Clingan max out minutes prob 26-28

[Scrappy3]

Kind of what they did with adama last year
keeping him fresh as possible and keeping injury possibilities as low as possible

I liked that he took 15 shots--he was aggressive and most nights thats 58/62%imho

That gives samson 12-14 minutes not to go back on year in time but will we see 3-4 minutes of johnson and clingan together?

 

[jake14mw]

The minutes he gets will be an interesting thing to watch. In big games I could see him averaging 30 minutes. Depends on how dominant he is, and how well Johnson winds up performing. Only playing Adama 26-28 was a luxury last year because going to Clingan was almost no dropoff. Not true this year.

 

[Scrappy3]

The minutes he gets will be an interesting thing to watch. In big games I could see him averaging 30 minutes. Depends on how dominant he is, and how well Johnson winds up performing. Only playing Adama 26-28 was a luxury last year because going to Clingan was almost no dropoff. Not true this year.

No samson Johnson is a really good sub

 

[Ricker]

Johnson has proven he can roll to the basket and dunk very well against teams that don't have rim protection. His defense so far has been passible but not noteworthy. The jury will be out for a while against other front lines. On the brighter side, some teams like Duke haven't got much at backup center, and some teams like Providence are so fast that it plays to Samson's strength as a rim running athlete. Other teams like Indiana have skinny bigs that aren't going to post him up with power. I'd love to know if he can hold his own against Donovan in practice. By Dec 6th we'll know if we have a 1-2 punch already, or how close we are.

 

[Scot-e]

No samson Johnson is a really good sub

He is a good sub. But it’s certainly not the same punishing duo we had last year -where we could wear teams out by the 4 th quarter. That was unusual ( and fun to watch). I am hoping for “ really good” just like everyone here.
Very interested to see a step up in quality of the teams we play and who rises to the occasion!

 

[elmcityboy]

my number one question coming out of these first two games: what's going to happen if (when?) samson gets into foul trouble against a legit team?

are we going to ride donovan? go small with karaban? trust singare?

 

[bmayuc]

An observation on Clingan - he needs to be more still/calm. He does a lot of jumping for upfakes, trying to move his feet and stay with smaller guys. He needs to settle in and just be confident his size will smother their movement(narrator voice: it will) or let them shoot over him (good luck). This will not only lower his risk of injury/foul trouble by being on balance more, but also help him rest. Much easier to float/stand around in paint than try and move your feet and mirror little guys.

I know this is sacrilege - but its one area where Kaulkbrenner really does a great job. His body positioning and off-ball movement is very quiet/efficient.

 

[Chief00]

I always heard good things about Samson Johnson’s practice performance.
My guess is Donovan’s minutes expectations have changed due to recovering from his foot injury. Makes sense to be conservative, which will be challenging given our difficult early season schedule.
Again, lots we can learn about the wisdom of Jim Calhoun playing an elite OOC game in late January/early February. That gives you another shot in your post season ranking if you get off to a slow start, have a young team or have a key early season injury. I know there are counter arguments regarding conferences getting bigger etc, but we are talking one game.

 

[Rocktheworld]

my number one question coming out of these first two games: what's going to happen if (when?) samson gets into foul trouble against a legit team?

are we going to ride donovan? go small with karaban? trust singare?

Depends on the opponent. We had his exactly happen again Northern Arizona and did go small with Karaban. So if/when we are in a situation where the other team doesn’t have anyone bigger than 6’8, I’m sure we can get away with it for a time and even dial up some defensive pressure.

I don’t see us riding Clingan, especially not early in the season while one would worry about his foot. Once he gets gassed, he’s obviously not as effective and will get taken advantage of. I just don’t see him playing more than 30 minutes much if at all. It comes down to Samson being smart about his defense. I don’t see why Singare can’t, in a pinch, play for 5 minutes or so. He at least has 5 fouls of his own to use; and once Clingan leaves this spring, he’s going to be the sub. He needs to start getting experience. Was kind of surprised to see him only come in really late on Saturday.

 

[Chief00]

An observation on Clingan - he needs to be more still/calm. He does a lot of jumping for upfakes, trying to move his feet and stay with smaller guys. He needs to settle in and just be confident his size will smother their movement(narrator voice: it will) or let them shoot over him (good luck). This will not only lower his risk of injury/foul trouble by being on balance more, but also help him rest. Much easier to float/stand around in paint than try and move your feet and mirror little guys.

I know this is sacrilege - but its one area where Kaulkbrenner really does a great job. His body positioning and off-ball movement is very quiet/efficient.

