Good game vs. Auburn, but....

[nelsonmuntz]

I really liked how the team played today.

Sanogo's footwork is great and he is so strong. I have one quibble, and that is that Sanogo rarely uses the backboard. Going straight in from 5 feet out with the amount of bumping and hacking that Sanogo is getting is harder than it looks. Using the backboard more would add 5 points to his shooting percentage.

I like the big lineups with Whaley and Sanogo, and Jackson at guard. Mix in Polley too. I think we are a problem for opponents at both ends when we go big.

We need Polley to keep looking for space on the perimeter. Just find open space, catch and shoot. His height makes him really hard to close out on, so opposing defenses can't help with Polley's defender, and you can't play a zone against him because he will get his shot off too quick on reversals. He creates lanes for others by stretching defenses.

Hawkins is going to be a star. He just has "it". He reminds me a bit of Rudy Gay.

Cole has to stop shooting long pull up jumpers. He misses almost all of them, and he is such a good shooter off the catch that those bad pullups are really unnecessary. Create, give up the ball, relocate, get it back, shoot. That should be Cole's game.

Hurley is not a bad game coach, but the difference in games like today is so small that not being bad is not good enough. We need more offensive efficiency, and Hurley can't tunnel vision lineups. We were having trouble getting the ball up the court, but Gaffney only played 13 minutes. The differences in these games against good teams is going to be a small number of possessions, so we can't waste as many as we do with low percentage plays.

I was a little surprised we didn't see more Akok today. I hope this is not an indication of his physical readiness to play. I was also surprised that we have not seen more Diggins.

 

[uconngb]

Sanogo is shooting 67% from the field. Are you really complaining about that??

 

[UncleSpliff]

Sanogo took a huge step forward today and I’m excited to see how this season unfolds. He has a little bit of Selvieidis though. He needs to learn how to kick it out to the open shooters when he gets double teamed instead of just shooting every single time he touches the ball. Aside from that I don’t really see any holes in his game.

 

[M.S.G.]

My minor issues with things I saw yesterday, mind you that was an all-time Husky win, gonna remember this one for years..

Hawkins blunder was worrisome, but what scares me more is when he was reinserted in 2OT he ran away from the ball several times against the press one of which caused a Cole turnover by not being available..

Need a better explanation as to why Hurley went back to Hawkins over Akok in 2OT in the first place, while Hawkins gives us so much, Akok provides the defense that Hawkins currently lacks..

Regardless of these minor observations I’m over the moon about this group and trust Hurley with my life.. great things are coming our way..

 

[Improviser]

Maybe, Hurley felt that Hawkins needed a confidence boost other than the hugs and pats on the back he got when on the bench after the turnover.

We are dealing with human beings with feelings, and though Hurley took a chance with the reinsertion, seems like he took the long view of trying to restore Hawkins' confidence. Hawkins looked distraught and his body language showed it.

Not sure Akok at that time would have been the better substitution. He seemed tentative when out there, but then again, with Sanogo, Polley, and RJ performing as they did, maybe he just deferred to them. Not exactly sure why.

 

[Giddyup5]

Hawkins was inserted back because of free throw shooting. We were protecting the lead.

 

[cohenzone]

If Sanogo hasn’t been using the backboard his whole life, it would totally mess him up to change his shooting angles now.

Hawkins looked to me as if he simply lost control of the ball, maybe realizing he had nobody to pass to. Of course it happened at a terrible time or maybe because it was the pressure of the moment.

Auburn pressed as well as any team. Didn’t see Hurley post game comments. Did he talk about it?

I think that if Jackson doesn’t develop a pull up game sooner or later he won’t have openings to make those really good entry passes. But if teams are having trouble stopping Sanogo, get him the ball as often as possible.