Yeah, I'm not disagreeing that the small ball lineup doesn't work but there are definitely some games where we will need Singare to step and give us minutes at the 5 when both Samson and Reed are in foul trouble. I'm excited to see if he comes back stronger and able to handle the 5 better. I think he will be a backup 5 the following year so getting some game time minutes will be critical to his decelopment.
I used to agree with you but I have changed my tune. I think both Ross and Abraham will get minutes, I don't know from where, but situationally they will. Abraham might be the next lockdown player once he acclimates to our way of playing and Ross is an underrated quick twitch athlete, with a really nice 3 pt stroke. Hurley mentioned him as someone NBA scouts would ask about after practice. Maybe he's on Samson career development track. I started a post if we would have enough rebounding; now I think that these two could be the answer without Alex, or if we are getting bully balled
I agree. My main point was that he was scoring in the post no matter the opposing big. He was the leading scorer in the tourney, and one of the regular season leaders as well. If you would like to remove DC from the conversation, that's fine.
Well Ross isn't really an answer at the 4 or rebounding but would see minutes at the 3 if AK doesn't come back(Dominos impact). Abraham I agree would see some minutes at the 4 if his shot is more consistent.
Agree 100%.
Yeah I agree we will play some small bal at the 5 if AK comes back. I believe we played it more last year when our Centers were in foul trouble because Singare wasn't really ready to contribute good minutes at the 5. I think there is a clear plan for this year by Hurley to get him minutes at Center so he can develop a little next year and not be a fish out of water in his Jr. year trying to back up at Center. Obviously his minutes will be limited to only when the Centers get into foul trouble but wih Johnson on the team I can see that happening at least a few times in the year.
I disagree on Ross. He needs some weight for sure, but with his skill he can be a terror on offense. We send all 5 guys to the glass on every play anyways, so rebounding is less of a concern as it is for some. I think his vertical ability will make up for his lack of girth when rebounding.
I didn't say Ross can't play but he is more of a 3 than a 4. He will get minutes if the lineup stays the same as presently constituted but it is hard to see if AK or a immediate impact piece at the 4 comes in due to the dominoes impact of minutes. You will have Stewart playing backup minutes to both AK at the 4 and McNeely at the 3. Or it could be McNeely back them both at the 3(Stewart would move to the 4 if AK is out). Ross skillset lends better at the 2 than the 4 and is ideally a 3 in our offense. I think McNeely is an ideal 3 in our offense too. I think based on the quotes about getting another Impact 4 in the portal if Karaban doesn't come back he is worried about rebounding. We will also be smaller at the guard and center positions so rebounding will be at a premium with this team.
Offensively i don't think there is/will be a difference between the 3 & 4 in our system. Defensively we will need perimeter defenders & switchable players more than someone to play down low, imo. Any team that plays 2 low post players against us likely wont score more than 60 points anyways, so not a worry.
I heard Hurley say they had contingencies in the event AK did not return. Don't recall him describing those contingencies.
He did later in the interview talking about bringing in an impact 4 if possible.
Yeah, I was talking more on D. Ross and McNeely are kind of undersized to play the 4 and rebound there and why Hurley mentioned Karaban hopefully coming back or getting an impact 4. He wants a guy who can hit the outside shot and drive and dribble a little bit but he also wants some decent size there to rebound and play D. I'm not saying this is written in stone but you can see what Hurley is looking for at his stretch 4 if possible.
Agree 100%. It wasn't easy, though. it was an impressive reloading job, and Hurley seems poised to repeat it.
Because he's going to be a sophomore, not a junior like when Samson increased his playing time. And more importantly there are 2 centers who were top 50 recruits that are now upperclassmen blocking his pathway to minutes.
Yeah saw that this morning. It's all from Hurley's media session yesterday that was posted on here last night.Not sure if this has been shared. Some good DH quotes on the who & why of portal recruits.
How Dan Hurley used transfer portal to reload UConn men's basketball after NCAA title: 'Strategic'
The UConn men's basktball team added key transfers, retained key players and added three freshmen as Dan Hurley chases an NCAA three-peat.www.ctinsider.com
“Before we bring somebody on campus, they have to be serious people,” ... “And they have to be serious about us. And there has to have been Zooms, enough phone calls and communications. We're just serious people. We need to bring just serious people in here. Their list of schools, how they've structured visits, how they're handling our conversations, we take that into account before we waste our time, or not waste our time, with certain types of players.”Hurley has said numerous times over the past couple of months that the goal isn’t to build an all-star team. It is to build a championship team. He’s done it two years in a row now and “three-peat” comes out of his mouth quite often.“It's people that are either going to fit us or not,”... “There's plenty of transfer portal players that that have a history of not helping their programs max out winning. And that's what we're trying to stay away from, because we are really desperate to win. … We're not bringing in seven players from the portal and throwing them against the wall and seeing what sticks. We're strategic that way.”
I will watch again when I get home, but I think he just said he was looking at some 4 men, but never said impact. Did mention developmental types I thought.
He mentioned developmental more with the 13rh if he uses it. At least that is what it sounded like. Though I agree he wasn't super clear on the 12th pick besides mentioning a 4 for sure. Yep went over it again and that is exactly what he said. I just inferred that the 12th pick would be more of an impact player 4 man since he was pretty clear that the developmental pick would be the 13th pick. I guess we will find out at the end of May/Early June what he wants to do with the 12th pick as he wants to play the young guys too.
Probably not. Sadly, winning is not the most important thing there anymore. Uconn is a very hard act to follow.
Yeah. Hard to tell. I'm assuming it won't be an impact player because with the portal schedule changes, there won't be a Cam to get that came in late. That player will already be gone. I dont expect a player to wait out his decision while Alex decides what he's going to do. It's not realistic. I expect that about 2 weeks from now, everyone worth having will be gone.
