LJ Peak top 5...

[champs99and04]

3rd best player? WTF?

It baffles me that you guys view this as some kind of insult. AJ was a really good player and enginerred one of the most balanced offensive attacks in UConn history. He was an extension of Calhoun on the court, a superb leader and role model, and one of the toughest kids to ever grace the program. But I'm sorry, since when is it ground-breaking to prefer a kid like Adrien? The dude averaged a double double, shot 50% from the floor, and served as the heart and sole of the team alongside AJ, ultimately proving just as valuable in overcoming the brief down-spell of 2006/7.

 

[Burnsbros23]

One thing I'd like to get people's opinion on is: Is it a coincidence that his drop in the rankings coincided with his move from a school in Chicago playing with kids like Jahlil Okafor to a school in South Carolina? If you look at his AAU stats with CP3 he is shooting over .500 from the floor and over .600 from 3 (with a decent amount of shots). I feel like the school you play for ends up being more important than how well you're actually playing for a lot of these rankings.

he is shooting 25 percent from 3 in the eybl. He is a better shooter than that but dk where you got 60 percent from.

 

[champs99and04]

AJ Price was the best player on a final four team. Michigan State game plan was to take him out of the game and that team could not function without AJ running the show. He was one of the top few floor generals that UConn has had during the Calhoun era. He used to shred zone defenses and knew how to get the ball to his teammates where they could get easy baskets. This little bit of revisionist history (that he wasn't really that good) is by no means a consensus on the Boneyard. By the end of his UConn career, he had grown into a mature leader and the "go to" player on a Final Four team.

I think the real revisionist history is the one remembering MSU's gameplan, and not a 5 for 20 shooting performance from our apparent best player, as the reason for our downfall in that game. Thabeet and Adrien, the two we're all apparently so quick to discount, combined for 30 points and 20 rebounds. I'm a bit confused as to why this is supposed to illustrate how good AJ was, but ok. If you're argument is that AJ was the most irreplaceable player on that team, then I would agree, but that doesn't necessarily make him the best.

What made the 09 team so good, in my opinion, was the formidable frontcourt play. Adrien was the rarest of commodities in this day and age of college basketball - a hulking power forward with a 7'2 wingspan who could protect the rim, hit the occasional twelve footer, and outright intimidate the opposition. I don't think we should discount how crucial Adrien was to those teams.

As for Thabeet, I wasn't aware that people were still arguing he wasn't the undisputed best player on that team, given he was the most dominant player in college basketball and primarily responsible for our dominance. I mean, do we really need to re-visit the unquanitfiable value of having a 7'3 mammoth of a human being patrolling the paint who can block four shots a game and alter ten more? And it isn't as if he was a slouch offensively - he averaged 14 a game on 64% shooting and converted from the line at a respectable rate for a center. Oh yeah, and he also grabbed eleven rebounds a game - there's a reason he was consensus all-American.

Look - AJ Price was one of my favorite players to ever wear the UConn jersey, and I'm not trying to diminish his accomplishments in the least bit. But what made the 09 team so good was the outrageous length and athleticism we could throw at you at the three, four, and five positions. If you think Price was better than Thabeet or Adrien, fine - but it's a slap in the face to Adrien and Thabeet to act like my statement is so absurd.

 

[James]

We have at least 4 maybe 5 more scholarship openings for 2014. You don't think 1 out of 4/5 should be used on a stud wing?

I recant what I said previously to a certain extent. These elite level tweeners will see the writing on the wall, maybe an under the radar wing falls to us. what makes sense is nabbing a feature player on the block or in the paint, and a playmaking 1(this is a position that can come in and start pronto. OC is proven Samuels isn't.) then coupling that with role players who need time to grow but have high ceilings(lower * prospects).

 

[Dogbreath2U]

I think the real revisionist history is the one remembering MSU's gameplan, and not a 5 for 20 shooting performance from our apparent best player, as the reason for our downfall in that game. Thabeet and Adrien, the two we're all apparently so quick to discount, combined for 30 points and 20 rebounds. I'm a bit confused as to why this is supposed to illustrate how good AJ was, but ok. If you're argument is that AJ was the most irreplaceable player on that team, then I would agree, but that doesn't necessarily make him the best.

What made the 09 team so good, in my opinion, was the formidable frontcourt play. Adrien was the rarest of commodities in this day and age of college basketball - a hulking power forward with a 7'2 wingspan who could protect the rim, hit the occasional twelve footer, and outright intimidate the opposition. I don't think we should discount how crucial Adrien was to those teams.

