Clingan on the bench game after game

[UConn990411]

Karaban is great and plays the 4. You wanna bench him?

It’s not a one or the other situation. Karaban is second on the team in minutes, and there are games where he’s clearly getting worn out toward the end as a result.

It’s inexplicable that Clingan only plays 13 minutes per game. I don’t love the Sanogo-Clingan combo for extended stretches, but I don’t see why they can’t play 2-5 minutes a night together. If nothing else, it would get Clingan more involved and buy some rest for Karaban.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

It’s not a one or the other situation. Karaban is second on the team in minutes, and there are games where he’s clearly getting worn out toward the end as a result.

It’s inexplicable that Clingan only plays 13 minutes per game. I don’t love the Sanogo-Clingan combo for extended stretches, but I don’t see why they can’t play 2-5 minutes a night together. If nothing else, it would get Clingan more involved and buy some rest for Karaban.

The best lineup for this team includes both Karaban and Clingan. If anyone is going to give Karaban a rest it’s Jackson coming off the bench. Hurley needs to open his eyes or this season is going down the tubes fast.

 

[auror]

“There are games for double big but yesterday wasn’t it”. I don’t want to have to be the one to have to break the bad news to you but THEY LOST. By the smallest of margins so any number of small in game adjustments would have been enough to WIN the game, like at the end of a very close game the stubborn stupid UConn coach did just enough Predictably stupid things like leaving Jackson in the game and letting him shoot which is exactly what the opposing coach wanted him to do. Trade coaches and we win the game probably by a lot. When someone tells you who he is ( over and over) you might want to believe him, Hurley might be a good recruiter but he’s a terrible in game coach. You all make fun of Syracuse but they win tournament games. what has Hurley won. They jay not win championships but they win tourney games. Hurley is o fer 2 with the higher ranked team. We had the better team yesterday. He managed to take a 14/0 start and turn it into a 4/7 stretch. Remember the Seton Hall game, not putting your best biggest rebounder shot blocker in for the last shot,
St. John’s, guarding the worst perimeter shooting team in the league on the 3 point line and letting them score in the paint at will and getting blown out at home. He’s not the sharpest tack in the box. ( for 4 million dollars a year). The man’s in over his head . He’s treating DC like all the other players who didn’t get any playing time last year ( DC won MVP of a early season national tournament against some serious competition and now he gets to play 7 minutes so Jackson can prove over and over again for the 3rd year he can’t shoot and while every coach in America knows this the resident genius ( I kid) coach of our team is just too stupid and stubborn to coach a team at this level. Trade coach’s with 1/2 of the teams in the BE with this team and we’d be challenging for a top 2 finish. 2/21 in close games is all the proof any reasonable person would need to realize we’re being handicapped by consistently bad game prep and in game coaching. We have arguably the best talent in the league and we have a 7/7 record.

It took McDermott 20 years to reach the Sweet 16, 11 years to win his first tournament game. Hurley is in his 13th season and won his first tournament game in his 7th year. The last 2 tournaments have been disappointing, no doubt, and so has this conference season.

Hurley isn't perfect or even great. I've criticized him for plenty of things, even yesterday. He's a good coach, though. A lot better than the armchair rabble on here. Hurley didn't win us the game yesterday, but he didn't lose it, either.

We were a toe away from overtime on the road against a top 10 team in the country when our best player (as voted recently by this board) went 4/13. Hurley put our guys in a position to win. Largely because our defense was really good.

Hawkins missed an open layup with 40 seconds left after he got a mismatch with Kalkbrenner on the perimeter. He makes that, and we win in regulation.

I'm not saying don't try strategies. But ones that don't make sense in the matchup and will significantly weaken our defense are likely not the answer.

 

[RipCity]

Jackson is the worst for spacing on the team, so when he’s not on the court, they should be able to play Sanogo and Clingan together and the spacing would probably be no different with Adama towards a corner. I don’t know why they don’t try it either. For all we know Newton, Hawkins, Karaban, Sanogo, Clingan might be their best lineup

 

[Giddyup5]

I don’t love double bigs at all to be honest. But if that gets DC closer to 15-18 minutes game and gets AJ down to 20-25 it’s necessary.

