Did DHam have an unforgettable, forgettable or underachieved career?

[ctchamps]

I hate these threads. He was a very good player, who gave his all and helped us win games. I wish him the very best. That is all.

The thread is a potential problem depending on how people express themselves.

 

[ctchamps]

He didn't have a bad career by any means but it was forgettable and underachieving.

I see what you did here!

 

[CL82]

4.4 assists and 8.8 rebounds, and 11.7 ppg career averages.

I'd say "solid"

 

[Tenspro2002]

Did he really say that?

Well, technically he is right: Not many at UConn have have won the AAC tourney, and fewer still, have been named MOP.

I thought I was merely paraphrasing, but it turns out that was almost verbatim what he said.

“A lot of people are probably saying it’s a bad decision, but I think it was the best decision for me,” [Hamilton] said. “Not many people have accomplished what I’ve accomplished at UConn.”

Daniel Hamilton leaving UConn, will enter NBA draft and hire agent


That attitude and the apparent lack of perspective isn't helping the perception of his career.

 

[KembaStepback]

Pretty forgettable to me, I felt this way during the season and still feel it now when posters wax poetic about his game, but I'm always amazed at how far grabbing 9 boards and getting 4-5 assists gets you with a large portion of this fan base. The shooting and decision making was just too much of a bugaboo for me to put aside, easily one of the most frustrating players to watch in my 20+ years as a fan.

While I don't disagree about the decision making and shooting...the rebound and assist numbers are important for team basketball. If he didn't rebound, that'd just be another knock people would have against him. No one on last yr's team rebounded except for him and occasionally Facey.

I also don't quite understand how a conference tournament title and MOP means nothing to people here.

 

[Stainmaster]

To be succinct about it, as maddening as the slumps could be, I don't think we make the tourney this year without him. With that, I ask you to imagine what the mood would be within the fanbase and on this board re. Ollie, recruiting, and the state of the program in general. It's quite understandable why people are disappointed he wasn't an All-American or a lottery pick, given his ranking coming out of high school. But DHam was one of the main actors that helped to keep the program afloat during a very murky stretch. Remind yourself that things could be much worse.

 

[Kitaman]

That attitude and the apparent lack of perspective isn't helping the perception of his career.

In the context of his career his statement could be believed on his part. But in the context of being a UConn Husky its is easily disputed. The AAC is not the Big East in historical terms, and in current terms it isn't a Big 5 conference in respect to competition day in and day out. So our older Huskies who he may be comparing himself to had to step up and deliver big time, and they did.

To be clear I'm not certain even as a sophomore he would have even started on a lot of our teams in the past. Just saying. . . . . . . .

 

[UconnFanNVa]

Id use 2 of the words in the thread title to describe how i feel about Dham's Uconn career. He is unforgettable because he underachieved! We could all see the talent, and just expected so much more from him. That doesn't take away from the fact that as he was, he was a damn good player for our team.. but you just always felt that there was more. I was expecting a Kembesk jump in production at some point where it would just click and he'd be the best player in the country. The fact that it never happened makes me lean towards saying that he underachieved, and it also makes him unforgettable.

 

[UconnFanNVa]

I thought I was merely paraphrasing, but it turns out that was almost verbatim what he said.

“A lot of people are probably saying it’s a bad decision, but I think it was the best decision for me,” [Hamilton] said. “Not many people have accomplished what I’ve accomplished at UConn.”

Daniel Hamilton leaving UConn, will enter NBA draft and hire agent


That attitude and the apparent lack of perspective isn't helping the perception of his career.

Makes me feel like he is getting pumped up by the wrong people and just has a just get by type of attitude. The bare minimum in this case he feels like its an accomplishment. A real competitor would not be able to settle like he is doing. I get the feeling that he didnt reach his potential because he doesnt have the drive. That doesnt bode well for a potential professional career.

 

[aceboon]

While I don't disagree about the decision making and shooting...the rebound and assist numbers are important for team basketball. If he didn't rebound, that'd just be another knock people would have against him. No one on last yr's team rebounded except for him and occasionally Facey.

I also don't quite understand how a conference tournament title and MOP means nothing to people here.

He was a very good defensive rebounder and a good passer off the dribble, but neither of those skills were enough to offset the putrid shooting and decision making in my evaluation of him as a player. At the end of the day you needed him on the team to win a certain amount of games and be competitive given how the roster was constructed, but there was only so far you could go or win as a team with him being a featured player. For some if DHam went 4-12, put on a ballstopping extravangza, but grabbed 8 boards and handed out 4 assists it was a good game, I myself couldn't rock with it...and that's not even discussing his defense. Its whatever, people can look at his game however they see it.

 

[sammydabiz]

 

[lange10]

You can say he underachieved if you expected him to be great (All American) by his sophomore year.

But he was unquestionably the best all around player on a team who won an NCAA tournament game. He was AAC rookie of the year and MVP of the AAC tournament.

In 20 years I probably won't remember much about him, or anything else for that matter, but his impact on the teams he played on was not forgettable.

Completely disagree. I think you can easily say he underachieved when he was able to start as a freshman and show flashes of greatness. He played so well his freshman year he earned AAC ROY, like you said. However, given these flashes it was safe to assume the flashes in the pan would turn into a more productive and consistent performer (All AAC 1st team/top 2 in AAC POY). This didn't happen. He was still inconsistent throughout his sophomore campaign and the only visible improvement in his game was his FT%, and a credit to him for that, but you're lying to yourself if you say he got better in any other area in his game.

 

[mauconnfan]

Did he really say that?

Well, technically he is right: Not many at UConn have have won the AAC tourney, and fewer still, have been named MOP.

And even fewer with high expectations like him went 18 for 82 at a key part of the season like he did in his soph year with an average of 3-4 TO's a game. Listen don't want to lean on the guy but for him to say that is crazy at best, if he did.

 

[UChusky916]

Because we lacked a pure PG until the very end of the season when the light switch flipped on for Jalen, DHam was miscast as a No. 1 offensive option

Anyway, I will not forget Daniel Hamilton. Without him committing to UConn an then sticking to it, I think we'd have been a complete garbage fire the last two seasons.

Excellent post. Agree with almost everything you said but especially so on your points I quoted above.

Although the team underachieved the two years he was here, he was not the reason for that... it was moreso the lacking roster makeup and chemistry around him. There's no doubt he stuffed the stat sheet and made us a better team in many different aspects while he was here.

 

[Jerry1714]

Completely disagree. I think you can easily say he underachieved when he was able to start as a freshman and show flashes of greatness. He played so well his freshman year he earned AAC ROY, like you said. However, given these flashes it was safe to assume the flashes in the pan would turn into a more productive and consistent performer (All AAC 1st team/top 2 in AAC POY). This didn't happen. He was still inconsistent throughout his sophomore campaign and the only visible improvement in his game was his FT%, and a credit to him for that, but you're lying to yourself if you say he got better in any other area in his game.

His assists numbers, rebounding numbers, assist to turnover ratio and 2pt FG% all improved from Freshman to Sophmore year, the only statistical decrease was his 3pt% and that was miniscule (1.3-3.8 to 1.3-3.9). He was the #1 kenpom player in the AAC last year, he was not in the top 5 as a Freshman.

So I think you are lying to yourself.

 

[TasteofUConn]

The amount of negativity directed toward him is amazing. The reason people are negative about him is that he was our #1 guy for a two year stretch when [Real World Team Results] minus [Fan Expectations] resulted in a strongly negative number.

The real measure of his worth, impact, and so on is really measured by [Real World Team Results] minus [Real World Team Results w/o Him on the Team], which would have resulted in a strongly positive number.

In short, without him for the last two seasons I don't think we make the NIT either year, and he'll go down as one of the most underappreciated Huskies of all time in my book because of the lack of cohesiveness and talent around him and his decision to leave before many "would have left" if in his shoes.

 

[lange10]

His assists numbers, rebounding numbers, assist to turnover ratio and 2pt FG% all improved from Freshman to Sophmore year, the only statistical decrease was his 3pt% and that was miniscule (1.3-3.8 to 1.3-3.9). He was the #1 kenpom player in the AAC last year, he was not in the top 5 as a Freshman.

So I think you are lying to yourself.

I didn't look at his sheer numbers which was a mistake. But, I looked at his stats on KenPom from year 1 to year 2. The numbers themselves may have increased on paper but his defensive rebound rate went up roughly 3% (24.1 to 26.8), assist rate went up slightly as well (26.3 to 29) and lastly his turnover percentage decreased a little (18.9 to 17.4). Perhaps I had too lofty of expectations for DHam like you proposed in your original post. But it was so damn obvious how good he could've been and just from watching him year 1 to year 2 I didn't see a huge leap. I said it in the other thread though, he was still an incredible player for us at times and was a HUGE reason for many of our successes, it just never seemingly came to fruition.

 

[gtcam]

These 3 choices, IMHO, are not the best to be used and a bit unfair to DHam
He had his bad moments but at the same time he led the team in so many categories.
It's hard for me to encompass his short career in one word answers

 

[mauconnfan]

The amount of negativity directed toward him is amazing. The reason people are negative about him is that he was our #1 guy for a two year stretch when [Real World Team Results] minus [Fan Expectations] resulted in a strongly negative number.

The real measure of his worth, impact, and so on is really measured by [Real World Team Results] minus [Real World Team Results w/o Him on the Team], which would have resulted in a strongly positive number.

In short, without him for the last two seasons I don't think we make the NIT either year, and he'll go down as one of the most underappreciated Huskies of all time in my book because of the lack of cohesiveness and talent around him and his decision to leave before many "would have left" if in his shoes.

That's fairly relative now isn't it? I mean his ranking says he should have been our best player anyway right and obviously we would have been lucky to make the NIT without him. Of course we wouldn't have made the NCAA tourney with Rodney either, or maybe galena down the stretch. And hey if Shonn Miller didn't come how good would they have been?

I mean there's NC's we wouldn't have won either if you took a player out. Not sure what that means then? But in this case doesn't mean anyone's wrong about him not being quite as good as he could have or should have been .

 

[temery]

Yes

 

[Briuconn]

I thought he played better from Freshmen to Sophomore year, but what makes him seem totally ridiculous is him leaving as a Soph. Never had the look of a player that is ready to go. The only other Sophs to leave early for the NBA were at his same small forward position at UCONN, and they were All Americans and consensus Lottery Picks before the Draft.