Wichita St.

[the Blades]

 

[TripleDribbleMan]

Rebounding even in the first half, but of note, UConn held Wichita St. to 24% FG shooting in the first half. Very good D! Hope they can sustain this in the second half.

 

[the Blades]

10 point lead GONE ... Gilbert goes into spaz mode because he has no BB IQ or ability to lead whatsoever.....stop with the BS Hurley...... AG has NO CLUE how to win.... SMH !

 

[TripleDribbleMan]

Thrilling end to the game, with UConn on the wrong end of a fade-away falling out of bounds jumper at the buzzer. You want the opponent to have that kind of shot to win. Brutally tough loss for UConn. Bad breaks for UConn down the stretch, again. You can’t say UConn played badly, all things considered. I can’t believe that they have no road wins. The game at ECU is their last chance for a road win otherwise they lose out on the road this year.

 

[the Blades]

Well you add the home whistle down the stretch and AG with no clue how to control tempo on the road with a lead.... it totally negates his 2 hail mary shots that went in once they blew the lead, that could of been the difference between winning and losing. Again his reckless speed it up/ out control play, bad shots and forcing the ball (when he gets to deep) to places his guy can do nothing with it, was the killer. It's how you run the team with a lead, especially on the road. Calm down... don't speed it up . That's what Marshall wants when he's trailing buy double digits, that's why he put on the pressure.. This team has no (on-court) leadership.

 

[the Blades]

I'd agree with this statement below, but we can only hope AG learns.... how to slow and when to go.....by next year. Unfortunately the games are 40 minutes long and the leader need to stop runs by the other team.... not create them.....Rushing the offense, volume bad shooting, getting his shot blocked on his drives, throwing the ball to a team mate 2 feet away because you brought the entire defense on top of him is not gonna work. He's shooting 31.8% on FG's (14-44), 20% on 3pt'ers(4-20) with 9 TO's since his return 3 games ago. In no world will that type of shooting and forced shots lead to winning. You gotta love the kids heart, but he's got to learn to play smarter if this team wants to win. He needs a bigger jump in his game between his Soph and Jr year than Kemba did. Half of Kemba's problem was getting rid of a guy who AG kind of plays like right now in Dyson ( reckless with no concern for game time and situation)... Kemba worked on his game and shot all summer, but with JD gone he was at an elite level in leading...knowing how to work the ball to get a great shot when they needed it and knew how to control tempo..

With AG it's almost like a CV thing from earlier in the year, move the ball more, play under control more, get your team mates the ball in good places and......... "less becomes more "......... Hopefully we see a big jump going into next year now that he's learning on the court.

 

[TripleDribbleMan]

There were other reasons why UConn lost that game. To me the key play at the end was the unnecessary offensive foul by Taryn Smith on a 2 on 1 fast break. He had Sidney Wilson open and instead decided he could take it to the rim and either get fouled or score. But he didn’t have the angle on the defender he thought he had, and when his path got blocked it was as an easy offensive foul call and no points for UConn. That hurt. From my perspective AG was a mixed bag. He overpenetrated at times but also hit some great shots. UConn was hurt inside by Midtgaard and that was certainly not AG’s fault, UConn just doesn’t have a guy who can body Midtgaard. On another note, I was watching Midtgaard try to set screens and he is nowhere near as good as Jake Voskuhl was and has a lot to learn. Voskuhl was the best ever at setting screens and even when he was called for offensive fouls they looked good. Midtgaard has a long way to go to learn how to use his size to set some good picks. He needs to be coached up.

 

[USNA90]

This year's team has been a huge disappointment. I almost hate myself for saying this, but I don't know if this team would have been any worse if Ollie were still the coach. The second half collapses are certainly concerning, but you can almost set your watch by them.

 

[TripleDribbleMan]

USNA90,

I agree with you. I thought there would be a winning record, possibly as many as 20 wins with the talent on hand. Only 2 teams in UConn history have had 2 or less road wins, and this team will be the 3rd, which pretty much tells you that by UConn standards, this team sucks.

 

[the Blades]

This year's team has been a huge disappointment. I almost hate myself for saying this, but I don't know if this team would have been any worse if Ollie were still the coach. The second half collapses are certainly concerning, but you can almost set your watch by them.

I hear ya USA, losing is a virus that KO caused that's tough to get rid. I think Jalen's apathy on ( & off the court ) is partially a result of this. He almost played with better talent at Brewster before he came here than what KO brought in recently.

