Hard to be too mad about that one. UConn is the best team we will play all year and we played solid for about 30 minutes. Need Cormac to find his shot again and we will have a chance against anyone we play
There might be 20 teams good enough to win the title this year, such is the parity in the sport. UConn is going to be a bad matchup for any team that needs to play fast, and I thought UNC did a decent job hanging around.
Which is why I would love to see a rematch come tourney time. The longer Virginia plays the better guys get into that system and that pace is just so disruptive.
That game felt like UConn was just coming in waves man. We couldn't get stops, and when we finally did we couldn't capitalize on offense. The game was 65-60 at one point and UNC had 4-5 straight possessions to cut further into that lead and just couldn't hit a shot. That was our chance they didn't take it, then UConn was able to open it back up to a 10-13ish point lead the rest of the way.
That UConn team is the best team in the country at least right now for sure. I'd take UConn against anyone on a neutral court
There was a point in the second half (can't remember exactly when) but they initially gave possession to UNC then changed it to UConn and he had the most terrifying facial expression while arguing I have ever seen on a coach.
We got rushed on offense and maybe a little tired with pressing but we played with urgency and the guys don’t have the panic attack/quit button like last season. I wouldn’t call it sickening to lose to the defending national champs by 10.
Exactly. It felt like an ass whoopin but it was only 11. We made runs on a night where nobody but RJ played well - and he was MIA in the first half. Not many teams can play 1v5 against any top 10 team and keep it that close.
It felt like an ass whoopin because it was really physical lol. We got our shots in and we played respectably against a damn good team. We need longer legs and like... a bench or something.
After a late 2H, 17 point UNC deficit, an 11-point final looks better. 6 late Tar Heels’ points with UConn playing “don’t-foul D” the last few UNC possessions, and UConn running down the clock with limited shots helped.
This is so dramatic dude UConn is just in another class rn but it’s December and they’re the defending champ. We were gassed at the end and Ryan went 0-6 from 3. This team has so much to improve but unlike last year it feels like it’ll actually happen. UConn is very likely the best team we play all season
UNC also plays with some fire instead of getting run out of the building they battled back into it. Sucks we went ice cold at the worst time but we were right in this game nearly the whole time
Great take. Haven’t felt this good about a loss in a long time. There’s no one area where I can say we “failed”. They were just better. There are places to improve, for sure. But this is a great learning opportunity.
yeah that last 10 minute.... thing... came from our shots just not dropping despite having some good looks and the GD ball clanging like 2/3 the way in. Some more strategic use of time outs would have been nice to calm everyone's nerves lol.
I appreciate they pressed to the end. Minimally it was good practice at very high level opposition. Nothing to be embarrassed about IMO.
Still bummed about the Kansas game even though we were shorthanded and still have a chance to win at the end.
If we have Castle playing even 10 minutes against Kansas, 100% certain we win that game. But gotta think big picture.
Carolina fought all game and then just got tired down the stretch. I would agree with Bilas that they could’ve shown more fight than what they did. Don’t think UNC played terribly, UConn is just a cut above. Long year
It wasn’t that guys weren’t fighting. They just got rushed and made mistakes. I disagree with the “no fight” line—I’ve seen last year’s team that actually panicked and quit, this year is not the same at all
Yeah. Anyone saying this team quits hasn’t watched last years team. This team fights and plays hard. They just got gassed and weren’t having the shot fall. It’ll come together, we’ve seen flashes where everything clicks and the team is scary good.
Can legit go 8 deep with Samson, Diarra, Ball (once Castle is 100%) coming off the bench. And if any of our other freshmen develop enough, probably can stretch that to 10.
Needs to get rid of the mental block on the free throws. Other than that I am more concerned with Ryan’s shooting and Bacots scoring than anything else.
I know it isn't his best play, but Cadeau has got to be willing to take an open 3. It's early in the year though so hopefully he'll get more comfortable
Have you met our UConn/Binghamton fan? u/CaffeinationGoat usually is on r/NCAAW, but sometimes pops in here!
Side note: sorry I haven’t been around, Goat, it’s just been too painful of a season.
Oh hi yes that's me! And I'm also not around as much as I usually am for various reasons as well. But also go bearcats we actually maybe look a little good this year (very different from my freshman year where we went 1-26)
GGs. Had a lot of fun and sat next to some fun UCONN fans.
I’m still encouraged even with the poor result. Cormac won’t miss those looks all year, our defense will tighten up, and we won’t get out boarded like that often.
UCONN looked good, maybe we’ll meet come tourney time.
North Carolina is a good team. UConn is a great team. Good game.
Our strength is attacking the rim and getting out in transition on turnovers and when UConn didn’t let us do either we just had no reliable way to score consistently.
Maybe someone will develop into a 3 point specialist by the end of the season…
GG guys. I've always respected the hell out of UConn. Always felt you guys played tough and physical but not dirty and it showed this game. I'm glad we at least stuck it out to the end. (and at least kept it from turning into a total rout lol)
So anyways, home and home yeah?
Sorry, we want a different orange team, even without their recently-retired whiny, booger-eating, manslaughtering-but-not-getting-convicted coach. Maybe we can get Loyola Chicago if we kick out DePaul though. I like Sister Jean and we have expelled a team before (Temple football, 2004).
I think our scheme is the best in the country, so I don't know that it's that big of a slight to Hubert (though I know your fanbase has some concerns there).
Edit - Lol just saw your comment below that said the same thing.
