What if we get better as the season progresses?

[August_West]

The guard play has been underwhelming. UConn needs to cleanup that area if they want to have a chance play far into March.

With AJ We don’t particularly need them to be anything but solid. 8 turnovers and poor decisions last night is not solid. They can be better and need to be but I’m not as worried about it as I should be if that makes sense. This team doesn’t need Kemba or bazz. Or Khalid. Actually what this team would love is Taliek. But newton with his 3 shooting ability can wash that if he just is solid.

If I was an opposing coach I would keep AJ from bringing the ball up and make newton and diarra initiate offense . They ( opposing coaches) haven’t caught on to that yet but they will, and those two will have to step up. And if they can just be decent at that it’s just another pick your poison deal playing us.

 

[CL82]

Fox Sports app has several articles

 

[superjohn]

I’m sure ESPN management will have a talk with Sonny when he gets back to Bristol.

Jimmy

 

[Sibeerian]

This team is disgusting

By "disgusting" do you mean raw?

 

[superjohn]

With AJ We don’t particularly need them to be anything but solid. 8 turnovers and poor decisions last night is not solid. They can be better and need to be but I’m not as worried about it as I should be if that makes sense. This team doesn’t need Kemba or bazz. Or Khalid. Actually what this team would love is Taliek. But newton with his 3 shooting ability can wash that if he just is solid.

If I was an opposing coach I would keep AJ from bringing the ball up and make newton and diarra initiate offense . They ( opposing coaches) haven’t caught on to that yet but they will, and those two will have to step up. And if they can just be decent at that it’s just another pick your poison deal playing us.

Nah, Newton is better/a better fit than Taliek. He's still figuring things out and needs to find that balance of when to look to score and pass.

 

[August_West]

Nah, Newton is better/a better fit than Taliek. He's still figuring things out and needs to find that balance of when to look to score and pass.

I dunno know about that. We didn’t need Taliek to be anything other than he was with the cast around him. Newton is still shaking off “ being the guy” for bad ECU teams, to his credit he is trying to play within THIS team. I imagine that’s a challenge. We saw it last night with poor passes when he should’ve gone to rack. I think he will get it.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

If I was an opposing coach I would keep AJ from bringing the ball up and make newton and diarra initiate offense . They ( opposing coaches) haven’t caught on to that yet but they will, and those two will have to step up. And if they can just be decent at that it’s just another pick your poison deal playing us.

We're at the point where we're questioning whether either of our two lead guards can initiate offense? That seems a little overly fatalistic even for this place. I've been watching these games after the fact for the last few weeks because I'm busy and reading the comments on Newton from last night I expected to see him looking like Andrew Hurley out there. He wasn't great but all the hand-wringing is a bit much. Newton will be fine. (And that shot that stretched it to 19 in the second half is why he's a better fit than Taliek.)

 

[superjohn]

I dunno know about that. We didn’t need Taliek to be anything other than he was with the cast around him. Newton is still shaking off “ being the guy” for bad ECU teams, to his credit he is trying to play within THIS team. I imagine that’s a challenge. We saw it last night with poor passes when he should’ve gone to rack. I think he will get it.

Taliek was great in the open floor pushing the break and was great at getting in the lane distributing but he couldn't shoot, score, and he needed to be taken out or nowhere near the ball when teams were looking to foul in tight games.

This team needs Newton's scoring/shot making ability, his ability to draw fouls, and his ft shooting.

 

[August_West]

We're at the point where we're questioning whether either of our two lead guards can initiate offense? That seems a little overly fatalistic even for this place. I've been watching these games after the fact for the last few weeks because I'm busy and reading the comments on Newton from last night I expected to see him looking like Andrew Hurley out there. He wasn't great but all the hand-wringing is a bit much. Newton will be fine. (And that shot that stretched it to 19 in the second half is why he's a better fit than Taliek.)

Like I said. Opposing Pick your poison. It’s not fatalistic.

We can punish that way too. Point being eventually some coach ( probably McDermott) will look at AJ and say “ let’s remove him”. Instead of Sanogo or guard pressure. We will need Diarra and Newton to be ready.

 

[ctchamps]

We're at the point where we're questioning whether either of our two lead guards can initiate offense? That seems a little overly fatalistic even for this place. I've been watching these games after the fact for the last few weeks because I'm busy and reading the comments on Newton from last night I expected to see him looking like Andrew Hurley out there. He wasn't great but all the hand-wringing is a bit much. Newton will be fine. (And that shot that stretched it to 19 in the second half is why he's a better fit than Taliek.)

Yet but one of my favorite plays was being behind the basket at MSG and watching his 3 pointer to help beat Pitt.

I pointed out in another thread the coaching staff is deliberately working on Newton to be a pass first guard. Andre kept on passing the ball back to Newton despite him being the better facilitator in this game.

 

[August_West]

Taliek was great in the open floor pushing the break and was great at getting in the lane distributing but he couldn't shoot, score, and he needed to be taken out or nowhere near the ball when teams were looking to foul in tight games.

