Bouknight should start

[BNich]

We saw him play the whole game today the way he should. Both he and Carlton made tremendous adjustments with their play when they had the ball in the paint.

Adjustments aside. They did play against a significantly weaker opponent. It's just like last year when Carlton balled out against ECU and a few others to end the season. I'm not a believer until I see it against some significantly tougher competition. I know Gilbert can do it. He's still coming back from all his lost time IMO. Just wish he wouldn't try to get to the hoop all the time. He can create off the dribble, but he gets stuff at the rim way too often.

 

[3rdbass]

I was at the whole tournament and he was just that miluch better than anybody on the court. He is the real deal as a freshman. The only player who can really create and finish. He is just too smooth. He is more athletic Jeremy lamb. He just has to improve his D. I'm not worried about him starting or not as he will get a lot of minutes at the 3 and will be in at end of game situations no doubt it.

 

[Burnsbros23]

He shouldn’t start any of these games. Starting a freshman who’s been suspended is how you lose ur team. Hurley playing it the right way. He works his way back. Maybe he’s sixth man for the year who knows but he’s going to play 25 plus minutes a game.

 

[Jaker]

I have no problem with Bouk coming off the bench as our secret weapon.

 

[ctchamps]

We saw him play the whole game today the way he should. Both he and Carlton made tremendous adjustments with their play when they had the ball in the paint.

Yes we did. Having Akok, Josh Brendan and Bouk available for the entire game were as much a part of the reason he could play both halves this game as opposed to Xavier.

 

[browndog319]

He shouldn’t start any of these games. Starting a freshman who’s been suspended is how you lose ur team. Hurley playing it the right way. He works his way back. Maybe he’s sixth man for the year who knows but he’s going to play 25 plus minutes a game.

Really? So there’s no forgiveness?
El Amin was caught with marijuana back when it was a big deal, Sid and Jalen were suspended last year for a university infraction - should JA have not started (we needed him to start).
For decades the court has been adjudicating a ton of UConn students up there to that rehabilitation program that Bouk was put into... 1 year no issues, you’re cleared. So many of my friends that have gone onto have professional licenses and raise kids. This is basketball. He served his punishment. You can’t keep punishing him.

 

[ctchamps]

Polley has turned himself into a knock down shooter. I used to feel good about him taking an in rythm open catch and shoot where he's all set up. I now feel confident in him catching and shooting on the run and off curls. He's a weapon with his shot.

Will be interesting to see what Hurley does with the lineup with some cupcake games coming up. Does he start our best player in place of Polley and have Polley as our 6th man sniper or does he have our best player come off the bench to catch teams off guard, not sure anyone will be caught off guard now. No matter what, Bouknight needs to play as many minutes as possible.

Bouknight is a freshman who was disciplined. He will be coming off the bench most if not all season. Hurley will slowly increase his minutes because he will be letting Bouk know that behavior off court is more important than being the best player on the court. This has to aggravate Hurley to no end but not knowing 100% if Bouk’s off court issues are a one off he’s got to keep him in check.

 

[ctchamps]

Really? So there’s no forgiveness?
El Amin was caught with marijuana back when it was a big deal, Sid and Jalen were suspended last year for a university infraction - should JA have not started (we needed him to start).
For decades the court has been adjudicating a ton of UConn students up there to that rehabilitation program that Bouk was put into... 1 year no issues, you’re cleared. So many of my friends that have gone onto have professional licenses and raise kids. This is basketball. He served his punishment. You can’t keep punishing him.

It’s not about forgiveness. More an insurance policy to remind Bouk not to do it again. If Bouk commits another university infraction he’s done for the season and goes pro. if not NBA to Europe.

 

[Palatine]

In basketball who is in at the end is much, much more important than who is in at the beginning.

Finishers are more important than starters..

 

[Dean Wormer]

On the court you can’t take your eyes off this kid. Let’s hope he sticks around and we do some things, without the NBA vultures swooping in.

