Dan Hurley says bench depth will make or break season

[superjohn]

One concern I have is Clingan's foul rate. Last year it was masked by splitting time with Sanogo. This year, with Sanogo gone he will be relied on for more minutes. I expect that with another year experience his foul rate will improve. It was a luxury to not have big man foul concerns last year.

I think he fouled at a high rate because his role was to come in for two 6 minute stretches and wreck havoc plus he was a freshman so refs didn't respect him and called cheapies on him. I'm not worried about his fouling as a sophomore.

 

[superjohn]

I was convinced about the 1998-1999 team. I had a bit of apprehension about the fact that we seemed unable to breakthrough to the final four until that season (and the Gonzaga game felt like an overly cruel form of torture) but there was no time, from before the season began, that I didn't view it as national title or failure. I also never considered failure as a possibility.

I felt the 2003-2004 team would be unstoppable from shortly after Marcus White's shot got stuck on the rim until Emeka hurt his back. As the season progressed I felt we had far too much for anyone to handle and only wavered on it when it looked like the refs wanted to ensure that Duke would beat us.

I felt the 2005-2006 team was going to be our best ever and one of the better NCAA squads ever until the laptop incident but even then I felt the overall talent, with JC's will, we would have been able to overcome anything. I'm still a little pissed off about that one.

There was a several year period there where the program was a soap opera. If AJ never had his illness, injury, laptop and Nate Miles and Bynum played it's ridiculous how good we would've been. Somehow it's probably good it didn't work out that way.

 

[HU5KIES]

rotation predictions anyone?

Newton (25)- Diarra (15)
Spencer (25)- Ball (15)
Castle (25)- Ross (10)- Stewart (5)
Karaban (30)- Stewart (5)- Samson (5)
Clingan (25)- Samson (15)

30: Karaban
25: Newton, Spencer, Castle, Clingan
20: Samson
15: Diarra, Ball
10: Ross, Stewart

Looks pretty solid to me, but I'd be surprised to see Newton getting less than the 29mpg he had last year, I'd bump him to 30 here and take 5 from one of the bench guys.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I think he fouled at a high rate because his role was to come in for two 6 minute stretches and wreck havoc plus he was a freshman so refs didn't respect him and called cheapies on him. I'm not worried about his fouling as a sophomore.

It's partly that and partly that he chased guards/wings and tried to block everything instead of just altering their shot by being there. I have no doubt that he and the staff worked hard on that in the off-season. It's a hard thing for any young shot-blocker to learn. You move toward those guys and they cut back into you, foul on you. He had no trouble not fouling other centers.

 

[RichCTBB]

I don't think I've ever gone into a season with a goal of winning a national championship. Too many things you don't control have to go right. I start a season asking if we have the roster to win the conference, and/or to get to the Final Four. And I think this year's team is more than talented enough that those are both reasonable goals.

But this year's team will need an entirely different chemistry than last year's team had, and some teams develop a great chemistry that makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts and some don't (i.e. Kentucky, University of). We'll have to see what happens.

Agree 100%….fortunately Hurley and co. Have shown a consistent ability to have the team peak at the right time. I expect us to take our lumps in Dec and January and then start turning a corner in February. This is of course contingent upon our key players staying healthy. I think we can absorb injuries to #9 and #10 in the rotation.

 

[RichZ]

I wouldn't be surprised if he can chip in 6-8ppg this year and a few rebounds purely from hustle plays.

Sounds a lot like a freshman Ajax. I he can jump out of the gym and make passes that no-one else would even try, then he's be Ajax2.

 

[RichZ]

I love Andre as a player, competitor and person. However, Adama is always undervalued. All he does is beat his opponent. In his tenure at UConn, in how many games did his matchup opponent beat him? He had a lot of skills and very quick feet for a guy his size. But, another thing we knew every game was that we had the strongest guy on the court if it got into a physical game. Too often that’s underestimated.

I always found that for a relatively short big that played deep in the paint most of the time, Adama wasn't a spectacular leaper. He shot layups more frequently than he dunked, and barring fast break opportunities, his dunks were soft. Rarely had hands more than half over the rim. Yet, if memory serves (having checked every game replay at the end of the season) he won 32 of 39 opening taps. How was that even possible?

 

[huskyharry]

and Andrew Hurley

and Andre Johnson

 

[huskyharry]

and Andre Johnson

And Apostolos Roumouglou

 

[wingsfan055]

Castle not starting?? Blasphemy!!

 

[CL82]

We are very young. I expect a lot growing pains.

We are also very talented and have the opportunity to be a very good team by the end of the season.

 

[husky429]

I think he fouled at a high rate because his role was to come in for two 6 minute stretches and wreck havoc plus he was a freshman so refs didn't respect him and called cheapies on him. I'm not worried about his fouling as a sophomore.

Agreed. I think him being foul prone was at least a bit by design. He was basically given license to swat everything into a different solar system.