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Username Post: Big Win
IvyBballFan 
Masters Student
Posts: 479

Age: 77
Loc: Central Florida
Reg: 11-19-09
12-05-14 10:46 PM - Post#177235    
    In response to GIQUAKER

This is Coach Jones' best team since the 2001-02 season, when they tied for the title with the P's and won an NIT game over Rutgers. It might be his best ever. They've got six capable guys at 6-7 215 or better. The Blue are just plain big and can rebound, score, and play defense in the paint. Junior Jack Montague has my vote now as the league's most improved player over last year. Their nine man rotation seems to be already set, something big for this early in the year. The main potential problem that I see is that Duren and Montague seem to be the Dawgs' only outside shooting threats. An athletic guard having a hot night could easily pose a defensive problem for them.

As for this game, like GIQUAKER noted, inspiteof the fact that this is a disappointing loss for the Huskies, this is a really big win for both Yale and the league. I guess the Yale roundballers were not about to be outdone by the football team and their OT victory over Army. This is exactly the kind of thing we Ivy basketball fans were thinking might happen this year. It did show that UConn's Ryan Boatright played on a gimpy ankle. The Huskies did not reach double digits until 6 minutes remained in the first half, with Yale up 22-9. When UConn finally began packing things into the paint, Yale had more open looks from 18+ feet, but hit a terrible percentage. This poor outside shooting (3-21 from distance) allowed UConn to get back into the game and finally grab a 38-37 lead with 7min left. The Huskies were up 44-42 when Duren, clearly using a second option with a no-look pass on a well-practiced out-of-bounds play from the right baseline, found Montague open at the left baseline for the game-winning three with 1.7 sec left. It was very pretty. Duren then stole UConn's inbound pass to close out the game. Pshew!

This is a big four days for the Bulldogs. Opportunity knocks! They will be in Gainesville Monday night to face a Gator team that lost four starters from their Final Four team and has struggled to put much together early this year. You can bet the big lizards saw what happened in Storrs tonight, so they know Yale is for real, and will be more stoked than UConn appeared for much of tonight's game. But Yale must come out of tonight's game with confidence, too, knowing that Monday night is a great opportunity to snag a second BCS win under the bright lights of the O'Connell Center. Except for the Gators' 6-10 Jon Horford, Yale actually has a size, though not an athleticism, advantage over the Gators. It is also hard to believe that the Dawgs can shoot worse from outside than they did tonight. One of the Gators' top starters, Dorian Finney-Smith, is also playing with two broken fingers on his non-shooting hand. Coach Jones seemed to get the better of the in-game coaching tonight, something that will be tough to repeat against Gator Coach Billy Donovan.
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