Furman post-mortem

[Huskybass]

This is the deepest UConn team in a long time. At least 10 guys contributed today. KO will shorten the rotation, but it won't be easy. I just wish Omar didn't hoist up so many shots. He rebounds and runs the floor well, but at 25% shooting, he needs to be a bit more selective.

Love Adams game. He is scary good in lots of ways.

 

[joober jones]

How about instead of bashing Brimah or going after Nolan/Calhoun instead, we just support and appreciate all of our players? We are UConn fans after all.

 

[jleves]

This is the deepest UConn team in a long time. At least 10 guys contributed today. KO will shorten the rotation, but it won't be easy. I just wish Omar didn't hoist up so many shots. He rebounds and runs the floor well, but at 25% shooting, he needs to be a bit more selective.

Love Adams game. He is scary good in lots of ways.

That's odd - I thought Calhoun had made some midrange shots, but I guess that was in the expeditions. He's 0-2 from 2 for the season. Absolutely has to work from midrange and then extend his range. Could be the missing link if he can actually start shooting.

 

[Huskybass]

Omar took more shots than Gibbs today and as many as Hamilton. I would prefer to see those guys and Miller get more shots.

 

[mauconnfan]

I agree Mau.

People keep saying Brimah will leave and I believe he will, but I don't think he should. He's not an NBA player at all and needs all the experience he can get before going for it. Good college player, but at this point isn't remotely cut out for the NBA.

That's my point Rip thank you. So many here would love to think he's so much better than he actually is they don't realize he's just a piece. I've stated many times, which most prefer to forget, he's fine as he is and being our C in college. But others prefer to think he's improving and the NBA is awaiting his decision which they aren't. Right now he looks like he will never play a minute there, never. My point is he's NOT better than last year, like it or not. Hope it all changes and he is the guy to guard the others team big guy and score against him but for now there are match ups in the future that lead me to believe his minutes will become less and less if he does not improve.

 

[James]

That's my point Rip thank you. So many here would love to think he's so much better than he actually is they don't realize he's just a piece. I've stated many times, which most prefer to forget, he's fine as he is and being our C in college. But others prefer to think he's improving and the NBA is awaiting his decision which they aren't. Right now he looks like he will never play a minute there, never. My point is he's NOT better than last year, like it or not. Hope it all changes and he is the guy to guard the others team big guy and score against him but for now there are match ups in the future that lead me to believe his minutes will become less and less if he does not improve.

who thinks he is 'better than he actually is'? literally nobody has said that. youre making up excuses to bash him. why don't you bash calhoun who was a top 25 recruit and is buried on our bench?

 

[mauconnfan]

who thinks he is 'better than he actually is'? literally nobody has said that. youre making up excuses to bash him. why don't you bash calhoun who was a top 25 recruit and is buried on our bench?

That's BS James anyone who has posted he may go or is a 1st rounder thinks he's better than he is and that may be you. I am not bashing him I am saying it as I see it and if you don't see it you're not looking close enough. He's not getting better, period. He's the same "nice piece" at center, a 7 footer who can block a few shots, make a few shots off alley oops and that's pretty much it. What else are you seeing? Sick of you guys calling me out for "bashing" when I'm just telling it like it is. Watch the damn game for more than 1 or 2 highlights for duckk sake!

The same people who bashed Rodney while I watched him get better, all last year have balls to call me out on this guy that's for damn sure. One guy has improved tremendously and the other not at all.

 

[tcf15]

That's BS James anyone who has posted he may go or is a 1st rounder thinks he's better than he is and that may be you. I am not bashing him I am saying it as I see it and if you don't see it you're not looking close enough. He's not getting better, period. He's the same "nice piece" at center, a 7 footer who can block a few shots, make a few shots off alley oops and that's pretty much it. What else are you seeing? Sick of you guys calling me out for "bashing" when I'm just telling it like it is. Watch the damn game for more than 1 or 2 highlights for duckk sake!

The same people who bashed Rodney while I watched him get better, all last year have balls to call me out on this guy that's for damn sure. One guy has improved tremendously and the other not at all.

I see you've come around on Brimah's height

 

[James]

That's BS James anyone who has posted he may go or is a 1st rounder thinks he's better than he is and that may be you. I am not bashing him I am saying it as I see it and if you don't see it you're not looking close enough. He's not getting better, period. He's the same "nice piece" at center, a 7 footer who can block a few shots, make a few shots off alley oops and that's pretty much it. What else are you seeing? Sick of you guys calling me out for "bashing" when I'm just telling it like it is. Watch the damn game for more than 1 or 2 highlights for duckk sake!

