What will hopefully happen in the last three games

[husky429]

vs. Providence will be tough because Providence is a good team whose best player matches up REALLY well with our guy guarding him

My bold prediction based on absolutely 0 evidence:

Karaban holds his own vs Hopkins in this matchup. Maybe even bests him.

His defense is getting better and better, and our entire defense will be there to help Karaban defending off the bounce.

 

[NotADime89]

My bold prediction based on absolutely 0 evidence:

Karaban holds his own vs Hopkins in this matchup. Maybe even bests him.

His defense is getting better and better, and our entire defense will be there to help Karaban defending off the bounce.

I agree its impressive how much his defense has improved over the last few games. Hopkins loves to lower his shoulder and barrel into people so I'm thinking AK can get him into foul trouble early with a couple charges

 

[Matt1010]

I like this but unless we win the BET, any exit in the first weekend of the tournament is going to be a huge blow after the last two years. Sweet 16 is a good season, Elite 8 is great, and anything less …

I wouldn't consider losing in the BET finals and second round exit from the tournament to be a huge blow at all. Certainly not what we are looking for, but that's a solid enough season.

 

[auror]

Providence and St. John's are probably our 2 worst matchups in the Big East, relative to their true abilities. Both have physical ball pressure for our guards and a big who can defend Sanogo 1v1.

Devin Carter is one of the only guys in the entire league that can track Hawkins around all the screens. (He's my conference DPOTY runner up after Kalkbrenner). Croswell is solid defensively and roughly the same size as Sanogo. Their offense is predicated on exploiting the thing that we are weakest at (committing fouls).

Soriano is the guy who made Sanogo play the worst on the season (he just couldn't move him at all). Their guard pressure gives our guards problems, and meanwhile they eschew the 3s we look to deny and utilize the midrange on offense. They aren't likely to shoot as well on pull ups and floaters in this game, but if they do we can certainly be in trouble again. They will still force us into turnovers.

Seton Hall does some of the same things (like drawing fouls), but don't quite have anyone to guard Sanogo or execute well enough on offense to win on the road.

We're going to just need to out-execute these teams, have our role players step up, and make shots at home.

 

[superjohn]

Providence and St. John's are probably our 2 worst matchups in the Big East, relative to their true abilities. Both have physical ball pressure for our guards and a big who can defend Sanogo 1v1.

Devin Carter is one of the only guys in the entire league that can track Hawkins around all the screens. (He's my conference DPOTY runner up after Kalkbrenner). Croswell is solid defensively and roughly the same size as Sanogo. Their offense is predicated on exploiting the thing that we are weakest at (committing fouls).

Soriano is the guy who made Sanogo play the worst on the season (he just couldn't move him at all). Their guard pressure gives our guards problems, and meanwhile they eschew the 3s we look to deny and utilize the midrange on offense. They aren't likely to shoot as well on pull ups and floaters in this game, but if they do we can certainly be in trouble again. They will still force us into turnovers.

Seton Hall does some of the same things (like drawing fouls), but don't quite have anyone to guard Sanogo or execute well enough on offense to win on the road.

We're going to just need to out-execute these teams, have our role players step up, and make shots at home.

Providence couldn't deal with Clingan at all. His 7 minutes should be tripled next game against them.

 

[HeGotGame]

We’ve lost yo Xavier, PC , Marquette, Seton Hall , and now Creighton on the road.
The Only road wins , are DePaul , Butler and Georgetown.
What would you call 3-5 beating only dregs . For any UConn team that sucks .
St John’s just beat PC , and Nova is almost at full strength. One destroyed us at home the other played us tough . So thinking those are locks is insane .
I will be more than thrilled if we win all our home games (we will be favored in all three ) and split on the road .
This is shaping up as the most disappointing season since 2012 .
However , However the turnaround of 2011 is always a possibility.

By your understanding logic it’s incredible that we beat Marquette at home.

 

[willie99]

Perno? Really? come on now.

