Hawkins - The couple 3s he took didnt fall but he legit looked like an NBA athlete out there

[aburks41]

What about all the other teams steamrolling cupcakes right now? Are they all going to win the championship, too?

Edit: I will give you this: we're number 2 in average margin of victory, which is pretty cool. However, to my point, Drake is number 1. Are they a championship team?

The 2009 FF team played a worse non-con schedule than we are right now, and they weren't even winning by 45+ points in those games. We've literally seen this same story before from our own program.

Have you watched some of the other ranked teams this year against cupcakes? Most of them look absolutely terrible. We look like one of the most polished teams already and we're only going to keep getting better and better

 

[AntG168]

The 2009 FF team played a worse non-con schedule than we are right now, and they weren't even winning by 45+ points in those games. We've literally seen this same story before from our own program.

Have you watched some of the other ranked teams this year against cupcakes? Most of them look absolutely terrible. We look like one of the most polished teams already and we're only going to keep getting better and better

I don't think many here pay attention to non UConn related games

 

[AntG168]

We have the 4th worst SoS according to KenPom. We are not playing mid-majors.

I refer to a mid major as anyone not in a power conference, or a consistent national contender(Gonzaga, Memphis, Cincy).

 

[Psolo12]

I refer to a mid major as anyone not in a power conference, or a consistent national contender(Gonzaga, Memphis, Cincy).

Well there are mid majors and low majors just like high majors. Teams under Kenpom 250 are not mid majors, they’re low majors.

 

[AntG168]

Well there are mid majors and low majors just like high majors. Teams under Kenpom 250 are not mid majors, they’re low majors.

So we judge mid, low, and high ,majors based upon their KenPom? If a high major has a down year, they become a low major? I always thought the train of thought was you had your major conferences(BE, B10, SEC, ACC, B12, Pac12) and the rest were mid major conferences. It's semantics.

 

[UChusky916]

Hawkins is a stud, it's obvious. Some guys just have IT, and you could tell in limited minutes yesterday that this kid is going to be a star and on the wall in Werth in a few years.

In 8 minutes, he stuffed the stat sheet with 5 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, and 3 steals. Yeah, he missed a few shots (follow-up dunk and open 3), but those will start going in the net as he gets more comfortable.

The similarities to Bouknight are not accurate in terms of play style. But I'll let it slide, because I understand there's a similar sentiment when seeing Hawkins play on this stage like when we saw Bouk on the floor the first time... you can tell the kid is special and just different.

Comparisons aside (I like mini-Ray), this kid should be getting at least 20+ mins every night. Hurley has a real challenge on his hands on how to balance minutes and line-ups. The team is so deep, talented, and diverse.

The only thing lacking on the roster is a real KNOCK DOWN shooter. Polley, Cole, and Gaff can certainly hit them at a respectable clip and get hot any night. But maybe Hawkins can be that guy to consistently knock down shots, and if so, he makes this team THAT much better.

Opponent aside, you can tell this team really has a good... dare I say... mojo going.

 

[husky429]

So we judge mid, low, and high ,majors based upon their KenPom? If a high major has a down year, they become a low major? I always thought the train of thought was you had your major conferences(BE, B10, SEC, ACC, B12, Pac12) and the rest were mid major conferences. It's semantics.

Why would their be high- and mid-major with no low-major? It may just be semantics, but that seems pretty basic lol

I get the idea though. There are years where your OOC schedule just ends up being worse. It happens.

 

[Hungryhusky99]

So we judge mid, low, and high ,majors based upon their KenPom? If a high major has a down year, they become a low major? I always thought the train of thought was you had your major conferences(BE, B10, SEC, ACC, B12, Pac12) and the rest were mid major conferences. It's semantics.

Grouping the A10 and the SWAC together is not semantics, it is stupidity.

 

[aburks41]

Hawkins is a stud, it's obvious. Some guys just have IT, and you could tell in limited minutes yesterday that this kid is going to be a star and on the wall in Werth in a few years.

In 8 minutes, he stuffed the stat sheet with 5 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, and 3 steals. Yeah, he missed a few shots (follow-up dunk and open 3), but those will start going in the net as he gets more comfortable.

The similarities to Bouknight are not accurate in terms of play style. But I'll let it slide, because I understand there's a similar sentiment when seeing Hawkins play on this stage like when we saw Bouk on the floor the first time... you can tell the kid is special and just different.

Comparisons aside (I like mini-Ray), this kid should be getting at least 20+ mins every night. Hurley has a real challenge on his hands on how to balance minutes and line-ups. The team is so deep, talented, and diverse.

The only thing lacking on the roster is a real KNOCK DOWN shooter. Polley, Cole, and Gaff can certainly hit them at a respectable clip and get hot any night. But maybe Hawkins can be that guy to consistently knock down shots, and if so, he makes this team THAT much better.

Opponent aside, you can tell this team really has a good... dare I say... mojo going.

Limited sample size but Gaff is hitting 60% of his 3's on 4 attempts per game so far. He'll come back down to earth but he has great shot mechanics. He was a 36% guy last year, I can see him hitting 40% this year which is approaching that 'very good to elite' territory

 

[navery12]

So we judge mid, low, and high ,majors based upon their KenPom? If a high major has a down year, they become a low major? I always thought the train of thought was you had your major conferences(BE, B10, SEC, ACC, B12, Pac12) and the rest were mid major conferences. It's semantics.

No because even the worst high major teams are never coming anywhere close to being ranked 250+. They could go 0-20 in conference and still be above these low majors

 

[7774]

The 2009 FF team played a worse non-con schedule than we are right now, and they weren't even winning by 45+ points in those games. We've literally seen this same story before from our own program.

Have you watched some of the other ranked teams this year against cupcakes? Most of them look absolutely terrible. We look like one of the most polished teams already and we're only going to keep getting better and better

The 2009 team played a worse schedule than a team that is 355 out of 358 teams? That seems amazingly unlikely.

 

[inWV]

Cole is solid and Gaffney has surprised. At the least, Hawkins is a solid third guard. Potential upside is that he is able to fully utilize his natural talents in BE games. And then UCONN becomes really tough to deal with. Three guards, three wings and three big guys, all capable of playing high level ball against good teams.

 

[BigTenFan]

I was at the game and the kid was clearly the quickest player on the court by a wide margin. He should have a great UConn career

 

[AntG168]

The 2009 team played a worse schedule than a team that is 355 out of 358 teams? That seems amazingly unlikely.

But these 4 games aren't our full ooc schedule. It's just the first 4

 

[AntG168]

No because even the worst high major teams are never coming anywhere close to being ranked 250+. They could go 0-20 in conference and still be above these low majors

Good Point. I still don't know if differentiating between mid and low majors based upon their KenPom makes much sense. That means it'd change year by year

 

[Waquoit]

The confidence with which he took the first 3, was what coaches dream about from lead guards.

That was a jack without his feet set, my first thought was "Oh, brother".

 

[HuskyHawk]

There aren't a bunch of other teams steam rolling cupcakes. If you have been paying attention, power teams have been struggling against said cupcakes. Teams arent beating mid majors by an average of 45. We're taking that for granted in my opinion

I mean we aren't playing "mid-majors" if you want to get technical about it. We're playing some of the worst teams in all of D1. But you are correct that many teams are struggling vs bad competition. I think our depth, experience, and lack of transfers are really paying off right now. We essentially have 3 wins vs decent D2 teams... seriously.

I'm giving the staff a pass this year. These games have been planned for a long time, and maybe we just had bad luck. But our early-season schedule really should have some more challenges going forward.



Between Andre, Hawkins, Reese, and Akok we have some stupid athleticism on the wings right now.

I think it's a mix of things.
1. Staff has them prepared to go
2. Overall size, speed & athleticism just overwhelms inferior teams
3. Despite some young players, this team has four guys that are SuperSeniors from an age perspective. Loads of experience.

 

[AntG168]

I think it's a mix of things.
1. Staff has them prepared to go
2. Overall size, speed & athleticism just overwhelms inferior teams
3. Despite some young players, this team has four guys that are SuperSeniors from an age perspective. Loads of experience.

Agreed. I think I just think more will translate immediately than some others. Our size, speed, athleticism, depth and defensive intensity will over whelm high major teams. I think what we do well translates. We will have a couple of nights where we lay an egg shooting the ball. But even in those games I think we'll be right there because of our defense, depth and rebounding

 

[husky429]

Agreed. I think I just think more will translate immediately than some others. Our size, speed, athleticism, depth and defensive intensity will over whelm high major teams. I think what we do well translates. We will have a couple of nights where we lay an egg shooting the ball. But even in those games I think we'll be right there because of our defense, depth and rebounding

Defense and rebounding will keep us close in the vast majority of games, even vs. better or equally skilled opponents. A hot shooting night is what will get us the season-defining underdog win at some point. Maybe in Atlantis, maybe in the tourney, maybe Nova... who knows.

 

[navery12]

Good Point. I still don't know if differentiating between mid and low majors based upon their KenPom makes much sense. That means it'd change year by year

It may change slightly year by year for specific teams, but I don't think it'll vary as much by conference. Looking at the MEAC (Coppin State and UMES on our schedule this year) the conference is pretty consistent with the winner around 250 KenPom and about 4-5 ranked in the 340s+.

You might get a team like Norfolk State who was all the way up at 210 a few years ago and would move in these arbitrary cutoffs of 250. But it's pretty safe to say overall that's a different level of conference than something like CUSA or the MVC where the bottom of the conference is coming in around 250

 

[87Xfer]

The only thing lacking on the roster is a real KNOCK DOWN shooter. Polley, Cole, and Gaff can certainly hit them at a respectable clip and get hot any night. But maybe Hawkins can be that guy to consistently knock down shots, and if so, he makes this team THAT much better.

Yep. Hard to swallow that our 2 "best" 3pt shooters went 3-13 against LIU.

 

[aburks41]

The 2009 team played a worse schedule than a team that is 355 out of 358 teams? That seems amazingly unlikely.

Our non-con will not be 355/358 by the end of it. The 2009 team opened with American International, UMass Lowell, Western Carolina, and Hartford. They then went to the Paradise Jam in the US Virgin Islands, played 5 more cupcakes and then @ Gonzaga.

This year we have the opening 4 cupcakes, Bahamas, @ WVU, and then the Bonnies. They are remarkably similar schedules.

 

[Husky25]

Hawkins played the final 8 minutes vs Kenpom #285.

Depth notwithstanding, the players to whom Hawkins is being compared were basically immediate starters or 1st guys off the bench.

Yes he looked good, but I'm choosing to pump the breaks for the time being.

 

[Get a Job]

Our non-con will not be 355/358 by the end of it. The 2009 team opened with American International, UMass Lowell, Western Carolina, and Hartford. They then went to the Paradise Jam in the US Virgin Islands, played 5 more cupcakes and then @ Gonzaga.

This year we have the opening 4 cupcakes, Bahamas, @ WVU, and then the Bonnies. They are remarkably similar schedules.

What are you even rambling about at this point? You said this year's team has shown that it is championship-caliber. I and a few others disagree*, on the basis that the opponents so far have been laughably inferior. Future games, past team's schedules and performances, and whatever other minutiae you are combing through have no bearing on the argument at hand.

*Note that I am not saying that this year's team is not championship-caliber. I am simply saying I haven't seen anything yet to show me this team's relative quality compared to, say, St. Bonaventure, let alone Gonzaga and the like.

 

[auror]

Hawkins played the final 8 minutes vs Kenpom #285.

Depth notwithstanding, the players to whom Hawkins is being compared were basically immediate starters or 1st guys off the bench.

Yes he looked good, but I'm choosing to pump the breaks for the time being.

Before he got hurt, it seemed like it was trending that he would've started.