Purvis has guts

[Dove]

Motto for the Purv Era...

Got Guts, No Glory.

 

[uconngb]

It wasn't his day but he kept pushing. Taking the shots. Being the focus after Jalen went down.

Guts.

The only chance we had was if his shots fell... he was willing to look bad to give us a chance to win.

Wish he was better.

He may have guts, but he has zero brains. Check out this quote:

"Just not listening to the coaching staff," Purvis said. "Being undisciplined. Playing selfish. Our big guys are keeping us in the game and scoring every time we get the ball inside. I don't understand why we wouldn't throw it right in there. We've just got to make better plays. Play much more poised and with much more understanding of the game."

How the hell does someone respond to this? He knows exactly what he's doing wrong, yet he keeps doing it. What the hell is THAT?? To me, it's maddening.

 

[CL82]

Right after the buzzer sounded after the missed 3 by rodney the first thing ollie did was walk over to him console/give a pat on the back and thank him for the effort he gave.

Rodney has his pitfalls but he always plays hard and tries even when this aren't going his way

Like the kid, even while I am cussing him out over a turnover or bad shot selection. I wish the best for him, even though he is taking years off my life, one game at a time.

 

[upstater]

That quote is polar opposite of his giddiness on 2 ball victory last game. How do you praise your players for winning with the 2 point shot and the very next game 'allow' them to go 3 ball crazy?

I'd like to think that Ollie can recognize this (in game) and correct/stop it, especially knowing its not working. If not him then what the hell do the assistants do? Someone on the staff must have their eyes open!

So frustrating to watch those bombs missing left, right and center.

We all know the players took too many 3s.

Here's something even more frustrating: They were wide open 3s!!!

The one infuriating sequence was when they missed 3 open 3s in one possession.

 

[UConnDan97]

I'm really hoping RP helps us have a magical run through the AAC tourney and into the NCAA tourney. He's currently our second best active roster player, and I would love for him to be remembered in a positive light in the 'Yard...

 

[mauconnfan]

He may have guts, but he has zero brains. Check out this quote:

"Just not listening to the coaching staff," Purvis said. "Being undisciplined. Playing selfish. Our big guys are keeping us in the game and scoring every time we get the ball inside. I don't understand why we wouldn't throw it right in there. We've just got to make better plays. Play much more poised and with much more understanding of the game."

How the hell does someone respond to this? He knows exactly what he's doing wrong, yet he keeps doing it. What the hell is THAT?? To me, it's maddening.

It's not any different than "we need to play 40 minutes and play harder" and we've heard that for years from some real good players too. They all say stupid things after they lose!

But I hear ya, it's maddening

 

[upstater]

It's not any different than "we need to play 40 minutes and play harder" and we've heard that for years from some real good players too. They all say stupid things after they lose!

But I hear ya, it's maddening

Purvis at PG is not capable of feeding the big men. We saw it yesterday. First, he takes the ball always in the same position, the top of the key. He is not feeding big men from there. He is not a great ball handler. He does not play PG well.

And here we are today, kicking the kids and the coaches for not feeding the big men.

It is really nuts. I don't think they weren't feeding them because they were obstinate about shooting 3s. I think they weren't doing it enough because they couldn't do it. And, we saw a lot of kick outs for wide open 3s. WIDE OPEN. The 3s were missed.

That being aid, there was a long sequence after Vital/Jackson/Purvis went 3-crazy when they fed Brimah, Facey, and Brimah on 4 consecutive occasions spanning the end of the game and the start of the second half.

 

[jdb50]

When the players on the court are not listening to the coach or following the plan then the coach needs to blow a timeout and get his point across. He obviously does not have the bench to sit down players who play selfish but it went on way too long. Vital barely hit the rim. Ollie needs to get these guys to listen as they don't shoot well from outside. Up fake drive and dish, drive and pull up, get to the line, stop embarrassing yourselves from the 3 point line.

 

[whaler11]

I was screwing around on KenPom this morning.

Purvis is in the top 25 in minutes played. The only other category in which he is in the top 500... fouls committed per 40 min. Ouch.

 

[pnow15]

Ollie needs to start recruiting guys who have at least one Division 1 skill. Purvis and Vital both seem to lack that one skill.
Brimah can block shots. Adams can penetrate and finish at the rim. This is important so that when players of the caliber like Larrier go
down he knows he can count on a guy to do one thing well.

