Northern Arizona Post Game Thread

[jake14mw]

I'm stunned by the number of people harping on free throws in a blowout. Not only is it irrelevant, what happens in one game has nothing to do with the next. I thought we learned that last year. Folks were constantly saying free throws would be a factor and it wasn't ever. We're fine shooting free throws. It's lazy commentary.

I don't understand how it's lazy commentary. Clinghan shot 51.7% from the line last year. He will take more than double the amount this year than he took last year. Just over 1 point per shot attempt from within 5 feet is not good. Fouling Clinghan down the stretch could be a strategy if he doesn't improve his free throw shooting. Just because it didn't wind up hurting us last year doesn't mean it won't this year.

 

[HeGotGame]

Karaban looked like the star. Spencer looked underwhelming but he’ll be fine, just seemed to defer a bit too much.

Only things i’m critical of are the perimeter D and fouling. Just working out the kinks.

 

[CL82]

How about you point them out to her?

That's always my job in the first game of the season with my wife. she never wants to hear about how recruiting is going or which kids we've gotten, but the first game is always "who's that? Oh OK, who's that...."

 

[CL82]

Sometimes posts just answer themselves:

1) Why do I have to look at that nose-hair advertisement on this page?
2) They looked solid ....

 

[DogMania]

I loved what I saw. This team will score. And they have "spurtability" as well, which we had in spades last year. I have two concerns: First, there is no way SJ hangs against better competition. He is talented enough offensively, for sure, but he will have foul trouble all year long. Against quality BE competition? I see him being constantly a step behind, which will cause him to be out of position, and commit silly fouls. Did you all see how easily he was pushed in one sequence, leading up to a foul? And that was a center who would not start for the worst BE team. My second observation is that I was not impressed defensively. I wish we had a bit more beef inside. Still, DH has a lot to work with here.

We saw a lot of good things last night, but it's just game #1 against a team that was far less skilled and physically over matched.

Considering how few meaningful minutes SJ has logged since he's been here, it should not be a surprise that he's a tad slow on defense and foul prone. I think he has most of the physical tools to be a solid defender, but a big part of playing D is anticipation, which only develops by playing meaningful minutes.

I think he's going to be foul prone throughout the first third or half of the season, but hopefully he'll show Improvement as the season goes on.

I like how he showed solid instincts on offense, knowing when to roll to the basket for some alley-oop dunks. Granted those won't be nearly as uncontested against bigger and more athletic teams. I like how he only had one turnover in 11 minutes, which is a positive sign. Usually inexperienced bigs have trouble staying on the floor when they can't take care of the ball. Granted, being foul prone and not able to defend are two other reasons, but I'm hopeful that as long as he can stay healthy, there are signs that he will develop and learn as a season goes on. We'll learn a lot more about SJ when they begin to play against bigger and more talented opponents.

 

[CL82]

He usually dunks everything. I think his timing from being away had his timing off and had him a little less explosive.

I felt like he was getting back down to deep under the rim to be affective. That's an easy fix for the coaching staff. He's got the size to hold his position he just needs to be more aware of it.

 

[superjohn]

I felt like he was getting back down to deep under the rim to be affective. That's an easy fix for the coaching staff. He's got the size to hold his position he just needs to be more aware of it.

It did kind of look like that. His timing and explosiveness seemed a bit off too. I think it has to do with him missing a month and probably carrying a little extra weight. Calhoun said he's down to 292 lbs. Calhoun always threw around #'s so don't know if that's accurate but with his frame wouldn't be surprised if he got up to about 300 not playing.

 

[kobebeanbryant]

That's always my job in the first game of the season with my wife. she never wants to hear about how recruiting is going or which kids we've gotten

how I imagine most conversations between ‘yarders and their wives go when they try to discuss the intricacies of UConn hoops with them…

 

[martyn]

Like what I saw in Samson. If he slips that fast off of every screen he’s gonna have a lot of dunks this year.

Donny had a good comment that Samson didn’t do much his first 2 yrs. because of injuries but that he “ finally looks like a basketball player “

Was encouraged by what I saw of him, too, but couldn't help being struck by what the team has lost with Sanogo gone.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

That’s fine, different perspectives. Others on the board were talking about him being the leading scorer on the team, I though this was the type of role to expect.

As others said, his defense wasn’t very good, and I would like to see him shoot more of those open shots he had, most of us want him taking more than 3 shots. Just the first game observation.

 

[superjohn]

how I imagine most conversations between ‘yarders and their wives go when they try to discuss the intricacies of UConn hoops with them…

View attachment 92835

I doubt most yarder wives look like that though...

 

[DogMania]

There were a lot of good things to take from that first game. Most if not all of them have already been noted above.

I want to focus just on Castle in this post. It looked like throughout 3/4 of the game he was playing like a heralded recruit feeling the weight of some expectations. He was trying to force some things and when those didn't go so well it looked like he didn't play with the level of confidence that he needs to for the type of player he is. I'm not sure if I explained that well but many of you will probably know what I mean.

Then near the end of the game, we saw why he is such a special player. He showed a couple of moves where he got to the basket that most college guards are not capable of doing. There are going to be games where we need someone who is able to beat his man off the dribble and either score mid-range or at the rim, or draw a foul, or dish to the right person.

I think he needs to focus more on going with the flow of the team offense at the start of each game, and pick his spots where he can create for himself when the matchups are favorable. Once he has that first breakout game, his confidence will soar and we'll begin to see a string of consistent play at a very high level.

I'm confident that Hurley and the staff will coach greatness out of Castle, though expect some growing pains along the way.

 

[Tenspro2002]

I did like what I saw in terms of the chemistry between Spencer (and a few others) and Clingan/Johnson on lobs.

Last year Calcaterra had a special connection with Clingan that resulted in a lot of easy buckets, and spinning that up again will be a big key to our success.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

The sum of the pieces is impressive for 1st game performances.
I would rather have won by 20 and allow the freshmen to play at least 10 minutes apiece. I still cant figure out why DH gets so much satisfaction in killing these teams by 50 or more points.

Its actually a sound strategy...one of the NIL MBB collectives derives significant income from betting UConn to pummel the creampuffs and cover the spreads. They prefer to not sweat these money-generating games.



/s

 

[JustbrewitMan]

There is no doubt a energy or buzz around the program that has even the casuals in my office talking about the game last night. Its good to be back. Too many yarders here are digging too much into the box score and final numbers, in reality they mean nothing, they did what they needed to do and took care of bidness. This was an eye test kind of game. Donny was clearly on a minutes restriction so they force fed him early and often so the first half was bit skewed with Cam/Steph passing up some looks to get the ball into the post. Stewart really impressed with his aggression and Karaban seems to have added to his game, which is great as he will likely need to be a primary scoring option for us this year. Samson though.... he just dont got it [yet]. I was not impressed with a couple alley oops that we will rarely see against quality opponents. We already knew he offered athleticism and that's all we saw last night. I would've loved to see him try to make play with his back to the basket against NAU that was way outmatched down low. On D he's a step slow and his timing his off ever so slightly which leads to fouling as it puts him out of position. This is not a knock on him but looking past the box score I didn't see any to his game or anything that left me saying "I didn't know he could do that". Im picking on him more than maybe I should but that only because of the hype that borges and others have put on him.

This post is peak Boneyard...

1 - A lead in with "too many people here are nitpicking..."
2 - A transition to an 8-line evisceration of every minute thing bad about Samson Johnson...even going so far as to say they were "...not impressed with a couple of alley oops"
3 - A wrap-up with a "This is not a knock on him..." throwaway apology

 

[Waquoit]

We have so many guys with so many complimentary skills that many nights like these we won't need them all. Yeah, Cam came here to shoot and most games he should shoot more. But they didn't need that from him last night so he D-ed up and dropped dimes. He didn't launch a few bombs just because he felt he had it coming. That's veteran leadership to me.

 

[KeyWestUC]

He mentioned it about someone.

Think it was just a generic reference to anyone.

 

[RedStickHusky]

Its actually a sound strategy...one of the NIL MBB collectives derives significant income from betting UConn to pummel the creampuffs and cover the spreads. They prefer to not sweat these money-generating games.



/s

Thanks for the /s..... this is what it's coming to though....

 

[Kiddddddd34]

This post is peak Boneyard...

1 - A lead in with "too many people here are nitpicking..."
2 - A transition to an 8-line evisceration of every minute thing bad about Samson Johnson...even going so far as to say they were "...not impressed with a couple of alley oops"
3 - A wrap-up with a "This is not a knock on him..." throwaway apology

You cant handle the truth

 

[storrsroars]

I doubt most any yarder wives look like that though...

ftfy

 

[hookshot]

I'm stunned by the number of people harping on free throws in a blowout. Not only is it irrelevant, what happens in one game has nothing to do with the next. I thought we learned that last year. Folks were constantly saying free throws would be a factor and it wasn't ever. We're fine shooting free throws. It's lazy commentary.

Or lazy free throw shooting ?

 

[Slick]

Did Fanta, Donny Marshall, and Jim Calhoun just break Bill Walton's record for longest talk-a-thon during game play without ever saying anything about the game we are watching? A fan like my wife hasn't got any idea who the new players are. First game of the year, maybe at least identify the players, and maybe who a foul is called on. That was terrible.

It’s a love fest

 

[Icehawk]

I'm going to chalk the negatives up to "first game", once they have time to gel I'm confident we're all going to be happy. I mean these first few games from DH's POV are all about him seeing what's going to work in real game and not just preseason practice.

 

[Makryspost]

My question: who is our bull... We have big powerful power forwards historically in the big east. Adama was that guy last year - you aren't going through him. Is there that guy on this roster. Do we need that? I'm not sure Clingan or Samson are that guy. Who else do we have?

 

[superjohn]

My question: who is our bull... We have big powerful power forwards historically in the big east. Adama was that guy last year - you aren't going through him. Is there that guy on this roster. Do we need that? I'm not sure Clingan or Samson are that guy. Who else do we have?

Clingan is 7'3 290 lbs. We've never had that.