Just another comment on JStewart. I don't know how many rebounds he had, but he was very much in the interior mix with both offensive and defensive rebounding and he will produce moving forward if he keeps after it. Also, just like every other player on the team, which is great, he made several offensive moves mid-range, pushing to the hoop trying to score. He settled a couple of times for threes, but everyone on the team this year is looking for their shots at times and that wasn't happening last season. McNeeely was the only consistent lane driver. Karaban is driving a lot more also this season. There were also a quite a few nice interior passes and sharing of the ball.
Can't agree more on this take. If a few of Stewarts's open 3s fall as well as his close range shots, people on here would be praising him. And if Ross' quick fire threes were airballs as usual, we would have lots of question marks still.
In reality, you need to judge on the body of work, the quality of shots, the effort on defense and rebounding, etc.
A few observations on the others...
- Furphy 3 pointer looks great, it just needs to fall. Reminds me of year 1 Solo when his shot looked pure but he was still 32% from deep. He's a smart, strong, and connected w Reibe 2x for easiest baskets of the game.
- Karaban gets a lot of criticism for his shooting last season, but it seems like way too often is he shooting when feet aren't set, when he's falling away sideways, or when he's way behind the line. Given he has the moves to drive to the hoop now, I'd love to see more pump fakes when he doesn't have time/space to get off a high quality shot.
- Silas was solid. Showed us he could shoot, was a pest on defense, and looked comfortable bringing the ball up. We saw he has the skill to create his own shot, but nice to see he's not rushing to show that in his first (exhibition) game.
- Reibe will go thru the machine where he is taught to be efficient and selective with his decision making in the post. We can all see the skill and the motor.
- Solo is going to ball out this year. He looks like he has the confidence that many in the UConn star role had before him. In both scrimmages we heard Hurley evaluating the quality of 3 pointers from Solo and others, so I expect his shooting percentage to massively improve.
- Happy with the other role players. Very nice that Koroma/Millender/Smith are skilled and experienced in their roles and not making the mistakes that typical freshmen backups would.