 

[Wise2]

he's also shooting 72.7% from the field and he is not a dunking center

 

[Huskyforlife]

My problem is we always start games slowly on offense. Our best offensive player should be starting and playing as many minutes as he can handle.

 

[amsterdamjade]

Ray Allen was the 6th man his freshman year but he was also the leading scorer. That takes pressure off the young kid .
In basketball starting is not as important as minutes.

There was no way Allen was the leading scorer on the team his freshman year. You mean to tell me he averaged more points than Donyell his last year at UConn?

 

[browndog319]

It’s not about forgiveness. More an insurance policy to remind Bouk not to do it again. If Bouk commits another university infraction he’s done for the season and goes pro. if not NBA to Europe.

I think the insurance policy is he knows the consequences because there were consequences for the first mistake. And those are bigger than a university violation. He had legal issues and these could become criminal issues.
I don’t believe you hold something over someone’s head as an insurance policy. The punishment is the insurance policy. I guess that just comes from 15 years of parenting - this last week I had my first real kid screw up (complete with Saturday detention). Literally impulsive teen behavior - asked to go to Peer Group during study hall but ran into a friend on the way and decided to go to the art room instead. She didn’t realize that was cutting class beforehand but got immediately why she was in trouble. Punished in school and at home. She completed both punishments yesterday and unless she pulls it again, we will never, ever talk about it again. The insurance policy isn’t the study hall teacher doesn’t give her passes to things during study hall. The insurance policy is she now knows it’s a problem and hopefully the punishment deters future bad behavior.
Bouk seems like a good guy who did a stupid thing. We all did stupid things as college freshmen. He just happens to be famous and play on a D1 team. Imagine that?

 

[Burnsbros23]

Really? So there’s no forgiveness?
El Amin was caught with marijuana back when it was a big deal, Sid and Jalen were suspended last year for a university infraction - should JA have not started (we needed him to start).
For decades the court has been adjudicating a ton of UConn students up there to that rehabilitation program that Bouk was put into... 1 year no issues, you’re cleared. So many of my friends that have gone onto have professional licenses and raise kids. This is basketball. He served his punishment. You can’t keep punishing him.

he is playing that’s the forgiveness. If Hurley wants to start in two more games he can. If he doesn’t it’s fine. You take out Gilbert you have no point Guard. You going to bench a senior in vital? Bench Polley or Akok? Theirs no obvious answer there. It might just be easier to leave him as sixth man chemistry wise.

 

[superjohn]

he is playing that’s the forgiveness. If Hurley wants to start in two more games he can. If he doesn’t it’s fine. You take out Gilbert you have no point Guard. You going to bench a senior in vital? Bench Polley or Akok? Theirs no obvious answer there. It might just be easier to leave him as sixth man chemistry wise.

The only switch would be Bouk for Polley. You're either going to have the best sixth man in the nation or a 6th man sniper shooter. Whether it's off the bench or starting Bouk needs to play most of the game and get the ball a ton.

 

[ctchamps]

I think the insurance policy is he knows the consequences because there were consequences for the first mistake. And those are bigger than a university violation. He had legal issues and these could become criminal issues.
I don’t believe you hold something over someone’s head as an insurance policy. The punishment is the insurance policy. I guess that just comes from 15 years of parenting - this last week I had my first real kid screw up (complete with Saturday detention). Literally impulsive teen behavior - asked to go to Peer Group during study hall but ran into a friend on the way and decided to go to the art room instead. She didn’t realize that was cutting class beforehand but got immediately why she was in trouble. Punished in school and at home. She completed both punishments yesterday and unless she pulls it again, we will never, ever talk about it again. The insurance policy isn’t the study hall teacher doesn’t give her passes to things during study hall. The insurance policy is she now knows it’s a problem and hopefully the punishment deters future bad behavior.
Bouk seems like a good guy who did a stupid thing. We all did stupid things as college freshmen. He just happens to be famous and play on a D1 team. Imagine that?

May not just be about Bouknight but a message to all players now and in the future. You are correct that it’s really up to Bouknight to learn from his mistakes and no coach can do anything that guarantees how a player behaves.

If Bouk is as nice a person you and I believe he is he’ll accept whatever approach Hurley utilizes.

It’s not like Bouknight is on the rack with this measured approach to his minutes although like Filtch I really miss the screaming.

 

[Waquoit]

Really? So there’s no forgiveness?
El Amin was caught with marijuana back when it was a big deal,

Not when he was a freshman. It was the off season after he won the NC. I don't think he got three games.

 

[Waquoit]

He shouldn’t start any of these games. Starting a freshman who’s been suspended is how you lose ur team. Hurley playing it the right way.

I think that's a big part of it. Hurley doesn't want to lose the older guards. He said something at the end of the first half that made me perk up. UConn finishes the 1st half on a 6-0 run on two beautiful plays by Bouk and Sid dropping a dime to Whalley (!). The lead triples in the last 2 minutes with the starters on the bench. Hurley is asked what impressed him the most in the first half and says, "Just the leadership from the older guys". That is some big-time coachspeak right there.

 

[RichZ]

Who also takes bad 25 foot shots early in the shot clock and is the poster child for hero ball during crunch time. If I never saw CV or AG in the court again, I would be ok with that. They simply don't play winning basketball.

I'd rather we figure out why he regressed to "under Ollie" form over the off season. Last year, the 2nd half of the season, he didn't take those bad threes, and the change pushed his season average up to almost 41% from three, after a start not too much better than this year. His game today was a lot more under control, too.

 

[browndog319]

Not when he was a freshman. It was the off season after he won the NC. I don't think he got three games.

I’m trying to remember when it happened - I think you’re right about right after. But it was an issue - and I think it jeopardized his draft chances. Or there was talk of it jeopardizing it. I don’t think he graduated so if he came back it would have been an issue.
But still criminal.

Not when he was a freshman. It was the off season after he won the NC. I don't think he got three games.

i had to look this up bc it was a big deal when it happened. I can’t find anything that says what his punishment was - but it did happen right after the NC. He still had another year to do with us, though. The following fall there was a ticket/car exchange scandal that was never proven but I’m thinking that’s more bc it was the late 1990s versus not being true.

I also found this list of all the players who had legal issues - some of these players I’d forgotten, some of these I went “oh, yeah, remember the laptops?”, and others are really disturbing like the ones where they were implicated in violent situations but seemed to get off. Some of these make driving without a license and hitting a pole look mild.

UPDATED: UConn's Sad Criminal History - A Dime Back

I received an email from a good friend last night with a simple challenge: without researching, name all the UConn basketball players you can who have been arrested. How depressing it that? Following senior Tyler Olander’s arrest on Saturday evening (his second, mind you), it seems appropriate...

adimeback.com

 

[RichZ]

He should have gotten a blocked call on his one fast break.

Absolutely not. It was the most blatant open court charge I've seen in a long while.

 

[ctchamps]

Absolutely not. It was the most blatant open court charge I've seen in a long while.

Watch replay. Kid slid over last second. But refs will call it a charge every time if player continues straight.

 

[JB75]

I kno it sounds crazy, but why rush him into starting lineup? We re playing well right now. Why mess with a good thing? When he comes off bench, it’s great cuz if we re down he can give us a boost or if were up, he can help us extend lead. Plus, Polley Is playing well so don’t mess with it!!!! If Polley has a couple bad games, make the switch

 

[Mr. French]

He shouldn’t start any of these games. Starting a freshman who’s been suspended is how you lose ur team. Hurley playing it the right way. He works his way back. Maybe he’s sixth man for the year who knows but he’s going to play 25 plus minutes a game.

And the best part is, Dan Hurley is a good enough and smart enough coach to clarify all that with his players, I'm sure. I'm assuming Bouknight knows his status isn't contingent on starting right now. In fact, you could argue he's better for the team as instant O off of the bench. Then you add in his suspension, and I agree with you completely.