Next year- backcourt

[superjohn]

Pretty damn concerned about guard play for next year. From what I've heard Cole is coming back, even with him back we'll have Gaffney who is basically unplayable and can't handle the ball, Hawkins who is an athletic shooter who hasn't shown he can handle the ball, hopefully Diggins who Hurley won't play this season, and redshirt Floyd. I expect Hawkins to be a lot better next year but he won't help with point guard/handling duties.

If Cole doesn't come back I'm terrified of our backcourt.

 

[SouthBayHusky]

I don’t know if Hawkins has shown he can even shoot either.

 

[king conn]

I was asking the same thing a year ago. I thought we needed more than Diggins because I saw who Gaffney was ( or wasn't)
Never would I have ever thought that Hurley would glue Diggins to the bench this year.

 

[UConnSwag11]

I don’t know if Hawkins has shown he can even shoot either.

Yes he has. He’s too timid right now. He has a the talent and unlimited potential. He’s shown he has the three and and pull-up jumper. He needs the minutes to boost his confidence

 

[tykurez]

I need to understand what’s happening in practice. Is Gaffney just showing out? Is he dominant? If so, doesn’t matter anymore.

I have zero understanding of why Diggins has gotten such little time. If I were him I’d be bummed.

And you’re never going to get any consistency out of Hawkins if you play him so sparingly and with so much time in between spurts.

 

[superjohn]

I was asking the same thing a year ago. I thought we needed more than Diggins because I saw who Gaffney was ( or wasn't)
Never would I have ever thought that Hurley would glue Diggins to the bench this year.

I swear Hurley is trying to follow Jay Wright's blueprint to a T where players come in and often sit before it's their turn and then they show out. The problem is Jay Wright is a Hall of Fame coach who has shown kids his plan works and he can point to all his Big East and national championships. Hurley can't point to anything other than Jay Wright.

 

[king conn]

I swear Hurley is trying to follow Jay Wright's blueprint to a T where players come in and often sit before it's their turn and then they show out. The problem is Jay Wright is a Hall of Fame coach who has shown kids his plan works and he can point to all his Big East and national championships. Hurley can't point to anything other than Jay Wright.

Plus, Wright was beating everyone with the players he was playing

Hurley's team screams for guard play, guys who can break down defense off the dribble and finish/ kick when the offense is stagnant. The college game has been about guards for years, I don't know how that fact has escaped Hurley

 

[McLovin]

We have Floyd who will have had a whole year in the system.

 

[navery12]

Cole/Diggins at PG and Hawkins/Floyd Jr at SG. Hit the portal for another wing at the 2 and I think we're set

 

[HuskyHawk]

I don’t know if Hawkins has shown he can even shoot either.

Yes he has. He’s too timid right now. He has a the talent and unlimited potential. He’s shown he has the three and and pull-up jumper. He needs the minutes to boost his confidence

I don’t think it’s timid so much as tight. This whole team plays stressed out, like they have the weight of the world on them. They aren‘t loose or having fun and it shows. Jackson is the one guy who doesn’t play that way and surprise, he actually hits some shots. Maybe when we are unranked on Monday they will calm down.

 

[EastConn'er]

I'm worried too... we're not showing we're an NCAA tournament team. RJ has options next year to move on. Players stuck on the bench not getting any minutes may not be happy either. Look at the women's team. Just saying. Today's environment is about keeping players happy. We aren't giving our young guys much of anything to be happy about....

 

[jibsey]

We need another guard who can drive it inside.

 

[HuskyFich]

I'm worried too... we're not showing we're an NCAA tournament team. RJ has options next year to move on. Players stuck on the bench not getting any minutes may not be happy either. Look at the women's team. Just saying. Today's environment is about keeping players happy. We aren't giving our young guys much of anything to be happy about....

would you say a team whose only 3 losses are against tourney teams, is therefore, not a tourney team? I mean our team is TOUGH to play against.

We’re acting like we’re in the AAC still and every loss is like losing to ECU….

