UConn-Kansas

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

This game was given a prime time 7:45 pm tip on CBS. Kansas has opened as the favorite and the current line is -8.

I was looking at Kansas's stats and their top 6 scorers all shoot over 40% from the 3 point line, including their primary option inside, Perry Ellis. So obviously it will be important to guard the perimeter. UConn may need to go small at times this game. It should be interesting to see how UConn matches up against the best team in the country or certainly the team that has been the most consistent. UConn has nothing to lose here- they are not expected to win this game and advance.

 

[Dr.O1]

We need to play hard for 40 minutes where we do not have a great chance of winning this game. I'm not sure we have played hard 40 minutes this season . I would not be shocked if we win by 3 or lose by 25

 

[dbaum_]

The Kansas City Star paid respect to the University of Connecticut by acknowledging the success we have had over the past two decades. Not many opponents (or the media for that matter) recognize what kind of teams UConn has produced over the years.

"Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina and Kansas stand as college basketball’s elite, and they’ve earned that designation with their consistent excellence over the last several decades.

But since 1999, when Connecticut won its first national championship, no program has won more than the Huskies’ four.

In that time, Duke owns three titles, North Carolina and Florida two and no other program more than one. In NCAA Tournament history, no program has a better all-time Final Four winning percentage than UConn’s .889 (8-1)."

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/blair-kerkhoff/article66763567.html

 

[TRUCONN76]

This team is now playing up to their potential and showing the toughness that is UCONN's trademark. They are not a great team like the 99 and 2004 teams were. They are much more similar to the 2011 and 2014 teams with good talent at all positions. They lack the Kemba Walker or Shabazz Napier superstar to put them on their shoulders and carry them but they do have two players capable of breaking down the defense in Hamilton and Adams which makes them capable of beating anyone.

I would be very shocked if they lost by 25 to Kansas since the mental toughness that was missing most of the year has arrived.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Line has moved up to Kansas -8.5, so the betting has been on Kansas since the opening line of -8.

 

[CaNOLEE]

My buddy posted this pic yesterday(my profile). He was a walk on In '11. Peter Cochrane from Newtown.

Tell Kansas no offense, but their just another notch on the belt as we strive for #5.

Uconn 77
Kansas 72

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

The line is now back down to Kansas -8 as some betting shifted to UConn late.

I read that Vegas made tons of money based on a huge number of bets being placed on Michigan State Spartans to win it all. The brackets of those bettors are now totally screwed due to MSU going out in the first round. It just teaches that you have to be wary of the favorites sometimes.

 

[Silk31]

Getting pumped up fellas. UConn in an underdog role is right where we want em.

Gotta come out strong and the closer it is with the later it gets, the more Kansas will feel that pressure. Expecting a good game regardless, let's have some fun out there

 

[Ozzie3178]

Pressure is all on KU....
This year team is playing with house money!!

Leeeegggooooooooooooo

 

[dbaum_]

Let's go get this W UConn!!!!!

 

[Ozzie3178]

Just don't want these refs to hurt us early and often. Let both teams play!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[CaNOLEE]

Refs, as always, are hurting us. But we are our own worst enemy and have been all year.

It might be time to put this schizophrenic team out of its misery.

 

[Silk31]

Yikes, just yikes....can't believe we have no pride right now

 

[CaNOLEE]

The defensive and rebounding effort are appalling. And Hamilton looks like the brick layer from the beginning of conference play.

 

[Ozzie3178]

Can't buy a bucket. Then leads to bad effort on D plus no calls and you have our worst effort and game all season. Not the best time obviously to have it but let's see the fight we have and build in this game and for next year!!

Oh and REBOUUUUNDDD!!!

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

UConn was just flat outplayed in a big way in the first half. Kansas is clearly the best team UConn has played this year. I saw them win by 30 at Texas a few weeks ago and Kansas is looking like the team I saw that night, huge runs and very efficient on offense. Perry Ellis is really a very skilled player.

 

[dbaum_]

We are looking like the regular season team instead of the postseason team. No continuity on offense whatsoever and getting burned inside without Brimah on the floor. Nolan gave up way too many easy buckets inside and from then on Kansas has just outplayed us in every aspect. We have been getting off to slow starts time and time again this year and playing a team like Kansas is very difficult to come back from.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

When Brimah went out with 2 fouls- and that second foul was really dumb- I knew UConn was in trouble. Way too many easy inside baskets and good outside shooting by Kansas and outrebounded by Kansas by 14 all add up to being down by 20.

 

[Silk31]

They better show some pride this half. I will be extremely disappointed with a 20+ defeat.

 

[the Blades]

Self is exploiting this terrible offense. I liked Kenny Smith's analysis when he called it a pro dribble drive set, during the pre-game. But we've seen it before when Uconn's had bad stretches when they can't score and they've blown leads because teams deny. Problem is this has been for a whole half. Uconn can't even get an easy hand-off in this set. Tough to run a dribble drive vs. a good team when you have 3 guys like Gibbs, Purvis and Omar (who is useless) vs. a D like Kansas when they can't beat their men off the dribble or at least do it effectively. While Kansas is getting everywhere they want on the court in their offense. KO has nothing he can give these guys at the half because he's lived and died with this O and it's gonna get worse. But it was a nice AAC run...

 

[mcgoo369]

How can Mason grab someone on a break away and it's not intentional?

 

[Ozzie3178]

Pride is there. If these blind zebras called it halfway decent much closer. But we had the looks early. Shonn just couldn't hit the ocean from the sand

Some bad shots by Gibbs like all year and overall terrible D effort mostly in the rebounding category which has plagued us all year and give them credit they are number 1 overall team for a reason. Full of experienced players.

 

[mcgoo369]

The calls are amazing.. we haven't gotten a call all year. They let Seldon scream in a uconn players face on back to back plays then call nothing on Hamilton getting fouled

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Kansas is very impressive and UConn just gave up too much of a lead to them first half. This isn't a team that you can squeeze into coughing up a huge lead like Colorado. They are likely going to win it all.

 

[CaNOLEE]

Millers had a very good year, but a rough night. If we had Ellis tonight and they had Miller, we be up right now by a nice margin.

 

[mcgoo369]

Long summer of layup drills and maybe not letting every team up 10 at half next year and we could be very good.

 

[mcgoo369]

As important as Miller was all season he was poo poo tonight

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

UConn needs an inside scoring threat for next year. I don't know who it's going to be. The perimeter players will be very very good. But someone has to replace Milller who, though ineffective tonight, was the only true low post scoring threat on this team.

Making more layups will also help.

 

[mcgoo369]

Fitting ending purvis missed layup

 

[the Blades]

Seedings do matter, a few more of those earlier season close losses go the other way and and you don't have to play the best team in the tourney in your second game. But good year guys and thanks to the seniors.

 

[dbaum_]

I am upset that we couldn't pull out the victory but overall we just ran into a better team. We exceeded expectations by having a very inconsistent season and were still able to win our conference tournament. Too many ups and downs with slow starts and shooting slumps throughout the courses of games which ultimately led to our demise against Kansas. I loved how this team showed resilience and did not give up late in the season. Even with a miracle shot in the 3rd OT against Cincinnati in the AAC tournament, we showed heart and came together as a unit. We will have some young talent coming in next year and building chemistry between Hamilton, Purvis, Adams and Brimah, we can bounce back and be better next year. It will be a long offseason but I cannot wait for next season. Huskies for life.

 

[dp972]

UConn BBall team and fans don't ever forget the look on the Kansas head coach face as our team got closer and closer in the second half...the players were all on the same page (for most of 2nd half).....this year's team got us back to the dance.....the core of the 2016-2017 team can build on that experience...l thank the seniors for their contributions to a conference tournament title, the victory against Colorado....and i chose to trust that they'll unload the demons that limited this year's team from reaching its fullest potential

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Overall 25-11, AAC Tournament Champions and making 2nd round of NCAA tournament not a bad season especially if they end up losing to the national champion. UConn could have been sweet 16 or perhaps even Elite 8 with a different bracket, but Kansas exposed the chief weaknesses of UConn's team this year, which were rebounding and a lack of inside scoring.

UConn needs Steve Enoch to make progress in the offseason as he is someone who can really help in the areas of rebounding and inside scoring. Other than Steve I don't know who will help shore this up. UConn needs some large strong bodies to combat the Kansas type teams.

I note that all of Kansas's top 7 or so players except Ellis are all sophomores and juniors so I am hoping they can win it all and Selden and Graham go pro because that team looks very, very formidable to me.

 

[Ozzie3178]

Look it was a very good season all things considered!

I have been tough on Gibbs.... Because at UCONN and most programs the PG is the QB of the team and extension of the coach and is he most demanding position BUT tough to ask a 5th year all Marco Polo transfer in his one and only year to run the team and play heavy minutes like he did at UCONN. Yea he was not a typical athletic, good D guard that we have had here but to his credit it is tough and with that I think this season with the 5th years and young guys Jalen and Steve also the limitations Phil and Omar had, this was KO and staff best job to get what we got out of this team.... Mostly because lack of chemistry and experience playing together.

This is why KU looked good they have guys who lost in the first or second round the last couple years in a row and came back with the experience and playing together this year. Still with that when we woke up and balled in the second half we gave them a run.

Future is very bright... All should be back and hope Rodney is too and we will look like KU and UNCs next year with a very experienced playing together team with more typical UCONN guards. Also DHam will be asked to do less playmaking in regards to getting everyone involved as well which will help him in making shots and attack the rim more.

 

[Dominicfrank]

There are four things that kept us from a deeper march......pun intended.

1. Diamond Stone- Until Ollie can get ONE solid 5 we will always be a team that can only win with a Kemba/Bazz magic run team. If we had Stone we would have been a higher seed and could have beaten KU and the match up would have been in the F4. Enoch has promise, I really like what I see but the troubled kid coming in and what we have on the roster dont move the needle for me at all.

2. Losing to bad teams- While UK and others way above us in the seedings had TERRIBLE loses we had one to UH which is 87th ish and lost a couple leads late. We win half those 4-5 loses and we are a 4-5 seed and play KU in the sweet 16 or better.

3. Ollie- Hate to say it but his lack of ability to get Adams involved more hurt us and his lack of ability to coach half court offense showed all season.

4. Scheduling- This must get better. UK had a terrible losses resume but was able to make up for it with big time wins which we cant and don't because those aren't on the schedule.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Dominick -

These are all valid criticisms but when was the half court offense any good under Calhoun? Most years under Calhoun half court offense was not the strength of the team, but rather creating easy baskets in transition off defense, which made the FG% higher than it really was from half court sets.

A big reason why the half court offense was not good was lack of an inside threat to get the ball to, what you mentioned above with losing out on Diamond Stone. Adams arguably didn't deserve to play any more than he did the first half of the year because of his high ratio of TOs and lazy passes and horrible outside shooting. As the season went on, he got better, as do most freshman adjusting to college ball. The main thing holding him back was lack of experience and careless play. I think it was a rougher than expected year for Jalen but his raw talents are fantastic and I do believe he will be a great player with more seasoning.

As Ozzie mentioned the veteran players were very limited and not a talented crew or leaders. Gibbs and Miller were good players, but both were somewhat limited in what they are good at. Gibbs is a very average athlete for this level and couldn't turn the corner on anyone, and Miller was somewhat undersized and not as good a rebounder or defensive player as advertised. He was okay- nothing special, but he was the only inside threat to score on the whole team which is a big concern to replace that.

 

[CaNOLEE]

I don't think this team realized its potential this year. We gave away 3-4 games late and really could have been a 4-5 seed and that could have made the difference between making an Elite 8.

Jalen saved it from being a complete failure, however, it's always good to win your conference championship, especially since it's our first in the American. It also keeps some recruiting and transfer momentum.

Every one needs to take a major step forward next year. Including the coaching staff.

 

[the Blades]

Regarding the strength of schedule.. Uconn was number one in the American Athletic Conference ....when you schedule 7 teams OOC that are usually top 50 programs like they did this year there isn't alot more you can do except hope that the rest of the conference schedules better to improve their RPI and SOS.....because these AAC teams will continue to drag the Uconn SOS / RPI down no matter who you play OOC......or Uconn can just hope for a call from the Big 12 and the problem is solved.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

At the beginning of the year the OOC schedule looked very good. Georgetown looked like a much better game when it was scheduled and that win really did not help very much. Unfortunately the AAC didn't perform well in the NCAA tournament. UConn did the best and only got to the 2nd Round. The one thing I like about the AAC is that it has good coaches. Next year SMU will be back in play for postseason so that should help.

 

[Ozzie3178]

Also any of you who are pushing for a big time BIG prospect to come is not realistic!

The best we will do is a Zach brown type. Why????

Because our offense and game and program for that matter has been built on great guards and wings play! A true big man who wants the ball on the block will think 7 times before coming here because Stevie Wonder can see how we run our systems and sets and how it has been. Drummond was a in state one and done that really did not pan out and also we rarely went to him in the post that year. So guess what.... Big men recruits see that their families know and see that and it will make it that much tougher... If you will... To get a BIG like that.

Yes the bigs we have and will get should be much better offensively in the paint area. Brimah has a face up game same with Miller too and Facey does but like I said we may only go to them a couple times all game.... Because that does not jive with our dribble drive and pick and roll sets. Bigs here need to be able to run the floor we'll have decent hands and should be monsters crashing the boards and blocking shots. Thats their role.