SWC75
Bored Historian
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- Aug 26, 2011
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- After a couple of very encouraging performances against pretty good teams in Notre Dame and St. John’s, we laid an egg tonight. We were poor on offense and defense and very much deserved to lose.
- Why was CJ Fair on the bench as we were trying to come from behind at the end? Yes, Southerland is out best three point guy but after he took that 35 footer, he couldn’t put it in the ocean. And he gave up twice as many points as he scored tonight. Jerami Grant helps us on the boards but he can’t score like CJ. This might have been the time and place to use Southerland as the “2”, rather than Cooney.
- Our two rocks should be CJ Fair and Brandon Triche. They are our upper-classmen along with Southerland who doesn’t start and is a long-range shooter. CJ is smooth and consistent. Brandon is a human elevator bank. He was flat-out awful tonight, going 3 for 15 from the field, 0 for 7 from three point range and 3 for 6 from the foul line, (he was an 84% shooter there as a sophomore: he’s 73.5% this year, which is good but a 10% drop from two years ago). If Brandon were as steady as CJ, we might be undefeated.
- Connecticut has an even worse inside scoring game than we do yet we let them have open shot after open shot from outside. The Huskies made 8 for 14 from three, including their first 6 of the second half. It should have been no problem to be in the face of every shooter. Typically, the guy rushing over as the shot went up was Southerland, who had been sucked into guarding someone else, leaving the wing open. James scored 14 but probably gave up twice that. If zone defense was illegal, we might be able to compute individual defensive scoring stats. James can be glad we don’t.
- Meanwhile we jacked up 23 three pointers even though it’s not the best part of our game. We made only 4 of them. James Southerland was 4 for 9. His near0sgihted teammates were 0 for 14. That’s 0 for 14.
- Of course, when we went inside, we didn’t necessarily put the ball in the basket, either. We were 19 for 42 inside the arc. We can’t seem to score when we get fouled, although the powerfully built Triche did manage to do that twice in the second half, (and then missed the free throw each time). Stringbeans Christmas and Keita were 1 for 6. Williams missed some shots inside as well. Connecticut kicked sand in our faces all night.
- Overall, we managed to attempt 20 more field goals than UCONN did. We got out-rebounded by one but were +8 in turnovers. But all it got us was two more field goals, which was more than offset by their sinking 4 more three pointers and 8 more free throws. They are hardly an inside team this year but got to the line 8 more times than we did.
- Michael Carter-Williams, after attempting 12 shots and dealing 16 assists vs. 3 turnovers in wins over Notre Dame and St. John’s, jacked up 13 shots and had 1 assist and 4 turnovers tonight. Instead of running the show, he was the show and it closed out of town.
- UCONN gets to give us the big kiss-off. People were debating whether this was a “bad loss” or not. When was the last time we had a good one?
- Why was CJ Fair on the bench as we were trying to come from behind at the end? Yes, Southerland is out best three point guy but after he took that 35 footer, he couldn’t put it in the ocean. And he gave up twice as many points as he scored tonight. Jerami Grant helps us on the boards but he can’t score like CJ. This might have been the time and place to use Southerland as the “2”, rather than Cooney.
- Our two rocks should be CJ Fair and Brandon Triche. They are our upper-classmen along with Southerland who doesn’t start and is a long-range shooter. CJ is smooth and consistent. Brandon is a human elevator bank. He was flat-out awful tonight, going 3 for 15 from the field, 0 for 7 from three point range and 3 for 6 from the foul line, (he was an 84% shooter there as a sophomore: he’s 73.5% this year, which is good but a 10% drop from two years ago). If Brandon were as steady as CJ, we might be undefeated.
- Connecticut has an even worse inside scoring game than we do yet we let them have open shot after open shot from outside. The Huskies made 8 for 14 from three, including their first 6 of the second half. It should have been no problem to be in the face of every shooter. Typically, the guy rushing over as the shot went up was Southerland, who had been sucked into guarding someone else, leaving the wing open. James scored 14 but probably gave up twice that. If zone defense was illegal, we might be able to compute individual defensive scoring stats. James can be glad we don’t.
- Meanwhile we jacked up 23 three pointers even though it’s not the best part of our game. We made only 4 of them. James Southerland was 4 for 9. His near0sgihted teammates were 0 for 14. That’s 0 for 14.
- Of course, when we went inside, we didn’t necessarily put the ball in the basket, either. We were 19 for 42 inside the arc. We can’t seem to score when we get fouled, although the powerfully built Triche did manage to do that twice in the second half, (and then missed the free throw each time). Stringbeans Christmas and Keita were 1 for 6. Williams missed some shots inside as well. Connecticut kicked sand in our faces all night.
- Overall, we managed to attempt 20 more field goals than UCONN did. We got out-rebounded by one but were +8 in turnovers. But all it got us was two more field goals, which was more than offset by their sinking 4 more three pointers and 8 more free throws. They are hardly an inside team this year but got to the line 8 more times than we did.
- Michael Carter-Williams, after attempting 12 shots and dealing 16 assists vs. 3 turnovers in wins over Notre Dame and St. John’s, jacked up 13 shots and had 1 assist and 4 turnovers tonight. Instead of running the show, he was the show and it closed out of town.
- UCONN gets to give us the big kiss-off. People were debating whether this was a “bad loss” or not. When was the last time we had a good one?
