Malachi Smith commits to UConn | Page 9 | The Boneyard

Malachi Smith commits to UConn

But he’s not that athletic. It’s not really a secret - it hurts him when he tries to finish around the rim. Just not very good at it.

But he’s a terrific passer and he can shoot. Like a poor man’s Shabazz.
Can he pull up from midrange on a drive? He doesn’t need to finish at the rim if he can create and supposedly that’s his strength.
 
Smith is a solid portal get considering that they just landed Silas Demary Jr. They were not going to land another top level lead guard after landing Silas. Malachi wanted to come here and showed enough that he has the work ethic and experience to give the team some solid backup minutes at the 1. As long as he can handle and pass, and is physically and mentally tough to defend and handle on the ball pressure, he'll be a nice fit.

I know some are a bit concerned about him not being a plus athlete, but I seem to remember a pretty good one, in Bazz, who fit this description that did just fine as a backup and starter.
 
There will be news soon about another name on the center depth chart.
Waiting GIF
 
Smith is a solid portal get considering that they just landed Silas Demary Jr. They were not going to land another top level lead guard after landing Silas. Malachi wanted to come here and showed enough that he has the work ethic and experience to give the team some solid backup minutes at the 1. As long as he can handle and pass, and is physically and mentally tough to defend and handle on the ball pressure, he'll be a nice fit.

I know some are a bit concerned about him not being a plus athlete, but I seem to remember a pretty good one, in Bazz, who fit this description that did just fine as a backup and starter.
Bazz is my fav UConn player of all time and it’s a difficult decision to make but he was listed around 6’ right?
 
Can he pull up from midrange on a drive? He doesn’t need to finish at the rim if he can create and supposedly that’s his strength.
Shooting off the dribble is a definite weakness, but hopefully he can find a little go to floater or something he gets comfortable with. He’s as good as it gets at spotting up and shooting - and he’s a great passer. When he drives, i imagine the scouting report will be to play him to pass and give him shots, so he’ll need a counter.
 
He's never been a fan of Tarris. He said he didn't like the pickup last season and it was a point of contention for him all season with UConn fans. He's probably needling Husky fans a bit with it at this point.
To be fair to Greg, he does love Reibe. It’s not a UConn beef, it’s a Michigan thing he can’t let go of.
 
Smith is a solid portal get considering that they just landed Silas Demary Jr. They were not going to land another top level lead guard after landing Silas. Malachi wanted to come here and showed enough that he has the work ethic and experience to give the team some solid backup minutes at the 1. As long as he can handle and pass, and is physically and mentally tough to defend and handle on the ball pressure, he'll be a nice fit.

I know some are a bit concerned about him not being a plus athlete, but I seem to remember a pretty good one, in Bazz, who fit this description that did just fine as a backup and starter.
Yeah people may be overly critical of Smith. He fits what we need as a PG off the bench.

Great ballhandler and playmaker with the ability to make some shots. We’ll have a lot of mouths to feed on this team. Needed a guy that can do that, not necessarily get his own. Smith does that.

I'm more curious to how Silas blends in offensively with the rest of the roster with doing that.
 
Hurley has been very hit or miss when it comes to PGs. Massive hits with Newton and Diarra. Big hit with Cole. Big misses with Nowell, Mahaney, Diggins, and Gaffney. I'm not going to have any crazy expectations for Smith or Demary and I'm just going to wait and see how it plays out.

Isn't there a PG playing for the Spurs who might be rookie of the year? I think that was a huge hit from Hurley.
 


Hell yeah.

Expect us to go after a portal big next.

EDIT: Shouts to the legend Dick Weiss who had it first.

Next year's team won't suffer from the same lack of dynamic ball handlers this year's team did. Love it.

What an outstanding job by coaches to get 2 great PGs out of portal, and fill the biggest need for next year’s team. They got one big guard and one small quick guard … exactly what UConn needed.
 
Isn't there a PG playing for the Spurs who might be rookie of the year? I think that was a huge hit from Hurley.
People on this board questioned him being an NBA PG because that's not what he did here lol
 
Agree. He's what Diarra was in the NC seasons - a really solid 10-15 minute guy who will give maximum effort. If you plan on playing him 20-30 minutes, the warts will start to show a bit. I think hold the fort guy is a perfect compliment to him. Have a few games where he plays great, but most of the time he just gives you quality minutes on both ends of the floor.
Who is more athletic, him or Diarra?
 
People on this board questioned him being an NBA PG because that's not what he did here lol

We played a three-guard offense last year, Castle was recruited as a PG and he is obviously great at it. If we are measuring Hurley's acumen at recruiting PG's Castle has to be counted as a huge PG recruiting success. It is completely irrelevant that All American Newton was here at the same time and received the bulk of the PG duties for one of the greatest teams ever assembled.
 
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We played a three-guard offense last year, Castle was recruited as a PG and he is obviously great at it. If we are debating Hurley's acumen at recruiting PG's Castle has to be counted as a huge PG recruiting success. It is completely irrelevant that All American Newton was here at the same time and received the bulk of the PG duties for one of the greatest teams ever.
If we looked at Castles predraft thread many people questioned why he was adamant to only work out for teams who considered him a PG.

Yeah we recruited him and he played his role great. But if a guy has to go out his way to say he's something and even his own fanbase questions it, he probably wasn't used much there.
 
If we looked at Castles predraft thread many people questioned why he was adamant to only work out for teams who considered him a PG.

Yeah we recruited him and he played his role great. But if a guy has to go out his way to say he's something and even his own fanbase questions it, he probably wasn't used much there.
You can die on this hill, but you're wrong. UConn used him as a PG and 90% of this board knew that. There's just a few loud idiots who were saying that pre draft
 
Hurley has been very hit or miss when it comes to PGs. Massive hits with Newton and Diarra. Big hit with Cole. Big misses with Nowell, Mahaney, Diggins, and Gaffney. I'm not going to have any crazy expectations for Smith or Demary and I'm just going to wait and see how it plays out.
Neither Mahaney nor Gaffney was really a PG. If you want to classify something as a "Hurley blind spot" maybe trying to force fit guys into the PG role that aren't PGs is it. In the case of Demary and Smith, they both played PG for their previous teams and were solid assist guys.
 

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