Courant story on Sam Cassell, Jr.

[Dogbreath2U]

http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn...-insider-sam-cassell-0908-20150907-story.html

 

[HuskyCLT]

Our depth will be LEGIT this year. As exciting as it is to have football back, November can't come soon enough.

 

[Mazhude]

"He got hurt, so he couldn't really show the real Sam Cassell," Ollie said this summer. "But what he did do, which was phenomenal, he stayed with the team. I felt like Sam was still working out, always around the guys, encouraging the guys. Sometimes a guy gets an injury and they withdraw, That's the real Sam for me. Everybody looks at the basketball. I look at the totality of the man."

 

[CL82]

I suspect minutes are going to tough to come by, but I wish him the best. Seems like a great kid.

 

[huskyharry]

Biggest improvements that I hope to see from Sam: improve his ability to stay in front of his man on defense and improve his consistent on perimeter shooting (which will likely including simplifying his shooter motion...take out the sideways fades and fadeaways when open).

 

[UCweCONN]

Cassell Jr. = EJ Harrison minutes.

 

[scotty0330]

There are only so many minutes to go around. I give the kid a lot of credit for staying and continuing to work hard...his window to find a regular role on this team is gonna be small here's hoping he takes full advantage.

 

[BLUEDOGHOUSE]

Thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to share this SC Jr. article. It was an enjoyable and optimistic read as it relates to Sam Jr. He is a great kid that the team really enjoys being around. His value will be felt one way or the other. Have a great evening.

 

[UChusky916]

How quickly people forget Cassell was our best shooter last year for the first 5 games of the year (including exhibitions). Once we started to play more athletic teams his ballhandling and defensive deficiencies and became apparent. If he can handle the ball a bit better, play solid D, and hit open shots in his limited minutes, he'd bring a great lift off the bench.

 

[James]

cassell is good at the sport of basketball, his body didn't agree though last year. he was our best inbound passer when most personnel on the roster seemed flummoxed in that scenario. He is old, but when healthy he can add some really terrific things to our perimeter core. I see some austrie qualities in him if he gets his body right

 

[HuskyCLT]

How quickly people forget Cassell was our best shooter last year for the first 5 games of the year (including exhibitions). Once we started to play more athletic teams his ballhandling and defensive deficiencies and became apparent. If he can handle the ball a bit better, play solid D, and hit open shots in his limited minutes, he'd bring a great lift off the bench.

That is the interesting thing about this article. I had been thinking he was just over-matched last year and was having trouble dealing with the athleticism of D1 ball. However, after reading this article, his struggles with his shooting and defense match the timeline when he started feeling the pain of his stress fracture grow. I'm hoping that the injury was the main reason, and we can get a version of Cassell that we were originally hoping for - with a little more athleticism and feeling comfortable out there with the ball and on defense. Either way, it's great to hear he's continued to be a great teammate - and from the small bits I've seen on Insagram and Twitter it seems that his teammates like him too.