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Message: [QUOTE="champs99and04, post: 4468880, member: 488"] Jamal Coombs-McDaniel - 1.5 (assists per 40) Sticks - 1.6 Gavin - 1.0 AO - 0.4 Lamb - 2.1 Roscoe - 0.6 Niels - 1.4 Chuck - 1.1 Olander - 1.9 Andre - 0.6 Daniels - 0.9 Omar - 1.7 Nolan - 0.6 Wolf - 1.7 Kromah - 2.9 Facey - 0.8 Brimah - 0.4 D-Ham - 5.3 (outlier alert) Shonn Miller - 1.1 Enoch - 0.5 Durham - 1.2 V. Jackson - 2.1 Larrier - 1.2 Carlton - 1.0 Polley - 0.8 Whaley - 1.5 Cobb - 1.4 That is the complete list of guys taller than 6'4 to play meaningful minutes at UConn for a period of over a decade. Now compare to this season... Newton - 6.3 Hawkins - 2.8 A. Jackson - 7.3 Karaban - 2.8 Sanogo - 2 Much has been made about the culture change Dan Hurley brought with him to UConn, but culture change without the corresponding shift in personnel, scheme, and general ideology is just spitting in the wind. Now nearly five full years and four true recruiting classes - the first of which never truly materialized due to COVID and untimely injuries - into Hurley's tenure at UConn, we've finally caught a glimpse of the philosophical overhaul he's imposed on this program. And if the early returns are any indication, I must admit I feel a bit foolish to have been merely lukewarm on the hire. It is no overstatement - even before we attempt to qualify the roster turnover, inexperience, and relative talent limitations that make UConn's start so stunning - to describe their non-conference performance as among the most dominant in recent CBB history. The new-look Huskies drew five KenPom top 50 opponents in their OOC slate, dispatching them by an average of 17.8 points per game and outperforming the spread by an unthinkable 68.5 points (13.7 PPG) over that span (even the 2014 team only outperformed the spread by 55.5 points over the final five games of the tournament). To my knowledge, there is scarcely a precedent for the books to make this type of adjustment, this quickly. UConn likes to start its offense from alignments like the one below: [MEDIA=youtube]z0MKuc0YjH8:1353[/MEDIA] Hawkins is going to set a pindown for Newton and then loop around Sonogo, who fakes a dribble handoff, chips the trail defender in Boone, and floats a touch pass to Hawkins as he gains a head of steam, all in one motion. Hawkins will then catch the ball in the paint, eventually come to a jump stop, and fire it to Diarra for an open corner three. It's an impressive display of body control from the Sophomore guard to halt his momentum without barreling over the help defender, but it's also a function of smart design. Sanogo's pivot at the top of the key briefly displaces Boone, which helps - along with the concurrent screen Karaban sets for Newton - create an abbreviated four on three from the foul line down. This is one of many ways that UConn likes to leverage Hawkins' shooting prowess, and a perfect encapsulation of the motion that binds Hurley's offense together in the absence of a ball dominant guard. (Hawkins may very well grow more comfortable using/splitting ball screens over time, in which case they can skip the middle man - but for now, it's smart to simplify for him.) The hierarchy of Hurley's offense is very much the polar opposite of what we grew accustomed to for so many years. Many sets begin with the five either catching or screening in the high post, and while the end-game often amounts to a guard or wing using a ball screen, their facilitation requires a far more diverse skillset than most college forwards are capable of providing. Such a skillset entails not only the ability to pass, but as importantly, the ability to screen. Great college forwards can control a game with firm, timely screens much like great offensive line in football. (Guys like Steph Curry and Klay Thompson are also famous for reaping the rewards of their own screens - something Hawkins has shown the willingness to do.) [I]Originally pictured: footage from a possession that occurred around 14 minutes into the first half of the Oregon game that resulted in a Calcaterra three.[/I] Karaban and Sanogo might not seem like a central actors on this play (especially with half the screen being devoted to Phil Knight), but it's their presence as burly, multi-faceted entry ports that creates so much of the confusion here. Karaban's slight bump at the high post prompts Richardson to pass him off to the help defender, Bittle (I'm still not quite certain whether Oregon thinks they're in man or zone on this play, but for the purposes of this discussion it doesn't much matter), perhaps anticipating some sort of flare screen or pindown to free Newton, who'd already made two in the game. Instead, Karaban clears out, dragging Bittle with him and effectively removing him from the play. Meanwhile, Sanogo pops over from the adjacent high post to set a ball screen. As that's going on, Hawkins cycles back to the top of the key, and Sanogo's corresponding dive functions as a de facto screen. By the time Newton peels off the ball screen, Richardson's forced to pinch down on Sanogo and leaves Calcaterra for an open three on the weakside. Although Sanogo and Hawkins have unquestionably been UConn's best, most dynamic offensive players, it's the skillsets of Karaban and Jackson (though he wasn't in the game on this play), in particular, that allow UConn to regularly operate from this alignment. They are the steady hands, fused through the humble art of screening, post entry, and ball reversal, that alleviate congestion, dictate pace, and ultimately accentuate the transformative talents around them. [/QUOTE]

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