As for Thabeet, I wasn't aware that people were still arguing he wasn't the undisputed best player on that team, given he was the most dominant player in college basketball and primarily responsible for our dominance. I mean, do we really need to re-visit the unquanitfiable value of having a 7'3 mammoth of a human being patrolling the paint who can block four shots a game and alter ten more? And it isn't as if he was a slouch offensively - he averaged 14 a game on 64% shooting and converted from the line at a respectable rate for a center. Oh yeah, and he also grabbed eleven rebounds a game - there's a reason he was consensus all-American.

Look - AJ Price was one of my favorite players to ever wear the UConn jersey, and I'm not trying to diminish his accomplishments in the least bit. But what made the 09 team so good was the outrageous length and athleticism we could throw at you at the three, four, and five positions. If you think Price was better than Thabeet or Adrien, fine - but it's a slap in the face to Adrien and Thabeet to act like my statement is so absurd.

My point was not to suggest that other opinions were absurd, but to question the assumption that people agreed that AJ was not really that good and maybe the third best player. Every great UConn team has had one or two players who had great all around games and who made things happen in crunchtime. The "Go To" guy who had the magic to be their best in the big spots. Khalid/Rip, Emeka/Ben, Kemba/Lamb (mostly Kemba/Kemba). In my opinion, the '99 team had players who had great strengths, but lacked the all around game. I too am a fan of Adrien and Thabeet, but each of their games had significant limitations that luckily complimented each other well. The same with Stanley, Austrie, and Kemba as a freshman. AJ was the guy who held everything together for that team, was the "Go To" guy, and was a really smart player. He did not quite have the elite level athleticism, especially after his ACL tear, that limited his ceiling somewhat.

If I was responding to anyone, it was to formerlurker's posts that seemed to unduly underrate how good AJ was his last 2 seasons. He is entitled to his opinion

 

[upstater]

It baffles me that you guys view this as some kind of insult. AJ was a really good player and enginerred one of the most balanced offensive attacks in UConn history. He was an extension of Calhoun on the court, a superb leader and role model, and one of the toughest kids to ever grace the program. But I'm sorry, since when is it ground-breaking to prefer a kid like Adrien? The dude averaged a double double, shot 50% from the floor, and served as the heart and sole of the team alongside AJ, ultimately proving just as valuable in overcoming the brief down-spell of 2006/7.

AJ lead that team. There is no doubt he was the star of the team. Kid was unstoppable for a good part of the year, and he was largely the reason they even got to the F4. He had a lot of help defensively. But it was definitely AJ that was the big factor.

 

[Chin Diesel]

I'm going to tie the two parts of this thread together.

LJ- Come to Uconn. Why? Because the history and standards at Uconn are so high that if you are good enough to become a first team AA and national player of the year candidate one season and come back the next season to be the leading scorer on a FF team and regional MOP, your career will be debated as to how good your career really stacks up compared to a dozen other players. In other words being and AA and leading a team to a FF is the entry fee for greatness discussions at Uconn.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

I would rank the importance of the 2009 players as 1) Thabeet, 2) Price, 3) Adrien, but I don't think there's a huge gap between any of those three guys. Price was really, really good but I imagine every opposing coach in the country built their gameplan around how to deal with Hasheem.

 

[HuskyNationJE]

Starting lineup could be great with Purvis, LJ Peak and Hamilton at the 1, 2 and 3. 6'4, 6'5 and 6'6. Assuming Omar isn't there anymore, if not, Peak off the bench, then Hill, Looney or Obure at the 4 and Chukwu at the 5.

 

[Burnsbros23]

Hill is a 6'3 2 guard..... Don't think he will play the 4.

 

[aceboon]

Not sure what is revisionist about it, I'm pretty sure both Izzo and Calhoun used the term "cut the head off of the snake" after the game to describe the gameplan centered around taking AJ away. Our offense was centered around the high ball screen, not only did MSU put Travis Walton on him, one of the best perimeter defenders in the country that year, they jumped out on him on the high ball screen with a big every single time we ran it, smothering him on the perimeter. This was talked about during and after the game so there's nothing that's being revised. Also, while Hasheem was easily the best interior defender in CBB that year and his offense improved, calling him the most dominant player in CBB is quite the stretch. The most dominant player doesn't get gun butted like Hasheem did against DeJaun Blair that year.

