UConn Game Thread

[BenningtonBluejay]

Much better the last 10 minutes, play like that all game you are in a close one. Gotta regroup for Saturday

[kutter]

We have been offensively challenged since the 2nd half of the Villanova game. They set the blueprint how to defend against us, pressure our guards and the offense stalls. Don’t have anyone to drive to the basket

[chairclanger]

Newton vs Alexander was a key matchup tonight. Final score: Newton-NBA, Alexander-G-league.

[skinzfan23]

Really like the pressure d we played the last few min. Ashworth really pushed the team tonight. Trey looks absolutely lost.

[section221jay]

CU DID play good defense (if you exclude rebounding). Other than that it was a pretty terrible outing. UCONN was out for blood as were their fans. It was always going to be tough but I'd have like to have seen a better effort.

If the goal is to win a Big East title...and it should be even as unlikely as that is...Saturday is a must win. Fall 3 games back at this point and it's going to be pretty much impossible.

[section221jay]

I'll echo the kudos for Ashworth. He's a little limited but he worked his ass off tonight at least. I wish he'd be willing to jump stop and take a shot in the lane on occasion.

[3ontheway]

Yeah Newton outplayed Trey pretty badly on both ends.

Powder blue jerseys. Nuff said. Regroup. At #1 UCONN in the game they get Clingan back. Jays probably don't win this even if they played well, and they didn't for 35 of the 40 minutes.

[Venturajay]

Showed a little fight at end of the game. We are better then we played tonight

[bluejayfan00]

Two ideas need to be put to bed.

1. "Get Ryan the ball on the block!" Why? That's not his game. Quite frankly he's wildly mediocre with his back to the basket. Against a post player with anywhere near his ability (size/quickness) he's just not good. He catches the ball then waits for a few seconds. Often a double teams comes and at that point he either turns it over or gets off a really awkward shot. Kalk getting the ball on the block is almost never the answer. I love Kalk and would love a 6th and a 7th year out of him...but that is not his strong suit. (in contrast, watch a guy like Clingan...he catches the ball and goes quick)

2. Creighton is a good 3 pt. shooting team. That's a myth. In Big East play, as I type this, CU is shooting 29.5% from 3. For a team that takes 50% of it's shots from 3 that is downright awful.

This is a solid #20-30 team. No shame in that but there are glaring issues that need to be addressed in the off-season...issues that can't be fixed mid-season.

Best post I've seen tonight. Kalkbrenner is elite at defending the rim and altering shots. He's elite at finishing around the rim off dump-offs, lobs, etc. He's not a back to the basket player. Giving him the ball on the block against Clingan (and others) and saying go score, is bad offense and putting him in a position to fail.

We haven't shot well from 3 in conference, which isn't good cause we don't have anyone to manufacture easy shots for themselves, or others- and even worse, we don't have anyone who can make tough or contested isolation shots easily. We miss R2 and Art, a lot.

This team still has enough to make a run in the right matchups. But, we don't have the ceiling the media tried to act like we did in the pre-season. I'd consider a Sweet 16 a massive success. This teams flaws are what they are, and aren't getting fixed this season. We don't really have any guys with untapped potential. Kalk is what he is, for better or worse. Same with Baylor. Same with Trey. UCONN is in a totally different class, and the talent gap is large. They shot terribly tonight and still dominated for 35 minutes.

IMO, Trey has been the biggest let down this year. That's not to say he's a bad player, he's not. But you can see what he looks like when we go against teams with good, athletic, and big guards. He struggles. That's not him "in a slump", it's what he is. I think Mac may have overestimated how well Trey can handle what we've asked him to, but then again no way Mac thought R2 would leave either. Trey misses having R2 in the backcourt with him.

[DC_JAY]

Before the fouling at the end of the game, UConn was on track for 58 points total. If you had told me the Jays would hold such an efficient offense to that low a score, I would have bet big on a Jays' win.

Glad that they battled back in the second half, but...

* They got out-hustled.
* Trey and Baylor combined for 7-23 from the field. That can't happen.
* Gave up 21 offensive boards. I'll let the statisticians tell us the last time the Jays allowed that.

Could the Jays make a run in the Tourney? Of course. But this is looking like more of a 7-10 seed team right now after returning three starters from an Elite Eight run. And that's disappointing.