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Final Four vs. UCONN - 4/1 8:49pm EDT on CBS

BiltmoreCANE said:
Will definitely be a tough game for us for sure. It’s the tournament so all bets are off but I think both fan bases and most of the country feels like this semifinal will produce the national champion. It’s imperative we play our best D of the year, don’t get caught playing a half court game, & make it to at least 75 points to have a chance. Here’s to a clean, no injury game. I’d wish you luck but you don’t need it & I’d be lying.
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When you have the guard combo you have anything is possible
 
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BasketballCapitaloftheWor said:
UConn fan here! Congratulations! Your team reminds me slightly of the 2014 UConn national championship team(2 grear guards, nails from the free throw line, great role players). Should be a fun game.

Just to respond to a couple of things I’ve seen here:

1. Doubling Sanogo workerd wonderful for opposing teams last season and earlier in the year. I wouldn’t count on it working now. Gonzaga attempted to double sanogo the last game and he ended up with a career high 6 assist. He’s passing out of the double team now and finding open cutters and shooters. Primarily Andre Jackson who sits in the dunkers spot every time sanogo is going one on one in the post.

2. Someone said you have to lock down Jordan Hawkins….and he is correct. If you don’t lock him down this one will be over fast. He’s a sniper and just like roaches when you see him make one, there’s a bunch more coming.

3. UConn has quality and depth at every position. Outside of 3 guys(Clingan, Diarra, Jackson) everyone is a threat from 3(yes even Sanogo). Hawkins, Calcaterra, Karaban, Alleyne, and Newton are our shooters. And in transition with Jackson being the facilitator we are deadly. You will have to find shooters in transition or the game will get away from you fast.

You win if:

1. UConn goes cold. It’s happened this season before. UConn is an energy team and when one or two guys go cold sometimes it infects the whole team. In our January stretch where we struggled Alleyne, Calcaterra, Newton, and even Hawkins all struggled to make shots. It snowballed mentally and took us a while to regain our confidence. Now, all of those guys are EXTREMELY confident. So I wouldn’t bet on all having a cold night. BUT it’s possible and that’d be a pathway to a victory for you guys.

2. Full court press the **** out of us. We’ve struggled all year a consistently breaking a full court press. And Newton has struggled with handling pressure. In the tournament you can see this in the second half against Arkansas. A way we combat this is with Andre Jackson. He’s a brilliant passer and a 1 man press break. Which leads me to my next pathway,

3. Get Andre Jackson in foul trouble. He is the head of the snake. He doesn’t shoot a lot but he is the heart, soul, and balls of this team. You take him out of the game and the playing field levels considerably.

When Jackson is doing his thing, our shooters are knocking down shots, and Sanogo is Sanogoing we are pretty hard to beat. We’re 15-0 outside of the big east with our average margin of victory at 21. With that being said UConn fans are very well aware of what 2 talented guards like Pack and Wong can do on a big stage(Kemba/Lamb, Shabazz/Boatright) and we are by no means taking you lightly. It will be a war. And we are expecting Miami to present us our first real challenge of the tournament. It’s the final 4. And we all deserve to be here. May the best team win.

And I’ll say this. I’ve watched a ton of the top teams this season. And UConn at its best is something you haven’t seen yet…

P.S. we’re coming for revenge Mr. Laranaga. We haven’t forgotten George Mason.
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Its tradition, you have to make a thread introducing yourself and giving this scouting report.. Do it for the culture
:ibis-roflmao-sm3:
 
BasketballCapitaloftheWor said:
Laranaga is definitely the most decorated. But here’s the list of decorated coaches Hurley has taken down:
Pitino
Randy Bennett
Musslemen
Few

Not a bad list. Also Pack and Wong will be the best guard combo we’ve faced this year maybe. But Gonzaga was the number 1 offense in the country…..and yeah. Hurley is elite at focusing on the “guy” and taking him out the game. With the hard hedge I think we’ll try to force the “other guys” to beat us.
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Welcome. However, I think this bolded part is where Miami poses problems for most teams. On any given night they have 4-5 guys who can become the focal point and go off. So if Hurley says we are going to focus on Pack, what does he do with Wong, Poplar, Miller? They play the game for this reason, and it should be a good one.
 