I think the real revisionist history is the one remembering MSU's gameplan, and not a 5 for 20 shooting performance from our apparent best player, as the reason for our downfall in that game. Thabeet and Adrien, the two we're all apparently so quick to discount, combined for 30 points and 20 rebounds. I'm a bit confused as to why this is supposed to illustrate how good AJ was, but ok. If you're argument is that AJ was the most irreplaceable player on that team, then I would agree, but that doesn't necessarily make him the best.

What made the 09 team so good, in my opinion, was the formidable frontcourt play. Adrien was the rarest of commodities in this day and age of college basketball - a hulking power forward with a 7'2 wingspan who could protect the rim, hit the occasional twelve footer, and outright intimidate the opposition. I don't think we should discount how crucial Adrien was to those teams.

As for Thabeet, I wasn't aware that people were still arguing he wasn't the undisputed best player on that team, given he was the most dominant player in college basketball and primarily responsible for our dominance. I mean, do we really need to re-visit the unquanitfiable value of having a 7'3 mammoth of a human being patrolling the paint who can block four shots a game and alter ten more? And it isn't as if he was a slouch offensively - he averaged 14 a game on 64% shooting and converted from the line at a respectable rate for a center. Oh yeah, and he also grabbed eleven rebounds a game - there's a reason he was consensus all-American.

Look - AJ Price was one of my favorite players to ever wear the UConn jersey, and I'm not trying to diminish his accomplishments in the least bit. But what made the 09 team so good was the outrageous length and athleticism we could throw at you at the three, four, and five positions. If you think Price was better than Thabeet or Adrien, fine - but it's a slap in the face to Adrien and Thabeet to act like my statement is so absurd.

 

[bmayuc]

if Purvis is able to sucessfully transition to the 1 there's plenty of time available for another SG/SF, plus it would be nice to have depth again now that we have a full deck of scholarships to play with.

Sorry to play dreamer, but imagine this lineup:

PG Rodney Purvis 6'4
SG Calhoun 6'5
SF Daniel Hamilton 6'8
PF kentan Facey 6'9
C Pascal Chukwu 7'2

That is a BEAST lineup for 2014-15

Ok, taking off the rose colored glasses...

 

[upstater]

Sorry to play dreamer, but imagine this lineup:

PG Rodney Purvis 6'4
SG Calhoun 6'5
SF Daniel Hamilton 6'8
PF kentan Facey 6'9
C Pascal Chukwu 7'2

That is a BEAST lineup for 2014-15

Ok, taking off the rose colored glasses...

This is why I'd like to see us grab Chukwu.

Oubre, Abu, Black and Hill are great, icing on the cake. Chukwu may be even more crucial. Especially if you get a good kid coming off the bench like Carrington.

 

[mauconnfan]

I think the real revisionist history is the one remembering MSU's gameplan, and not a 5 for 20 shooting performance from our apparent best player, as the reason for our downfall in that game. Thabeet and Adrien, the two we're all apparently so quick to discount, combined for 30 points and 20 rebounds. I'm a bit confused as to why this is supposed to illustrate how good AJ was, but ok. If you're argument is that AJ was the most irreplaceable player on that team, then I would agree, but that doesn't necessarily make him the best.

What made the 09 team so good, in my opinion, was the formidable frontcourt play. Adrien was the rarest of commodities in this day and age of college basketball - a hulking power forward with a 7'2 wingspan who could protect the rim, hit the occasional twelve footer, and outright intimidate the opposition. I don't think we should discount how crucial Adrien was to those teams.

As for Thabeet, I wasn't aware that people were still arguing he wasn't the undisputed best player on that team, given he was the most dominant player in college basketball and primarily responsible for our dominance. I mean, do we really need to re-visit the unquanitfiable value of having a 7'3 mammoth of a human being patrolling the paint who can block four shots a game and alter ten more? And it isn't as if he was a slouch offensively - he averaged 14 a game on 64% shooting and converted from the line at a respectable rate for a center. Oh yeah, and he also grabbed eleven rebounds a game - there's a reason he was consensus all-American.

Look - AJ Price was one of my favorite players to ever wear the UConn jersey, and I'm not trying to diminish his accomplishments in the least bit. But what made the 09 team so good was the outrageous length and athleticism we could throw at you at the three, four, and five positions. If you think Price was better than Thabeet or Adrien, fine - but it's a slap in the face to Adrien and Thabeet to act like my statement is so absurd.