 

[UConnStats]

Cole/Diggins at PG and Hawkins/Floyd Jr at SG. Hit the portal for another wing at the 2 and I think we're set

Starting to wonder how he feels watching his teammates miss every jumper they take while he doesn’t even get a whiff of an opportunity.

 

[navery12]

I'm worried too... we're not showing we're an NCAA tournament team. RJ has options next year to move on. Players stuck on the bench not getting any minutes may not be happy either. Look at the women's team. Just saying. Today's environment is about keeping players happy. We aren't giving our young guys much of anything to be happy about....

I've seen this take from about a dozen posters tonight and I don't get it. Hurley has shown his teams have very little turnover, and that's including guys who haven't played. He's very open with the players on what to expect, so I don't really get the concern for why that would change

 

[navery12]

Starting to wonder how he feels watching his teammates miss every jumper they take while he doesn’t even get a whiff of an opportunity.

Hopefully it's eating at him and he shows out in practice to earn Gaffney's minutes

 

[EastConn'er]

would you say a team whose only 3 losses are against tourney teams, is therefore, not a tourney team? I mean our team is TOUGH to play against.

We’re acting like we’re in the AAC still and every loss is like losing to ECU….

Did you not witness the putrid play in Atlantis, WV and tonight? We could have lost all games in Atlantis. We were favored to win tonight, instead we were losing 90% of the game. And yet we start with another conference loss to start the season. Yay, we beat Auburn in the ugliest game of the year. Woo hoo... if that make you happy. I'd rather beat tournament teams rather than lose to them routinely.

 

[Huskyforlife]

There needs to be some dialog about Cole at this point too. He gets more leash than anyone on this board. But before this game he was shooting 39/33 from FG/3pt, and today he lowered his FG%. I'm not sure he's that good anymore.

 

[cullaville]

Pretty damn concerned about guard play for next year. From what I've heard Cole is coming back, even with him back we'll have Gaffney who is basically unplayable and can't handle the ball, Hawkins who is an athletic shooter who hasn't shown he can handle the ball, hopefully Diggins who Hurley won't play this season, and redshirt Floyd. I expect Hawkins to be a lot better next year but he won't help with point guard/handling duties.

If Cole doesn't come back I'm terrified of our backcourt.

wow UCONN has 19 more regular season games and you're concerned about next year?

 

[willie99]

We'll be fine this year, and better next year

I do hope Diggins and Hawk get more time

 

[MexicoHusky]

Pretty damn concerned about guard play for next year. From what I've heard Cole is coming back, even with him back we'll have Gaffney who is basically unplayable and can't handle the ball, Hawkins who is an athletic shooter who hasn't shown he can handle the ball, hopefully Diggins who Hurley won't play this season, and redshirt Floyd. I expect Hawkins to be a lot better next year but he won't help with point guard/handling duties.

If Cole doesn't come back I'm terrified of our backcourt.

The PG situation is the only part of Dan Hurley's tenure that has me concerned for his future. I don't care about his timeout strategy. I don't care how much he plays one player vs another. I assume he has his reasons for both. I trust him in both areas.

I am concerned about our PGs. Under KO our front court deteriorated considerably. I can't say our PGs have deteriorated that far, but it's getting close.

If Cole leaves we will be entering next season with the most suspect PGs I can remember. Gaff has been given countless minutes in his time at UCONN and its tough to see improvement in his game. And we will have Diggins who apparently isn't good enough to play over Gaff.... who's horrible.

I can't say I can remember a more suspect scenario at PG. Maybe Shabazz's soph year was similar. Shabazz who heavily deferred to Kemba as a freshman and a freshman boatright. Maybe that was close.

 

[bendm]

Cole/Diggins at PG and Hawkins/Floyd Jr at SG. Hit the portal for another wing at the 2 and I think we're set

Yup, just gotta replace Martin with a transfer/grad transfer G

To think I got crapped on for saying we’d need to bring in another PG to run the team if Cole left lolol

 

[Mike Honcho]

The PG situation is the only part of Dan Hurley's tenure that has me concerned for his future. I don't care about his timeout strategy. I don't care how much he plays one player vs another. I assume he has his reasons for both. I trust him in both areas.

I am concerned about our PGs. Under KO our front court deteriorated considerably. I can't say our PGs have deteriorated that far, but it's getting close.

If Cole leaves we will be entering next season with the most suspect PGs I can remember. Gaff has been given countless minutes in his time at UCONN and its tough to see improvement in his game. And we will have Diggins who apparently isn't good enough to play over Gaff.... who's horrible.

I can't say I can remember a more suspect scenario at PG. Maybe Shabazz's soph year was similar. Shabazz who heavily deferred to Kemba as a freshman and a freshman boatright. Maybe that was close.

We had that one year (semester?) with Rob Garrison when Marcus Williams and A.J. Price were suspended.

 

[storrsroars]

I'm going to post something y'all think is crazy, but I had some time to kill and was looking at numbers.

While overall Gaffney has a TO/A ratio of 2.1, against Top 100 teams (6 games thus far), he's at 1.0 -- 16 assists, 16 TOs.

AJax, OTOH, seems to do better vs better teams. Overall his TO/A is just 1.15 (31A/27TO), but against the Top 100, he's 1.33 (16A/12TO). So he's either getting better as the season progresses or at least is not playing as out of control. He's also #1 among all guards in shooting efficiency, and 2nd behind Martin in scoring efficiency, which suggests he shoot more. Yesterday, against PC, the times he brought the ball upcourt, he did so error-free and at a much faster pace than Gaffney.

If you're not going to play Diggins, and Hawkins is still a mess as far as his handle, maybe, just maybe, let AJax run the point more when Cole is sitting and its AJax and Gaffney in the game.

Ridiculous, I know. But the small sample we've got so far indicates AJax is getting better this year while Gaffney is getting worse.

 

[tykurez]

Starting to wonder how he feels watching his teammates miss every jumper they take while he doesn’t even get a whiff of an opportunity.

They showed the huddle late in the game and Hawkins said something to Diggins, only to be met by a blank stare.

 

[Huskybass]

I've seen this take from about a dozen posters tonight and I don't get it. Hurley has shown his teams have very little turnover, and that's including guys who haven't played. He's very open with the players on what to expect, so I don't really get the concern for why that would change

If Hurley doesn't start to find minutes for Diggins and Johnson it's going to limit the team's potential. The most talented players need to play. I really hope Hurley realizes this before it's too late.

Great program coach. Not so great at roster management and in game coaching. It is what it is.

 

[storrsroars]

I alluded to some number crunching in the 3 Point thread. Thought I'd drop this chart over here so y'all would know what I was looking at when I suggested AJax might be preferable to Gaff running point in certain situations. This is our guard play (didn't include Hawkins) per 40 minutes, comparing the full season thus far to just the six games vs top 100 teams (of which Bonnies were at time we played them).

The one thing that's most evident is that there's no drop off in AJax's game vs better competition, in fact he gets more rebounds and has fewer TOs. Cole's drop off is in TOs, otherwise he's also solid. Gaff and Martin have played significantly worse vs better teams.

Small sample, but I think at the very least it shows AJax is maturing and playing under more control. Martin will have his senior leadership moments but drops off quite a bit, and Gaff's TO/A ratio drops by half and his inability to hit a trey hurts. At least he's getting to the line.

 

[uconnever]

Starting to wonder how he feels watching his teammates miss every jumper they take while he doesn’t even get a whiff of an opportunity.

This is what I see, people here are saying it’s coaching, which it’s not the greatest, but we missed EVERYTHING yesterday. That’s not coaching. We were off.

 

[RichCTBB]

I was under the impression that we were recruiting over Gaffney by bringing in Diggins

 

[superjohn]

This is what I see, people here are saying it’s coaching, which it’s not the greatest, but we missed EVERYTHING yesterday. That’s not coaching. We were off.

The shooting sucks game after game, maybe make some adjustments.