Did someone really bring up the Perno years? LOL

I must have that dude on ignore

 

[REB1094]

I agree its impressive how much his defense has improved over the last few games. Hopkins loves to lower his shoulder and barrel into people so I'm thinking AK can get him into foul trouble early with a couple charges

That's something that I'm sure Karaban will get better at. Teams love to just go at him and lower the shoulder and bulldoze through him. He tries to hold his own, but sometimes gets overpowered. If he can square up and fall after he takes the hit, he's gonna draw a lot of charges like Newton/Alleyne do on the perimeter

He would literally foul out Hopkins and Kaluma within 10 minutes lol

 

[TheChamps990411]

I don’t know what your definition of “suck on the road” is

4-5 on the road and 2 of those wins are against conference cellar dwellers. Hope that clears things up for you.

 

[Billy Jack]

It's senior night and they're playing much better than they did two months ago.

 

[Billy Jack]

It's senior night and they're playing much better than they did two months ago.

So, is there any evidence that teams play better on Senior Night? I didn’t think so. Senior Night is a red herring. We have a better team than Villanova does this year.

Two months ago, on December 13, Villanova was in the midst of a 5 game winning streak. Currently, they have lost 3 of their last 5, 6 of their last 10, and 8 of their last 13. That doesn’t add up to improved play.

 

[Billy Jack]

We find ways to lose on the road. It's a legitimate complaint. It doesn't matter if it's us not hitting shots, defense struggling, we just find ways to lose. They could win out, but would it really stun you if they lost to both St Johns and Nova on the road? Pretty par for the course.

Yes. It would stun me if they lose to St. John’s and Nova on the road.

We find ways to lose on the road? We lost to Providence, Xavier, Creighton, and Marquette on the road, 4 ranked teams who were all favored to win on their home courts. The Seton Hall loss was disappointing, but it was forecast to be a 1-2 point game, which is exactly how it played out. In the final seconds the ball bounced the wrong way. Tough break.

But who doesn’t lose on the road in this league? Here are road losses by the top 4 teams in the conference:

Marquette - Providence, Xavier, UConn
Xavier - Creighton, Butler, DePaul
Creighton - Marquette, Xavier, UConn
Providence - Marquette, Creighton, Xavier, St. John’s

Frankly, Xavier is the top candidate for finding ways to lose on the road. They’ve got a couple of really bad road losses on their record.

 

[Billy Jack]

We’ve lost yo Xavier, PC , Marquette, Seton Hall , and now Creighton on the road.
The Only road wins , are DePaul , Butler and Georgetown.
What would you call 3-5 beating only dregs . For any UConn team that sucks .

Yes, we beat the teams we were supposed to beat. And we lost to the teams who were favored to beat us on their home courts, Except for Seton Hall. Yes, that was a stumble, but it was projected to be a close game, and close games can go either way. Even though we were favored, it was never a lock.

We should have been 4-4 in those games but we came out 3-5. I predict that we will not be the only ones who stumble by the end of the season. Xavier has already lost to DePaul and Butler on the road, much worse road loss than any we’ve had. Providence had a bad loss to to St. John’s.

St John’s just beat PC , and Nova is almost at full strength. One destroyed us at home the other played us tough . So thinking those are locks is insane .

Who said these were locks? But the fact that St. John’s just beat Providence should encourage us for our prospects vs PC. And Villanova trailed for the last 16 minutes of their game with. Yes, they played us tough, but our guys remained in control of the game throughout that entire time. And what does Villanova at full strength mean? Except for their Georgetown game - which really shouldn’t count - Moore has not been his old self at all. Until he is, I don’t see any reason to expect a loss to them.

I will be more than thrilled if we win all our home games (we will be favored in all three ) and split on the road .
This is shaping up as the most disappointing season since 2012 .
However , However the turnaround of 2011 is always a possibility.

Expect a turnaround.

 

[wheelerdog]

So, is there any evidence that teams play better on Senior Night? I didn’t think so. Senior Night is a red herring. We have a better team than Villanova does this year.

Two months ago, on December 13, Villanova was in the midst of a 5 game winning streak. Currently, they have lost 3 of their last 5, 6 of their last 10, and 8 of their last 13. That doesn’t add up to improved play.

I hope you're right.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

I don’t know what your definition of “suck on the road” is, but we just played the #23 team in the country to a 3-point game and held them to 20 points under their season scoring average on their court. It took 2 absolutely insane 3’s with a man in his face each time by Tre Alexander to beat us. If he misses those shots as would have happened in any normal world, we win that game. But we’re facing likely oases to 2 worse teams?

