Will UConn Dog Memphis On Senior Night?

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

I think so. In the first game against Memphis, UConn barely lost, outrebounded Memphis by 14 but allowed blistering 57% shooting which included 8-19 3s, including 4 of 5 by Kedren Johnson. This is not going to happen again.

First of all I don't see any way that Boatright lays an egg on Senior Night in Storrs. Not happening. Momma is going to be there and she will be crying and Ryan will be coming to play. I don't think Purvis will drop 28 points again, but I think maybe he turned a corner and found some confidence. I see a big game from Hamilton, which will be 2 big games he will have put On Memphis.

Memphis is going down tomorrow night.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

The attached suggests that Austin Nichols ankle has gotten worse and he will either not play tonight or play hurt.

http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-mens-basketball/hc-uconn-memphis-capsule-0305-20150304-story.html

 

[Dominicfrank]

My Memphis guy says Austin is out. We'll see.

 

[Ozzie3178]

Either way we will beat those fools!! I think the team is getting some MOJO

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

I think UConn is going to dog Memphis and it's too bad if Nichols is out because I think Memphis is getting dogged with or without him. Teeth to bone and don't let go!

 

[Silk31]

So much for dogging Memphis fellas....I admit this team had me drinking the kool aid for all of 1 week, but in reality we showed our true colors tonight. I can't see us winning this AAC tourney, I dont care if its in Hartford. We just let Memphis come into Gampel without their best player and beat us on Senior Night in a must win environment...this frustrating year is destined for an even more frustrating end

 

[the Blades]

This post was a kiss of death with these bunch of Jekyll and Hyde slackers. They didn't deserve the
crowd that was pulling for them tonight. To come out this pathetic when a Tourney bye was on the line,
just shows how dysfunctional they have been all year as a unit. One on one ball...guys who won't look to
pass except Hamilton....losing their guys on D.......guys who stunk it up so bad on D... KO had to use a walk-on ???

Oh and nice play you set up KO on the second to last possession, WTF ? Run the clock down and hand it
off to Purvis 25ft from the basket so he could dribble into nowhere.

You know the guy who's 0-7 and
disappeared all-night.....setting up Boats forced drive and garbage prayer into traffic to lose the game was a
thing of beauty too.

Well at least the XL will be happy with what I heard was terrible tickets sales for the tourney & an extra day of Uconn
Then they can lose on the road to some mid major in the NIT and be done with this season that has been as bad as the
weather.




This post was edited on 3/6 12:38 AM by the Blades

 

[Dominicfrank]

Complete joke of a game from coaching to players to refs to TV commentators. I have never seen more odd calls in one game. I hate this for Boat, he was knocked sideways and forearm slashed on that last play, that should have been his moment and the refs DOGGED it. Replays be damned the TV guys who were THICK with opinions all game didnt say a peep.

Ollie playing Guest for a stretch that gave up several points, that dude was LOST out there.

Missed bunnies, missed wide open three's, shot clock mismanagement........son of B.

Boat has one more shot for his own legacy and it is a LONG LONG LONG shot.

Our true home court yielded three shots from the same 5 foot square of area that ended up being three loses. Those three shots don't go in from that corner area and we are in the tourney. As much magic as we had last year we have equal bad mojo this year. Crying shame this team is as bad as we are.

STONE and another ball handler ! WE NEED YOU !!!!!!!!

 

[the Blades]

Yeah these dogs definitely know how to dog it...

"They came in and took the game," coach Kevin Ollie said. "They played with a sense of urgency and we didn't right from the
tap. The guys just forgot what we did against SMU. We shared the basketball, we played together [on Sunday]. I just thought
there was a little bit too much selfishness out there today, on the offensive and defensive end.".

Really who's fault is this or maybe they just don't care almost 30 games into the season ? This has been an on going theme
all year with this crew, and they've really sucked at Gampel (4 marginal wins vs. 200 range RPI nobodies ) trying to be...
one on one MR. Big Shots... in front of the students .... with these long stretches of futility against bad teams....... took
almost 7 minutes into the game to score their 2nd hoop.

But of course, selfish begets more selfishness and this team can be an expert at it.

STORRS - All the good will and credibility the Huskies built up this week disappeared in a hail of missed shots,
some easy, most hard and ill-advised..........Huskies Run Out Of Time
This post was edited on 3/6 7:23 AM by the Blades

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

This was a game UConn didn't deserve to win. I was very disappointed with how they played, especially in Gampel where they have the best homecourt advantage. UConn shot 28% FGs which isn't going to win anywhere. 5-21 on 3s, many of which were open in the 1st half. UConn was also outrebounded 40-34, another sign that Memphis wanted it more, since UConn won the boards by 14 in the 1st game.

In the 1st half I thought UConn was playing too fast. It looked selfish, but guys were trying to push the ball up court hard and things just got out of control. UConn has had all kinds of trouble finishing plays in transition this year and last night was certainly no exception. Fast breaks should be the bread and butter of any team that is better on D than O because it's one way to manufacture offense that is hard to get in the halfcourt, but UConn has not been good in transition. Another reason why they are 17-12 despite being a fairly solid defensive club that last night held Memphis to 39% but shot 28%.

The loss overshadowed a solid game by Nolan- 4 points, 4 boards and 3 blocked shots. But Purvis was 0-7 with 3 points after scoring 28 the last game. This kind of up and down play is why UConn lacks any consistency and cohesion. At the very beginning of the year I had questions about where the 3 point shooting of Napier, Daniels and Giffey, which was huge in last year's title run, was going to come from. The question was never answered. It's also a problem next year because the best 3 baller Boat graduates, and we have the same cast of unreliable shooters coming back, with nobody who can drain 3s in succession. UConn has to recruit someone who is lights out from 3.

 

[Silk31]

I have to say that this group of players is not lacking in talent or in their flaws but there is no way that our NCAA Tourney lives should be hinging on running the table in the AAC Tourney. There has been some pathetic execution all year but I have to place a lot of blame on KO.

I never thought I would say that so soon into his coaching career, especially since he was the golden boy coming off last year but man has he stunk it up on the sidelines just as bad as his players have on the court.

Why is this team consistently not ready to play??...how many games, especially in conference are we down double digits in the 1st half?? How many games have we trailed at the half??

Why are no in game adjustments made? Last night our team thought it was best to ignore the fact that Memphis was in early 2nd half foul trouble and rather then keep attacking the basket and get to the foul line (in a game where we actually were shooting it well from the stripe) that is was a good idea to lay brick after brick from the outside.

Why did KO allow us to jack up horrible bad looks without calling a TO and making it a point that if anyone jacks up a shitty long range jumper, they will be yanked from the game. Hell TSam thought he was a jump shooter when we are up 4 in a key possession and the player who hasn't hit a 3 the whole year is launching one from the corner!!

KO's only in game adjustment was sending in poor Dan Guest to get torched on defense for 6 points and then he even thinks he has the green light to chuck it from deep and misses a 3...great time to pull that stunt KO

What a crap hole of a season and I will not be watching this team suck it up even more once they are in the NIT

 

[USNA90]

I have never been a fan of jacking up threes possession after possession. Sometimes it works, but more often than not, it ends up in a one-and-done possession - even moreso when a team like UConn doesn't have a reliable outside shooter. It's usually an indicator that a team has no offensive movement and can't find open players in the paint. That being said, it annoys me to see possession after possession where guys like Daniels and Purvis pass up wide open threes to drive into traffic. It's one thing if you catch the D out of position with a fake and then drive to the hoop or dish it for an easy dunk. However, it seems like the UConn players just drive into the lane where three players collapse on them, and then dish it back out to another guy who is wide open at the arc, who just dribbles back into an even more crowded lane, until eventually the clock runs down and they're forced to take a contested shot from three (or a jump shot by someone who shouldn't be taking them). UConn managed only 14 points in the paint last night, so it looked to me like their plan was to force UConn to shoot from outside. It apparently worked, since UConn was 5 for 21 from the arc. If you can't score inside (and continually miss chip shots), and you can't shoot from outside, it's going to be a long night. Sometimes you have to take what the defense give you, and UConn couldn't do that.
This post was edited on 3/6 10:49 AM by USNA90

 

[the Blades]

Unfortunately there's alot of truth in what you just posted Silk.

And I hate to pile on but does Uconn have the worst in bound plays in years. Do they even have any in the front court ?
Sunday they got lucky but they almost blew it with terrible sets in the back court. Guys 35 ft from the inbounder.
And no sense of urgency to break to the ball and when they do get it in and someone is doubled you got guys running
up the court so the guy with the double has no where to pass.....Same thing with front court alot of times...no one is even
set together and they break at different times without or so it's impossible to pick' for each other.

