UConn Coppin State thoughts

[superjohn]

Not a great game from us, a bit unfocused.

The good- Akok is clearly back, which is the best possible news. It's going to be really hard keeping him from starting. Whaley hard hedges better and bodies his man down low better but Akok is better at everything else and fits better with Sanogo. His speed, athleticism, and shooting are game changing. I think he'll be great at hard hedging and defending multiple positions too because of how quick he is.

Cole and Sanogo are in better shape this year, it's noticeable right away. They are both going to be on the all-Big East teams, it's pretty great having a really good point guard and center. Sanogo should be 1st team all Big East. I'm interested in how much his passing has improved because he's going to face a lot of double teams.

Gaff looks solid, he's a good shooter and seems to be more comfortable getting into the lane. It's cupcake opponents but he looks improved.

Tyrese looks very good, still a jack of all trades guy but seems to know what he does well better than last season and has worked on his finishing at the rim.

The not so good- It's way early but Whaley doesn't look to have expanded his offensive game. He still doesn't look comfortable shooting and isn't much of a weapon on offense, lane clogs with him and Sanogo in there together. He's a huge piece with his defense and energy but doubt he added the new offensive dimension to his game.

Really rough game for Jackson but not worried about him, also his ft shooting is excellent. My worry is he's still not comfortable shooting threes which hurts his driving. It would really open up his offensive game but I think our lack of three point shooting is greatly overstated. Cole is a very good shooter, I think Gaffney is as well. Martin is a good shooter when he's open, I think Akok is too. Hawkins will open things up more with his shooting once he enters the lineup. Polley is Polley, he's a shooter but not sure how much he's going to play because of all the other deficiencies in his game.

Not too much to take from these games but we're clearly talented.

We're 9 deep with very good players.

 

[UConnSwag11]

good summary. Akok is just a little slow defensively but that will get fixed. Gaff looks to have improved a lot over the summer.

Our only true test should be Auburn and that's where we'll see who we are right now

 

[Tampahusky]

I’m glad Gaff has improved and seems more confident.

 

[UConnSwag11]

Also, who schedules these games? We could've at least gotten an AAC team and A-10

 

[navery12]

Also, who schedules these games? We could've at least gotten an AAC team and A-10

We have an A-10 team, we play St Bonaventure 12/11

 

[bendm]

Also, who schedules these games? We could've at least gotten an AAC team and A-10

so be it if it makes me a casual fan, but unless i still lived across the street from XL in hartford i wouldnt have gone to either of these games and there were a lot of empty seats today. i'd much rather watch a scrimmage than see them beat up on borderline d2 teams

We have an A-10 team, we play St Bonaventure 12/11

i think he means instead of our first 2 opponents

 

[Kenny11]

Not a great game but I’m just super excited about how good akok looks. Happy for him

 

[UconnU]

Also, who schedules these games? We could've at least gotten an AAC team and A-10

It’s ok to pad the wins early most teams do it, lord knows Calhoun was a fan of it. I’m pretty sure we can played Coppin state every year JC was coach.

 

[AntG168]

Confidence and momentum is a thing. Beating up on a couple of cupcakes has its benefits. Playing a bunch of AAC and A-10 teams does little for us imo. They’re big risk low reward games

 

[bendm]

Confidence and momentum is a thing. Beating up on a couple of cupcakes has its benefits. Playing a bunch of AAC and A-10 teams does little for us imo. They’re big risk low reward games

beating aac/a-10 teams by 15-20 is a lot more beneficial than beating cupcakes by 40

and if we're not beating said aac/a-10 teams then we are not as good as we think

we should not be scared of a couple early season Ls. if we're a good team we'd have plenty of time to recover and work our way back up the ranks during conference play. can't wait for atlantis.

 

[Stasher599]

Was at the game today and Akok looked really really good. Ajax needs a jumper and the guards had a good game.

 

[F101Voodoo]

We have an A-10 team, we play St Bonaventure 12/11

I am old enough to remember the old Yankee Conference league when us Playing Saint Bonnie's was a sort of big deal.

 

[Pudge]

yet ... nobody mentions that WE are now missing the AAU ballers that used to come together the weekend before they played the Huskies. Coaches like ... and certainly you need to understand that the Team needs to play other jerseys to ramp into a schedule; perhaps more after that Covid experiment than other years. It would be nice if we actually were top 5 traveling crosscountry to play #2. We will be challenged this year.

 

[superjohn]

It’s ok to pad the wins early most teams do it, lord knows Calhoun was a fan of it. I’m pretty sure we can played Coppin state every year JC was coach.

Yep, I don't understand why people get bent out of shape about this. This is the way we've always scheduled.

 

[husky429]

Yep, I don't understand why people get bent out of shape about this. This is the way we've always scheduled.

Our OOC sucks compared to other teams in our position.

 

[bendm]

Our OOC sucks compared to other teams in our position.

And just because we’ve always done it this way doesn’t mean we can’t do it better.