Seriously you think to compare AJ Price and Jeff Adrien is a slap in the face to Adrien? #1 this is a tough comparison considering the different positions but these guys were both integral parts of the Husky puzzle when they were there so anyone's argument is a good one. Not like it's not a toss up at worst?????

 

[tentoes4rings]

Sorry to play dreamer, but imagine this lineup:

PG Rodney Purvis 6'4
SG Calhoun 6'5
SF Daniel Hamilton 6'8
PF kentan Facey 6'9
C Pascal Chukwu 7'2

That is a BEAST lineup for 2014-15

Ok, taking off the rose colored glasses...

I agree 100%. Adding Chukwu to the other four would be pretty lethal. We'd be very long and athletic for sure.

 

[CTBasketball]

Chukwu is a must get, but he will be hardest to get in this class. He WILL blow up this summer, and then you'll have the Kentucky's, Duke's, and all those other garbage places trying to rip this kid away from us. He is ours to lose.

 

[caw]

Sorry to play dreamer, but imagine this lineup:

PG Rodney Purvis 6'4
SG Calhoun 6'5
SF Daniel Hamilton 6'7
PF kentan Facey 6'9
C Pascal Chukwu 7'2

That is a BEAST lineup for 2014-15

Ok, taking off the rose colored glasses...

Chukwu is the only uncommitted player listed. It's not that much of a dream. If you want to dream, dream of something like this:

PG Rodney Purvis 6'4, Terrence Samuel 6'3
SG Omar Calhoun 6'5, Ahmed Hill 6'4
SF Daniel Hamilton 6'7, Kelly Oubre 6'7 or LJ Peak 6'5
PF Kentan Facey 6'9, Philip Nolan 6'9, Leon Tolksdorf 6'8
C Pascal Chukwu 7'2, Amida Brimah 7'0

I would love at minimum, one more guard (Hill, Carrington, Vaughn, Francis, McLaughlin, Joseph), one SF (Oubre, Peak, Gant, Chatman, Robinson) and one big (Chukwu, Black, Abu, Turner).

If UConn walks away from 2014 with one from each category above plus Hamilton and Purvis, 2014-2015 will be stacked with young talent. This is the "worst case" scenario, which would still be pretty awesome. "worse case" is based on what I assume the above listed rankings will be by end of summer.

PG Rodney Purvis 6'4, Terrence Samuel 6'3
SG Omar Calhoun 6'5, Khadeen Carrington 6'3
SF Daniel Hamilton 6'7, Kameron Chatman 6'8
PF Kentan Facey 6'9, Myles Turner 6'11, Leon Tolksdorf 6'8
C Philip Nolan 6'9, Amida Brimah 7'0

 

[OkaForPrez]

What is Amida's ceiling? We seem to dismiss him around here because he is a 3 star and a late riser. Why shouldn't I expect Thabeet like growth out of him?

 

[caw]

Chukwu is a must get, but he will be hardest to get in this class. He WILL blow up this summer, and then you'll have the Kentucky's, Duke's, and all those other garbage places trying to rip this kid away from us. He is ours to lose.

I disagree with almost all of this.

Chukwu would be a fantastic get but if the rotation of bigs at UConn is Facey, Black, Nolan, Brimah and Tolksdorf in 2014-2015 UConn will be fine. I do think a high quality big is a must get, but not necessarily Chukwu.

Black, Hill, Vaughn, McLaughlin and others will be just as hard or harder to get than Chukwu.

 

[caw]

What is Amida's ceiling? We seem to dismiss him around here because he is a 3 star and a late riser. Why shouldn't I expect Thabeet like growth out of him?

He's athletic, but is really skinny. Thabeet had a wider frame than Amida does. Amida could be really good by his junior year, but he's got a long way to go, especially in the weight room.

 

[champs99and04]

I would rank the importance of the 2009 players as 1) Thabeet, 2) Price, 3) Adrien, but I don't think there's a huge gap between any of those three guys. Price was really, really good but I imagine every opposing coach in the country built their gameplan around how to deal with Hasheem.

This is basically how I see it, though I have Adrien and Price flipped. AJ Price was extremely good and, IMO, the most important player to the 2009 team due to the way the roster was constructed. But you're right: there were about a dozen other guards in the country similar to Price (not as good, but similar), whereas nobody could replicate a towering shot-blocking machine in the middle of the lane.

