Worst Defensive Performance

[HanDurley]

Our offense was extremely good, but I’ve never seen us play worse defense than tonight under Hurley so far. Not just the abysmal zone, but we were not challenging anyone all night. Also blatant travel at end. Good comeback and fight though. Oh well, another close loss, onto Memphis

 

[dannyHAM]

Our offense was extremely good, but I’ve never seen us play worse defense than tonight under Hurley so far. Not just the abysmal zone, but we were not challenging anyone all night. Also blatant travel at end. Good comeback and fight though. Oh well, another close loss, onto Memphis

Zone cost us the game. I am absolutely stunned at that being used from Hurley. In disbelief

 

[CTBasketball]

Not sure about that foul on Vital's steal down 2...or the no-travel call on SMU on the very next play...

 

[UConnSwag11]

Our offense was extremely good, but I’ve never seen us play worse defense than tonight under Hurley so far. Not just the abysmal zone, but we were not challenging anyone all night. Also blatant travel at end. Good comeback and fight though. Oh well, another close loss, onto Memphis

They were getting to the rim at will no matter who was guarding them. I’m surprised Danny got out of the zone, thought he would’ve stayed in it the whole night

 

[DaveHuskiesFan]

Shocking that our worst defensive performance was against the best offensive team we’ve played.

 

[GHSWolverines]

SMU is quick.

 

[ucawn]

SMU is a top 15 offense nationally. Y’all gotta calm down. @ SMU is a historically bad matchup for UConn. We beat the spread and had some great moments. We can’t be too tough on the team for this game. They know how important it was and they’re probably kicking themselves over it. We need to keep confidence and get the win over Memphis Sunday. That’s the only focus. The rest of the schedule is fairly easy except for the home game against Houston

 

[WrenchFan69]

SMU is easily the best offensive team in the conference and probably the best we've played all year. Shouldn't have gone zone though jesus that was coaching malpractice.

 

[GetTheFacts]

SMU ran their half-court offense to perfection. Bouknight is a star and we'll be lucky if he stays past next season.

And it is pretty crazy how unlucky this UConn team has been. I still believe that they have as good of a chance to win the conference tournament as anyone.

 

[ucawn]

So many things we could nitpick and change to get a better outcome but the think is we lost but beat the spread in a historically tough matchup. We competed with a top 5 team in the conference until the last whistle. If we played this game at home we might’ve won by 10. But we’ve gotta put this behind us and focus on finishing 7-0 and entering the AAC tourney hotter than a tamale

 

[Caronimo]

Zone cost us the game. I am absolutely stunned at that being used from Hurley. In disbelief

The zone stunk but it didn’t lose us the game. The players lack of defensive toughness did. Man defense was so so so bad that Dan went to zone and it didn’t work. Maybe he stayed in it a possession or two too long but we stunk on defense all night regardless man or zone.

Waste of a great offensive performance and special talent

 

[Candyman]

They are athletic but no team should dominate us on O like that. When Hurley pulled Gaffney and Bouk they went on a run. Then later he went zone and not to defend him but wow why were we packing the zone in? They were toying with us.

 

[6xChamps]

Not sure about that foul on Vital's steal down 2...or the no-travel call on SMU on the very next play...

We got a gift or two down the stretch as well

 

[Shine33]

I felt like the run started before the zone. Hurley tried zone to see if it would change that. It obviously had the opposite effect but I don’t think it was a bad move. It seemed worth a shot at that point in the game

 

[Fatroony5]

The zone stunk but it didn’t lose us the game. The players lack of defensive toughness did. Man defense was so so so bad that Dan went to zone and it didn’t work. Maybe he stayed in it a possession or two too long but we stunk on defense all night regardless man or zone.

Waste of a great offensive performance and special talent

Left some plays out there too. Sometimes, defense can’t get it done. Missed free throws (especially missed front ends of 1 and 1’s), costly turnovers at bad times, bad shot here and there when we’re making runs, it’s the little things. Just never had control of the game. Frustrating for sure, but not sure what more Hurley could do there. Build off the loss and beat Memphis. It’s a must win at home. Seems like a good game to get up for...

 

[Hey Adrien!]

Feron Hunt did his best Myles Douglas impression tonight. You take out his nearly perfect day from the field and SMU's offensive efficiency goes way down and UConn gets the win.

 

[mauconnfan]

I felt like the run started before the zone. Hurley tried zone to see if it would change that. It obviously had the opposite effect but I don’t think it was a bad move. It seemed worth a shot at that point in the game

Stayed in a little too long but I agree has to try something.

 

[WrenchFan69]

Feron Hunt did his best Myles Douglas impression tonight. You take out his nearly perfect day from the field and SMU's offensive efficiency goes way down and UConn gets the win.

We let some decent undersized big do that to us every single game tho you can't take it out

 

[mauconnfan]

Feron Hunt did his best Myles Douglas impression tonight. You take out his nearly perfect day from the field and SMU's offensive efficiency goes way down and UConn gets the win.

Always someone huh? Lol

 

[Palatine]

Polley would have guarded Hurt and made his three point shooting more difficult.

 

[Mister P]

Not a great defensive performance and unfortunately , SMU executed everything perfectly either with their game plan or by adjustments. Picked the zone apart with quick passes, spread their offense the last 5 minutes and beat us off the dribble allowing penetration to the hoop and also shot lights out Most of the game. We also had no interior defense.

 

[HanDurley]

Shocking that our worst defensive performance was against the best offensive team we’ve played.

They were getting everything they wanted inside and out. Everything. I get they’re good, but can’t use that as an excuse for giving up almost 80 points. Villanova, Houston, Xavier, and maybe Cincy are all better than SMU

 

[DaveHuskiesFan]

They were getting everything they wanted inside and out. Everything. I get they’re good, but can’t use that as an excuse for giving up almost 80 points. Villanova, Houston, Xavier, and maybe Cincy are all better than SMU

Offensively? Wrong.

 

[Waquoit]

The other guys made their free throws and played tough. Next

 

[superjohn]

Our offense was extremely good, but I’ve never seen us play worse defense than tonight under Hurley so far. Not just the abysmal zone, but we were not challenging anyone all night. Also blatant travel at end. Good comeback and fight though. Oh well, another close loss, onto Memphis

Probably the best offensive team we've played all year and Akok is in a terrible funk. After this one I like to focus on how much better our offense looks and how good our young guards are.