1. Facey averages more rebounds per minute played than RLubin?
False. Like Facey last year, Lubin has an insane rebounding rate, albeit in essentially negligible minutes.
2. Omar will shot over 33% from 3 for the year?
False, but close. He won't be the sub-25% train wreck of last year, but even his freshman year, when he was considered a "good" shooter, he only shot 32%. I think 31-32%.
3. Daniel Hamilton will average more points per game than Purvis?
False. The trend over the last handful of years is for our ballhandlers to shoulder the bulk of the scoring load. I don't see that changing this year, though Hamilton is a better wing than we've had in a while. Purvis will be the 2nd ballhandler to Boat and will average 13 ppg. Hamilton takes a little while to adjust to the college game and averages 11 ppg.
4. Terrance Samuel will play more minutes this year than SamCjr ?
True, and it won't even be close. Samuel is the first PG guard off the bench and will average 15-18 mpg. Sam Cassell might be squeezed out entirely when we shorten the bench and go with a rotation of 8 or fewer. He'll average 5-7 mpg over the whole season.
5. UConn will shoot better than 40% from 3?
False, and it won't even be close. We lose our 3 best shooters from a team that shot 38.7%. This team will struggle badly to score from the outside (although it may be compensated-for by better penetration and mid-range offense), and will shoot 33% as a team.
6. Ollie will get ejected from a game this year?
False. It takes an extraordinary set of circumstances for that to happen, and he'll get a lot more respect from officials than he has over the last two seasons. I think he'll get a scattered T or two, but not tossed.
7. Boatright will record the most points by a player in a single game this year?
False. Boat will lead the team in scoring, but our single-game high will come against a cupcake, in which Boat will take a backseat once he gets his. Purvis will record the single-game high, with 32 points against Columbia.
8. Amida will average more rebounds a game than Phil Nolan?
True. He did last year, and will again. Brimah outrebounded Nolan both overall and on a per-minute basis. This year, he'll both get more minutes than Nolan, and will be a more-improved rebounder than Nolan.
9. First regular AAC game of the year, Hamilton is a starter?
True. He has too much talent to come off the bench on a team that only has one other (really underwhelming) option at his position. If Hamilton isn't starting, it's because he's injured, or because Omar has stolen the talent of superior players, a la the Monstars in Space Jam.
10. Amida will have the largest jump in points per game ave, vs last year?
False. I presume Purvis and Hamilton don't count. Brimah averaged 4.1 ppg last year, and I expect him to jump to around 8 ppg this year. I don't think Boat will jump by 4 (to 16 ppg), but I would be surprised if OC averaged <7.8 AND Samuel < 6.4 AND Facey < 5.4 AND Nolan < 7.3. It's a little bit of a copout answer, since I can't tell you which one will surpass Brimah's improvement, but that's a lot of "AND"s to overcome when calculating the percentages.
