My Take

[RF2044]

Our guards have a size advantage on almost anyone we play at 6-5 and 6-4. But they don't use it much. we have no post-up game inside or out. Our guys don't shoot over people. They try to maneuver for open shots and prevent the other team's guards from doing so. In that mode, being bigger is no advantage.

uconn is a team that I thought Triche would be able to exploit, using his size to get into the lane. That he settled for jumpshots instead of using his size / strength advantage to get closer to the basket last night is a problem [and he isn't the only one].

 

[Coach Orange]

Our guards have a size advantage on almost anyone we play at 6-5 and 6-4. But they don't use it much. we have no post-up game inside or out. Our guys don't shoot over people. They try to maneuver for open shots and prevent the other team's guards from doing so. In that mode, being bigger is no advantage.

Well said. We did post MCW up one time last night in the second half. It didn't go well. It's just not his game at this time.

 

[sdhusky]

You give UCONN too much credit on this one.

A mediocre team playing in front of less than a sellout versus the talent of Syracuse should emphasize paragraphs two and three as the headline and end, not vice versa.

No way should UCONN beat Syracuse when you glance at the lineups.

Terrible loss. But it is just one...so onward I suppose.

Puts UCONN in the talk for BE regular season championship. If the refs didn't mess up at Marquette, UCONN would be in first place right now. As it is, we are one game behind.

 

[Frozen]

DC2is a classic example of everyone being fooled by a big kid physically maturing and beating up on those who aren't even close to his size and maturity.

Aren't you the same guy who is always anointing incoming freshman as surefire starters simply based on their highlight videos...which feature them beating up on those who aren't even close to to them in terms of size and maturity (far less-talented high school competition?)

 

[tbonezone]

anyone else find it more than a just little bit troubling that in our current zone defense assignments that the center is usually left soley responsible for flying out and guarding (or fouling) those deep baseline corner threes. absolutely a recipe for disaster imo. no man can effectively patrol such a wide area. wings are way too high!

 

[CuseFaninVT]

anyone else find it more than a just little bit troubling that in our current zone defense assignments that the center is usually left soley responsible for flying out and guarding (or fouling) those deep baseline corner threes. absolutely a recipe for disaster imo. no man can effectively patrol such a wide area. wings are way too high!

I can't stand that either. They have no experience doing it and end up fouling way too often. CJ and James up above the foul line for too long is just a recipe for more bombs from the corner. Even if the shot is missed it's usually an easy offensive board for a jam since there is no big in the middle wearing orange.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Want to start by crediting UConn for playing a great game. Ollie did a terrific job preparing them to attack the zone and they executed their half court offense beautifully. The Huskies also played excellent man defense. Napier took Triche out of the game most of the way. Daniels did a fine job on Fair.

Thought the half court offense was awful. Way too many 3 point attempts, almost no attempt to get the ball down low or in the paint. Just a lackadaisical, half hearted sleep walk all game long. Syracuse is not a good outside shooting team and they aren't going to win many games exchanging 3 point attempts most of the game.

UConn attacked Southerland's side of the zone all game long and had great success doing it. Christmas and Keita were essentially worthless played against low caliber borderline Division 1 players.

Again, great job by UConn, who played much better than Syracuse and clearly deserved the win. All the props in the world to them. One more thing...Ryan Boatright is the black Devo.

Great observation about Southerland. During UConn's hot stretch where they hit about 6 threes in a row in the 2nd half, every one of those shots were corner jumpers where the forward stayed out too high and didn't pay attention to the corner shooter. It happened over and over again, and James didn't adjust.

 

[SWC75]

Totally agree thathat UCONN played a smart game .We did not. Positioning for rebounds is somethiong that Jimmy has ignored for many seasons. Never more apparent than this last game.Boxing out is as foreign to the teamas is creating a punt return wall in football.A combination of poor shooting and lack of boards buried our chances to get out of that dump with a win.

We got off 65 shots to their 45.

 

[TheRoyalIveyFund]

We had one last year.

I'm not speaking for JeremyCuse but I think he's referring to offense and I'm sure is using a bit hyperbole.

Arinze was great down low but it does feel like we had many years of frustrating big man play on the O end. People use to yell at JB to get "McStone hands out" when McNeil was in. Mookie and Trob were workhorses on D but had hands/skills issues on O. Baye/Rak are having issues inside on Off. Coleman struggled early with positioning (though expected). Maybe it's because of the role JB expects of the bigs but it is a bit frustrating to many.