The same people who bashed Rodney while I watched him get better, all last year have balls to call me out on this guy that's for damn sure. One guy has improved tremendously and the other not at all.

not a single person on this forum has said brimah is a sure fire first rounder. facts . isn't strange that you are in a rush to denounce him as pro, but you dont show same zeal when discussing other players on the team?

 

[Matrim55]

He's not getting better, period.

This is pretty clearly wrong. He's grabbing more rebounds, and getting them at their apex. His defensive rotations are also better - faster and smarter.

 

[champs99and04]

@mauconnfan I don't think your commentary on AB is unreasonable. I think your extrapolating of his first three games is a bit extreme, though, especially considering he only played 21 minutes today.

As @Matrim55 points out, we're already seeing signs that he's improving as a rebounder, which would have been far and away the biggest point of concern with him heading into the season. He's at over 10 rebounds per 40 minutes this season - not great, but also not as abysmal as he's been.

And as @James notes, teams are still game planning around his shot blocking. Furman didn't look at the rim today. The fact that Brimah is a long way away from being an NBA player does not mean he's not still an extremely valuable college player. So again, a lot of your criticism is on point, but you take it too far when you stay stuff like, "aside from a few blocks and dunks he doesn't offer much." A lot of his value - on both ends - is not going to be borne out by his individual statistics.

 

[nomar]

Brimah is awful, I fail to understand what people are seeing exactly. I think by conference play he'll see limited minutes and it will be Enooch/Phil or a smaller lineup.

Haha, no. You are the worst. Your "hot takes" stink and it doesn't seem like you actually like UConn.

 

[PcketknfNiels]

I like the depth of this team a lot, but am I the only one who is concerned about both the lack of a true Alpha-type of player, as well as seemingly questionable perimeter defense? I'm not sure who's locking down tough guards on the other team, and I'm not sure who's getting the majority of the looks in the last 4 minutes of any tight game. Those 2 things concern me.

 

[Ts5034]

I like the depth of this team a lot, but am I the only one who is concerned about both the lack of a true Alpha-type of player, as well as seemingly questionable perimeter defense? I'm not sure who's locking down tough guards on the other team, and I'm not sure who's getting the majority of the looks in the last 4 minutes of any tight game. Those 2 things concern me.

Im pretty sure Ollie has said that hes looking for that alpha dog to establish himself on this team. I just think that will come naturally. Face it, we are not going to be playing from 15-20 points ahead every game so we just have to see who that guy is. The competition is going to be a lot tougher in Atlantis so lets see what happens when this team plays the big boys.

 

[David 76]

We won't know who takes the last shot in a close game until we are in one. I think it is more important that the ball to go through Hamilton's hands than who takes the last shot. We could have a trio that shoots that j and two bigs ready to dunk it.
This won't be a Kemba, Bazz, Boat type year

 

[PcketknfNiels]

Im pretty sure Ollie has said that hes looking for that alpha dog to establish himself on this team. I just think that will come naturally. Face it, we are not going to be playing from 15-20 points ahead every game so we just have to see who that guy is. The competition is going to be a lot tougher in Atlantis so lets see what happens when this team plays the big boys.

That alpha has been set from day 1 in each of the championship teams. I do still think we can make a final 4, and I think we'll have a killer regular season record, however I don't think we're built for the tourney at all.

 

[PcketknfNiels]

We won't know who takes the last shot in a close game until we are in one. I think it is more important that the ball to go through Hamilton's hands than who takes the last shot. We could have a trio that shoots that j and two bigs ready to dunk it.
This won't be a Kemba, Bazz, Boat type year

All of our title teams have had that clear alpha dog. And we have the 05-06 and 09-10 teams as evidence that teams built around depth do not work as well.

 

[Stainmaster]

That alpha has been set from day 1 in each of the championship teams. I do still think we can make a final 4, and I think we'll have a killer regular season record, however I don't think we're built for the tourney at all.

Compelling. I'll start digging our grave, you work on procuring the headstone - sound good?

 

[Leebo]

So you can tell, at this point, that we can make it to a Final Four, but we are incapable of winning 2 more games after that?

 

[David 76]

1999 Alpha dog: Rip. But what was KEA?
2004 alpha dog: Ben or Emeka?

We have time to develop our go-to guy(s). I don't see where it can't be Purvis & Hamilton

 

[pnow15]

Brimah unleashed his inner Ewing today with his first turn around jumper. It missed. I am wondering if that is where he is going or just a fluke shot. Brimah will never overpower anyone at the next level but a little turn around jumper could be his go to move.
Actually, I thought they were two unselfish, passing up wide open threes early in the shot clock and then settling for a much worse shot. Calhoun, Purvis, Sterling, Adams, Cassell
should be green lighted for early jumper heat checks.. Hamilton is way too destructive off the dribble in the lane to take the early jumper. Teams would love to have him taking threes. Adams could be the straw that breaks a teams back especially if he is playing against their second unit.
Facey wants his PT and has been very aggressive. Hope he keeps it up.

 

[TasteofUConn]

i dont really see the purpose of posters going out of their way to claim he wont sniff the nba.

The purpose is to slap the kid around for not getting markedly better. It's an insult, plainly. Attempting to disavow an insult by claiming, "I'm just stating the truth," is a weak insincerity, else saying "your mother's a wh0re" could be written off as not insulting merely because your mother, truth be told, is a wh0re.

 

[PcketknfNiels]

1999 Alpha dog: Rip. But what was KEA?
2004 alpha dog: Ben or Emeka?

We have time to develop our go-to guy(s). I don't see where it can't be Purvis & Hamilton

KEA and Emeka. This year's team does not have that clear leader. Hamilton or Purvis are not that. Hamilton is the best NBA prospect right now but wouldn't run this team and be "the man" until next year.

 

[PcketknfNiels]

So you can tell, at this point, that we can make it to a Final Four, but we are incapable of winning 2 more games after that?

I'm pretty confident in my assessment based off 20+ years of my being a college basketball nerd. I like our team a lot but I'd love it if we could trade Gibbs and Miller for a Dunn or Hield.

 

[Dabutlerdidit]

I thought our D lapsed to poor but we played a lot of good D. Can't have those lapses in Paradise

i think a lot of the "what they did poorly" (ie: lapse in D) could be explained by this:

They dont want to practice on cupcakes anymore. bring on Michigan!

at least we're beating cupcakes by 20 - 30 points. if they were closer i'd be worried

 

[JSM1970]

Wait, are you suggesting TSam wasn't a great player? Lucky you didn't do that a year ago.

Although three of our better players (notice I didn't use "best" because I don't want to know how people would react to Brimah being seen as "one of our best") had subpar games by their standards, it's encouraging that the rest of the team was able to pick up the slack. We're coming off of a season where Terrence Samuel was in many games our top player coming off the bench - I'm glad that we now have backups who can come in, make shots and crash the boards when the first team isn't feeling it.

 

[JSM1970]

Like UConn? Ok punk.

I think Brimah blows and hate his antics, hope I'm proven wrong.

Haha, no. You are the worst. Your "hot takes" stink and it doesn't seem like you actually like UConn.

 

[SixRings]

Like UConn? Ok punk.

I think Brimah blows and hate his antics, hope I'm proven wrong.

Really nice. College kid with a great smile, great attitude, tries his heart out, single handily moved us past St Joes in 2014 and you "hate his antics" and think he blows. Way to find the positives in a kid. He is fun to watch. I love shot blockers. Gets the team jacked when he slaps one 3 rows deep.

 

[mauconnfan]

Like UConn? Ok punk.

I think Brimah blows and hate his antics, hope I'm proven wrong.

He doesn't blow, not at all. To even suggest that makes you look whacked. He's still a solid piece for this team and does some nice things for sure.

 

[JSM1970]

Anyone who goes crazy dunking over 6-6 guys but fails to understand he sucks against good competition is so unlikable. Have a modicum of humility.

He rushed to block an unblockable 3 pointer and was completely out of position for a rebound. He has zero basketball IQ. He couldn't remotely make a NBA roster. We kept hearing with a full offseason he'd be so improved. Huh?

Really nice. College kid with a great smile, great attitude, tries his heart out, single handily moved us past St Joes in 2014 and you "hate his antics" and think he blows. Way to find the positives in a kid. He is fun to watch. I love shot blockers. Gets the team jacked when he slaps one 3 rows deep.