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No Point Guard

I do think turnovers will be a problem. Newton averaged 3.5! Jackson averaged a couple, Diarra had an even TO to assist ratio. No real safe guard of the ball on this team. Anyone saying they don’t foresee turnovers being a problem is lying. With that said we should play uptempo and force lots of turnovers so it shouldn’t matter as much..
 
UcannUconn said:
I do think turnovers will be a problem. Newton averaged 3.5! Jackson averaged a couple, Diarra had an even TO to assist ratio. No real safe guard of the ball on this team. Anyone saying they don’t foresee turnovers being a problem is lying. With that said we should play uptempo and force lots of turnovers so it shouldn’t matter as much..
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Newton was fifth in the AAC in assist-to-turnover ratio last season.
 
Admittedly, I’ve only seen highlights of Newton and read about him. It seems worth mentioning that he had the 24th best assist rate in the country at 34.4% last year. Cole was 24.9%, FYI.
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BGesus4 said:
In all seriousness, I would love to hear more about how Newton is looking. He is the biggest unknown to me that seems to have a real shot at changing the trajectory of this team.
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How is a PG that played 30+ mpg over three years in the AAC "the biggest unknown". I'm genuinely curious. I would put Samson, Hawkins, Karaban, maybe even Andre's development as bigger unknowns. It feels like Newton and Adama are probably the two most known quantities at this point. Is your point just that you haven't personally watched him?
 
WhereistheDove? said:
How is a PG that played 30+ mpg over three years in the AAC "the biggest unknown". I'm genuinely curious. I would put Samson, Hawkins, Karaban, maybe even Andre's development as bigger unknowns. It feels like Newton and Adama are probably the two most known quantities at this point. Is your point just that you haven't personally watched him?
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I think his point is that we've heard little nuggets about all those other guys but not Newton. Jackson's improved form on his shot, lots of talk about him stepping up as a leader. Been talk about Johnson turning potential into production and Karaban pushing him and it being a legit competition at the 4 spot. There hasn't been much of anything said about Newton though
 
navery12 said:
I think his point is that we've heard little nuggets about all those other guys but not Newton. Jackson's improved form on his shot, lots of talk about him stepping up as a leader. Been talk about Johnson turning potential into production and Karaban pushing him and it being a legit competition at the 4 spot. There hasn't been much of anything said about Newton though
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Yeah but Newton has played a ton of college games, which you'd think would be more revealing than the BS anecdotal stuff that leaks out during the summer about these other guys.
 
BigErnMcCracken said:
Yeah but Newton has played a ton of college games, which you'd think would be more revealing than the BS anecdotal stuff that leaks out during the summer about these other guys.
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More useful definitely but I'm still surprised we haven't seen much leak about him. Not in a concerning way, there's lots of evidence of what we'll get from him based on East Carolina. Just in that as the starting PG of the team he'll be the key to a deep run this year
 
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WhereistheDove? said:
How is a PG that played 30+ mpg over three years in the AAC "the biggest unknown". I'm genuinely curious. I would put Samson, Hawkins, Karaban, maybe even Andre's development as bigger unknowns. It feels like Newton and Adama are probably the two most known quantities at this point. Is your point just that you haven't personally watched him?
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Yeah I meant biggest unknown to me having not watched him or seen him play with anyone else on this team—in conjunction with seeming to have the ability to be one of the highest impact players. Ie I’m wondering if he has the ability to make us a top tier team in the country. Everybody’s saying if Hawkins handle is improved then x or if Jackson’s offense is better than y, but Newton seems like perhaps our biggest roster difference from last year that could totally change things. If he’s really an NBA-potential guy as a 6’5” pg as some reporters alluded to, then I think this season would be better than the consensus is projecting. But again, without having actually seen him in action and him being new to the team, it seems like a (high impact) unknown.
 
BGesus4 said:
Yeah I meant biggest unknown to me having not watched him or seen him play with anyone else on this team—in conjunction with seeming to have the ability to be one of the highest impact players. Ie I’m wondering if he has the ability to make us a top tier team in the country. Everybody’s saying if Hawkins handle is improved then x or if Jackson’s offense is better than y, but Newton seems like perhaps our biggest roster difference from last year that could totally change things. If he’s really an NBA-potential guy as a 6’5” pg as some reporters alluded to, then I think this season would be better than the consensus is projecting. But again, without having actually seen him in action and him being new to the team, it seems like a (high impact) unknown.
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Yeah and how many players on our current roster have either not played for us or played insignificant minutes last year? So we don’t exactly know for certain what we will get from a big part of this year’s team, even though we think we know. 10 players with the only ones being Sanogo, Jackson and Hawkins, AND we are projecting Hawkins to have improved his handle, assertiveness and scoring ability. Probably will be great but we have a bunch of question marks.
 
UcannUconn said:
I do think turnovers will be a problem. Newton averaged 3.5! Jackson averaged a couple, Diarra had an even TO to assist ratio. No real safe guard of the ball on this team. Anyone saying they don’t foresee turnovers being a problem is lying. With that said we should play uptempo and force lots of turnovers so it shouldn’t matter as much..
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Yeah but when you are on a bad team and are relied upon to a lot of the scoring and playmaking you may have more turnovers because of the high usage rate.
 
