Hurley’s Deepest UConn Team

[HW611]

Ajax could not only guard 1-3, but also caused a ton of havoc on the defensive end and was a big part of the motor that made us go. If you think about that team, there weren't a ton of great individual defenders outside of Jax (we did have length). Newt wasn't an amazing defender, nor was Hawkins or Karaban. I wouldn't have called Adama a force on defense either. Amazing what one high plus perimeter defender can do.

We need to find a couple plus defenders on this roster (that aren't major offensive liabilities). I'm pretty high on Mullins potential on defense, really light on his feet/springy. Just need to see it with my eyes at this level. Silas looks strong and like he has some dawg in him. Maybe the Ross experiment pans out - as someone said so accurately, he was high energy, but bad defensively last year (as all metrics show). Can that high energy & length translate this year?

The team was mostly bigger faster and stronger than everyone else. We had a 6’5 PG and a legit 2 way NBA 2 guard in Hawkins and then Andre. Size wise and athletically, there was no one in the country matching up against us on the perimeter.

Add in Sanogo being a brick house and Clingan off the bench, we were just physically better than everyone else and asserted our will.

It’s not the same this year as the only position we’ll have a clear physical advantage is PG. Solo will be small for a 2G and Mullins will be smaller for a 3.

It’s why I’m pushing for Ross so hard because he helps us get a size an athletic advantage at that 3 spot (and why I push for PG Solo because he’s an athletic advantage there and a disadvantage as a 2). Not going back and forth about this but he looked like one of our best defenders once he started staying on his feet during the second half of the season. Don’t really care what the metrics say when I watched something closely with my own eyes.

Mullins played a lot of 2-3 defense in HS I think so I assume they’ll be a learning curve on understanding Hurley’s man defense.

 

[Scottobot]

I think this is Hurley’s deepest team since he became UConn’s head coach. It seems we are at least two deep at every position. If Furphy steps up and becomes a Swiss Army knife with his positional size we have 10 players who would play more than mop up minutes on all but a handful of Division one teams. If you go back and look it may have been situational but during the 22-23 we had nine players average more than 12 minutes per game. Will that happen again this year?

Like many others said, hard to know who is going to end up being really good until they play. Hurley has done a great job the last 3-4 years filling the roster with players that could be great.

Last year I thought for sure Mahaney and Nowell would be good, but that didn’t happen.

 

[prankster]

Not for nothin....But, this is the first season, ever, where we have enjoyed 15 player roster.

That has to count for something.

 

[Lafayette]

15 is an injury boon. Diarra had to play thru injury and 15 lets us have 3 PGs (4 if Furphy is needed there). Though much was made of Maheney’s performance these 3 have all played the point.

 

[UCan3]

Correct. I think that Clingan was the wild card that made it go even in his first year when he only played 15 minutes a game. Our second unit not only kept up but often pushed out leads when they were brought in.
Reibe looks great on tape and has offensive skills but he’s going to have to defend, rebound and rise up to BE toughness. We now have a third guy who is 7’2” right?

I think what made Clingon/Sanogo such a tough combo is that Sanogo started and dominated offensively and was very good defensively - but not shut down rim protector.

But then Clingon subbed in and he was a “shut down” center meaning no one comes to the rim for an easy 2 - like no one.

It was the 2 different styles that left all teams bewildered… who do they prepare for? Sanogo / Clingon?

The answer was both but no team we faced in games that mattered - could.

How different our styles are at center will matter -I think Hurley is way ahead of me on this one LOL and that’s part of his strategy with late adds recruiting. Make lightening strike twice.

 

[HooperScooper]

I think what made Clingon/Sanogo such a tough combo is that Sanogo started and dominated offensively and was very good defensively - but not shut down rim protector.

But then Clingon subbed in and he was a “shut down” center meaning no one comes to the rim for an easy 2 - like no one.

It was the 2 different styles that left all teams bewildered… who do they prepare for? Sanogo / Clingon?

The answer was both but no team we faced in games that mattered - could.

How different our styles are at center will matter -I think Hurley is way ahead of me on this one LOL and that’s part of his strategy with late adds recruiting. Make lightening strike twice.

Who is Clingon?

 

[QuickDraw]

Who is Clingon?

 

[Iluvsuebird]

Same thread every year. Last year some of you had us going 12 deep and averaging 127 points and at least two guys going lottery. It’ll play out how it always does. Hurley will get 8-9’deep, some guys who we expected to play more or contribute won’t, and we’ll go into the offseason watching who stays or goes.

Guilty! And one of the lottery guys for me was Abraham!!! Called that wrong!!

 

[UCan3]

Who is Clingon?

He is the one who fought the Star Trek Enterprise over and over again. The new Star Trek Strange New Worlds is quite good btw

 

[thekollieman]

Ajax could not only guard 1-3, but also caused a ton of havoc on the defensive end and was a big part of the motor that made us go. If you think about that team, there weren't a ton of great individual defenders outside of Jax (we did have length). Newt wasn't an amazing defender, nor was Hawkins or Karaban. I wouldn't have called Adama a force on defense either. Amazing what one high plus perimeter defender can do.

We need to find a couple plus defenders on this roster (that aren't major offensive liabilities). I'm pretty high on Mullins potential on defense, really light on his feet/springy. Just need to see it with my eyes at this level. Silas looks strong and like he has some dawg in him. Maybe the Ross experiment pans out - as someone said so accurately, he was high energy, but bad defensively last year (as all metrics show). Can that high energy & length translate this year?

Ajax was maybe the best example I’ve ever seen of intangible influence on the court. He made so many incredible effort plays (made possible by incredible athleticism) I just imagined how much it would suck to have him on the other team.

 

[Ewekon]

Who is Clingon?

I believe he is from Uranus.

 

[Hunt for 7]

If we speculate on how deep we are this year, is that somehow a bad thing or not worth the debate during a slow content period?

Personally and obviously I think it is a worthwhile conversation. I don’t think any of us are basketball talent evaluator savants. But some of us have been watching this game for more than half a century you pick some things up when something is a passion.

We now have so much more access to video and highlight reels so that has to be considered.
But if you look at the material that has been posted on this board, you can see many of these players have talent. Who knows maybe when he has to go up two or three levels in talent the 7’1” kid from Turkey looks like you would expect and those skills that seemed to pop in the highlight reels can’t be found.

The 22 year guard is at the very least going to be a practice nightmare with his experience, basketball savvy and what appears to be a plus game on using ball fakes. Put their heads on swivels in practice when they are defending. He may never play meaningful minutes but he and Furphy might have more to do with us having a very good defense this year than anyone will give them credit.

We have more than highlight reel video on Reibe and Furphy and that was against very good competition and they shined.

You can see Mullins is going to be one of the most elite offensive players we have ever had not only for freshman. He can score at all three levels does it in every game I have watched.

You can find plenty of video on Smith. He will be the quickest guard we have had in quite sometime.

Koroma will hold his own he did against us no reason to think the roof would cave in, if we had to get 7-8 minutes out of him in a high leverage situation.

Stewart and Ross really don’t know what to say. If we had never seen them play a UConn game and were just basing our opinions on highlight reels then yes we would think big time division one player. So they may be the argument to not get to excited about our depth.

All of those things are interesting to consider as possibilities and certainly much better than if we were speculating how bad our starting five might be or if we really had a chance to make the NCAA tournament if somehow all of our players have great years or if we were talking about how good we will be in two years if we can keep the team together and developing.

I find it funny but somehow I am looking forward to this season more than I was last season. Maybe some of that will go away once football starts maybe it is just I am hungry to see us at the top again because that is about as good a feeling as there is for me.