Next Year's Chemistry, Leadership and Ethos

[Chin Diesel]

Two comments this year from Ollie really stuck out to me this year.

Early in the year (before Christmas) Ollie mentioned the need for players to put in the time and effort outside the NCAA allowed practice time to improve their individual game.

Midway through the season he mentioned that he wasn't going AAU and just rolling out the balls. He was going to make the players run his offense and defense.

Right before the tourney Boat mentioned that players have to show pride in their game and step up when teams don't bother to guard players.

All of which leads to next year. It's obvious that over the past four years Boat put in the time to improve his individual game and his leadership of the team.

Who is going to pick up ball and lead next year's team? Who can command the respect of his teammates through words and deeds? Who is going to drag teammates in to the gym. Who is going to go the extra mile and meet with coaches to listen to them and instill the coaches wishes in to his teammates?

Amidah was a captain this year. Does he continue to develop and show personal growth so that his teammates can use it as a reference point?

Purvis and DHam really picked up their pace the last 15 games. They need a third perimeter player and two post players to match their growth.

 

[UConnSwag11]

Two comments this year from Ollie really stuck out to me this year.

Early in the year (before Christmas) Ollie mentioned the need for players to put in the time and effort outside the NCAA allowed practice time to improve their individual game.

Midway through the season he mentioned that he wasn't going AAU and just rolling out the balls. He was going to make the players run his offense and defense.

Right before the tourney Boat mentioned that players have to show pride in their game and step up when teams don't bother to guard players.

All of which leads to next year. It's obvious that over the past four years Boat put in the time to improve his individual game and his leadership of the team.

Who is going to pick up ball and lead next year's team? Who can command the respect of his teammates through words and deeds? Who is going to drag teammates in to the gym. Who is going to go the extra mile and meet with coaches to listen to them and instill the coaches wishes in to his teammates?

Amidah was a captain this year. Does he continue to develop and show personal growth so that his teammates can use it as a reference point?

Purvis and DHam really picked up their pace the last 15 games. They need a third perimeter player and two post players to match their growth.

purvis and hamilton have both improved their FT% and handles immensely. Brimah as a leader and captain I think did/is doing a great job, always involved in every play whether he's on the bench or on the court... you never see him getting down or yelling at his teammates... he is a great rim protector and has a great motor, he needs to gain weight, work on rebounding, get much better at moving laterally, and keep his hands straight up more than hanging them over the defender...I think purvis will be a good replacement for boat, if he is the one to replace him, as captain... he shows love for the team and ollie, and shows so much emotion that everyone feeds off him... I could see purvis being the one to hold a teammate accountable for not putting the work in

 

[Hey Adrien!]

Today's game was the passing of the torch from Boatright to Purvis. Watching UConn lose was painful, but seeing Purvis take over the game and light up the XL center helped me look forward to next year.

 

[The Funster]

They need to run a better offense. There was no pick and roll and no pick and pop. All I saw was pick and pass it around the perimeter. Very rarely did we get into our offense when there was more than 10 seconds on the shot clock. Ollie can say what he wants about the players working on their game on their own but when a team doesn't run a good offense all year long...that falls on the staff.

 

[CTBasketball]

I said it earlier. More or much much less, today was about suffering on the cross and then handing it off to the disciples. Maybe the NIT is the resurrection, don't know. One thing's certain, my analogies are really really bad and most of the time blown out of proportion.