Has Omar ever dunked in a regular season game?

[Gurleyman]

What a strange thread.
If the kid is playing hurt, or unrecovered, why has nothing been said by anyone in the program about it? KO and staff would have every motivation to make it known that he's not 100%. Not a peep from anyone, but rather wild-ass speculation on the BY about his medical status.
Also, his numbers are pretty much exactly what they were last year, on a per minute basis, and there has been zero noticeable improvement in his game, whether it is his passing game, shooting form, or driving ability.

Not sure exactly why so many people seem so adverse to coming to the obvious conclusion, which is that OC hasn't panned out and likely will not be much better over the next two years.

It's not an "indictment" of his character or his will to win or his "physical abilities" or a "medical diagnosis." It's just an obvious conclusion, and one of the type that we all gather here to discuss.

When did this board start morphing into the women's board, where bald assessment of game play is only tolerated if it's positive?

First of all, this is the second time you've gone to this crack, and your perception of the women's board is pure fiction. Last year, there was endless hand-wringing over Bria Hartley's shooting slump. Right now, there's a thread over there now about how the bench was weak in their 40 point win over Temple the other day:

http://the-boneyard.com/threads/weak-bench-night.51953/

Difference is that the thread is interspersed around a couple "Wow" threads about Stewart (who scored 37), one about how well Jefferson is playing lately, etc., so there's decent balance between criticism and kudos. Here there were only three threads devoted to individuals post game yesterday, Omar with 2 and Facey and Nolan with .5 each. And the Facey/Nolan thread was a guy asking a question who didn't see the game. If we lost or struggled to win, or if Omar's poor play caused us to lose a big lead that we had to overcome, I'd expect some discussion. But when we win by 40 and the two Omar threads keep popping to the top, there's something wrong with the things we like to focus on (of course, here I am bumping it to the top again). In fairness, if Bazz had dropped 37 this board might look a lot different, as the best PG ever thread would have come back (which was and is an interesting debate).

Secondly, your assessment of Omar is short-sighted and reactionary. In another thread, you express your "man love" for Giffey. Well Giffey faded completely from the rotation as a sophomore. I remember this well, because I was a proponent for weeks that he needed more time at the 3 to be a glue guy around the other talented scorers we had, and every time he got the chance, he gave us nothing - no presence on either end of the floor, couldn't hit an open shot, etc. and I had to stick my tail between my legs and admit I was wrong. We gave him four starts and he shot a combined 1-10 in those four games. Pretty much Mr. Invisible. So usually, we went back to a three-guard lineup (Boat-Bazz-Lamb) when Boat was eligible, which meant no guards at all on our second unit. The Giffey we have now would have made that Drummond-Lamb team a Final Four contender by filling our primary weakness and giving us more floor spacing. But when he got the chance to step into that role, he shriveled up - and as a result, he dropped out of the rotation for a while. Now, two years later, Giffey has found his groove and is a guy who is extremely vital to our postseason aspirations. But it took him three years to get to this point. He had to go through the lows of a few DNPs first.

Or you could compare Ricky Moore as a sophomore to his senior year. You won't find a bigger 180 degree turnaround in Boneyard perception, from "Rickety" and "The Ricky Shuffle" to "Elephant In Your Head". Donyell and Kemba went from looking kind of overrated as sophomores to two of the best seasons in our entire history as juniors. Hilton went from non-factor as a soph to a lottery pick. Okwandu went from a guy you never even knew existed to someone who was out on the floor in crunch time against Arizona. There are various ways that players evolve. Certainly not saying Omar will be Kemba or Donyell next year, or even Giffeyesque as a senior. But he's certainly not doomed to being what he is now. Somewhere in that fogged up brain of his there's a player with the confidence and cojones to knock down a tying three against a top 10 team as a freshman in the closing seconds.

 

[Inyatkin]

The idea that only positive assessments are tolerated around here is pretty funny. We just won a conference game by 40 points and it's mostly nitpicking.

 

[Strummer]

First of all, this is the second time you've gone to this crack, and your perception of the women's board is pure fiction. . . . . [Lots of words] . . .

You should save some of this energy for your posting on the women's board.

If you think OC second season is comparable to Kemba second season or Giffey's second season, you haven't "gone" to that crack, you've been smoking it. You're clouded on your history of UConn hoops. Omar has made zero progress from last year, by eye or by numbers or by any rational measure. He is now regressing. All but maybe one of the guys (Hilton) you mentioned in your novel showed some improvement.

I don't really care. It's not personal. It's just basketball analysis for kicks. I have no idea why some guys are so sensitive about reading reviews of players on a freaking internet message board. Who cares? God help any kid who plays ball and cries himself to sleep at night because some anonymous guy on an internet chat board said he was regressing. And if the players don't care, why the hell should you? What are your sensibilities that you can't stand some stranger posting thoughts discordant to your own in cyber space because you have some bizarre vicarious concern for some kid you don't know and never will. Jesus.

 

[CHIROMIKE]

All I wanted to know if anybody had any recollection of Omar dunking in a game the last 2 years. I like Omar and root for that 3 point stroke to come back every game

Obviously by the way he went up you could tell he must have a SI joint problem. Right?

 

[Gurleyman]

You should save some of this energy for your posting on the women's board.

If you think OC second season is comparable to Kemba second season or Giffey's second season, you haven't "gone" to that crack, you've been smoking it. You're clouded on your history of UConn hoops. Omar has made zero progress from last year, by eye or by numbers or by any rational measure. He is now regressing. All but maybe one of the guys (Hilton) you mentioned in your novel showed some improvement.

I don't really care. It's not personal. It's just basketball analysis for kicks. I have no idea why some guys are so sensitive about reading reviews of players on a freaking internet message board. Who cares? God help any kid who plays ball and cries himself to sleep at night because some anonymous guy on an internet chat board said he was regressing. And if the players don't care, why the hell should you? What are your sensibilities that you can't stand some stranger posting thoughts discordant to your own in cyber space because you have some bizarre vicarious concern for some kid you don't know and never will. Jesus.

Giffey averaged 2 ppg as a sophomore. Got 4 DNP-CDs. On a team desperate for a solid contributor at the 3. As for Kemba, my point was that he went from a guy looking kind of overrated on a team in the NIT to a guy who carried us to a national title in the span of one year. Huge jump. Other jumps have been from total irrelevabce into important role players (Armstrong, Okwandu). Or from constant struggles to Boneyard legend (Ricky). My point - which I thought was pretty clear - was that players can improve their production significantly, relative to their starting point.

 

[7774]

Not sure exactly why so many people seem so adverse to coming to the obvious conclusion, which is that OC hasn't panned out and likely will not be much better over the next two years.

Thank god you weren't put in charge of whether or not Hilton Armstrong got a scholarship each year.

And I would guess that people's issues are less with your negativity, and more with the fact that your posts combine negativity with incredibly stupid thoughts.

 

[aceboon]

Frank Ivy ya'll...

 

[Strummer]

My point - which I thought was pretty clear - was that players can improve their production significantly, relative to their starting point.

I agree with this point, and you've made it well. And where better than at UConn, where it's arguable that, over the last 28 or so years, the average performance increase per player is higher than any other school in DI. So we agree on that.


To the guy who said thank the lord I wasn't in charge of re-upping HA's schollie - if I was in charge of that, nobody's schollie would ever get pulled if he was giving it 100% effort. Ever. I don't like the idea of running a farm system where guys get run off because they don't pan out. If they commit to you, and maintain their commitment, you should remain loyal to them. Just my opinion on doing the right thing.

This is a narrow point, disagree if you want. I think there are a lot of people on this board who believe that OC is better than he really is. Their opinions are based on a very good game or two last year, without regard to the many 1 for 4, 0 for 5, 1 for 9 from 3 type games that he also had. The excuse for why Omar has had such a poor season so far is typically "he hasn't recovered from injury" and/or "he's in a slump." I believe it's wishful thinking. If it's accurate, and he gets better and/or pulls out of his "slump" next year, then that's great, and I'd be happy for the kid and the team. But I just don't see it. I don't think the talent is there to be developed. That's it. Disagree if you want, but there's no reason to get your panties in a bunch because I don't share your hope.

 

[Husky Dynasty]

Frank Ivy ya'll...

Ah, I had a feeling. He's a very distinctive character, that one.

 

[donyell34]

Summer has some valid points. We can analyze this to death and maybe we to because he's such a different player from last year. I think his surgery has set him back more than we know and I hope it's just that. I believe we should let him be and hope for the best for him and not for us . As a fan I want him back in the worst way. Just let it all play out.

 

[CTBasketball]

Calhoun certainly lost a lot of his bounce it seems. Coaches say he's 100% though even before the start of the season...

 

[DogMania]

First off, I didn't read through this entire thread, so I don't know if someone brought this up. But people may have forgotten that Omar had double hip surgery this past summer. Now Omar has never had great hops in the first place, but I'm inclined to think that he is still not physically right. I remember Beverly really struggling to move fluidly before, and a little bit after, he had his hip surgery, but begin to look a little more athletic as time went on. Again, Beverly wasn't a great athlete in the first place either.

Anyhow, last night's missed dunk look to me like a combination of not the greatest pass in the first place, not really being ready to dunk the ball, as Fishy pointed out, he seemed in between what he wanted to do, and lastly, he still simply doesn't look physically right.

I'm beginning to think that Omar is simply going to struggle for the balance of the season, but will hopefully be more physically and mentally ready next season. Now I hope he gets out of this funk and becomes a valuable contributor off the bench, but I'm not convinced that will happen.