As for Nova having “the long knives out”, LOL. Villanova doesn’t have any long knives this year. Colorful expression but not factual.

Hopefully your correct and Nova is going to lay down on senior night in a game where they are hoping
to put a positive end to for them was a very disappointing season . Maybe they packed it in we will see.
The proof of the pudding is always in the eating .
I watched the entire home game 12/28 on a my flight from NY to Phoenix and I don’t remember us blowing them out . Maybe they regressed since then .

 

[3rdbass]

UConn has five games remaining. Home to Seton Hall, home to Providence, road to St John's, home to DePaul on senior day and road at Villanova. If UConn goes 4-1 assuming a loss to Providence, we will be 23-8. What kind of a season do you think it will be with that record? Go UConn

I think it is more likely we beat Providence at home and lose to Villanova.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

When was the last time we won at Nova? The Bazz shot?

 

[Fishy]

This team has a surprisingly small margin of error because of the turnover issue - it makes running the table pretty unlikely. On paper, they should, but we will likely have a game where we turn it over on 20% of our possessions and lose.

If the devil showed up and told me that we would average eight turnovers a game for the rest of the way, I would bet on us winning a title. But until then, every night will be an adventure.

 

[Rico444]

I agree its impressive how much his defense has improved over the last few games. Hopkins loves to lower his shoulder and barrel into people so I'm thinking AK can get him into foul trouble early with a couple charges

I've watched a few Providence games since they beat us last month, and teams have picked up on that move and are selling the charge, and the refs are calling it much more often. Karaban's a bright kid and has gotten a lot better defensively over the last few weeks, so I expect he'll be ready for that too.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I think it is more likely we beat Providence at home and lose to Villanova.

Yes, we can win at Nova, but that is the tougher game of the two. I think UConn will handle PC and hopefully the referees aren't quite so in the bag this time.

 

[Improviser]

Yes, we beat the teams we were supposed to beat. And we lost to the teams who were favored to beat us on their home courts, Except for Seton Hall. Yes, that was a stumble, but it was projected to be a close game, and close games can go either way. Even though we were favored, it was never a lock.

We should have been 4-4 in those games but we came out 3-5. I predict that we will not be the only ones who stumble by the end of the season. Xavier has already lost to DePaul and Butler on the road, much worse road loss than any we’ve had. Providence had a bad loss to to St. John’s.



Who said these were locks? But the fact that St. John’s just beat Providence should encourage us for our prospects vs PC. And Villanova trailed for the last 16 minutes of their game with. Yes, they played us tough, but our guys remained in control of the game throughout that entire time. And what does Villanova at full strength mean? Except for their Georgetown game - which really shouldn’t count - Moore has not been his old self at all. Until he is, I don’t see any reason to expect a loss to them.


Expect a turnaround.

The turnaround does not have to be a national championship, but winning a couple of games in the NCAA tournament. Or, even more than 2.

 

[Scrutineer]

I don’t know what your definition of “suck on the road” is, but we just played the #23 team in the country to a 3-point game and held them to 20 points under their season scoring average on their court. It took 2 absolutely insane 3’s with a man in his face each time by Tre Alexander to beat us. If he misses those shots as would have happened in any normal world, we win that game. But we’re facing likely oases to 2 worse teams?

As for Nova having “the long knives out”, LOL. Villanova doesn’t have any long knives this yer. Colorful expression but not factual.

Villanova has the kind of center, power forward and small forward that usually do well against us. They don't have the level of guard play they usually have but I'm way too cynical to believe we beat them easily anywhere with some of the pieces they have.

 

[Billy Jack]

When was the last time we won at Nova? The Bazz shot?

When was the last time Niva had a team this bad? Ten years ago?

 

[Billy Jack]

Villanova has the kind of center, power forward and small forward that usually do well against us. They don't have the level of guard play they usually have but I'm way too cynical to believe we beat them easily anywhere with some of the pieces they have.

Who said “easily”? Every Big East game is a challenge. That’s why we re-joined this league. But this is a game we will clearly be favored to win.

 

[superjohn]

Who said “easily”? Every Big East game is a challenge. That’s why we re-joined this league. But this is a game we will clearly be favored to win.

Hasn't UConn been favored in every Big East game except for the last one?