Tourney time ( and schedule)
- Thread starter the Blades
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" The Huskies head to Madison Square Garden this week as one of the dark horse candidates to make a deep March run. "
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Archive link and sign-up- Bring It! Time for Huskies to Get That Title
" The Huskies head to Madison Square Garden this week as one of the dark horse candidates to make a deep March run. "
After doing my homework the last couple days, Chief is going on record as to UConn winning the Big East tournament. It’s a little risky since these guys haven’t been in a pressure cooker before and need to make their foul shots and read the officiating and avoid foolish fouls.
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Having Gillespie out at Villanova, does Jay Wright have enough time to make adjustments? If he had a month, I think Villanova is too good to keep down, but its a big disruption to lose a point guard with a big role this late.
@ChiefOO Watching Gillespie bully smaller guards in the post with the rest of the court spread, do you think Jackson could add that to his game? He is such a good passer that it would be hard to send help without leaving someone open and he is too tall and athletic for most guards to handle down low. Thoughts?
Also, considering that Whaley has the best 3 point % on the team, would you also like to see him not hesitate when he is open at the 3 point line? The defense almost has to beg him to shoot before he launches one. I'm thinking that if he hit a couple in the first half, it would space the court better, bring a rim proctor away from the rim and create more chances to Bouk, Gaffney, Cole, Martin etc. Thoughts?
Agree with your assessment of Gillespie. Chief likes his team ball type game and he creates all kinds of match up problems.
While Whaley is 7/17 from 3 for 41%, he also is 10/22 from the FT line for 45%. Quite frankly, I think his % would go down with more 3’s. I think 2 of the made 3’s were bank shots, so let’s count our blessings.
Whaley definitely should not be shooting more 3s. It's a small sample size, and all the 3s he took were of the wide open variety. If there is anyone who should be taking more 3s it's Gaffney because he has the best 3 ball stroke on the team outside of Polley.
Polley has enormous problems getting open and UConn doesn't run enough plays to get him open. Gaffney is more likely to be open because he isn't as established a 3 ball threat.
Polley has enormous problems getting open and UConn doesn't run enough plays to get him open. Gaffney is more likely to be open because he isn't as established a 3 ball threat.
This is the value of having someone like @ChiefOO on a board.
He respectfully addresses a less sophisticated, but passionate, fan and points out where he is right (Gillespie being a match up problem) and where he is wrong (Whaley's 3 point % is fool's gold)
OldBosd thinks this is why Chief has so many fans (and jealous haters).
I am feeling good about knowing he sees UConn with a winning path in the BET.
When we win it all, I'm going to post "Daddy's Home" for our conference friends who lurk.
Thanks, I enjoy the game and the opportunity to break it down and discuss it. KhakidShockedTheWorld also had the same take on Whaley’s 3’s.
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We are all UConn fans here and this is a special time of year and we we all can kick back and enjoy it - even the haters and losers.
Now that you mention Whaley's FT shooting this year, I was hoping the opposite would happen regarding that number. I remember he was money from the FT line last year, especially towards the end in clutch game situations.
Once he started getting major mins. ( the last 12 games, when Uconn went 9-3) he was 31/40 from the line @ 77.5 % during that stretch and on the year he wasn't much worse at 73.3%. Earlier this year IIRC, DH was talkin up Whaley's shooting and him needing to take those outside shots. So I don't think it's an accident he's shooting a decent clip.... now about those FT's ???
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NCAA: Teams Only Need 5 Healthy Bodies To Play:
I am not going to miss that either. I still don't understand how those repeated post ups couldn't be stopped.
Wow! I can't believe that freshman kid from Butler calmly sank those 2 FTs. all net, to win this game. Ice!!!!! Xavier - headed to the NIT.
Too many good shooters on the floor and he is too good of a passer.
And just too strong for our guards.
