Demon ThoughtZ™

[RichZ]

1. Tough start for Newton with a foul and two TOs on his first three touches.
2. Almost 4.5 minutes in before we scored.
3. Karaban, Spencer and Diarra all had a solid first half.
4. All our first half points came from 5 players, and none of them were named Newton or Johnson.
5. At the half, we have 11 assists to De Paul's 2, and ,18 boards to their 12. 60 & 45.5% FG percentage & 3pt percentage to their 30 and 25. Feels like we should be up by more.
6. Newton to Castle on the break early in the 2nd half was my pick for play of the game. Just a thing of beauty. Unfortunately, that was the highlight for Newton, who only played 23 minutes. Sat early because of two early fouls, but never did pick up another. Finished the game scoreless, but did have 5 boards and 7 dimes. But also 4 TOs.
7. For the game, Shooting percentages were 58, 46 & 90 for the good guys and 36, 15 & 74 for them other guys. Can't win if you can't put it in the hole.
8. Too many of the points that De Paul had came at the foul line.
9. Eight blocks ain't bad for a team without its only 'real' center.
10. For my money, Alex was the POG, Same # of made 3 pointers as Spencer, but on fewer attempts, plus an edge on boards and assists, as well as a couple blocks.
11. All in all a good effort. Nice to see Castle getting his minutes and contributing. Solo looked pretty solid, too.

 

[MuchoDogYears]

Karaban was a lot more effective at the backup 5 spot than I thought he, and the team, would be.

Worked against DePaul. Interested in seeing whether this small lineup will work against Butler, a major step up from DePaul. Or be exposed as a gimmick that’s not going to work against the upper half of the BE.

 

[GHSWolverines]

1. Newton was taken out of the game early. It just wasn't his night. He will bounce back.
2. Only 4 total points were scored at the 16 minute mark.
3. AK, CS, and HD overall played well. I would include 2 of the "fab 5" as well - SC and SB
4. As mention in #1, TN just did not have it. SJ committed some silly fouls. We need him for at least the next 3 games. DC please heal up.
5. We started the game very sloppy. No offense to Depaul, but they are not very good to put it nicely.
6. See #1 and #4
7. See #5 in regards to Depaul
8. See #5
9. Ditto. AK demonstrared his high BB IQ.
10. SC is not AJAX but he might be the closest. I really like SB. He is gradually playing with more confidence

 

[GHSWolverines]

Karaban was a lot more effective at the backup 5 spot than I thought he, and the team, would be.

Worked against DePaul. Interested in seeing whether this small lineup will work against Butler, a major step up from DePaul. Or be exposed as a gimmick that’s not going to work against the upper half of the BE.

I agree. Fingers crossed

 

[RichZ]

10. SC is not AJAX but he might be the closest. I really like SB. He is gradually playing with more confidence

Interesting comparison.

 

[uconngb]

DePaul is BAD. Next level bad for a P6 team. At some point they are gonna need to be tapped on the shoulder......

 

[Sphinx]

Seems to me that Diarra's 14 points, five assists and five rebounds in 19 minutes deserves a little more prominent notice. Not to mention his revving up of UConn's aggressiveness and intensity when he is in the game. Diarra is becoming a very big story.

 

[Sphinx]

The Newton-to-Castle break was special, but it was only one of three Newton-to-Castle assists in the game. Castle has a talent for working free off the ball and Newton is finding him. It is not yet working in reverse, Castle-to-Newton, as many of us thought it might.