Jalen Adams (Committed to UConn)

[Huskyforlife]

Just handle the ball, play good defense, and stretch the floor and I'll be happy

 

[chuckhusky]

Looking forward to seeing Jalen in a Husky uni.

 

[Kitaman]

I'm starting to feel real bad for JA, expectations are increasing by the day. Its as if we have never had a good recruit come in. Perhaps a few posters are too new to have experience our history of guard recruits. Anyway here's another high school pic of a UConn player.

 

[ChrisSmith]

Shabazz also came off the bench. Kemba averaged 9 and 3 his freshman year coming off the bench. Boatright averaged 10 and 4. I don't think it's unreasonable to say Jalen can have a great year of 12 and 5 with the talent he is and the guys he should have around him.

Sure he "can". I don't think it is likely.

 

[ChrisSmith]

Shabazz also came off the bench. Kemba averaged 9 and 3 his freshman year coming off the bench. Boatright averaged 10 and 4. I don't think it's unreasonable to say Jalen can have a great year of 12 and 5 with the talent he is and the guys he should have around him.

Who cares if they came off the bench? Shabazz averaged 24 mintues as a freshman. Kemba averaged 29. Adams may also come off the bench. And if he does start, he might not play more minutes than that.

UConn has had 3, 4-5 star PGs in the last 6 or so years. All played a lot as true freshman. If you're expecting something different than those guys produced, you're kidding yourself. Adams may end up producing more or less, but those three guys are a good estimate.

 

[CAHUSKY]

Who cares if they came off the bench? Shabazz averaged 24 mintues as a freshman. Kemba averaged 29. Adams may also come off the bench. And if he does start, he might not play more minutes than that.

UConn has had 3, 4-5 star PGs in the last 6 or so years. All played a lot as true freshman. If you're expecting something different than those guys produced, you're kidding yourself. Adams may end up producing more or less, but those three guys are a good estimate.

Accept Jalen is going to be asked to handle the ball and score more than any of those others were. It seems pretty safe to say that also means it's not too outlandish to expect better production.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

Accept Jalen is going to be asked to handle the ball and score more than any of those others were. It seems pretty safe to say that also means it's not too outlandish to expect better production.

He will be in a position like KEA and Taliek in that there will be no incumbent. He has played at a high level in high school and is more athletically gifted than any of our previous PGs. He has good court vision and can make great passes. To me, the big question about his freshman year will be to what degree he is ready to come in and be a leader from the start. That is no small challenge. KEA was one in many million in the way he was able to claim the leadership role from the start and seemed to be positive with his teammates from the start. I would not expect anyone to be able to replicate that, but let's hope that Jalen has gained confidence from being the leader on a team full of high-level D1 players. I think that the Huskies need him to be the floor leader and so we need Rodney and Daniel to welcome him into that role.

 

[Hugo]

He will be in a position like KEA and Taliek in that there will be no incumbent. He has played at a high level in high school and is more athletically gifted than any of our previous PGs. He has good court vision and can make great passes. To me, the big question about his freshman year will be to what degree he is ready to come in and be a leader from the start. That is no small challenge. KEA was one in many million in the way he was able to claim the leadership role from the start and seemed to be positive with his teammates from the start. I would not expect anyone to be able to replicate that, but let's hope that Jalen has gained confidence from being the leader on a team full of high-level D1 players. I think that the Huskies need him to be the floor leader and so we need Rodney and Daniel to welcome him into that role.

I don't really have any reservations about his ability and skill set and feel comfortable in that respect. However, I agree 100% with you re: his readiness to assume the leadership role next year. Assuming JA has the confidence and wants to have the leadership role, KO needs to make sure the entire team understands he will be the floor general. And we as fans will need some degree of patience as he adapts to this role as it will be a challenge for him. Now let's hope the staff finds a secondary ball-handler to provide needed back-up and help with the ball-handling duties.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Who cares if they came off the bench? Shabazz averaged 24 mintues as a freshman. Kemba averaged 29. Adams may also come off the bench. And if he does start, he might not play more minutes than that.

UConn has had 3, 4-5 star PGs in the last 6 or so years. All played a lot as true freshman. If you're expecting something different than those guys produced, you're kidding yourself. Adams may end up producing more or less, but those three guys are a good estimate.

Kemba averaged 25 mpg, not 29. I don't know how much Adams is going to play, but if he's the starting PG, I'd expect it to be more than 25mpg.

 

[Uconn77Duke74]

I'm assuming that when Diamond Stone and Malik Newman kick the ball out to Adams next year he will oftentimes be wide open.

 

[mauconnfan]

The guy from Cornell can pass too.....

 

[Gurleyman]

Scrappy I've seen the videos as well and he could actually end up being the best college basketball player ever. He didn't miss a shot and all of his passes led to an assist. You can tell in the videos that all his teammates were better just playing with him. I really could see him going to the NBA in January 2016 (mid season), right before the NBA playoffs. If he finishes his freshman year here I see him averaging 25 points, 8 rebounds, 12 assists and 4 steals a game along with at least 12 appearance on ESPN's top plays of the day, with 4-5 being top plays. Where Boat couldn't beat being triple teamed this year I see Adams having no problems making teams pay and I even expect he will draw at least 4 players with the 5th player always getting ready to take the ball out after our made shot. I agree with you he's that good great!

I fear we are going to see a lot of box and one when Adams gets here.

We'll just have to hope that they can't defend our other four guys with only one player.

 

[Husky25]

I fear we are going to see a lot of box and one when Adams gets here.

We'll just have to hope that they can't defend our other four guys with only one player.

 

[Huskybass]

He has some Derek Rose in him--in his game from all the videos I have watched. Hes a powerful athletic pretty tall PG with all of the skills. This guy might end up being the best player Uconn has ever had--that good.

I think you may be pushing it a bit, but to say he might be the most polished incoming freshman guard is probably accurate. If the guys who made all the silly mistakes this year can tighten up their games a bit, the team could be very good next year.

 

[tcf15]

Gurleyman is always serious.

 

[imno1]

Jalen will be our starting pg unless TS has an offseason skill transplant. Our starting pgs have scored and assisted at a high level for quite some time so I don't think it's unreasonable to expect JA to average at 12 and 4. I think for the most part he is going to be really impressive. Now if our front court players don't toughen up it will still be a frustrating year.

 

[joober jones]

Terrance Samuel never successfully dunked, at least in any game I can remember. He missed his one attempt that I saw. Donnell Beverly was a surprisingly adept dunker though. As far as other PGs who were good but never dunked for us would include Taliek Brown, Craig Austrie, Marcus Williams, Shabazz Napier, Khalid El-Amin, and the unforgettable, one-man-wrecking-crew Darius Smith.

 

[Sportsman5]

Clearly he will be an elite athlete on the college level with above average height and length for a point guard. That's a great foundation to work with. Based on the scouting reports it would seem he is ready to start at the college level right away. If he can do more than that, then great. If not, then it just means he will likely be a 3 or 4 year player and contribute a lot over his career regardless of his production next year.

 

[Goat]

TSam's tournament drives depended on team defenses covering shooters who could make 3s, hence his comparative lack of success this season. He can help by finding a long range shot.
Jalen's #s will depend on the team. Hopefully, a high tide will raise all players.
However, notwithstanding Boat's great D skills, I cannot wait to see an Ollie defense that has tall players at every position, even the interchangeable pieces Ollie had spoken of.
An NBA shot clock favors KO, too.
Don't sleep on Calhoun, Jr. and Omar. To my knowledge only Boat and Jr. go into the off-season dinged up, and Jr. was almost back.
No surgery this summer.

 

[Huskies4ever]

Terrance Samuel never successfully dunked, at least in any game I can remember. He missed his one attempt that I saw. Donnell Beverly was a surprisingly adept dunker though. As far as other PGs who were good but never dunked for us would include Taliek Brown, Craig Austrie, Marcus Williams, Shabazz Napier, Khalid El-Amin, and the unforgettable, one-man-wrecking-crew Darius Smith.

I'm sure KEA couldn't.

How about Doron Sheffer? 6' 5". Never had a dunk. I read he did in practice.

 

[mets1090]

Donnell Beverly was a surprisingly adept dunker though.

When he dunked against Texas I think I went into shock. I don't think anyone in the stands knew or suspected he could throw it down so easily.

 

[ChrisSmith]

Kemba averaged 25 mpg, not 29. I don't know how much Adams is going to play, but if he's the starting PG, I'd expect it to be more than 25mpg.

Two players on the roster played more than 29 minutes a game this year, and one of those played 31 minutes a game.

There's plenty of empirical evidence out there, some people just want to ignore. 25 minutes a game and 8 points, 3 assists a game is likely.

 

[caw]

Well the last three "freshmen" PGs who started at PG for UConn averaged:

16-4-2 on 42-37-80 in 30 minutes
8-5-2.5 on 43-25-55 in 28 minutes
9-3.5-3 on 39-27-67 in 24 minutes

That should be the baseline. Two of the three did play in the NBA. All played in final fours and two won championships.

I would wager 28-30 minutes. My guess for stats is 9-10 PPG, 4-4.5 assists, 3-3.5 rebounds, 44-33-73

 

[superjohn]

This kid is special, I think we have a chance to be really good next year with Jalen running things at the point. His physical talent is off the charts and when you combine that with the fact that he's a winner, things are going to get pretty exciting around here.

 

[superjohn]