Best Player on The Team Poll

[auror]

We had discussions before and during the year. So now that the season is over... who was our best player?

 

[MDHuskFan]

All of them

 

[nomar]

You’d think it would be a no-brainer given that we had an All-American but honestly you could make the case Clingan and Spencer were just as important.

That’s why we won the title.

Why is Samson Johnson provided as an option? Do alley-oops count for 50 points?

 

[my2cents]

The entire strength of this team was we had a different best player every night.

 

[Huskyforlife]

The real answer is Clingan. But that doesn't take away anything from Newton. They're both legends.

 

[Poe]

There is no right answer, that’s why this team is the best.

 

[uconngb]

I voted Cam for his intangibles

 

[Drame]

Not participating

 

[Mr. French]

Spencer was the most consistently impactful.

Newton most impactful in the biggest games/moments.

Clingan the most important in “remove from lineup” situations, i.e. most impactful presence.

Karaban and Castle most important intangibly, matchups, glue factors, etc.

Long rant to say I guess it depends on your qualifications for “best.” I have no real answer. I’m closer to an answer to favorite but that’s just about as hard to decide.

 

[auror]

Spencer was the most consistently impactful.

Newton most impactful in the biggest games/moments.

Clingan the most important in “remove from lineup” situations, i.e. most impactful presence.

Karaban and Castle most important intangibly, matchups, glue factors, etc.

Long rant to say I guess it depends on your qualifications for “best.” I have no real answer. I’m closer to an answer to favorite but that’s just about as hard to decide.

Yeah up to interpretation of the voter.

Could be "guy you'd start a team with" or "guy who'd get picked first at the playground" or yeah "most impactful on the court" or whatever you want.

 

[husky429]

Best or most impactful?

Clingan changes the game more than anyone. Newton is probably the best.

 

[Mr. French]

Yeah up to interpretation of the voter.

Could be "guy you'd start a team with" or "guy who'd get picked first at the playground" or yeah "most impactful on the court" or whatever you want.

Yeah, it’s my way of copping out. Put the blame on you for lack of definition of best.

But it is tough - Cam might be. I think we can safely rule out Samson and Hassan, and Alex and Steph were VITAL but still a tier below.

 

[gsmooth]

The entire strength of this team was we had a different best player every night.

That's what made this team so great. If you are an opponent of UConn and you have a shutdown/lockdown defender on the perimeter, like a Devin Carter, who do you put him on? Take your pick, but the other 4 will still do well and even the player Carter is on will make the proper passes and keep the offense humming.

 

[ctchamps]

Only answer: TEAM!

 

[Horatio]

Johnnie Selvie

 

[superjohn]

You could certainly go with Tristen or Cam but our most devastating player is Clingan...

Everything changed for our defense when he came back from injury and he was even more devastating in the Big East tournament and NCAA tournament where teams wouldn't even look at the rim...

As for last night, Edey was playing out of his butt and cooking Clingan early on but Clingan dealing with Edey 1 on 1 the whole game allowed us to completely lock up the best three point shooting team in the country, they couldn't even get shots off because Clingan's single coverage allowed our big guards to blanket Purdue. Clingan also figured Edey out and winded him for the bulk of that game when UConn took over, Edey was great early and then had a ton of points in garbage time but he disappeared for a long stretch when UConn took the game over. The score was 26-25 UConn when Edey made a layup and then he went around 13.5 minutes without a field goal.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Clingan is my easy answer. It’s so crazy that we were able to shut teams out from getting to the rim for almost the entire tournament.

He makes everyone else’s job much easier on both ends of the floor.

Even last year he him coming in the game usually came with a run. A shame injuries kept him from receiving more accolades this year to recognize just how great he’s been.

 

[Mike Honcho]

You could certainly go with Tristen or Cam but our most devastating player is Clingan...

Everything changed for our defense when he came back from injury and he was even more devastating in the Big East tournament and NCAA tournament where teams wouldn't even look at the rim...

As for last night, Edey was playing out of his butt and cooking Clingan early on but Clingan dealing with Edey 1 on 1 the whole game allowed us to completely lock up the best three point shooting team in the country, they couldn't even get shots off because Clingan's single coverage allowed our big guards to blanket Purdue. Clingan also figured Edey out and winded him for the bulk of that game when UConn took over, Edey was great early and then had a ton of points in garbage time but he disappeared for a long stretch when UConn took the game over. The score was 26-25 UConn when Edey made a layup and then he went around 13.5 minutes without a field goal.

That's a really good point. It's easy to get mesmerized by 37 points but he went super quiet during a pivotal stretch of the game. Also he is not nearly as intimidating as Clingan on the defensive end despite being 7'4".

Lastly, I'll give you your flowers. The entire season you said we'd beat Purdue like a drum in the exact way in went down. Props.

 

[HailUConn]

That's a really good point. It's easy to get mesmerized by 37 points but he went super quiet during a pivotal stretch of the game. Also he is not nearly as intimidating as Clingan on the defensive end despite being 7'4".

Lastly, I'll give you your flowers. The entire season you said we'd beat Purdue like a drum in the exact way in went down. Props.

Actually he impressed me a heck lot. His conditioning is off the charts. He can play the whole 40 minutes. But a combination of our team, game plan, our offense, and game speed wore him out. It spoke volumes to our team play and system. Towards the end of first half thru the rest of the game. he is much less efficient and effective. He can no longer make hook shots he usually would have made with ease, and he did not block a single shot after he blocked twice under the basket, he is so tired and he could not get off the ground, and he even air balled FTs which never happened.

A massive round of applaud to Clingan and Samson, especially to our coaches.

 

[Henry]

The answer should be the team, but, honestly, our offense didn't run the same when Tristen was on the bench. He was the most important player to me.

 

[ColchVEGAS]

The team was so balanced it is really splitting hairs with the best. I voted Clingan in a toss up over Newton, solely because of his impact on defense from just being on the floor.

 

[Inyatkin]

Do alley-oops count for 50 points?

These guys clearly thought so

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I didn't vote and I won't vote as I believe it would neither be fair to whoever I didn't vote for nor accurate in assessing this team.

What I will reference, which ideally sums up what this team was is this:

The two midwest clowns that did the podcast before the Northwestern game claiming Buie would end up taking the game over said afterwards "If you were to say who was the least effective starter in the (Northwestern) game for UConn, it would probably be Karaban yet before the game we said he may be the best stretch four in the nation (they did say that and they were correct that he may well be the best stretch four).

The thing about our team was any one starter may appear to be accomplishing less than the others at any given time yet is still doing many things to help us win and also still performing better than almost anyone else could in the same situation.

This team had a ton of great parts. It also may have, in terms of the expression "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts" exceeded the sum of the parts by more than any other team I've ever seen.

 

[businesslawyer]

Best was Spencer. He and Newton very close, but if you ask me best I lean Spencer,.

Most important/valuable was DC and it isn’t close. We are two different teams when he’s on the floor and when he’s on the bench. But as “best” to me implies skillful, he was not as skillful as others.

But really, the better answer has already been said multiple times. LIke the 69 Knicks, this was a great team that was finely balanced between all it’s various parts.

 

[Icehawk]

How do you define best?

I think the beauty of this team is there isn't really anyone who is THE best - each has strengths that combined into the juggernaut we all know and love. We beat a lot of teams who had a "best" guy.

Here's what I know - there isn't a single guy on our starting five I would trade for any other player. PERIOD.