Merrimack Post Game Thoughts

[Sphinx]

Easier for me to breakdown by the player after watching just this game so certainly not anything set in stone even in my mind:

Jalen - just had fun out there, feeling around who he's playing with it would seem and how he can play with each guy. He will change when they tip off against Colgate and take more than the passive mode we saw last night. I just hope that's the same in the defensive end because he wasn't really attentive there, needs to be a factor on defense and pay more attention to his OWN man.

Alterique - Kid can plain get to spots easily but needs to finish either the shot or the pass. Again, more attention made to taking care of the ball nit making plays that aren't there or because he found himself too deep or in trouble. The 2 floaters straight in a row in the lane 2nd half were what I expect a lot from him and often. Needs to, like Jalen, pay attention to his guy and keep him in front of him. He and Jalen need to be a factor on defense and make it easier for the young front line to stay on their guys and not need to help all the time.

CVital - Kid plays hard and does some great things. Will impact the game and still love him as the guy off the bench. He plays hard on defense, tends to float like all 3 guards looking to make plays needs to stick to his guy and rebound. One thing he's not good at is passing the ball. Tries to cut the mustard when taking it to the lane and normally doesn't work out that well. He's not the only one as this is not a great passing team, but he needs to take care of the ball better, make crisper passes and surer passes when on the move.

Terry - Looked pretty good on offense. Will be relied on the fouling and extended because they will see a lot of zone if they can't make a shot. Like his ability to make that shot and maybe get to the rim form that point of the floor. Hasn't shown explosiveness that he will need to take his defender off the dribble when they aren't Merrimack. Needs to rebound the ball a lot better in traffic and also didn't help on defense 2-3 times when he at least should've tried to. Need more out of this kid.

Cobb - I like his game, you can see he knows how to play but he has lazy feet not slow feet. He is smart enough to understand help defense but didn't get there, will need to do so if he wants to be on the floor. Rebounds well, good hands and is physical. There's much more there, up to coaches to get it out of him if he wants it bad enough. Could be a factor against physical teams and could be.

Diarra - Nice game offensively, finished close. Established his spot on the low block with a power dribble and physical bump to score once good understanding. Pretty quick to get up to score, liked what I saw there. Another guy who loses his attentiveness on defense and boxing out when needing to. Should be more of a rebounding presence needs to be. Defensively a bit lost at times but has the feet t be good eventually.

Carlton - Good hands, good physical skills, keeps the ball high on rebounds missed a couple bunny put backs but again a very nice looking athlete. Has the feet on both ends to be better but needs to get better understanding on D and help defense. Box out a little more but lot's to work with here like him.

Williams - Active kid, quick athlete and seems to understand the game a little better than I thought. He hedges ok on defense is fast to get back to his guy. He can score the ball down low, adjusted to a couple bad passes and turned them into scores. Needs more time but could have some good minutes I think, could be a player eventually lots for the staff to work with here.

Anderson - nice 4th guard, can guard his man is a bit undersized but you can see the toughness. We know he can shoot it a little and can handle it well enough, and seems to be a smart player who doesn't force things all that often and they will need that on occasion. He will get his minutes just because he can defend as well as his experience.

Polley - Kid has game just exudes smoothness and a nice swagger, but really can play. Make take some time, but we will see this kid this year suddenly jump on the scene and be one of the guys. Although he didn't finish that one rebound in which he went coast-to-coast showed his confidence in his ability to handle the ball which is very solid for a young 6'8" swing. Like his stroke and think he will be a good shooter at some point if not very good. Another guy like Larrier they can throw at the foul line against the zone and he can make a play. Eventually will be a star here.

Whaley - Great kid, hard working kid this is my favorite of the game last night. Not just because of his ability to follow up dunk or ally oop dunk but because of his passion and energy. On defense he never stops, his feet at 6'9" are impressive as hell, will be able to guard 2-5 eventually in bis career. He was hedging and staying on their guard creating havoc, as well as stepping back to his own man after helping a very good understanding of the game and a real hardworking kid you can just see it. He wants minutes, will get them and soon I believe. He and Polley are a wonderful future as well as the others.

