Agreed. Bench offense at the guard spot is a work in progress right now. Stewart has shown well as a wing/forward, but the team really hasn’t found consistent offense out of Mahaney or Ross, which seem to be the two options behind Ball. Establishing Mahaney as a bench scorer would be a great weapon and a good insurance policy.
You cannot overlook the je ne sais quois factor Hassan brings out there. His mistakes are often part of trying to make things happen, which energize the team. This team needs that level of leadership. As he firms up as the 1 and the other guys get comfortable in their roles, things will continue to click. The question will be how much rest he needs during the 40 to keep fresh legs.
If that was the case, wouldn't he have been off in the Texas game too?
The play after Liam’s circus shot, Ajayi threw up a prayer from the left baseline with his back completely to the hoop. It went in plus they called a horrible foul on Reed. How did their fans assess that shot?
We were 5 for 24 on mostly open threes. If we shot decently from three we would've blown them out.
tbf, they also missed several layups you would expect them to make with slightly higher % than they did (even given the defense). We probably lost a few more points to "luck" than they did, but it wasn't entirely one sided, IMO. probably ~12pt win IMO if each team played to their potential last night.
Begs the question, does Tarris start Wednesday with Samson Johnson potentially on concussion protocol? Does he relinquish the role if so?
YS starts to keep reed as the killer sub. you heard it here first!
Johnson may not start Wednesday but I’m thinking he will be and should be starting when he returns. His energy at the start of the Gonzaga game was outstanding. I think he has something in there that we haven’t seen yet.
Good point....but something was certainly not right with his 3 pt shot on Saturday. Probably was just a really uncharacteristically bad shooting night for him at MSG.
I honestly don’t know now if Hurley did all that in HI on purpose. Did he sense something about this team that he needed to light a fire and then it kind of got away from him.
Wally Pipp'd
Definitely not intentional. He wouldn’t have been labeling players first round picks in September, and all the defending the belt stuff if he was trying to bring them down to earth. If anything he was part of the over confidence.
Love Hass enthusiasm when he plays. He sometimes forces the action a little too much but overall he is doing a very nice job in distributing. And when he's on he even puts up a few 3's.
A fun highlight from that game!
watching the 30-0 run against Illinois, Tristen Newton (6-5) had to be one of the best. He had the size to get rebounds and the skillz to lead the break. Castle (6-6) was a guy, no question, and if he played one more year he'd set UConn records. I'd like to see some stats on that. I know you said front court guys but Andre Jackson (6-6) was also a guard. The front court guys tend to get into trouble when they dribble. Liam McNeeley (6-7), we've just scratched the surface so between him and Karaban (6-8) and our bigs, it is going to be entertaining.
Ouch