Georgetown @ UCon 1/25/22 Discussion
Jan 25, 2022 16:07:36 GMT -5
DanMcQ, prhoya, and 1 more like this
Post by RockawayHoya on Jan 25, 2022 16:07:36 GMT -5
OK... the game.
Oddly feels like my undergrad days when UConn was the game you absolutely dreaded. Heading to MCI to face a firing squad of Gordon, Okafor and friends was not fun, and this feels similar. This UConn team is nowhere near that, but our team isn't anywhere near our 2004 squad either which should tell you something.
Unfortunately, unlike Nova/Prov, I don't think this is a game we can intentionally try to speed them up using pressure to try to win. At this point we don't have the athletes to match UConn, and with the decision to shorten the bench, we likely don't have the stamina either.
Which leaves us with what to do in the halfcourt defensively. As badly as Tim/Malcolm fared against Samuels/Dixon on Saturday, tonight is going to be even worse as Sanogo/Whaley are more athletic/physical and have the higher motors. And I don't think you can just go with an all-offense lineup of Holloway/Rice to counter; not seeing how that lineup would be able to get rebounds on either end, especially without the fundamentals of boxing out being taught and stressed (no, simply yelling "rebound" repeatedly is not the same thing). Maybe you just mix in some zone to try and confuse? Hide the bigs and limit their responsibilities in chasing anything outside of the paint? It worked for a bit against Butler until it didn't, but at this point, trying anything different would be fine by me.
On offense, the only guy I can see us maybe using to exploit UConn a little bit is Holloway. Pair him with one of the bigs and maybe you can force his defender to stay on the perimeter and account for his shooting (48% from 3) some in order to unclog the lane and draw a rebounder away from the rim. Problem is, I think UConn has the personnel to switch this a number of ways using different guys if they want to. Ah, the benefit of having guys who can guard multiple positions.
Only way out for this team tonight is to somehow take care of the ball much better than they're likely to (12 TOs or less) and to limit run-outs in transition (after both TOs and misses/makes). It's going to require a much higher level of focus and hustle than we've seen so far across the board. Higher effort might give them a shot, it might not. Unfortunately that's where we are at this point. But it definitely won't happen tonight without it.
Hoping to keep this one respectable while creating some small positives to build on before ending this "little skid" at Hinkle on Saturday.
Oddly feels like my undergrad days when UConn was the game you absolutely dreaded. Heading to MCI to face a firing squad of Gordon, Okafor and friends was not fun, and this feels similar. This UConn team is nowhere near that, but our team isn't anywhere near our 2004 squad either which should tell you something.
Unfortunately, unlike Nova/Prov, I don't think this is a game we can intentionally try to speed them up using pressure to try to win. At this point we don't have the athletes to match UConn, and with the decision to shorten the bench, we likely don't have the stamina either.
Which leaves us with what to do in the halfcourt defensively. As badly as Tim/Malcolm fared against Samuels/Dixon on Saturday, tonight is going to be even worse as Sanogo/Whaley are more athletic/physical and have the higher motors. And I don't think you can just go with an all-offense lineup of Holloway/Rice to counter; not seeing how that lineup would be able to get rebounds on either end, especially without the fundamentals of boxing out being taught and stressed (no, simply yelling "rebound" repeatedly is not the same thing). Maybe you just mix in some zone to try and confuse? Hide the bigs and limit their responsibilities in chasing anything outside of the paint? It worked for a bit against Butler until it didn't, but at this point, trying anything different would be fine by me.
On offense, the only guy I can see us maybe using to exploit UConn a little bit is Holloway. Pair him with one of the bigs and maybe you can force his defender to stay on the perimeter and account for his shooting (48% from 3) some in order to unclog the lane and draw a rebounder away from the rim. Problem is, I think UConn has the personnel to switch this a number of ways using different guys if they want to. Ah, the benefit of having guys who can guard multiple positions.
Only way out for this team tonight is to somehow take care of the ball much better than they're likely to (12 TOs or less) and to limit run-outs in transition (after both TOs and misses/makes). It's going to require a much higher level of focus and hustle than we've seen so far across the board. Higher effort might give them a shot, it might not. Unfortunately that's where we are at this point. But it definitely won't happen tonight without it.
Hoping to keep this one respectable while creating some small positives to build on before ending this "little skid" at Hinkle on Saturday.