Athletic Has UConn preseason #2 in Big East | The Boneyard

Athletic Has UConn preseason #2 in Big East

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RJ, Andre, Rese, Whaley, and Sanogo is not a feasible starting lineup... but the rest of what they say seems reasonable. That’s just not enough shooters AT ALL.

My guess?

RJ, Gaffney, Rese, Whaley, Sanogo.

Hawkins and Andre replacing Gaffney/Rese by the middle of the season if they play well, but no guarantees.
 

CL82

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RJ, Andre, Rese, Whaley, and Sanogo is not a feasible starting lineup... but the rest of what they say seems reasonable. That’s just not enough shooters AT ALL.

My guess?

RJ, Gaffney, Rese, Whaley, Sanogo.

Hawkins and Andre replacing Gaffney/Rese by the middle of the season if they play well, but no guarantees.
Has Gaff really shown himself to be a shooter?
 
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RJ, Andre, Rese, Whaley, and Sanogo is not a feasible starting lineup... but the rest of what they say seems reasonable. That’s just not enough shooters AT ALL.

My guess?

RJ, Gaffney, Rese, Whaley, Sanogo.

Hawkins and Andre replacing Gaffney/Rese by the middle of the season if they play well, but no guarantees.
In all seriousness, I would put Seton Hall in the top half of the conference as of right now, but I can’t help but laugh to see them at 10th in this article. I got a good kick out of it.
 
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Has Gaff really shown himself to be a shooter?

36% on 4 attempts per 40. He isn’t a GREAT shooter, but he’s our only proven shooter outside of Polley and RJ. We need another ball handler to start games imo, so unless we want to bench Rese for Polley, it wouldn’t make much sense... I wouldn’t be averse to that, but I do like Polley off the bench as a spark plug.
 
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Andre will 100% start from day one. It is going to be his team next year.

I don't see how you can say that about a player who averaged 3/3/2 on terrible percentages and had constant foul trouble because of bad defense. 100% is a huge stretch. I think it's possible, and he's a talented kid with a TON of potential, but he has a LOT to prove. Everything hinges on his ability to start scoring the ball--if he can't, he just can't play that much.
 

CL82

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36% on 4 attempts per 40. He isn’t a GREAT shooter, but he’s our only proven shooter outside of Polley and RJ. We need another ball handler to start games imo, so unless we want to bench Rese for Polley, it wouldn’t make much sense... I wouldn’t be averse to that, but I do like Polley off the bench as a spark plug.

More that Jackson, yes. Way more.
Lol, no doubt.

We have pieces but I'm not sure how they fit together. We need guys to make a jump so that they can fill our needs. I like Gaffney, but I'm not convinced he can consistently be a scorer. Certainly Jackson has to show that he can put it in the bucket, but with his athleticism it sure seems that it will come. Will Akok actually be able to show the hops and blocks that he did freshman year? Who knows? I feel like Sool is going to have a big impact. He has a KEA/Anderson like charm and confidence.
 
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Lol, no doubt.

We have pieces but I'm not sure how they fit together. We need guys to make a jump so that they can fill our needs. I like Gaffney, but I'm not convinced he can consistently be a scorer. Certainly Jackson has to show that he can put it in the bucket, but his athleticism sure seems that it will come. Will Akok actually be able to show the hops and blocks that he did freshman year? Who knows? I feel like Sool is going to have a big impact. He has a KEA/Anderson like charm and confidence.
I hope it comes for AJ. But that's hard work. He is way behind in getting the amount of shots up to be a consistent shooter next year. I'm not saying it's not possible. He is putting in the work. He also needs to be confident in his shot.

Yea, Sol could be. But him and Cole are small.
 
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that's straight up insane to have them 10th
completely agree here. I don’t see how you can put them in the bottom half at this point in time.

Im not huge into preseason rankings, but if I had to do one right now they would be top 3 or top 4.

It’s near impossible to rank teams like Georgetown, Marquette, and Creighton for me personally because they are all going to be working with an entirely new team for the most part, but I feel pretty certain that Seton Hall is not a bottom half big east team.

Edit: I also personally don’t see how you can make Butler a top half team at this point in time. They pretty much have the exact same team as last year and they finished 10th. You could maybe bump them up a couple spots for seniority, but I don’t think that puts them at 5.

Definitely some funkiness to these rankings, but i’ll gladly take UConn at 2 lol
 
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Andre will 100% start from day one. It is going to be his team next year.
He has a lot of work to do on handle and shot. A lot. He isn't getting the keys in November. If he has them in early Feb it is going to be a good year.
 
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I absolutely love what he had to say in that article Ajax is putting in serious work and seems like a kid who gets it and is ready to burst out the starting gate. A lot of us gave him leeway last season and werent too hard on him because it was a difficult year for everyone especially the freshmen coming especially Ajax. The knee, the wrist and the pauses and cancelled games just really hurt his development. That is clearly not a problem this year and hes making sure its not and hes getting the most out of his time already. If this kid gets that jumper to start falling it opens up everything else and with his athleticism we could see a huge improvement in his game. If that happens this team starts looking like a serious F4 contender.
 

HuskyWarrior611

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My personal ideal lineup would be Gaffney, Hawkins, AJ, Whaley, and Sanogo. Get the most athleticism and shooting on the floor and have the steady vets coming off the bench. Cole played really well in his short stint coming off the bench last year. Really hope AJ can make the jump because he can be a special, special player if he does. A walking highlight reel.
 
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RJ, Andre, Rese, Whaley, and Sanogo is not a feasible starting lineup... but the rest of what they say seems reasonable. That’s just not enough shooters AT ALL.

My guess?

RJ, Gaffney, Rese, Whaley, Sanogo.

Hawkins and Andre replacing Gaffney/Rese by the middle of the season if they play well, but no guarantees.
Gaffney will be hard to remove from lineup..but Hurley may have many options...defense will be key nevermind that Gaffney has mase strides in every area..expect a big jump for him offensively
 
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I’ll believe it when I see it in a game against a real team. Too many guys have looked great in the gym in June and ended up on the bench in January.
 
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The most time in the gym is the janitor but that don’t mean he’s helping the team win games. We’ve heard stories of off season shooting, growth and development to the “next level” for decades at UCONN that did not come close to panning out for those players. Shall we list?
 
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Well, it starts with putting the work in, which Ajax is doing. I think as the season goes on he is going to establish himself as one of our key players, but his Jr year is when I think he really takes off!
 
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If Jackson were to start could he be the point that hurley mentioned last year will be his pro position? for it to work i would think it would have to be something like this
Jackson
Cole
Martin
Akok
Sanogo
To answer my own question though I can’t see Whaley not in the starting lineup so this would have to be a sub lineup.
the Whaley/sanogo combination is just not optimal for spacing but can’t see hurley not starting either of those two.
 

HuskyHawk

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If Jackson were to start could he be the point that hurley mentioned last year will be his pro position? for it to work i would think it would have to be something like this
Jackson
Cole
Martin
Akok
Sanogo
To answer my own question though I can’t see Whaley not in the starting lineup so this would have to be a sub lineup.
the Whaley/sanogo combination is just not optimal for spacing but can’t see hurley not starting either of those two.

I don’t think we know who starts game 1. I don’t think the same lineup starts consistently in the fall. Cole and Sanogo are the two locks. Aside from that, Gaffney, Jackson, Martin, Whaley and Akok all have a chance to join them. Maybe Hawkins. I can see Whaley not starting if Akok comes back strong and is shooting well. Whaley would still get minutes as the backup 5 and 4.
 

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