I'll wait to I see the team in person. I also suspect the o.p. was a bit of trolling.... all that said, if by chance we still don't have a legit pg after struggling in that area last year (arguably the year before as well). Then Dan Hurley has some serious explaining to do. I'll seriously question his ability to evaluate talent and put together a team.

For now, this post is a non issue.
 
NDakotaHusky said:
I'll wait to I see the team in person. I also suspect the o.p. was a bit of trolling.... all that said, if by chance we still don't have a legit pg after struggling in that area last year (arguably the year before as well). Then Dan Hurley has some serious explaining to do. I'll seriously question his ability to evaluate talent and put together a team.

For now, this post is a non issue.
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I know it's been a long offseason but did we really already forget that RJ Cole exists?
 
navery12 said:
I know it's been a long offseason but did we really already forget that RJ Cole exists?
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Oh please. Stop being petty and foolish. You know we had issues at PG. At the very least you know we had issues with the quantity of PGs who were able to actually earn playing time.
 
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NDakotaHusky said:
Oh please. Stop being petty and foolish. You know we had issues at PG. At the very least you know we had issues with the quantity of PGs who were able to actually earn playing time.
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Ok. And then I could point out the specific recruiting challenges that brought them Diggins and Gaffney but where would that lead us on this beautiful Fall Saturday? Nowhere good, I’m sure.

Were they perhaps a bit overly loyal to a guy and his family who believed in them when the AAC team wasn’t what it was in the past or is now? Maybe, but I’ll take that for the time they were in. Diggins had so much of what they look for but couldn’t put it together at this level. If more in-person viewing was possible, would that have been easier to see? Perhaps.

Where I am at now is, the ‘23 class shows what this staff and this Big East program is aiming to achieve with each and every recruiting class. They won’t all be top 5ish, but I feel pretty ok about this staff’s recruiting and roster building.
 
Don't get this hysteria about not having a classic- ball dominant-pass first PG.. The offensive system that Dan Hurley has recruited to and is implementing benefits from multiple ball handlers who can pass/catch/assist/ get their shot when needed. Newton/Alleyne/Diarra/AJax can provide plenty of ball handling proficiency. Newton 's resume speaks for itself.. Is he a CG with excellent ball skills?Or a PG? Don't care--He can deliver the goods. Obviously, Dan Hurley is comfortable with him/AJax(and others) initiating the offense when needed. More concerning to me would be.. Can we break a press thrown at us by a pressing team like ST Johns with the ball handlers we will have on the floor.. I believe Dan Hurley has that covered with this roster. Can the four guys on the floor keep our Bigs happy by dumping/ooping balls down to them in their spots? Yes
 
NDakotaHusky said:
Oh please. Stop being petty and foolish. You know we had issues at PG. At the very least you know we had issues with the quantity of PGs who were able to actually earn playing time.
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We didn't have issues because of Cole. We had issues because we didn't have anyone to back him up. There's a reason why our two other PGs dropped down to mid-majors.

Cole was one of the best PGs in the conference despite being overworked all season.

Terrible take
 
husky429 said:
We didn't have issues because of Cole. We had issues because we didn't have anyone to back him up. There's a reason why our two other PGs dropped down to mid-majors.

Cole was one of the best PGs in the conference despite being overworked all season.

Terrible take
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True. I should have wrote "if by chance we still have pg issues" instead of "if by chance we still don't have a legit pg".
 
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The press break stuff is concern. But we have a pg, and we’ll see how much better Jackson/Hawkins are at pressure dribbling soon. Worst case Diarra sees more minutes against pressing teams.
 
navery12 said:
More useful definitely but I'm still surprised we haven't seen much leak about him. Not in a concerning way, there's lots of evidence of what we'll get from him based on East Carolina. Just in that as the starting PG of the team he'll be the key to a deep run this year
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Interestingly, and perhaps what's behind @coachn 's concerns, I am hearing that Andre is running point in practices and appears to be positioned as the starting PG.

I don't know quite what to make of that.
 
8893 said:
Interestingly, and perhaps what's behind @coachn 's concerns, I am hearing that Andre is running point in practices and appears to be positioned as the starting PG.

I don't know quite what to make of that.
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While Andre has some point guard skills, there has to be a starting spot for Newton given his averages of 17 plus and 5 last season. I would be really surprised if both aren't in the starting lineup, with Andre operating as a point forward in addition to Newton handling a portion of the point guard duties. I fully expect both to start.
 
At the very least, Newton will be a serviceable point guard, and if not Diarra is a good a fallback plan for another serviceable guy. We’re not like Memphis here who had all the talent in the world last year but didn’t have a PG at all.
 
Interestingly, and perhaps what's behind @coachn 's concerns, I am hearing that Andre is running point in practices and appears to be positioned as the starting PG.
8893 said:
I don't know quite what to make of that.
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We will find out if that is the experiment as soon as teams start pressing us.
 
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