Shabazz Napier: Always Interesting After a Loss
Shabazz Napier missed three 3-pointers over the final 41 seconds Wednesday night, then gave up one final trey attempt to Omar Calhoun, who front-rimmed about a 25-footer. And now, UConn has its first loss of the season.
There was bound to be a game where Napier's back-breaking treys didn't fall. Heck, it essentially happened against Florida, though a somewhat lucky bounce (and DeAndre Daniels tip) allowed Napier to emerge the hero again in that one.
Bottom line: UConn couldn't do anything against Stanford's long, extended zone in the second half (16 percent shooting, 0-for-12 on 3's). The Huskies are really getting nothing from their big men, and when they have to rely on 3's that aren't falling (and Shabazz to bail them out), it's simply not going to work every time.
Here's what Napier had to say after the loss:
There was bound to be a game where Napier's back-breaking treys didn't fall. Heck, it essentially happened against Florida, though a somewhat lucky bounce (and DeAndre Daniels tip) allowed Napier to emerge the hero again in that one.
Bottom line: UConn couldn't do anything against Stanford's long, extended zone in the second half (16 percent shooting, 0-for-12 on 3's). The Huskies are really getting nothing from their big men, and when they have to rely on 3's that aren't falling (and Shabazz to bail them out), it's simply not going to work every time.
Here's what Napier had to say after the loss:
“I wasn’t able to knock down the shot, none of us were
able to knock down the shots. I’m kind of upset with the way I played in the
second half, the way I ran my team in the second half. I really felt like this
was going to be a good win for us, and I didn’t come through.
"All I can do is be mad at myself, learn from it, not put
too much blame on myself like I usually do, but just take it and understand
what I could’ve done better and move along.
“I felt like I kind of had two open 3’s, and coach was
stressing to go to the basket. As you can see, I didn’t go. I should have, but
I was kind of unable to go. They were in a zone at the end and we just played a
bad second half. It kind of caught up to us.”
(on giving the ball to Calhoun on the last-second shot)
“Somebody was on me. I always have confidence in myself,
no matter if I go 0-for-20, I always feel like I can make the next shot. Guys
were just crowded on the right side, and it was actually 3-on-2 on that entire
right side. Omar was the guy with the easiest pickings. It was a very far shot,
but I definitely believe in each and every guy that they can take that shot. I
thought it was going to go in, we all did. We believe in each other, but we
just fell short.”
(on his inability to drive to the hole)
“I felt like I was getting fouled, but I guess the rules
aren’t in place like I thought they were. There was a lot of hand-checking, I
thought, but you’ve got to keep playing on. I started settling for shots, and
they just weren’t going for me today.”
(on bouncing back from a loss)
“I think this team is resilient. We understand that we
weren’t going to go through the whole season undefeated. We’ve got a good game
against Washington on Sunday. We’ve got to be ready for that one. We can’t be
hanging our heads on a good team that beat us.”
(on why the Huskies couldn't run the ball in the second half like they did in the first)
“We stopped running and stopped rebounding the ball well.
That’s the biggest thing. We kind of beat them down the court a couple of times
and got them tired. Their starting five plays about 38 minutes. We had them
tired a little bit, but we didn’t do so in the second half. That’s my bad, I didn’t
run the team the right way.”
(on his tiff with Anthony Brown late in the game)
“Yeah, but I guess the refs aren’t going to call it. I
should have flopped like I played soccer, but I didn’t.”
*** And here's what Kevin Ollie had to say:
*** And here's what Kevin Ollie had to say:
“I wanted him to go to the basket. With Shabazz, you live
with that, because he’s put this team on his back a lot of times. But, he could
have taken it to the basket a couple of times. But he settled for the long
3-ball, and that wasn’t goin in tonight. So, you have to make adjustments as a
player and as a coach. We just didn’t make those game-winning adjustments.”
"Just a tough shooting night. I can’t even blame it on the
layoff. We came out and played well, had a 10-point lead at halftime, pushed it
up to 13, and then, like we’ve been doing, we play in spurts and we let the
team back in. Once they smelled that they could play with us, they took it to
us. Their zone was effective, we missed
“Disappointing loss, but in life, you’ve got to keep
coming at it, you’ve got to keep fighting. I just wish we had better ball
movement, better 3’s, and wish we could have taken it to the rack a little more
and got them in foul trouble. Hopefully, we learn from this.”
“We missed shots, we had open shots. It wasn’t hard at
all. We took some ill-advised 3’s. They were running a circle zone, they did a
good job with their length, closing up gaps, closing up areas. We never got it
in the four-hole, the middle at the free throw line, and exposed that. When that
happens and you start missing, you start pressing a little bit, that’s what
happens.”
“We didn’t have the toughness that it takes to win this
game. I hate saying that, because I pride myself on toughness and togetherness,
and we just didn’t have it in the second half – mentally and physically.”
Labels: DeAndre Daniels, Kevin Ollie, Omar Calhoun, Shabazz Napier
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