What I have learned

Blair didn’t foul Thabeet on that play. I don’t think Thabeet necessarily fouled Blair either. Blair pretty obviously had the ball, and was pulling it away, not even facing Thabeet. Hasheem’s arm was somehow twisted in the wrong direction, so when Blair pulls the ball down, it’s a judo throw. But if you have your arm in there the way he did when Blair unquestionably had possession, it’s a reach in if anything. Tough call, better than the ultra-iffy 4th foul, but not a bad one.

Actually, mfx is dead wrong. If you review the footage you can see Blair distinctly holding the ball in his left arm and actually grabing Thabeet’s arm while pulling down.

This was an action that would have been given a technical foul if a referee had seen what the ESPN cameras were able to see.

The Thabeet foul came about one full second before Blair’s grab and pull.

Samuel you are 100% correct about one thing, that the Thabeet foul came one full second before Blairs hip toss. If Thabeet doesnt foul and boxes out in correct position then none of this takes place. Thabeet going over the back caused all of this to take place and I know Blair never would do it on purpose.

This comment I suppose is a response to both Justin’s post and this one.

First of all, c’mon. Blair is crazy, in so many ways. I hate talking about the refs, but for real, early in the game, he could have had to fouls. One was an obvious moving screen. The other was when he started playing real-life Tekken without telling Hasheem. That should have been a T, intentional, something.

That said, Blair is the best big man in the Big East. To quote myself in the Seton Hall comments: “I mean, for real, Hasheem? Ridiculous. Maybe he CAN do something against Pitt. Although I’m wary of the effect of all the positive attention he’s getting.”

This in retrospect was obvious hubris. I needed a little more Verrier pessimism. I have dislike Hasheem his entire career at UConn, and I’d almost gotten over it. But then an actual basketball player played against him. Blair scored at will on the best defensive player in the country. He’s like Adrien x10. Just a bigger, more skilled Woyah. Ridiculous. He got every rebound. Best big man in the Big East. And luckily for us, he’s undersized and goes to Pitt, which means he’ll stay in college for 8 years like Jaron Brown and Carl Krauser and annoy the shit out of me all the while.

Why didn’t Cal double him? It was ridiculous! Hasheem couldn’t deal with him! I mean, swallow your pride, Cal, and stop counting on Thabeet when he’s getting destroyed! There’s no shame. There’s shame when he puts up 22 and 23 against Hash one-on-one.

Sure, he’s a particularly bad match-up for Hasheem, but that was embarrassing, ticky-tack 2nd half fouls or not.

I’m not sure who was on Sam Young throughout the game, since he has a way of not dominating the game but still being really, really good. Comes with the maturity of being an 12-year starter at Pitt. Anyway, Stan should have been on him all game. It’s rough when only two guys were scoring the whole game and you can’t really do anything about it. Gavin was on him a lot. WHY?!

Pitt has some good-ass in bounds plays, damn.

Levance the Pants was having a rough time penetrating on guys who are actually in shape. It’s too bad he got open at the end, you knew he’d drain those if he did. It doesn’t happen if Dyson is playing him. At least it’s not as open. But now they know. I don’t feel that bad about individual lapses like that, especially since (understandably) everybody was keying on Blair and not worrying about the Pants. Got to give him credit, though. “ONIONS!” indeed.

Cal’s weakest area as a coach is half-court O, BY FAR. I wish AJ had the confidence he had last year. This year he takes over games for just a minutes, not halves, because he can’t (or won’t) go to the basket like last year. Kemba should break people down off the dribble more in the half-court. Give the Woyah and Thabeet more easy baskets on rebounds and passes inside. The half-court is SO STAGNANT without Dyson and his dribble penetration. Even with Dyson it got stagnant.

Austrie sucks. Sorry. He’s not good at basketball. He can’t make shots, he can’t get by anyone, his defense is decent at best. He’s a minutes-eater, and that’s it. Nothing ever happens on a possession when he’s prominently involved. 2-9 in 27 minutes. Kemba’s a little crazy and young, but he should be given AT LEAST 5 of those 27. More like 10.

Stan was decent, wish he would get to the basket. Of course, that’s true of everyone on the team. He did lead the team in Offensive-Rebound Fly-Ins After Blair Already Secured the Ball. These were unfortunate in their ineffectiveness.

The Woyah needs the ball, and closer to the basket. I don’t know what his deal is. People double him now, and I guess UConn doesn’t have the shooters to really make teams pay for that. He either needs to start making those fade-aways and 12-15 foot jumpers (unlikely), or he needs to establish closer to the basket and shoot quicker. Also, he’s juuuust not tall enough to put down those emphatic dunks over people. He’s missed like 40 dunks the last few games. Just go for the lay-up, and try to get fouled. Oh well. I’m not real worried about the Woyah, he’ll be back soon.

Finally, done. That is all. I can’t wait for nobody to read this. tl;dnr, is it?

Tekken is good times.

I guess the reason why I didn’t really complain a lot about Hasheem was because I knew it would happen. Blair is way too big for Adrien to guard and is so deez that he can overpower Hasheem. As a freshman last season , Blair had 13 and 13 against UConn in the Heartbeat and pretty much took Thabeet out of the game.

You had to figure it would only get worse this time because Thabeet wasn’t going to add 50 pounds of muscle in a day and Blair was only gonna be better with another year under his belt. Shouldn’t happen, but I knew it would happen.

The only way to take him out seems to either a) get him into foul trouble or b) spread the floor. Part A is kind of hard to plan for, and UConn doesn’t have the shooters to attack from 3. So I don’t know how they could ever combat him. Taking two losses to Pitt is fine, I ‘spose, as long as they don’t meet up in either tournament.

How do you feel about doubling Blair?

And your a) or b) thing is weird to me; get him in foul trouble is something to negate him offensively, but the other is how to negate him defensively. I don’t agree necessarily that he gives UConn fits because he’s such a great defender (although he’s obviously OK, just for his boards).

And I think you COULD plan for getting him in foul trouble: go to the damn basket via dribble penetration! And not half way, 1o foot pull-ups, either (though AJ is good at those). But nobody seems to be willing or able to do that for UConn.

In response to Buzz:

I really hope that you are not saying a technical foul is justified by failure to box out.

And to the other posts, Blair should have been defended by Robinson with Thabeet taking the weak side, its a textbook way to rack up blocks although it creates a challenge of leaving an open man in the paint.

They probably should have doubled him more, you’re right. But Coach Cal don’t let anything mess with Coach Cal’s pride.

And as far as my A and B thing, I guess it was both. Getting him into foul trouble takes him either out of the game or makes him more hesitant on offense. Spreading the floor would be how to attack him offensively.