UConn Post Game Discussion

chat it up...

Fire Roberts.

Fire Roberts.

Come on talk about the game. If there is something you didn't like that Norm did (or failed to do) this game then talk about it.

Very disappointing effort.  Team had no fight in the 2nd half.  UCONN came out real hot after halftime but we needed to try to rough them up to try to disturb their rhythm.  Instead, we let them shoot it unchallenged.

How many times in the last 3 yrs has a game gone into half time with SJU up or down by less then 5 and they lose by more than 10?

Norm failed to run smart plays for Burrell, who yet again thinks he should be fading away from the basket. He plays too soft, and I don't care who's fault it is, but until it's fixed I'm putting all of the blame on Norm.

Burrell has to take it up strong. His offense is terrible. He's such a great athlete, but he creates such low percentage shots for himself.

On top of that, we had silly turnovers, and missed too many lay ups. We play weak on offense and defense. Mason, Horne and Brownlee really hurt is today. We needed their offense tocome through, and there so system to any of it.

I don't see any way to fix this. Our season will end with the CBI. Maybe the NIT, if we can pull off a miracle against a Louisville, or a Marquette. But so what? Under Norm, we are less.

On the bright side, at least player allocations are getting better and a deserving core group of 8 are emerging.  Now if they could have only knocked down some baskets... You can't win games shooting that poorly.  Ok- If Booth plays, he should be restricted to take no shots. But really nobody shot well tonight. Flat

Norm failed to run smart plays for Burrell, who yet again thinks he should be fading away from the basket. He plays too soft, and I don't care who's fault it is, but until it's fixed I'm putting all of the blame on Norm.

Burrell has to take it up strong. His offense is terrible. He's such a great athlete, but he creates such low percentage shots for himself.

On top of that, we had silly turnovers, and missed too many lay ups. We play weak on offense and defense. Mason, Horne and Brownlee really hurt is today. We needed their offense tocome through, and there so system to any of it.

I don't see any way to fix this. Our season will end with the CBI. Maybe the NIT, if we can pull off a miracle against a Louisville, or a Marquette. But so what? Under Norm, we are less.

He's shooting over 50% on the season. Thats low percentage to you?

I have to rewatch the game. I was half heartedly watching while at work. From the little I saw I didn't think we played too bad, I thought we actually had some nice sets in the half court but we didn't hit shots. A few times we tried to speed up the game we got sloppy and UConn capitalized. Also I didn't expect UConn to hit as many 3's as they did nor did I expect them to shoot that efficiently.

I'll post more in my recap after I watch the game in it's entirety.

Quote from: Poison on January 20, 2010, 09:09:49 PM

Fire Roberts.

Come on talk about the game. If there is something you didn't like that Norm did (or failed to do) this game then talk about it.

I am sorry Dave. I am tired of losing. I am tired of not being competitive. I am tired of reading the Post and Daily News and reading about Jim Calhoun being sick, and nothing about our team. I want to believe but this coaching staff gives us nothing. Lost again not even a game. Great game DJ. Dele played well early. not enough minutes for  Hardy. Burell once again not enough chances. Very disappointing.

Dave, Burrell faded away tonight.

We needed Jayson Williams, and we
got Lanont Hamilton.

There is nothing this team does the same
every game, except blow in the 2nd half.

Quote from: Dave on January 20, 2010, 09:16:08 PM

Quote from: Poison on January 20, 2010, 09:09:49 PM

Fire Roberts.

Come on talk about the game. If there is something you didn't like that Norm did (or failed to do) this game then talk about it.

I am sorry Dave. I am tired of losing. I am tired of not being competitive. I am tired of reading the Post and Daily News and reading about Jim Calhoun being sick, and nothing about our team. I want to believe but this coaching staff gives us nothing. Lost again not even a game. Great game DJ. Dele played well early. not enough minutes for  Hardy. Burell once again not enough chances. Very disappointing.

