Adama Sanogo

[BarkingDog]

I’ll be that guy …. How you gonna blame the kid who had 15 points and 13 rebounds? Adama is a warrior.

Hurley’s offensive plan is almost solely reliant on getting the ball to sanogo in the post. You, me and everyone knows this.

So, Yes he missed a bunch of shots around the rim last night but he usually had three guys hanging on him. And still, the plan is feed the post. The offense is so reliant on this strategy it stagnates when adama is off the floor.

Maybe we find a few more shots for Polley? Maybe RJ Cole is more involved like in pick and roll action? Maybe Jackson makes the good play instead of trying to make the spectacular play?

Or maybe we got beat by a more talented and more disciplined team. No shame in that.

But no way am I piling on the kid, a sophomore who has a lot of great moments ahead of him in a husky uniform, who had 15 points and 13 rebounds.

 

[Giddyup5]

He let his teammates down this tournament. He needs to play with more physicality. It’s not in his nature as his game is a lot more finesse. But like you said, he is only a sophomore and I hope his teammates are in his ear all week and leads to improvement.

 

[InKembaITrust]

We didn't lose the game because of Sanogo. You have to be close to perfect to beat Villanova. Tyrese getting cute with the blocked dunk, Whaley with the late bonehead TO (who also had 0 pts), and Cole making 1 three-pointer all night ain't gonna cut it against a top 10 team. If there's anything to be upset about with Sanogo it's his FT shooting last night.

Credit Samuels and Slater for hitting their shots. If each of them misses a couple it's a different story.

 

[jibsey]

Nothing to argue about. They packed in on him and also covered RJ like a blanket.

 

[Stinger92860]

This is a team loss. Once again I am wondering why the staff can’t figure out a tweak to make up those 3-4 points. More Polley, screens for Polley???? Heck, Whaley had 0 points. RJ was getting abused for a good stretch in H2. Change something.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

Sanogo's lesson from the game is simple:

Whenever you are in the low post and are guarded by a much smaller player, keep your footwork and post play in the same rhythm as you would if it were a traditional big guarding you. Don't get greedy and rush the process.

When someone smaller than Dixon was guarding him in the low post, Sanogo wanted to take advantage of his size and that caused him to speed up his post moves, therefore causing a few gimmes to miss.

It's a simple fix and Sanogo is a smart and reflective kid. He'll make the adjustment if we play games without a traditional big.

 

[ucp990411]

This is a team loss. Once again I am wondering why the staff can’t figure out a tweak to make up those 3-4 points. More Polley, screens for Polley???? Heck, Whaley had 0 points. RJ was getting abused for a good stretch in H2. Change something.

You guys who are dissing RJ for last night ar unbelievable. Playing head to head against the player of the year in the coneference his stat line was 11 pts, 8 assists, 8 rebounds, 3 turnovers while being the only true ball handler and playing 38 minutes. Yes he could have shot better I agree. And he held Gillepsie to 5 points. Give Gillepsie props for his 10 assists. But RJ played his butt off and outplayed Gillepsie.

 

[CTrefugee]

What's missing is the kickout from the post. I don't know if it's because he hasn't learned how or because his teammates are just watching him instead of getting into postion. All the better teams free up threes and long twos that way. The defenders know that they can converge on Adamo, because he rarely passes out once he gets the ball down low.

 

[cohenzone]

I’ll be that guy …. How you gonna blame the kid who had 15 points and 13 rebounds? Adama is a warrior.

Hurley’s offensive plan is almost solely reliant on getting the ball to sanogo in the post. You, me and everyone knows this.

So, Yes he missed a bunch of shots around the rim last night but he usually had three guys hanging on him. And still, the plan is feed the post. The offense is so reliant on this strategy it stagnates when adama is off the floor.

Maybe we find a few more shots for Polley? Maybe RJ Cole is more involved like in pick and roll action? Maybe Jackson makes the good play instead of trying to make the spectacular play?

Or maybe we got beat by a more talented and more disciplined team. No shame in that.

But no way am I piling on the kid, a sophomore who has a lot of great moments ahead of him in a husky uniform, who had 15 points and 13 rebounds.