BasketballCapitaloftheWor said:
Laranaga is definitely the most decorated. But here’s the list of decorated coaches Hurley has taken down:
Pitino
Randy Bennett
Musslemen
Few

Not a bad list. Also Pack and Wong will be the best guard combo we’ve faced this year maybe. But Gonzaga was the number 1 offense in the country…..and yeah. Hurley is elite at focusing on the “guy” and taking him out the game. With the hard hedge I think we’ll try to force the “other guys” to beat us.
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We've got some pretty good other guys. Texas took away our teams ability to get clean 3pt looks and we just beat them in a different way. Even more efficiently
 
Maybe we are ice cold or 2 guys get in foul trouble. Who knows. That would obviously hurt us.

But anyone saying "We have to play perfect to beat a team like UConn" is just not realizing how good we are. Houston - go ahead shoot threes we will take everything away. Ok f you...bombs away. Texas you are not getting shots off beyond 15 ft.. Ok f you streetball it is. We can play any style and its impossible to take away all 4 and recently with Wooga 5 options of scoring.

Teams bigger than us...who cares we are athletic and fast and Omier is lb for lb one of the best post guys in the nation. Smaller and fast...ok lets see if you can do it for 40 minutes. Great shooting team...ok do it for 40 minutes. You get a 10pt lead on us...dont relax. We get a 15 pt lead on you....well the final 2 minutes should be interesting but we typically hit free throws. UConn is no better than the last two teams we faced. Maybe playing better but as someone else mentioned a long layoff can kill that quick and a week of reading their press clippings and how this is somehow a mismatch on paper because they are UConn and have more impressive wins is a great issue for Coach Hurley to try to deal with all week.

My friend who is a UNC fan said everyone is NIL this, Wong and Pack, Omier is a beast, Miller is so underrated, etc etc. But your coach has taken George F'n Mason and Miami to a final four. That almost sounds like something statistically impossible if you could put a number on it. Ill take that guy 100 times out of 100 and he will have a plan for UConn.
 
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BasketballCapitaloftheWor said:
Laranaga is definitely the most decorated. But here’s the list of decorated coaches Hurley has taken down:
Pitino
Randy Bennett
Musslemen
Few

Not a bad list. Also Pack and Wong will be the best guard combo we’ve faced this year maybe. But Gonzaga was the number 1 offense in the country…..and yeah. Hurley is elite at focusing on the “guy” and taking him out the game. With the hard hedge I think we’ll try to force the “other guys” to beat us.
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We dont have a "guy" we have won with Wong, Pack, Miller all going off. Wooga scored 16 last night and most wouldnt even know.. Wong was ACC POY, but many thought Miller was that dude, Some dudes pick Omier also for many reasons.. I am sure with week to prepare, your coaches will speak to others and know whats what.. We wont catch anyone by surprise but we have played some pretty good defensive teams recently, heard all about Houston not allowing 80 points, and we dam near scored 90.

What are these "other guys" you speak of?! lol
 
I think Texas showed the blueprint to limiting us offensively. Pack did his job but was taken out of his perimeter game like I haven’t seen a team do all year. Nearly a full week break so I expect the adjustments to be made on both sides but what Texas did to us defensively was very impressive until they went ice cold and Wong took over…. As well as J Miller being perfect at the line.
 
Allabouttheu95 said:
I think Texas showed the blueprint to limiting us offensively. Pack did his job but was taken out of his perimeter game like I haven’t seen a team do all year. Nearly a full week break so I expect the adjustments to be made on both sides but what Texas did to us defensively was very impressive until they went ice cold and Wong took over…. As well as J Miller being perfect at the line.
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Them taking Pack out of our three game left dribble penetration as the way to win this game. The paint was ours for the having especially as Texas wore down. There was a reason for us taking 32 FT. Texas took away the 3 and Coach L made them pay. Pack did more dribble penetration than at any time all year.
 
