Thoughts from the Morning After.

[</3byBYNUM]

Had to sleep on this one before I could truly collect my thoughts and wrap my head around what the hell happened last night. I see a lot of negativity, a lot of disappointment, and I get all of that. But here's the thing: we're still UCONN, it's still March, and there's still basketball left to be played.

Gampel hasn't been kind to us this year. Cut and dry. Hate to agree with anything Gottlieb says, but the rims there have shown us very little in the way of love. The crowd was great though, take no credit from them at all. The BOATSHOW section in the front, the ridiculous MOTOR BOATRIGHT ME shirt, the liveliness even when we were sinking in the opening minutes...there was a pulse. I applaud that.

And we got some home cooking for once. Much appreciated after getting jobbed night in and night out on the whistle. I know there's some (legitimate) griping about the no-call on RB11's last take to the hole, but we dominated the calls all night. The In-Law had to feel some sort of relief knowing he wasn't going to draw a personal for sneezing on Goodwin. Glad they let them play a little. Speaking of The In Law...

Amidah and Phil held it down for us. They beat us on jumpers and short bunnies but AB even got a piece of a few of those. Loved what they did out there. Facey? Still looks lost to me. He'll get there though.

Purvis disappeared. Hated the commentary team of Patrick and Elmore, but one of them said right before the end of the first half that, if UCONN was going to win that game, a 3rd party needed to step up and help on offense. Absolute microcosm of our entire season. Purvis is supposed to be that guy. Actually, he's supposed to be the 2nd scorer, which is salt on the wound. He's shown flashes but last night he was miserable. It becomes glaringly apparent where you're going on offense when you only have a couple guys who can convert. They hedged RB all night and it worked, really well actually. He played mediocre and got into a lot of tough situations, shooting and passing. We hurt ourselves by not getting it to our bigs in better position more often. Settled for a lot of bad looks and passed on a lot of good ones. It happens and it especially happens with young guys. I said it earlier this season: it's going to happen.

End of the day, here it is: We got 4-5 games remaining, depending on how this weekend plays out. We've looked like we can hang (see: vs. 21 SMU) and we've looked hung out to dry (see: last night). But there is no other team in our conference or any who I'd take over us, in March, to go on a heater. In 2011, we were a 9 seed in the BET and, if you recall, left for dead by the experts after losing back-to-back games to close the regular season. In 2014, Louisvil...nevermind. I'm as disappointed as you guys are about last night, especially with it being senior night for RB, but I'm not throwing it in just because we lost on a lucky bounce to a team who was playing with purpose. We could mess around and win a couple games this week and, who knows, maybe we're playing spoiler to a high-seed in late March. Is that not a narrative that you're all familiar with?

And on that note: UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU....

 

[Kembacity]

Am I the only one who was having a twilight zone moment when Elmore wouldn't shut up about the flagrant on Purvis being the same play as Brimah's clean block??

He should be docked pay by whoever technically pays him, because I've never witnessed a commentator take such a firm stance that was so wrong before in my life. Brimah stayed mostly stationary and jumped up in the air to block a shot by a guy streaking in to the paint directly toward him, while whoever hacked Purvis jumped through the paint like a guy trying to dunk from the free throw line, while Purvis was clearly going up for a layup. The defensive player knew exactly where purvis would be, and he chose to jump THROUGH him sending him flying into the basket, while Brimah's block was an offensive player jumping into the blocker... they were completely opposite situations and Elmore went on a 5 minute tirade about how they should have been called the same.

That drove me nuts

 

[Uconn77Duke74]

The Commentators were unbelievably bad. Would love someone to count up all the negative UConn comments they made throughout the game. Don't they know we handle that task here?

 

[AstarIsBorn31]

The Commentators were awful...I still cant comprehend this offense we run.. One thing I really liked which is so minor but we never do it, is Nolan catching the ball outside the arc and swinging it. Every team has a big catch the ball out there and move it. It opens up the paint and the big defender doesnt feel comfortable out there. But we havent done it all year...

 

[Uconn77Duke74]

The Commentators were awful...I still cant comprehend this offense we run.. One thing I really liked which is so minor but we never do it, is Nolan catching the ball outside the arc and swinging it. Every team has a big catch the ball out there and move it. It opens up the paint and the big defender doesnt feel comfortable out there. But we havent done it all year...

I agree completely. Our Bigs don't rebound or score well so why throw them down low anyways? Drag their men out of the paint a bit.

 

[AstarIsBorn31]

All we do is swing the ball around the perimeter. Then when the clock gets to low its just up to Boat and Dham to create..I wont bash Ollie cuz I think he must have some plays. I just think we dont run enough things to get Dham open, he pretty much scores off his own nifty movement with the ball. I would like to see him move without the ball getting screen after screen and just catch and shoot. It wouldnt be the prettiest ball but it would be very similar to how Rip was used for the pistons. Brimah is not close to being ready to catch the ball in the post, I am totally fine with that cuz he can still provide with the oopers and obviously the defense. But I dont want us feeding it to him unless he is close enough to turn and dunk or if he has the awareness to draw a double and kick it...He fades away on his hook shots looking for contact which is never pretty...I still think Facey is better then we give him credit for.. Hes got that Niels Giffey, freshman/soph year confidence going on which really comes down to getting more touches and coaching staff reinforcing that he is out there for a reason

 

[UconnFanNVa]

This game pretty much sums up the whole season. Our offense doesn't really exist outside of Purvis. Hamilton is solid, but he needs ot hesitate less and be more aggressive imo. He's only a freshman and its boatrights team so I can understand that somewhat, but that has to change for him. Purvis, has good games and bad games as we all know. I think the key for Purvis is understanding where his bread is buttered. Open court transition buckets, and slashing. We need some offensive sets that utilize him a little better imo. I don't have a problem with him shooting a 3 here or there, but he shouldn't be relying on that, he should be driving in to the lane, drawing contact and putting the ball in the hoop and or getting to the line (or dishing to <insert big man> for an oop). Defensive intensity was just missing for stretches too.

My honest opinion is that this team is just too inexperienced. I think Amida and Hamilton take big steps forward next season. I hope Purvis finds some consistency and perhaps we find some offensive sets that work better for his game.

Really in hindsight i'm not mad at the game. it was ours and we just let it slip through. If we are lucky we turn the corner in the AAC tournament, and go on a run that gets us into the NCAA tournament. If not, I'm still optimistic about our future with the talent we have and the talent coming in.

 

[Cheeky]

Our offense doesn't really exist outside of Purvis.

What?

 

[UconnFanNVa]

What?

lol should have been boatright!

 

[Shabazzkets]

I'm not trying to absolve the team or Ollie of that weak performance, especially the woeful shooting percentage and poorly run offense. But I will say that Memphis got really lucky. As poorly as UConn played, they still would have won if Memphis hadn't hit an abnormally large number of shots they "shouldn't" have made. Shots off the backboard, long, contested jumpers made by average shooters, and worst of all, a contested, midrange jumper from Shaq Goodwin that bounced off the rim 4 times before going on.

UConn probably should have won by 4 or 5 points with a modicum of good luck. They didn't get it. Now, you shouldn't have to rely on luck to beat this crap Memphis team at home, but still.

 

[Kembacity]

How about Burrell? I had such a hard time hating a guy with that name but what a tool and clown that guy was. Did he get 'injured' twice in the game and go down seemingly done for the day, or was it only once?

It was so unfortunate that when he went over the back of 2 of our guys under the hoop and they didn't whistle a foul, he landed on one of their feet and twisted his ankle. It's so sad when a player is making an honest cheap basketball move and gets injured by his own volition and sits on the ground for minutes to come right back into the game healthy enough to foul some more

 

[UConnSwag11]

our offense is what it is now because the players are learning a new system from what they've played... hamilton needs to become daniels, we need a pick and pop guy... we need a spot up three point shooter... also need size down low... ollies system works, it's up to the players to get the confidence and be able to learn and execute the system

 

[AstarIsBorn31]

our offense is what it is now because the players are learning a new system from what they've played... hamilton needs to become daniels, we need a pick and pop guy... we need a spot up three point shooter... also need size down low... ollies system works, it's up to the players to get the confidence and be able to learn and execute the system

Dham is far better then Daniels, I think he is Daniels from MSG if anything.. And its not a new system, still the same let the point guard create everything system. Its more about players learning to play more than 5 minutes. Brimah, dham, samuel, facey werent used to playing this much and be depended on for so much of the game. Omar and Purvis are similar in that aspect as well. So not really a new system, more just new to college basketball

 

[UConnSwag11]

Dham is far better then Daniels, I think he is Daniels from MSG if anything.. And its not a new system, still the same let the point guard create everything system. Its more about players learning to play more than 5 minutes. Brimah, dham, samuel, facey werent used to playing this much and be depended on for so much of the game. Omar and Purvis are similar in that aspect as well. So not really a new system, more just new to college basketball

right, they're new to college basketball which means this is a new system... especially ollies, that's all you heard last year

 

[Palatine]

2 points in the first six minutes. I has come back to bite us numerous times this season.