Part of that is Hurley’s high hedge defense and despite the success last season - don’t get me started - cuz I would sound silly given the final result - LOL

 

[PNolanFan]

Johnson has proven he can roll to the basket and dunk very well against teams that don't have rim protection. His defense so far has been passible but not noteworthy. The jury will be out for a while against other front lines. On the brighter side, some teams like Duke haven't got much at backup center, and some teams like Providence are so fast that it plays to Samson's strength as a rim running athlete. Other teams like Indiana have skinny bigs that aren't going to post him up with power. I'd love to know if he can hold his own against Donovan in practice. By Dec 6th we'll know if we have a 1-2 punch already, or how close we are.

I think Indiana will be a good test for him. Overall they suck but they do have a bit talented frontline with Ware and Mgbako. Seeing how he matches up with them will be interesting. If nothing else those 2 both have NBA bodies

 

[UConnSwag11]

my number one question coming out of these first two games: what's going to happen if (when?) samson gets into foul trouble against a legit team?

are we going to ride donovan? go small with karaban? trust singare?

More worried about if Clingan and our front court gets in foul trouble.

Seems like we’re deeper at the 1-3 than the 4 & 5.

How many bruisers do we play against that may give Samson problems if he’s needed for extended minutes?

 

[jake14mw]

No samson Johnson is a really good sub

There's a huge difference between a really god sub, and Clingan's role last year.

 

[UConnSwag11]

my number one question coming out of these first two games: what's going to happen if (when?) samson gets into foul trouble against a legit team?

are we going to ride donovan? go small with karaban? trust singare?

I think if you put the right pieces around Singare, he’ll only have to worry about not fouling on defense and rebounding. Would be great to use him to spare Johnson and Clingan at times

 

[Captbluefin]

I think it’s going to be interesting once conference play is rolling to see how Donovan carries the load. Can he be that dump the ball down and get a bucket guy Adama was his JR year as a sophomore? Against good teams 2-3 times a week?
I’m not sold at this point he doesn’t need another year.
Adama really came on his JR year.

 

[ibleedhuskyblue]

Part of that is Hurley’s high hedge defense and despite the success last season - don’t get me started - cuz I would sound silly given the final result - LOL

Yes, you would.

Also silly because DC doesn't hedge. He drops. It's a different scheme with DC in the game than it was for Adama. Samson Hedges.

 

[CL82]

I think it’s going to be interesting once conference play is rolling to see how Donovan carries the load. Can he be that dump the ball down and get a bucket guy Adama was his JR year as a sophomore? Against good teams 2-3 times a week?
I’m not sold at this point he doesn’t need another year.
Adama really came on his JR year.

I think so, so long as he does his work early so that he's in a good position when he receives the ball. So far, he tends to let himself get shoved under the basket where he is less effective. That's an easy enough thing to fix though.

 

[ibleedhuskyblue]

I think it’s going to be interesting once conference play is rolling to see how Donovan carries the load. Can he be that dump the ball down and get a bucket guy Adama was his JR year as a sophomore? Against good teams 2-3 times a week?
I’m not sold at this point he doesn’t need another year.
Adama really came on his JR year.

We're 2 games into the season.
Of course he needs another year. It's this one. We have like 35 games left.

 

[Rico444]

I think it’s going to be interesting once conference play is rolling to see how Donovan carries the load. Can he be that dump the ball down and get a bucket guy Adama was his JR year as a sophomore? Against good teams 2-3 times a week?

Donovan will not be as good a back to the basket scorer as Adama was, but he doesn't have to be. He's a different type of player. He is so disruptive and so huge in the paint that he can overwhelm defenders with his size. He should also catch approximately 10,000 alley-oops this year.

 

[mauconnfan]

Hey it’s 2 games into a season that is a tough start for Donovan. He missed a month and quite honestly he’s looked it thus far, which is fine. Agree with the post he needs to stay on his feet as well as just keep his hands up on D rather than rush out to defend perimeter players. He’s been caught well outside of the lane a few times which means he’s not there to rebound or block/alter put backs. His feet aren’t as quick right now moving to cover anyone either. He needs time and I’m sure it will all be fine he proved so last year.

 

[Waquoit]

Donovan will not be as good a back to the basket scorer as Adama was...

yet! I agree with DMarsh, it's coming.

 

[Rico444]

yet! I agree with DMarsh, it's coming.

Adama was probably the best back to the basket scorer we had in our program's history. If Donovan ever gets that good he is going to be fantastic in the NBA for a long time.

 

[bmayuc]

Part of that is Hurley’s high hedge defense and despite the success last season - don’t get me started - cuz I would sound silly given the final result - LOL

Well to his credit Hurley moved from High Hedge to drop coverage when Clingan was in and was incredibly effective. like historically effective.

He is now experimenting with keeping Clingan in the middle of a 131 but holy cow that looked terrible. It takes away our biggest strength (length) and lets little guys get into the seams off the dribble and carve us up and makes CLingan move wayyyy to much. Just... no. Stop. Drop coverage Man. It was literally the most efficient D in the country by miles when Clingan was in the game.

