Hurley on Ross

[Excalibur]

They really are - it stands out against athletic teams. Seton Hall was a more athletic team than this UConn team, in at least 3 positions at any given time. They simply can't throw a ball in the ocean.

As for Stew, easily the hardest kid to figure out on this team. Has the kind of plus flashes that make you want more, then drifts for minutes 10x his flashes. Makes you question his mental makeup and whether it's ever going to translate here.

I think Stewart is eventually going to be a player, be it here or elsewhere. There is obviously ability, and mental toughness and focus can improve with maturity.

 

[StllH8L8ner]

Ajax, Sticks, Scotty B = Freak Athletes

Ross = Best Athlete on Fairly Unathletic Team

The freak athlete description gets thrown around as nonsensically (is that a word?) as “Fab 5” gets throw around.

I’m glad he’s still working hard almost like his full ride depends on it despite not playing, but if he can’t crack this lineup the way we’re playing sometimes, he’s not the guy.

 

[Mooch82]

Based on productivity, Reed should absolutely be starting. That's the biggest misuse of this roster, imo.

Agreed - but the quote is about Ross. Think you are getting them mixed up. Ross has had zero productivity in his minutes.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Watching the games. Do you HAVE to play Devil’s advocate, or is this just fun for you?

I just don’t like false narratives on our players. The guy was a former point guard before he hit his growth spurt. Yall are making stuff up to trash on the kid.

He did a great job of both against Marquette. He’s simply struggling to score.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Here is an idea, why don’t you try and watch the replay of games. If you want to single out a player, rewind any sequence and watch it again in slow motion. For most of the guys you covet, the tape is not good.
Let’s start with the basics. A high major player is a special type of player, blessed with a combo of elite athleticism, size, lateral speed, and/or high basketball iq. Use the simple eye test, of the guys outside our top 6, who passes that test. Who looks comfortable enough on the floor that atleast, despite some limitations, feels like high major basketball is the right level for him. I will start. Stewie is the one guy that is a high major player.

Lol I can literally tell you everything that happened possession by possession in his runs.

Which is why I’m confused by these comments. Especially ones that still say he bites on every pump fake, something he’s had fixed for awhile now.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I think Stewart is eventually going to be a player, be it here or elsewhere. There is obviously ability, and mental toughness and focus can improve with maturity.

Part of that is having a consistent role. He doesn't. So many of the mistakes Ross makes are clearly from trying to hard to make an impact in the 2 minutes he's in the game. I see some of the same from Stewart. He's not a guard so somebody has to get him the ball. If they don't it's easy for him to drift. Some games Stewart gets real minutes sometimes almost none. That's not ideal for development.

 

[Excalibur]

Do you want to build a snowman? How does that fit?

I figured some of you were thinking of "fixer upper". Whether that refers to Hurley or the players depends on the poster . . .

 

[CardiacAndre7]

I just don’t like false narratives on our players. The guy was a former point guard before he hit his growth spurt. Yall are making stuff up to trash on the kid.

He did a great job of both against Marquette. He’s simply struggling to score.

It’s not a false narrative, stop this holier-than-thou act. In the 14 games that followed the UMES game, he averaged 15 mpg and exactly 2ppg, scoring 2 or less in 10/14 games. Assist stats are even worse, so I won’t mention.

You think Solo is a PG, now you think Ross has PG ability. Just enough my guy.

 

[JB75]

Ross has gotten double digit minutes around 20 times this season and has really done nothing. He had opportunity after opportunity, so I’m not sure I would compare his situation with Nowell’s.

Right. It’s not even close. Ross has had many chances to do his thing. Nowell has had very minimal

 

[HailUConn]

As many have alluded, I believe this is Danny way of saying "I effed up" with Mahaney's square peg in the round hole experiment, and Ross should be ahead of him since the get-go.

 

[Hunt for 7]

If a head coach is saying that about a player who has not played well in the minutes he has gotten coupled with the fact that nba scouts were asking about him during his freshman year, maybe they are right and all of the experts on this board are wrong.

There has to be something there that we are not seeing. Or maybe Ross is being shopped and he is trying to get him to stay.

But if other teams are intrigued depending on the level of those teams it all creates a significant mystery.

I admit I have been a Ross backer. It has been tough because he has played some awful minutes. But in my mind we do not have a better all around defensive player than Ross. I don’t think it’s close in regards to potential. Now I agree he has not put that potential to use on floor but it may now be a moot point.

