Well that couldn’t have gone much worse
- Thread starter gocatsgo2003
- Start date
On the plus side: if you’d told me our team would play like absolute shit and we’d only lose by 20… I’d have been surprised.
Thought it was going to be 110-55 at first, but the Cats at least fought back to a somewhat more respectable score. Having 2 starter quality players out took a slight edge off the team on the tail in the season and not having depth hurts when you have a short turnaround in a tournament like this.
Except we didn’t play like sht in the second half. Brooks didn’t miss a shot and Langborg I think only missed one in garbage time. But it was too late.
We outscored them in the second half, so we have that going for us, which is nice.
Seriously, I’m really proud of the way they kept fighting in the second half.
What the hell are you smoking tonight? We beat them in the second half and lost by 17. Get some sleep.
It went so badly in part because we looked out of gas. We’ve been playing short handed for weeks and in a 2 day turnaround, after a grueling OT game, they were tired from the start. Almost all their shots were short in the first half, I take that as a sign of fatigue.
If we got UConn after we were fully rested we would have given them a reasonable game. If we had rest + Nicholson it could have been close. If we played at Welsh-Ryan on top of all that, we could beat them.
If we got UConn after we were fully rested we would have given them a reasonable game. If we had rest + Nicholson it could have been close. If we played at Welsh-Ryan on top of all that, we could beat them.
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Watching in a bar with no sound, it looked like we played better in the 2nd half, but I wouldn't say we played well either. We played hard. That counts. But when Buie has a 2 for 15 game and we can't get our best shooter (Langborg) open for shots (which he was making), then we could certainly have played a lot better.
UConn was tough defensively. We played hard to the end. But we looked pretty ragged for the entire first half and at times in the 2nd half.
The thing that stood out most to me was that only one of UConn's starters was tagged with more than 1 foul. The way they were attacking us defensively, thats beyond ridiculous.
This isn’t that complicated. We looked like crap in both halves.
Sure, we shot better against their backups when the game was out of hand. Hopefully next year has a better ending.
I will always love Boo (how can you not?) but let's be honest, he shot 2 of 15 from the field yesterday.
And goodness knows our guys seemed to have not learned the concept of offensive rebounds yesterday.
UConn beat us and did it fair and square, but we also kind of beat ourselves.
Oh well.
I love the team, love Boo, love coach Colins, go Cats, rah-rah, but we could have done better.
But on to baseball and football season is not that far away.
There is an old Eastern European saying, I don't know if it is Russian or Ukranian or Polish or Bulgarian or whatever, but it says "Never chase after something too badly. Whatever you seek, like a trolleycar, another one will appear in ten minutes". It's the same with sports assuming you are not someone who only likes one sport.
I was/am over this loss by this mornings breakfast. On to baseball, on to a great summer. Here comes the beach. I LOVE being a Wildcat and remember my days when we dared not dream of the "Big Dance:".
Thank you team!
GO CATS!
And goodness knows our guys seemed to have not learned the concept of offensive rebounds yesterday.
UConn beat us and did it fair and square, but we also kind of beat ourselves.
Oh well.
I love the team, love Boo, love coach Colins, go Cats, rah-rah, but we could have done better.
But on to baseball and football season is not that far away.
There is an old Eastern European saying, I don't know if it is Russian or Ukranian or Polish or Bulgarian or whatever, but it says "Never chase after something too badly. Whatever you seek, like a trolleycar, another one will appear in ten minutes". It's the same with sports assuming you are not someone who only likes one sport.
I was/am over this loss by this mornings breakfast. On to baseball, on to a great summer. Here comes the beach. I LOVE being a Wildcat and remember my days when we dared not dream of the "Big Dance:".
Thank you team!
GO CATS!
Down two starters…it wasn’t that bad of a loss. We didn’t have the horses to beat that team.
Role reversal - UCONN D overwhelmed NU. Awesome team. Could easily be on their way to another championship. Sure was tough duty having to learn that on the court.
What a totally unexpected way to end the season. NU spent the season showing how competitive they are and then all of a sudden this screamin' disaster.
IMHO, fatigue, mental and physical, trying to overcome the loss of 2 starters. Maybe at Duke you can lose 2 starters and improve your team because you have so much talent. Elsewhere, NU has to use players that are still developing. Regardless NU came a long, long way.
Never enjoyed a season any more than this one, though. Many of us got stars in our eyes watching NU play when all the players were healthy. Many of us thought the season was over when TB went down. Many of us thought the season was over when Nicholson went down. But NU had a couple more heroic victories left.
CCC and the staff are ready for their incentive awards. Let's go recruit a few stars and do it again next season.
What a totally unexpected way to end the season. NU spent the season showing how competitive they are and then all of a sudden this screamin' disaster.
IMHO, fatigue, mental and physical, trying to overcome the loss of 2 starters. Maybe at Duke you can lose 2 starters and improve your team because you have so much talent. Elsewhere, NU has to use players that are still developing. Regardless NU came a long, long way.
Never enjoyed a season any more than this one, though. Many of us got stars in our eyes watching NU play when all the players were healthy. Many of us thought the season was over when TB went down. Many of us thought the season was over when Nicholson went down. But NU had a couple more heroic victories left.
CCC and the staff are ready for their incentive awards. Let's go recruit a few stars and do it again next season.
Good perspective. I am over the loss too, but I am still so sad it’s all over. That will take a while, but I have so many fond memories to look back on.
This is the game we probably missed Nicholson the most. And Buie having probably his worst game since he got here. Sad that it was in his last game
We didn't look like crap in the 2nd half.
You are now crossing over into nonsense.
UConn only played 8 guys, so it wasn't that bad.
Basically got 1 guy some extra minutes.
They didn't really empty the bench until we took Buie out.
But its why he shot 2 of 15 that matters. NU did not kinda beat themselves. UCONN decided that Buie and Langborg were not going to score. They but a big physical player on each of them and then had their center double. To accomplish this, they gambled by leaving Brooks open the entire game - 0-8 in the first half including 3 wide open threes. They also cheated off Martinelli and Hunger (they combined for 5/11 in the first half, I believe).
The only mismatch on the floor on the offensive end the entire game was whoever Spencer was guarding because he is a big step down defensively from the other 4 starters. He was on Martinelli most of the time.
And there was nothing NU could do about this because Brooks was not hitting in the first half. If he hits 50% of those shots, NU is still down 10-15 at half.
This is what happens when you play the best team with an excellent coach and staff and you are down your big man and a guard who scores and is one of your top defenders.
It's not an excuse to acknowledge that the team is better with all its pieces rather than to take a shot a buie when he is trying to make a miracle happen against a bigger faster player backed up by a 7'2 center - every play.
The game was out of hand after about 10 minutes and we showed some real character and toughness in beating them in the second half. That’s truth, and not just bashing the team like you are doing.
We played less bad in the second half.
The Truth is that UConn correctly realized that if they locked down Boo then we’d have no offense. They did so the entire game, in both halves, and we were never truly back in it.
It doesn’t take away from the incredible heart and effort of this team or my fondness for them. I still haven’t recovered my voice from all my cheering on Friday.
We had a brutal seed and made the most of it. UConn will be tough for anyone to beat.