Oh you can be all that. I just want you to talk about it in fuller detail. More or less why do you feel that way. What in the game indicates all this to you. I just don't want the board filling up with a bunch of idiots saying "fire norm" and nothing else because that accomplishes and establishes nothing.

Dave, Burrell faded away tonight.

We needed Jayson Williams, and we
got Lanont Hamilton.

There is nothing this team does the same
every game, except blow in the 2nd half.

I didn't mention anything about tonight. In your first post your statements seemed to be more generalized than just specifically discussing tonight's game. Was I wrong?

Also earlier in the year this same team was getting praised for coming out in the 2nd half stronger. So I think that should be noted just as much when we suck in the 2nd half sometimes and we criticize that.

In general I feel that we hardly adjust as much as we need to in order to win games. Whether this is out of a timeout, halftime, or even game to game. I haven't watched tonight's game in it's entirety yet so I can't specify what went on in this game yet.

Dave, you saw the game. There were no good signs. What else is there to talk about? We are a badly coached team.

It might do us all justice to spend the next two months thinking of a way to get Norm fired. Can we send a stripper to his hotel
room in Pittsburgh? I'd chip in. 

the truth is, this team is not talented enough to compete in the top 3rd of the big east. we are talented enough to compete against the middle of the pack, but coaching handicaps our odds severely. after today's performace, someone (other than norm) better light a match under these players and start playing some ball.  this game was not winnable. uconn is much quicker than us and they were hitting their shots. our transition d is horrible. nobody except for dj showed up.

mason took way too many shots (12)
boothe took 9?
Hardy 1-6 from the arc
the most important was lack of transition d, our smaller line up was too slow to cover.
we had 5 fewer turnovers and still lost.


our talent is alright at best and for norm to be successfull, we need phi slamma jama and even then, we will barely make the tourney.

even though i had us losing this one, i have no idea where the hell were gonna steal a win!

even though i had us losing this one, i have no idea where the hell were gonna steal a win!

remember when most of this board was expecting to
walk all over Marquette? Hah. They'll kill us on our own court.

Ok, a few points -

I think the team didn't play horribly for what they are.  I think St. John's really needed to hit some shots from the outside to make this a close game, because U Conn always goes on a run, and against St. John's, they just go on these crushing runs and St. John's responds badly.  Been that way for, what, like 10 years?  Even when St. John's would win against them back in '02.

There were good signs in the first half.  Some decent basketball.  Dele Coker was solid in the first half - inspired play by him.  Justin and Mase were aggressive.  Justin was aggressive and whipped out the jump shot everyone wanted to see... but it didn't fall.  Mase was decent and I like his defense; I don't know that he actually took too many shots, esp since he was deferring to others in the first half.  I think he took a lot of late game shots.

The team didn't hold it together for the last 12-14 minutes of the game.  But they have to balance crazy scrappy energy with much smarter play to come back on a team like that.

I saw a lot of jump shots with players moving forward as they shot; that messes up accuracy.  And you have to admire the team working to get the ball into the lane against the shot blockers, but the shot blockers are better than St. John's shot makers.

I didn't think the team could really contain Kemba and Dyson, and they didn't.  They shot 15-26 combined.  Robinson had a good game... because he had a number of finishes on fast breaks.  Add him to the above two and the three of them shot 22-35.  So St. John's didn't stop their main players.

At the end of the day, U Conn - yes, like a lot of other Big East teams in the league - is just more talented.  The best way to make up talent disparity is with really crisp play and outside shooting for those points in the game where your team is overwhelmed by their size/ skill (or by generating turnovers, but this team hasn't been doing that), and St. John's didn't have that tonight.

"Same as it ever was"

Quote from: buckeyestorm on January 20, 2010, 10:41:19 PM

even though i had us losing this one, i have no idea where the hell were gonna steal a win!

remember when most of this board was expecting to
walk all over Marquette? Hah. They'll kill us on our own court.

speaking of marq, they just lost to depaul 51-50. STJ is only 1 conf game better than depaul