But perhaps we should give the this coach credit for something, he has revived a program that went from great to irrelevant. We have a meh season but that does not mean it he won’t get us there again. And maybe he is just thinking about the future and what Ross can bring if he finally figures out how to bring that practice game onto the floor in a “real” game.

 

[Get a Job]

I figured some of you were thinking of "fixer upper". Whether that refers to Hurley or the players depends on the poster . . .

I thought the suggestion was that Hurley should replace the players with reindeer.

 

[jibsey]

They really are - it stands out against athletic teams. Seton Hall was a more athletic team than this UConn team, in at least 3 positions at any given time. They simply can't throw a ball in the ocean.

As for Stew, easily the hardest kid to figure out on this team. Has the kind of plus flashes that make you want more, then drifts for minutes 10x his flashes. Makes you question his mental makeup and whether it's ever going to translate here.

He is not quick enough to cover guards during switches. I mean he’s not a guard, but he can pass, shoot and rebound but he gets scored on.

 

[yungdowork]

It’s not a false narrative, stop this holier-than-thou act. In the 14 games that followed the UMES game, he averaged 15 mpg and exactly 2ppg, scoring 2 or less in 10/14 games. Assist stats are even worse, so I won’t mention.

You think Solo is a PG, now you think Ross has PG ability. Just enough my guy.

To be fair to him, he’s right about Ross being a point guard before his growth spurt. It’s pretty well documented

 

[UCTitleTown]

Head scratcher by Dan Hurley. I did have a dream that JR had a sick dunk and my dreams have been known to come true occasionally, so I'll be looking for that today.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Doing a rewatch per @djct1999 request.

And here’s some notes based on his last game having more than 5 minutes, on the road against Marquette. I watched on YoutubeTV but if it’s possibly to go back and hyperlink the specific plays through the game available on the replay thread I will. (Teaser, you will be disappointed to find out not one pump fake was bitten on in his 27 mins of playing time).

Here at we see examples of both his handle AND passing (video should start at the play @2:25):


(Didn’t get start doing timestamps here yet but will see if I can edit this in)

Made a mistake inbounding the ball the first time Marquette pressured (but everyone makes that mistake these days)

35:46
Drives into the lane for a turnaround smooth pull up

Very next play
He provides great on ball pressure and nearly causes a turnover.

Very next play after break
Provides great help defense, guy just makes a really tough shot over him

40:27
Plays great post defense to cause a turnover then makes a nice pass to break the press that turns into Solo drawing a foul

42:30
Nice interior feed to Reed over a front that leads to a score

45:15
Draws a charge on Joplin

46:45
Beats his guy off the dribble and makes a dump off pass to Reed. Reed doesn’t finish though

48:51
Kam Jones hits a really tough contested 3 over him. The first points somebody scored on him all game.

52:28
Ross misses an open 3

2nd half

1:06:45
There’s a scrum on the floor that Ross tries leaking out for. Marquette gets the ball and finds his open man for a 3.

1:18:32
Kam Jones beats him off the dribble after a screen for a layup

1:19:04
Kam tries to attack Ross again and this time Ross strips him on the drive to the rim causing a turnover

1:21:44
Kam Jones takes him to the rim. Makes a good tough contested floater

1:22:10
Ross gets the shot clock grenade and he should’ve put it up earlier but gets a violation instead

1:29:10
Gets a look underneath the rim he probably should be aggressive with. He ends up finding Solo open for a 3 instead so it works out.

1:30:35
Terrific defense again on a drive by Marquette’s Ross to force a miss.

1:31:01
Struggles to catch a pass from Samson on a cut to the rim and it causes a shot clock violation. (subbed out after this)

1:48:36
Goes for a steal on the inbound pass and misses. Still recovers enough to force a missed layup.

1:49:18
Emphatic block to close out the game.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

To be fair to him, he’s right about Ross being a point guard before his growth spurt. It’s pretty well documented

That’s great, literally doesn’t matter though.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Doing a rewatch per @djct1999 request.

And here’s some notes based on his last game having more than 5 minutes, on the road against Marquette. I watched on YoutubeTV but if it’s possibly to go back and hyperlink the specific plays through the game available on the replay thread I will. (Teaser, you will be disappointed to find out not one pump fake was bitten on in his 27 mins of playing time).

