Key to season--Phil Nolan

[Dogbreath2U]

I would not be surprised to see it take some time for the minutes at the 5 to become stable. Let them fight it out and show what they can do during games. The reports about Tyler being the best big during practices be a lot last year was surprising to hear, but it did not translate to games. If his slowness was due to the foot problem more than his having put on some more weight, then perhaps he will be more of an effective player at the 5. I do not expect that to happen, but it will be good for the team if he has a good senior year.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Isn't the premise of the OP like saying AO was the key yo 2011
Kemba was the key to 2011 and Bazz is the key to next year.
His health is critical. How much his play can elevate players like Nolan remains to be seen.

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[champs99and04]

Isn't the premise of the OP like saying AO was the key yo 2011
Kemba was the key to 2011 and Bazz is the key to next year.
His health is critical. How much his play can elevate players like Nolan remains to be seen.

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That's not the point, though. When I think of "key" or "x-factor", I generally think of players who have large degrees of variance in their night to night production. We all know Napier is going to be a stud next season, and at the very least, Daniels, Calhoun, and Boatright will be very good, and Kromah and Giffey will be great in their role. Phil is a complete unknown - he could continue to build on the momentum he generated in the latter stages of last season, or he could return to being the non-entity he was for the majority of the year. Oriakhi certainly fit the bill as a "key" in 2011 - when he was great, the team was great. Kemba was great almost every night, but we knew if Oriakhi showed up we were going to be tough to beat. Same deal this year.

 

[mauconnfan]

As for TO and the various opinions, I prefer to look at the ND game and think there has to be something there. I realize ND was overrated but still the kid produced a very nice game and showed he could make a shot, play a little back to the basket and rebound it a little. No reason not to think we can't have some piece of that in smaller versions this year!

 

[scrappy2.0]

Isn't the premise of the OP like saying AO was the key yo 2011
Kemba was the key to 2011 and Bazz is the key to next year.
His health is critical. How much his play can elevate players like Nolan remains to be seen.

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Different games and body types--AO and Phil but along the same lines. I know what Im going to get from Shabazz Boat Calhoun DD. The key is Nolan. Don't fool yourself---AO was a VERY important cog on our NC run. Kemba was able to do his magic because the other parts of the boat were taken care of. Now Nolan is not AO(and a Nolan Wolfe combo wouldve been best) but what Nolan can do is go out and run the floor hard get easy baskets D up and grab rebounds at both ends. Hes better up the floor than AO--really a different guy he does not have AOs NBA ready body. But hes just as important to this team as AO back 3 years ago.

 

[FeedTheDove]

Really don't think any one player will be the key to next season.

We know what we will get with Olander; bashing him is pointless. He was never meant to play big minutes at the 5. I just hope he plays with toughness.

Phil is a wild card at this point. I think many on here are expecting too much of him. I hope he makes me eat my own words obviously, but I don't see how one can conclude hes going to have a breakout year after watching him play last year. In time, I agree he'll be solid... But don't be disappointed if he doesn't make a huge jump this year..

I'm expecting pretty solid (freshman) play from K Face. I honestly cant wait to see him play and see if he can surprise any of us on the offensive end.

I've been loving what I've been hearing about Brimah on twitter and whatnot. If he gets some playing time I'm expecting him to be the hardest working guy on the floor.

The real key is how well these four will work together to give us a decent frontcourt on a consistent basis with tough defense and rebounding. If Olander is playing awful, one or two guys needs to step up, and the same for any one else (not just picking on Ty.)

All that being said I'm as excited as any other season for this one to start.

P.S. DeAndre has been working his a** off this off season. Not sure if his weight will be where everyone wanted it to be but make no mistake, he's truly dedicated. His tweets lately have been awesome!!!!

 

[tcf15]

I don't really want to start new threads off of tweets, so I am just digging up old, relevant threads. Here's an update from AMore on Nolan:

Dom Amore‏@AmoreCourant​

Phil Nolan is up to 216 lbs, says he grew to 6-10. "if I can get to 225 I can do some special things ... I'm ready" #uconnmen

 

[arnie3]

If you look at last years minutes you get:

SN-37
RB-36
OC-32
DD-29
NG-21
TO-22
EW-14 (22 GAMES)
PN-11 (23 GAMES)
LT-7 (11 GAMES)

The top 5 had 155 of the allotted 200 minutes. That will change somewhat, but as long as they stay healthy they're on the floor this year. That makes them the "keys". I think that what this thread is mixing up is the difference between key and "x-factor". I'm hopeful that SN & RB's minutes go down because last year there was no post season. I'm hopeful that they'll be ready to play 40 games this year!

 

[mauconnfan]

He is a key.............if he is stronger and better then so will the Huskies. If we see more of the last 6-7 games and maybe he even gets more confident I think Phil can eventually be something special!!

 

[tentoes4rings]

I hope Niels averages 20ppg and 12rpg with 5apg and he gets taken in the lottery.

Didn't you get the memo stating Niels will be taken #1, ahead of Andrew Wiggins?

 

[scrappy2.0]

Nolan is going to have to play the Amare Stoudemire 5(obviously hes not amare but he needs to play the uptempo up and down C who gets the easy points in the open system we should play very fast tempo will be key and Nolan is going to thrive in the up tempo we will see a significant pick up in his game--but we will miss Wolf eventually when someone slows us down and gets us to the halfcourt

 

[Danzz]

We will be outrebounded by good teams just like last year. Nolan just has to be good enough to keep us from being overwhelmed on the boards.

 

[Scot-e]

Our last NC team was not exactly a rebounding machine. If we can hold other teams from simply killing us in the paint we can compete and beat many teams everywhere else on the court. The magic number would be keeping teams under 20 points from there bigs. Anything can happen in March as we have learned.