A few words about Omar

[TouchdownHusky]

Exactly. TDH is an idiot.

So you are basically agreeing with the poster who claim that OC is a "poor man's Rashard Anderson". Thinking that given the choice, especially on this year's team that could use a third scorer, that Rash would most people's choice. But apparently not you, talk about idiots.

 

[ctchamps]

We need Omar no doubt. I am rooting for the kid as i am sure everyone is. Bad news, his minutes aren't good now and we have players who are playing better. Nature of the beast. He needs to do other things, as KO said pre-game with Joe D, to ensure he stays on the court even when not scoring. For now he's not doing the "other" things either and had hjis chance when he didn't box out the Gator down the stretch for a rebound instead giving up an easy putback.......he needs to start making open shots or they need to play Giffey or Kromah early! Simple for now....can't lose ground waiting for a guy to get his confidence......

This is the one play everyone is pointing out. But I'm not sure his defense was poor outside this play. Prather was scoring easily early in the game until OC locked him down.

I think OC's defense is much better than last season. And that is surprising given that everyone he is playing against has had six months of play that he missed. He's only two months from being allowed to do strenuous exercise.

As long as UConn is winning it is important to continue developing OC's game. If we listened to the majority of the Boneyard, Lamb would have been benched during the middle of the season when the team struggled. Fortunately JC didn't listen to us then and hopefully KO doesn't listen to us now.

 

[sdhusky]

So you are basically agreeing with the poster who claim that OC is a "poor man's Rashard Anderson". Thinking that given the choice, especially on this year's team that could use a third scorer, that Rash would most people's choice. But apparently not you, talk about idiots.

No. I wasn't agreeing with that.

I was saying you are an idiot which you've proved over the years on the FB board, but this quote about OC didn't help your cause

"So then we can expect him to score points (and a lot of them) at some point in his career? So far, he's got the "poor" part down pat."

 

[Gurleyman]

This is the one play everyone is pointing out. But I'm not sure his defense was poor outside this play. Prather was scoring easily early in the game until OC locked him down.

He kinda did box out on that play, too - at least I thought. Prather is just stronger and rode him under the basket. Omar had the inside position, he was just too deep and then Prather was in position to jump over him. I thought it was more of a case of losing a physical battle than making a mental mistake. But I'd have to see it again to be sure.

 

[upstater]

We need Omar no doubt. I am rooting for the kid as i am sure everyone is. Bad news, his minutes aren't good now and we have players who are playing better. Nature of the beast. He needs to do other things, as KO said pre-game with Joe D, to ensure he stays on the court even when not scoring. For now he's not doing the "other" things either and had hjis chance when he didn't box out the Gator down the stretch for a rebound instead giving up an easy putback.......he needs to start making open shots or they need to play Giffey or Kromah early! Simple for now....can't lose ground waiting for a guy to get his confidence......

I thought he boxed Prather out, and even though Prather only has 2 more inches on Omar, he can jump much higher and he has much longer arms. Prather simply went over him. There's very little Omar can do to keep Prather off the boards. That's why Omar better learn how to dribble well pretty quickly because he isn't going to play the 3 over in Europe.

 

[mauconnfan]

I thought he boxed Prather out, and even though Prather only has 2 more inches on Omar, he can jump much higher and he has much longer arms. Prather simply went over him. There's very little Omar can do to keep Prather off the boards. That's why Omar better learn how to dribble well pretty quickly because he isn't going to play the 3 over in Europe.

Was it Prather? Thought it was Yugette but it doesn't matter....Omar is a strong kid at 6'5 and a 6'7-6'8 (Parather is 6'5" best too) guy can be boxed out easy of you do your job, he didn't on that one and failed......he needs to make those plays for sure if he can't make a shot if he wants to stay on the court.....her was out hustled there! He had 2 -3 plays where he went horizontal across the lane and had no idea what he was going to do with the ball......for now the kid looks lost......we need him back to open the court more for Bazz and Boat though!

 

[TouchdownHusky]

No. I wasn't agreeing with that.

I was saying you are an idiot which you've proved over the years on the FB board, but this quote about OC didn't help your cause

"So then we can expect him to score points (and a lot of them) at some point in his career? So far, he's got the "poor" part down pat."

When you want to debate sports - football or basketball - and NOT name call, then maybe your posts will enhance what should be a discussion board. My point, for your information, was that so far OC has not consistently done a good job at all of being what one poster described as "a poor man's Rashard Anderson" (hence the reference to having the poor part down). How good would UConn be right now - and going forward - if OC (or anyone else) could provide Anderson level of firepower?

 

[sdhusky]

"How good would UConn be right now - and going forward - if OC (or anyone else) could provide Anderson level of firepower?"

Seems like an argument for letting him shoot through any issues he has in November, Dec & january

 

[TouchdownHusky]

"How good would UConn be right now - and going forward - if OC (or anyone else) could provide Anderson level of firepower?"

Seems like an argument for letting him shoot through any issues he has in November, Dec & january

Rashard Anderson didn't need to work on "issues" in "November, Dec & January", he was a sharpshooter from November through early April. And that was my point, my reaction to the post that referred to OC as "a poor man's Rashard Anderson". Not knocking OC, but you can't compare him to Anderson anymore than you can compare him to Okafor. He simply is not scoring at a level they need.

 

[sdhusky]

Rashard Anderson didn't need to work on "issues" in "November, Dec & January", he was a sharpshooter from November through early April. And that was my point, my reaction to the post that referred to OC as "a poor man's Rashard Anderson". Not knocking OC, but you can't compare him to Anderson anymore than you can compare him to Okafor. He simply is not scoring at a level they need.

Right. Of course Anderson as a frosh, average 8.2 points on 40% shooting and OC as frosh, averaged 11.1 point on 40% shooting.

So you make a good point. If your point is that you are an idiot.

 

[mauconnfan]

Right. Of course Anderson as a frosh, average 8.2 points on 40% shooting and OC as frosh, averaged 11.1 point on 40% shooting.

So you make a good point. If your point is that you are an idiot.

Rashad played a lot less minutes than Omar their freshman seasons so the comparison is unfair at best. One started the other came off the bench plus rashad was awful defensively and a liability early on in his career so his minutes depended strictly on making shots..........not sure anyone is hammering on Omar just stating facts. Time to step up and make shots, or rebound. If not we have more than capable guys waiting in the wings and that's life......can't wait for guys to shoot themselves out of a slump when you need to win NOW!

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

If I remember correctly - and I know he had the staph infection - didn't Rashad become less versatile every year he was at UConn?

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Right. Of course Anderson as a frosh, average 8.2 points on 40% shooting and OC as frosh, averaged 11.1 point on 40% shooting.

So you make a good point. If your point is that you are an idiot.

If you can shed your inner elementary school penchant for name calling for just a minute, let's consider for a moment that as a "Frosh", OC averaged that 11.1 points per game over an average of 32.1 minutes per game (third highest on the team that season) while Rash averaged 8.2 points per game in 14.8 minutes per game (7th highest on the team that season). And when you take away free throws made, both players scored 241 total points in their "frosh" season. But again OC average 32.1 minutes per game (UConn was not a deep team last season due to scholarship losses) while Rash got his while averaging 14.8 minutes per game. So going on your argument of both at 40% shooting pct pace, my guess is that Rash would have averaged quite a bit more with the additional 17+ minutes per game (he'd have averaged roughly another 6-7 points per game).

So once again this "debate" centered on the observation that UConn needs help scoring from someone not named Napier or Daniels. Doubtful it will be from the front line. So OC hasn't been a "poor man's RA", not to date. Not saying the kid can't play, just that he's not scoring the way they need him to.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Rashad played a lot less minutes than Omar their freshman seasons so the comparison is unfair at best. One started the other came off the bench plus rashad was awful defensively and a liability early on in his career so his minutes depended strictly on making shots..........not sure anyone is hammering on Omar just stating facts. Time to step up and make shots, or rebound. If not we have more than capable guys waiting in the wings and that's life......can't wait for guys to shoot themselves out of a slump when you need to win NOW!

A different way of saying what I was attempting to point out. Maybe less incendiary, but does a good job of "just stating facts".

 

[Gurleyman]

Three games into the season, Omar was leading us in scoring.

His slump is two weeks long. Or 15 days if you want to be exact (Nov. 17 - Dec. 2).

 

[Huskybass]

I have no doubt that Omar will score lots of points this season. He is capable of flat out filling it up. On the other hand he is not a good ball handler or passer. Expecting that to change this season is unrealistic .

 

[Onions]

You can blame all three of them. Boat was working hard the whole possession, so he should be forgiven to a degree - just got picked off trailing around that curl screen, which opened a path to the basket (you'd rather give up a perimeter shot with no bigs on the floor, if you had to give something up).

I know I'm coming in late to this particular party but the idea that Boat should have gone under the screen when guarding a guy who is shooting 53% from 3 is a little bit silly. Yes, they gave up 2, but if Boat goes under they probably give up 3, and we're going to overtime or a loss.

 

[Gurleyman]

I know I'm coming in late to this particular party but the idea that Boat should have gone under the screen when guarding a guy who is shooting 53% from 3 is a little bit silly. Yes, they gave up 2, but if Boat goes under they probably give up 3, and we're going to overtime or a loss.

The screen was set on the baseline - it wasn't a matter of "going under". The two options were to trail him the whole way, or go over the top and jump the passing lane. Trailing is a perfectly fine strategy (going over the top leaves you vulnerable to a back cut), but if you are over-aggressive at denying the pass out to the wing, you can get beat on a curl screen when the player doubles back into the paint. Boat was playing his balls off, so no faulting his effort, but they used his aggressiveness against him - he was trying to stay right in the guy's shirt, but got caught trailing him all the way to the rim for a layup. Of course, if we had a big in the game, we might have been able to cover for him with someone protecting the rim, but DD and Giffey both offered no help.

In hindsight, with no shot blockers on the floor, Boat should have been more careful to deny that cut and been willing to trail the shooter a little more conservatively (and then jump him on the catch if he caught it on the perimeter). But that's completely hindsight with the advantage of studying the film. To me, Giffey's error is more egregious because it is a simple fundamental mistake, and the second time one of our seniors made a dreadful defensive mistake on an important possession (the other was Bazz leaving his man to chase the ball on BC's fullcourt end-of-game play, when Boat ended up with the block - had BC thrown the ball the other way, Bazz's man was wide, wide open).

 

[imno1]

My take on Omar this year is he feels he has to expand his game and take his man off the dribble. He's not quick or crafty enough yet to do that. And I believe that mentality is affecting his whole game.