drbluejay wrote:My standout player of the game goes to Ashworth. The only other player that stood out was Kalk and his defense.
The sky is not falling and Mac will figure it out like he has before.
Agreed. Bad night for us, particularly in offense, rebounding, and turnovers - worst rebounding night of the year, and 4th worst night for turnovers, while also being the 2nd worst offensive game of the year (behind only Colorado State which was also a bad rebounding night)
Not a lot of positives, but:
- Defense was pretty good, second worst offensive game of the season for UConn, only behind their loss to SH. By FAR this was their worst offensive game at home all year
- Ashworth had a good game - 14 pts on 15 shots isn't a great night, but in the context of a game like that it's not bad, and he was good with the ball while hustling and playing good D
- Kalk was good on D, but struggled against their D - Clingan can play him solo and they did a really good job of helping and confusing him in the paint as well. St. Johns won't stop going to Soriano because Kalkbrenner shuts him down, nor should we stop going to Kalkbrenner in the paint
Some general thoughts:
1. Rebounding was a problem last night, but hasn't been a problem most of the year. We've gotten less than 50% of the boards in a game only 5 times this year, compared to 13 times last year, including 2x versus Xavier and Providence that were outright ugly. We've won most every game where we rebound at 50% or more and it's a key going forward. We seemed to make strides there, but for whatever reason, last night happened (but, again, it's not like it didn't happen last year also
2. Turnovers, this has been more of a regular problem for us lately. The 2 fouls on Ashworth hurt us there, I think (Bello had 3 and having him handle the ball that much starts to push him to his limits). I do like that Ashworth is more often being the guy to control the ball for pace and to get us into our half court sets. Didn't work last night, but I think as the season goes on, him being more confident with the ball means more good chances for Trey
3. Trey had a bad night, but his conference play's really been a mixed bag and isn't all bad. Versus last year, he's scoring more pts PG 14.7 to 15.9, rebounds 3.9 to 5.4, Assists 2.8 to 4.4, and even 2 PT % is up 50.4 to 52.2%, but he's turning it over more and his 3 Pt shots had dropped from .438 to .276. It's unrealistic to expect him to shoot 43.8% every year (his Frosh year was only 26.5%), but I think we can hope for him to do better from 3 as the year goes on
4. In similar ways, Baylor is way up in conference versus last year 12.8 to 16.4 pts, 7.6 to 9.7 rebounds, and with more usage, his TS% is up from 56.8 to 58.2
5. I'm not sure that all of the warts we saw last night are things that will plague us all year. Again, rebounding has generally been good. Offense, despite complaints has been good, but with 4 ugly games (again, it's not like we didn't have quite a few of those last year also)
Like you say, Mac's done it before and I think he'll do it again this year. No guarantees, obviously, but Mac's track record speaks for itself, or should