 

[superjohn]

There are games for double big, but yesterday wasn't it.

It's incredible how many of you only consider half the court. You want Sanogo to guard Kaluma? Or Baylor freaking Scheierman? They'd eat him alive and drive right by him or run him off screens. For the marginal offense improvement, we'd be giving more back on defense. That's the primary reason it can't work often. Sanogo is not a versatile defender. He's heavy and slow.

And then on offense, everyone is mad that Andre Jackson's guy is in the paint. Guess where the 2nd big defender would be?

If Sanogo is actually going to be a 40% 3pt shooter, that does help, but he needs space to operate in the post. He's a pivot guy and more recently facing up and driving to setup the move. He needs the space to move around guys. That's one of the reasons double teams hurt him so much, it limits his space. Having a bigger big in the game who can't space the floor is not going to help him. If Clingan were Nunge with his shot, sure. But he's not there yet. Sanogo is not Toubelis to really take advantage of big to big passing. He doesn't have the same passing ability or creativity. He's still working on it.

This is not fantasy football. You can't just run out a lineup of your "best" players and expect them to be the same together as they are playing in better contexts, especially on defense. They make each other worse.

Recall how much better offensively Whaley was when her played as the lone center vs as a 4 man next to Sanogo.

Sanogo was 1-6 in the final 17 minutes of that game for 2 points. I'm not at all blaming him, he played a good game overall and was the only guy scoring before that. We didn't get scoring from anywhere, you need to score the ball to win basketball games. It's really difficult to score when it's 4 on 5.

Kaluma doesn't really beat anyone off the dribble, he can't dribble.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Correct, and they can’t just waltz to the rim with him in there. If Sanogo is out at the 3 point line what is wrong with Clingan under the rim for 10 minutes a game?

Did Hilton run out to the three pt line and guard little guys when Josh Boone was under the basket?

 

[kemba]

It seems like people mostly just talk about offensively and I think offensively it can work well both bigs are very skilled and Sanogo can shoot. But defensively is a bigger issue imo. This is already a team that fouls a lot. If you go double big more you’re asking Sanogo to guard quicker 4s more. Then with that lineup you want to surround them with shooting so you probably need to play Karaban at the 3 and most 3s are quicker than him. Yes you can play zone, but that’s not a cure all, nor was yesterday a good time to play zone when we played really good defense

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

I’ve been saying for awhile that Hurley doesn’t like to play freshman.

Before someone brings up Karaban he’s forced to play. Samson Johnson is getting the Akok return from injury treatment. He’s basically going to waste 2 years of his eligibility. I’d probably be pissed if I was him.

 

[husky429]

I was told the Spurs couldn’t draft Tim Duncan because of David Robinson that worked out pretty well didn’t it.

That was 26 years ago dude. The world has changed.

 

[husky429]

If Jackson ever takes more than 6-7 shots in a game again this year I’m going to lose my mind. If we let Karaban take more shots we would’ve won that game. As others have pointed out, Jackson is killing our offense because it allows teams to either clog the paint and play 20 feet off of AJax or allows them to hang at the top of the key waiting on Hawkins or Karaban to come off a screen. It also means that Jackson can’t be the screener, which puts more pressure on Karaban/Sanogo to set the screens. Basically the only time we can generate a decent offensive set with Jackson in there is if Jackson is buried in the corner and we run some action on the opposite side of the court. I’m not a coach or a basketball expert and even I can clearly see this isn’t working. One way I see around this is to just let AJax keep running the baseline back and forth and if his guy isn’t playing him right throw a lob for the dunk. Other than that, if he can’t hit shots he needs to sit. Not sure why Andre decided he was going to have his offensive coming out party against the 2 top teams in the league (Xavier/Creighton). He single handedly lost us both those games. I love Jackson and he does make this team go from very good to elite when he’s on, but man he’s such a liability on offense.

Karaban doesn't have the confidence/personality to hunt his own shot right now. We need to be treating Karaban like Hawkins next season... not in the sets we run for him, but he's the mind of player that MUST be getting 10-12 shots per game, minimum. It's on him to develop a killer mentality, and on the coach to put him in a position to succeed. We are a much better team when Karaban is putting up shots.