 

[tbonezone]

while we did miss southerlands offense young grant certainly brought us better D.

 

[cliftonparksufan]

Great observation about Southerland. During UConn's hot stretch where they hit about 6 threes in a row in the 2nd half, every one of those shots were corner jumpers where the forward stayed out too high and didn't pay attention to the corner shooter. It happened over and over again, and James didn't adjust.

And the last couple of those jumpers, the Yukon players just parked their butts in the corner. They were so squared up on all of their 3 pt attempts where as our guys were so rushed that none of them were in proper shooting position to make one. I, like many, just don't understand why our guys are in such a hurry on offense.

 

[SWC75]

I'm not speaking for JeremyCuse but I think he's referring to offense and I'm sure is using a bit hyperbole.

Arinze was great down low but it does feel like we had many years of frustrating big man play on the O end. People use to yell at JB to get "McStone hands out" when McNeil was in. Mookie and Trob were workhorses on D but had hands/skills issues on O. Baye/Rak are having issues inside on Off. Coleman struggled early with positioning (though expected). Maybe it's because of the role JB expects of the bigs but it is a bit frustrating to many.

Coleman, Owens, Wallace, Hill, Thomas, Warrick, Anthony, Onuaku and Jackson were all good inside scorers. We just don't have anybody like that now, although I have hopes for Grant eventually.

 

[BlueCurtain]

I can't stand that either. They have no experience doing it and end up fouling way too often. CJ and James up above the foul line for too long is just a recipe for more bombs from the corner.

This was discussed in a thread several weeks ago. It's not a one-game thing. It's a coaching thing.

 

[suttree]

This was discussed in a thread several weeks ago. It's not a one-game thing. It's a coaching thing.

Welcome back!

Do you have a Google news alert set for "Syracuse" and "loss"?

 

[moqui]

UConn attacked Southerland's side of the zone all game long and had great success doing it.

this is not correct . . . it was actually much more sophisticated than that. with the exception of one 3 point attempt by Calhoun in the first half (that James stupidly committed a foul on), UConn did not go after Southerland's side until late in the game . . . about the last 10 minutes of the second half. And they set up this attack beautifully. Bazz and Boat did such a good job penetrating the zone that Southerland crept up more and more to help out on the top side; it was after he got too extended that they were able to swing the ball to an open Calhoun time after time. It was like a boxer setting up his left by jabbing, jabbing, jabbing with his right.

On the other side of the floor, UConn did an excellent job of taking CJ and James out of the offense over that same final 10 minute stretch. They denied our best scorers their favored offensive positions, beating them to the spot and pushing them out. CJ took just one shot in the last 10 minutes (at the 7:30 mark) while James didn't get a single look between 9:30 and 1:30.

I don't know whether that means that "JB was outcoached." It certainly was an excellent coaching job from Ollie, but it is unclear whether JB failed to respond or whether our guys just failed to execute his adjustments.

 

[sufandu]

I think quick guards are going to give us fits the rest of the season. When MCW can't blow by his guy he gets frustrated and doesn't know what to do offensively. When we can't keep the ball in front of us at the top of the zone and everyone starts helping it leads to open threes, layups, or offensive rebounds for the other team. I don't know which teams have guards that'll be able to attack us the rest of the year like that, but whoever does will make for a tough game.

 

[pfister1]

We had one last year.

Unfortunately, we didn't have one for the right part of last year.

 

[Ghost]

How can anyone judge this? For as long as I can remember most of out losses have a common theme: gunning threes and not even trying to go inside, by driving or passing. .....I mean, hell, the one game this year we made a consistent effort to get Rak the ball he even had a pretty good game.

Yeah, after that game I said I expected we would revert right back to the philosophy of MCW and Triche simply ignoring the post in favor of the quick glance before going on about their business of not scoring very efficiently.

They just seem oblivious to the idea that getting the ball into the post may pay dividends - it's pretty much a bailout pass for them, otherwise, it isn't happening. Even if someone like Rak isn't scoring, or he's busy missing dunks, it seems like it keeps him motivated to touch the ball once in awhile. I don't know - frustrating.

 

[BlueCurtain]

Welcome back!

Do you have a Google news alert set for "Syracuse" and "loss"?

Can't you come up with something original? That line has been copyrighted by several others already.

 

[SWC75]

Can't you come up with something original?

:rolling:

 

[suttree]

Can't you come up with something original? That line has been copyrighted by several others already.

Is that better? Thanks for the laugh to start my day.