I remember it used to be a strength, lobs off the inbounds to guys like Travis Knight ..no less.....or El-Amin was the best
from day one as inbounder. He would take his sweet time to walk to the ref and not take the ball so they couldn't start the
5 count.. until he looked back to make sure all his team mates where set and in position to start their break.

This post was edited on 3/6 10:53 AM by the Blades

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Originally posted by USNA90:
it looked to me like their plan was to force UConn to shoot from outside. It apparently worked, since UConn was 5 for 21 from the arc. If you can't score inside (and continually miss chip shots), and you can't shoot from outside, it's going to be a long night. Sometimes you have to take what the defense give you, and UConn couldn't do that.
This post was edited on 3/6 10:49 AM by USNA90

USNA90,

Throughout the game Hamilton and Purvis passed up 3s to drive. The problem is the confusion that these guys have. Not confident in their 3 balls because they aren't making enough to be confident, they figure they have to drive and make something happen. Neither guy has a good enough handle or mid range game or moves. Hamilton is a good passer, but last night his judgment was off and when he passed it was to guys who weren't open.

UConn did not have an answer for the Memphis strategy. They don't move the ball well enough and the guys who are the primary ballhandlers are not true set-up guys. UConn also is not creating enough offense from their defense, as they blow way too many transition scoring opportunities.

It's just very disappointing and I agree with the others that the coaching staff bears some responsibility as this strategy has been used against UConn very successfully and is not being effectively counteracted. It's true that the best way to counteract these defenses is to make some shots, and UConn is not doing it. So KO has to go and recruit some guys who can 3 ball.

 

[Ozzie3178]

How the hell do you shoot 28% for an entire game at home in Gampel????

Also how do you lose 3 games in one season at Gampel by 1 freakin point???


This team is beyond baffling.... Here is to hoping some Hartford magic happens next week

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Originally posted by Ozzie3178:
How the hell do you shoot 28% for an entire game at home in Gampel????

Good question. I don't recall UConn ever shooting that low a FG% for a game at Gampel before. They did shoot 30% at Gampel in a loss to SMU last year, which I thought at the time was an aberration. It may be a record. I doubt anyone checked though, as the Hartford Courant and other media outlets in CT usually try not to obsess on negative stats. To me though, stats tell you what a team is. You can't shoot that badly at home.

This post was edited on 3/6 4:40 PM by KhalidShockedTheWorld

 

[the Blades]

Originally posted by Ozzie3178:

Also how do you lose 3 games in one season at Gampel by 1 freakin point???

This team is beyond baffling.... Here is to hoping some Hartford magic happens next week

Very true Ozzie but ultimately it comes down to one word.....Boatright...great little player, but at the end
of the day some guys have the "it" factor and some guys don't....Boat was a great B actor last year but he's not an
A actor. When it came to the end he missed FT's in the last seconds that was the difference of winning and losing
to Texas and Yale. Then he had no magic on his final play vs. Memphis, I've seen it B4 at Gampel when he tried to
do it all by himself vs. G-Town a few years ago in OT.... ( and his tunnel vision missed a completely wide open
Daniels for a game winning lay-up)

He's just not a Kemba or Shabazz...doesn't have the vision or "it" factor that can make everyone look better, change
the entire discussion and cover up his team mates warts.. He's more a Dyson...or for the oldschollers guys like Earl
Kelley..nice players...do a lot of things but their personal totals don't always add to your W's. And name me a game
that they pulled out the W in crunch time by themselves....

Boat could have personally added 3 more Gampel wins this year despite his teams struggles. He will have one
last chance to change his story as a leader but sometimes a good player is who he is...but not enough.
This post was edited on 3/7 11:05 AM by the Blades

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

The positives on Boatright are that he is a tough little SOB and a good scorer, but he is not really a guy who makes his teammates better. He doesn't have the same level handle or moves as Kemba who is about the same size, so what he is, is a poor man's Kemba. He is a shooting guard trapped in a point guard's body, much like Earl Kelley and to some extent Chris Smith, although Smith had a much better handle than both of those guys. Smith was more of a scorer as well and didn't have a true point guard mentality which is why he didn't last in the NBA. Boat is a good supporting actor but not a lead man as Blades mentioned.

UConn simply didn't have a go to guy who could get the job done this year, and the result was a shocking 3 one point losses at Gampel, so that the team is 17-12 instead of 20-9 which is the difference between NIT and NCAA bound.

I am hoping Adams will be able to be the lead man type guy although not sure he is ready for that role next year. Kemba was not a leading man until his junior year!

This post was edited on 3/7 8:56 AM by KhalidShockedTheWorld