sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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i'll start by saying how refreshing it was to watch Syracuse play UConn and not see the Huskies spend the game beating up and holding Syracuse the entire game. Perhaps more than any team, UConn has been responsible for ruining the sport of college basketball with their tactics on defense, culminating with the biggest travesty of an NCAA final ever in that infamous rugby scrum they played against fellow sport wrecker Butler.
It took far too long for the NCAA to wake up and do what the NBA did years ago, and clean up the game.
You can see that a program like UConn is lost right now. Ollie has no idea how to coach defense properly and his team shows it. Syracuse was able to do anything they wanted all game long. They got lots of easy points in transition, got into the paint for easy baskets routinely and had wide open jumpers whenever they wanted as well. If not for some extraordinarily bad FT shooting, Syracuse would have completely destroyed the Huskies.
Haven't watched UConn much in a few years. Was surprised at the lack of athletic ability on their team. Daniel Hamiliton is a fine athlete and next to silent G, was the best player on the court. Other than that though, I saw a bunch of untalented role players that looked like they should be starting for Cornell or Seton Hall. Wait...
Anyway, Syracuse clearly had better players, clearly had better coaching (Ollie was completely over matched) and as usual, more, better and far louder fans. I don't understand why UConn fans thought they could win or why they thought they were the better team.
Player breakdown...
Silent G dominated the game. UConn tried to guard him with several players, none were up to the task. He got SU in transition really well, ran the half court offense nicely, and continued to play stellar defense at the top of the 2-3. Was able to get to the basket whenever he wanted. UConn tried to throw the ball over him a number of times and got burned repeatedly.
TC played like a senior should. He was solid on defense, handled the ball well, shot it well, burying important 3s as needed to answer UConn runs. Continues to pass it well and draw fouls taking it inside.
MR continues to show great confidence as a frosh, continues to shoot well, even on contested 3s and continues to consistently draw fouls when his defender comes out to cover him tight. Like mango this team, he is a matchup nightmare. Dribbled a little too much and made too many turnovers, but he will learn from this.
DC2 continues to show slow progress coming back from 2 years of injuries and you could argue that he deserved more playing time. Hard to do when TL is playing so well though. Anyway, he dominated the glass when he was in, was a man against boys and his defense is getting better too. If he can just rebound and play passable defense, he can really help this team. If he starts scoring a bit more, it really gets interesting.
If DC2 was the dominant rebounder in the game, TRob was just behind him. He was just stronger, faster, tougher and more hungry than anyone UConn had on their bench and they had no answer for him. Great weak side block too.
KJ remains kind of lost out there. Doesn't look confident, looks more like he is trying to avoid bad plays than trying to make good ones. FH barely played but his posture was excellent and his hair looked terrific.
Not sure if CO even played. I think he was in briefly. With DC2 playing better and TL emerging, he is not going to get a lot of playing time this season.
That leaves TL. Looks like he is one of those guys that plays to the level of his opposition. While I don't think UConn is a top 20 team, they are a good team that will probably make the NCAA tournament and they are clearly the best team SU has played to date. Good to see him playing with so much confidence so early in his career. UConn had no idea how to cover him. When they tried to use a big guy, he took advantage and made open 3s. When they tried to use a smaller guy, TL went to the low post off the double high post screen SU loves to use in half court sets and got an easy basket or drew a foul. He took what the defense gave him. Also rebounded reasonably well and blocked a lot of shots. And intimidated Huskies when they tried to challenge him inside. They threw up a lot of weak, scared looking off balance shots when he was in their area. Another very impressive game for this kid. When he grows up, he is going to be pretty good.
Good game. The Big Five have played close to 40 minutes two games in a row and it is going to be tough for them to give 40 more again today. I think JB might give DC2 and one of the guards a little more run today accordingly. Texas A&M plays good defense and this will be a tough game. It will be interesting to see what these guys have left in the tank.
It took far too long for the NCAA to wake up and do what the NBA did years ago, and clean up the game.
You can see that a program like UConn is lost right now. Ollie has no idea how to coach defense properly and his team shows it. Syracuse was able to do anything they wanted all game long. They got lots of easy points in transition, got into the paint for easy baskets routinely and had wide open jumpers whenever they wanted as well. If not for some extraordinarily bad FT shooting, Syracuse would have completely destroyed the Huskies.
Haven't watched UConn much in a few years. Was surprised at the lack of athletic ability on their team. Daniel Hamiliton is a fine athlete and next to silent G, was the best player on the court. Other than that though, I saw a bunch of untalented role players that looked like they should be starting for Cornell or Seton Hall. Wait...
Anyway, Syracuse clearly had better players, clearly had better coaching (Ollie was completely over matched) and as usual, more, better and far louder fans. I don't understand why UConn fans thought they could win or why they thought they were the better team.
Player breakdown...
Silent G dominated the game. UConn tried to guard him with several players, none were up to the task. He got SU in transition really well, ran the half court offense nicely, and continued to play stellar defense at the top of the 2-3. Was able to get to the basket whenever he wanted. UConn tried to throw the ball over him a number of times and got burned repeatedly.
TC played like a senior should. He was solid on defense, handled the ball well, shot it well, burying important 3s as needed to answer UConn runs. Continues to pass it well and draw fouls taking it inside.
MR continues to show great confidence as a frosh, continues to shoot well, even on contested 3s and continues to consistently draw fouls when his defender comes out to cover him tight. Like mango this team, he is a matchup nightmare. Dribbled a little too much and made too many turnovers, but he will learn from this.
DC2 continues to show slow progress coming back from 2 years of injuries and you could argue that he deserved more playing time. Hard to do when TL is playing so well though. Anyway, he dominated the glass when he was in, was a man against boys and his defense is getting better too. If he can just rebound and play passable defense, he can really help this team. If he starts scoring a bit more, it really gets interesting.
If DC2 was the dominant rebounder in the game, TRob was just behind him. He was just stronger, faster, tougher and more hungry than anyone UConn had on their bench and they had no answer for him. Great weak side block too.
KJ remains kind of lost out there. Doesn't look confident, looks more like he is trying to avoid bad plays than trying to make good ones. FH barely played but his posture was excellent and his hair looked terrific.
Not sure if CO even played. I think he was in briefly. With DC2 playing better and TL emerging, he is not going to get a lot of playing time this season.
That leaves TL. Looks like he is one of those guys that plays to the level of his opposition. While I don't think UConn is a top 20 team, they are a good team that will probably make the NCAA tournament and they are clearly the best team SU has played to date. Good to see him playing with so much confidence so early in his career. UConn had no idea how to cover him. When they tried to use a big guy, he took advantage and made open 3s. When they tried to use a smaller guy, TL went to the low post off the double high post screen SU loves to use in half court sets and got an easy basket or drew a foul. He took what the defense gave him. Also rebounded reasonably well and blocked a lot of shots. And intimidated Huskies when they tried to challenge him inside. They threw up a lot of weak, scared looking off balance shots when he was in their area. Another very impressive game for this kid. When he grows up, he is going to be pretty good.
Good game. The Big Five have played close to 40 minutes two games in a row and it is going to be tough for them to give 40 more again today. I think JB might give DC2 and one of the guards a little more run today accordingly. Texas A&M plays good defense and this will be a tough game. It will be interesting to see what these guys have left in the tank.
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