Expectations: 2021-22 season

[microfich]

Thanks for reading. Final pre-season look offered with pleasure and a high level of stokification.

From polls to scribes, talking heads to Boneyard wonks, there is a lot of optimism for this year’s club. We have, down low, an extremely high performing defensive unit. Up high, a bunch of athletically challenged but established scorers taking 80 minutes of time. Our wings consist of the proven and the improving. Talent level continues to rise in Hurley year 4 welcoming 3 freshmen with high levels of athleticism and skill. We think. We will need contributions from them. As we figure out how to overcome our weaknesses, will our strengths be powerful enough to take us to the BE Final and well beyond?

Five Things we have seen:

* Depth/Experience. Seven returnees played more than 15mpg. Whaley and Polley return for their super-senior seasons. Ike the BEDPOY, Ty, the Rashad wannabe.​

​

* Proven scorers but no top dog. He that shall not be named. Just who could that be? Sanogo will swirl and curl with his many marv carves. The roster is replete with capable and dependable scorers but no one you can peg as someone you feel assured can break out with that 20+ game when we need it.​

​

* Defensivity. Our Blue Dome (ok, my lame name) defense was stunning. Carlton packed up to Houston. Fouls a worry with both Ike and Adama. Minutes will be available.​

​

* Lack of offensive TNT at guard and wing. Just none. Maybe Hawkins?​

​

* Threes are profound. Polley had 2 big games among many other pedestrian performances. The 6’9” launcher might just grow more dependable as a role player. While slow-footed, he may be on the floor more this year as the only proven sniper, Andrew Hurley’s 100% not withstanding. RJ was just fine at .386 and his experience might lead to more volume success. They both took over 100. Gaff and Tyrese took less than 50 each and there’s the question marks in Akok and Hawkins.​

Five Things we expect:

* Growth. There’s always that but where will it sprout? Fewer mistakes and more understanding from the returnees supplanted by the gaffes the freshmen bring. Cohesiveness is a gentle killer but it may take a while to learn how to play without Bouk to bail us out. Gaffney very slowly grows on you. Is there more to see?​

​

* Freshman voices. Three highly ranked kids with gifts that fill out some empty toes of our stocking. Hawkins can fill it up. Diggins a pure point. Johnson an athletic big that can step out. Up and down it will surely go but we’ll have plenty of “Oh, my!” moments.​

​

* Andre the ??? Without an instinctive offensive game it will take time to find any kind of groove. If he can be even a bit more aggressive to the hoop or loosen up his jumper and sharpen his already high-level facilitation skills he will be a big asset.​

​

* Rim protection. When they get by our guards, and they will, only those that can serve a low dish away from the fray will earn their tips. As opponents get by RJ or Gaff they’ll have the rising missiles of Ike, Akok and Adama to contend with. Eventually Samuel Johnson is going to do some great things back there. Will Richie finally show off his springs?​

​

* Where’s Waldo? We can win a lot of games by sharing the load and we are fairly mature to support that notion but off nights and tough opponents will come our way. Calling Hawkeye, Earths Mightiest Marksman….the hope is for Hawkins because no one else besides Sanogo can weave their own baskets vs. the best.​

Summary

20+ wins is in this bunch but it’s going to take a well-oiled offense to overcome the lack of anyone who can really create explosively against the best of the BE. Defense will be our calling card to the tournament. If we can cover the 3 the Blue Dome will unfurl to greet and then toss out the uninvited. With enough proven scorers and the likelihood of frequent second chances and stoppers down low it’s a nice recipe but studpepper, the tastiest ingredient, is missing. The wild card that would strengthen our bid will be Hawkins.​

​

​

 

[mauconnfan]

So much to be excited about and yet so much to wonder about at the same time. You said it all very well and then some. While I believe this will be a very successful year I’m not at all sure how successful. I will need to see some games to have a clue as the questions of players improvement is more important than ever.

Can’t wait until Tuesday!

 

[Doctor Hoop]

This squad will be solid, but the determining factors offensively will be 1) can they hit open 3’s - not iso step backs, or forced end-of-clock, just the open ones, and 2) can they have multiple guys able to penetrate and break down the D.

if you hit open 3’s reliably the defense has to extend … which opens driving lanes. And if you can penetrate effectively from multiple positions the D has to collapse … which leaves open 3’s. If those two things develop they will be very, very dangerous.

By the way, if this sounds like Villanova, you’re right.

 

[Son of Robert]

Get better continuously all season as this team grows and matures. Be in contention for a national title come March.

