- Joined
- Jan 11, 2013
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- Reaction Score
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Notable games and goings on:
Most notable: University of Connecticut Huskies VS. University of Maryland Terrapins
Quick thoughts: (Player by player)
Amida Brimah: I thought they played their best in the second half when he was in. Maryland got to the tin far too easily when he was out. They seem too used to having him as their backline defense. Trimble made him look foolish with the dish a couple times when he came to help. Without any real offensive moves he's just a liability on that end.
Shonn Miller: Had his moments. Can be explosive to the hoop. Would like to see him use his elevation more, just go over guys! He seems more than capable at it. Tried to hold his ground against MD's big boys but he was definitely part of the rebounding problem. Made a couple good decisions on the help D. Also got beat on the weakside a couple times if memory serves.
Daniel Hamilton: Offensively he was a beast, and he could've been even more effective if he could just make a 3-footer, or found the open man when the help came. The coaching staff must be telling him more and more to be as aggressive as possible and he's listening. Defensively he just gets continually lost over and over. Loses track of his man, gets caught in no-man's land or doesn't fight through the screen hard enough. That one Nickens 3-pointer was egregiously bad.
Rodney Purvis: Those two quick fouls he had in the first half absolutely killed us. We needed another threat on offense to keep the Maryland D from collapsing on DHam. Once he came back in in the 1st he had to play a little more tentatively to avoid another foul. Once he finally hit that pull up in the lane in the 2nd half you could feel the game open up for UConn. With Gibbs sputtering, the stretch in the 1st half where he was on the bench is when we lost the game.
Sterling Gibbs: Tentative. Indecisive. Seemingly afraid of going left. I think he's having a hard time so far adjusting to KO's schemes. Thinking too much out there. I think he'll settle and things will click. Just gonna take a little while longer. In the mean time we're gonna struggle against comparable talent for a while without a third proven ballhandler/scorer. Miller is too dependent on others to create offense for him and Adams just isn't quite there yet.
Jalen Adams: Had moments where he looked like a second year guy and obvious freshmen moments as well. Clearly far more dynamic with the ball in his hands than Gibbs at this point. Was pretty good at times breaking down the defense off the bounce, just needs to finish the gimmes at the bucket. The two or three he blew would've been huge. He was outmatched trying to guard Trimble, but did a decent job being active in the passing lanes and driving corridors. Foul call late was no bueno, but we could've survived that. KO killed all our momentum with that terrible T. Loves the euro-step.
Kentan Facey: He had been playing so well of late. Tonight was not his night, but no one in our front court could handle their triumvirate of bigs. The rebounding action was what killed us most.
Steven Enoch: Lost. Not ready for this game.
Omar Calhoun, Sam Cassell Jr., Phillip Nolan: At some point the experimentation needs to end. Absolutely nothing productive (aside from maybe one defensive possession where Phil was able to body up one of their guys well) came from their time on the court. I would love to see some glimmer of Omar's old self out there, but at this point I've pretty much given up hope.
Bottom Line: We are just not going to win many of these high stakes games when we come out flat like that. The only person doing anything in the first half, when the game was essentially decided, was DHam. Had he shot like he did in the 2nd half we probably would've had a better chance to win. I'm not down on this team though. They'll gel, Gibbs will find his way and contribute to the offense. My bigger worry is defensively. I just don't know if their starting lineup is their best defensive lineup, and their best defensive lineup is how we are going to win games. DHam and Gibbs need to commit to each possession on that end otherwise the rest of them are going to run out of fingers for the dike.
Next 5 games UConn games:
-Sat. Dec. 12th vs Ohio St. 12pm
-Sun. Dec. 20th vs UMass-Lowell 4pm
-Wed. Dec. 23rd vs CCSU 12:30pm
-Tue. Dec. 29th at Texas 9pm
-Sat. Jan. 2nd at Tulane 7:30pm
UConn in the NBA: The Magic win again as Shabozz (C'mon Dickie V is it really that hard to say his name?) has 6 in 14 min. Rudy w/23 pts, Caron DNP in a Sac-town win
Future UConn opponents: CCSU lost to Rutgers 75-59, Texas beat UTSA 116-50 (Mack with his first real good game 17 pts), OSU beat Air Force 74-54
Former UConn opponents: #20 Gonzaga beat Montana 61-58 (Perkins with 13 pts, 6 rbs, 3 ast, 5 to's), UNH beat Worcester St. 100-66, Furman beat Liberty 79-56, Cuse beat Colgate 78-51
Top 25 Action: #10 Virginia beat #14 WVU 70-54, #12 Xavier beat Wright St. 90-55, #16 Baylor beat Northwestern St. 75-62, #17 Miami beat Florida 66-55 (Devin Robinson 11/6)
Our AAC Chum(s): #19 SMU beat Michigan 82-58 (We would've blown out Michigan on our home court too right?), Houston lost to URI 67-57, UCF beat UMass 67-63, Tulsa beat Iona 90-81
P5 Winners: Georgia (Turtle Jackson with 2 pts in 17 min), Arkansas, Notre Dame, Washington beat TCU
P5 Upsets: Penn St. lost to GW, Minnesota lost to South Dakota St.
