There's little doubt in my mind that this team knows how to run. I'm less confident that they know how to execute half-court sets efficiently. If we ran with the likes of Columbia, Wagner, etc, I'm sure we would have run them out of the gym, but I'm not sure the guys would have learned much.
These early-season games, as I've said before, are somewhat analagous to baseball spring-training: they're as much for teaching, and for learning what the players can and can't do well, as they are for winning with large margins. You need to take kids that were superstars in high school, and break them of that superstar mentality, identify their roles, and train them to play those roles. So JC has a quick hook, and guys' confidence can take a temporary hit. We're now approaching the point in the season where he starts to build them back up again, and that's when things start to get really fun to watch.
I think, when we get up against the Pitts and Georgetowns and Notre Dames of the world, teams that force you into half-court rock fights, we'll be glad they spent so much time in these early games working on the half-court offense. There will be plenty of opportunities to run in the conference part of the schedule, and I doubt the team will have much problem doing so.
I've been a UConn fan for a lot of years, including JC's entire Husky career, and he's always used the 'cupcake' games this way, and fans have always lamented that we're not winning them by bigger margins, or by running teams into the ground. Come March, much of that concern has been forgotten.