His overall play was good. He happened to have a rough stretch of missing shots that weren’t all that well defended and that’s when Nova took advantage. We didn’t lose because he played lousy, but he struggled making shots in that stretch including 2 foul shots that had nothing to do with who else was in the game. It happens. I’m glad we have him.

The point people have made about Polley not in the last several minutes is the one coaching decision maybe open to debate. I think Hurley opted to have his best defenders on the floor. Not a crazy decision and unfortunately the way the world works whether or not a different choice would havev been better or worse is unknowable.

 

[Waquoit]

Of course we didn't lose because of Sanogo, still we need better from him. Little things like, how many buckets would he have he caught all those nice entry passes first time.

 

[UncleSpliff]

I’ll be that guy …. How you gonna blame the kid who had 15 points and 13 rebounds? Adama is a warrior.

Hurley’s offensive plan is almost solely reliant on getting the ball to sanogo in the post. You, me and everyone knows this.

So, Yes he missed a bunch of shots around the rim last night but he usually had three guys hanging on him. And still, the plan is feed the post. The offense is so reliant on this strategy it stagnates when adama is off the floor.

Maybe we find a few more shots for Polley? Maybe RJ Cole is more involved like in pick and roll action? Maybe Jackson makes the good play instead of trying to make the spectacular play?

Or maybe we got beat by a more talented and more disciplined team. No shame in that.

But no way am I piling on the kid, a sophomore who has a lot of great moments ahead of him in a husky uniform, who had 15 points and 13 rebounds.

3 of the past 4 games AS has shot sub 35% from the field. That’s not going to work if that’s your #1 option. Opposing coaches have figured him out and he hasn’t been able to adjust. If he’s going to get double and triple teamed every play than he really needs to kick it out to the open man instead of just tossing it up at the hoop in traffic.

 

[GHSWolverines]

Sanago is a warrior. In hindsight, Samson should have been utilized much earlier in the season. I think he would have been a reliable 8 to 10 min per game contributor and allow Adama to have fresher legs

 

[Slick]

I’ll be that guy …. How you gonna blame the kid who had 15 points and 13 rebounds? Adama is a warrior.

Hurley’s offensive plan is almost solely reliant on getting the ball to sanogo in the post. You, me and everyone knows this.

So, Yes he missed a bunch of shots around the rim last night but he usually had three guys hanging on him. And still, the plan is feed the post. The offense is so reliant on this strategy it stagnates when adama is off the floor.

Maybe we find a few more shots for Polley? Maybe RJ Cole is more involved like in pick and roll action? Maybe Jackson makes the good play instead of trying to make the spectacular play?

Or maybe we got beat by a more talented and more disciplined team. No shame in that.

But no way am I piling on the kid, a sophomore who has a lot of great moments ahead of him in a husky uniform, who had 15 points and 13 rebounds.

15 points 13 rebounds and 4 blocked shots let his teammates down? I wish we had a few mor guys letting us down like that! We would have won by 20 points!

 

[Brochacho]

3 of the past 4 games AS has shot sub 35% from the field. That’s not going to work if that’s your #1 option. Opposing coaches have figured him out and he hasn’t been able to adjust. If he’s going to get double and triple teamed every play than he really needs to kick it out to the open man instead of just tossing it up at the hoop in traffic.

Honestly, I'm not to worried about coaches adjusting. Willard is a good coach, Wright is elite. This is their third time playing Sanogo. The Seton Hall game was much more gameplan related but Sanogo just missed some easy ones yesterday in addition to Wright's gameplan. They'll start going in. Whoever we get in the first round is going to feel like they got hit by a train if they don't have a top tier defender in the post.

 

[jdb50]

I don't tape games but IIRC Adama got a few of those rebounds rebounding his own missed layups and then trying to shoot again. So statistics can be misleading. For RJ it was the missed 3's that hurt. We needed a couple of those. It seemed in the second half we just could not sustain offense outside of Martin hitting shots. Adama had his chances and did struggle to control passes all game.

 

[alphasigko]

The book is out on how teams should defend Sanogo: Double/triple team him as soon as he gets the ball and he ether travels, tries to dribble and loses the ball, or tries to throw up a weak/impossible shot that easilly misses and becomes a rebound for the opponent. All four of our last opponents did this and 3 were quite successful in limiting his effectiveness.

