New thoughts on Alex Oriakhi

[businesslawyer]

Why do we need to say it nicely tho? Thats one thing I cant stand about this board. If hes trying then I will be nice. But when hes being lazy as hell then no I wont be nice. Show some effort. Boatright and Roscoe screw up but nobody complains because they play their butts off.

Because people who have won you a championship deserve respect, that's why. I can't say it more clearly than that.

 

[HuskyFan32]

Because people who have won you a championship deserve respect, that's why. I can't say it more clearly than that.

Junior captians that are the laziest player on the team do not deserve respect. Being a champion is exactly why I am getting on Alex. He knows what it takes to win and when he fails to put the effort in to do so, then thats unacceptable. He got a first hand look at leadership last year from one of the greatest leaders in CBB history and hes doing the complete opposite this year.

 

[businesslawyer]

Junior captians that are the laziest player on the team do not deserve respect. Being a champion is exactly why I am getting on Alex. He knows what it takes to win and when he fails to put the effort in to do so, then thats unacceptable. He got a first hand look at leadership last year from one of the greatest leaders in CBB history and hes doing the complete opposite this year.

I will only try one more time and then leave you to your juvenile rants. He deserves more respect from you because he has brought the team you root for a national championship while you've done nothing for it. That doesn't mean he is playing well (he's not), and it doesn't mean you're not free to state that. But your statements on AO reflect far, far more on your lack of understanding those simple facts than they do on him.

Have a nice night.

 

[UCHuskies08]

Junior captians that are the laziest player on the team do not deserve respect. Being a champion is exactly why I am getting on Alex. He knows what it takes to win and when he fails to put the effort in to do so, then thats unacceptable. He got a first hand look at leadership last year from one of the greatest leaders in CBB history and hes doing the complete opposite this year.

 

[HuskyFan32]

I will only try one more time and then leave you to your juvenile rants. He deserves more respect from you because he has brought the team you root for a national championship while you've done nothing for it. That doesn't mean he is playing well (he's not), and it doesn't mean you're not free to state that. But your statements on AO reflect far, far more on your lack of understanding those simple facts than they do on him.

Have a nice night.

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.......

 

[UCHuskies08]

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

Try thinking really hard this time!

 

[Dogbreath2U]

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.......

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.

 

[HuskyFan32]

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

Try thinking really hard this time!

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.

 

[HuskyFan32]

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.

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..

 

[DogMania]

He is disgustingly bad. It is shocking how much worse hes gotten.

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.

 

[NHUConnfan]

Because people who have won you a championship deserve respect, that's why. I can't say it more clearly than that.

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.

 

[MarieM]

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 ....

 

[mets1090]

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.

 

[champs99and04]

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.

 

[Dribbles]

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?

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.

 

[UConn3432]

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.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

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.

 

[990411champs]

AO played like a 1st team McDowell's All American tonight

 

[dogpause]

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.

 

[Tommyboy]

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 was at the game last night and one thing I definitely didn't see was AO being lazy. At all.


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[Sully]

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.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

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.

 

[upstater]

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.

 

[businesslawyer]

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.

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.

 

[caw]

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