My best pal is a lifelong UK fan and he respects our program but doesn’t understand why we don’t have more marquee OOC games. Their fans would take a L to Duke over a 40 point cupcake blowout any day

 

[tzznandrew]

Yep, I don't understand why people get bent out of shape about this. This is the way we've always scheduled.

We get bent out of shape because you can't schedule like this anymore and be as successful. Calhoun had a much stronger Big East to fall back on than we do this year, and even then we didn't always have this many projected sub-300 games.

Kenpom (essentially predictive at the moment)

CCSU: 348/358
Coppin State: 351/358
LIU: 273/358
Binghamton: 322/358
Maryland Eastern Shore: 354/358
Grambling St.: 326/358

That's the OOC home slate. You have 3 of the worst 10 teams in all MBB, and two others in the Bottom 30.

It's atrocious, it's lazy, and it's going to cost us.

 

[8893]

And just because we’ve always done it this way doesn’t mean we can’t do it better

You sound like you’re bucking for management, son.

 

[8893]

It's atrocious, it's lazy, and it's going to cost us.

 

[tzznandrew]

Contrast to 2009-2010

William & Mary: 107/348
Colgate: 290/348
Hofstra: 131/348
Boston University: 133/348
Harvard: 111/348
UCF: 166/348
Maine: 213/348
Iona: 110/348

 

[Chin Diesel]

Not a great game from us, a bit unfocused.

The good- Akok is clearly back, which is the best possible news. It's going to be really hard keeping him from starting. Whaley hard hedges better and bodies his man down low better but Akok is better at everything else and fits better with Sanogo. His speed, athleticism, and shooting are game changing. I think he'll be great at hard hedging and defending multiple positions too because of how quick he is.

Cole and Sanogo are in better shape this year, it's noticeable right away. They are both going to be on the all-Big East teams, it's pretty great having a really good point guard and center. Sanogo should be 1st team all Big East. I'm interested in how much his passing has improved because he's going to face a lot of double teams.

Gaff looks solid, he's a good shooter and seems to be more comfortable getting into the lane. It's cupcake opponents but he looks improved.

Tyrese looks very good, still a jack of all trades guy but seems to know what he does well better than last season and has worked on his finishing at the rim.

The not so good- It's way early but Whaley doesn't look to have expanded his offensive game. He still doesn't look comfortable shooting and isn't much of a weapon on offense, lane clogs with him and Sanogo in there together. He's a huge piece with his defense and energy but doubt he added the new offensive dimension to his game.

Really rough game for Jackson but not worried about him, also his ft shooting is excellent. My worry is he's still not comfortable shooting threes which hurts his driving. It would really open up his offensive game but I think our lack of three point shooting is greatly overstated. Cole is a very good shooter, I think Gaffney is as well. Martin is a good shooter when he's open, I think Akok is too. Hawkins will open things up more with his shooting once he enters the lineup. Polley is Polley, he's a shooter but not sure how much he's going to play because of all the other deficiencies in his game.

Not too much to take from these games but we're clearly talented.

We're 9 deep with very good players.

In the post game presser Hurley said he likes the current starting five for their aggressiveness and physicality to start the game. He also said they didn't do a good job of it in either half today.

Said he intentionally put Akok and Gaffney on the blue team with freshmen (Didn't mention anything about Polley on blue team) to keep Akok and Gaffney sharp since they take the majority of the shots and score a majority of the points. Interesting to me.

It's nine rotation players.

 

[tzznandrew]

Contrast to 2002-2003

Quinnipiac: 229/327
George Washington: 110/327
Sacred Heart: 303/327
Wagner: 179/327
UMass: 195/327
UNC Asheville: 283/327
CCSU: 238/327
St. Bonaventure: 84/327

I didn't include the St. Bonaventure game this year because I'm only including home games against non-p5 schools.

But you can see, while there's an occasion disaster, these schedules didn't have nearly the same drain on our SOS.

AND, That BE year had all but two teams in the Top 101, 10 Top 75 teams, 7 Top 50, 4 Top 25, and 2 Top 10.
The current BE is below that on every measure (except only 1/11 is outside Top 100).

 

[Tampahusky]

Leave it to the Boneyard to be upset about nonsense after a win. Our schedule is our schedule, it’s not like this every year. Should have complained more when we were back in the AAC. This year actually favors the team since we are young and inexperienced in live action.

 

[Palatine]

Also, who schedules these games? We could've at least gotten an AAC team and A-10

The reason we play CCSU is because we are in a position to help a fellow Connecticut state university. It's good for the university system in the state for multiple reasons.

We played Coppin State because the entire NCAA has focused on giving HBCU's a place on the schedules of the nations basketball powers.

I find both rationale for scheduling both these games to be reasonable

 

[Brochacho]

I agree that we should be playing a buzzsaw schedule when trying to work in players coming off major injuries and multiple freshmen, and trying to find an identity for the team after losing a lottery pick considering we only play 20 Big East games. Its a good idea.