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Allabouttheu95 said:
I think Texas showed the blueprint to limiting us offensively. Pack did his job but was taken out of his perimeter game like I haven’t seen a team do all year. Nearly a full week break so I expect the adjustments to be made on both sides but what Texas did to us defensively was very impressive until they went ice cold and Wong took over…. As well as J Miller being perfect at the line.
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Their three point defense was extremely impressive.. but if 88 points on 59% shooting is limiting us offensively then you have to feel pretty good about our team.
 
HurricanePhilly said:
Maybe we are ice cold or 2 guys get in foul trouble. Who knows. That would obviously hurt us.

But anyone saying "We have to play perfect to beat a team like UConn" is just not realizing how good we are. Houston - go ahead shoot threes we will take everything away. Ok f you...bombs away. Texas you are not getting shots off beyond 15 ft.. Ok f you streetball it is. We can play any style and its impossible to take away all 4 and recently with Wooga 5 options of scoring.

Teams bigger than us...who cares we are athletic and fast and Omier is lb for lb one of the best post guys in the nation. Smaller and fast...ok lets see if you can do it for 40 minutes. Great shooting team...ok do it for 40 minutes. You get a 10pt lead on us...dont relax. We get a 15 pt lead on you....well the final 2 minutes should be interesting but we typically hit free throws. UConn is no better than the last two teams we faced. Maybe playing better but as someone else mentioned a long layoff can kill that quick and a week of reading their press clippings and how this is somehow a mismatch on paper because they are UConn and have more impressive wins is a great issue for Coach Hurley to try to deal with all week.

My friend who is a UNC fan said everyone is NIL this, Wong and Pack, Omier is a beast, Miller is so underrated, etc etc. But your coach has taken George F'n Mason and Miami to a final four. That almost sounds like something statistically impossible if you could put a number on it. Ill take that guy 100 times out of 100 and he will have a plan for UConn.
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UConn by every metric is indeed better than the last 2 teams you faced
 
Allabouttheu95 said:
I think Texas showed the blueprint to limiting us offensively. Pack did his job but was taken out of his perimeter game like I haven’t seen a team do all year. Nearly a full week break so I expect the adjustments to be made on both sides but what Texas did to us defensively was very impressive until they went ice cold and Wong took over…. As well as J Miller being perfect at the line.
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while they limited pack from distance, he adjusted by finding other ways to score. he finished well around the rim
 
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UConn has 8 losses...including St Johns and Seton Hall. Just like we have a few stinkers

I'm not penciling us into the Championship by any means. I just think Uconn much like Texas and Houston "Were playing some of their best ball" heading into our game.

But KenPom is sure to be right on us at some point isnt he?
 
I, personally, love that UConn had 2 easy wins leading up to this.

They played 2 teams (Ark and Zaga) coming off highly emotional, last second wins where each team emptied the tank to move on. They are not 25 pts better than either team, that isnt possible. Zaga shot 10% from 3, that’s not just hard nosed defense. They got teams running on E and blew them out in the 2nd half.

They will get a much more prepared, driven, and milti-faceted scoring team from us. It may shock their system a little bit. I expect a battle start to finish.
 
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jaywho said:
I, personally, love that UConn had 2 easy wins leading up to this.

They played 2 teams (Ark and Zaga) coming off highly emotional, last second wins where each team emptied the tank to move on. They are not 25 pts better than either team, that isnt possible. Zaga shot 10% from 3, that’s not just hard nosed defense. They got teams running on E and blew them out in the 2nd half.

They will get a much more prepared, driven, and milti-faceted scoring team from us. It may shock their system a little bit. I expect a battle start to finish.
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We’re the one of the best 3 point defense team in the country. We do that to almost everyone. Also 6 of those 8 loses game in a 3 week stretch. That is not the UConn team you’ll be facing on Saturday
 
Remember when Gonzaga needed a 35 ft prayer to beat UCLA who was without PAC12 defensive player of the year and their starting 6'10 center (they then played a reserve who averages 1pt and 2 Reb per game).
 
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