Other News & Notes: No Smith or Hardnett in Fordham's win. Traci Carter with 8 pts, 6 ast, 4 rbs in Marquette's win
Most notable: University of Connecticut Huskies VS. University of Maryland Terrapins
Quick thoughts: (Player by player)
Amida Brimah: I thought they played their best in the second half when he was in. Maryland got to the tin far too easily when he was out. They seem too used to having him as their backline defense. Trimble made him look foolish with the dish a couple times when he came to help. Without any real offensive moves he's just a liability on that end.
Shonn Miller: Had his moments. Can be explosive to the hoop. Would like to see him use his elevation more, just go over guys! He seems more than capable at it. Tried to hold his ground against MD's big boys but he was definitely part of the rebounding problem. Made a couple good decisions on the help D. Also got beat on the weakside a couple times if memory serves.
Daniel Hamilton: Offensively he was a beast, and he could've been even more effective if he could just make a 3-footer, or found the open man when the help came. The coaching staff must be telling him more and more to be as aggressive as possible and he's listening. Defensively he just gets continually lost over and over. Loses track of his man, gets caught in no-man's land or doesn't fight through the screen hard enough. That one Nickens 3-pointer was egregiously bad.
Rodney Purvis: Those two quick fouls he had in the first half absolutely killed us. We needed another threat on offense to keep the Maryland D from collapsing on DHam. Once he came back in in the 1st he had to play a little more tentatively to avoid another foul. Once he finally hit that pull up in the lane in the 2nd half you could feel the game open up for UConn. With Gibbs sputtering, the stretch in the 1st half where he was on the bench is when we lost the game.
Sterling Gibbs: Tentative. Indecisive. Seemingly afraid of going left. I think he's having a hard time so far adjusting to KO's schemes. Thinking too much out there. I think he'll settle and things will click. Just gonna take a little while longer. In the mean time we're gonna struggle against comparable talent for a while without a third proven ballhandler/scorer. Miller is too dependent on others to create offense for him and Adams just isn't quite there yet.
Jalen Adams: Had moments where he looked like a second year guy and obvious freshmen moments as well. Clearly far more dynamic with the ball in his hands than Gibbs at this point. Was pretty good at times breaking down the defense off the bounce, just needs to finish the gimmes at the bucket. The two or three he blew would've been huge. He was outmatched trying to guard Trimble, but did a decent job being active in the passing lanes and driving corridors. Foul call late was no bueno, but we could've survived that. KO killed all our momentum with that terrible T. Loves the euro-step.
Kentan Facey: He had been playing so well of late. Tonight was not his night, but no one in our front court could handle their triumvirate of bigs. The rebounding action was what killed us most.
Steven Enoch: Lost. Not ready for this game.
Omar Calhoun, Sam Cassell Jr., Phillip Nolan: At some point the experimentation needs to end. Absolutely nothing productive (aside from maybe one defensive possession where Phil was able to body up one of their guys well) came from their time on the court. I would love to see some glimmer of Omar's old self out there, but at this point I've pretty much given up hope.
Bottom Line: We are just not going to win many of these high stakes games when we come out flat like that. The only person doing anything in the first half, when the game was essentially decided, was DHam. Had he shot like he did in the 2nd half we probably would've had a better chance to win. I'm not down on this team though. They'll gel, Gibbs will find his way and contribute to the offense. My bigger worry is defensively. I just don't know if their starting lineup is their best defensive lineup, and their best defensive lineup is how we are going to win games. DHam and Gibbs need to commit to each possession on that end otherwise the rest of them are going to run out of fingers for the dike.
Next 5 games UConn games:
-Sat. Dec. 12th vs Ohio St. 12pm
-Sun. Dec. 20th vs UMass-Lowell 4pm
-Wed. Dec. 23rd vs CCSU 12:30pm
-Tue. Dec. 29th at Texas 9pm
-Sat. Jan. 2nd at Tulane 7:30pm
UConn in the NBA: The Magic win again as Shabozz (C'mon Dickie V is it really that hard to say his name?) has 6 in 14 min. Rudy w/23 pts, Caron DNP in a Sac-town win
Future UConn opponents: CCSU lost to Rutgers 75-59, Texas beat UTSA 116-50 (Mack with his first real good game 17 pts), OSU beat Air Force 74-54
Former UConn opponents: #20 Gonzaga beat Montana 61-58 (Perkins with 13 pts, 6 rbs, 3 ast, 5 to's), UNH beat Worcester St. 100-66, Furman beat Liberty 79-56, Cuse beat Colgate 78-51
Top 25 Action: #10 Virginia beat #14 WVU 70-54, #12 Xavier beat Wright St. 90-55, #16 Baylor beat Northwestern St. 75-62, #17 Miami beat Florida 66-55 (Devin Robinson 11/6)
Our AAC Chum(s): #19 SMU beat Michigan 82-58 (We would've blown out Michigan on our home court too right?), Houston lost to URI 67-57, UCF beat UMass 67-63, Tulsa beat Iona 90-81
P5 Winners: Georgia (Turtle Jackson with 2 pts in 17 min), Arkansas, Notre Dame, Washington beat TCU
P5 Upsets: Penn St. lost to GW, Minnesota lost to South Dakota St.
Other News & Notes: No Smith or Hardnett in Fordham's win. Traci Carter with 8 pts, 6 ast, 4 rbs in Marquette's win