Lots more to say but have a teleconference, but the one thing I will say is they better play better defense as a team, because it's God awful right now and I would guess even Colgate will give us fits.

Love the pieces, but how fast will the freshman become soph's?? Huge for this team to find some impact from them.

Exceptional analysis. Thank you.

 

[RichZ]

I feel like we’re playing a little soft... only 4 FT attempts? How does that even happen?

The blame for that would apparently rest entirely on the merrimack mediums (they don't have actual bigs) who allowed us to score at will in the paint without trying to hinder us at all. Stepping out of the way is not a foul.

 

[UConnSwag11]

1 three pointer. 7%. Seems we played best when Adams was the 2 and Gilbert the 1. Polley looks confident even though it was an exhibition. Same with Carlton, I like his hustle getting rebounds. Cobb was aggressive as well. Gilbert and larrier keep trying to force passes that should not be tried. Several times Adams was open for three by a kick out from larrier but larrier went to the hoop or a fadeaway. Vital should not be a facilitator like Gilbert but be another ball handler and focus on his threes and pull ups. I do like his aggressiveness under the basket

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Isaiah Whaley is impressing me. One guy I didn't expect much from and he is outplaying the rest of the big men pretty handily. Very active, good hands, athletic, and good instincts on defense and rebounding. Carlton is also playing solid ball.

Tyler Polley as I said needs to be our starting 3 man, while Larrier is better suited as a 4 man ala Daniels in our team. The team needs both in the game to provide size, length, and skill at the same time. Tyler second most talented player on this team. High IQ player makes the right read.

Jalen Adams is playing way too much off the ball. He needs to be the main ball handler with Vital and Alterique playing good defense and scoring off the ball. They can alternate but it should be 80/20 in Jalen's favor for this team to reach its peak. He is not exerting his will on the team.

Anderson should not play more than 5 minutes a game. He does nothing well and fouls relentlessly. Alterique and Vital were OK today.

Starting Lineup: Jalen, CV, Polley,Larrier, Whaley
Bench: Alterique, Carlton, Cobb

It's too early in the (pre-)season for the certainty of your pronouncements, but a good job in generating a number of more nuanced observations that take better account of context and don't over-project based on the limited sample size of two exhibitions. Stay within yourself and you could be a contributor by mid-season.

 

[Son of Robert]

Easier for me to breakdown by the player after watching just this game so certainly not anything set in stone even in my mind:

Jalen - just had fun out there, feeling around who he's playing with it would seem and how he can play with each guy. He will change when they tip off against Colgate and take more than the passive mode we saw last night. I just hope that's the same in the defensive end because he wasn't really attentive there, needs to be a factor on defense and pay more attention to his OWN man.

Alterique - Kid can plain get to spots easily but needs to finish either the shot or the pass. Again, more attention made to taking care of the ball nit making plays that aren't there or because he found himself too deep or in trouble. The 2 floaters straight in a row in the lane 2nd half were what I expect a lot from him and often. Needs to, like Jalen, pay attention to his guy and keep him in front of him. He and Jalen need to be a factor on defense and make it easier for the young front line to stay on their guys and not need to help all the time.

CVital - Kid plays hard and does some great things. Will impact the game and still love him as the guy off the bench. He plays hard on defense, tends to float like all 3 guards looking to make plays needs to stick to his guy and rebound. One thing he's not good at is passing the ball. Tries to cut the mustard when taking it to the lane and normally doesn't work out that well. He's not the only one as this is not a great passing team, but he needs to take care of the ball better, make crisper passes and surer passes when on the move.

Terry - Looked pretty good on offense. Will be relied on the foul line and extended because they will see a lot of zone if they can't make a shot. Like his ability to make that shot and maybe get to the rim from that point of the floor. Hasn't shown explosiveness that he will need to take his defender off the dribble when they aren't Merrimack. Needs to rebound the ball a lot better in traffic and also didn't help on defense 2-3 times when he at least should've tried to. Need more out of this kid.

