A look back at 2017-18

[Dre3000]

There's another factor that I haven't seen discussed yet that could very well have had a hand in our "early peak" and somewhat disappointing finish. Remember we had the Bahamas trip in August which definitely gets a team prepared earlier than usual due to the extra practices. Guys found their groove pretty early in the season which could be attributed to that trip.

[CHICO 78]

Also seems to me that the second half of the conference schedule was significantly more difficult than the first half.

[reef]

Yeah JT wasn't the same player either towards the end of the year missing a lot of shots

[ace]

There's another factor that I haven't seen discussed yet that could very well have had a hand in our "early peak" and somewhat disappointing finish. Remember we had the Bahamas trip in August which definitely gets a team prepared earlier than usual due to the extra practices. Guys found their groove pretty early in the season which could be attributed to that trip.

And Dave coached those games in the Bahamas!! That’s how long this Hurley to UConn decision has been known!! bar- of course his agent talked to schools. And what did almost everyone else seem to know? Ollie was on the hot seat, Dan was always going to coach in the northeast, he got offers after almost every season, and UConn was a very desirable job for him. Of course those dots start getting connected. What I object to is the next level conspiracy theories, of moles or any suggestion that he checked out mentally on his guys. Five of the nine players who got minutes were gone at the end of the year (turned into 6). Emotions were running high as the roster’s time together was coming to an end.

[TruePoint]

To be clear, I never suggested (or even considered) that he mentally checked out. I guess here’s the rub from my point of view: if the identity of your program, the foundational principle of it, is the concept of “family”; and if you think that has any value at all no matter how abstract or atmospheric; and then that concept is undermined by whispers and rumors and suspicions that would damage the credibility of it; then to whatever extent that you think it helps you as long as it is intact and bought into, it would presumably be damaging to the same extent if you lost it. And again, this is not a suggestion that anyone did anything WRONG or that anyone consciously “gave up” or “mailed it in.” I think the team and its coach had more character than that. But things can have effects that aren’t intended or even noticed at the time. If a thing is spinning with a certain amount of precision, the slightest wobble can knock it off its axis.

[Da_Process_Survivor]

looking back its pretty clear the situation became a distraction for Dan, the team or both.

there was a noticeable difference in the team's focus and play late in the season. they went from a machine systematically beating teams down to being disjointed, having major mental lapses and scraping by.

he clearly was talking to/basically accepted the UConn job as early as during the NCAA tournament. There's no other real explanation for the long goodbye hug to Fatts and Andrea bawling her eyes out leaving the team hotel

[NYGFan_Section208]

I agree with TP's 'spinning with precision...wobble...knocked off axis' theory.
Was a smooth running machine...and something just seemed to drift slightly off kilter...

[rambone 78]

The focus and intensity simply wasn't there toward the end.

Anybody who follows the team could see it.

There could really be only one reason why....and we know what it was.

[Rhody83]

They must have lost focus this game too (and it wasn’t the end of the season). Down to Duquesne by 15 at home. And then this.

[TruePoint]

The focus and intensity simply wasn't there toward the end.

Anybody who follows the team could see it.

There could really be only one reason why....and we know what it was.

I follow the team. I don't think intensity or focus were issues.

I think everyone tried as hard as they possibly could to do their jobs and finish the season as strong as possible and see how far they could go. There was just something *off* and I am not being cute when I say that I'd have a really hard time putting my finger on exactly what it was. That's why I keep trying to explain it by analogy - a spinning top being nudged gently off its axis, a tightrope walker stealing a glimpse of the ground below, etc. Something about the team's mojo, confidence, cocksureness, however you want to describe it, just evaporated. And that quality was the x-factor for them up until that point. It carried over from last year, even.

To Rhody83's point about the comeback against Duquesne, that is a perfect example of what the team had at one point in the season but had lost by the end. They had it as late as the Dayton home game, the second half of which was actually probably the best they played all season. Maybe sleepwalking into the St Joe game and getting their doors blown off on senior night left a hangover effect, maybe it was something going on in the background involving the coach maneuvering his exit, maybe different guys were going thru different things...(my take, FWIW, is all of the above). Whatever caused it, it was a real thing that happened.

[Ramulous]

We're on to 2018-2019.......We're on to 2018-2019.......We're on to Cincinnati.....

[reef]

Some teams peak at different times of the year last year we peaked for the first 23 games and struggled the last 8 and the post season. I think the impending coaching change had a slight impact on that most of it was just basketball related