 

[Drame]

I would play Clingan no more than 8-10 minutes in the first half. Keep him fresher, foul free and more disruptive in the second half after our opponent has made their adjustments. Give Johnson as many minutes as possible in the first half of the season.

 

[yungdowork]

An observation on Clingan - he needs to be more still/calm. He does a lot of jumping for upfakes, trying to move his feet and stay with smaller guys. He needs to settle in and just be confident his size will smother their movement(narrator voice: it will) or let them shoot over him (good luck). This will not only lower his risk of injury/foul trouble by being on balance more, but also help him rest. Much easier to float/stand around in paint than try and move your feet and mirror little guys.

I know this is sacrilege - but its one area where Kaulkbrenner really does a great job. His body positioning and off-ball movement is very quiet/efficient.

I actually think this affects him on offense just as much or maybe even more. It seems like he's got a habit of rushing when he thinks he has a good look. I think he probably wants to avoid giving the defense time to bring the double team, but sometimes it seems like its coming at the expense of taking that half second to get his feet set and find the rim.

 

[Palatine]

Adama was probably the best back to the basket scorer we had in our program's history. If Donovan ever gets that good he is going to be fantastic in the NBA for a long time.

Clinton isn't as clever around the basket as Adama was. But he doesn't need to be. He will have way more dunks that Adama ever did. He can just turn and flush. And don't sell Clingon's footwork short. It's is very, very good. He will be a good NBA player for day one.

 

[mauconnfan]

Well to his credit Hurley moved from High Hedge to drop coverage when Clingan was in and was incredibly effective. like historically effective.

He is now experimenting with keeping Clingan in the middle of a 131 but holy cow that looked terrible. It takes away our biggest strength (length) and lets little guys get into the seams off the dribble and carve us up and makes CLingan move wayyyy to much. Just... no. Stop. Drop coverage Man. It was literally the most efficient D in the country by miles when Clingan was in the game.

Agree 100% on DC in the 1-3-1 it looked horrific and good teams will eat up all the space available in it while keeping the big guy out of the lane. Please either tighten that up or when in zone just a 2-3 please. That will kill us.

 

[JohnFSilver]

Hurley's a good coach. When Sanogo was in, they blitzed the PnR and had a high hedge and allowed Sanogo to get back on D and cover the roll man.

Clingan is playing drop coverage. Drop coverage works when you can cover as much ground as Clingan and can really protect the rim. He might get exploited by elite NBA 3-point shooters at next level, but that isn't gonna happen in college.

Clingan doesn't play a deep drop either. He is able to play away from basket and still protect the rim on the drop. It's good defense.

That said, Clingan looks to be at most 30 minute player. They ask him to do a lot. In fact, big men in modern basketball are asked to do way more running than in the old days.

Clingan plays drop coverage on D and has to cover a ton of ground on the backline. He then is expected tp rebound and run the floor as a trailor.

Think of modern NBA big men as pitchers in modern baseball. They don't pace themselves anymore. It's max effort every time. The days of Shaq catching a breath walking up the floor are over.

And, on offense, instead of a post-up ISO player, he is put in PnR action where he is a roll man. He moves way more than your traditional 1980s BIg Man used to move.

 

[bmayuc]

I actually think this affects him on offense just as much or maybe even more. It seems like he's got a habit of rushing when he thinks he has a good look. I think he probably wants to avoid giving the defense time to bring the double team, but sometimes it seems like its coming at the expense of taking that half second to get his feet set and find the rim.

yea - he needs to embrace that its ok to be doubled or for a little guy to shoot over him. Doesn't have to dunk everything or block everything.

The very best pivot men know that just their presence demands reactions - which opens things up for others on offense (shooters/cutters) and defense( harder hedge/closeouts knowing he's waiting to erase stuff)

Final note on this - the one absolute NBA Veteran skill that Sanogo possessed was poise. He would get the ball on the block and torture defenders by just standing htere with the ball for 2-3 seconds, let the cutters clear and the defense to have to commit/clarify/rotate its coverage. Then if they were gonna leave him 1:1 he'd go to work. If they doubled, he'd kick and we'd get a good shot (think all the tourney Andre dunks, karaban threes, etc. Poise was his superpower, and DC needs to watch some tape and embrace that. Watch Sanogo last year. Watch Tim Duncan from 2005-2010. Watch Shaq 1999-2005. Just get the ball. Stand there for a couple ticks and take it all in. Be still. Figure out the coverage, then go to town.

 

[CL82]

Donovan will not be as good a back to the basket scorer as Adama was, but he doesn't have to be. He's a different type of player. He is so disruptive and so huge in the paint that he can overwhelm defenders with his size. He should also catch approximately 10,000 alley-oops this year.

Assuming he's like say 50% on converting them, that would give him at 10,000 point season, more if he's fouled. I feel pretty good about our chances this year if that turns out to be correct.