KO & JC Discuss "Championship Hangover"

[ConnHuskBask]

You're not very good with nuance.

Haha Pudge keeping our beef alive. Very cute.

 

[David 76]

Agree on defense. Disagree on offense. We saw them play together last year. Then it was lots of fouls and very little offense. They will improve but I don't think they will be unrecognizable.
If you get very little offensive production from 2 spots (C & PF) you are going to need a ton from your 1, 2 & 3, Makes me nervous.
We will see how it works out but I'm thinking Brimah will be the best big and Facey will be our best PF

 

[David 76]

I'm hoping our go to guy will be Purvis with a chance of Hamilton. I love Boat, but if he is running our offense, playing the outstanding defense we saw him play and being the "go to guy", I think we are in trouble.
Boat will win his share of games for us and contribute every night. But he has tools to use at the wings and I think that is his primary job. Not playing the way he did 2 years ago.

 

[champs99and04]

Based on what? I'm not being snarky, but this is a pretty lightly-regarded kid who's going to be undersized at his position. There's really no body of work that justifies these outsize expectations. There was somebody on here last month talking about he's Charles Oakley with better intangibles, whatever that means, and he's off to the NBA after three years.

Maybe Lubin will step in right away and be Jeff Adrien as a freshman, but Jeff brought a much bigger rep with him than Lubin does. I just don't see where all the Lubin hype is coming from.

I agree with this. I trust Ollie's eye for talent, and I won't pretend to have any sort of informed opinion on Lubin's game. But I don't expect the kid to contribute much this year - he's probably behind Facey, Nolan, and Brimah on the depth chart, and unless you're a big time talent, you're probably not going to play much as a freshman at a program like UConn. Of course, I've been wrong before, I just hope expectations aren't too high.

 

[champs99and04]

I agree with you in principle, and won't mind seeing those two on the court at the same time. I'd counter with potential foul trouble situations though. Even with improvement in Nolan/Brimah, I expect them to still get in some foul trouble, and realistically, those are the only two guys who can play the 5. So I'd be hesitant to go Nolan/Brimah as the main combo full time.

Yeah, foul trouble is probably what will prevent the Brimah/Nolan pairing from seeing any significant run. Unless Facey or Lubin can play center - which seems unlikely - those two are really our only options at center, and both had high foul rates a year ago. It's not even like we can plug in Giffey at center this year for pinches. We need those two to stay on the court.

 

[David 76]

Yeah, foul trouble is probably what will prevent the Brimah/Nolan pairing from seeing any significant run. Unless Facey or Lubin can play center - which seems unlikely - those two are really our only options at center, and both had high foul rates a year ago. It's not even like we can plug in Giffey at center this year for pinches. We need those two to stay on the court.

Can't even plug in Tyler