New thoughts on Alex Oriakhi | Page 2 | The Boneyard

New thoughts on Alex Oriakhi

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lol @ bizlaw's post flying straight over your head.

Try thinking really hard this time!
 
HuskyFan32 said:
Right so showing an ability to play well and lead a team to a title reflects his ability to do so. Coming nowhere near that ability a year later allows us to question him, ESPECIALLY because his lack of production is derived DIRECTLY from him being completely lazy and showing no effort whatsoever. So basically your agreeing that he has been awful and that I have a right to state it. Sooooo I dont understand why your disagreeing with me, since you agreed with both of my points.......
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How about you go on a trip with babysheep and call kids names together? I'm sure that will change the course of the team by sheer force of will and will make The Boneyard a much more reasonable and intelligent place.
 
UCHuskies08 said:
lol @ bizlaw's post flying straight over your head.

Try thinking really hard this time!
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I just replied to that actually. What he did was agree with me on both points I made while disagreeing with me at the same time which makes no sense. You can be satisfied with Alex's past performance and accept his lazy horrible play this year. That is your right to do so. What you and bizlaw are both failing to understand is that Im getting on him for being lazy. If he tries hard and stinks then fine, theres nothing you can say. But 8 or 9 times as many fouls/turnovers combined as rebounds really doesnt make me proud of him.
 
Dogbreath2U said:
How about you go on a trip with babysheep and call kids names together? I'm sure that will change the course of the team by sheer force of will and will make The Boneyard a much more reasonable and intelligent place.
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And being happy with horrible performances really makes things better too right? Lets all go back to second grade. Its not the result that matters, its the effort you put in that counts. Oh wait, Alex put no effort in at all..
 
HuskyFan32 said:
He is disgustingly bad. It is shocking how much worse hes gotten.
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Are you for real? Are you really a UConn fan? I can understand adding some constructive criticism about why Alex isn't playing well, but to simply call one of our own players disgustingly bad is harsh. This is a UConn fan site. We're not expecting people to be homers, but to trash an amateur college student athlete on the team that we all root for is ridiculous. I think most of us consider you a disgustingly bad fan. How does that make you feel? You probably don't like me very much for calling you that, do you? How do you think Alex would feel to read your post?

You should follow Baby Sheep Lamb Chops and go away for a while and come back later to either tell us how right you were or how wrong. My guess is Alex will be a solid contributor before it's all said and done.

I happen to like his effort today. I don't know why he kept on using his off hand to ward off the defender and getting some bad offensive foul calls, but it was something he hadn't been doing all season, at least I don't recall that being a problem. Alex hasn't played well or picked up where he left off, but to call him disgustingly bad is a gross exaggeration IMO.
 
businesslawyer said:
Because people who have won you a championship deserve respect, that's why. I can't say it more clearly than that.
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Not when this team clearly has the talent to win another. I, for one, am not here to settle for the one we got last year. That was last year. Memories are great...but I live for today.
 
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when was all this when he had 11&11 in the national championship game or when he was being praised for how good and underrated he was last season ....
 
Alex Oriakhi is not lazy and anyone that suggests he is would be way off base in thinking so. Bad hands? Maybe. Weak finisher at times? Definitely. Lazy? No.
 
I definitely don't think he's lazy, but he doesn't seem to pursue the ball with the same passion as he did at certain times last season. I can live with Alex's lack of a post game and weak hands, but two things he has to do for this team to win is rebound and play defense. Defensively, I think he's fine, but he has not rebounded this season, for whatever reason.

For the season he is grabbing 5.3 rebounds per game. One could say those numbers would go up if he played more minutes, but I tend to look at it the other way, in that his minutes would go up if he grabbed more rebounds.

I actually liked the way Alex played tonight. He was agressive, posted hard, made some strong moves, but he just didn't finish. Tonight was the most agressive, and the most comfortable I remember him looking offensively so far this season. I realize he only scored six points, but he made some strong moves.

But again, if you are looking to question his effort, look at the rebounding. If he rebounds like he does last year he'll probably play as many minutes as he did last year.

It's kind of sad to see the board lightening rod Alex has become. Some of that he can blame on himself, but I think the fans who had high expectations coming into the season are looking at Alex as the reason this team isn't reaching its potential.

I think he's going to play well against St. Johns and maybe end up with a double double.
 
mauconnfan said:
When it's bitching like the opening of the thread I hate it. If you say it nicely and think about it though it's all true!! 1 rebound - 6'9" 255 - is that actually possible?
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Would seem to me his current level of play might earn him pine time at Tilton. Sit 'em and keep him sitting until he can show you much much more.
 
What's wrong with calling a spade a spade? If this is a UConn Men's Basketball Fan Site, then obviously you can say whatever you want. It's not the Ivy League where kids go to school to learn. College sports is a big business and if these "poor little kids" can go on twitter and blast a coach, fans of that player can blast his effort if they want. When you act like a Terrell Owens diva you give up your right to "amateur college athlete" protection. I love AO and want to see him do well, but right now he deserves some criticism based on his effort. You don't get 1 rebound by accident.
 
I think the guards are over half the problem. Napier is playing fairly well, but Boatwright and especially Lamb don't even look to pass unless they need to be bailed out. If UConn is going to play pickup game offense where whoever takes it across half court gets to shoot it, the big men are going to have games like this.
 
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amos.jpg


AO played like a 1st team McDowell's All American tonight
 
Confidence, or lack of it, seems to be Alex's biggest problem, but he also seems to want to play a style that he's just not suited for, while ignoring his natural gifts.

I'd like to see him focus on being the muscle guy that he looks like -- grab offensive rebounds, throw down a dunk at every opportunity, set hard screens, box out on defense, control the paint. We need his muscle, otherwise, we're a fairly skinny team up front. If he would do all that and never shoot another layup, he'd be a major contributor, while filling a role that no one else on this team is physically as capable of performing.
 
mets1090 said:
Alex Oriakhi is not lazy and anyone that suggests he is would be way off base in thinking so. Bad hands? Maybe. Weak finisher at times? Definitely. Lazy? No.
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I was at the game last night and one thing I definitely didn't see was AO being lazy. At all.


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I think he should start in his head. His body language speaks volumes. That and do more layup drills. Dude needs to develop some kind of touch and not line drive the ball off the backboard in the post.
 
Tommyboy said:
I was at the game last night and one thing I definitely didn't see was AO being lazy. At all.

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No, he wasn't lazy at all. He went in and mixed it up with their bigs. He was aggressive, but the shots would not go down and he got called for some charges that would have gone the other way if he had kept his arm in. It looks to me that he is pressing and anxious in the game and that makes him rush and not shoot in rhythm. I would have to watch again to be sure, but I bet that Alex helped get fouls on their 2 big guys, both of whom had 2 fouls in the first half.

I was more concerned that Andre seemed to have difficulty getting involved in this game until the latter part of the second half. Part of that was his having to defend out to the 3 point line. The frontline did much better on the offensive glass in the second half after only having 3 offensive rebounds in the first half. Tyler did a good job being more aggressive, although he too got called for multiple over the back-type fouls.
 
Alex got in foul trouble last night.

That's really all that needs to be said. He came out playing well, picked up two quick ones, then shut it down. Started the half, picked up his third.
 
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Dogbreath2U said:
No, he wasn't lazy at all. He went in and mixed it up with their bigs. He was aggressive, but the shots would not go down and he got called for some charges that would have gone the other way if he had kept his arm in. It looks to me that he is pressing and anxious in the game and that makes him rush and not shoot in rhythm. I would have to watch again to be sure, but I bet that Alex helped get fouls on their 2 big guys, both of whom had 2 fouls in the first half.

I was more concerned that Andre seemed to have difficulty getting involved in this game until the latter part of the second half. Part of that was his having to defend out to the 3 point line. The frontline did much better on the offensive glass in the second half after only having 3 offensive rebounds in the first half. Tyler did a good job being more aggressive, although he too got called for multiple over the back-type fouls.
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Neither of those were fouls by the way. In each case Tyler crashed the boards, caught the ball and then came down on the back of a defender who had position. That is not a foul -- it's a "play on." If Tyler was Drummond and instead of coming down with the ball on the defenders back he jammed it through while coming down on the defender's back, nothing gets called.
 
A few things about Alex:

1) on a per minute basis he is pretty close to last years averages, if not slightly ahead in a few places. 10 less minutes, 2.5 less points, .3 less blocks, 3.8 less rebounds. Really the rebounding is the only huge dropoff (somewhat attributed to better frontcourt teammates). It's one thing to be rebounding against a freshman Roscoe and Chuck and another with soph Olander/Smith and Drummond.

2) he is still maddeningly inconsistent
3) at least two of his TO's last night were on offensive fouls one where he got called for hooking the arm (same play Drummond got away with against FSU for that great dunk) and one on the back down where the defender flopped.
4) he seemed to start off fairly well last night then got derailed by that offensive foul



2011-12​
CONN​
 19.6 2.8-5.8 .478 0.0-0.0 .000 1.6-3.0 .528 4.9 0.3 1.3 0.1 1.0 1.2 7.1
2010-11​
CONN​
 29.1 3.7-7.4 .507 0.0-0.0 .000 2.1-3.4 .630 8.7 0.4 1.6 0.4 2.5 1.1
9.6
 
businesslawyer said:
Neither of those were fouls by the way. In each case Tyler crashed the boards, caught the ball and then came down on the back of a defender who had position. That is not a foul -- it's a "play on." If Alex was Drummond and instead of coming down with the ball on the defenders back he jammed it through while coming down on the defender's back, nothing gets called.
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Exactly, you see plays like that especially in the NBA. Instead of a foul being called, it's "that guy got posterized!" He makes the dunk (on the first one) and it's a no call.
 
caw said:
1) on a per minute basis he is pretty close to last years averages, if not slightly ahead in a few places. 10 less minutes, 2.5 less points, .3 less blocks, 3.8 less rebounds. Really the rebounding is the only huge dropoff (somewhat attributed to better frontcourt teammates). It's one thing to be rebounding against a freshman Roscoe and Chuck and another with soph Olander/Smith and Drummond.
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This is what's important, I agree.

