A Whole lot of not Players Reaction

[Mokum]

We don't win the 2014 National Championship without Kromah. Taking post grads on a selective basis can be very good, it just shouldn't be a recruiting mainstay.

Yes Kromah was good. But most are not. To me the optimum is guys who stay minimum 3 years. Build a team.

 

[polycom]

Yet is a 4 year player that scored 30 as a SOPHOMORE more than once. Please... he’d get attention from most schools

Most schools? yeah sure. Most schools better than UConn? no.

 

[businesslawyer]

Vital isn’t going to go anywhere better than UConn and still get these minutes.

He’s an undersized shooting guard who isn’t a great shooter, isn’t a great athlete and doesn’t seem overly aware of either limitation.

This. I like the kid's toughness, and goodness knows we would have been even worse the last two years without him, but he is not an important piece of a ranked team. On a ranked team he's the 5th or 6th man.

 

[Mokum]

Fairly laughable post. We don't win national championship #4 without Evans coming in the year before and showing Boat and Bazz mental toughness and discipline, nor do we win it without Kromah's contribution that year. And we don't get to the NCAA's the last time we went without Miller and Gibbs.

Filling in holes during an offseason is fine. It's relying on grad students as opposed to recruiting frosh that is the problem.

My main problem with it is it takes playing time from guys who are staying 4 years. Yes the guys you mentioned were contributers. But it would be a plus if we don't have to fill out the roster with these guys.

 

[hooskies]

Yes Kromah was good. But most are not. To me the optimum is guys who stay minimum 3 years. Build a team.

You're acting like someone is trying to make up a whole team of post-grad transfers. Just stop

 

[businesslawyer]

My main problem with it is it takes playing time from guys who are staying 4 years. Yes the guys you mentioned were contributers. But it would be a plus if we don't have to fill out the roster with these guys.

So Gibbs took minutes from Adams as a frosh. So what? It would have helped if Adams was more exhausted the last two years?

If you have a 13 man roster of 4 year players, 3 or 4 won't play meaningful minutes anyway. Those who do play meaningful minutes may have to compete more for them -- that's supposed to be a good thing.

 

[Mokum]

This. I like the kid's toughness, and goodness knows we would have been even worse the last two years without him, but he is not an important piece of a ranked team. On a ranked team he's the 5th or 6th man.

Vital is an excellent player to have

This. I like the kid's toughness, and goodness knows we would have been even worse the last two years without him, but he is not an important piece of a ranked team. On a ranked team he's the 5th or 6th man.

Exactly. He is a great addition to any bench. He plays hard and is good. Not great, but a good player to have on your team.
in any team. I hope he stays.

 

[PAHusky]

I don’t get the Vital slander. Yes he’s undersized but so are most UConn guards. He didn’t shoot a great percentage and needs to work on shot selection but there’s plenty to like.

Which part of Fishy's statement was slander? He's a shooting guard sans conscience who doesn't shoot at a particularly great rate, was incredibly prone to jacking up 3s at any point in the shot clock, and he's not very athletic at all for a high D1 guard. He plays with a great toughness, though he could do without the absurd taunting as a player on a sub .500 team. He's good for instant offense once ever few games, what's the plenty else to like?

 

[Mokum]

You're acting like someone is trying to make up a whole team of post-grad transfers. Just stop

No I 'm not. You are putting words in my mouth. I made it clear what I am talking about. Having to rely on these guys that are in for one year is not the optimum situation.

 

[polycom]

Which part of Fishy's statement was slander? He's a shooting guard sans conscience who doesn't shoot at a particularly great rate, was incredibly prone to jacking up 3s at any point in the shot clock, and he's not very athletic at all for a high D1 guard. He plays with a great toughness, though he could do without the absurd taunting as a player on a sub .500 team. He's good for instant offense once ever few games, what's the plenty else to like?

This is the fairest analysis of Vital's game.

 

[tcf15]

not a player but

 

[polycom]

No I 'm not. You are putting words in my mouth. I made it clear what I am talking about. Having to rely on these guys that are in for one year is not the optimum situation.

So what do you propose as an alternative?

 

[businesslawyer]

No I 'm not. You are putting words in my mouth. I made it clear what I am talking about. Having to rely on these guys that are in for one year is not the optimum situation.

You are filling holes with grad transfers. Either a hole that you have in the rotation for the next year or a hole that you have for a roster. You're pretending that we're turning away high school kids that we think are going to be important 4 years contributors. Name a single time that happened.

 

[Stainmaster]

not a player but

What's Hurley's stance on the concussion protocol? #ImportantQuestions

 

[Lefty2one]

Vital's career FG% is below 40%. That is dreadful, no matter how you try to spin it. He's a limited guard thrust into a bigger role than he should be in. Same with Anderson last season. Vital is fine as your first guard off the bench; he shouldn't be playing 31 MPG. I have a suspicion his shot selection will be much better under Hurley as well.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

he is not an important piece of a ranked team. On a ranked team he's the 5th or 6th man.

TIL the 5th/6th man is not important to a basketball team.

 

[the Q]

You are filling holes with grad transfers. Either a hole that you have in the rotation for the next year or a hole that you have for a roster. You're pretending that we're turning away high school kids that we think are going to be important 4 years contributors. Name a single time that happened.

Exactly.

You can use the grad transfer market to fill a hole you have on your roster. One that the recruits still interested in your school are not able to fill, or they're simply better.

UNC got Cam Johnson because there wasn't a recruit left out there better than he was.

 

[the Q]

Vital's career FG% is below 40%. That is dreadful, no matter how you try to spin it. He's a limited guard thrust into a bigger role than he should be in. Same with Anderson last season. Vital is fine as your first guard off the bench; he shouldn't be playing 31 MPG. I have a suspicion his shot selection will be much better under Hurley as well.

I suspect you'll see his shooting percentages rise up a decent amount with a reigned in shot selection. His FT shooting was quite good.

There's plenty of shooting there. But he's more of a spot up shooter. He took way too many shots off the dribble and far too many shots from the Student Union last year.

 

[businesslawyer]

TIL the 5th/6th man is not important to a basketball team.

That's fair. I've been clear I'm not dissing Vitale, and I hope he stays. But he is critical to the team we had last year -- he's not critical to the team we all want to be again.

 

[krinklecut]

1 player reaction, 4 pages of garbage. I miss yesterday's thread.

 

[USNA90]

Fairly laughable post. We don't win national championship #4 without Evans coming in the year before and showing Boat and Bazz mental toughness and discipline, nor do we win it without Kromah's contribution that year. And we don't get to the NCAA's the last time we went without Miller and Gibbs.

Filling in holes during an offseason is fine. It's relying on grad students as opposed to recruiting frosh that is the problem.

I agree 100% with this. The need to fill the roster with grad transfers is a symptom. The real problem is not getting full recruiting classes and losing players. If the right guys are brought in when there are openings, they can be used to fill specific roles (shooter, shot blocker, etc.), but if recruiting/retention is working well, a team shouldn’t need grad transfers to fill the roster. Frankly, given all the players who transferred out last year, I would rather have seen UConn bring in more (and better) grad transfers, instead of filling out the roster with dead wood quick fixes who take up scholarships for several years.

 

[businesslawyer]

Vital's career FG% is below 40%. That is dreadful, no matter how you try to spin it. He's a limited guard thrust into a bigger role than he should be in. Same with Anderson last season. Vital is fine as your first guard off the bench; he shouldn't be playing 31 MPG. I have a suspicion his shot selection will be much better under Hurley as well.

His shot selection will be better when he has some confidence that him chucking up a 3 early in the shot clock isn't our best bet. Unfortunately, this year, he wasn't wrong (at least at home when he could hit some).

 

[Sonova]

In the spirit of transparency and efficiency can we change the title of this thread to “One player’s dad’s and the team trainer’s reaction followed by a discussion of Christian Vital”

 

[the Q]

His shot selection will be better when he has some confidence that him chucking up a 3 early in the shot clock isn't our best bet. Unfortunately, this year, he wasn't wrong (at least at home when he could hit some).

Or if he has the confidence that if he does it he'll be sitting next to Hurley about 12 seconds after it goes up.

 

[businesslawyer]

I agree 100% with this. The need to fill the roster with grad transfers is a symptom. The real problem is not getting full recruiting classes and losing players. If the right guys are brought in when there are openings, they can be used to fill specific roles (shooter, shot blocker, etc.), but if recruiting/retention is working well, a team shouldn’t need grad transfers to fill the roster. Frankly, given all the players who transferred out last year, I would rather have seen UConn bring in more (and better) grad transfers, instead of filling out the roster with dead wood quick fixes who take up scholarships for several years.

Everybody loses players nowadays. It's not like it was when Calhoun was here, and players would sit patiently and wait their turn for three years. The reason there are grad transfers everywhere is because there are transfers from everywhere.

 

[Danzz]

Yes. Just because we had subpar ones this past season doesn't mean they are all like that. There are plenty of grad transfers out there with the ability to compete at our level when placed in the appropriate role.

Anderson filled the backup PG role and we would have been worse without him. And yes we could have been worse.

 

[Lefty2one]

He took way too many shots off the dribble and far too many shots from the Student Union last year.

Which to me was a result of our terrible halfcourt offense. It's as if the team knew "well, we aren't going to get a better look during this possession anyway...". I expect he'll get better/easier looks next season and his shooting percentage will benefit from it.

 

[the Q]

Which to me was a result of our terrible halfcourt offense. It's as if the team knew "well, we aren't going to get a better look during this possession anyway...". I expect he'll get better/easier looks next season and his shooting percentage will benefit from it.

I will again reiterate the fact that he faced no repercussions from it also lead to that problem.

 

[Danzz]

Which part of Fishy's statement was slander? He's a shooting guard sans conscience who doesn't shoot at a particularly great rate, was incredibly prone to jacking up 3s at any point in the shot clock, and he's not very athletic at all for a high D1 guard. He plays with a great toughness, though he could do without the absurd taunting as a player on a sub .500 team. He's good for instant offense once ever few games, what's the plenty else to like?

Vital's shooting % would go up if he got the ball in better position, if we had an inside game along with better shot selection.

 

[Ctrane]

If this year's team had any set plays at all they certainly kept them well disguised.