 

[Apollo]

Anything less than a top 3 finish in conference and a deep run in the BET would be a disappointment. Second weekend in March might be a stretch, but a tourney win should be attainable

 

[the Q]

Anything less than a top 3 finish in conference and a deep run in the BET would be a disappointment. Second weekend in March might be a stretch, but a tourney win should be attainable

Those things should result in like a 4/5 seed, which would mean a very real chance at the second weekend

 

[navery12]

Finish the year in the top 25 (and hopefully spend most of the year in it as well), top 3 regular season BE, BE tournament final, make the 2nd weekend

 

[Umami Zen]

Nice summary with two omissions-- No love for Tyrese or CJ? Expect TM to be a significant contributor over the course of the season. Corey is a wild card due to his "youth".. But he continues to perform in practices/scrimmages vs upperclassmen. Will DH put him on ice for a redshirt year or is Corey working his way into some PT with his hard work and results? Always liked his skills but he's getting people's attention quicker than most thought.

Great problems for the Program to have.

Agree with@navery 12 re:expectations but I think they may have a legit shot of getting out (advancing) of the second weekend in the Tournament.

 

[freescooter]

Nice summary with two omissions-- No love for Tyrese or CJ? Expect TM to be a significant contributor over the course of the season. Corey is a wild card due to his "youth".. But he continues to perform in practices/scrimmages vs upperclassmen. Will DH put him on ice for a redshirt year or is Corey working his way into some PT with his hard work and results? Always liked his skills but he's getting people's attention quicker than most thought.

Great problems for the Program to have.

Agree with@navery 12 re:expectations but I think they may have a legit shot of getting out (advancing) of the second weekend in the Tournament.

I kind of think Tyrese is very limited. I like the way he scraps and rebounds but he missed a ton of bunnies and rebounds. Doesn’t do much good to grab an offensive board if you can’t make the put back. He seemed to disappear after Bouknight returned from injury. Seemed like he was odd man out, although I didn’t go back and look at minutes. Like a lot of our guys he is sort of 1 dimensional. My biggest worry is who scores. And who puts the team on his back in a tough situation. Guys who do that have to have 2 things. First the will to take tough shots, but equally important, they need the ability to make tough shots. If you only have 1 it doesn’t help that much.

 

[Captbluefin]

Going to be tough in the beginning. Some people will be discouraged. Midway through conference play they will be running on all cylinders.

3rd in Big East 6 seed.

 

[husky429]

I kind of think Tyrese is very limited. I like the way he scraps and rebounds but he missed a ton of bunnies and rebounds. Doesn’t do much good to grab an offensive board if you can’t make the put back. He seemed to disappear after Bouknight returned from injury. Seemed like he was odd man out, although I didn’t go back and look at minutes. Like a lot of our guys he is sort of 1 dimensional. My biggest worry is who scores. And who puts the team on his back in a tough situation. Guys who do that have to have 2 things. First the will to take tough shots, but equally important, they need the ability to make tough shots. If you only have 1 it doesn’t help that much.

It boils down to shooting with Rese. He is a great defender, amazing on the boards, even a decent handle and passing for his position. Hard to play him big minutes id he is going to have such a negative impact on our spacing though. If he can shoot 35% he might well be our best player.

 

[Umami Zen]

I kind of think Tyrese is very limited. I like the way he scraps and rebounds but he missed a ton of bunnies and rebounds. Doesn’t do much good to grab an offensive board if you can’t make the put back. He seemed to disappear after Bouknight returned from injury. Seemed like he was odd man out, although I didn’t go back and look at minutes. Like a lot of our guys he is sort of 1 dimensional. My biggest worry is who scores. And who puts the team on his back in a tough situation. Guys who do that have to have 2 things. First the will to take tough shots, but equally important, they need the ability to make tough shots. If you only have 1 it doesn’t help that much.

I'll say it a different way..The spot he occupies (in DH's rotation) is very important.. Is he the guy or someone else??

He's a junk yard dog who will do what DH asks of him. And yes. He has his limitations.

BTW.. His coach likes what he brings to the table.

 

[WrenchFan69]

Should be top 4 in the Big East and I think we'll make the tournament

 

[microfich]

Nice summary with two omissions-- No love for Tyrese or CJ? Expect TM to be a significant contributor over the course of the season. Corey is a wild card due to his "youth".. But he continues to perform in practices/scrimmages vs upperclassmen. Will DH put him on ice for a redshirt year or is Corey working his way into some PT with his hard work and results? Always liked his skills but he's getting people's attention quicker than most thought.

Great problems for the Program to have.

Agree with@navery 12 re:expectations but I think they may have a legit shot of getting out (advancing) of the second weekend in the Tournament.

You know I just hadn't placed Corey in my mind as contributing this season. You may be right especially if we start getting abused up top. I would think if he is ready he will play.
Actually, my first "Expectations" was for Tyrese. Expectations: Tyrese Martin. I and others agree at his lack of wiggle and finishing but also that he'll take anyone on and put up good numbers most nights. Low ceiling, high producing 4 year type player. We really need him to do what he does and that is quite a bit.

 

[ucp990411]

I go into every game expecting to win

 

[CTBasketball]

We are going to struggle offensively, and if it doesn’t improve we will be a bubble team.

 

[shizzle787]

At least 23 regular season wins
At least 2nd place finish in Big East
At least Big East tournament final
At least Sweet 16

 

[UCLJ0211]

At least 23 regular season wins
At least 2nd place finish in Big East
At least Big East tournament final
At least Sweet 16

These are all realistic expectations. I was thinking along the same lines too, something like a 23-8 regular season (depending on how many games we end up playing). That should put us in the top 2-3 in the BE and in contention for the BET title as well. Sweet 16 would be great, and is attainable, but I’d also be happy just to get a NCAA tourney win at this point.

 

[bmayuc]

To me this is a very "high-floor", "high-upside" type season.

Given our athleticism, physicality, offensive rebounding, and defensive quality/versatility - means we are not going to lose to bad teams, ever. And it means we are always going to be in every other game, regardless of our offensive capability. So figure worst case you go 9-0 against the UConn +10 types, and split the rest evenly and you are like 23-11 or so. That's if everyone basically plays like last year.

What is interesting for this team is that there is a huge upside factor - to me are 4 factors:

1. Does Hawkins come in and make an impact? If he's a 10-12 point guy with some 20pt games in the 2nd half of the year its a completely different style of team.

2. Does Adama become a BEast 1st Teamer? If he becomes a 15-8 guy, with the other bigs poaching offensive putbacks our frontcourt goes from ultra-solid to top-5 in the country

3. Does Jackson emerge in a significant way? - Just huge upside on both sides of the ball if he gets established, the dynamic/game-changing skillsets. There is a world where Jackson goes 10 pts, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 run-starting dunks/blocks/steals per game.

4. Does RJ Cole emerge from Bouknight/1st year shadow and get back his Howard Swagger as leading offensive bucket getter? - I think there is room here for him to get to 15-16ppg and be more aggressive with shot-making

If any/all of those happen, like add 2 wins for each.

Worst Case - The team is not super fun to watch, but brutalizes teams an grinds out enough wins for a 23-11, 3-4th in BEast, 9-10 seed.

Best Case - Hawkins is a dead-eye, Jackson is an explosive swiss army knife, Adama stops fouling and keeps beasting, RJ hits a bunch of Shabazz 25 footers and keeps the swagger up, and everyone else is just super solid. Team goes 27-7, wins BEast regular season & Tourney Title, spends some of the season in the top 10, is a 2-4 seed and is a dark horse Final 4 contender, and we are the front page of SIs preview for 2022-23 season.

 

[TheChamps990411]

So much to be excited about and yet so much to wonder about at the same time. You said it all very well and then some. While I believe this will be a very successful year I’m not at all sure how successful. I will need to see some games to have a clue as the questions of players improvement is more important than ever.

Can’t wait until Tuesday!

I know this sounds obvious but i believe this team will be better in Feb than it is in Nov and Dec. I think theyll look like a good team all season but i think by late Jan early Feb this will start looking like a team that will be a threat to make the F4.

 

[UCfor3]

I think we NEED to win a tournament game this year. The 2nd weekend would be optimal but we need to continue to ascend. I think next year is the year if the players we hope will be back return, we will be legitimate contenders. I think this year, what could hold us back a bit is the ability score the basketball in the half court. Creating and taking guys off the dribble to score at the end of the shot clock worry me as much if not more than 3 point shooting. Think we will be a tough team but that could cap our upside a bit. Playing a lot of close, low scoring games always has such a small margin for error. Would love to see more up tempo and transition basketball to increase our as Clark Kellog would say spurtability.

 

[nycscooby]

Runner-up BE reg season
Winner or finalist of BET
Sweet Sixteen

Personally, any less will be disappointing.

 

[NJHoops]

I think we NEED to win a tournament game this year. The 2nd weekend would be optimal but we need to continue to ascend. I think next year is the year if the players we hope will be back return, we will be legitimate contenders. I think this year, what could hold us back a bit is the ability score the basketball in the half court. Creating and taking guys off the dribble to score at the end of the shot clock worry me as much if not more than 3 point shooting. Think we will be a tough team but that could cap our upside a bit. Playing a lot of close, low scoring games always has such a small margin for error. Would love to see more up tempo and transition basketball to increase our as Clark Kellog would say spurtability.

Nothing matters until the games start but they’ve been pretty clear on what they want to do.

Attack! Get ready for a faster UConn team, one that looks like a Dan Hurley-era Rhode Island squad

In his last season at Rhode Island, coach Dan Hurley's Rams played with a speed he hopes the Huskies can implement.

theathletic.com

 

[Jimdish255]

This squad will be solid, but the determining factors offensively will be 1) can they hit open 3’s - not iso step backs, or forced end-of-clock, just the open ones, and 2) can they have multiple guys able to penetrate and break down the D.

if you hit open 3’s reliably the defense has to extend … which opens driving lanes. And if you can penetrate effectively from multiple positions the D has to collapse … which leaves open 3’s. If those two things develop they will be very, very dangerous.

By the way, if this sounds like Villanova, you’re right.

This is everything. Without reliable outside shooting the other advantages we have are negated. Makes that sustained defensive pressure a very frustrating exercise. Penetration and open 3's are mandatory.