The best six minutes of last night's game came from the bench

[Orangeyes]

The best seven minute's of last night's game, IMHO, from a defensive & offensive point of view occurred from the 13:04 mark of the first half and extended to the 6 minute mark.

With the score Syracuse 12 Connecticut 10, JB subbed Micheal Carter-Williams and James Southerland into the game to play along side Baye, Dion and CJ.

For seven minutes MCW played as good defense as anyone has all season. He was all over the place never once losing his man and frustrating the hell out of the UConn players who came into his area.

At 12:03 he grabbed an offensive rebound

At 10:24 he knocked down a beautiful three point shot to put us up 17-10

At 9:58 he made a beautiful pass to Fab Melo for a dunk to put us up 19-10

At 8:49 MCW steals the ball from Shabazz Napier this indirectly leads to an emfatic dunk by Dion Waiters which put the Orangemen up 25-10

At 7:24 MCW delivers another assist to Fab Melo for yet another slam dunk which increased our lead by 14, to 27-13

At the six minute mark JB subs in Scoop & Brandon for Dion & MCW with the score 32-16

In a span of 2 minutes and 39 seconds the lead shrank from 16 to 9 points.

We would never see MCW again.

JB's promise to play the bench more resulted in MCW (6), Baye (6), James (15) & Rakeem (4) seeing a total of 31 minutes an increase of 17 minutes over the 14 minutes those players saw against USF where MCW didn't play at all

 

[rrlbees]

Joesph was in for most of that run.

Also, I watched the game again this morning and I watched the defense during that run. While MCW had a great stretch during his minutes, it wasn't his defense that was anything special. He didn't play bad defense, just that it wasn't a game changer at all. Ucant took a lot of bad shots and the interior defense did most of the damage except for one steal by Dion.

 

[Flacusian]

There can be no doubt whatsoever that this team is significantly better when all 10 players get playing time. The past several games and especially the stark contrast seen in last nights game make it abundantly clear.

 

[HoustonCuse]

If nothing else it confirms just how great MCW is going to be next year. What a luxury to have kids like that waiting in the wings. I fully expect JS to be a Demetris Nichols type player if he gets extended minutes next year as well.

 

[Orangeyes]

Joesph was in for most of that run.

Also, I watched the game again this morning and I watched the defense during that run. While MCW had a great stretch during his minutes, it wasn't his defense that was anything special. He didn't play bad defense, just that it wasn't a game changer at all. Ucant took a lot of bad shots and the interior defense did most of the damage except for one steal by Dion.

Melo came in for Baye at 11:07 and Kris came in for CJ at 9:56

The headline should read The best seven minutes of last night's game started with bench play

The bench was in for 26:05 of the possible 35 minutes during that stretch

 

[SoBristol]

You did notice that the "beautiful" 3 point shot from MCW was an inadvertent bank shot? The result was beautiful but any banked 3 is mostly luck.

 

[Orangeyes]

You did notice that the "beautiful" 3 point shot from MCW was an inadvertent bank shot? The result was beautiful but any banked 3 is mostly luck.

Picky, picky, picky

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and any three that goes in for this team is beautiful in my eye. Actually my minds eye traveled back to that Johnnie's game where he splashed three out of four.

 

[HoustonCuse]

"Shoot the glass," Hans Gruber.

 

[rrlbees]

You did notice that the "beautiful" 3 point shot from MCW was an inadvertent bank shot? The result was beautiful but any banked 3 is mostly luck.

It sucked that minutes later they did the same thing.

Sent from my DROIDX

 

[Banned]

Joesph was in for most of that run.

Also, I watched the game again this morning and I watched the defense during that run. While MCW had a great stretch during his minutes, it wasn't his defense that was anything special. He didn't play bad defense, just that it wasn't a game changer at all. Ucant took a lot of bad shots and the interior defense did most of the damage except for one steal by Dion.

He also overplayed a guard into the gap of the zone leaving the other UConn guard WIDE open for 3. Also in the interest of full disclosure he did Laminzana that 3.

All that said, I love the way the offense looks w him out there. He gets Fab engaged in the half court sets. Scoop can do the same at times but Dion and Triche do not. Orangeyes point is that he deserved more time and I completely agree. He should see time in EVERY game!

 

[HoustonCuse]

MCW is the only G we have that has any interest at all in feeding the post.

 

[kirbivore]

"Shoot the glass," Hans Gruber.

 

[Alcuse01]

I felt like it was the first time in quite a while where we truly went 10 deep -and didn't think it was any sort of 1x thing that we separated from the other team. Earlier in the season there were a ton of posts on here how the reason we were separating from the other teams was b/c when the starting 5 was getting tired, our 2nd starting 5 was in and just separating. Even SI did a piece how Dion's numbers were "inflated" b/c he wasn't playing against the other team's starting 5.

I just don't get why we wouldn't stick with thsi formula. I know JB says he wants to trust his seniors... but if the talent is there, why limit it and take the chance of a grind out win when we have the ability to separate?