UConn-Temple AAC Semifinals

[dbaum_]

After a crazy finish yesterday, let's hope the Huskies have some fight left in them to take on Temple. This will be a revenge game as we squandered a double digit lead with 7 minutes remaining last time we played them and hopefully we use that as motivation. LETS GO HUSKIES!!!

 

[aman kidwai]

Updated bracket prediction from The UConn Blog here

http://www.theuconnblog.com/2016/3/12/11210814/the-uconn-blog-cketology-omg-jalen-adams-edition

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Well that makes it sound like UConn is already in- I say wait and see what happens. The wild card is at large bids to P5 conference teams. Teams like Michigan are maybe playing themselves in although Lunardi has them first 4 out and UConn last 4 in. Those P5 teams are the teams that push UConn down a line or two or out.

 

[CaNOLEE]

We have the head to head against Michigan and that's when they had Levert. But let's leave no doubt and win the next two days.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Georgia right now is a bracketbuster team, if they win today.

 

[CaNOLEE]

Second half defense has sucked.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Daniel Hamilton has been BIG TIME the last two games. The 22% FGs in his first 8 AAC games is a distant memory now..........

 

[CaNOLEE]

Are we learning how to close out a basketball game? Uh oh!

 

[Silk31]

Total domination after a slow start initially...Doris Burke and her "Tired legs" narrative can shove it. Our guys can taste it, they won't be denied!

 

[Silk31]

Daniel Hamilton has been BIG TIME the last two games. The 22% FGs in his first 8 AAC games is a distant memory now..........

Hamilton is showing that killer instinct the last couple of games - this will be huge for us if he emerges as our "alpha dog"

 

[CaNOLEE]

The rest of College basketball may really rue jalens shot yesterday in a few weeks.

 

[the Blades]

Big difference when you have Jalen and D-Ham making plays and beatin' em off the dribble down the stretch, unlike the last Temple game. Scared me with a little to much small ball (Omar and no rim protector - Brimah ??? - as Temple kept drivin ') in the last 8 minutes ( same thing KO did in Philly when they blew the game) but the difference was the offense kept making plays so it didn't matter. Plus Temple sucked from the foul line. ( 54%) so they didn't do theirselves any favors.

Box score 77 - 62

 

[dbaum_]

Another great win!!! This team has been up and down all season long but now they are finally playing to their potential. We are in sync right now and playing with a lot of confidence for the first time this year. To turn it around and play some of the best basketball in the most important time is what is so rewarding about it. Backs against the wall, season and everything on the line, and this team just continues to fight and not give up. So proud of the boys and we have a conference tournament championship to get tomorrow afternoon!

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Hamilton looked like a main man player out there with that change of speed/direction move- I never saw him use that move before. If he can be consistent stroking the 3 he will be a main man player all the time and not some of the time.

UConn's defense wasn't as good in the second half as already noted but the team got the job done. They actually should have won this game by more than 20 points. Temple was getting some lucky bounces and they were outplayed more thoroughly than the final score indicates.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Another thing that quietly happened today is Jalen Adams had 8 assists. I think that this was Jalen's season high in assists.

 

[the Blades]

 

[Dominicfrank]

Not what the rest of the country wanted to see !

Ollie deserves credit for getting Adams the ball but also blame for not making this happen a lot sooner. That kid has some growing up to do on the attitude but the kid is an All american and future NBA all-star. When he has the ball to start our sets THINGS HAPPEN. Now he will make some dumb decisions with his in the lane floater throwing it up over his right shoulder but most of the time he is getting the foul call so I'm ok with it. His passing is on point, that bullet to Miller at the end of the game was elite.

The key might be that Purvis doesn't get the ball that much and Brimah is never touching the ball on the offensive end? I love the passion Miller shows, the dude can jump out of the gym.

Next year with Gilbert and Adams........that is one fast back court.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Dom,

Your criticism of Ollie's handling of Adams is fair, but the other side of it is that despite Jalen's tremendous talent, earlier in the season he was making lazy high school passes, making lots of turnovers and bad decisions, and not making any shots from the perimeter. His attitude also landed him in Ollie's doghouse a few times, including Ollie's notorious second half benching of Adams in the game at Temple, which cost UConn the game, notwithstanding the panicked reinsertion of Adams into that game with a few minutes to go and the 12 point lead already blown.

But maybe all of those things helped Adams grow. He certainly had growing pains, but maybe all the things Ollie did were, in the final analysis, for the betterment of Adams as a person and as a player. Adams, like Katie Lou Samuelson on the women's team, has saved his best for the late season, and with a talented freshman player, that is what you want to see.