 

[husky429]

I don’t love double bigs at all to be honest. But if that gets DC closer to 15-18 minutes game and gets AJ down to 20-25 it’s necessary.

This is my thought too. I'm not a double-big fan on the whole at all. But DC needs 15 minutes a game, and Adama deserves the minutes he's getting. There's really only one way to reconcile those two realities.

Regardless... when DC is getting 25 mpg next season? The Big East should be scared. He's going to send half the conference home with bruised ribs. He's an absolute giant. With a good off-season he could easily average a double-double with a few blocks per game.

 

[Scoe]

That was 26 years ago dude. The world has changed.

Ya that was said at the time.

 

[UConnRock]

Freshman…especially freshman bigs traditionally hit a wall during tougher conference play. Filipowski for Duke played 30 minutes and had 0 points. They talked of him being a lottery pick based on early season.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Jackson is the worst for spacing on the team, so when he’s not on the court, they should be able to play Sanogo and Clingan together and the spacing would probably be no different with Adama towards a corner. I don’t know why they don’t try it either. For all we know Newton, Hawkins, Karaban, Sanogo, Clingan might be their best lineup

Maybe we know it, but Hurley doesn’t.

 

[jibsey]

Freshman…especially freshman bigs traditionally hit a wall during tougher conference play. Filipowski for Duke played 30 minutes and had 0 points. They talked of him being a lottery pick based on early season.

Clingan? A wall in 7 minutes? Please. Clingan can do things Sanogo can’t like pass out of double teams. He’s a better rebounder but I’m not cutting or replacing Sanogo, just adding Clingan to the mix for maybe 10 extra minutes a game when Sanogo is in there.

 

[QDOG5]

DC and AS have not played together enough to know how much it would hurt our D. Because of this unknown a case may be made that our D might be better. Is there anyone posting on this thread that believes DC should NOT be getting at 15 minutes a game. I don't want to project seasonal improvement. I want to win as much as we can this year.

 

[Huskyforlife]

There are games for double big, but yesterday wasn't it.

It's incredible how many of you only consider half the court. You want Sanogo to guard Kaluma? Or Baylor freaking Scheierman? They'd eat him alive and drive right by him or run him off screens. For the marginal offense improvement, we'd be giving more back on defense. That's the primary reason it can't work often. Sanogo is not a versatile defender. He's heavy and slow.

And then on offense, everyone is mad that Andre Jackson's guy is in the paint. Guess where the 2nd big defender would be?

If Sanogo is actually going to be a 40% 3pt shooter, that does help, but he needs space to operate in the post. He's a pivot guy and more recently facing up and driving to setup the move. He needs the space to move around guys. That's one of the reasons double teams hurt him so much, it limits his space. Having a bigger big in the game who can't space the floor is not going to help him. If Clingan were Nunge with his shot, sure. But he's not there yet. Sanogo is not Toubelis to really take advantage of big to big passing. He doesn't have the same passing ability or creativity. He's still working on it.

This is not fantasy football. You can't just run out a lineup of your "best" players and expect them to be the same together as they are playing in better contexts, especially on defense. They make each other worse.

Recall how much better offensively Whaley was when her played as the lone center vs as a 4 man next to Sanogo.

It’s like people don’t realize Clingans man will have 2 feet in the paint, just like Jackson’s. Sanogo is a good shooter, but you don’t wanna turn him into Karaban just to get Clingan 25 minutes(which people are dishonestly saying they only want 15, so transparently false). Moving Karaban to the 3 will also hurt the defense in the same way Sanogo at the 4 would.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

There is no reason why Sanogo and Clingan can’t play on the floor together. None. This tunnel vision is killing us. Sanogo can play the four. He guards out the the three point line and is one of our best three point shooters (/s?). Put a line up of Clingan, Sanogo, Karaban, Hawkins, and Newton out there.

We are a predicable team.

We are a predictable message board.

Let's make the first move, and change our ways.

