keep continuing with more and more minutes then I would be concerned, but pinpointing one Samson mistake at this point in time is just nitpicking.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

We should have won.

Team was playing way faster than it felt comfortable playing. Alot of the threes were open but rushed, not set. Need to get used to playing fast but under control and take time where they can, especially when shooting wide open shots. That will come with playing at this pace. I didn't like the rebounding one bit.

Very winnable.

I don't share the opinion of your final sentence, but it's worth at least noting that Hawkins, Polley, and Akok who shot 2 of 18 and put up a collective donut from 3, grabbed 19 of the team's 35 rebounds.

It would have and could have been a terrific, high-learning, creative, and joyous win. It wasn't.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Those are not the plays to worried about imo. He is a freshman playing his first minutes against higher level competition and he made a dumb mistake, it is going to happen. If these things keep continuing with more and more minutes then I would be concerned, but pinpointing one Samson mistake at this point in time is just nitpicking.

I was just using Samson's play as an example.

As to the points I've highlighted we've seen more than one player making the same types of mistakes whether it be passes, dribbling, not catching the ball, etc. That is the bigger concern to me. It doesn't seem like the players are being coached to recognize their low probability plays.