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Message: [QUOTE="Chin Diesel, post: 4114978, member: 34"] I watched the game yesterday and then Thanksgiving festivities took over. On these two points above. Martin marvelously showed his strengths yesterday. The steal, tip dunk play. He had another breakaway for a dunk and a fantastic one handed dunk off an offensive rebound. He missed a 3 from the wing but he was squared up and it was a good shot. Going back to win against Auburn, he was great in the post and brutalized the smaller players Auburn tried to use to defend him. Martin also showed us same weaknesses from last year against better teams. He missed 2-3 layups at the rim. He had 4 turnovers all of which occurred with him trying to be a playmaker. I want Martin as a finisher and not a facilitator. If he dribbles more than once, bad things happen. UConn's guards are small, not tight with the ball and can't break down their man one on one. Cole has been great so far this year shooting and scoring without having to always be running the point. Look at every game UConn has won the opening tip. Jackson brings the ball up and runs the offense. Cole can get in to the lane and finish against the cupcakes UConn played earlier in the year but he struggles on the floaters and runners against better teams. And he gets eaten up trying to drive and finish against better teams. Gaffney has been a complete failure this year. Any hope I and others had for being a solid back up have not materialized in the two games against high level competition. Yes, Gaff and Cole played real well together in a couple of the cupcake wins, but Gaff has been so far over his head against Auburn and Mich St, he has put way too much burden on Cole. It's a self-defeating cycle. Put me in the camp of giving Sool some burn today if Gaff is ineffective. Coach has to send a clear message to players that performance matters. Like many I haven't been enthralled with UConn's end of game offensive sets and I do put much of the blame on the staff. They have to have 3-4 core plays they can run over and over to get a look for someone other than Sanogo isolated in the post. Do I think Hurley's end of game coaching would seem better with Bazz, Kemba, AJ Price, Marcus Williams, Scheffer or Smitty at the point? Sure. But he doesn't have that luxury; he does have plenty of other options and he needs to develop them. [/QUOTE]

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