 

[Stinger92860]

You guys who are dissing RJ for last night ar unbelievable. Playing head to head against the player of the year in the coneference his stat line was 11 pts, 8 assists, 8 rebounds, 3 turnovers while being the only true ball handler and playing 38 minutes. Yes he could have shot better I agree. And he held Gillepsie to 5 points. Give Gillepsie props for his 10 assists. But RJ played his butt off and outplayed Gillepsie.

@up990411 That is NOT WHAT I WROTE. Read it again. The staff needed to get him some help on D, they needed to switch up the D.

 

[UncleSpliff]

Honestly, I'm not to worried about coaches adjusting. Willard is a good coach, Wright is elite. This is their third time playing Sanogo. The Seton Hall game was much more gameplan related but Sanogo just missed some easy ones yesterday in addition to Wright's gameplan. They'll start going in. Whoever we get in the first round is going to feel like they got hit by a train if they don't have a top tier defender in the post.

That’s the thing… they aren’t going to go in if he keeps trying to shoot into double and triple teams.

 

[UConnSwag11]

That’s the thing… they aren’t going to go in if he keeps trying to shoot into double and triple teams.

And that’s where you have to decide, do you want to play someone at the four who can spread the floor and and you give up a little defense, or focus on defense and hope we get points?

 

[GotNets?]

Adama was 6 for 15 from the field… he’s always going to put up decent numbers because he’s one of the best in the league, but that’s kind of an off night for him including the free throws. It took 30+ to beat Auburn. The point is that we’re not beating top teams if he only has an ok night.

I was in lower bowl and from what I could tell he seemed exhausted, sweating even more profusely than usual, and just listless at the line and during stoppages.

Is it possible that he was sick too, like Polley?

 

[August_West]

Sanogo puts up some gaudy numbers but he is terribly inefficient for a 5 . And that is a season long thing. He is shooting 50 percent for the season . That is a full 10 points lower than what elite centers should be shooting. And do shoot. Look it up. Again that’s not just last 2 games at MSG where he was a combined 8/26 shooting 30.7%…… that is the season. Combine that ineffiency with his unwillingness to move the ball back out of triple teams and it makes for some real rough looking offense.

I really like the kid. He is already a big time player and has a huge ceiling, but I’ve taken issue all year with Hurleys usage of him. It’s simply too high . We have better lineups than our starting lineup. Many of those lineups include Adama. In its simplest essence Sanogo and Whaley should spend way less time on floor together. It doesn’t even need to reduce minutes of either, just give them more time away from each other than they currently get. I’m convinced it makes everyone better.

 

[Giddyup5]

I acknowledge that saying he let his teammates down was harsh and an exaggeration.

I still believe just like people say he needs to develop a 3 point shot for the NBA; he equally needs to improve finishing through contact and be more efficient around the rim. He is shooting around 50% for the year which is good not great for a big. He needs to dunk the ball and use the backboard more for layups. He’s only a sophomore and I expect it should improve.

 

[UConnSwag11]

As a whole, we are are not a great team finishing around the rim. A lot of our points come from offensive rebounds from those missed shots

 

[UConnSwag11]

Sanogo puts up some gaudy numbers but he is terribly inefficient for a 5 . And that is a season long thing. He is shooting 50 percent for the season . That is a full 10 points lower than what elite centers should be shooting. And do shoot. Look it up. Again that’s not just last 2 games at MSG where he was a combined 8/26 shooting 30.7%…… that is the season. Combine that ineffiency with his unwillingness to move the ball back out of triple teams and it makes for some real rough looking offense.

I really like the kid. He is already a big time player and has a huge ceiling, but I’ve taken issue all year with Hurleys usage of him. It’s simply too high . We have better lineups than our starting lineup. Many of those lineups include Adama. In its simplest essence Sanogo and Whaley should spend way less time on floor together. It doesn’t even need to reduce minutes of either, just give them more time away from each other than they currently get. I’m convinced it makes everyone better.

I’m not gonna hate on Sanogo. He’s the best player on the team (Cole is most important) and his improvement from freshman to sophomore is incredible. He got another double double last night.

 

[Kolumbo]

Sanogo and Cole can have off shooting nights and still have good games. Without those two, this team gets blown out.

Cole takes care of the ball and Sanogo, for Pete's sake: