Quite frankly(TM), I'm not convinced that Whaley can't be that guy. He had a nice-looking stroke on some outside shots last year But we need to see it, and he needs to be enough of a threat to draw the defense.
Don’t know of a site that has a weighted metric like that that, but as you alluded to, a big part of our success defending the 3 is limiting attempts (27th, 11th, and 52nd this year). I do think having such undersized/non-physical backcourts has limited his UConn teams. We’ve had mostly tiny PGs or finesse/thin guards here. I know Fatts was tiny too, but he’s a special defender for his size.
wut??
Duh! It is Villanova and 10 interchangeable parts.
hall is a tourney team so their floor is 4 or 5. have you even looked at their roster? cale, aiken, rhoden, and obiagu are all back. richmond, yetna, and harris transferred in, plus a top 80 recruit in weston. that's a quality top 8 with a lot of experience.
I agree, it's a good problem to have. But I'll disagree politely on Whaley vs. Akok. Maybe Akok should be better, but as it stands that's not the case. Whaley is a great defender both on the perimeter and in the paint. He is a little shorter, but has long arms and great timing. Akok is also very good in the paint, but we'll have to see how he hedges and disrupts on the perimeter, which Whaley does exceptionally well. Whaley also makes his shots inside, has good strong hands grabbing rebounds on both ends, and can hit out to the 3 point line - so much so that the coaches wanted him shooting those more. If you're right, then we're blessed with two very dangerous players that can play 4 or 5 depending on matchups.
Doctor H.. Speaking of AA.. Are you encouraged by some of Dan Hurley's recent comments about his apparent readiness? Or is it about the timeline you expected with his injury?
Thanks. He’s got a very good chance of being back to his bouncy self, if they’ve got his legs built back up. It will have been 18 months since the injury by fall. There’s a lot of atrophied muscle to rebuild, but that should be enough time to get that back and train the quick-twitch necessary.
It’s encouraging to see Kevin Durant and Breanna Stewart playing at an elite level 2 years removed from their respective injuries. They’re the closest I can think of in terms of similar body composition to AA that sustained the same injury in recent years. Excited to see how he plays and how he looks physically this year, I think we’ll see him round into form as the season progresses.
i'm happy with an average of 5.5 teams in per year
Having them both on the floor with RJ and AJ can be a nightmare for teams offenses… The more and more I think about it this season will really rest on just how good AJ can be. If he can be the go to go like Bouknight was that opens up so many things we’ll be able to do offensively and defensively. I’m hoping for a Rudy Gay type of year from him where he does a little bit of everything.
He has a very good handle for a guy his size, his athleticism is out of this world, and he sees the floor. But I think expecting him, like Bouknight, to create his own shot either getting all the way to the hole or knocking down pullups and stepbacks is a tall order, considering his offensive limitations last year. He needs to be a slasher off the wing, and reliably knock down 15-18 footers when open, and both of those opportunities should be mostly off the ball.
Given the current environment of college basketball, it's crazy to note that since 2016, UConn has had only two players leave without spending a minimum 3 years in Storrs and those were Javonte Brown & Kwintin Williams (excludes grad transfers and NBA draft picks, Sid Wilson & Terry Larrier only played two seasons but were in Storrs for three).
I agree for the most part. I would expect someone with his size and athleticism to be able to get to the hole with a year of training. I guess my comparison would be Kemba’s sophomore year when he went from only being able to drive to being able to drive and make the occasional 3 as well. With all of Andre’s talents his development as a scorer is crucial because he has the tools to be THE offense. Can’t have a passer like with the athleticism he was playing off the ball as a spot up shooter. Seems like a waste. But it’s on him to make that jump.
Ollie’s biggest failure here was player retention. He couldn’t pay guys to stay. It’s refreshing to see Hurley having to kick guys like Bouknight out the door and getting all his seniors back compared to Ollie having guys like DHam leave before they’re ready and a whole freshman class of bigs transfer out with nothing but PT in front of them.
New tiers after Garcia transferring:
If champagnie comes back no way stj stays in that tier.
A kudos for the first of you two to provide a list of 5.
