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Message: [QUOTE="gtcam, post: 4844018, member: 2844"] Nice write-up Chief00 1) In my opinion, Diara was the MVP of the game - his 3's were timely and huge back breakers to Xavier. His D was great and every time there was a stop and/or Xavier turnover it seemed he was involved. AK played a yeoman's game. Ball will be a very good player for UConn but during NBE games and the tournaments, I hope HD is the first option off the bench. 2) Love Cam's attitude and his look at the bench pull up mid-range shots are sneaky and lethal. His perimeter D is horrid - he either gives his mark too much room to stop the penetration or gets lost on switches. Perhaps his lateral foot speed is just too slow - he does rebound well for his size. 3) Newton hit some big 3s and came alive in the second half. It seems to me, that in the past 3 games, he has become lazy at times. Lately, his perimeter D is no better than Cam's for the same reasons and with your 2 starting guards playing D like that spells trouble for UConn vs a team with 2 quality hard driving guards. We've seen Newton play lockdown D last season, so we know that he is capable. I hope his knee is OK. 4) Castle can drive and rebound, and his D is usually high level. He made some NBA plays last night. Some on the chat were crucifying him for taking two 3s in the closing minutes but those shots were wide open. I've seen him make plenty of 3s in the past few years and I am sure he will do so soon. I know he likes to play fast but sometimes he needs to slow down and probe. He will learn that at the next level. 5) I love what UConn showed playing small ball but there is a 6"10" freshman who played very well vs arguably the best big man in the league at St Johns. Dan Hurley can't find at least 5 minutes of game time for him? Let's not hope this Floyd part 2. 6) Dan Hurley once again got caught up in the game theatrics when he should have been a floor coach. During that Xavier 9-0 run, he should have called a TO and drawn up a play to get an easy score to stop the stagnant offense and temper the bleeding. Hopefully it was a one off - when you are coaching against a maniac like Miller, I guess it is easy to be distracted. Any conference win is big, and these were games that UConn lost last season. Once DC rejoins the line-up, UConn will be that much better. Can't wait. Looks like the conference regular season title is very much in play. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach