Worst loss of the year, and deeply disturbing

[ctchamps]

The vast majority of the team are seniors and juniors. Some played in a National Title game. If that's true they should show better poise.

I don't know. Most good teams have found a way to beat SMU at home this year. It shouldn't have been a game that psyched our team out to the point of what we saw today.

It happens in all sports that a player or a team just struggles. They're are no certainties, no absolutes. Just probabilities. That's the beauty of real life sports vs. playing computer games. There's a human element involved. It stinks that the entire team had a bad game relative to what we know they can do. That's not necessarily lack of preparation or desire. It could be over preparation and too much intensity. People struggle all the time and not every failure is the result of intensity or desire.

We often are so invested in outcomes we don't want to look at human limitations. We need to find blame. We want to punish someone. I like you as a poster. I like your passion. Same with most of the people taking the time to contribute in this forum. It's not my intention to single you out. The team struggled from the beginning. It wasn't their day obviously. Not much any of us can do about it. We'll have to see if the players can regain their composure and poise. We'll have to see if they can play less tightly. We'll have to see if LK, NG and DD can regain the spark they've shown at times during the season.

That may or may not happen. If it happens they'll be happy and so will we. If it doesn't we'll all be miserable. But I hope most of us will not find the need to take our disappointment out on the players and coaches.

 

[maineuconnfan]

I do believe the huskies were 21 - 9 going into the big east tournament in 2011, having lost 4 out of 5. You do not want to lose, but they still are a legit good team...great teams are determined in march!

 

[August_West]

This team is just a consistent DD away from being great. Don't need him to get 20 every game but do need him to bring something, or anything. Our preseason ranking was predicated on how strongly he finished last season. Sadly he is the most enigmatic husky I can think of in terms of the highest highs and lowest lows, and he is the reason I adjusted my expectations of this team around the new year. Bazz can't wear the cape every game and when he doesn't we are VERY beatable. An obvious statement but great defensive teams give us fits. We match up much better with a team like duke than we do cincinatti or smu or Louisville. Any team that makes our guards uncomfortable is going to have a great chance of beating us.

 

[UConnDad]

I thought Amida played pretty well. Actually joked with my fellow depressed Husky diehard that maybe he wasn't invited to 7 11 pre game with the team!

 

[UConnDad]

I would add that Bazz looks thinner than usual. Don't' know what that indicates. Just an observation.

 

[Kitaman]

SMU just has our number. It was a bad lost only because we were at home and celebrating our 99 team.

I don't read much more than that. Team was off (shooting), flat and missed defensive assignments. With as bad as it seemed we still had a shot late in the game.

stuff happens. The sky is not falling. On to the next game.

 

[Husky]

Worst loss was Houston

 

[UConnDad]

We'll this was pretty bad. Didn't score until under 14 minutes. Glad I wasn't standing amid diminished clapping at this juncture. Just to be debating wether this or the Houston loss was worse is too painful to fathom. Such a hard game to watch. We certainly didn't value every possession.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

You know what, I think there should be a 24 hour moratorium on the Boatright ____. One kid showed up to play today and it was him. I think Niels just got back-doored three more times while I was typing this.

 

[nomar]

One kid showed up to play today and it was him.

That's not fair. Several SMU players showed up to play, too.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Boat always plays hard and that's certainly commendable but I don't think I've ever seen someone so inept at finishing fast breaks, be it scoring the basket or passing to a finisher.

Tough loss. Hopefully get some momentum vs USF Wednesday and carry that into Cincinnati Saturday.

 

[Lefty2one]

Boat always plays hard and that's certainly commendable but I don't think I've ever seen someone so inept at finishing fast breaks, be it scoring the basket or passing to a finisher.

IMO he needs to start going off one foot so he can get his layups off more quickly. He always comes to a stop for a 2-foot attempt at dunk, it just takes too long for someone 5'10 to get up to the rim for a jam when the D is closing in.

 

[jibsey]

Both Boat and Bazz have a tendency to force inside but what else can they do? Having a big to pass to in there makes sense, that's what SMU did.

 

[Danzz]

Exactly. No offensive plays worked. Either credit their defense or our inability to run a set.

We had offensive plays that worked, we just didn't hit enough open shots.They just played great defense especially on the perimeter. I thought Bazz should have tried to take his bigger defender off the dribble more but sometimes you have to give the other team credit. If we made more outside shots the middle would have opened up; nothing new about that.
This really is only one loss and we shouldn't make more of it than it is.

 

[Woof 101]

Nothing like the sky is falling, our program is dead because of one loss posts.

Absurd and plain stupid

Jerry no spitting match here but stupid might be a bit strong. I am not defending anyone doomsday but I can understand how many are let down and miss lead. You may have missed some of the background facts of todays game.
First this is the time of year a team should be peaking it's game. This certainly is not the case. We were favored by 7-1/2 @ home and this on campus not in Hartford. Playing a team where revenge should have been a major factor. Motivation should not have been a problem, as they played uninspired.
That and the first national champs in the house!

The coach did not look good today nor did the team. Having said that I will defend both by saying it is not a hard team to coach against. I did not expect a deep tourny team this year but on the same hand expected a better product today.

Right now this team is a question mark for the fans and the selection committee, we have to hope they beat USF and Rutty. Then at least play balls to the wall with the Ville and Cincy. Today was not up to the expected standards by any means...

 

[Vuce]

We were a 6 seed with a 20-5 record before this loss.

Actually we were 21-5 before this loss and several sites had Uconn as a 5 seed (CBS for one). Uconn needs to win Wednesday and Saturday to get back on track a bit.

 

[Jerry1714]

Jerry no spitting match here but stupid might be a bit strong. I am not defending anyone doomsday but I can understand how many are let down and miss lead. You may have missed some of the background facts of todays game.
First this is the time of year a team should be peaking it's game. This certainly is not the case. We were favored by 7-1/2 @ home and this on campus not in Hartford. Playing a team where revenge should have been a major factor. Motivation should not have been a problem, as they played uninspired.
That and the first national champs in the house!

The coach did not look good today nor did the team. Having said that I will defend both by saying it is not a hard team to coach against. I did not expect a deep tourny team this year but on the same hand expected a better product today.

Right now this team is a question mark for the fans and the selection committee, we have to hope they beat USF and Rutty. Then at least play balls to the wall with the Ville and Cincy. Today was not up to the expected standards by any means...

No one is saying that were not dissapointed with the loss, the team played lousy and had an off night shooting.

They are about a 40% 3 point shooting team, they shot 28% today, they usually shot 48% from the field, they shot 29% today. They had a ton of open looks that just did not fall, it happens, its basketball.

For people to say that were regressing, or that now were in a lot of trouble are simply wrong and foolish.

We had an off night and lost to a good team, it happens. If you thought the team did not play hard or give it all they had down to the end, well you did not watch the game then.

This is the least concerned I have been after a loss all year (other than the Cincy loss).

 

[Henry]

I took a 5 hour deep breath before posting a reaction to the game. This team seems to lack mental toughness at times. SMU played very good defense but we seemed uninterested in finding ways to overcome it. We passed up good shots to then take off balance bad shots. Daniels and Giffey continue to pass up shots. Boatright was great and Shabazz was okay. Bromah expends a lot of energy doing nothing. This team has potential but needs to toughen up.

 

[Jluc]

This was not our worst loss, Houston was. We lost to a good team at home in a game we should have won but its not the end of the world. Everyone forgets about this if we beat SFU and a really good Cincy team Saturday. On to the next one..

 

[ASweet3781]

No, This loss was worse than Houston which is really saying something. The stakes are higher now. How the team and coaches perform say more than a News Years Eve upset in front of 1000 people that was avenged at Gampel already.

We had overcome the Houston loss and were headed for a strong strong finish going to Louisville. That's now in jeopardy because of today's loss. That's why it's much worse than Houston. The worst of the year. We needed another good win on our resume. We were headed up in rankings, seedings, and standings. Things were headed up. Now the questions come back.

Hopefully we work on offensive execution against tough defense. As you say, we need to make up for this missed opportunity against Cincinnati. And Cincinnati's D is far better than SMU's.

 

[superjohn]

It's been said before about Boat and it's so true, the kid has to gather himself and jump off of two feet every time he's near the rim. Whether it's him breaking his man down off the dribble and going to the rim or a couple of steps ahead of a defender on the break he gathers himself and jumps off of two feet allowing the defender to strip him constantly. It's extremely frustrating because he's athletic enough that finishing at the rim should be no problem. Some people jump better off of one foot better and for some it's two but he should at least be able to go off of one and lay it in.

 

[Excalibur]

We had offensive plays that worked, we just didn't hit enough open shots.They just played great defense especially on the perimeter. I thought Bazz should have tried to take his bigger defender off the dribble more but sometimes you have to give the other team credit. If we made more outside shots the middle would have opened up; nothing new about that.
This really is only one loss and we shouldn't make more of it than it is.

What we had to do was stop with all of the damn ball screens. They defended the pick and roll incredibly well. We needed to try something else, but never did.