Thoughts on UConn Auburn | The Boneyard

Thoughts on UConn Auburn

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UConn is really good, they just need to learn how to step on throats and close teams out. Part of it is Bruce Pearl's teams are relentless but we never adjusted to their pressure. He crushed Hurley on out of bounds plays and UConn never made him pay for the press. We folded because of it but got off the mat, folded again, and got off the mat again for the win.

Sanogo is a beast, he's going to be better in the post than every player he plays. His ability to finish with both hands, his footwork and the time he takes to finish is unlike any big we've had in an incredibly long time, maybe ever. Sometimes he needs to just speed it up and dunk though. His ability to stay on the floor with 4 fouls was a huge growing up moment for him and the difference between a win and a loss. The other difference was Cole playing the whole game and making the big shots when we needed them. And finally Polley, we were down and out 2 or three different times in this game and Polley refused to let us lose. Big shot after big shot to keep them alive and keep them ahead. To top it off he gets a tough in traffic rebound and sank the ft's like he always does.

The not so good, Gaff has to be much stronger with the ball so Cole doesn't have to play the entire game. He simply needs to play better, made the big ft's though and I'm always confident with him at the stripe.

Jackson has to be able to score, he plays too many minutes and is too valuable to not put any points on the board. With him and Whaley on the court right now, it's basically two players who don't score.

Akok, maybe matchups but thought he could've gotten more tick.

Martin made some mistakes on the break but was rock solid.

Hawkins had his freshman moment and the vets bailed him out. He's awesome and may not be here long at all, he needs to play more (needs to play a ton tomorrow) which takes me to Hurley.

Hurley is clearly a really good coach and awesome program builder but he still makes me scratch my head sometimes. Hawkins was getting what he wanted on offense and then he just sits and sits. Coach needs to stop being a cooler and keep the kids in who are feasting. Press break and inbounds plays on both ends need to be much better. This team can be great but they desperately need to learn how to step on throats. It's coming but not there yet. They showed a ton of resiliency though after blowing it several times and with everything going against them.. They grew up today.

Let's take care of business tomorrow.
 
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UConn is really good, they just need to learn how to step on throats and close teams out. Part of it is Bruce Pearl's teams are relentless but we never adjusted to their pressure. He crushed Hurley on out of bounds plays and UConn never made him pay for the press. We folded because of it but got off the mat, folded again, and got off the mat again for the win.

Sanogo is a beast, he's going to be better in the post than every player he plays. His ability to finish with both hands, his footwork and the time he takes to finish is unlike any big we've had in an incredibly long time, maybe ever. Sometimes he needs to just speed it up and dunk though. His ability to stay on the floor with 4 fouls was a huge growing up moment for him and the difference between a win and a loss. The other difference was Cole playing the whole game and making the big shots when we needed them. And finally Polley, we were down and out 2 or three different times in this game and Polley refused to let us lose. Big shot after big shot to keep them alive and keep them ahead. To top it off he gets a tough in traffic rebound and sank the ft's like he always does.

The not so good, Gaff has to be much stronger with the ball so Cole doesn't have to play the entire game. He simply needs to play better, made the big ft's though and I'm always confident with him at the stripe.

Jackson has to be able to score, he plays too many minutes and is too valuable to not put any points on the board. With him and Whaley on the court right now, it's basically two players who don't score.

Akok, maybe matchups but thought he could've gotten more tick.

Martin made some mistakes on the break but was rock solid.

Hawkins had his freshman moment and the vets bailed him out. He's awesome and may not be here long at all, he needs to play more (needs to play a ton tomorrow) which takes me to Hurley.

Hurley is clearly a really good coach and awesome program builder but he still makes me scratch my head sometimes. Hawkins was getting what he wanted on offense and then he just sits and sits. Coach needs to stop being a cooler and keep the kids in who are feasting. Press break and inbounds plays on both ends need to be much better. This team can be great but they desperately need to learn how to step on throats. It's coming but not there yet. They showed a ton of resiliency though after blowing it several times and with everything going against them.. They grew up today.

Let's take care of business tomorrow.

Two possibilities: Hurley became stupid precisely after the moment Hawkins hurt his ankle, or Hurley couldn't play Hawkins after that because while he could have played offense he couldn't move laterally nearly well enough to guard any of Auburn's guards.

Out of curiousity, which do you think is the more reasonable assumption?
 
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To beat a team like Auburn in this manner is a statement. We needed our seniors, Whaley and Polley's experience to put Auburn away.

Auburn's comeback was most impressive, and Hurley needs to study that sequence where we allowed them back in.

We witnessed a classic today, and I feel bad for Yarders who missed it.
 

Psolo12

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I thought more than anything this showed our toughness. I can remember countless games where one bad thing would happen and it would snowball. Now we fight and win games we used to let slip away.
 
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Just please tell me we won’t face a defense like that tomorrow. Auburn is suffocating on that press
MSU won't be in our face 100%, although after watching that game seeing how effective it was and how tired we may be - they might? But they're still #3 in defense on Kenpom.
 
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Two possibilities: Hurley became stupid precisely after the moment Hawkins hurt his ankle, or Hurley couldn't play Hawkins after that because while he could have played offense he couldn't move laterally nearly well enough to guard any of Auburn's guards.

