Cole is the key

[Hoops91]

Cole makes this whole team. It all starts with him, the offense doesn’t function without him kinda like last year. Bouk is the shooting guard. They need someone to control the offense. Martin will replace Gaftney as some point. This team is staked, If Hurley does this right they will win a lot!

 

[Dove]

Cole makes this whole team. It all starts with him, the offense doesn’t function without him kinda like last year. Bouk is the shooting guard. They need someone to control the offense. Martin will replace Gaftney as some point. These team is staked, If Hurley does this right they will win a lot!

Tyrese Martin is going to bump our excellent #2 guard to the bench?

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Tyrese Martin is going to bump our excellent #2 guard to the bench?

Gaffney is not a 2. The weird forced 2 PG lineup with Bouknight at SF is a bit wonky to me.

 

[TheChamps990411]

Gaffney is not a 2. The weird forced 2 PG lineup with Bouknight at SF is a bit wonky to me.

Agree. I dont like those 3 on the court together. Gaff and Cole shouldnt be on the court together.

 

[3rdbass]

Tyrese Martin is going to bump our excellent #2 guard to the bench?

He is going to need to produce a little more offense to play the 3 and won't be a 2 man unless in foul trouble. He can rebound and play defense for sure though. Loved that in the second half.

 

[Huskymagic]

Cole makes this whole team. It all starts with him, the offense doesn’t function without him kinda like last year. Bouk is the shooting guard. They need someone to control the offense. Martin will replace Gaftney as some point. These team is staked, If Hurley does this right they will win a lot!

Wrong. The team functions best with Gaff as our lead point guard. RJ is Sterling Gibbs 2.0. Martin and Gaff play completely different positions.

 

[TheChamps990411]

RJ is Sterling Gibbs 2.0.

Completely disagree with this. Terrible comparison.

 

[Ajs120102]

Cole defensively is a bit eh but offensively he is amazing when he’s on

 

[husky429]

Wrong. The team functions best with Gaff as our lead point guard. RJ is Sterling Gibbs 2.0. Martin and Gaff play completely different positions.

Gaff from Jersey too bro

 

[3rdbass]

Completely disagree with this. Terrible comparison.

Yeah I don't see that at all. He ran the offense very well in the first game. This game he struggled with foul trouble. His defense is his issue.

 

[JB75]

Love martin. Gaffney is ok. Solid. He’s not going to wow u. Cole is a legit scorer and possibly our best shooter Rj is legit Now tighten up that D kid. As a sidenote , hurley loves giving Adams run huh?

 

[Huskymagic]

Gaff from Jersey too bro

Doesn't matter he played his ball in Pennsylvania. I see things clearly. I've been saying that Gaff is better and more suited to be the lead point guard of this team for a while. RJ is a selfish player, it's just who he is. He doesn't elevate the play of others or the team.

Also, AJacks should have played more. More AJacks less Brendan Adams.

#BigEastGaff
#FeedPolley

 

[Chin Diesel]

Not sold on Cole yet. He is an average athlete at best and tonight is an example of how can get himself in to foul trouble.

I'm also not sold on Cole and Gaff together.

I would rather see Gaffney the floor with Bouk and Polley where Gaff plays pure distributor.

Would like to see a package of Cole, Jackson and Sanogo where Cole knows he needs to score.

It's very difficult to go from a needed 20 ppg scorer where you are always shooting to a split scorer/distributor.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Completely disagree with this. Terrible comparison.

consider the source.

 

[mauconnfan]

Not sold on Cole yet. He is an average athlete at best and tonight is an example of how can get himself in to foul trouble.

I'm also not sold on Cole and Gaff together.

I would rather see Gaffney the floor with Bouk and Polley where Gaff plays pure distributor.

Would like to see a package of Cole, Jackson and Sanogo where Cole knows he needs to score.

It's very difficult to go from a needed 20 ppg scorer where you are always shooting to a split scorer/distributor.

I’m not sold on either so think we need to see which one is playing well and be sure Bouk, Martin, Jackson, Adams(when playing well NOT tonight) and Polley share more of the minutes. We are so limited with those 2 pg’s on the floor together on both ends actually.

 

[Chin Diesel]

I’m not sold on either so think we need to see which one is playing well and be sure Bouk, Martin, Jackson, Adams(when playing well NOT tonight) and Polley share more of the minutes. We are so limited with those 2 pg’s on the floor together on both ends actually.

Agree and I think pairing up Gaff with Bouk, Martin, Whaley and Polley gives plenty of offense, tow good defenders in Polley and Martin and rim protector in Whaley.

Put Cole in there with Jackson, Adams and Sanogo and have Cole be a focal point of scoring from outside and penetrating. Let Sanogo clean up the mess and have Adams and Jackson be rim runners.

Cole turns it over too much and gets careless with the ball for my liking right now.

 

[MuchoDogYears]

Agree. I dont like those 3 on the court together. Gaff and Cole shouldnt be on the court together.

This I agree with. I don’t know if Cole or Gaffney is the better answer at PG but one needs to sit. Split their time at PG. Slide Bouknight to SG and insert Sanago at center.

