First Night observations

[specialisthusky]

What I took from the scrimmage:

Boat: Too much razzle-dazzle. Needs to play with better fundamentals. No shot at the NBA
Purvis: Showboating with the dunks. A lay-up is worth just as many points.
Terrence Samuel: Proved that his tournament play was a fluke
Sam Cassell: In a boot already? Selfish.
Omar Calhoun: Don't get me started. Was hoping he'd transfer to a mid-major or dIII school
Daniel Hamilton: Pointed at his last name during his intro which probably means he steals from jimmy fund jars at local restaurants too.
Facey: Why didn't he shoot 90% from three like in his video???
Phil Nolan: Still needs to gain about 30 lbs on top of the 50 he's gained since his freshman year.
Lubin: Jeff Adrien would have blocked that girls lay-up
Brimah: Nothing bad to say about him. Will be a top 5 pick this year.

Took me until facey to realize this was a joke...I'm off tonight, wow!

The only assessment to be made from tonight is we have a lot of trophies and our programs are really fun to watch.

 

[CTMike]

 

[stephen Henry]

Good post SuperJohn. The show was excellent and as visually exciting. And as an official geezer, it was nice to see a lot of students show up to give their support. Phil does look significantly bigger and the Rock looks big and strong. As a freshmen he is about 20 lb bigger than Jeff Adrien. If he can play with half the guts that Jeff did, by the time he is a junior he will be a nightmare for the opposition.

It is great to be a fan of UCONN basketball!

 

[Chin Diesel]

This will be one of the fastest teams UConn has ever had.

Boatright, Facey and Brimah may be one of the fastest players at their position within the country. Purvis has elite speed at has position and Hamilton is average at worst as a 3 man. Coming off the bench, Samuel and Nolan are well above average for their position (especially if compared against subs at the same position).

Out of all the players expected to contribute only Lubin, Cassell Jr and Calhoun are average or worse at speed.

Practicing against each other and the overall team speed will only increae the advantage.

Keep up the conditioning program. This team is set up to literally run opponents in to the ground.

 

[Robertelamin]

there is nothing to take away from this. at all. other than cassell hype which i find intriguing yet a little strange. I saw him at nd prep many a times, didn't seem athletic enough to be a starter/ game changer at uconn. more like the elite 6th man, a la rashad.

I'll take another Rashad in a heartbeat.

 

[Chin Diesel]

there is nothing to take away from this. at all. other than cassell hype which i find intriguing yet a little strange. I saw him at nd prep many a times, didn't seem athletic enough to be a starter/ game changer at uconn. more like the elite 6th man, a la rashad.

I'll take another Rashad in a heartbeat.

This team is set up similar to the 04 team. The 04 team was physically bigger with Taliek, Gordon and Okafor, but the similarity is that all of those 04 guys were lightning fast for their position.

I keep going back to last year where UConn made ISU, Nova, MSU, Florida and Kentucky all seem pedestrian. Ten minutes in to each of those five games and it was very apparent that UConn was faster than the opponent.

And this year's UConn team is faster than last year's.

 

[Dove]

Daniel Hamilton was more athletic and taller than I remember. No comment on anything else.

Soooo...Daniel Hamilton was there?

 

[Gurleyman]

What I took from the scrimmage:

Boat: Too much razzle-dazzle. Needs to play with better fundamentals. No shot at the NBA
Purvis: Showboating with the dunks. A lay-up is worth just as many points.
Terrence Samuel: Proved that his tournament play was a fluke
Sam Cassell: In a boot already? Selfish.
Omar Calhoun: Don't get me started. Was hoping he'd transfer to a mid-major or dIII school
Daniel Hamilton: Pointed at his last name during his intro which probably means he steals from jimmy fund jars at local restaurants too.
Facey: Why didn't he shoot 90% from three like in his video???
Phil Nolan: Still needs to gain about 30 lbs on top of the 50 he's gained since his freshman year.
Lubin: Jeff Adrien would have blocked that girls lay-up
Brimah: Nothing bad to say about him. Will be a top 5 pick this year.

I would guess that the average is 4.5 players before Boneyarders realize you were joking around. I sniffed it out by Purvis, but needed the Cassell one for confirmation.

 

[aceboon]

Thoughts on the uni's? At first I was disappointed with no horizontal red stripe on the shorts, but after seeing them in action I might actually like them more than the original versions and their variations that ran from 96-06.

 

[Northbound]

If I didn't know this was sarcastic, I'd have thought my father had joined the Boneyard.

F me.

 

[superjohn]

I notice that the men's and women's uniforms were slightly different, the men's are clearly better looking.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The intro was very well done, particularly the drummers.