Here at 2:25 we see examples of both his handle AND passing:


(Didn’t get start doing timestamps here yet but will see if I can edit this in)

Made a mistake inbounding the ball the first time Marquette pressured (but everyone makes that mistake these days)

28:30
He provides great on ball pressure and nearly causes a turnover.

30:25
Provides great help defense, guy just makes a really tough shot over him

33:15
Plays great post defense to cause a turnover then makes a nice pass to break the press that turns into Solo drawing a foul

35:15
Nice interior feed to Reed over a front that leads to a score

37:50
Draws a charge on Joplin

39:15
Beats his guy off the dribble and makes a dump off pass to Reed. Reed doesn’t finish though

41:25
Kam Jones hits a really tough contested 3 over him. The first points somebody scored on him all game.

45:00
Ross misses an open 3

2nd half

58:50
There’s a scrum on the floor that Ross tries leaking out for. Marquette gets the ball and finds his open man for a 3.

1:01:00
Kam Jones beats him off the dribble after a screen for a layup

1:01:40
Kam tries to attack Ross again and this time Ross strips him on the drive to the rim causing a turnover

1:04:10
Kam Jones takes him to the rim. Makes a good tough contested floater

104:50
Ross gets the shot clock grenade and he should’ve put it up earlier but gets a violation instead

1:12:10
Gets a look underneath the rim he probably should be aggressive with. He ends up finding Solo open for a 3 instead so it works out.

1:13:35
Terrific defense again on a drive by Marquette’s Ross to force a miss.

1:14:05
Struggles to catch a pass from Samson on a cut to the rim and it causes a shot clock violation.

1:29:30
Goes for a steal on the inbound pass and misses. Still recovers enough to force a missed layup.

1:30:15
Emphatic block to close out the game.

Overall, he was EXCELLENT against Marquette. He was EASILY our best defender in this game and made a lot of plays. The only thing he didn’t do was score as he wasn’t aggressive on 1-2 shooting. It seems like his playing time was cut when McNeeley came back because it was between Ross and Stewart and Stewart provided more scoring.

But Ross is not half the things people in this thread say about him. If you want to say something negative about his game that doesn’t have anything to do with his scoring, I challenge you to find something from recent games to show that. VIDEO PROOF.

Not a stat sheet or something you’re making up. Otherwise shutup about trashing one of our own players.

 

[superjohn]

That’s great, literally doesn’t matter though.

Ross dribbled the ball up the court once against Marquette and Huskywarrior writes a dissertation on it.

 

[Excalibur]

Ross dribbled the ball up the court once against Marquette and Huskywarrior writes a dissertation on it.

He's not a terrible ball handler. Is the argument that he should be getting minutes at point guard?

 

[yungdowork]

I think 611 has crazy takes as much as anyone else, but he’s pretty much only provided objective information in this thread and also actually contributed meaningfully to the discussion.

Can’t say the same for most of the people complaining about him.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

Where are yall getting that he’s not a good passer or great dribbler from?

This is a ridiculous thread. The wild thing is bookmark it because it's one of the few times I'm in HW's camp

 

[JustbrewitMan]

That’s what I see too - I feel like this is a clear message about still being bought in and being great in practice.

That’s what a coach sees daily, so that probably tells posters why Stewart hasn’t played as much. Could be AM too. Who knows.

But he’s sending a Message about practice and work ethic, intangible things, not necessarily on court production.

Depending on your level of optimism/realism about the team, we have ~6-8 games left to play. That's about 20% of the season left.

If you're a player "checking out" of practice/film study/games...damn...

 

[Son of Robert]

If the coaching staff thinks JRoss should get some longer run based on what they see in practice than more power to him. As we begin this last stretch run this team needs the bench to step up; one, two, or three players to find their groove, be playable and effective, and shake up this not so great chemistry we have on both ends of the floor, plus giving the starting five some breathing room.

 

[superjohn]

I think 611 has crazy takes as much as anyone else, but he’s pretty much only provided objective information in this thread and also actually contributed meaningfully to the discussion.

Can’t say the same for most of the people complaining about him.

Ross hasn't shown a good handle here and certainly hasn't shown any point guard skills. Who cares he was a point guard when he was 5'9 140 lbs? Who cares Solo was a point guard when he was 5'5 135 lbs?