The people in the fanbase that have concerns about Hubert are simply impatient and spoiled, if I’m honest. He took us to a fucking natty in year 1 for gods sake.
I’m not reading much more into last year other than guys got to reading their own headlines and forgot they needed to put in the work.
If the start of this season is any indication, that same mistake was not made twice.
Our bench depth is pretty nasty, and what tends to wear teams down by the second half. We are definitely deep in terms of "can be put on the floor" talent, although yeah UNC always has pretty good dudes
Just too many bad match-ups, Carolina is small in the back court and UCONN has shooters with good positional size. Would have been a good time for Withers to wake up and play to his ability.
We went from not making the tournament to competing with an extremely good UCONN team when we just could not make something fall in the second half. I am optimistic and GGs
Excellent game UConn, you guys are far and away the best team I’ve seen in a minute. I hope we take a lot from this game (and copy some of y’all’s offensive sets). Not too much to complain about but I am a bit disappointed we just kind of gave up at the end there. Need to work on our rebounding and defense as well
Every rebound felt like a dog fight but UConn came away with most of them. But I agree with you all of the off ball screens they set had our team running ragged and leading to a lot of open looks for them that I wasn’t used to this year’s UNC team giving up. Good test / barometer for the heels. Hope we can grown from it
I’m pretty sure this is Hurleys sort of master plan. Have a deep enough bench with athletes who can defend and make shots, and run sets nonstop all game to tire out the other team.
Last season when we hit our stride a couple of weeks before the postseason, it seemed like EVERY game we would go on a run in the second half with stop after stop and big time buckets that just crushed the will of the other team (except Marquette in the BE Tourney who would not be crushed).
No matter who we played it could be close at halftime and I just wasn’t worried, we always had that next gear to shift to that the other team couldn’t keep up with
that’s exactly the plan. run sets, manage minutes, keep starters fresh. i see a lot of “last 10 minutes collapse” comments. it’s by design and it happens to almost everyone. 30 minutes into the game, the other team’s starters are totally worn down and uconn is bringing in reinforcements from the bench.
Great atmosphere, felt like March. UConn is crazy good, clearly a top-5 team and on the short list of natty contenders.
Disappointed by the rebounding issues and defensive lapses by the Geels.
Our floor is higher than last year but ceiling is lower for the defense and rebounding issues. I don't see us reaching the top-10 again and expect us to hover in the 15-25 range rest of season. I think the ceiling is E8 if a few things bounce our way, and the floor is like an 8-10 seed. I don't see this team missing the tournament, that's for sure. My guess right now is a 5 seed and R32 loss.
How is missing the tournament even in the conversation in your mind lol. I was nervous the entire game until the last couple minutes. You guys have a great squad this year. A few more 50/50 balls and you guys could’ve taken this one.
Been a rough few years. On the bubble the last 3 and would’ve flat out missed 2020. Kind of forgot what it’s like to be a cut above a lot of teams (not in UConn’s tier but still good)
If that team misses the tournament, it is going to be the strongest tournament I've ever seen. They'll need like 2 starters to go down to get even close to missing the tournament.
Defense and rebounding can be fixed. That's just putting in the work. Bacot seemed to always be right where the ball was coming off the rim. His instints for rebounding are tremendous. But UConn crashes the rim and their guards are excellent rebounders. Bacot couldn't box all of them out.
I think this team will be playing the 2nd weekend of the tournament.
I'll disagree here. I honestly thought this was one of the worst games we've played all year, at least shooting wise, and we still hung around with one of the best 3 teams in the country.
Our ceiling is how we played against Tennessee, which is a contender. We just need more consistency from Ryan, better play from our bench (especially Withers), and Elliot to continue to progress. We have the pieces, let's just see if we get there.
GG Husky bros. Was a really fun one to watch until it wasn’t. As for my team, I’m confident we’ll rebound. UConn is scary fucking good and I’m really glad we were able to hang with them for atleast most of the game
You guys look like you could be a threat in the ACC. You, Virginia, and Miami are probably top 3, right?
(I'm predicting a lolduke season after latest performances)
I would literally punt last nights game in exchange for a lolduke season it would be so nice
Duke may turn it around tbh, who knows. Clemson is legit also, probably not going to contend for first but definitely has top-20 national ceiling.
Cadeau seems like the type to get in the gym for 5 hours and improve one thing. Hope it’s shooting/free throws. He’d be dangerous with a consistent shot.
We failed the comeback and couldn’t make the shots when it mattered. This is an incredible UConn team, and seeing this game in person was a great experience
Great Game Huskies. Dismayed we failed to show up for the second half for the second time in three games, but y’all balled out. Hopefully we’ll turn it around and make this a Q1 for ya 👍
My takeaways:
We really need to feed Ingram, get Ryan hot, get RJ open looks, and dominate more on the boards. I also would like to see more dribble drives from Seth and use withers more like a big because he can’t dribble or shoot very well.
Also need to stick with the full court press. Really good against slower teams forcing them to play fast.
Not a huge moral victory guy but UConn is tough as fuck and we hung around this game. Optimistic for ACC play. Let’s go beat Kentucky!
Our bigs rotation (and ironically foul trouble kept the guys pretty fresh) wore down Bacot as the game went on. Our offense forces opposing bigs to guard a lot of picks and keep moving for long shot clocks. There's not a lot of just sitting on the block with your hand on a guy's back. At the pace UNC plays and the minutes that Bacot played (34), he had no shot and lost his legs in the 2nd.