Do everything possible to cheer this team to a strong regular season close and Big East Tournament success that demonstrates that this OOC powerhouse has sorted itself out in its tough-on-the-road conference, and deserves a great seeding.

That's my job, your job, and everybody else's job here.

It's time to take the lead. Stop waiting for those you don't believe in to change. Be the change you want to see. Let those more timid follow. E pluribus unum.

 

[UCan3]

Andre Jackson grabs a bunch of rebounds, plays elite defense, doesn’t do anything else, “Kid sucks, bench him.”

Donovan Clingan grabs a bunch of rebounds, plays pretty good defense, doesn’t do anything else, “Put him in the starting lineup.”

I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but cmon guys.

I love how rather than talk about the player was on the floor for 28 minutes, yes redirect this discussion and criticize the one player with more upside than anyone on our team who currently RIDES then bench for no apparent reason.

Most posters want AJ Playing time to reflect his performance and I think we’re settling in on 13-19 minutes a game.

We can’t have a player that doesn’t need to be guarded on offense that refuses to set screens and free up our sharp shooters.

Can’t fault people here for a bit of frustration as AJ sits at the 3 point line and heaves up the bricks deep into 2nd half or makes that god awful last pass yesterday. It’s time for him to sit a bit - give others a chance.

 

[tower1]

Karaban played 35 minutes tonight. Most on the team, and obviously as a freshman. He didn't have a ton of open looks, and only 5 points. How do you possibly rationalize not playing Clingan for a few more minutes so the kid could have a breather. Clingan played 7 minutes. 4 points, 7 boards and our one and only block. I'm so angry just typing this.

All we need is a good head coach and keep Hurley as our recruiting assistant !

 

[tower1]

I’m not seeing anything here that disproves my point. They both have positive impacts on the boards and defense. Swapping one for the other doesn’t solve our spacing problems on offense, or our playmaking issues. It makes our perimeter defense significantly worse, while making our rim defense significantly better, that’s really it. But you also have to understand you’re asking Sanogo to start defending perimeter guys in a way he never has before consistently since he’s been here, if you demand him to share the floor with Clingan. And if there’s people still suggesting Clingan is better than Sanogo, I don’t think we’re watching the same games.

In many games Clingan has outplayed Sonogo.

 

[Huskyforlife]

I love how rather than talk about the player was on the floor for 28 minutes, yes redirect this discussion and criticize the one player with more upside than anyone on our team who currently RIDES then bench for no apparent reason.

Most posters want AJ Playing time to reflect his performance and I think we’re settling in on 13-19 minutes a game.

We can’t have a player that doesn’t need to be guarded on offense that refuses to set screens and free up our sharp shooters.

Can’t fault people here for a bit of frustration as AJ sits at the 3 point line and heaves up the bricks deep into 2nd half or makes that god awful last pass yesterday. It’s time for him to sit a bit - give others a chance.

You guard Andre and Clingan the same way. It’s not like the Clingan/Sanogo front court spaces the floor any better than Jackson/Sanogo. And then defensively you’re trading better rim protection for considerably worse perimeter defense. Y’all will be the first people asking why Sanogo is chasing perimeter players, why Alex has to guard movement shooters instead of slower 4s, etc. It’s simply not a good solution.

 

[jibsey]

We are a predictable message board.

Let's make the first move, and change our ways.

Do everything possible to cheer this team to a strong regular season close and Big East Tournament success that demonstrates that this OOC powerhouse has sorted itself out in its tough-on-the-road conference, and deserves a great seeding.

That's my job, your job, and everybody else's job here.

It's time to take the lead. Stop waiting for those you don't believe in to change. Be the change you want to see. Let those more timid follow. E pluribus unum.

Great seeding? OOC powerhouse? St. John’s at home. Mediocre St. John’s at home.

 

[Friarsnoop]

I'm not going to beat on your coach, but there's one thing I cannot understand. From when Clingan started working out with the team in June, Hurley must've realized he needed to play. He had from them until November to figure out a way to play him and Sanogo together for 5 minutes per half. Then he could rest Sanogo for only 5 minutes each half, and still get 20 minutes per game from Clingan. That's the minimum he should be playing with his unique skill set.