Ray is decked out and he is going to the NBA hall of fame, and Sue Bird shows up in jeans?

If they are going to bother with the men/women scrimmage, they need to work harder to get Breanna Stewart a dunk.

Other than getting to see what the new players look like, I don't know what is projectable from this scrimmage.

A few people near me were wondering whether Calhoun would be there or mentioned. Other than Auriemma's joke (which I thought was decent), nothing. It is Ollie's team and Ollie's program now. Calhoun to Ollie will be the standard by which "legend to successor" transitions will be measured in college basketball for the next 30 years.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

One other thing. I don't pay that much attention to women's basketball. I will watch the Final Four or a really big midseason game, but otherwise don't need to see a 50 point beatdown. I don't remember the last time I went to a game.

Anyway, watching them warm up, I saw that the mechanics of their shots are very different than the men's. The release point seems much lower. Eckmark, who is a freshman (had to look up her name), almost releases the ball from under her chin.

Is there a reason for that?

 

[champs99and04]

One other thing. I don't pay that much attention to women's basketball. I will watch the Final Four or a really big midseason game, but otherwise don't need to see a 50 point beatdown. I don't remember the last time I went to a game.

Anyway, watching them warm up, I saw that the mechanics of their shots are very different than the men's. The release point seems much lower. Eckmark, who is a freshman (had to look up her name), almost releases the ball from under her chin.

Is there a reason for that?

Women definitely tend to release the ball much lower than men. Because defenders in the men's game are longer and more athletic, more elevation is required.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

One other thing. I don't pay that much attention to women's basketball. I will watch the Final Four or a really big midseason game, but otherwise don't need to see a 50 point beatdown. I don't remember the last time I went to a game.

Anyway, watching them warm up, I saw that the mechanics of their shots are very different than the men's. The release point seems much lower. Eckmark, who is a freshman (had to look up her name), almost releases the ball from under her chin.

Is there a reason for that?

You have probably never been known as the life of the party....have you?

 

[UconnU]

Does anyone else see a little bit of Glen 'big baby' Davis in Lubin?

 

[Jluc]

One other thing. I don't pay that much attention to women's basketball. I will watch the Final Four or a really big midseason game, but otherwise don't need to see a 50 point beatdown. I don't remember the last time I went to a game.

Anyway, watching them warm up, I saw that the mechanics of their shots are very different than the men's. The release point seems much lower. Eckmark, who is a freshman (had to look up her name), almost releases the ball from under her chin.

Is there a reason for that?

I cant tell if this is a bad joke or not.

 

[superjohn]

I cant tell if this is a bad joke or not.

It sounds like one but I'm pretty sure he's serious.

 

[djct1999]

Two certainties from last night:
1. Omar looked 100x more explosive
2. I am ready to call Lubin the rock. I am 5'11. 175 lbs. if I ran full speed from 1 baseline into Lubin standing at the other, I would fall back 5 ft. The rock wouldn't move an inch.

 

[PAHusky]

Is no one else going to talk about the elephant in the room? Fine, I'll bring it up. My biggest concern for this year is that we're going to win the whole thing again and we'll be stuck with Drake trying to force his way into our first night next year.

 

[Chief00]

I guess I am from the Calhoun's old school, I have been a season ticket holder for 25 years and never been to first night. But, heck it seems to be fun for lots of people and gets the casual fan interested. I watched some minutes on TV. I agree the difference between being a good team this year and a great team is for 2 or 3 guys to steps up as three point shooters. Who will that be? I don't know?

Hamilton but who else? Sam Jr? I think we have a lot of guys who can score - but when the defense claps down - do we have guys who can shoot over the defense - that will be key.

 

[dogpause]

We're gonna be stairmasters, this team has talent and depth at every position.

 

[UconnBoston]

Unfortunately the main thing I took away tonight was Omar's shot was off. Like wayyyy off. Hopefully it was just first night jitters, but he didn't look good at all.

I can't tell if this is serious or not. If you are really critiquing Omar's performance in a co-ed scrimmage based on some missed jumpers, have you considered the fact that he was shooting a women's ball?

 

[Rico444]

Lubin is going to tear down a backboard at some point in his career, probably when we go play in that middle school gym in Tulane.

 

[OkaForPrez]

I can't tell if this is serious or not. If you are really critiquing Omar's performance in a co-ed scrimmage based on some missed jumpers, have you considered the fact that he was shooting a women's ball?

They play with a mens ball and Omar did miss one 3 very ugly but nobody should walk away w conclusions (other than the curious projected starting lineup excluding Purvis).