Either Stewart or Ross needs to start | Page 4 | The Boneyard

Either Stewart or Ross needs to start

HW611 said:
Since Creighton, Ross has shot 84(!!!)% from the floor and 70% from 3.

Last night was the first time he started off a game or half and the team came out guns blazing.

Over these last few games Ross has finally been playing with the aggressiveness I’ve talked about where he is actively wanting the ball and looking to make a play. Not just hover around on offense. He has also not been getting down on himself after making a mistake.

I would be super excited at what putting him in the starting lineup would do for this team and his growing confidence. He's ready.
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And his ft percentage is?
 
Orc said:
Is Furphy not good? I don't get why he can’t get any playing time with Solo and Stewart having a terrible year. He looked great in world games last summer
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He is clearly not ready. Look at all the prior players people were saying needed pt. Abraham, singare etc. non have done anything with pt elsewhere
 
superjohn said:
Correct and he's still a lot better on defense than Solo.
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And offensively it will be 4 vs 5. A team can always take the risk of leaving Ross open and double team anyone else w the ball. We won’t score. Ross is energy and a change pace guy. No way he starts on any team playing even the second weekend. Forget about the third. Danny’s only chance is to get the starters right. Starting w ball.
 
My hope would be that by splitting up Mullins and Ball, they would both be a little more selective with their 3 point shots as well. There are times where they are both on the court that they both seem to jack up a 3 at the first chance they get because if the ball goes the other way they know they won't get it back.
 
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Whether Solo starts and Jayden plays high minutes if he’s cold, or Jayden starts and Solo plays more minutes if the offense isn’t working, doesn’t really matter. But I think Solo’s leash has to be tighter

When he’s off offensively, it magnifies his defensive issues. That’s when quick rotations are needed

I do think we only pay attention when he does poorly. Let’s not forget he was our leading scorer in the two games before Creighton, and the leading scorer of our best BE win (Villanova). He’s still a really valuable player, but with his defensive problems, he HAS to be on offensively
 
lateralous said:
My hope would be that by splitting up Mullins and Ball, they would both be a little more selective with their 3 point shots as well. There are times where they are both on the court where they both seem to jack up a 3 the first chance they get because if the ball goes the other way they won't get it back.
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So true and sometimes Alex as well, and when all 3 are missing....well we have a game like last night. I often wonder how many points Ross, Silas, Stewie or Smith would score if they also launched it with reckless abandon like those 3 do.
 
Scrappy3 said:
It’s a tough time to reinvent yourself but
Our defense needs it
My thinking is use mullens as sixth man for 25-27 start Ross and solo
Also don’t play karaban hurt
Play Stewart there
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You trying to lose out? That’s what would happen.
 
Drfla said:
Got to give Ross a chance. Look what happened last night. McDermott gave Zugic a chance and he responded. Maybe Ross will too.

What’s the common denominator in last year’s disappointment and this year’s regression from the good start to the season: SB’s terrible defense is the answer. He even makes others look worse defensively because they are forced to cover for him. He scores 14 and gives up 20+. Last year, at least, he tried to fit into the offensive scheme and took good shots. This year he seems to think he is the man and his 3 point shot selection is terrible. I’ve seen him numerous times on the break take the ball to the basket while being guarded on the break, instead of passing out to a wide open Mullins for 3.

Hate to be down on him, but he is playing selfish basketball, not making anyone else better. He was a team player last year despite his defensive deficiencies, but not this year.
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🎯
 
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HW611 said:
I think Ross is better than this board gives him credit for at making tough shots. How many times has he surprised the chat with a tough end of shot clock basket?

He just needs the trust and leash to play more freely.
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Of course you do, we know that by now. He’s a nice bench guy, hustle guy, solid defender but if he’s starting in your top 5/10 team you’re not that team any more.
 
mauconnfan said:
Of course you do, we know that by now. He’s a nice bench guy, hustle guy, solid defender but if he’s starting in your top 5/10 team you’re not that team any more.
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I'm starting to think HW611 is actually Jayden Ross and KingAG is Alex Karaban.
 
husky429 said:
I hate to make a scapegot of Solo after a loss. The issues have been glaring for a while. It's hard for me to swallow a kid being allowed to take the shots he does. Take 3s, but take them open and in the flow of the offense. The early offense contested shots really frustrate me. That's on the COACHES.

This season he's had 3/10, 1/8, 1/6, 2/9, 1/7, 0/5, 2/10 games.... at a certain point someone has to say STOP SHOOTING. No one player needs that volume, particularly one who is shooting 30% from deep. Get to the rack, break pressure, find your mid-range J, pass and rebound. There are so many more options to positively impact the team than taking 10% or more of our possessions on a shot you can't make right now.

Solo's offensive rating is 116 and defensive rating is 105.

Silas: 127/97
Mullins: 117/100
AK: 131/102
Reed: 121/92

Jayden: 122/100
Jaylin: 107/101
Smith: 108/103
Reibe: 128/98

Obviously these two stats aren't everything. But it's fair to say that Solo's defense is worse than the rest of this team by a decent margin.
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Your first paragraph is spot on. If he's missing good looks, then so be it. But his shot selection is awful. He doesn't get his feet set, he's shooting off the dribble (which he didn't do well last year, either), and he's rushing everything because he's pressing. People here have questioned Braylon's shot selection as well, but he's now up to 45/39, and it's rising. He has the green light that Solo should not.
 
Stewart not developing has hurt us, Seemed to have potential his freshman year had a good game against Marquette in the big east tournament. Truly can't figure out his regression since his freshman year. He has become so passive it kills me watching him when he comes in. He is not the answer to replace AK next year and Hurley has to recruit over him. Always had Stewart over Ross but that's over. Of all the players we've had in the last few years he frustrates me the most by far because he really is athletic and looks the part it just hasn't happened.
 
Scrappy3 said:
It’s a tough time to reinvent yourself but
Our defense needs it
My thinking is use mullens as sixth man for 25-27 start Ross and solo
Also don’t play karaban hurt
Play Stewart there
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Take a. Chill...evey team hits a stretch and needs regrouping..coach will find it..be happy we are where we r..in a few years may not have the talent to be here or cbb may be a thing of the past..the new g league!!
 
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Ross deserves more minutes and he's getting them. Starting? I don't think so, yet.
While his offensive contributions have been uplifting, he's nowhere near the level of a big-time shotmaker/scorer like Ball.
We are not advancing past week 2 with Solo playing the microwave role.

Stewie is funked out right now. He has the pedigree so I'm hopeful but we can't afford giving him starter minutes today.

Back to the real problem. With (if) Alex (is) limited we have no one back there to help Reed after they get by (Solo.) Creighton took immediate advantage and went to the line time after time.

It will be interesting to see what Hurley Inc. does for a bandage. We don't have another playable big body that can guard a 4 most of a game and Solo is laterally challenged. Zone is not happening. More Ross minutes should help up top if he's in for Solo but only for short stretches. Otherwise, giving Solo help by doubling or shielding off the driver in some form may help. Again, for short stretches.
Gotta get Alex healthy.
 
microfich said:
Ross deserves more minutes and he's getting them. Starting? I don't think so, yet.
While his offensive contributions have been uplifting, he's nowhere near the level of a big-time shotmaker/scorer like Ball.
We are not advancing past week 2 with Solo playing the microwave role.

Stewie is funked out right now. He has the pedigree so I'm hopeful but we can't afford giving him starter minutes today.

Back to the real problem. With (if) Alex (is) limited we have no one back there to help Reed after they get by (Solo.) Creighton took immediate advantage and went to the line time after time.

It will be interesting to see what Hurley Inc. does for a bandage. We don't have another playable big body that can guard a 4 most of a game and Solo is laterally challenged. Zone is not happening. More Ross minutes should help up top if he's in for Solo but only for short stretches. Otherwise, giving Solo help by doubling or shielding off the driver in some form may help. Again, for short stretches.
Gotta get Alex healthy.
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We can't be sending a double for Solo's man on the perimeter. That's ridiculous. Either Solo needs to take a step back and play D, or he's an enormous liability. As you said, we have no definitive rim protector, and our rotations are inconsistent at best.

I'm for starting Ross if for no other reason than to hopefully wake Solo up and motivate him. Dan Hurley has benched him late and now benched him early. This is the next step. If the offshoot is Ross can tap into the talent he has, but is inconsistent to apply, then winner, winner. Dan Hurley has to do something different. Just running the same problems out there game after game has finally burned us. He said this in the press conference. He's gotta make some changes, and for the first time, he was pretty clear that that was on the table. We know that Solo has been a really, really bad defender for two years. It was somewhat mitigated by his shooting last year.
 
I think the solution to this issue is fairly straightforward and doesn't involve switching one of our guys in to the starting line up. Our guys are beat down. Its a long season and Hurley practices these guys really hard, we are starting to see that wear and tear on guys like Karaban especially. The way this team is playing defensively is all the evidence you need, we've seen our defensive efficiency hit the tubes in the past few games and its been so frustrating to watch our on ball defense as opposing teams run right by us to the rack.

The solution.... this team needs some rest. These guys have the defensive intensity in them, we saw it in non-con and early big east, they are just worn down right now. After reading Hurley's book, I think he knows that practicing guys harder in a downswing isnt going to get them out of the funk.

Its a tough stretch coming up and we'll probably take a couple more knocks over the next couple weeks, but Hurley has learned a lot since hes been here and I think he understands the trade off of making some sacrifices to get your team humming in the BET and NCAA.
 
Creighton spread the floor and there were no UConn defenders in the lane. Creighton would then take their man off the dribble and drive to the hoop and make easy baskets. There was nobody in the lane with help defense and it makes the UConn defense look worse than it is. In other words, UConn doesn't have the right personnel to play the defense they are trying to play and I think Hurley has to make a scheme change.

On another note, I looked up the Evan Miya rankings of the UConn players to see if they have improved from last year:

Demery: 196 to 8
Reed: 80 to 30
Karaban: 73 to 49
Ball: 284 to 232
Ross: 1401 to 504
Smith: 606 to 506
Stewart: 616 to 590
 
Maybe don't have a guy shooting 30% from three take 15 three's a game . Maybe don't play a guy who is awful at defense and shooting 30% from three play so many minutes. Half of Ball's minutes need to just get spread out between the other starters, Ross and Stewart. If you are going to let him chuck, have him do it with the bench squad since you'll have a much more inefficient offense out there.

Not only do so many missed three's equate to zero points but it also doesn't make the defense work hard, easier for the opponent to transition to offense and most importantly, we don't get to the line. 3pt shooting is important of course in the game today but the pendulum has swung to far recently.

Here's a stat - in our last 3 games we are average 32 3pt attempts per game. Prior to those three games we're averaging 22 attempts per game.

This is an easy fix.

One other problem that is not an easy fix is that Reibe is REALLY bad at defense, I was surprised to see how low his BPR is .84. To put that into perspective, Ball's BPR is 1.38. So, as soon as Reed is off the court, we are not going to be good at defense. Not sure how you fix that aside from playing Reed more minutes, but then he gets into foul trouble. Probably can get away with playing Karaban at the 5 if the other team has a small line up, maybe.
 
jfreeds said:
Maybe don't have a guy shooting 30% from three take 15 three's a game . Maybe don't play a guy who is awful at defense and shooting 30% from three play so many minutes. Half of Ball's minutes need to just get spread out between the other starters, Ross and Stewart. If you are going to let him chuck, have him do it with the bench squad since you'll have a much more inefficient offense out there.

Not only do so many missed three's equate to zero points but it also doesn't make the defense work hard, easier for the opponent to transition to offense and most importantly, we don't get to the line. 3pt shooting is important of course in the game today but the pendulum has swung to far recently.

Here's a stat - in our last 3 games we are average 32 3pt attempts per game. Prior to those three games we're averaging 22 attempts per game.

This is an easy fix.

One other problem that is not an easy fix is that Reibe is REALLY bad at defense, I was surprised to see how low his BPR is .84. To put that into perspective, Ball's BPR is 1.38. So, as soon as Reed is off the court, we are not going to be good at defense. Not sure how you fix that aside from playing Reed more minutes, but then he gets into foul trouble. Probably can get away with playing Karaban at the 5 if the other team has a small line up, maybe.
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Solo has been really bad but so has Jaylin. Stewart ain't the answer.
 
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mauconnfan said:
Of course you do, we know that by now. He’s a nice bench guy, hustle guy, solid defender but if he’s starting in your top 5/10 team you’re not that team any more.
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Just give it a chance and see what happens mau. Haha
 
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