Miserable awful thoughts

[CallMeBruce]

Brimah has improved a great deal in his post offense and his ability to avoid fouls. His rebounding is still crappy.

 

[intlzncster]

I'm not signing up to that. But I think all "punch them in the mouth" analysis is silly. UConn didn't back down, they kept fighting. The stretch that final killed them was when they cut it to six and couldn't get over that hump despite several stops on D. That was due poor shooting and selection than any after-effects from being punched in the mouth.

As others have said, you can't get down by double digits at the half, especially against a team like WVU. Heck, you can't do that against teams like Bryant. You won't win many games that way.

 

[intlzncster]

Brimah has improved a great deal in his post offense and his ability to avoid fouls. His rebounding is still crappy.

Likely because he wasn't able to have any physical contact in the offseason. Not surprising. I'm willing to bet he did zero.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Likely because he wasn't able to have any physical contact in the offseason. Not surprising. I'm willing to bet he did zero.

That's part of it, I'm sure, but rebounding isn't something you can learn in an offseason. He doesn't have the positional instincts of a guy like Facey or the power of a guy like Lubin. I wouldn't be surprised if Brimah was always a below-average rebounder for his size. If his offense keeps improving and his shotblocking even remains static, he's definitely an NBA player, even with pedestrian rebounding.

 

[Pudge]

With what's written above ... and then thinking about what I saw from Syracuse at MSG, I'd advocate that Jalen Adams be joined by another PG ballhandler type. And, I don't think this is all that difficult a get. We (*UConn) have played lots of 2PG and done that successfully. When we had AJ, we got Kemba too; Kemba and we got Shabazz; Boat came with Shabazz here. I would say that Adams is our #1 guy when Boatright is gone down 195; but, we can go find the 100-200 level guy in rankings that will be perfect for what we need. Maybe, he develops into a top shooter gutsy guy (like Bazz) or has the jets/defense (like Boat). All good for us going forward.

 

[PAHusky]

Boatright has outplayed Facey in every game. Let's not all get stupid here.

No one is getting stupid. Boatright has outplayed Facey, sure. He's the leader of the team and expectations for him are sky high. He's done well so far, but he has stretches during games where he either loses it a bit mentally (the free throw debacle) or just doesn't have his shot falling. Facey hasn't been anywhere near as good, but he's done exactly what's expected of him - rebounding, good defense and put backs - consistently every game. There is a different between "outplaying"/best and most consistent.

 

[superjohn]

Facey has been our most consistent player all year. No one was talking about him this summer, but he's been everything we could ask for and more at the 4. Chap saying Lubin would have made any sort of difference is laughable; Lubin looks like he could be a good contributor down the line but CofC and Dayton rattled him, he would have been a mess last night. To me, the most dissappointing players so far are TSam and, to a lesser extent, Brimah. To me, TSam really hasn't brought much to the table beyond what he did last year, and he's been really error prone. His defenders know that he can't shoot - I don't think he's made a three and he badly bricked a few jumpers yesterday - and when he gets in the lane he seems indecisive compared to last season. His defense has been solid, but for a pg who can't shoot he doesn't seem to be super comfortable running the offense when Boat gets a blow, which is worrying. I'm sure he'll figure it out, but here's hoping that happens sooner rather than later. As far as Brimah, he's a complete beast on the defensive end and even cut back on the fouls last night, but his rebounding for a guy that size is borderline atrocious. I think our full offensive potential depends a lot on us running, and when our guards and wings are forced to do the rebounding we start the break infinitely slower.

It's laughable that you think Facey has been our most consistent player all year. Facey has been good but Boat has easily been the most consistent, followed by Hamilton.

 

[7774]

Boatright has been our best player, Facey our most consistent.

I don't know how you could watch the games and think that Facey has played at a more consistent level than Boatright.

 

[August_West]

I enjoyed your rant, mostly because it reaffirmed the virtues of the "ignore" feature, which I have used for chap for the past few weeks. He is the only poster for whom I have ever used this feature. I highly recommend it.

You can still see his posts if people quote him, right? Gives me an idea.............

 

[8893]

You can still see his posts if people quote him, right?

Actually, no. Which is different from the "ignore" feature I've seen on other boards. And more awesomer.

 

[PAHusky]

It's laughable that you think Facey has been our most consistent player all year. Facey has been good but Boat has easily been the most consistent, followed by Hamilton.

Hamilton? Last night Hamilton was equal parts brilliant and cringe inducingly turnover prone. That's basically the polar opposite of consistent. Boat has been fantastic, and probably the second most consistent player on the team, but I think Facey, while clearly not the best player on the team, has been incredibly steady in terms of his production, especially with rebounding and defense.

Again - there's a huge difference between who our best players have been (definitely agree that Boat and Hamilton deserve that accolade) and who our most consistent has been (again, I'd argue Facey over Boat by a slim margin, and yes, I've watched the games). Don't seem to be arguing this point very well though, so I'll let it go after this post, my apologies.

 

[August_West]

With what's written above ... and then thinking about what I saw from Syracuse at MSG, I'd advocate that Jalen Adams be joined by another PG ballhandler type. And, I don't think this is all that difficult a get. We (*UConn) have played lots of 2PG and done that successfully. When we had AJ, we got Kemba too; Kemba and we got Shabazz; Boat came with Shabazz here. I would say that Adams is our #1 guy when Boatright is gone down 195; but, we can go find the 100-200 level guy in rankings that will be perfect for what we need. Maybe, he develops into a top shooter gutsy guy (like Bazz) or has the jets/defense (like Boat). All good for us going forward.

That's what scares me most about next year. Jalen Adams and then what? One Ball handler UConn teams aren't traditionally the elite ones. Our main ballhander is going to be a Freshman? Extra scary. If Marcus Williams had AJ in 2006 there is no George Mason..... If El Amin had someone other than Freshmen Tony Robertson and Marcus Cox, in 2000 who both spit the bit in that Tennessee tournament game when El Amin was hurt. Taliek was such a whipping boy around here because he was asked to do too much too early in his career.

El Amin had Ricky
AJ had Kemba
Kemba had Bazz
Bazz had Boat

Jalen (a frosh) has who? Nobody on this current squad. I guess Samuel by default?

 

[CallMeBruce]

Hamilton? Last night Hamilton was equal parts brilliant and cringe inducingly turnover prone. That's basically the polar opposite of consistent. Boat has been fantastic, and probably the second most consistent player on the team, but I think Facey, while clearly not the best player on the team, has been incredibly steady in terms of his production, especially with rebounding and defense.

Again - there's a huge difference between who our best players have been (definitely agree that Boat and Hamilton deserve that accolade) and who our most consistent has been (again, I'd argue Facey over Boat by a slim margin, and yes, I've watched the games). Don't seem to be arguing this point very well though, so I'll let it go after this post, my apologies.

Facey was basically invisible against CoC. You're being ridiculous.

 

[7774]

Hamilton? Last night Hamilton was equal parts brilliant and cringe inducingly turnover prone. That's basically the polar opposite of consistent. Boat has been fantastic, and probably the second most consistent player on the team, but I think Facey, while clearly not the best player on the team, has been incredibly steady in terms of his production, especially with rebounding and defense.

Again - there's a huge difference between who our best players have been (definitely agree that Boat and Hamilton deserve that accolade) and who our most consistent has been (again, I'd argue Facey over Boat by a slim margin, and yes, I've watched the games). Don't seem to be arguing this point very well though, so I'll let it go after this post, my apologies.

Go calculate the standard deviation of points, rebounds, assists, etc. for Facey and Boatright. Facey is not more consistent. FFS, Facey had one game where he scored 5X as many points as he scored in another game.

It's not that you're arguing your point poorly, it's that your point has no connection to reality whatsoever.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Go calculate the standard deviation of points, rebounds, assists, etc. for Facey and Boatright. Facey is not more consistent. FFS, Facey had one game where he scored 5X as many points as he scored in another game.

Too many people think that being smart means saying something that no one else could possibly agree with.

 

[BoatShow]

At times we made beating the press look easy other times it looked like our boys had mittens on.

 

[intlzncster]

Go calculate the standard deviation of points, rebounds, assists, etc. for Facey and Boatright. Facey is not more consistent. FFS, Facey had one game where he scored 5X as many points as he scored in another game.

It's not that you're arguing your point poorly, it's that your point has no connection to reality whatsoever.

By his logic, a guy who gets 0 points per game, every game, is the most consistent player on the team. There's no baseline.

And lets not get into sample size.

 

[Fishy]

I would say that Adams is our #1 guy when Boatright is gone down 195; but, we can go find the 100-200 level guy in rankings that will be perfect for what we need. Maybe, he develops into a top shooter gutsy guy (like Bazz) or has the jets/defense (like Boat). All good for us going forward.

Oh, God no.

I realize that most people seem to enjoy whistling past the graveyard regarding our recruiting, but the last thing we need to is start stretching further with our recruiting.

 

[pnow15]

Such silliness. Right now UConn is the Boat Show and the seven projects. Come March. Things will be different. Each project has has his moments but Boat is the clue here. Boat gets hurt and things will get ugly really fast. And next season Adams will have his work cut out for him.

 

[champs99and04]

That's what scares me most about next year. Jalen Adams and then what? One Ball handler UConn teams aren't traditionally the elite ones. Our main ballhander is going to be a Freshman? Extra scary. If Marcus Williams had AJ in 2006 there is no George Mason..... If El Amin had someone other than Freshmen Tony Robertson and Marcus Cox, in 2000 who both spit the bit in that Tennessee tournament game when El Amin was hurt. Taliek was such a whipping boy around here because he was asked to do too much too early in his career.

El Amin had Ricky
AJ had Kemba
Kemba had Bazz
Bazz had Boat

Jalen (a frosh) has who? Nobody on this current squad. I guess Samuel by default?

I think you're jumping the gun. It's too early to start projecting too far forward this season, forget next year. Samuel, Cassell, Hamilton, and Purvis struggling for one game against a press does not mean they're going to be bad ball-handlers for the rest of their careers.

 

[RipCity]

We looked pretty awful against the press last year too and March still ended up being a solid month.

 

[dogpause]

I find it interesting how polarized the views of this game tend to be.

 

[Gurleyman]

We were better against the press in the second half. Still had eight turnovers, but two were offensive fouls, one was Brimah kicking it out after an offensive board, and one was Boat grabbing a defensive board and losing it almost immediately. The worst moment was Purvis floating a cross court pass with a "Steal Me" sign stapled to it.

If you're looking for things to feel positive about - we've had first half issues/breakdowns (Dayton getting to the rim, press break) that we've more or less fixed. That shows both that KO and staff are good at fixing things and the team is showing they can execute the adjustments. Now we just have to get better at less breakdowns, so we just need a band aid or two at the half and not a tourniquet.

 

[Paesano]

2 juniors, 2 sophs who started every game last year, and a freshman. If you're going to go down the path of "UK isn't that experienced", I'm not really sure what you're point is. When you're roster is littered with top 20 players(and several top 5 players), you get less of a pass for your lack of experience. Its more ready made and instant impact talent.

Maybe we should get some of that instant impact talent. Especially the kind that sticks around for 2 or 3 years. Escalator anyone?

 

[jleves]

Boatright has been our best player, Facey our most consistent.

You can be consistently good and you can be consistently bad - it just means doing the same thing over and over, so by that measure our most consistent player is either Nolan or TSam.