 

[champs99and04]

Not sure what is revisionist about it, I'm pretty sure both Izzo and Calhoun used the term "cut the head off of the snake" after the game to describe the gameplan centered around taking AJ away. Our offense was centered around the high ball screen, not only did MSU put Travis Walton on him, one of the best perimeter defenders in the country that year, they jumped out on him on the high ball screen with a big every single time we ran it, smothering him on the perimeter. This was talked about during and after the game so there's nothing that's being revised. Also, while Hasheem was easily the best interior defender in CBB that year and his offense improved, calling him the most dominant player in CBB is quite the stretch. The most dominant player doesn't get gun butted like Hasheem did against DeJaun Blair that year.

I wasn't disputing the fact MSU constructed their gameplan around stopping AJ, I just didn't think that was why we lost the game. I think we lost the game because of the following four reasons, in no particular order:

1. MSU had a rare commodity in Goran Suton, somebody who shot 44% from three point range and had the ability to stretch the defense. This largely negated Hasheem's impact on the game defensively as he was forced to roam the perimeter rather than enforce the paint. Note: Hasheem's dominance was predicated on the lack of a three second rule in college basketball - if you forced him to adapt and guard the perimeter, UConn's defense was vulnerable. That's why MSU was unusually efficient against a generally stingy UConn defense, IMO.

2. Kemba played one of the worst games of his career, turning the ball over four times in 20 minutes, shooting 1 for 5 from the field, and 3 for 9 from the line. This touches on your main point, which is that MSU made a concerted effort to force the ball out of AJ's hands and into a more unproven floor general in Kemba. Clearly, Izzo bet correctly in this regard.

3. UConn struggled to adapt to MSU's defensive gameplan. Price forced the issue a bit, recording one of the worst shooting performances of his career (5 for 20). UConn also turned the ball over 16 times, which, unfortunately, unveiled the achilles heel of that team, which was the inability of their guards sans AJ to consistently create offense and protect the ball. Kemba wasn't suited to shoulder the burden at the PG position in a game of that magnitude, and Craig Austrie was more of a steadying presence than somebody who could be relied on to create.

4. Detroit - I was there, and it was the loudest sporting event I have ever been apart of. There comes a time, as a visitor, when there's really nothing to do. The energy from the crowd transitioned flawlessly to the players, to the point I half expected players on MSU to start flying up and down the court. The Summers dunk damn near brought down the roof, and from that point there was no way the Spartans were losing.

So, while it's clear AJ was the architect of the offense and player we could least afford to lose that season, the identity of that team was cultivated in the paint. Sure, Thabeet struggled mightily against DeJuan Blair, which looking back, should have served as a warning sign for what was about to become of his pro career. And yeah, Adrien was limited offensively, but for most schools playing that UConn squad had to have been like playing the bad boy Pistons. They were one of the last old-school college basketball teams - they overwhelmed you physically, kicked your a** in the paint, and suffocated you with their length and athleticism. Give that frontcourt to any decent college coach and it's difficult to not win a load of games.

 

[champs99and04]

Seriously you think to compare AJ Price and Jeff Adrien is a slap in the face to Adrien? #1 this is a tough comparison considering the different positions but these guys were both integral parts of the Husky puzzle when they were there so anyone's argument is a good one. Not like it's not a toss up at worst?????

You're mis-understanding: I said Adrien and Price were extremely close in terms of importance, and that it was a slap in the face to Adrien to act like Price was significantly better.

 

[superjohn]

What some of you seem to forget is that team couldn't score and had a hell of a time dribbling, AJ had to be the scorer, facilitator and was the only really good ball handler. Without him it would have been Austrie and Garrison in the backcourt. As good as Thabeet and Adrien were, AJ was by far the most important player on that final 4 team. With that said let's get back to talking about LJ Peak, hate it when these threads get hijacked.

 

[SeattleHoop]

PG Rodney Purvis 6'4, Terrence Samuel 6'3
SG Omar Calhoun 6'5, Khadeen Carrington 6'3
SF Daniel Hamilton 6'7, Kameron Chatman 6'8
PF Kentan Facey 6'9, Myles Turner 6'11, Leon Tolksdorf 6'8
C Philip Nolan 6'9, Amida Brimah 7'0

That Myles Turner kid seems severely underrated. Been watching some vids of him. Moves better than of the other big men we are going after though he is thinner. Still, he is almost 7 feet tall with a nice bounce and quick feet. Can knock down the mid range and long range J. And can even put it on the floor when under pressure. Would be a huge get in my opinion. On tape he looks like he could be better than Black or Abu.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaIFtcsEVbw