Just got back from the game, my initial reactions

[mauconnfan]

I think Omar wants to have a big senior year huh? I mean he was all over the court, maybe more than any time since his freshman year. It could be the fact he's healthy or just the fact the door is closing and reality is here - no matter couldn't help but like what we saw. He rebounded the ball, defended better and was active with the ball on the offensive end. Not many teams have a guy coming off the bench with his ability when healthy would be a welcome sight if the consistency stays with him.

 

[pnow15]

Reddick, Bacon, Hollis, Johnson all were pretty decent players. For a team picked 6th in a Divy2 league they looked better. Also they mentioned someone was not playing due to a broken nose vs SCSU

Betcha South Florida will regret playing these guys if they do play.

 

[Kitaman]

Reddick, Bacon, Hollis, Johnson all were pretty decent players. For a team picked 6th in a Divy2 league they looked better. Also they mentioned someone was not playing due to a broken nose vs SCSU

Bacon is a freshman, I can't see him staying in Div 2 for 4 years. Kid's got game, I think he gets courted and snatched by a larger school, unless there are unknown factors (e.g. grades).

 

[Ricker]

Assessments seem pretty consistent and exactly what I saw as well. Mau made an excellent comment in another thread that is relevant to comments about who will assert themselves as our alpha dog. He said Gibbs was making an effort to be a good teammate. I think that is true with all our 'stars' at the moment. The team is trying to find chemistry and know one feels the need to take over on every clutch possession or dominate the ball or lead the play every time. Their 'leaders' are trying to get everyone involved rather than dominating themselves. I don't think we'll see a single leader for a while by design, and, it may be that our leader will be the 'hot hand' game by game.

 

[Hoophound]

I like there to be an alpha dog. I think it is necessary for going deep in the tourney. I hope Hamilton becomes that guy for his sake. If it ends up being Gibbs, Purvis or even Adams, that's ok too. I just don't see leader by committee resulting in championships.

 

[pnow15]

My take is that UConn will have an extremely most excellent 8/9 man rotation come tournament time.
Starters: Brimah, Purvis, Miller, DHam Gibbs.

Miller and Dham should make up for some of Brimah's rebounding so let him patrol the paint.

Reserves: Adams, Calhoun and which other guys step up over the course of the season.

Remember Ollie is capable of using Miller at the 5. A lineup of Miller, DHam, Gibbs, Purvis, Adams is not out of the question. So, Ollie may never have to put a player on the floor who is not a star in his own right at this level during a big game.

 

[NotADimeBack]

Lol @Phil is phil

 

[partyATkemba]

My take is that UConn will have an extremely most excellent 8/9 man rotation come tournament time.
Starters: Brimah, Purvis, Miller, DHam Gibbs.

Miller and Dham should make up for some of Brimah's rebounding so let him patrol the paint.

Reserves: Adams, Calhoun and which other guys step up over the course of the season.

Remember Ollie is capable of using Miller at the 5. A lineup of Miller, DHam, Gibbs, Purvis, Adams is not out of the question. So, Ollie may never have to put a player on the floor who is not a star in his own right at this level during a big game.

Completely agree. I think we will go small a lot and use DHam at the 4, because we have a lot of depth at the guard position.

I see Enoch grabbing the reserve big-man spot

SC Jr, Nolan and Facey to be phased out of the rotation eventually, playing sparingly with foul trouble / need a spark / injuries.

 

[mauconnfan]

Completely agree. I think we will go small a lot and use DHam at the 4, because we have a lot of depth at the guard position.

I see Enoch grabbing the reserve big-man spot

SC Jr, Nolan and Facey to be phased out of the rotation eventually, playing sparingly with foul trouble / need a spark / injuries.

Nolan will not be phased out and may end up playing more than some would like. Probably because he brings more than some identify with!

 

[Kitaman]

Nolan will not be phased out and may end up playing more than some would like. Probably because he brings more than some identify with!

I agree Nolan has value, and Ollie selectively knows how and when to apply him. He's an experienced senior and along with Omar will be guaranteed court time.

People just need to realize Phil has limitations but can still offer contributions. My big gripe is that they still aren't putting stickum on his hands. Fix those hands and he will contribute a whole lot more.

Also if people notice, Phil is a leader and a very good teammate. He shows no signs of jealousy or resentment towards Miller or Amida, Teammates supporting each other is more important than fan support.

 

[warbler1055]

KO is still looking for his alpha dog, i.e. the go to guy. Shabazz was the alpha dog. Who is it going to be? The future will tell.

 

[Deadrody]

Not really forecasting the season, but we still have a lot of work to do. I definitely think we'll be better than last year. We have more talent. I really liked the potential that some of the players showed.

Well, duh. They're incorporating 3 new faces, all of which are likely to play major roles on this team. To think there WOULDN'T be "a lot of work to do" would be foolish.

 

[Deadrody]

I streamed the game on Husky vision or whatever and agree with a lot of the observations in this thread. Miller looked awesome. He was active on defense and on offense without the ball. He is a stud. He is bigger and faster than I thought. Adams looks like he could be a star. Nice shooting stroke. Gibbs wasn't as electric as I thought he would be but had 5 assists so happy with that and he looked like he was searching a little bit so he will play better. Loved what I saw overall from Calhoun I'd like to see KO run some screens for him. I was hoping Facey would do more with his minutes. Brimah, meh. He blocked some shots though and altered others. Purvis looked good driving to the hoop. Would love to see more of that. My biggest takeaway was that KO pressed most of the game. Mostly soft but it was interesting. Not sure if he was just trying it out or wants to play that way. Free throw shooting was awful. Hopefully that will improve.
It seemed to me our perimeter defense wasn't as good as usual but interior defense looked better. Nice tune up though.

The press would be an interesting turn of events. The 99 team did a lot of that "soft" press, just to run down the clock and make the opposing offense hurry more than they wanted.

 

[Kitaman]

Well, duh. They're incorporating 3 new faces, all of which are likely to play major roles on this team. To think there WOULDN'T be "a lot of work to do" would be foolish.

Actually you could add Omar to that group, although he knows the offensive/defensive schemes he still will need to be incorporated into the flow. It was strange seeing him play (but in a good way).

 

[Rico444]

The press would be an interesting turn of events. The 99 team did a lot of that "soft" press, just to run down the clock and make the opposing offense hurry more than they wanted.

The soft press is interesting with the new shot clock; you could be looking at teams getting set with 15 second left on the clock. Makes things a lot more difficult.

 

[nomar]

I finally got around to watching it.

Miller looked great. Brimah looked terrible. I hope he was playing with mono or something because there's no way he should have looked that bad against a D2 team. I had assumed people were exaggerating.

The rest of the team looked promising. They'll click at some point. There's too much talent.

I liked how Wayne would literally let minutes go by without speaking a word.

Finally, maybe I missed it, but did Joe ever say "Bacon is sizzling!"? If not, he gets an F.

 

[ktuck911]

My favorite lineup this year will be Adams, Gibbs, Purvis, Hamilton, and Miller.

Hope we don't have to do that too often... We'll hardly get any rebounds...

 

[JimHurley]

Hope we don't have to do that too often... We'll hardly get any rebounds...

Huh? Adams proved he can be a good rebounding guard and Miller + Hamilton are the best 2 rebounders on the team.

 

[Excalibur]

The press would be an interesting turn of events. The 99 team did a lot of that "soft" press, just to run down the clock and make the opposing offense hurry more than they wanted.

The benefit of using a soft press to burn the shot clock is much greater this year.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Hope we don't have to do that too often... We'll hardly get any rebounds...

That's our starting lineup, with Adams in and Brimah out.

You're going to lose something in that swap, but it isn't rebounding.

 

[JimHurley]

That's our starting lineup, with Adams in and Brimah out.

You're going to lose something in that swap, but it isn't rebounding.

Exactly. With Adams on the floor, we have our traditional 3 guard lineup with Dham at the stretch 4 and Miller in the middle.

 

[jibsey]

My favorite lineup this year will be Adams, Gibbs, Purvis, Hamilton, and Miller.

I bet this will be the closeout crunch time end of game lineup. If Brimah is in who comes out? Not Miller.

 

[bear]

Huh? Adams proved he can be a good rebounding guard and Miller + Hamilton are the best 2 rebounders on the team.

6 rebounds in an exhibition game = good rebounding guard. Hot take.

 

[Yankees32123]

6 rebounds in an exhibition game = good rebounding guard. Hot take.

I see what you mean but I think Adams can be the type of rebounding guard that starts the fast break like Bazz.

 

[Stainmaster]

Let's see Adams grab some boards against DI teams before going down this road.