 

[aceboon]

When Rodney is our best PG left, we all should have known we were in big trouble. He made a valiant effort, but just does not have the vision, composure, and handle to be a playmaker. Christian was worse. I think that the main criticism I would put out there was that last spring it was apparent to me that we were too shallow at PG and an injury to Jalen or Alterique could be crippling. If I could see that, anyone could see it. He brought in Vital, but he is clearly not a PG and we could have used a Sami even if an Austrie was not available. Having said that, we have suffered a "perfect storm" of bad breaks and hopefully the time on the court will help our remaining young guys grow as players.

Austrie and Sami(this dude was not good so i'm not sure why he got a mention) would look just like Vital does playing on this squad, Austrie had the luxury of playing on a stacked team his freshman year, Brown/Anderson/Gay/Armstrong/Boone/Adrien is no comparison with the group on the floor right now. Once you get past your first two PGs you really have no hope unless you just have an above average player at every other position.

 

[aceboon]

Ollie needs to start recruiting guys who have at least one Division 1 skill. Purvis and Vital both seem to lack that one skill.
Brimah can block shots. Adams can penetrate and finish at the rim. This is important so that when players of the caliber like Larrier go
down he knows he can count on a guy to do one thing well.

Purvis had the ability to hit open 3s at a respectable clip last season, I'm not sure what has had happened to him this season. That's why I find this whole notion that he's being asked to do too much silly, you can make that case yesterday after Jalen went down but for the most part dude has been bricking open 3s for pretty much the majority of the season.

 

[pnow15]

Purvis had the ability to hit open 3s at a respectable clip last season, I'm not sure what has had happened to him this season. That's why I find this whole notion that he's being asked to do too much silly, you can make that case yesterday after Jalen went down but for the most part dude has been bricking open 3s for pretty much the majority of the season.

Hey, I wanted Ollie to pick up 6'5"Funk a couple of years ago. Funk is only hitting 3's at a 42% for Marist.

 

[upstater]

When the players on the court are not listening to the coach or following the plan then the coach needs to blow a timeout and get his point across. He obviously does not have the bench to sit down players who play selfish but it went on way too long. Vital barely hit the rim. Ollie needs to get these guys to listen as they don't shoot well from outside. Up fake drive and dish, drive and pull up, get to the line, stop embarrassing yourselves from the 3 point line.

Most of these 3s were jacked up in the last 10 minutes of the second half. Go back and look. Ollie did call a timeout, but then he had one left. On one single trip down the court, they missed 3 wide open 3s.

By the way, we don't want our kids not taking wide open 3s. We want them to not take contested 3s.

If these kids don't don't wide open 3s, then forget about the inside game.

Ain't happening.

 

[MexicoHusky]

I have respect for Rodney that goes way beyond basketball. Time and time again he's represented our University with pride and effort and without an ounce of quit. He's been embarrassed publicly on the court multiple times and it's rare to catch him hanging his head for even a moment. If things don't work out for this team. And they most likely won't. I hope to see Rodney in the stands in future years. Rooting on our team.

 

[David 76]

Ollie is doing a great job lately with Adams and limited tools. How can you not see the improvement in all four Biggs, the decrease in Adams' turnovers.
He would have beaten them despite three injuries. The fourth was just too much and they still forced overtime.

 

[dogpause]

The holiday spirit of giving is alive and well.

 

[champs99and04]

@UConnDan97 what gives you the impression that Purvis is our second best player? To be frank, he is, to date, having one of the worst seasons in UConn history.

It's not his fault that we rely on him so much. He's been bad, though, like uncomfortably bad, which sadly is still good enough to be our fourth best player.

 

[joober jones]

Rodney Purvis may not be a point guard and may not have had a stunning performance, but I think if most of us were asked before that game, we wouldn't have predicted that Rodney running the offense for 5 minutes would have us down by only 3 points.

 

[joober jones]

Austrie and Sami(this dude was not good so i'm not sure why he got a mention) would look just like Vital does playing on this squad, Austrie had the luxury of playing on a stacked team his freshman year, Brown/Anderson/Gay/Armstrong/Boone/Adrien is no comparison with the group on the floor right now. Once you get past your first two PGs you really have no hope unless you just have an above average player at every other position.

From a talent perspective Austrie wasn't a whole lot better than Vital. What he did have though was an excellent ability to keep the other players on the floor calm and focused. We may not have had quite as much of a 3 ring 3 point circus with him at the helm.

 

[UConnDan97]

@UConnDan97 what gives you the impression that Purvis is our second best player? To be frank, he is, to date, having one of the worst seasons in UConn history.

It's not his fault that we rely on him so much. He's been bad, though, like uncomfortably bad, which sadly is still good enough to be our fourth best player.

Then give me your list. I'd love to see you make the argument that he's not. Right now, it's: 1) Jalen, 2) Purvis 3) Brimah, 3a) Facey, 4) Vital, 5) Enoch 5a) Vance, 6) Durham.

The "a" is for people that in my mind could be considered equally important. Feel free to argue someone else higher on the list, and feel free to come with numbers to back up why I'm wrong.

Once people think about this type of list, they can truly understand the gravity of losing Larrier and Gilbert, and truly understand why we lost in overtime yesterday...

 

[UConnDan97]

To go even further with Purvis:

1) he's the only other player besides Jalen to average double-digit scoring, averaging 6 more points per game than the next closest active player (Vital)

2) he's averaging more rebounds than all the guards and more than Enoch. Only Brimah and Facey average more.

3) he's second in assists to Jalen, averaging 2 more assists than the next player (Vital).

For all the crap the kid gets, he's our second best player. No other way to look at it...

 

[gtcam]

He may have guts but certainly doesnt have high bball IQ, going on fast breaks with 1 on 3 and losing the ball repeatedly or consistently turning the ball over as a senior. He took bad shots, anyone can hoist up a shot from beyond the arc.

I dont blame the loss on purvis, Ollie's offensive strategy is extremely puzzling at times. Facey and Enoch were making shots, yet we stopped giving them the ball at the end and settled on 3s from someone who was cold.

It wasn't KOs strategy to shoot the 3's
If you were at the game and followed both KF and SE, during the second half, they decided to stop moving on offense. KO was screaming at them to move ad when he brought SE to the bench both he and Freeman were asking him loudly why he wasn't moving and being a target.
Its so easy to bash KO but with 7 players your options are somewhat limited.
Both KF and SE were not executing in half 2 vs half 1

 

[gtcam]

He is what he is. He has a lot of flaws/limitations in his game but I will never bash Rodney. Everything you can think of has gone wrong this season and he's been put into positions where he just isn't comfortable and it most likely won't translate into good basketball but he has never not played hard. We have had other kids in the past where when the going got tough they quit, Rodney has never done that. As frustrating as he is at times he represents the University well, plays hard and is a good teammate. He will do well in life.

It must be Christmas!!!!!
Great post thanks

 

[champs99and04]

Then give me your list. I'd love to see you make the argument that he's not. Right now, it's: 1) Jalen, 2) Purvis 3) Brimah, 3a) Facey, 4) Vital, 5) Enoch 5a) Vance, 6) Durham.

The "a" is for people that in my mind could be considered equally important. Feel free to argue someone else higher on the list, and feel free to come with numbers to back up why I'm wrong.

Once people think about this type of list, they can truly understand the gravity of losing Larrier and Gilbert, and truly understand why we lost in overtime yesterday...

Regarding the last part, yes, of course. (Though, to me, losing Gilbert was much more devastating than losing Larrier.)

To me, it's pretty clear that Facey is the second best player on the team right now. One could argue over the last stretch of games that he's the best. He's been our best rebounder, his defense has improved a lot, and he's been scoring at an extremely efficient clip.

It gets tough between Purvis and Brimah. Both are extremely flawed players. Brimah is just as foul prone as he was coming into school, which makes him among the most unreliable players we've ever had. He's gotten better defensively, but he still makes plenty of mistakes on that end. Offensively, he is a dreadful screener, has regressed big time as a foul shooter and obviously isn't much of a low post threat. He still can't catch the ball, or even put it on the floor without turning it over. Can't pass at all. He's a disaster, in a lot of ways.

But for all of that he's still actually a player that helps us win when he's out there. Purvis does not. Purvis is shooting 33% from the field. That's unfathomably low this far into the season. He assist/turnover ratio sits at one. His PER is 9.7. His offensive rating is 89.6 and his defensive rating is 102.2. You want your offensive rating to be higher than your defensive rating. Effectively, through about 1/3 of the season, he's having the worst season - for this amount of usage - I have ever seen a UConn player have. I wish I could do more to dress that up but I can't.

It's still 11 games, though. He's a much better player than he's shown and he's still a good teammate and defender. I still believe that he's going to play well later in the year and possibly help us get into the tournament.