Cobb - I like his game, you can see he knows how to play but he has lazy feet not slow feet. He is smart enough to understand help defense but didn't get there, will need to do so if he wants to be on the floor. Rebounds well, good hands and is physical. There's much more there, up to coaches to get it out of him if he wants it bad enough. Could be a factor against physical teams and could be the 5 if he pushes himself.

Diarra - Nice game offensively, finished close. Established his spot on the low block with a power dribble and physical bump to score once good understanding. Pretty quick to get up to score, liked what I saw there. Another guy who loses his attentiveness on defense and boxing out when needing to. Should be more of a rebounding presence needs to be. Defensively a bit lost at times but has the feet t be good eventually.

Carlton - Good hands, good physical skills, keeps the ball high on rebounds missed a couple bunny put backs but again a very nice looking athlete. Has the feet on both ends to be better but needs to get better understanding on D and help defense. Box out a little more but lot's to work with here like him.

Williams - Active kid, quick athlete and seems to understand the game a little better than I thought. He hedges ok on defense is fast to get back to his guy. He can score the ball down low, adjusted to a couple bad passes and turned them into scores. Needs more time but could have some good minutes I think, could be a player eventually lots for the staff to work with here.

Anderson - nice 4th guard, can guard his man is a bit undersized but you can see the toughness. We know he can shoot it a little and can handle it well enough, and seems to be a smart player who doesn't force things all that often and they will need that on occasion. He will get his minutes just because he can defend as well as his experience.

Polley - Kid has game just exudes smoothness and a nice swagger, but really can play. Make take some time, but we will see this kid this year suddenly jump on the scene and be one of the guys. Although he didn't finish that one rebound in which he went coast-to-coast showed his confidence in his ability to handle the ball which is very solid for a young 6'8" swing. Like his stroke and think he will be a good shooter at some point if not very good. Another guy like Larrier they can throw at the foul line against the zone and he can make a play. Eventually will be a star here.

Whaley - Great kid, hard working kid this is my favorite of the game last night. Not just because of his ability to follow up dunk or ally oop dunk but because of his passion and energy. On defense he never stops, his feet at 6'9" are impressive as hell, will be able to guard 2-5 eventually in bis career. He was hedging and staying on their guard creating havoc, as well as stepping back to his own man after helping a very good understanding of the game and a real hardworking kid you can just see it. He wants minutes, will get them and soon I believe. He and Polley are a wonderful future as well as the others.

Lots more to say but have a teleconference, but the one thing I will say is they better play better defense as a team, because it's God awful right now and I would guess even Colgate will give us fits.

Love the pieces, but how fast will the freshman become soph's?? Huge for this team to find some impact from them.

Hey mauconnfan. Love it when one of the more reasonable and observant boneyard posters takes the time to comprehensively express in a positive fashion. Good stuff here. Thank you.

 

[OkaForPrez]

Two things I liked in the highlights:

High Low passing behind the zone. If you can't shoot over a zone you better be able to get behind one.
Cutting without the ball. That's a pretty good indication of coachable players.

Which of course make's my favorite play the high low pass to Jalen running the baseline behind the zone.

 

[Huskymagic]

The same Carlton you said was not a UConn-level recruit and castigated DK for bringing into the program?

Check your story, guy.

I have never been overly concerned with our big men like most on the yard. Our incoming recruits are not guys for the most part that would have played on most UCONN teams over the past 20 years.

I am concerned about our coaching, our guard play, and offensive/defensive discipline and execution. Our guards are defending terribly or apathetically on defense most times, and our offensive repertoire is way too predictable and easy to read.

PS: I don't want to hear anymore about the process, I want to hear about rotations, expectations for players, and disciplined play. We need to come out punching from the opening tip not make consistent excuses about new players.

 

[AntG168]

Ollie and staff need to focus on us being the best most relentless defense in the country. We have the athletes and the size to do it. We have to absolutely stifle teams in the beginning of the season because our offense will take time