Somebody forgot to tell DePaul they aren't supposed to win this game tonight against Eddie Cooley and his bag of tricks. DePaul playing aggressive and well early in this game.
Another way to look at it is he had no threes during that stretch last year and 7 this entire season. Add the 10 -22 FT’s (2020 -2021) with the 31-40 FT’s (2020) and you get 41 - 62 FT’s or 66%. Not great. That brings up another point, why did he get almost twice as many foul shots in 6 games last season as he did in all of this season?Now that you mention Whaley's FT shooting this year, I was hoping the opposite would happen regarding that number. I remember he was money from the FT line last year, especially towards the end in clutch game situations.
Once he started getting major mins. ( the last 12 games, when Uconn went 9-3) he was 31/40 from the line @ 77.5 % during that stretch and on the year he wasn't much worse at 73.3%. Earlier this year IIRC, DH was talkin up Whaley's shooting and him needing to take those outside shots. So I don't think it's an accident he's shooting a decent clip.... now about those FT's ???
Whaley's shooting if you take it one step farther was 44-60 FT last year or 73%, actually a decent number for a big and alot better than Josh & Adama (60%) . And true, IW numbers overall have gone slightly down from the 10 pts/ 8 rebs from last year when DH starting giving him a bigger role. But I'm sure Sanogo has alot to do with that which isn't a bad thing. Fans may forget but IW did start 12 games and shot 68% on FT his FR year which makes his 45% so far this year seem even more of an anomaly.
Especially when it was reported by DH that he had improved his shooting in the off season following his Soph yr, when he was the forgotten man behind Josh & Eric Cobb until the the tourney game vs. USF. When Dan said afterwards that he probably should have played him more during that season. Big picture is IW has shown he has the ability to shoot it better, he needs to step it up.
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I do not care too much about Whaley's stats because the FTs were a small sample size. What I look for is form and confidence instilled by the player. I think he will be fine. What I want is guys who can sink pressure FTs like UConn in the 2014 NCAA Tournament, when the team shot 88% (101-115) for the tournament and Calipari ordered his team not to foul ANY UConn player in the last 5 minutes of the NC game because "they weren't missing." That was an unprecedented strategy in the history of NCAA tournament games. I want guys like the freshman kid on Butler last night, Harris, who with 3 seconds left in OT stepped to the line with his team down by 1 point and calmly sank 2 FTs NBN and won the game. All the Xavier players were dazed. They thought fouling the freshman was the right thing to do. But they picked on the wrong guy.
His two “good seasons” cited were 73% and 68%. This season he is 45% and his sophomore year he must have been below 68% or else you would have cited it? Chief does like IW to take some 10-15 foot pop up shots. So bottom line I would prefer Bouknight, Polley, Gaffney and to some extent Cole be taking the 3’s and going to the line. True, they all don’t have good consistent numbers either but if they are playing well I can see them doing 80% plus from FT and getting hot and hitting upper 30’s or low 40’s from 3. But, I agree IW is an important player and if he plays well UConn usually wins.
Keep dreaming, did that really happen ? To this day it's still something that may never be repeated. Without that everything else would've never been possible. And talk about confidence, remember the way Brimah (who wasn't great as FR) walked up to the line and owned that ***** vs. St Joe's ?...The Legend of Bazz / KO & company would have ended right there if the big FR hadn't....
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As I said he didn't even play his soph unless it was mop-up time until USF and took 9 on the whole season, that's why I didn't cite it.
And I'm not pushing for Isiah taking more 3's either, (though DH has mentioned on more than one occasion he needs to take those open shots)....just mentioning his FT's have sucked this year and he needs to step up because he's shown he can.
Agree and the other thing is having IW on the offensive glass.
I really think Josh has had a great season on O-boards and you can play him tonight. In last game he had 7 points and 7 boards in 14 minutes. Bench production like that is what you want. You want to pound DePaul on O-boards and get easy putbacks if shooting will be tough due to rims.