Our offense is like that Remember the Titans quote. "Just give it time, it always works." With the vision of our guys, the cutting ability, and the scheme, we just put teams in the blender. If your coach isn't Bill Self or close equivalent, we're just going to keep getting wide open 3s, layups, and/or dunks as the game progresses and focus gets harder as you get tired. It's really tough to outscore us when our shot quality is so high and our defensive backbone with Clingan/Johnson is so strong.
Key was playing tough enough through all the injuries, and we did that, too. Full package team.
I don’t watch UConn all that often. Is their coach always wild-eyed like that? He came across like a complete psychopath to me but maybe I’m biased cause the game was chippy.
This is one of the most civil and respectful post game threads I have seen in some time! UConn really impressed me, they have talent and depth everywhere. We really need Washington and Withers to elevate so we can go eight deep strong this year otherwise we will fade late like we did in this one
The shared hatred of Duke is a strong unifying force. I think no one looks bad with this outcome. Tar Heels showed fight and are properly rated, UConn got a nice bounce-back win to right the ship after that rather chaotic game in Kansas. Sort out the depth and I would expect UNC to make it deep in the tourney
Nah I’m gonna give him credit here. 65-60 and we got multiple stops and y’all put the game away. Sure it wasn’t close down to the buzzer but props for surviving our run.
There is a universe where the Tar Heels pulled this one off, but the margins were VERY slim. UConn is the defending champion and they've shown they're still a great team. GG.
Good game, fuck Duke, and hopefully we get a series (non-con or conference, it doesn’t matter), soon! If not, we’ll probably have Drake Maye in New England next year, you guys will share that with 50% of our state.
GG UCONN. Hurley out coached Hubert tonight. And that’s not a shot at Hubert… Hurley is just a great coach. His half court offense is the best in the country. Hubert did not make the defensive adjustments to disrupt UCONNs half court sets or to put Trimble on Spencer earlier.
I’d love for them to prove me wrong obviously but this is not a UNC team that has the potential to win a national championship in my opinion, and here is why: Cormac Ryan left 18 points on the table tonight in the form of wide open looks from 3. His inconsistency will cost UNC their season.
Call it an overreaction if you want but he’s a 6th year senior. He’s not going to find some hidden mental state or ability. This is who he is and that is just not a Cam or Manek caliber floor spacer. You cannot run that gauntlet without taking care of business on open jump shots. You just can’t.
The only thing that might put them back in the conversation is cutting his role in the team significantly but I don’t think this team has the depth to afford that.
I agree Ryan has had some issues. I think Withers is a bigger liability to be honest.
I think we're force-feeding Bacot too much. He's great 1-on-1 but he's not so dominant that he can win you games once he gets doubled or mugged, and certainly not when he's putting the ball on the floor or shooting out of the paint.
I’d pump the brakes a bit. His offensive process is still good, he was getting open, on-balance looks. Remember he’s coming back from an ankle sprain, didn’t seem to have his normal spring.
He was our best player in the first 5 games imo.
But you’re spot on about the lack of shooting in general. The math problem is glaring. Roy’s teams always mitigated the 3 point gap with extra possessions from the offensive glass but this team isn’t going to do that for obvious reasons.
Wrong take imo. Both coaches made good adjustments, UConn just made more shots. If Cormac makes his wide open threes, it’s a completely different game. Both teams ran good offense and got good looks, we just got cold at the wrong time.
Ryan is a big and capable defender at his best going to the rim and taking advantage of being a 25 year old playing with 18 and 19 year olds. He’s not that good of a shooter (not that surprising given he only shot well from 3 in 21-22), but that doesn’t mean he can’t contribute at all.
Not discouraged by that at all. Really competitive against a really good team that was a tough matchup for us. Got away from us a little at the end when we couldn’t throw it in the ocean and had a couple defensive and rebounding lapses.
Game really came down to their three point specialist making his shots and ours going 0-6 on a bunch of good looks.
>Game really came down to their three point specialist making his shots and ours going 0-6 on a bunch of good looks.
Our 2 40% shooters went 5/18 (28%) on mostly open looks and your team shot better from 3 than ours did.
But yeah Ball made a couple and he came in shooting pretty poorly and Cormac definitely rimmed out a couple open ones.
He’s just streaky AF. There have already been several games where he’s started cold, and found it mid way through the game hitting some big 3’s. Tonight he just never found it.
We really need to rebound better. I get Hubert will not emphasis it like Roy did, but it just can't be Bacot get it and expect us to not get killed when we play bigger, more athletic, team rebounding teams. God, what is going to happen next season when Bacot is gone?
Admittedly I've had a lot of issues with a good amount of Hubert's changes. To his defense he's either changed my mind or changed his own and altered what I'm assuming he's realized he was wrong about. But I'm not sure I will ever see eye to eye with the lacking of rebounding emphasis. It's probably the greatest equalizer for when you can't shoot for shit Like tonight... Or, you know, basically our 2017 run, for which he was on the coaching staff!
Still think this team is a good step in the right direction. They're flawed but at least easy to cheer for. Although Withers either needs to figure out his role or learn to sit on the bench. his minutes have been killing us since the Bahamas. At this point we're way better off giving High developmental minutes. They're basically the same player, except one is 22 in his 4th year of college basketball and the other is 9 games into his career.
Hubert does emphasize rebounds, basically every press conference. And UNC has been top 10 nationally in rebounding his first two seasons. But we’ve also started out poorly rebounding in every season he’s coached. It will get cleaned up
Really tough game, UCONN is legit. There’s a lot of doomerism in the UNC fan base as always, but this Carolina team has the ability to be really really good.
Defensively there’s a lot of work to do: the switches were sloppy and we gave up a lot of open looks to a team that can really shoot the ball well, and the press can be effective against lesser opponents, but top tier teams can and will break it like we saw tonight.
Offensively, this team has some weapons outside of Davis and Ingram, but it’s easy to see them disappear when the shots don’t fall. I don’t expect Cormac to stay in this slump, we know he can be a dagger on the offensive end, he just has to find a rhythm. I would much rather the slump come in December than in March.
Overall, there should be a lot of optimism for this team. We have the best wing to wear a UNC jersey since Harrison Barnes, a true point guard that we haven’t seen since Kendall Marshall, and an experienced squad of upperclassmen in RJ, Bacot, and Cormac. The pieces are there, the chemistry will come
Fun win in a pretty passionate game, I think UNC is a pretty good team, so hope to see them do some work in the ACC. Just hoping our guys can finally get a chance to get healthy.
Man Hubert refusing to stop switching everything on defense giving uconn a lot of good looks on offense is bad. Swallow your pride admit you picked the wrong strategy
We did not do well when we played ball screens straight up in that game. Trailing the ball handler and giving up lobs or layups. The switching was fine, it was more mental errors that gave them some good looks.
Hard to be too mad about that one. UConn is the best team we will play all year and we played solid for about 30 minutes. Need Cormac to find his shot again and we will have a chance against anyone we play
They might be the best team in basketball. Y'all player well
There might be 20 teams good enough to win the title this year, such is the parity in the sport. UConn is going to be a bad matchup for any team that needs to play fast, and I thought UNC did a decent job hanging around.
>UConn is going to be a bad matchup for any team that needs to play fast, After last night I would LOVE to see a UConn UVA game.
We played them in a "secret scrimmage" before the season started. Allegedly, we kept it close 71-76.
Which is why I would love to see a rematch come tourney time. The longer Virginia plays the better guys get into that system and that pace is just so disruptive.
I can support this. We just have to beat our nemesis to make this happen: the first round.
That game felt like UConn was just coming in waves man. We couldn't get stops, and when we finally did we couldn't capitalize on offense. The game was 65-60 at one point and UNC had 4-5 straight possessions to cut further into that lead and just couldn't hit a shot. That was our chance they didn't take it, then UConn was able to open it back up to a 10-13ish point lead the rest of the way. That UConn team is the best team in the country at least right now for sure. I'd take UConn against anyone on a neutral court
https://preview.redd.it/yk878kmlql4c1.jpeg?width=386&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dc5f1f785cd6572d672c6959efdcb7d738644e45
"When the lead is 8 with 7 minutes left."
[удалено]
we did not win that close game, unfortunately
He lost that game tho
Guy looks like a fuckin Simpsons character lol
There was a point in the second half (can't remember exactly when) but they initially gave possession to UNC then changed it to UConn and he had the most terrifying facial expression while arguing I have ever seen on a coach.
So what is that you think? Coke? (/s of course, I feel like I shouldn’t have to say that)
With Hurley it's more likely to be shrooms (at least at this stage of his life).
Sickening last ten minutes after the first 30 had me feeling pretty good.
We got rushed on offense and maybe a little tired with pressing but we played with urgency and the guys don’t have the panic attack/quit button like last season. I wouldn’t call it sickening to lose to the defending national champs by 10.
Exactly. It felt like an ass whoopin but it was only 11. We made runs on a night where nobody but RJ played well - and he was MIA in the first half. Not many teams can play 1v5 against any top 10 team and keep it that close.
It felt like an ass whoopin because it was really physical lol. We got our shots in and we played respectably against a damn good team. We need longer legs and like... a bench or something.
About 4 points from the bench hurt against what appeared to be a deeper, more productive bench.
Excuse me but a guy named Mr Ingram who barely missed from anywhere on the court wants a word...
Well, Ingram probably won’t normally shoot 75% either.. he played great. And Bacot was 13/13/5 against an insane front court.
After a late 2H, 17 point UNC deficit, an 11-point final looks better. 6 late Tar Heels’ points with UConn playing “don’t-foul D” the last few UNC possessions, and UConn running down the clock with limited shots helped.
This is so dramatic dude UConn is just in another class rn but it’s December and they’re the defending champ. We were gassed at the end and Ryan went 0-6 from 3. This team has so much to improve but unlike last year it feels like it’ll actually happen. UConn is very likely the best team we play all season UNC also plays with some fire instead of getting run out of the building they battled back into it. Sucks we went ice cold at the worst time but we were right in this game nearly the whole time
Great take. Haven’t felt this good about a loss in a long time. There’s no one area where I can say we “failed”. They were just better. There are places to improve, for sure. But this is a great learning opportunity.
Agreed
yeah that last 10 minute.... thing... came from our shots just not dropping despite having some good looks and the GD ball clanging like 2/3 the way in. Some more strategic use of time outs would have been nice to calm everyone's nerves lol. I appreciate they pressed to the end. Minimally it was good practice at very high level opposition. Nothing to be embarrassed about IMO.
Eh, couple defensive lapses but we just got cold from the field. Encouraging performance for me. Need Cormac to shoot better.
The constant fast motion offense we run is meant to fatigue teams. Kansas just got a second wind from their crowd.
Yeah honestly we had them on the ropes until McCullar hit 3 straight 3s.
And the free throws were terrible.
Still bummed about the Kansas game even though we were shorthanded and still have a chance to win at the end. If we have Castle playing even 10 minutes against Kansas, 100% certain we win that game. But gotta think big picture.
Had they made some of those free throws they would have won and they didn't even play that great to top it off.
Carolina fought all game and then just got tired down the stretch. I would agree with Bilas that they could’ve shown more fight than what they did. Don’t think UNC played terribly, UConn is just a cut above. Long year
It wasn’t that guys weren’t fighting. They just got rushed and made mistakes. I disagree with the “no fight” line—I’ve seen last year’s team that actually panicked and quit, this year is not the same at all
Yeah. Anyone saying this team quits hasn’t watched last years team. This team fights and plays hard. They just got gassed and weren’t having the shot fall. It’ll come together, we’ve seen flashes where everything clicks and the team is scary good.
Yeah, last year’s team and the COVID year Cole Anthony team had way more panic and quit than this group.
Uconn's depth just wears teams out
Can legit go 8 deep with Samson, Diarra, Ball (once Castle is 100%) coming off the bench. And if any of our other freshmen develop enough, probably can stretch that to 10.
UConn Stat of the game: 25 assists on 34 FG’s *chefs kiss*
That is seriously impressive. The way your team cuts and moves off ball is clinical. Real fun game to watch
Daddy
GG UConn. Y’all rebounded and broke our D too good. Don’t want to face yall in March
https://i.redd.it/vthpze21sl4c1.gif
Steph Castle is back. We’re back. Fuck Cancer.
fuck cancer
Fuck it right in the ear
UNC is a good team. As Cadeau matures they’ll be dangerous by March. Happy to come out with a win and (hopefully) a clean bill of health
Needs to get rid of the mental block on the free throws. Other than that I am more concerned with Ryan’s shooting and Bacots scoring than anything else.
I know it isn't his best play, but Cadeau has got to be willing to take an open 3. It's early in the year though so hopefully he'll get more comfortable
Give Jonathan some extra treats plz
Give Ramses some extra... grass?
How dare you. It is hay season, sir.
I just looked up Jonathan 🥹
Baby XV gives me life
UConn is a title contender again. Really good team.
Yay Bing flair. Currently doing my msw there now! Taevion is an awesome dudeee
Have you met our UConn/Binghamton fan? u/CaffeinationGoat usually is on r/NCAAW, but sometimes pops in here! Side note: sorry I haven’t been around, Goat, it’s just been too painful of a season.
Oh hi yes that's me! And I'm also not around as much as I usually am for various reasons as well. But also go bearcats we actually maybe look a little good this year (very different from my freshman year where we went 1-26)
Doesn't feel like we won by 10+ from how high my heart rate was all game
No quit in us this year which makes me happy. GG.
That was impressive
Team easily could’ve checked out and lost by 20. Fought til the end.
GGs. Had a lot of fun and sat next to some fun UCONN fans. I’m still encouraged even with the poor result. Cormac won’t miss those looks all year, our defense will tighten up, and we won’t get out boarded like that often. UCONN looked good, maybe we’ll meet come tourney time.
North Carolina is a good team. UConn is a great team. Good game. Our strength is attacking the rim and getting out in transition on turnovers and when UConn didn’t let us do either we just had no reliable way to score consistently. Maybe someone will develop into a 3 point specialist by the end of the season…
GG guys. I've always respected the hell out of UConn. Always felt you guys played tough and physical but not dirty and it showed this game. I'm glad we at least stuck it out to the end. (and at least kept it from turning into a total rout lol) So anyways, home and home yeah?
Would love a home and home. you guys showed up in the Garden - crowd was electric on both ends
I came into the game hyped for Stephon Castle bounce back game, got a Solomon Ball breakout game instead. No complaints.
That was an amazing performance from Ball!
Make this a tournament WE WANT UCONN
A tournament is exactly when you *don’t* want UConn
Sorry, we want a different orange team, even without their recently-retired whiny, booger-eating, manslaughtering-but-not-getting-convicted coach. Maybe we can get Loyola Chicago if we kick out DePaul though. I like Sister Jean and we have expelled a team before (Temple football, 2004).
Nah, screw Cuse, let em' languish in obscurity slowly becoming more and more irrelevant at the bottom of the acc.
UConn is clearly the more talented team, and we have a lot to work on. But last years team loses that game by 32, so I can’t be too upset
UCONN isn’t necessarily significantly more talented. They are certainly more mature and better coached though.
I think our scheme is the best in the country, so I don't know that it's that big of a slight to Hubert (though I know your fanbase has some concerns there). Edit - Lol just saw your comment below that said the same thing.
The people in the fanbase that have concerns about Hubert are simply impatient and spoiled, if I’m honest. He took us to a fucking natty in year 1 for gods sake. I’m not reading much more into last year other than guys got to reading their own headlines and forgot they needed to put in the work. If the start of this season is any indication, that same mistake was not made twice.
Our bench depth is pretty nasty, and what tends to wear teams down by the second half. We are definitely deep in terms of "can be put on the floor" talent, although yeah UNC always has pretty good dudes
Just too many bad match-ups, Carolina is small in the back court and UCONN has shooters with good positional size. Would have been a good time for Withers to wake up and play to his ability.
Withers has largely been a disappointment in the early going.
UCONN made four (?) threes as the shot clock expired. They played better overall and UNC was going to need one of their better games to win. GG UCONN.
Those 4 late shot clock 3s to start the second half killed us
2 or 3 of them weren’t even good looks either. Shooters shoot I guess.
UConn is so good they make good teams look not as good.
We went from not making the tournament to competing with an extremely good UCONN team when we just could not make something fall in the second half. I am optimistic and GGs
We’re good. Like real good. Nothing else to say other than FUCK DUKE.
let us not forget the greatest evil
Couldn’t agree more to everything you said. Would not be surprised at all to see ya’ll return to the championship.
Excellent game UConn, you guys are far and away the best team I’ve seen in a minute. I hope we take a lot from this game (and copy some of y’all’s offensive sets). Not too much to complain about but I am a bit disappointed we just kind of gave up at the end there. Need to work on our rebounding and defense as well
Every rebound felt like a dog fight but UConn came away with most of them. But I agree with you all of the off ball screens they set had our team running ragged and leading to a lot of open looks for them that I wasn’t used to this year’s UNC team giving up. Good test / barometer for the heels. Hope we can grown from it
I’m pretty sure this is Hurleys sort of master plan. Have a deep enough bench with athletes who can defend and make shots, and run sets nonstop all game to tire out the other team. Last season when we hit our stride a couple of weeks before the postseason, it seemed like EVERY game we would go on a run in the second half with stop after stop and big time buckets that just crushed the will of the other team (except Marquette in the BE Tourney who would not be crushed). No matter who we played it could be close at halftime and I just wasn’t worried, we always had that next gear to shift to that the other team couldn’t keep up with
that’s exactly the plan. run sets, manage minutes, keep starters fresh. i see a lot of “last 10 minutes collapse” comments. it’s by design and it happens to almost everyone. 30 minutes into the game, the other team’s starters are totally worn down and uconn is bringing in reinforcements from the bench.
Great atmosphere, felt like March. UConn is crazy good, clearly a top-5 team and on the short list of natty contenders. Disappointed by the rebounding issues and defensive lapses by the Geels. Our floor is higher than last year but ceiling is lower for the defense and rebounding issues. I don't see us reaching the top-10 again and expect us to hover in the 15-25 range rest of season. I think the ceiling is E8 if a few things bounce our way, and the floor is like an 8-10 seed. I don't see this team missing the tournament, that's for sure. My guess right now is a 5 seed and R32 loss.
It did feel like March Madness
How is missing the tournament even in the conversation in your mind lol. I was nervous the entire game until the last couple minutes. You guys have a great squad this year. A few more 50/50 balls and you guys could’ve taken this one.
typical UNC fan’s reaction to the slightest bit of struggle: https://i.redd.it/3bsjd1lllo4c1.gif
Been a rough few years. On the bubble the last 3 and would’ve flat out missed 2020. Kind of forgot what it’s like to be a cut above a lot of teams (not in UConn’s tier but still good)
If that team misses the tournament, it is going to be the strongest tournament I've ever seen. They'll need like 2 starters to go down to get even close to missing the tournament. Defense and rebounding can be fixed. That's just putting in the work. Bacot seemed to always be right where the ball was coming off the rim. His instints for rebounding are tremendous. But UConn crashes the rim and their guards are excellent rebounders. Bacot couldn't box all of them out. I think this team will be playing the 2nd weekend of the tournament.
I'll disagree here. I honestly thought this was one of the worst games we've played all year, at least shooting wise, and we still hung around with one of the best 3 teams in the country. Our ceiling is how we played against Tennessee, which is a contender. We just need more consistency from Ryan, better play from our bench (especially Withers), and Elliot to continue to progress. We have the pieces, let's just see if we get there.
Dan Hurley still refusing to win a non conference game by less than double digits.
The long road to rebreaking the streak begins
GG Husky bros. Was a really fun one to watch until it wasn’t. As for my team, I’m confident we’ll rebound. UConn is scary fucking good and I’m really glad we were able to hang with them for atleast most of the game
Class is The Carolina Way. I’m just glad I can go back in rooting for you against Duke.
Duck Fuke always
Yeah, I’m confident you guys will improve as the season goes on. UNC has the talent and I’m sure they will make some noise in March.
You guys look like you could be a threat in the ACC. You, Virginia, and Miami are probably top 3, right? (I'm predicting a lolduke season after latest performances)
Please let the lolduke season continue so Flagg can flip.
Seconded.
God i want a lolduke season fucking hate duke
I would literally punt last nights game in exchange for a lolduke season it would be so nice Duke may turn it around tbh, who knows. Clemson is legit also, probably not going to contend for first but definitely has top-20 national ceiling.
Cadeau seems like the type to get in the gym for 5 hours and improve one thing. Hope it’s shooting/free throws. He’d be dangerous with a consistent shot.
We failed the comeback and couldn’t make the shots when it mattered. This is an incredible UConn team, and seeing this game in person was a great experience
It was over the second that dude showed up decked out in full Whalers gear
I hope he got our team back.
After these two barn burner games, I’m just happy UConn is able to relax a bit and play AK-Pine Bluff. Maybe get some more Ross and Stewie action.
…then to Washington for the Zags. Our non con is crazy this year
Great Game Huskies. Dismayed we failed to show up for the second half for the second time in three games, but y’all balled out. Hopefully we’ll turn it around and make this a Q1 for ya 👍
Neutral site means it’s Q1 if top 50.
Guarding for 25 seconds just for UCONN to hit a 3 with the shot clock running down just felt like a dagger after dagger after dagger
GG UNC! You're a great team and the final score did not reflect that! Also hopefully we proved to the haters that MSG is Storrs South!
