Dejected | The Boneyard

Dejected

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I dont know what to think or feel. This used to be one of the most fun weeks of the year as a basketball/UConn fan, playing in the Big East Tournament, then anticipating the selection show to see who and where we were playing. This is now the third year in a row our season will not continue past Selection Sunday, not even the NIT. March/April 2014 was great, but that honestly feels like it was about 10 years ago, not just 5.

This fan base is starving for success. I think we are willing to cling to anything that resembles it. We thought we were building momentum with our win at ECU, then our performance yesterday vs USF was encouraging, but we ran into a brick wall today and reality hit once again that we are just not good enough again. Thats just a terrible way to put a cap on this season and I just hope we can turn this around.
 
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USF and ECU are not good. We aren’t either. Houston is good.

Today shouldn’t be that shocking.
I agree, but we played very well in those two games with Jalen back. Houston is a better team than us, but are they really 40 points better? This is the same Houston team that only beat us by 8 in Hartford a month ago, and we did not have Jalen.
 
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I agree, but we played very well in those two games with Jalen back. Houston is a better team than us, but are they really 40 points better? This is the same Houston team that only beat us by 8 in Hartford a month ago, and we did not have Jalen.
We didn't play very well, we shot very well which masks deficiencies which we have a ton of. ECU is a horrendous team, beating them is the equivalent of beating someone like Marist.

If we play poorly/aren't making shots Houston is 20 points better than us, we quit in the second half which made them 40 points better. I think we're all dejected these kids still quit, just reinforces our need to get more new and talented players.
 
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As hard as they played this year, this group never earned the right to wear UCONN across their jerseys.
That is a ridiculous statement. Every player who finished the year in good standing deserves to wear UCONN across their jerseys. They should be proud to be a member of the UConn basketball fraternity. They did not have the talent of past players but that is a different story.
 
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Not too surprised, I projected before the season we would win 18-20 games, a little below expectations, probably due to injuries & poor leadership by our best player. Doesn’t really matter, like I said in the off-season, not really about this year & the current players on this roster, let Hurley do what he does & we should have a much different & better outlook in the upcoming years.....
 
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Houston was a much better team. Without Gilbert, we did not have much of a chance.

That having been said, after all the quitting the players did in the middle of games last year, and having had that largely eliminated this year (both quitting in games and not quitting on the season as it slipped further and further away in the last month), it was an almost fitting ending to Jalen's career to see the team fold up like a $5 suitcase in his last game.

I never want to see that happen under Hurley again. As for Adams, a talented athlete and good basketball player who most of the time tried hard. But given the mess he walked into after his freshman year, we needed him not just to be a good basketball player but a leader. And he wasn't. And, like when Dyson and Sticks and Edwards were falling apart in February of '10 and Sophomore Kemba couldn't do anything about it, if leadership doesn't come from upperclassmen than you are likely to have a leaderless team.

And that is what happened the last three years. A shortage of players of the quality we want, to be sure, and certainly a God awful and totally unpredictable number of serious injuries, but also a lack of leadership and accountability. Was that largely on KO for 2 of those 3 years. From what one hears, largely. But teams don't always need to rely on coaches to provide leadership. Certainly, under Edsall I, we had football teams where players like Orlovsky and Fincher, and then Davis and Lorenzon, rose up and LED everyone around them to be better. But we haven't had that player leadership for a while now. And the last two years, it could have only come from one guy.

I wish Jalen well in his endeavors. He seems like a perfectly nice and good young man. But the book on him needs to include the chapter on how for all he could do, he couldn't do what we needed him to.
 
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HuskyHawk

The triumphant return of the Blues Brothers.
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I dont know what to think or feel. This used to be one of the most fun weeks of the year as a basketball/UConn fan, playing in the Big East Tournament, then anticipating the selection show to see who and where we were playing. This is now the third year in a row our season will not continue past Selection Sunday, not even the NIT. March/April 2014 was great, but that honestly feels like it was about 10 years ago, not just 5.

This fan base is starving for success. I think we are willing to cling to anything that resembles it. We thought we were building momentum with our win at ECU, then our performance yesterday vs USF was encouraging, but we ran into a brick wall today and reality hit once again that we are just not good enough again. Thats just a terrible way to put a cap on this season and I just hope we can turn this around.

It was fun yesterday, but I hope you didn't expect a win today. I expected a better performance, but we weren't winning this.

As to the larger point, this is why I always say I'd trade a NC for always making the tournament as Kansas does. The emptiness of not being a part of March Madness is awful.
 
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What could we possibly expect today, especially watching this team over the past 3 seasons. We would have had to shoot 75+% from 3 to even have a chance. Not happening. Glad we're now into year 2 with Hurley and he can really start molding the roster, culture and work ethic.
 
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This team was beaten mentally and physically and they mailed in most of the second half.

Vital was lackadaisical for most of the second half which was a surprise. But it happened.

The moment was too big for Polley. He lost his fine motor skills.

Wilson reverted back to the lost puppy we saw early in the season. There was no purpose to anything he did.

Smith has been overmatched most of the season. He will never be able to shoot even in rec leagues when he is in private business but.... he has a moment on Thursday.

Jalen was great but was he really any better today han he was as a freshman?

AG was almost as good as anyone we had on the court and he was home in Storrs.

Hurley deserves a metal for not letting his team quit all year until today's meltdown. There was no button he could push to stop it, but he shoveled back the incoming tide for as long as humanly possible.
 
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Just speechless after that. Had shades of last year written all over it in the second half especially.
 
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This team was beaten mentally and physically and they mailed in most of the second half.

Vital was lackadaisical for most of the second half which was a surprise. But it happened.

The moment was too big for Polley. He lost his fine motor skills.

Wilson reverted back to the lost puppy we saw early in the season. There was no purpose to anything he did.

Smith has been overmatched most of the season. He will never be able to shoot even in rec leagues when he is in private business but.... he has a moment on Thursday.

Jalen was great but was he really any better today han he was as a freshman?

AG was almost as good as anyone we had on the court and he was home in Storrs.

Hurley deserves a metal for not letting his team quit all year until today's meltdown. There was no button he could push to stop it, but he shoveled back the incoming tide for as long as humanly possible.
Jalen was great?
 

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