Karaban Has Passing Skills | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Karaban Has Passing Skills

We look so much better when he’s on the floor. Very “old” freshman; redshirting with a veteran team last year and playing against the best high school competition. High IQ player.
To think Karaban might stick around for four years sounds yummy.
 
During the BU game I was thinking that Karaban just looks like he knows what he's doing. I don't know how to describe it other than that. I think he might just be scratching the surface here so far.
 
As a rabid Karaban fan, it annoys me to have him get lesser stats than he earns on the court. Not sure I understand why the box scores for the BU game are different at CBS website vs Huskies website, and which stats will be 'official' for Karaban's career. I would have thought there would be 1 source for this stuff. In the post game presser Hurley read Karaban's line and said 2 RBs and that we need more than that from him on the boards. The CBS website says 2 RBs. The Huskies website says 2 offensive and 2 defensive rebounds for a total of 4. Both websites say 4 assists. The highlight clip posted in another thread clearly has 5 assists highlighted. Rewatching the game there were 3 offensive and a defensive rebound = 4 RB.

first Half
@14:13 Offensive Rebound Karaban put back for 2 and was fouled
@12:35 Offensive Rebound with assist pass underneath to Clingan for a jam
second half
@19:27 Entry assist to Sanogo
@16:19 Defensive RB
@12:45 Assist to Sanogo
@ 6:46 Assist to Sanogo
@ 5:35 Offensive Rebound assist to Newton for a 3

@Ricker for official scorer!
 
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6 of 9 FT's is higher than the team average - which is barely over 60%. Any many of those made free throws rattled around and fell thru.

They just don't look smooth and confident at the line. Hope it turns around. UCONN's 2014 run was at least in part due to the fact that they were near perfect at the line in crunch time. In that run John Calipari was asked why he didn't foul when trailing by a few points late in the game - "because they never miss"
I think our foul shooting will be fine, and probably better than fine. Here is how our current players are shooting, compared to last year:

Newton: 10-14 (71.4%), 87.9% last year
Diarra: 3-8 (37.5%), 73.0% last year
Calcaterra: 2-4 (50%), 86.8% last year
Alleyne: 0-0 (!), 85.2% last year, I like him, he’s just taking 3 and D a bit too literally
Sanogo: 4-6 (66.7%), 68.6% last year
Karaban: 6-9 (66.7%), reputation and eye test say he’ll exceed this
Clingan: 5-8 (62.5%), form looks fine

Injured guys:
Hawkins: 82.1% last year
Jackson: 71.4% last year

After looking at that, I think free throw shooting will be a strength of ours. Sanago and Clingan in the 60s would bring the team percentage down a bit because they’ll be at the line so often. In terms of late-game situations, I’ll feel great about most of our guards being at the line.
 
I think our foul shooting will be fine, and probably better than fine. Here is how our current players are shooting, compared to last year:

Newton: 10-14 (71.4%), 87.9% last year
Diarra: 3-8 (37.5%), 73.0% last year
Calcaterra: 2-4 (50%), 86.8% last year
Alleyne: 0-0 (!), 85.2% last year, I like him, he’s just taking 3 and D a bit too literally
Sanogo: 4-6 (66.7%), 68.6% last year
Karaban: 6-9 (66.7%), reputation and eye test say he’ll exceed this
Clingan: 5-8 (62.5%), form looks fine

Injured guys:
Hawkins: 82.1% last year
Jackson: 71.4% last year

After looking at that, I think free throw shooting will be a strength of ours. Sanago and Clingan in the 60s would bring the team percentage down a bit because they’ll be at the line so often. In terms of late-game situations, I’ll feel great about most of our guards being at the line.
Nothing like an ultra-small 2-game sample to get fans riled up about something that will likely be a non-issue.

After Stonehill the BY lamentations were all about about us shooting the 3 poorly (5/24)

After Northeastern (10/21), now we’re gonna be unstoppable.
 
The other thing I have liked so far is Karaban doesn't hold the ball when he gets the ball at the high post or FT line. He catches and knows where to move it to next which keeps the defense off balance and out of position. He is the proverbial SU 2-3 zone killer you want.
 
The other thing I have liked so far is Karaban doesn't hold the ball when he gets the ball at the high post or FT line. He catches and knows where to move it to next which keeps the defense off balance and out of position. He is the proverbial SU 2-3 zone killer you want.
And he does that without turning the ball over. Sometimes when you make really quick decisions like that you do something that leads to a turnover. Karaban has a good sense of what he is going to do with the ball before it gets to him.
 
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And he does that without turning the ball over. Sometimes when you make really quick decisions like that you do something that leads to a turnover. Karaban has a good sense of what he is going to do with the ball before it gets to him.
One AK pass that caught my attention the other night was to DC .. AK was on the left baseline extended and DC with a mismatch on the right side of the baseline. Two things impressed me.. The speed and vision of AK to see/make the play.. And DC's ability to catch a fairly quick pass and convert with a dunk.. They have a nice rapport on the court and it will pay dividends while they are in Storrs.
 