 

[BoatShow]

2 points in the first six minutes. I has come back to bite us numerous times this season.

Exactly. The time between the first and last 5 minutes we dominated. Unfortunately we closed like and opened even worse.

 

[TigerJ]

How about Burrell? I had such a hard time hating a guy with that name but what a tool and clown that guy was. Did he get 'injured' twice in the game and go down seemingly done for the day, or was it only once?

It was so unfortunate that when he went over the back of 2 of our guys under the hoop and they didn't whistle a foul, he landed on one of their feet and twisted his ankle. It's so sad when a player is making an honest cheap basketball move and gets injured by his own volition and sits on the ground for minutes to come right back into the game healthy enough to foul some more

That tool scorched UConn all night though.

 

[TigerJ]

Of what Godfrey did was a flagrant 1 then so was Brimah's body block on Crawford. Take the homer glasses off for a minute. You guys shot 22 freethrows to our 2.

 

[AstarIsBorn31]

Of what Godfrey did was a flagrant 1 then so was Brimah's body block on Crawford. Take the homer glasses off for a minute. You guys shot 22 freethrows to our 2.

Brimahs was not even close to a flagrant... Not biased at all on that... It was pretty similar to Deandre Daniels block at MSG in the tourney last year, all ball then fell on the landing on top of the player.. I think Godfrey wasnt trying to be excessive on his but because of the speed of that purvis was going and directly from behind him it made it way worst and most refs are going to call that... The issue I had with officiating last night was fouls late in the game on boatright. He moved his feet into position and got called for one by memphis bench, then got called for the one off brimahs block (that one couldve got hand though, the angle was only shown once). But then Nolan gets called for a ticky tack on 5 ft behind the 3 which was questionable. All resetting the shot clock. I dont think the T on memphis was the right call, I think refs had a better chance at giving it before the ball was being inbounded/ shouldve warned both teams....

 

[ASweet3781]

I'm not trying to absolve the team or Ollie of that weak performance, especially the woeful shooting percentage and poorly run offense. But I will say that Memphis got really lucky. As poorly as UConn played, they still would have won if Memphis hadn't hit an abnormally large number of shots they "shouldn't" have made. Shots off the backboard, long, contested jumpers made by average shooters, and worst of all, a contested, midrange jumper from Shaq Goodwin that bounced off the rim 4 times before going on.

UConn probably should have won by 4 or 5 points with a modicum of good luck. They didn't get it. Now, you shouldn't have to rely on luck to beat this crap Memphis team at home, but still.

Contested shots? They scored 54 points. I hate to break it to you, but the other team is ALLOWED to hit a shot once in a while.

And if you still really want to blame bad luck (which is absurd) than maybe UConn better start changing some things to increase the margin of error a bit so this so called bad luck doesn't out do a +20 at the free throw line and the loss of a key Memphis starter. If UConn is going to continue a style of play where the aim is 50-60 points scored, than the defense needs to be perfect like last year.

 

[Cheeky]

And if you still really want to blame bad luck (which is absurd)

We lost because we sucked and our coaching was bad - no doubt.
But the point is accurate - they hit about 4 or 5 shots that were circus shots. They had about 2 or 3 bizarre ball bounces end up in their hands. It happens. The goal is to play well enough so that circus shots don't beat you. We didn't.

 

[UofMemphis]

Of what Godfrey did was a flagrant 1 then so was Brimah's body block on Crawford. Take the homer glasses off for a minute. You guys shot 22 freethrows to our 2.

You and Len Elmore are correct on that...

 

[mauconnfan]

You and Len Elmore are correct on that...

You guys are lost. British was a clean block on a guy who fell down and then pulled Brimah with his right arm....please watch again. Surprised at TigerJ but U of M is just a so expected!

 

[mauconnfan]

huskiesnyc let you have thoughts the morning after? that's BS

 

[Tenspro2002]

Exactly. The time between the first and last 5 minutes we dominated. Unfortunately we closed like and opened even worse.

The problem is, in the intervening 30 minutes, particularly in the second half, it only looked like we dominated. We controlled play for the first 12-15 minutes of the second half, but in that period, our biggest lead was 4 points.

The urgency to push that lead to 10 and put the game away was never there.