Out of curiousity, which do you think is the more reasonable assumption?
If Hawkins hurt his ankle he wouldn't have been playing.
 
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Guessing every team in America is gonna press us after seeing today's game. We've sacrificed some ball-handling in favor of length and athleticism. Gotta be ready for it next time.

We'll make changes. If Gaff and Jackson can't play well enough to keep themselves on the court, Diggins might get a chance to join the rotation. But against teams with that level of athleticism, we will not be able to play Polley and Martin at the wings and not have a real second guard in.
 
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After that ridiculous game, we have the pleasure of watching them against Izzo and Michigan St tomorrow at noon.. before dinner!!
oH man! What a perfect time for the game to be on. Im a Bears fan but i have absolutely no reason to tune in to tomorrows game and this gives me something to watch instead.
 

Chin Diesel

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UConn is really good, they just need to learn how to step on throats and close teams out. Part of it is Bruce Pearl's teams are relentless but we never adjusted to their pressure. He crushed Hurley on out of bounds plays and UConn never made him pay for the press. We folded because of it but got off the mat, folded again, and got off the mat again for the win.

Sanogo is a beast, he's going to be better in the post than every player he plays. His ability to finish with both hands, his footwork and the time he takes to finish is unlike any big we've had in an incredibly long time, maybe ever. Sometimes he needs to just speed it up and dunk though. His ability to stay on the floor with 4 fouls was a huge growing up moment for him and the difference between a win and a loss. The other difference was Cole playing the whole game and making the big shots when we needed them. And finally Polley, we were down and out 2 or three different times in this game and Polley refused to let us lose. Big shot after big shot to keep them alive and keep them ahead. To top it off he gets a tough in traffic rebound and sank the ft's like he always does.

The not so good, Gaff has to be much stronger with the ball so Cole doesn't have to play the entire game. He simply needs to play better, made the big ft's though and I'm always confident with him at the stripe.

Jackson has to be able to score, he plays too many minutes and is too valuable to not put any points on the board. With him and Whaley on the court right now, it's basically two players who don't score.

Akok, maybe matchups but thought he could've gotten more tick.

Martin made some mistakes on the break but was rock solid.

Hawkins had his freshman moment and the vets bailed him out. He's awesome and may not be here long at all, he needs to play more (needs to play a ton tomorrow) which takes me to Hurley.

Hurley is clearly a really good coach and awesome program builder but he still makes me scratch my head sometimes. Hawkins was getting what he wanted on offense and then he just sits and sits. Coach needs to stop being a cooler and keep the kids in who are feasting. Press break and inbounds plays on both ends need to be much better. This team can be great but they desperately need to learn how to step on throats. It's coming but not there yet. They showed a ton of resiliency though after blowing it several times and with everything going against them.. They grew up today.

Let's take care of business tomorrow.

Very similar across the board to my Double OT...... post. One thing I disagree on is Gaff on the FT line. Yes, I felt good with him shooting it in OT but he's been consistently short throughout the year. Ball is just getting over front of rim and he's had a few front rim friendly roll overs in to the hoop.

And Martin on the break either has to take it himself to the rim or be the finisher. He does not make good plays with the ball in his hands trying to distribute. And it's a combination of poor choices sometimes and just poorly executing on others. But he is locked in otherwise and brutalized AU's guards when he posted them up.
 
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If Hawkins hurt his ankle he wouldn't have been playing.

Right. The only two conditions for an ankle are 100% and you can't play. It's not possible to strain an ankle ligament where you can run straight ahead if you have to but you don't have the lateral movement that you have if you're not hurt.

Seriously, you can't believe that Hurley voluntarily went that long stretch with Sanogo out with 4 fouls and us totally unable to score and didn't think of putting him in? Didn't think a scorer would help? If you think that, you must be surprised if Hurley is able to drive himself to Gampel.
 
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If you think that, you must be surprised if Hurley is able to drive himself to Gampel.
Superjohn isn't one but there's definitely a group of people here who would fall in this group
 

BGesus4

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Definitely looked like he aggravated it on that fastbreak. They called a foul but looked like he stepped and his foot gave out on him and he wasn’t really touched. After seeing the replay I was worried he’d sit the rest of the game. Seemed ok when he came back in but hard to know if it limited him.
 
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We'll make changes. If Gaff and Jackson can't play well enough to keep themselves on the court, Diggins might get a chance to join the rotation. But against teams with that level of athleticism, we will not be able to play Polley and Martin at the wings and not have a real second guard in.

Obviously Martin is not a primary ball handler but he can be helpful in breaking a press. He is more than adequate in that role.
 
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Right. The only two conditions for an ankle are 100% and you can't play. It's not possible to strain an ankle ligament where you can run straight ahead if you have to put you don't have the lateral movement that you have if you're not hurt.

Seriously, you can't believe that Hurley voluntarily went that long stretch with Sanogo out with 4 fouls and us totally unable to score and didn't think of putting him in? Didn't think a scorer would help? If you think that, you must be surprised if Hurley is able to drive himself to Gampel.
If you think Hurley is going to play a kid with an injured ankle who just came back off an ankle injury you must think he doesn't care about the health of his players. It makes a hell of a lot more sense that he sat the hot hand/most talented scorer because he's done it several times already while coaching at UConn.
 

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