As someone who had to sit at Gampel and the XL for the loses to mid majors under KO and the 20 point blow outs when players did not GAF, I try to keep things in perspective.... But losing sucks !........Plus Jalen for all his warts is the only guy on this team (who shots @ 50% on FG, more like a big %) who could single handidly win games. AG who shoots the most now is only better than Wilson and B-Adams on the entire team... so this has to change.

I remember a couple years ago when Jalen missed the Houston game at the XL and Puvis had to run the point, the game was a 20 point blowout before it even started. Then JA goes down and it was game set and match on the season.....The apathy has set it for alot of us because close loses are like kissing a sister, not moral victories .... but numbers wise where this thing is going is light years ahead of what KO was doing with it ...do we remember how bad the offense was last year ? Tough fricken' year that's for sure...B4 JA went down....

UConn men's basketball's improvements in first year under Hurley

 

[USNA90]

Unfortunately, the only numbers that really matter are in the W/L column, so any other improvement is nice, but meaningless. Right now, they're looking like they might end up with a worse record than the last two seasons - and there's absolutely no reason that should be the case given the relative talent levels involved. The only thing I can put my finger on is the lineup: too many guys with duplicative skills are essentially taking points away from each other. I don't see the point in having both Polley and Vital on the court at the same time, and if I was going to pull one of them out of the lineup, it certainly wouldn't be Vital. They have four conference wins (four!) in early March, and are ahead of only ECU and Tulane. That would have been unimaginable to me in early January, but here we are.

 

[TripleDribbleMan]

Vital came into the Wichita State game averaging 6 rebounds a game, which leads the team. I can't even remember the last time a 6'2" guard was averaging that many boards a game, either for UConn or anyone else. On that alone, he has to start.

 

[TripleDribbleMan]

Along the same lines, Polley and Wilson both do some things well, but rebounding the ball is not one of them. When Hurley has put Cobb into the game, he has gotten some boards but he also has gotten exposed at the 5 because he is not a rim protector and gets himself out of position consistently, leading to opponents successfully attacking the rim and scoring inside. The team has both defensive and offensive issues. The offensive issues mostly involve poor passing and assists totals and a propensity for bad live ball turnovers. The defensive issues are rebounding and protecting the rim.

 

[the Blades]

Vital came into the Wichita State game averaging 6 rebounds a game, which leads the team. I can't even remember the last time a 6'2" guard was averaging that many boards a game, either for UConn or anyone else. On that alone, he has to start.

This is all because of recruiting which all leads back to KO. Somewhere in his warped brain he thought he could play Golden St positionless BB the last few years and decided to bring in a bunch of anorexic wings and guards. I would give the world for a Jeff Adrian or even a grown man rebounder like Shonn Miller.
And I hope DH has realized that this small ball won't work in the AAC and hits the transfer or JUCO market for a couple of grown up bigs with the 2 or 3 schollies he has left, to upgrade this. Especially since he got nothing from 4 guys that might of played that role this year. (Yakwe, Kwintin, Mamadou and Whaley). Even Cobb was slightly better than we thought he was and does a decent job on the boards but he can't guard a chair on a high ball screen.

 

[TripleDribbleMan]

I have been trying to understand why Vital is averaging 6 rebounds a game- I have never seen a 6'2" guard average that many in major college basketball- and a big reason why is that there is no true, glass cleaning bigs around to take those boards away from him. However, those glass cleaning bigs are not on this team, it is what it is, and the rebounds that Vital gets go to the other team if he doesn't get them. So in my mind, he has value on this team because of that. If UConn had better bigs, his presence in the starting lineup, given his questionable decision making especially on offense, would be much more debatable. But they don't, so it's not.

 

[the Blades]

I have been trying to understand why Vital is averaging 6 rebounds a game- I have never seen a 6'2" guard average that many in major college basketball- and a big reason why is that there is no true, glass cleaning bigs around to take those boards away from him. However, those glass cleaning bigs are not on this team, it is what it is, and the rebounds that Vital gets go to the other team if he doesn't get them.

True have to give CV credit for his 3 skills that can keep him on the court, REB, D and as a decent 3pt shooter when he has his feet set off a kick out. As DH just mentioned in his presser and I said early in the year. DH doesn't want CV shooting off the dribble. But it's amazing there are 4 bigs on this roster, 3 plus Cobb that KO brought in who do nothing for this team. Can you imagine if Sal and Hurley didn't get Cobb to buy in and lose 30lbs before the season ? DH would have had to play Wilson at the 5 behind Carlton.