Agree with the above especially with his anticipation both on the offensive and defensive end.

He has big time basketball high IQ, and game experience will only magnify his skillset.
I have to imagine him being here an extra 6 months, basically half a red shirt year, has helped him be very familiar with the offense relative to the new guys and transfers.

I’m sure he’s a bright kid too
 
I’m sure he’s a bright kid too
Yes, he is. Had offers from Harvard and Stanford. To this day I'm surprised he didn't go to Stanford. His parents are very much about education and I figured the combination of academics and athletics at Stanford were too much to ignore. But in the end the family thought it was more important to be closer to home.
 
Yes, he is. Had offers from Harvard and Stanford. To this day I'm surprised he didn't go to Stanford. His parents are very much about education and I figured the combination of academics and athletics at Stanford were too much to ignore. But in the end the family thought it was more important to be closer to home.
Pretty sure it came down to us, Penn St, and Northwestern.
 
Pretty sure it came down to us, Penn St, and Northwestern.
This is from an article when he committed to UConn. But I think you're right since he took officials to Penn St. and Northwestern. If I see him again I'll ask why he committed to UConn, even though he's said in interviews why a few times. Maybe he'll tell me more. He lives like a mile from my house but now that he's at UConn he won't be home very often.

The 6-foot-7, 190-pound power forward from New Hampton (NH) School and the Expressions Elite AAU Program, chose UConn over offers from Northwestern, Penn State, Boston College, Bryant, Creighton, DePaul, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Harvard, Indiana, Iowa, Iowa State, LSU, Marquette, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, U Penn, Providence, Purdue, Stanford, Virginia Tech and Xavier, among others.
 
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Yes, he is. Had offers from Harvard and Stanford. To this day I'm surprised he didn't go to Stanford. His parents are very much about education and I figured the combination of academics and athletics at Stanford were too much to ignore. But in the end the family thought it was more important to be closer to home.
Stanford is a great school but he's a basketball player and their basketball program pretty much sucks. He chose UConn over them and every other school who recruited him because UConn is the best basketball school.
 
Stanford is a great school but he's a basketball player and their basketball program pretty much sucks. He chose UConn over them and every other school who recruited him because UConn is the best basketball school.
Their coach is also on the hot seat. He recruits but doesn’t win, Pejas son will probably be back on the market after the season.
 
Stanford is a great school but he's a basketball player and their basketball program pretty much sucks. He chose UConn over them and every other school who recruited him because UConn is the best basketball school.

His earning potential is much higher at the best basketball program. Yeah he could go to Stanford and get a degree and make pretty solid money... but the chances of making 10s of millions is low. It is MUCH higher if he goes to the best basketball school that get him in the league.
 
The other thing I have liked so far is Karaban doesn't hold the ball when he gets the ball at the high post or FT line. He catches and knows where to move it to next which keeps the defense off balance and out of position. He is the proverbial SU 2-3 zone killer you want.
I cannot like this enough. The nose-picker will be digging deep...
 
On a serious note, I haven't feel as good about someone sitting at the FT line when the opposition goes Zone since probably at least Daniel Hamilton. Karaban looked very at ease collecting the ball, turning strong, and both going at the rim hard or playing High/Low with DC & Sanogo. Some players just have that feel and combo of skills to thrive there, and its very much innate. You can tell AK is going to feast in that spot, and what a feeling it is to have that guy.

**bonus - DC is going to be a kickout beast in his career. You can also tell he has great passing feel/vision and when teams necessarily collapse on him he's going to be able to find shooters.

Passing! what a skill
 
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Two games. Small sample size.

Karaban passing from top of the key to Sanogo and Clingan and passing from the FT line to the post or the wing.


Spot on.


Great timing, touch, angle, loft, etc.

His feel for the game and ability to find soft spot of the defense has been real good so far.
I believe that he is gonna be a special Husky player by the time he is done here.
 
His earning potential is much higher at the best basketball program. Yeah he could go to Stanford and get a degree and make pretty solid money... but the chances of making 10s of millions is low. It is MUCH higher if he goes to the best basketball school that get him in the league.
Stanford has been recruiting really well in the past few years. Curious what’s going on with that
 
I think Karaban is a better shooter than Henefeld was.
Wait. What are you basing that on? Because AK, whose game I absolutely love, has played exactly TWO college basketball games. Henefeld shot 38% on threes and 48% overall in his one season. While Karaban could certainly best those percentages, we have no idea at this point if he is a better shooter than Nadav was.
 
Stanford has been recruiting really well in the past few years. Curious what’s going on with that

I have 0 clue, but my guess would be the stellar education without having to pay for it (like Ivies) is a pretty sweet gig. Better basketball too.
 
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