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First off, I love our team. They are gritty. They have some players with elite skills. But they have some glaring deficiencies that makes them match up poorly against UL. I'm just not sure any adjustment can make up for these things. I'm not saying we can't beat them. IMO, to do so, Russ Smith needs to have a bad game or get into foul trouble, spending a lot of time on the bench, and it sure would help if Harrell, who simply has abused all our bigs, find his *ss on the bench for long stretches as well. I think our team D can slow Smith some if we can limit UL's transition game, but I'm not sure we have any answers for Harrell to move him off the blocks once he gets the ball close to the basket. The key here will be to play denial defense, limiting his touches down low. If they need to double him once he gets the ball, I'm not sure that would help stop him in the first place, but will make us vulnerable on the perimeter for kick out Js or drives, which won't turn out well for our team.
This is one of those match-ups that I don't know which is more problematic, UConn stopping or slowing UL's offense or UConn scoring against their match-up zone.
Although I don't want our Huskies to try to run with UL, there is one adjustment that KO made in the second half against UC, that I'd like to see him right from the tip. I was screaming late in the first half during the chat for UConn to look for early offense in the half-court. What I mean by this is attack the basket before their half-court D is set. This is different than unstructured transition offense, but getting down the court quickly where the guards immediately attacking the paint before the half-court D sets up. Kemba was the best I've ever seen at running behind an opposing big who was trying to get into his half-court defensive position, using him as a moving screen on his way to the basket. How this differs from all out transition hoops, is your not trying to beat the other team down the floor, but instead try to make your scoring decision before they set their D. And making sure you don't over-commit too many people close to the basket, where you leave too many opposing players behind you, and be prone to odd number run outs going the other direction. KO executed this perfectly in the 2nd half against UC. They began to attacked the paint immediately, not waiting to set up their half-court offense. Late in the game when they were up, they begin to run off some clock and they struggled again to get good shots, but there comes a time in the game when you want to do that. I just don't like to see them stop attacking unless you're under the 2:00 to 2:30 mark and are up by no less than 3 possessions. It's amazing how many opportunities a team will have to score even under 2 minutes to go. Maybe the stats tell a different story, but I bet taking good early shots has a better outcome than running 30 seconds and not scoring because you got a crappy look or no look at all. Of course, taking quick bad shots is clearly not the way to go.
So against UL, I'd attack early at the beginning of the game and hope to get an early lead. Slow it down at times to change the pace if UL gets some transition offense off this, so that they don't go on a roll.
On D, I'm not sure what they can do differently, other than try to keep it as much as possible to a half-court game. Strange to think that this is how a UConn team should play, but UL demolishes teams that try to run with them. I guess as noted above, deny Harrell or try to push him as far away from the basket without fouling. The problem with fronting, is if a perimeter shot goes up, he'll have inside position and will kill us on the glass if the shot is missed. The other is use tough perimeter help defense using the guards and wing more than the bigs if all possible but rarely leave Smith unguarded. Make others beat us, but UL has plenty of weapons, such as Hancock, if he's left open or gets hot can destroy you like Giffey has been doing throughout the season, especially lately.
This is one of those match-ups that I don't know which is more problematic, UConn stopping or slowing UL's offense or UConn scoring against their match-up zone.
Although I don't want our Huskies to try to run with UL, there is one adjustment that KO made in the second half against UC, that I'd like to see him right from the tip. I was screaming late in the first half during the chat for UConn to look for early offense in the half-court. What I mean by this is attack the basket before their half-court D is set. This is different than unstructured transition offense, but getting down the court quickly where the guards immediately attacking the paint before the half-court D sets up. Kemba was the best I've ever seen at running behind an opposing big who was trying to get into his half-court defensive position, using him as a moving screen on his way to the basket. How this differs from all out transition hoops, is your not trying to beat the other team down the floor, but instead try to make your scoring decision before they set their D. And making sure you don't over-commit too many people close to the basket, where you leave too many opposing players behind you, and be prone to odd number run outs going the other direction. KO executed this perfectly in the 2nd half against UC. They began to attacked the paint immediately, not waiting to set up their half-court offense. Late in the game when they were up, they begin to run off some clock and they struggled again to get good shots, but there comes a time in the game when you want to do that. I just don't like to see them stop attacking unless you're under the 2:00 to 2:30 mark and are up by no less than 3 possessions. It's amazing how many opportunities a team will have to score even under 2 minutes to go. Maybe the stats tell a different story, but I bet taking good early shots has a better outcome than running 30 seconds and not scoring because you got a crappy look or no look at all. Of course, taking quick bad shots is clearly not the way to go.
So against UL, I'd attack early at the beginning of the game and hope to get an early lead. Slow it down at times to change the pace if UL gets some transition offense off this, so that they don't go on a roll.
On D, I'm not sure what they can do differently, other than try to keep it as much as possible to a half-court game. Strange to think that this is how a UConn team should play, but UL demolishes teams that try to run with them. I guess as noted above, deny Harrell or try to push him as far away from the basket without fouling. The problem with fronting, is if a perimeter shot goes up, he'll have inside position and will kill us on the glass if the shot is missed. The other is use tough perimeter help defense using the guards and wing more than the bigs if all possible but rarely leave Smith unguarded. Make others beat us, but UL has plenty of weapons, such as Hancock, if he's left open or gets hot can destroy you like Giffey has been doing throughout the season, especially lately.
