Last night's SU-UConn game.....
- SU really missed Howard in this one. They were out of sorts, especially early on. They needed their floor general and his absence really hurt.
- UConn played with great energy and played great on-ball defense. Give them credit. Hurley had them in great position.
- UConn got a career night from a very mediocre-at-best player (Cobb) - they'll probably never see that kind of game from him again, nor should they count on it.
- UConn shot nearly 60% from three, many of those well beyond NBA range. If you do that, it's almost impossible to lose. You just can't game plan for that - for either team. You can't have your game plan be, "...and we will need to shoot 12-21 from three to win", and conversely, you just can't set up your game plan expecting the other team to shoot that well. UConn shot 7-21 (33.3%) and 12-27 (44.4%) for a total of 19-48 (39.6%) from three their first two games against lesser teams coming into last night's game. If they shot merely *really good* from three last night (say, 9-21, 42.9%), they lose. Instead, they were out of their minds. It happens. Rarely, but it happens.
- I cannot believe that SU continues to run that ridiculous pick and roll with Sidibe or Chukwu 25 feet from the basket. UConn rightly doubled the ball-handler, ignoring the big setting the pick. Why? Because Sidibe and Chukwu have no offensive talent, and the double team makes it so hard to get them the ball. The reason NBA pick and rolls work is because the guy setting the screen has offensive ability and can shoot from the outside. You can't double Irving off a P&R and leave Horford open from three, for example, or he'll bury it. Boeheim is a hall of fame coach and all I've ever done is coach at the high school level, but my goodness this seems like a major blind spot for him. Run the P&R with Brissett and Battle, so if they double Battle, they leave a talented scorer wide open. Make them pay for the double team. Or run it with Hughes or Brissett handling the ball and having a smaller guy (Battle or Howard when he returns) setting the screen. Just don't keep running the same pointless P&R with their offensively-inept 7-foot centers setting screens 25 feet from the basket. This is such a simple, obvious adjustment that I cannot for the life of me understand why they don't make it. I think I saw one Battle/Brissett P&R last night but that was when both Chukwu and Sidibe were out.
- Please for the love of God can someone - ANYONE - on Syracuse please TRY to box out. I know it's hard to box out on a zone. But watch the game carefully. They NEVER try to box out. They never try to find a guy to put a body on. If there's one right next to them maybe they'll fight. But otherwise they always just turn and look at the hoop and hope their length and athleticism will win the boards. It doesn't. And it's really not THAT hard to coach. Again, Boeheim is a wildly successful coach and they win a ton so who am I to critique. But when they allow 13 offensive rebounds, that gives the opponent 13 more chances to score. Assume they make 5 of them - that's 10 points or more given up just because they don't rebound defensively. You have to play GREAT defense to make up those 10+ points. It's infuriating and demoralizing to play great defense for 33 seconds and force a tough shot only to let the other team get the offensive rebound and go back to work. If you go to the espn game box score page and click on videos, watch the Cobb made three (which was astonishing enough as it is). The shot goes up and not a SINGLE Syracuse player even TRIES to find a guy to box out. They all just stand there watching, while UConn sends several players to the rim. Of course the shot went in so they didn't allow an offensive rebound but they don't even give boxing out an effort, and then Boeheim laments that they got killed on the boards. Hey Jim, this has been going on ever since you started playing the 2-3 zone. Maybe you should instruct your players to give boxing out at least half an effort!
Ok rant over. Frustrating loss, but probably not a big deal when all is said and done. UConn did play very well and I think Hurley is a terrific hire for them. They're going to be fine.