Hurley seems to like the 8 man rotation.
We, me included, were really spoiled by the depth of last year’s team and Dan Hurley’s ability to manage it so well. That was a very special team.
We lose one great shooting starter in Hawkins and one great shooting bench player in Joey. We lose one really bad shooting starter in Jackson and one bad shooting bench player in Alleyne. Sanogo proved to be a very good shooter but he took threes infrequently.
There are Joey C's for sure that can hit the 3 but our suspect on d. Hopefully we can snag one with a little attitude like Joey had. Either way I would like to see 2 more shooters. I'm not worried with bigs as we have 3 guys who can bang there. You can never have enough shooters in today's game especially when some can be off on a given game.
Does the microwave scorer necessarily have to be a shooter? Because Solo can 100% fill that microwave role off the bench if we’re just talking about scoring and he can be a two way player.
We want to surrond Clingan with 4 shooters so it can open the inside like it did for Sanogo last year. Problem last year was Andre wasn't a shooter but we found a way to keep him on the basline helping out Sanogo when doubled team to be a release.
Don't disagree with your observations except for Alleyne.. Had many key buckets during the late season winning streak and the Tournament.. Was he off the charts? No.. But he turned momentum in games on more than a couple occasions with timely buckets when other guys couldn't buy a bucket. Can you throw stats/data to challenge his value?? I'm sure you can..
I mean yeah, that kind of shows it’s not as necessary. Solo will 100% be a better shooter and all around scorer than Andre too. Lol
Ball isn't know as a shooter, you even said he is more known as a scorer, and he is a Freshman. I rather have a proven upper classmen shooter to add to the starting lineup.
We also did have the best motion shooter and screen runner in college basketball to build that offense around. Just not sure about trying that again without that kind of almost generational talent to do it with.
Think about how elite a shooter Hawkins is. Then think back to freshman Hawkins, coming to UConn with a dynamite rep as a shooter. The next big thing. How’d that play out?
It is tough for freshman. Look at Hawk he went from a freshman who could not stay healthy, but you could see had a beautiful shot to and I agree a “a generational talent” by the time his sophomore season was finished. I love this classes overall talent and I am hopeful Castle plays like a FOY, or if he over achieves maybe POY conference. But it’s so hard on freshman when you ask them to be a main piece not a role player. I have watched enough tape on Spencer that clearly shows he would be a + addition and slot nicely into the three on offense. It will be interesting to see who guards the other teams three. Castle has the size but he is a freshman.
Hawkins came out the gate hot though. He did not originally struggle right out the gate. He actually looked like one of the most talented players on the team. It’s why his sophomore breakout was such an easy bet because it was always just about him getting playing time and touches.
Here’s to hoping you are right and we get an AK type surprise from one of the fresh if we do not bring in any other transfer. Spencer does worry me a bit when it comes to culture, only from the NIL side. I respect the heck out of Pikiell and if this guy could play for him, he should be squared away as a team mate.
20 minutes.
Spencer does seem good. This isn’t a knock on him as a player. I’m just not sure if he’d be better in March than one of the higher ceiling freshman guys. And I worry about situations similar to Hawkins freshman year. I’m more of the opinion that thinks this class of guys is just that good.
Hawkins freshman stats were 33.3 3p%; 35.3 fg%; and 5.8 ppg. I wouldn’t label that “hot out of the gate”.
I’d say
He was big against Auburn. His defense was abysmal. His ball handling wasn’t much better. Later in the year he got some minutes because he committed to playing D and his shooting showed up. How soon we forget.