This team needs Newton's scoring/shot making ability, his ability to draw fouls, and his ft shooting.

We do and will need that. So let’s get it going. We are a scary team. But no one is scheming right now to stop Newton. Our guard play will be exploited this year. I don’t know when or how, because we have bigs like AJ and Alex who can make guard reads from bigs spots . But a good opposing coach will challenge us there

I’m talking perfect world stuff here . We are undefeated and on a run. The pieces fit.

 

[Viet Vet]

One thing I see over and over is trying to block an opponent's three-point shot. It's a very high risk, low return, proposition.

Essentially three things can happen;

A. The shot is blocked (highly unlikely)
B. The shooter is fouled (awarding three UNCONTESTED 15' free throws)
C. (Highly likely). Neither of the above, BUT the defender is then out of position to box out the shooter, giving him free passage to the offensive board, whereupon he may get the rebound or be in a position to receive a pass uncontested. Long shots (ie: threes) often result in long rebounds. Boxing out is not just the responsibility of "bigs".

 

[superjohn]

We do and will need that. So let’s get it going. We are a scary team. But no one is scheming right now to stop Newton. Our guard play will be exploited this year. I don’t know when or how, because we have bigs like AJ and Alex who can make guard reads from bigs spots . But a good opposing coach will challenge us there

I’m talking perfect world stuff here . We are undefeated and on a run. The pieces fit.

I just don't really see how you exploit it. You try and full court trap us and it will be a dunk the other way. The whole team is above average at passing at their positions except for Sanogo and Jackson is a one man press break. We've seen teams overplay like crazy in the half court sending traps to get Newton in trouble on the sideline like in the Iowa State game, he coughed it up a bunch and we still buried them. I don't see how you can key on him any more than teams already have because of all our other players who will make you pay and because we'll have Jackson on the court alongside him. I also expect him to get much better at recognizing it.

Last night he looked like he was getting into trouble because he was trying to spray the ball to shooters or looking to make the lob pass instead of taking shots in the lane and drives that were there for him. I guess he was exploited again last night because they took away the lob pass from him when he got in the lane and he had some turnovers but Clingan still had a lob party and we still buried them.

Once Newton finds that scoring/passing balance we're going to be filthy.

 

[August_West]

I just don't really see how you exploit it. You try and full court trap us and it will be a dunk the other way. The whole team is above average at passing at their positions except for Sanogo and Jackson is a one man press break. We've seen teams overplay like crazy in the half court sending traps to get Newton in trouble on the sideline like in the Iowa State game, he coughed it up a bunch and we still buried them. I don't see how you can key on him any more than teams already have because of all our other players who will make you pay and because we'll have Jackson on the court alongside him. I also expect him to get much better at recognizing it.

Last night he looked like he was getting into trouble because he was trying to spray the ball to shooters or looking to make the lob pass instead of taking shots in the lane and drives that were there for him. I guess he was exploited again last night because they took away the lob pass from him when he got in the lane and he had some turnovers but Clingan still had a lob party and we still buried them.

Once Newton finds that scoring/passing balance we're going to be filthy.

I overall agree with you post except for lobs. You are not advocating a good game, are you? Stops in or right outside the paint? In the end pick your poison.Where decisions are made?

#firstworldproblems

 

[superjohn]

I overall agree with you post except for lobs. You are not advocating a good game, are you? Stops in or right outside the paint? In the end pick your poison.Where decisions are made?

#firstworldproblems

A good game last night for UConn or a good game last night for Newton?

I thought or offense played our C game. Newton, Diarra, and Alleyne were all bad on offense and Karaban was a non-factor because of foul trouble.

So 4 of our 9 rotation players basically did nothing on offense and two of them turned the ball over too much and we won by 21 at Florida.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

With AJ We don’t particularly need them to be anything but solid. 8 turnovers and poor decisions last night is not solid. They can be better and need to be but I’m not as worried about it as I should be if that makes sense. This team doesn’t need Kemba or bazz. Or Khalid. Actually what this team would love is Taliek. But newton with his 3 shooting ability can wash that if he just is solid.

If I was an opposing coach I would keep AJ from bringing the ball up and make newton and diarra initiate offense . They ( opposing coaches) haven’t caught on to that yet but they will, and those two will have to step up. And if they can just be decent at that it’s just another pick your poison deal playing us.

AJ is like a big guard anyway. Dare I say like “Magic” when he led Michigan State to the National Championship.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Jimmy

Oops!!! Getting my sports mixed up.

 

[August_West]

A good game last night for UConn or a good game last night for Newton?

I thought or offense played our C game. Newton, Diarra, and Alleyne were all bad on offense and Karaban was a non-factor because of foul trouble.

So 4 of our 9 rotation players basically did nothing on offense and two of them turned the ball over too much and we won by 21 at Florida.

A good game for Newton.

 

[polycom]

The biggest thing for us to worry about this season is for us to stay injury free, the rest will figure itself out.

 

[August_West]

The biggest thing for us to worry about this season is for us to stay injury free, the rest will figure itself out.

Remember when you and Whaler said we shouldnt even offer Clingan? I do.