Look at it this way, last year, Alex grabbed a bunch of boards. 42% of those were offensive rebounds. What do you think is going to happen, when you bring in Drummond, who has 49% of his rebounds coming off the offensive glass? Something has to give. AD swallows rebounds on both sides of the court.

What is promising, is look at this: We averaged 40 rebounds per game last year. Guess how many we are averaging this year? That's right, 40.

Point aside that we have just started the BE, Alex isn't losing boards to the other team, he's losing them to teammates! Just my opinion.
 
61cygni said:
This is what's important, I agree.

Look at it this way, last year, Alex grabbed a bunch of boards. 42% of those were offensive rebounds. What do you think is going to happen, when you bring in Drummond, who has 49% of his rebounds coming off the offensive glass? Something has to give. AD swallows rebounds on both sides of the court.

What is promising, is look at this: We averaged 40 rebounds per game last year. Guess how many we are averaging this year? That's right, 40.

Point aside that we have just started the BE, Alex isn't losing boards to the other team, he's losing them to teammates! Just my opinion.
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We averaged 40 including a BE season and NCAA tourney against the highest-calibre teams. We are averaging 40 now when we've played mostly lesser-calibre teams. We could certainly get better at this as the season progresses, but I haven't been all that impressed with our rebounding this year.
 
Stony Brook (56), Vermont (42), Wichita St. (29), New Hampshire (37), UMBC (41), Farleigh Dickinson (46), Coppin St. (55), Harvard (39), Tennessee (31)

41.8 rebounds per game against the un-ranked OOC teams we faced in the regular season if I did that correctly. Slightly higher, and I did allude to the point that we are earlier along in the season, so the comparison wouldn't be perfect. No idea what happens when you adjust for pace, would love to see it if anyone has the time!

Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, the biggest flaw in this team is turnovers.
 
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I'm watching the replay of last year's Texas game on ESPN Classic. AO should do the same thing, he was great in that game.
 
Dogbreath2U said:
No, he wasn't lazy at all. He went in and mixed it up with their bigs. He was aggressive, but the shots would not go down and he got called for some charges that would have gone the other way if he had kept his arm in. It looks to me that he is pressing and anxious in the game and that makes him rush and not shoot in rhythm. I would have to watch again to be sure, but I bet that Alex helped get fouls on their 2 big guys, both of whom had 2 fouls in the first half.

I was more concerned that Andre seemed to have difficulty getting involved in this game until the latter part of the second half. Part of that was his having to defend out to the 3 point line. The frontline did much better on the offensive glass in the second half after only having 3 offensive rebounds in the first half. Tyler did a good job being more aggressive, although he too got called for multiple over the back-type fouls.
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"LAZY" is certainly not the word but with AO I'm not quite sure what it is? He doesn't utilize his strengths and fundamentalss to gain rebounding advantage....how's that. Yeah he mixed it up a little but not enough. Again, 1 rebound for his size is really awful. He should be Rodman in college basketball and its really is that simple. The charge wasn't a charge but it happens. No excuses he needs to be a lot better and HE, not the guards, needs to get the confidence flowing in the guards to throw it to him. For now his bobbles and mishandling of very good passes would have any guard concerned on throwing it in there. Add to it he still hasn't found a way to finish on the right and his left hook is a throw most of the time, why would Bazz, Jeremy or Boat throw it in there?

This is on Alex not anyone else. We need AO really bad to be a better team so I'm rooting like hell for him but he needs to play with his head up and constant energy.
 
990411champs said:
View attachment 458

AO played like a 1st team McDowell's All American tonight
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THIS is the way to make the negative point, though the simple post laying the blame with questionable foul trouble has some merit. Still, we could probably use a little haiku:

What if BabySheep
and HuskyFan32
both left? Any tears?
 
Division 1 college basketball sure is a lot easier from the couches all across Connecticut.
 
UCHuskies08 said:
I don't mind pointing out how poorly he's playing, just still can't stand people who trash him like he plays for Syracuse.
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I agree 110%. He just needs to get his mind right, have a few breaks go his way, and he'll be a solid contributor to this team's success.
 
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