YouCon Stinks

[bubbrubbhoya]

Get smoked by LSU 66-49. After today, I'm really liking where the Hoyas are vis-a-vis the rest of the Big East. Obviously it's February-March that always separates the men from the boys, but we're setting ourselves up well while other league "powers" are sliding. Wooo-Woooo!

[sleepyjackson21]

Too bad we get them really late because right now i think we blow them out.

[LizziebethHoya]

The thing about UConn is that they have a ton of talent. But they are young. And we play them really late. While they may stumble around now, I wouldn't write them off come March

[RBHoya]

They have beaten nobody so far. They have a lot of guys who will be good in time, but for the moment they aren't there yet. If they've progressed from what they are now into a team capable of beating us in March, that's a spectacular coaching job by Calhoun. It also seems to me that we are a bad match for them. We control the pace and generally play a very structured game, working the ball around, making good passes, playing good fundamental ball. That's the opposite of what they want. As Dickie V pointed out tonight, they struggle when its 5-on-5 and they need to use basketball IQ. If the game turns into a track meet, they'll be fine because they've definitely got the athletes.

At the moment I think we are the better team, but we'll find out more about them as time goes on. They have beaten a bunch of poor teams, but their losses came to a hot WVU team on the road and a pretty decent LSU team on the road, neither of which is terrible. Once they start to play some of the other middle of the big east type teams like Villanova, 'Cuse, MU, etc, we'll see how they do.

[Locker]

The UConn/LSU game last night set back basketball a couple of years. Really ugly affair. We'd run either team.

[MCIGuy]

In the first half UConn was taking so many dumb shots. But they led for almost the entire 20 minutes because the shots take by LSU were even worse! At least UConn is a young team. But LSu is just a dumb team. Period. Brady is a horrible game coach. He's a very good recruiter but that's about it. Like last year I find it amazing that teams even lose to LSU. The Tigers can't shoot, don't have good point guard play and don't play smart as a team

[Hoya50]

its good to be a hoya fan in hartford now. i agree, that game was really hard to watch. both teams didn't look good, but uconn is especially tough to watch. price plays out of control the whole game and that offense plays at 100mph with no real sets or organization.

their best player yesterday was robinson.

[MassHoya]

Poor UCOW. The women got beat by Tennessee, too. Great highlight of the Candace Parker dunk.

[Massholya]

Man, both of those teams looked bad. Big daddy looks lazy out there. Loafs up and down the court in transition (maybe somebody needs to tell him Run Glen Run). As for UConn, even for a team that is generally allowed to do quite a bit of improvisation, they looked especially undisciplined. Bad turnovers, stupid technicals and thabeet is not the miracle boy the media would have us believe (an aside: how can anyone love this team - everyone on this team carries a facial expression like they just got busted for stealing someone's laptop. Where's the joy I ask you). I think Roy will dominate him as he won't have the low center of gravity that roy sometimes has trouble against when trying to post up smaller players. It is too bad we don't play them now as they look like a pickup team right now (no cohesive gameplan that I could detect) but I suspect this element of their game will improve as the year goes on. However, if our current vector of defensive and offensive improvement continues at its current trajectory, it won't matter. Go Hoyas! Beat the cats.

[lichoya68]

LOVE TO SEE UCONN LOSE BUT WISH THEY WIN OOC... AND THEY ARE VERY TALENTED AND VERY YOUNG NOT HAPPY TO PLAY THEM AT OUR LAST GAME ON MY FREKING BIRTHDAY NEED A GOOD BIRTHDAY PRESENT GO HOYAS BEAT NOVA ;D ;D ;D

[prhoya]

Cannot wait...

[ColumbiaHeightsHoya]

It just goes to show what playing 9 chumps at home does for your preparation. A couple is fine, but the entire early season schedule is a bit much. I guarantee they will be solid by year end. Not great, but solid.

[AvantGuardHoya]

I'll go out on a limb and suggest that the Huskies aren't as bad as many on this board would have you believe. Yes, they may have played a softer schedule earlier on, but I assume that Calhoun's method isn't madness at all. He knows he has a young, inexperienced squad, so his approach is to bring them along slowly, building confidence and developing depth. He'll take his lumps during conference play, but as several have suggested they very well could be a tough out come March.

The point is scheduling isn't simply playing who and where people think you should. It's about knowing your team and putting it in situations where they have the best chance of succeeding in the long run. Calhoun must have decided that there wasn't much to be gained in facing strong opponents in the pre-conference season. He knew there'd be enough difficult BE games. Saturday they went on the road and had their head handed to them by a WVU squad that is playing better than folks thought they would. But don't forget, there's a lot of basketball still to be played. The BE championship hasn't been awarded to anyone.

If you want to jump to conclusions based on the first weekend of conference play, go right ahead. I'd prefer to keep my eye on the prize and have my team continue to improve. If the Hoyas can do better than they did against ND, great. But It's not about where you start, but where you finish. I'd take an NCAA title over a regular season victory against anyone (dare I say it? even the Cuse ). How about you?

[AvantGuardHoya]

I'll go out on a limb and suggest that the Huskies aren't as bad as many on this board would have you believe. Yes, they may have played a softer schedule earlier on, but I assume that Calhoun's method isn't madness at all. He knows he has a young, inexperienced squad, so his approach is to bring them along slowly, building confidence and developing depth. He'll take his lumps during conference play, but as several have suggested they very well could be a tough out come March.

The point is scheduling isn't simply playing who and where people think you should. It's about knowing your team and putting it in situations where they have the best chance of succeeding in the long run. Calhoun must have decided that there wasn't much to be gained in facing strong opponents in the pre-conference season. He knew there'd be enough difficult BE games. They went on the road and had their head handed to them by a WVU squad and LSU. They don't need to be ashamed of losing either game -- WVU is playing much better than folks thought they would and LSU was a Final Four team last year that returns a strong nucleus. But don't forget, there's a lot of basketball still to be played. The BE and NCAAA championships haven't been awarded to anyone.

If you want to jump to conclusions based on the first weekend of conference play, go right ahead. I'd prefer to keep my eye on the prize and have my team continue to improve. If the Hoyas can do better than they did against ND, great. But It's not about where you start, but where you finish. I'd take an NCAA title over a regular season victory against anyone (dare I say it? -- even the Cuse ). How about you?