Finally Watched Game . . .

[Cheeky]

Thought we actually played pretty well - lot of shots did not fall, and the other team hit some nice contested shots.
If there could be some measure that was a ratio of good shots taken by us to contested shots taken by them, I'd say we had a nice game in that regard. I thought team defense and rebounding was pretty solid.

Individually.
Boat had a very slow start, but then looked fairly spectacular for about 1/2 of the game starting at the 1/4 mark. Seemed to get his shot at will, penetrate at will, hit a couple 3s, threw some assists. Played great D? Check. He is a great player, and he seems to be working hard to get everybody involved, rather than just try to take over. Also drove and drew foul when we needed to stop their momentum in the 2nd half. Very Bazz esque.

I was happy with Purvis. Guy played pretty well. I thought most of his shots were good selections. Had he hit a couple of them, his performance would not have been questioned here like it was. No, we shouldn't have him come off the bench. Kid plays hard, and created a lot of ball energy. Like.

SCJ. What to say? I have my fingers crossed that he is really as good as he looked. If he is, we're going to be really good.

Phil looked like he took a few bong hits before the game. He is probably the weakest with the ball near the rim of any big we've ever had. Just seems to have little vertical and little ability to use half hooks and such to avoid the defender. Dude shoots 80% from the line - seriously needs to work on his pump fake. He alone substantially kept this game close.

Brimah - man, the fouling is worrisome. Great force when he's in there, but it's going to be tough if the other team can foul him onto the bench with 5 minutes gone in the game when tourni time rolls around. Really has to focus on not getting cheap fouls, because teams are going to force the issue.

Thought Samuel looked really good. Couple of really nice drives. His defense looked tighter to me. Really like his energy. I like to see him shooting. I don't care if he shoots 30% from 3 - he's gotta be able to threaten it or his drive game is going to get shut down and it will hurt our offense.

Facey looked fine to me. Didn't appear awkward on O to me. If he can shoot the 3 he also needs to shoot it when open. Did not take a couple open looks. Rebounding machine.

Rubin - looked good too. Moved really well for a huge guy. In a few weeks we might, however, wonder his nickname the Rock came from his name or his free throw shooting.

Hamilton. Damn. Best opening day I can ever remember for a Husky, and I've been watching for a really long time. Would not be surprised if this guy is a lottery pick by year's end. He's got a nose for the ball, great shooting stroke, quick, plays tough D, rebounds strongly, great handle. He's the complete package. Super excited to watch this kid this year. Could have a 30 point game. Matchup nightmare for the other team.

All in all, I want to see Facey and Purvis shoot the 3. If Cassel's opening day act was not fool's gold, we are going to be really tough to beat, because Boat/Hamilton/Cassel shooting the 3 above average and Facey/Purvis shooting it decently and maybe Calhoun hitting stride means that our 3 point issue isn't as bad as I thought it might be.

Very excited here. This team is definitely going to win some games.

 

[Hoophound]

Pretty much agree with this. A few things:

Nolan is a very useful player in terms of defense and he is a big that can keep up and run the floor. For these reasons, I like him a lot. He has his warts but he is great kid and good player. Dead on in regard to the pump fake. This guy needs to be pump faking his butt off and making a living at the line. Throw a quick fake and go up strong. Nothing like having bigs that knock down free throws.

Purvis wasn't known to be a shooter. I'm not sure where his jumper is now but judging by his attempts to drive, he wasn't thinking jumper much.

Cassell and Samuel are winners. There will be a battle for minutes but these guys must see a lot of court time. Someone or some two may play less than we thought because these two guys are going to eat. The moxie is overflowing.

 

[dogpause]

Glad to hear there were so many positives. Nice writing style too, BTW.

The one player I'm really worried about is Phil. He could help himself a lot by being more reflexive in taking the ball to the hole. It's as if he never expects to get the ball, then when he does he has to think about what comes next. By then, he's double-teamed. It's still very early, but we need him to be solid, especially if Amida is going to be on the bench.

I had no idea Hamilton played so well last night. That's great news.

 

[johnhuskies95]

Phil is great at defending the pick and roll, and in today's college basketball that's reason enough to play him.

 

[superjohn]

Just got finished watching, I thought we must have looked horrible from everything I read on the board, while we didn't play well we weren't too bad. I was assuming Purvis must have looked horrible but that just wasn't the case, he missed a lot of shots but they seemed like good shots, he also had some very good drives and passes that our bigs couldn't finish. Nolan botched three of these feeds that should have been easy dunks/layups, Phil had a horrible game but I'm not worried about him. Cassell looked very smooth and does a little bit of everything, he will be one of our best shooters and will play in crunch time. Hamilton is going to be a star. As for SCSU, they were a pretty good team, Desmond Williams definitely is a D1 talent. We didn't play too well but you can see we have a lot to work with and I expect major improvements as everyone gets more comfortable with each other in game action.

 

[J-dog]

I'm glad they got tested… You blowout a team in pre-season & you learn nothing.

They walk away from this game understanding that teams will be gunning for them all year long & they can't just throw on the UCONN jersey & expect everything else will take care of itself.

I like that they had to work in this game. A great early lesson for the guys coming back & fitting in to new roles, as well as the youngsters just trying to figure things out.

Now back to work. Nothing but the stairs, men!

 

[pj]

I'm glad this Jewish player Rubin looked good. I really liked Nadav Henefeld on the 89-90 team and have wanted a Jewish point forward on the team ever since.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Glad I got to watch Hamilton. Really looked good; you'd never think this was his first college game if you didn't know better.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Glad I got to watch Hamilton. Really looked good; you'd never think this was his first college game if you didn't know better.

Other than stopping his dribble at the halfcourt line

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

I look at the first exhibition game as a chance for them to play against somebody wearing a different jersey. That's about it.

The one thing I'm going to take away is that Boat went in off of one foot on a contested breakaway for maybe the first time in his career. I was happy to see that.