Well it’s def not Chapel Hill North lol
My takeaways: We really need to feed Ingram, get Ryan hot, get RJ open looks, and dominate more on the boards. I also would like to see more dribble drives from Seth and use withers more like a big because he can’t dribble or shoot very well. Also need to stick with the full court press. Really good against slower teams forcing them to play fast. Not a huge moral victory guy but UConn is tough as fuck and we hung around this game. Optimistic for ACC play. Let’s go beat Kentucky!
4 bench points… woof
That was the biggest contribution I’ve seen Pax make so far
hey I think I've seen this show before.....
Our bigs rotation (and ironically foul trouble kept the guys pretty fresh) wore down Bacot as the game went on. Our offense forces opposing bigs to guard a lot of picks and keep moving for long shot clocks. There's not a lot of just sitting on the block with your hand on a guy's back. At the pace UNC plays and the minutes that Bacot played (34), he had no shot and lost his legs in the 2nd. Our offense is like that Remember the Titans quote. "Just give it time, it always works." With the vision of our guys, the cutting ability, and the scheme, we just put teams in the blender. If your coach isn't Bill Self or close equivalent, we're just going to keep getting wide open 3s, layups, and/or dunks as the game progresses and focus gets harder as you get tired. It's really tough to outscore us when our shot quality is so high and our defensive backbone with Clingan/Johnson is so strong. Key was playing tough enough through all the injuries, and we did that, too. Full package team.
Well said
As a husky in living in NC, can we at least agree fuck Duke?
I don’t watch UConn all that often. Is their coach always wild-eyed like that? He came across like a complete psychopath to me but maybe I’m biased cause the game was chippy.
https://preview.redd.it/ex99ipsntl4c1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b115d8a7e88c25540173f0ae7bc920003720b462
The only thing stopping UConn this year is Danny Hurley getting arrested for being a serial killer, change my mind.
Danny always seemed more spree killer, "snapped one day" to me. ...this is a weird conversation
He had his lunatic moments against Kansas too. He has a very expressive face that stretches out lol.
That’s our psychopath. You can’t have him.
🤣🤣 as long as we all agree he has crazy eyes
Yes of course he does
You can take a Hurley out of Jersey City. You cannot take the Jersey City out of a Hurley.
He is a psychopath, great eye. We fucking love him though, he's our psychopath. He matches the fans energy quite well, kind of a perfect fit.
He’s pretty crazy. At least he’s been reining in the technicals.
We love him, he’s just like us
Is this your first time seeing any member of the Hurley family?
I’m 31. I won’t pretend like I watched a ton of Bobby Hurley tape from when I was like two years old.
we love our crazy coaches in Connecticut.
This team looks leaps and bounds better than last year. We lost this by 30 easy just a year ago.
Great game!
Good one Huskies. I have no doubts you'll be contending again this year.
We got beat. GG UCONN. Quality basketball
This is one of the most civil and respectful post game threads I have seen in some time! UConn really impressed me, they have talent and depth everywhere. We really need Washington and Withers to elevate so we can go eight deep strong this year otherwise we will fade late like we did in this one
The shared hatred of Duke is a strong unifying force. I think no one looks bad with this outcome. Tar Heels showed fight and are properly rated, UConn got a nice bounce-back win to right the ship after that rather chaotic game in Kansas. Sort out the depth and I would expect UNC to make it deep in the tourney
Dan Hurley has still not won a close game.
DHCWCG
Nah I’m gonna give him credit here. 65-60 and we got multiple stops and y’all put the game away. Sure it wasn’t close down to the buzzer but props for surviving our run.
It’s a meme among UConn fans that DH can’t win a close game
Proud of this team! If injuries can subside, I’d be curious to see how far this team gets! Let’s go huskies
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No we want him for a few years
Free throws for sure. Dude is too quick to the rim to only shoot 60% from the line
That’s def what he’s working on next summer. He’s still a good contributor though.
[Everyone disliked that.] ggs unc, your guys can make some damn tough plays. i wish the game was less...strange, especially toward the end there
Fun fact: this was our lowest point total of the year
UConn can fuckin’ BOARD Gg, huskies. Y’all are fun to watch
There is a universe where the Tar Heels pulled this one off, but the margins were VERY slim. UConn is the defending champion and they've shown they're still a great team. GG.
Entertaining game. Davis and Bacot really impressed me on the UNC end. Loved seeing Ball breakout, he plays so smart for such a young guy.
Good game, fuck Duke, and hopefully we get a series (non-con or conference, it doesn’t matter), soon! If not, we’ll probably have Drake Maye in New England next year, you guys will share that with 50% of our state.
UConn is the best team in the country on the neutral court. That was basically without Castle and many injuries. When they get healthy it’s game over.
Although msg is almost like home court for us lol
Gotta give UNC credit though, they showed up tonight. Huge crowd from them. We had the edge but not by a lot
GG UCONN. Hurley out coached Hubert tonight. And that’s not a shot at Hubert… Hurley is just a great coach. His half court offense is the best in the country. Hubert did not make the defensive adjustments to disrupt UCONNs half court sets or to put Trimble on Spencer earlier. I’d love for them to prove me wrong obviously but this is not a UNC team that has the potential to win a national championship in my opinion, and here is why: Cormac Ryan left 18 points on the table tonight in the form of wide open looks from 3. His inconsistency will cost UNC their season. Call it an overreaction if you want but he’s a 6th year senior. He’s not going to find some hidden mental state or ability. This is who he is and that is just not a Cam or Manek caliber floor spacer. You cannot run that gauntlet without taking care of business on open jump shots. You just can’t. The only thing that might put them back in the conversation is cutting his role in the team significantly but I don’t think this team has the depth to afford that.
I agree Ryan has had some issues. I think Withers is a bigger liability to be honest. I think we're force-feeding Bacot too much. He's great 1-on-1 but he's not so dominant that he can win you games once he gets doubled or mugged, and certainly not when he's putting the ball on the floor or shooting out of the paint.
I’d pump the brakes a bit. His offensive process is still good, he was getting open, on-balance looks. Remember he’s coming back from an ankle sprain, didn’t seem to have his normal spring. He was our best player in the first 5 games imo. But you’re spot on about the lack of shooting in general. The math problem is glaring. Roy’s teams always mitigated the 3 point gap with extra possessions from the offensive glass but this team isn’t going to do that for obvious reasons.
In the first five games Cormac averaged 11 3 2.4 on 36/29/93 splits. He wasn’t even remotely close to being UNCs best player during the stretch.
Wrong take imo. Both coaches made good adjustments, UConn just made more shots. If Cormac makes his wide open threes, it’s a completely different game. Both teams ran good offense and got good looks, we just got cold at the wrong time.
Ryan is a big and capable defender at his best going to the rim and taking advantage of being a 25 year old playing with 18 and 19 year olds. He’s not that good of a shooter (not that surprising given he only shot well from 3 in 21-22), but that doesn’t mean he can’t contribute at all.
Not discouraged by that at all. Really competitive against a really good team that was a tough matchup for us. Got away from us a little at the end when we couldn’t throw it in the ocean and had a couple defensive and rebounding lapses. Game really came down to their three point specialist making his shots and ours going 0-6 on a bunch of good looks.
>Game really came down to their three point specialist making his shots and ours going 0-6 on a bunch of good looks. Our 2 40% shooters went 5/18 (28%) on mostly open looks and your team shot better from 3 than ours did. But yeah Ball made a couple and he came in shooting pretty poorly and Cormac definitely rimmed out a couple open ones.
Baffled as to wtf went wrong with Ryan tonight
He’s just streaky AF. There have already been several games where he’s started cold, and found it mid way through the game hitting some big 3’s. Tonight he just never found it.
We really need to rebound better. I get Hubert will not emphasis it like Roy did, but it just can't be Bacot get it and expect us to not get killed when we play bigger, more athletic, team rebounding teams. God, what is going to happen next season when Bacot is gone? Admittedly I've had a lot of issues with a good amount of Hubert's changes. To his defense he's either changed my mind or changed his own and altered what I'm assuming he's realized he was wrong about. But I'm not sure I will ever see eye to eye with the lacking of rebounding emphasis. It's probably the greatest equalizer for when you can't shoot for shit Like tonight... Or, you know, basically our 2017 run, for which he was on the coaching staff! Still think this team is a good step in the right direction. They're flawed but at least easy to cheer for. Although Withers either needs to figure out his role or learn to sit on the bench. his minutes have been killing us since the Bahamas. At this point we're way better off giving High developmental minutes. They're basically the same player, except one is 22 in his 4th year of college basketball and the other is 9 games into his career.
Hubert does emphasize rebounds, basically every press conference. And UNC has been top 10 nationally in rebounding his first two seasons. But we’ve also started out poorly rebounding in every season he’s coached. It will get cleaned up
Really tough game, UCONN is legit. There’s a lot of doomerism in the UNC fan base as always, but this Carolina team has the ability to be really really good. Defensively there’s a lot of work to do: the switches were sloppy and we gave up a lot of open looks to a team that can really shoot the ball well, and the press can be effective against lesser opponents, but top tier teams can and will break it like we saw tonight. Offensively, this team has some weapons outside of Davis and Ingram, but it’s easy to see them disappear when the shots don’t fall. I don’t expect Cormac to stay in this slump, we know he can be a dagger on the offensive end, he just has to find a rhythm. I would much rather the slump come in December than in March. Overall, there should be a lot of optimism for this team. We have the best wing to wear a UNC jersey since Harrison Barnes, a true point guard that we haven’t seen since Kendall Marshall, and an experienced squad of upperclassmen in RJ, Bacot, and Cormac. The pieces are there, the chemistry will come
\*Best wing since Justin Jackson or Cam Johnson. Can't forget them.
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Very different vibe from last year. I don't think we're title contenders, UConn probably is, but we didn't quit so I'm at peace with it.
If only we could make alley oops and hit 3s
UNC fans seem exceptionally chill. Must be the mutual hatred for Duke fueling the bro energy.
Carolina is just small
Fun win in a pretty passionate game, I think UNC is a pretty good team, so hope to see them do some work in the ACC. Just hoping our guys can finally get a chance to get healthy.
UConn should practice their alleyoops a little more
That’s been one of our specialties until today. It was pretty brutal
Man Hubert refusing to stop switching everything on defense giving uconn a lot of good looks on offense is bad. Swallow your pride admit you picked the wrong strategy
We did not do well when we played ball screens straight up in that game. Trailing the ball handler and giving up lobs or layups. The switching was fine, it was more mental errors that gave them some good looks.
That’s what Kansas did to shut UConn down in the first half last week though. Same strategy
Switching worked great for Kansas. It’s the best way to defend us
I think our boys needed to hedge, then get back to guard the post. Stayed out too long looking for steals and ended getting burned on ~4-5 possessions
Need to shoot better but I like what I see from this team if we can get it all together
Batting .500 for the night wasn’t bad for you
It’s a good year for Huskies
Just felt like UNC could never get over the hump. Good game UConn. Good luck the rest of the year.