Next year depth

[intlzncster]

I guarantee there is a reason why Ollie allows the green light for Facey to shoot and does not for Nolan. Not only that, but there is video from this past year of Facey making threes and midrange shots, none for Nolan. Besides, both have grown immensely skill rise from high school, so what skills he used to have is irrelevant. If Nolan is indeed a better shooter than Facey, well, I'd be shocked

You have to take into account when the kid is playing and against what teams as well though.

 

[king conn]

I think everyone is missing what this really means. Potential injury is an obvious threat, but we barely have enough people to scrimmage each other and work on our game. This is where I think it will hurt the most. There are the bumps and bruises over the course of the season where starters have to let up or miss practice entirely. How are our players going to improve and get better going against a steady diet of walk ons? I for one am shocked that we have not dipped into the grad transfer pile with the success we have had doing so, never mind the depth problem. If there was ever a year to do it it would be this one.
Remember what a huge deal it was when the ncaa took away two schollys that one year? Now we are playing without 3 and nobody thinks its that a big deal!

 

[champs99and04]

really only worried about the 4 spot because of the lack of experience with Facey & Lubin, 1-3 we're loaded, and I can't imagine Nolan and Brimah being as foul prone as they were last year with a year's experience and now a summer in the weight room to strengthen up. 2 Cs who played a ton should be enough, an injury would be cause for concern though.

Yup, I agree, at every other position we have proven commodities, at the four I really have no idea what to expect. Facey showed some flashes last year in garbage time, but obviously he wasn't as far along coming in as many of us had hoped. Lubin is a big question mark, we don't know if he's going to be Jeff Adrien or a project.

This is why my wish list for the summer pretty much began and ended with Justin Martin, somebody who can replicate 75-80% of what Danniels/Giffey gave us last season as a stretch four. If it's true that there was no interest there from UConn's side, I don't get it, but Ollie's definitely earned the benefit of the doubt from me. As the roster is currently constructed, though, Facey sure seems like he's going to have a hell of a lot to do with how successful the team is next season.

 

[Strummer]

Same thing with Oden, dude spent that year he was out his with microfracture getting way too top heavy with muscle, then he ruptured his patella. Not saying that was the cause . .. .

Good, because that would be ridiculous.

12 pounds of muscle over 1 year for an adult male would be a huge gain. Spread evenly over most bodies, that makes you stronger, and your joints are stronger as well. Proper muscle building prevents injury, and this "top heavy" stuff is just nonsense. Also, Oden was 63 when he entered the league, and his injuries were age related, not weight related.

 

[aceboon]

Good, because that would be ridiculous.

12 pounds of muscle over 1 year for an adult male would be a huge gain. Spread evenly over most bodies, that makes you stronger, and your joints are stronger as well. Proper muscle building prevents injury, and this "top heavy" stuff is just nonsense. Also, Oden was 63 when he entered the league, and his injuries were age related, not weight related.

the issue was it wasn't spread out over his body, I mentioned in my post he was top heavy. His legs were still skinny as hell.

 

[CL82]

Facey absolutely has to make a huge leap.. KO has to be very confident that Facey is the guy not bringing in another 3-4 type player...

I think that he will. Just like Samuel did when needed.

Next man up.

 

[mauconnfan]

Brimah's surgery is concerning because this summer was crucial to his growth as a player. I have trouble believing he will be a lot better last year without playing, not a terrible thing mind you but nonetheless his maturing in the the fundamentals would be huge. Facey will need to be a player, 6/5 or so and know where to be on D as well as Rock being a rebounder and space eater during his minutes. Phil can still make huge strides so we never know….we know he's solid as a defender and experienced now but can he add the low post scoring ability to get 7-9 points a game to go with 6-8 rebounds? They need to rebound the ball as the 3 guard option will be a standard, if you include DHam. Freshman need to be contributors immediately but I think, barring major injury their depth is not a problem but their inexperience to go with youth could be!

 

[Gurleyman]

I don't think we've ever had more than 10 guys in a rotation before (perhaps in 1990 after Toraino Walker came from nowhere). In 1999, we had Deng and Justin Brown redshirting and Klaiber buried. In 2004, we had 12 scholarship guys, Nelson was redshirting as a transfer, White was lost for the year with a bad back, and Marcus ended up ineligible, leaving us down to nine (Tooles being one of them). In 2009, Okwandu, Mandeldove and Haralson never played.

As long as Facey steps up (which I think he will) and Lubin can give us a minimum of a few "hold the fort" minutes a night, e're fine - unless we have injury problems up front and then we'd have to develop some sort of scrambling, small ball defense with a lot of double teams as a stop gap when we couldn't put two bigs on the floor due to foul trouble/rest. Not ideal, but Hamilton has length and Purvis and Samuel are both strong guys who can box out bigger players, so hopefully we'd be able to figure it out, if it comes to that.

 

[businesslawyer]

Going into a season with ten scholarship players is far less than ideal, especially where three haven't played yet and two haven't yet shown an ability to stay on the court without fouling. The fact that you don't need a ten man rotation in a game is very, very different from saying you don't need more than ten bodies for a season to overcome transfers, suspensions, injuries, slumps, etc.

Do teams have to do it sometimes? Yes. Can you still be a good team? Yes. Is it ideal? No. Is there a strong chance it bites you in the butt at some point in time during the season? Yup.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

We are going to have some weird lineups out there because I think the 4 players we have at PF/C are foul prone. I am assuming that Lubin is foul prone because pretty much every freshman that plays much inside is foul prone. If we have an injury up front, the lineups could get very weird.

Everyone goes nuts when I say this, but I expect to see lineups with Boat, Samuel, Purvis, Hamilton and Brimah or Nolan.

 

[CallMeBruce]

If Hamilton puts on about 25 pounds of muscle, he could pass at the four.

 

[James]

No, but he needs to be able to play at least half of the game. Brimah's shotblocking is impressive, but his utility is limited by the fact that he commits a foul roughly every 5.5 minutes. Beyond that, his rebounding and scoring rates were pretty pedestrian. 10 points and 7.4 rebounds per 40 minutes is solid, but if that's my best returning big man, I'm not thrilled. Maybe he makes a big jump this year. He certainly has the athleticism to improve quickly, though the injury is going to confound things. At the end of the day, I want Brimah to be a big-time player as much as anyone here. I'm just not sold that it's a sure thing, and I'm not sure why anyone would be.

KO's offensive philosophy doesn't really focus on post play or relying on our size . Brimah needs to get a little heavier and not use his hands to box out, but his main job is screener/lob catcher/crashing offensive glass. KO needs someone at the 4 hitting jumpshots though , when boat/purv utilize mid screen and roll

 

[Gurleyman]

Going into a season with ten scholarship players is far less than ideal, especially where three haven't played yet and two haven't yet shown an ability to stay on the court without fouling. The fact that you don't need a ten man rotation in a game is very, very different from saying you don't need more than ten bodies for a season to overcome transfers, suspensions, injuries, slumps, etc.

Do teams have to do it sometimes? Yes. Can you still be a good team? Yes. Is it ideal? No. Is there a strong chance it bites you in the butt at some point in time during the season? Yup.

That's all completely true. On the flip side, tying up scholarships with players who can't help you can bite you in the butt too - either in recruiting or in APR/public perception if you don't retain them. I do wish we could take a flyer on another fifth-year senior who could play forward, and it looks like we tried, but couldn't find the right fit of a player who could get into our grad program.

If Tolksdorf suddenly changed his mind and came back, we'd have an 11th guy and another frontcourt option if the ship started to sink, but there's a pretty good chance that in desperate times, we'd be better with Terrence Samuel playing the 4 on defense and trapping the hell out of everyone than using Tolk. I'm not sure how much better I'd really feel with him as #11, any more than it was a comfort knowing we had Scottie Haralson in 2009.

Ideal is having 12 guys who can all play, and depth at every position, but that doesn't happen often. We'll have issues next year if we have two key injuries mixed with foul trouble, but I imagine that's true of most teams out there (aside from maybe Kentucky after the Harrisons and Cauley-Stein came back).

 

[UChusky916]

St. Joes nearly beat us in the tournament with basically 5 players. I think we'll be okay with 10. Nolan and Brimah, the two most foul-prone, will be another year older and hopefully more experienced to have the self-control and not foul as much as they did this past year.

We'll be fine.

 

[Gurleyman]

KO's offensive philosophy doesn't really focus on post play or relying on our size . Brimah needs to get a little heavier and not use his hands to box out, but his main job is screener/lob catcher/crashing offensive glass. KO needs someone at the 4 hitting jumpshots though , when boat/purv utilize mid screen and roll

A lot of KO's philosophy to this point has been dictated by personnel. This year, he seemed to target physical power forwards on the recruiting trail, beginning with AMA and eventually ending with Lubin, which seemed to indicate he wasn't looking for a Daniels clone to play the same way we've been playing. It'll be interesting to see how things evolve - KO has been on staff for two titles and we didn't have a true 4 man on either of them. If we struggle next year without good shooting a the 4, he may try to revert back to the Roscoe/DD prototype.

 

[CallMeBruce]

St. Joes nearly beat us in the tournament with basically 5 players. I think we'll be okay with 10. Nolan and Brimah, the two most foul-prone, will be another year older and hopefully more experienced to have the self-control and not foul as much as they did this past year.

We'll be fine.

Facey was, by far, the most foul prone member of the team last year. What concerns me is that we need two of Brimah/Nolan/Facey to become 28 minute players, or one does and Lubin comes in and blows all reasonable expectations out of the water.

 

[Gurleyman]

Facey was, by far, the most foul prone member of the team last year. What concerns me is that we need two of Brimah/Nolan/Facey to become 28 minute players, or one does and Lubin comes in and blows all reasonable expectations out of the water.

There's a different mentality when you are only out there for a few minutes and don't want to get scored on (and get yanked) and when you're a 30 mpg guy and don't want to get in foul trouble. Facey didn't have to worry about foul trouble last year, so if someone was posting him up, he'd push back hard. If someone went to the rim, he'd challenge everything - even if it meant body contact or hacking the arm. Nothing to lose.

If he happens to be a guy who is depended on for 30 mpg this year, then he'll learn not to be reckless. It's self-preservation instinct. Players want to be out on the floor.

I'm sure he'll have days in foul trouble, as will all of them, but it won't be a foul every three or four minutes.

 

[elduderino]

We are going to have some weird lineups out there because I think the 4 players we have at PF/C are foul prone. I am assuming that Lubin is foul prone because pretty much every freshman that plays much inside is foul prone. If we have an injury up front, the lineups could get very weird.

Everyone goes nuts when I say this, but I expect to see lineups with Boat, Samuel, Purvis, Hamilton and Brimah or Nolan.

Personally I don't think we'll see this lineup much, but if we do, I'm betting Calhoun will be defending the 4, w/ Samuel on the bench. Hamilton at the 4 I don't seen working for a lot of reasons, the least of which would be for recruiting elite wings down the line.

 

[elduderino]

And reserves to cover it.

I'm not worried and here's why. We are just coming off a NC and lost our 2 best players to the NBA. My expectations for this team are that we win at least 20, make the NCAA's, and hopefully get past the 2nd round. Maybe I'm still on the high from the NC, but I seriously will be fine with almost whatever happens this year (within reason).

As has been pointed out, we are fine with the 1-3 spots. IF Hamilton can slide over and play the 4 if needed, even better. But having Brimah, Nolan, Facey and Lubin to cover the 4-5 spots seems more than enough. Just a guess, but let's say Brimah and Facey start (along with Boat, Purvis and Hamilton). That leaves Nolan and Lubin to come in for those guys if needed (and Samuel, Calhoun and Cassell).

We basically have a team of 10 and are 2 deep at every position. Can bad stuff (injury, transfer) happen? Sure. But as a fan I'm pretty ok with that team...

Must be nice to have that mindset, but we have 30-win caliber talent and NC coaching. If we don't see at least 25 wins we will have underperformed. IMO

 

[UCONNfan1]

Must be nice to have that mindset, but we have 30-win caliber talent and NC coaching. If we don't see at least 25 wins we will have underperformed. IMO

It's all in the perspective, amigo. We lost our 2 best players - one to graduation, and one to the NBA early. We also lost a 3rd starter and a terrific all around player in Giffey. While the cupboard is not bare by any means, to expect a final 4, or even elite 8, run IMHO is hubris. Not saying you are expecting that, and of course I hope that we win 30 games and make the final 4, but that doesn't seem realistic given what we lost...

 

[elduderino]

It's all in the perspective, amigo. We lost our 2 best players - one to graduation, and one to the NBA early. We also lost a 3rd starter and a terrific all around player in Giffey. While the cupboard is not bare by any means, to expect a final 4, or even elite 8, run IMHO is hubris. Not saying you are expecting that, and of course I hope that we win 30 games and make the final 4, but that doesn't seem realistic given what we lost...

I'd be lying if I said I didn't expect a sweet 16 or better out of next year's team. That said, youre right, we cant replace those guys, not in any way possible. If we try to play next year like we played this year, we're gonna lose, a lot. But we've got horses and coaching, so with the right/new game plan, we've got huge potential. Plus, we all know the mother of all equalizers, besides 7" girth, is chemistry, and I think we've got a quality group of guys to buy-in and make it happen.

 

[Kitaman]

Having taller guards this season should help in the rebounding department and help defense. OC is 6'6" (if true) and only 2 inches away from minimum PF height. With that said its about toughness in the paint. Brimah and PN were not intimidated in the Tourney, and if you look at the films they went up against some huge boys, particularly uk.

There confidence will be sky high, and the Championship will rub off on OC and Kelis Fisher even if they didn't play. 2013-2014 we had one of the weakest big men lineup ever and we still won a NC. This season our big men will certainly improve removing the issues of 'regular season' woes down low.

In summary we will be fine. However PN most of all has got to step it up his junior year, mainly in hand strength. Those uk blocks to me were embarrassing. I want him to average over 8 boards a game by picking up Bazz's boards (who's contribution saved our bigs).

 

[intlzncster]

Having taller guards this season should help in the rebounding department and help defense. OC is 6'6" (if true) and only 2 inches away from minimum PF height. With that said its about toughness in the paint. Brimah and PN were not intimidated in the Tourney, and if you look at the films they went up against some huge boys, particularly uk.

In college, a 6'6 power forward is pretty normal. Don't think his height matters that much. That said, the build and game are entirely different down there.

 

[Rocktheworld]

If Hamilton puts on about 25 pounds of muscle

Oh, that's all?

 

[UconnU]

Having taller guards this season should help in the rebounding department and help defense. OC is 6'6" (if true) and only 2 inches away from minimum PF height. With that said its about toughness in the paint. Brimah and PN were not intimidated in the Tourney, and if you look at the films they went up against some huge boys, particularly uk.

There confidence will be sky high, and the Championship will rub off on OC and Kelis Fisher even if they didn't play. 2013-2014 we had one of the weakest big men lineup ever and we still won a NC. This season our big men will certainly improve removing the issues of 'regular season' woes down low.

In summary we will be fine. However PN most of all has got to step it up his junior year, mainly in hand strength. Those uk blocks to me were embarrassing. I want him to average over 8 boards a game by picking up Bazz's boards (who's contribution saved our bigs).

Wait... oc is 6'6 now???

 

[Husky25]

Having taller guards this season should help in the rebounding department and help defense. OC is 6'6" (if true) and only 2 inches away from minimum PF height.

But he is only 2 bills. Kevin Freeman was "only" 6'-7", but weighs in at 235 and is one of the best undersized power forwards in NCAA history, IMO. Keith Van Horn was 6-10 and played just as much SF as PF, maybe more. Height does not determine position. Defense and attitude do. These guys are all listed 2 inches taller in the program than they are in reality as it is. Omar Calhoun is probably 6'-4 1/2" and he plays on the outside. I just want his shot to return so he can re-enter the top 8 in the rotation. IF he can do that, It would go a long way (along with Hamilton) to replace the production lost of Daniels and Giffey. I think what UConn will really miss are the 5 fouls that Olander afforded them.

KO's offensive philosophy doesn't really focus on post play or relying on our size . Brimah needs to get a little heavier and not use his hands to box out, but his main job is screener/lob catcher/crashing offensive glass. KO needs someone at the 4 hitting jumpshots though , when boat/purv utilize mid screen and roll

It not absolute, but it's a good bet, that Boat won't be able to replicate Kembazz Naplker. That said, I am in a Moneyball State of Mind. I'm looking for some combination of the 2013-14 non-contributors to replicate the stats vacated by Napier, Giffey, Daniels, Olander and Kromah. I think Purvis, Hamilton, Calhoun Facey, and a sprinkle of Cassell can do it.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Oh, that's all?

Yeah. Seems doable, right?

 

[elduderino]

But he is only 2 bills. Kevin Freeman was "only" 6'-7", but weighs in at 235 and is one of the best undersized power forwards in NCAA history, IMO. Keith Van Horn was 6-10 and played just as much SF as PF, maybe more. Height does not determine position. Defense and attitude do. These guys are all listed 2 inches taller in the program than they are in reality as it is. Omar Calhoun is probably 6'-4 1/2" and he plays on the outside. I just want his shot to return so he can re-enter the top 8 in the rotation. IF he can do that, It would go a long way (along with Hamilton) to replace the production lost of Daniels and Giffey. I think what UConn will really miss are the 5 fouls that Olander afforded them.



It not absolute, but it's a good bet, that Boat won't be able to replicate Kembazz Naplker. That said, I am in a Moneyball State of Mind. I'm looking for some combination of the 2013-14 non-contributors to replicate the stats vacated by Napier, Giffey, Daniels, Olander and Kromah. I think Purvis, Hamilton, Calhoun Facey, and a sprinkle of Cassell can do it.

Michael Lewis is the most interesting, insightful and entertaining writer I have ever come across.

 

[Husky25]

Michael Lewis is the most interesting, insightful and entertaining writer I have ever come across.

What are you talking about? Joe Morgan said that Billy Beane wrote that book!

And Joe Morgan should know. He never read it...What?!?!

 

[elduderino]

Joe Morgan thinks sabermetrics are a mystical robotic tiger. I've enjoyed all ML's books, although Flash Boys is a bit less interesting for me having spent time in the industry, and the name being kind of Chelsea-bookstore.