 

[Chin Diesel]

This I agree with. I don’t know if Cole or Gaffney is the better answer at PG but one needs to sit. Split their time at PG. Slide Bouknight to SG and insert Sanago at center.

Through 2 games and 60 min, Gaff has 1 TO.

 

[WeAreUCONN]

Cole needs to be the general out there. Uconn played like they had no point guard tonight and it showed. Bouknight is great but he needs to let the game come to him and not force anything. Cole needs to run this offense and when he’s out of the game. Then Gaffney should be the floor general. if you take out the first five minutes of tonight’s game and the last five minutes. Uconn looked like a lousy team. Most of that is due to lack of practice time and chemistry.

 

[Hurleyman216]

Our highest upside as a team is with Gaffney playing point and Cole playing the 2. Hurley knows this as do many others. It’s only been 2 games...if Hurley played only 1 of Cole or Gaffney at a time you’d all be screaming for him to put them both in. Y’all need to relax and let the team chemistry brew. Hurley has seen a lot more of these guys than we have. All of our championships have been won with 2 guys starting who could both run the point. Both Cole and Gaffney are very good passers and can also knock down 3’s. Gaffney needs to penetrate to the basket a bit more to open things up. Our best lineup will still likely be when those guys are both on the floor. Gaffney just helps us win (but needs to improve his defense). Cole will have nights where he carries us, just trust the process. I think at the end of the year we’ll have 4-5 guys averaging double figures in scoring, so we’re very well balanced

 

[8893]

Slaw

 

[mauconnfan]

Our highest upside as a team is with Gaffney playing point and Cole playing the 2. Hurley knows this as do many others. It’s only been 2 games...if Hurley played only 1 of Cole or Gaffney at a time you’d all be screaming for him to put them both in. Y’all need to relax and let the team chemistry brew. Hurley has seen a lot more of these guys than we have. All of our championships have been won with 2 guys starting who could both run the point. Both Cole and Gaffney are very good passers and can also knock down 3’s. Gaffney needs to penetrate to the basket a bit more to open things up. Our best lineup will still likely be when those guys are both on the floor. Gaffney just helps us win (but needs to improve his defense). Cole will have nights where he carries us, just trust the process. I think at the end of the year we’ll have 4-5 guys averaging double figures in scoring, so we’re very well balanced

Can’t agree but respect your view. Too many more impactful players losing minutes when these 2 are on the floor together too much. Also our defense just won’t be good enough against offensive teams like Nova, Creighton and many more. Less of them together is needed to get better as Martin, Jackson even Polley need more minutes.

 

[Hurleyman216]

Can’t agree but respect your view. Too many more impactful players losing minutes when these 2 are on the floor together too much. Also our defense just won’t be good enough against offensive teams like Nova, Creighton and many more. Less of them together is needed to get better as Martin, Jackson even Polley need more minutes.

Yeah, I understand your view as well, but most teams we play will have at least 2 guards under 6’ 5” that will likely be too quick for Polley or Martin or even Bouknight to guard effectively. In reality, the teams we play are going to dictate who gets the most minutes based on matchups. Martin gives us better rebounding, Polley gives us better outside shooting. If Polley is going to be getting so many minutes then DH needs to find a way to get him at least 6-8 good looks from 3 per game. If he’s going to be out there not shooting then he shouldn’t be on the floor. We’re lucky in that we have so many guys over 6’ 8” that we can throw out there to give us different looks. Our length is going to bother a lot of teams, but we need to work on our foot speed on defense. Hurley is a defensive coach so I know he’ll get them playing great D.

 

[Watchdog]

Yeah, I understand your view as well, but most teams we play will have at least 2 guards under 6’ 5” that will likely be too quick for Polley or Martin or even Bouknight to guard effectively. In reality, the teams we play are going to dictate who gets the most minutes based on matchups. Martin gives us better rebounding, Polley gives us better outside shooting. If Polley is going to be getting so many minutes then DH needs to find a way to get him at least 6-8 good looks from 3 per game. If he’s going to be out there not shooting then he shouldn’t be on the floor. We’re lucky in that we have so many guys over 6’ 8” that we can throw out there to give us different looks. Our length is going to bother a lot of teams, but we need to work on our foot speed on defense. Hurley is a defensive coach so I know he’ll get them playing great D.

With respect to opposing guards under 6'5" proving to be too quick for Martin, Polley and even Bouknight, Flowers showed last night he was not only too quick for them but also too quick for Cole and Gaffney.

I'd like to see one point guard (Cole and Gaffney splitting time), with Bouknight as the two guard and have Adams or Jackson spell Bouknight. I know Jackson's "shooting challenged" but he's such a great passer and has the potential to be a terrific on ball defender he needs to be playing meaningful minutes now to get him ready for Big East games. Pair him with Cole if Cole's the better shooter and pair JG with JB. We'll find out against St. John's if our point guards can handle Posh Alexander and that may help DH make some critical decisions.

 

[Excalibur]

You can’t play 3 guards with two small guards, so Cole and Gaffney can’t be out there together too much. I think we were better offensively with Cole in the game last night. He made the plays that stretched the lead back out in the second half.

One of our major problems will be that our two best scorers (Bouknight and Cole) are both poor defenders.