Nice comeback

[intlzncster]

Current theoretically healthyish players who can get some minutes on a winning college team:

Gilbert
Vital
Wilson
Polley
Carlton

I like to think of it with an example. On say Cincinatti, a decent college team at the moment, who of these guys is getting minutes?

Gilbert/Vital and some Wilson. I just don't see Polley and Carlton playing. Surrounded by better players, maybe they show more, but I just don't see the intrinsic skills/athleticism to play over other guys.

 

[husky429]

You want to remember that for a number of players the leap from high school to college messes with their shot freshman year. The speed is much greater. Napier shot 32% from 3. So did Giffey. Sidney is worse (25%) but nobody thinks he's as good as Shabazz at that. Sidney is shooting better than DeAndre Daniels did.
He does need to work on his shooting, but you have to remember that if you aren't one of about 20-30 freshman you usually have a pretty normal and logical transition into college.

Sid may never be a great shooter, but bad shooting number your freshman year don't make you a bad shooter.

The difference is Sid's shot needs a major reconstruction. Flat as can be bc his shooting hand has poor position. Shabazz shot looked good he was just rushing freshman year. (@Walker11 )

 

[Edward Sargent]

Current theoretically healthyish players who can get some minutes on a winning college team:

Gilbert
Vital
Wilson
Polley
Carlton

Of that group, who would be getting some minutes on a traditionally good UConn team:

Gilbert
Vital
(I think of Wilson as freshmen Daniels or some of our other talented kids who didn't get right in)

Of that group, who would be getting good minutes on a traditionally good UConn team:

100% healthy Gilbert.

This is why we suck.

I hope so because your first five healthyish players are next years starting 5

 

[tzznandrew]

I hope so because your first five healthyish players are next years starting 5

By "winning" team, I literally mean a team that wins some more games than they lose and maybe makes the NCAAs. But only having 5 of those players isn't enough.

Jr. Gilbert
Sr. Vital
Jr. Polley
So. Wilson
Jr. Carlton
---
Fr. Akok
Fr. Bouknight
Fr. Gaffney
--

Those are 8 players who could theoretically contribute to a winning team. Even that isn't enough. You have to worry about injuries, and you have to worry about freshman being freshman.

Hopefully So. Adams is better due to hard work, and hopefully they get another impact player or two. But we have more than those 8 players plus Adams on the roster....

 

[superjohn]

I hope so because your first five healthyish players are next years starting 5

I highly doubt that's the starting 5 next year, highly doubt it.

 

[tzznandrew]

I highly doubt that's the starting 5 next year, highly doubt it.

No lies detected.

 

[intlzncster]

By "winning" team, I literally mean a team that wins some more games than they lose and maybe makes the NCAAs. But only having 5 of those players isn't enough.

Jr. Gilbert
Sr. Vital
Jr. Polley
So. Wilson
Jr. Carlton
---
Fr. Akok
Fr. Bouknight
Fr. Gaffney
--

Those are 8 players who could theoretically contribute to a winning team. Even that isn't enough. You have to worry about injuries, and you have to worry about freshman being freshman.

Hopefully So. Adams is better due to hard work, and hopefully they get another impact player or two. But we have more than those 8 players plus Adams on the roster....

I highly doubt that's the starting 5 next year, highly doubt it.

Leaving aside any new commits, I'm thinking:

Gilbert
Vital
Wilson
Akok
Carlton

 

[superjohn]

Leaving aside any new commits, I'm thinking:

Gilbert
Vital
Wilson
Akok
Carlton

If I had to guess, I think only 3 of the current starters start next season.

 

[John]

Might have to factor in grad transfer too

 

[tzznandrew]

Might have to factor in grad transfer too

You gotta pencil in Gilbert, Vital, and Carlton (barring a late addition or spectacular post-grad).

Then you figure the 3 and 4 are up for grabs. Either pressure from the new guards means we start 3 guards, or 1 of Akok/Wilson/Polley starts the game on the bench.

 

[Ts5034]

My main takeaway from today is that relevance is very good, 3 years of basic irrelevance for UConn has been crushing. UConn MBB was fun today for a little while & like the Cuse game earlier in the year it was awesome.

I hope that we can feel awesome for more than just a few games next year and maybe we start to be relevant for entire seasons again....that's all I can ask for at this point.

This is exactly how I feel. I was pretty upset when we were down 15 and thinking about how bad its getting that we just cannot stay competitive and have a chance to win these games. I was shocked and excited when we came back, but at the same time almost expected the way the game ended.

This fan base is absolutely starving for success. It will now be 3 years since we saw an NCAA Tournament game. If you said on the night we won the championship in 2014 that we would only play in two NCAA Tournament games over the next 5 years, you would have been called crazy.

 

[Stainmaster]

These guys just don't know how to win. Talk about the culture all you want, we still don't have a culture of winning.

And you'll have to keep waiting for that to happen.

 

[tcf15]

 

[RF79]

But hard to win games when you shoot 19% from 3 pt land and miss 8 FT’s.

Continue to look asleep at the start of both half’s.

So true. These slow starts in both halves kill us. We’ve found ourselves behind in most of these conf games all season. Steadily playing catch up

 

[jibsey]

It was a nice little comeback today but the loss doesn’t concern me. I really hope Sid fixes his shot over the summer because we’re going to need him and if he doesn’t I don’t want him out there for major minutes.

 

[Bonesbrigade]

Step 1 shouldn't be a thing in Division 1 basketball, but unfortunately I think it was for this program.
This team was not having fun nor was competitive with halfway decent competition until Hurley.
I saw Josh Carlton get more fired up today, alone, than all of last season.
Step 2 will take care of step 3 after some time.

I get what you're saying in point 1 and totally agree. If you don't enjoy competition you'll never play relaxed and won't play your best. A friend once told me that nervousness and excitement come from the same place. One will make you worse the other will make you better. Embrace the moment, know that it is your time to shine, and let the chips fall where they may. Players know if they played well regardless of the outcome. When you play well, confidence builds which leads to winning. You have to work hard but you have to have fun and can't be scared to lose. Once people figure this out, growth and good things happen. That has nothing to do with being Division 1. This is life and for some of these guys Division 1 BB is their life.

 

[jesterman]

You gotta pencil in Gilbert, Vital, and Carlton (barring a late addition or spectacular post-grad).

Then you figure the 3 and 4 are up for grabs. Either pressure from the new guards means we start 3 guards, or 1 of Akok/Wilson/Polley starts the game on the bench.

I think Gaffney can really challenge for the 2 spot next year, simply because he is already a better ball handler and shot creator than CV. But I also think we have start three guards, and occasionally even go to a super fast four guard lineup with AG/CV/Gaffney/Bouknight/Akok. At least that's my ideal version of the team, but who knows with freshmen. But in terms of pure talent I really think these kids coming in are better than everyone currently returning except AG.

 

[uconndoit]

You're a nice comeback.

 

[Palatine]

Carlton was great on defense during the 14-0 run. He was a big reason for the 0. Keep him inside. He gets in trouble when he gets pulled away from the basket.

 

[uconn34]

SOON, SOON! Feels like 97, 98

 

[zepfan]

You want to remember that for a number of players the leap from high school to college messes with their shot freshman year. The speed is much greater. Napier shot 32% from 3. So did Giffey. Sidney is worse (25%) but nobody thinks he's as good as Shabazz at that. Sidney is shooting better than DeAndre Daniels did.
He does need to work on his shooting, but you have to remember that if you aren't one of about 20-30 freshman you usually have a pretty normal and logical transition into college.

Sid may never be a great shooter, but bad shooting number your freshman year don't make you a bad shooter.

You raise some good points. I hope you are correct about Sid possibly being a better shooter than his freshman year would indicate. If he can become even an average shooter, with his athleticism he could be a potent offensive weapon. The 400,000 shots will do him good either way.