Observations on today

[nelsonmuntz]

The game was never in doubt, so my comments below are thoughts entering the conference schedule and areas that I think should be addressed to achieve what this team is capable of achieving.

Shabazz - amazing this season. Takes some bad shots but often those are shot clock bailout shots. The rebounding has been particularly amazing for someone his size who doesn't have much vertical. Plays too many minutes for my tastes, particularly in a game like today. Those extra minutes are cumulative over a season, but he is learning how to take breathers on the court. Samuel and Boat are good enough that UConn should be able to keep Bazz around 30 minutes in a game like today.

Boatright - He is the best athlete on the team, but do people realize that Boatright is 29 for 75 from 2 this season? Given how many layups and dunks he gets, this is a horrendous number. It is time for Ollie to put a stop to his terrible shot selection. We don't need the step back fadeaways and running 10 foot hook shots over 6'10 players. His 3 point shooting is pretty good at 12 for 27, and given how many bad 3's I can remember, I bet his base 3 point shooting numbers of his good shots is over 50%.

At 5 minutes left in the first half was a perfect example of Boat being Boat, He has a 2 on 1 break with Kromah. He crosses over to his left, cutting Kromah off, and then takes a wild left handed hook instead of passing back to Kromah trailing. He is a great athlete and a very good player at times, but there is a reason why NBA scouts are so lukewarm, or worse, on him.

Giffey - he is the second best player on the team. Defensively he picks up the other teams best forward and his shooting is incredible. As I have said before, a line like today's (4 for 5, 1 for 1 from 3, 4 for 4 from the line) is no longer a good thing for a player this good. Anyone shooting under 40% (see Boat from 2) is shooting too much, and anyone over 60% is not shooting enough. Giffey has to be more aggressive and more selfish offensively for UConn to be more than what we are, which is a good top 25 team that is scary but not on anyone's radar for the Final Four.

Center - I think Nolan is the best option we have at this position, and today reinforced that. I think college teams need a center on the court at all times. There were some lineups where I think Giffey or Daniels was playing the 5. Offensively it is fun to have 5 scorers on the court, but there is a reason that NBA teams all pay stiffs like Mason Plumlee millions a year. A team needs a center defensively and especially for rebounding. I would even be fine with sliding Daniels to 3 and playing Nolan and Brimah together for short stretches.

Other than the German stiff on EWU, they have 2 6'7 players and everyone else is 6'5 or shorter, and UConn only outrebounded them by 3. EWU is terrible. While the American is pretty weak, teams like SMU do have big guys and if UConn is not shooting well, that is a game that UConn could lose. The rebounding has to improve, and I don't see how that happens without more minutes by Nolan, Brimah and even Olander.

Assists - the game was not competitive a few minutes into the second half, so I know it is one of those games where players start playing for their stats, but 13 assists is just not good enough. Against the competitive teams this season, UConn had 16 against Maryland, and then the next best was 11. (23 assists against Maine is a meaningless statistic). This team should be creating more shots for each other. This team needs to average 15 assists or better against the good teams this year to win many of those games.

Kromah, Giffey, Daniels, Boatright, Calhoun, Nolan, Brimah, Olander - these guys are all productive players but none are good enough that they NEED to be playing 30+ minutes, and none are bad enough that they should be written off completely. Ollie has to make situational substitutions every game. Just the way this team is.

 

[BoatShow]

It was nice to see a packed house for a opponent in December :shrug:

 

[champs99and04]

Some good points (though the one which I disagree on most vehemently is the Daniels/Nolan/Brimah suggestion - that would be floor spacing suicide). This team racks up a fair amount of assists, but I think that total is skewed due to Napier being one of the best point guards in the country. As a whole, this team just does not move the ball well enough offensively. With the amount of shooters we have, the dribbling to passing ratio needs some re-calibration, especially given we have two guards who can collapse the defense practically at will.

Your observation on Boatright was spot on. Too many face-palm type plays from him, even though he's improved in that area over his career. His mid-range game has, for whatever reason, regressed emphatically this season, and he doesn't seem to be finishing at the rim as efficiently, either. I also agree with you in regards to Giffey - when a guy is shooting 65% from three this far into the season, it starts to become reflective of certain shortcomings in UConn's half-court offense. One of them, I just mentioned above - the ball still isn't moving enough from side to side, and everything in general is much harder than I envisioned before the season. The other problem with the offense is more schematically driven, IMO. We just don't seem to be trying quite hard enough to free Giffey on the perimeter - he'll get his one or two open looks a game, but they are all of the spot up variety. I'd like to see some more off-ball movement to try to open things up - I know he's not Ray Allen or Ben Gordon, where he's going to be running through screens continuously for 35 seconds, but it still seems like we're not utilizing him to the fullest extent.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Giffey's only 3 point attempt yesterday was trailing the fasr break. He should be getting 4 to 5 3 point attempts a game.

 

[Scot-e]

Did anyone else think that part of the cause of Boats issues on the court ( he had a good game I am speaking toward the problems mentioned above) was that he plays selfish at times?

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Did anyone else think that part of the cause of Boats issues on the court ( he had a good game I am speaking toward the problems mentioned above) was that he plays selfish at times?

I am OK with the 2 guard on a team playing a little selfish. My problem is when the 2 guard on a team plays a lot selfish. There are way too many attempts at highlight shots.

 

[wbfree]

The game was never in doubt, so my comments below are thoughts entering the conference schedule and areas that I think should be addressed to achieve what this team is capable of achieving.

Shabazz - amazing this season. Takes some bad shots but often those are shot clock bailout shots. The rebounding has been particularly amazing for someone his size who doesn't have much vertical. Plays too many minutes for my tastes, particularly in a game like today. Those extra minutes are cumulative over a season, but he is learning how to take breathers on the court. Samuel and Boat are good enough that UConn should be able to keep Bazz around 30 minutes in a game like today.

Boatright - He is the best athlete on the team, but do people realize that Boatright is 29 for 75 from 2 this season? Given how many layups and dunks he gets, this is a horrendous number. It is time for Ollie to put a stop to his terrible shot selection. We don't need the step back fadeaways and running 10 foot hook shots over 6'10 players. His 3 point shooting is pretty good at 12 for 27, and given how many bad 3's I can remember, I bet his base 3 point shooting numbers of his good shots is over 50%.

At 5 minutes left in the first half was a perfect example of Boat being Boat, He has a 2 on 1 break with Kromah. He crosses over to his left, cutting Kromah off, and then takes a wild left handed hook instead of passing back to Kromah trailing. He is a great athlete and a very good player at times, but there is a reason why NBA scouts are so lukewarm, or worse, on him.

Giffey - he is the second best player on the team. Defensively he picks up the other teams best forward and his shooting is incredible. As I have said before, a line like today's (4 for 5, 1 for 1 from 3, 4 for 4 from the line) is no longer a good thing for a player this good. Anyone shooting under 40% (see Boat from 2) is shooting too much, and anyone over 60% is not shooting enough. Giffey has to be more aggressive and more selfish offensively for UConn to be more than what we are, which is a good top 25 team that is scary but not on anyone's radar for the Final Four.

Center - I think Nolan is the best option we have at this position, and today reinforced that. I think college teams need a center on the court at all times. There were some lineups where I think Giffey or Daniels was playing the 5. Offensively it is fun to have 5 scorers on the court, but there is a reason that NBA teams all pay stiffs like Mason Plumlee millions a year. A team needs a center defensively and especially for rebounding. I would even be fine with sliding Daniels to 3 and playing Nolan and Brimah together for short stretches.

Other than the German stiff on EWU, they have 2 6'7 players and everyone else is 6'5 or shorter, and UConn only outrebounded them by 3. EWU is terrible. While the American is pretty weak, teams like SMU do have big guys and if UConn is not shooting well, that is a game that UConn could lose. The rebounding has to improve, and I don't see how that happens without more minutes by Nolan, Brimah and even Olander.

Assists - the game was not competitive a few minutes into the second half, so I know it is one of those games where players start playing for their stats, but 13 assists is just not good enough. Against the competitive teams this season, UConn had 16 against Maryland, and then the next best was 11. (23 assists against Maine is a meaningless statistic). This team should be creating more shots for each other. This team needs to average 15 assists or better against the good teams this year to win many of those games.

Kromah, Giffey, Daniels, Boatright, Calhoun, Nolan, Brimah, Olander - these guys are all productive players but none are good enough that they NEED to be playing 30+ minutes, and none are bad enough that they should be written off completely. Ollie has to make situational substitutions every game. Just the way this team is.

The game was never in doubt, so my comments below are thoughts entering the conference schedule and areas that I think should be addressed to achieve what this team is capable of achieving.

Shabazz - amazing this season. Takes some bad shots but often those are shot clock bailout shots. The rebounding has been particularly amazing for someone his size who doesn't have much vertical. Plays too many minutes for my tastes, particularly in a game like today. Those extra minutes are cumulative over a season, but he is learning how to take breathers on the court. Samuel and Boat are good enough that UConn should be able to keep Bazz around 30 minutes in a game like today.

Boatright - He is the best athlete on the team, but do people realize that Boatright is 29 for 75 from 2 this season? Given how many layups and dunks he gets, this is a horrendous number. It is time for Ollie to put a stop to his terrible shot selection. We don't need the step back fadeaways and running 10 foot hook shots over 6'10 players. His 3 point shooting is pretty good at 12 for 27, and given how many bad 3's I can remember, I bet his base 3 point shooting numbers of his good shots is over 50%.

At 5 minutes left in the first half was a perfect example of Boat being Boat, He has a 2 on 1 break with Kromah. He crosses over to his left, cutting Kromah off, and then takes a wild left handed hook instead of passing back to Kromah trailing. He is a great athlete and a very good player at times, but there is a reason why NBA scouts are so lukewarm, or worse, on him.

Giffey - he is the second best player on the team. Defensively he picks up the other teams best forward and his shooting is incredible. As I have said before, a line like today's (4 for 5, 1 for 1 from 3, 4 for 4 from the line) is no longer a good thing for a player this good. Anyone shooting under 40% (see Boat from 2) is shooting too much, and anyone over 60% is not shooting enough. Giffey has to be more aggressive and more selfish offensively for UConn to be more than what we are, which is a good top 25 team that is scary but not on anyone's radar for the Final Four.

Center - I think Nolan is the best option we have at this position, and today reinforced that. I think college teams need a center on the court at all times. There were some lineups where I think Giffey or Daniels was playing the 5. Offensively it is fun to have 5 scorers on the court, but there is a reason that NBA teams all pay stiffs like Mason Plumlee millions a year. A team needs a center defensively and especially for rebounding. I would even be fine with sliding Daniels to 3 and playing Nolan and Brimah together for short stretches.

Other than the German stiff on EWU, they have 2 6'7 players and everyone else is 6'5 or shorter, and UConn only outrebounded them by 3. EWU is terrible. While the American is pretty weak, teams like SMU do have big guys and if UConn is not shooting well, that is a game that UConn could lose. The rebounding has to improve, and I don't see how that happens without more minutes by Nolan, Brimah and even Olander.

Assists - the game was not competitive a few minutes into the second half, so I know it is one of those games where players start playing for their stats, but 13 assists is just not good enough. Against the competitive teams this season, UConn had 16 against Maryland, and then the next best was 11. (23 assists against Maine is a meaningless statistic). This team should be creating more shots for each other. This team needs to average 15 assists or better against the good teams this year to win many of those games.

Kromah, Giffey, Daniels, Boatright, Calhoun, Nolan, Brimah, Olander - these guys are all productive players but none are good enough that they NEED to be playing 30+ minutes, and none are bad enough that they should be written off completely. Ollie has to make situational substitutions every game. Just the way this team is.

Mason Plumlee is not a stiff. I agree on Boatright's play. He is selfish at times. Too much useless dribbling and bad shot selection. However, he is a pest on defense, and we do need his scoring to be good. I think he just needs to make better decisions with the ball.

 

[GlastonTim]

I think it's selfishness and low bball IQ.

 

[boog204]

agree on most points...

1) Boat is a selfish player. He has at least 2 or 3 possessions a game where he uses the set as a personal dribbling exhibition to accomplish nothing. He also brutalizes at least one 2 on 1 a game b/c he won't give the ball up. I wouldn't call him a pest defensively though. He struggles with screens, gets beat off the dribble way too much for someone as athletic as he is, and gambles too much as well.

2) We had I believe 2 assists in the first half and one was on a 2 on 0 dunk. We don't move the ball at all offensively and in my opinion we have some selfish tendencies. The fact that we ended up with 13 assists is solely due to Bazz. Omar and DD have a combined 13 assists total this year. That's our starting 3 and stretch 4 who have the ball in their hands quite a bit. It's going to bite us in the some games as we are so dependent on Bazz creating offense.

3) As stated, the Plumlee's are not stiffs. Any of them would be our starting center now and the real good one (can't remember if it's Miles or Mason) would make us a top 5 team.

 

[mauconnfan]

Giffey's only 3 point attempt yesterday was trailing the fasr break. He should be getting 4 to 5 3 point attempts a game.

As well as more than 5 shots………partly on him as he had a couple chances but passed on them…….but still, run something for him please!

 

[mauconnfan]

agree on most points...

1) Boat is a selfish player. He has at least 2 or 3 possessions a game where he uses the set as a personal dribbling exhibition to accomplish nothing. He also brutalizes at least one 2 on 1 a game b/c he won't give the ball up. I wouldn't call him a pest defensively though. He struggles with screens, gets beat off the dribble way too much for someone as athletic as he is, and gambles too much as well.

2) We had I believe 2 assists in the first half and one was on a 2 on 0 dunk. We don't move the ball at all offensively and in my opinion we have some selfish tendencies. The fact that we ended up with 13 assists is solely due to Bazz. Omar and DD have a combined 13 assists total this year. That's our starting 3 and stretch 4 who have the ball in their hands quite a bit. It's going to bite us in the some games as we are so dependent on Bazz creating offense.

3) As stated, the Plumlee's are not stiffs. Any of them would be our starting center now and the real good one (can't remember if it's Miles or Mason) would make us a top 5 team.

As you and nelson mentioned, the one that stuck out was when he crossed in front of Lasan instead of spreading and either making the defensive commit and dropping it off or then taking it to the hole……that play was all about him……he also lazily missed a box out on the weak side and that one really ticked me off. He should be utilizing the fundamentals and making that rebound HIS! And again, anyone who thinks he is the answer for our PG for next year for more then spot duty isn't watching closely!!!

 

[Tenspro2002]

And again, anyone who thinks he is the answer for our PG for next year for more then spot duty isn't watching closely!!!

He will be our PG, by default if nothing else. But between him and Purvis, it's going to be like having two poor man's Allen Iversons out there. If you think our ball movement is lacking this year, just wait until we have multiple ball-stoppers running the show.

To be fair, I haven't seen Purvis play, and I'm just going on what I've heard about him, but at this point, Boat is who he is. He's not going to all of a sudden develop Bazz's basketball IQ, savvy, and court vision.

 

[mauconnfan]

He will be our PG, by default if nothing else. But between him and Purvis, it's going to be like having two poor man's Allen Iversons out there. If you think our ball movement is lacking this year, just wait until we have multiple ball-stoppers running the show.

To be fair, I haven't seen Purvis play, and I'm just going on what I've heard about him, but at this point, Boat is who he is. He's not going to all of a sudden develop Bazz's basketball IQ, savvy, and court vision.

All good points but reality is if he wins by default it will be a long year in half court offense, probably painful at times. They really need Samuel (who isn't getting off the bench at all so not a good sign) to improve or Cassell Jr to come in and surprise……..I have to stop worrying about next year but that is scary right now. He really has no clue how to run the team I'm afraid and everyone can tell me all they want about being "spoiled" because of kemba and Bazz but he has no PG skills, none! Stops his dribble too far away or goes to far in tot he defense never much in between……..he's fine where he is a 2G……...

 

[James]

you guys must not understand Giffey simply doesn't have the tools to increase his usage. Boats aggressiveness is why we stand with 1 loss, whether you like it or not (see who assisted on that 4pointplay vs Florida). It's not sound basketball logic to say "player x is shooting a better % than player y, so player x should be given the ball more and asked to create".

Ollie adheres to his personnel , he isn't running ice action for Giffey because Giffey is a SPOT UP shooter. Our offense is our two premier guards attacking off the pnr, Napier off ball, and sometimes Daniels in the post. That's it. Boat took 11 shots and had 2 TOs, now he's selfish huh. Smh.

 

[upstater]

Boat's job is to take pressure off Napier. If it's just Napier out there penetrating, he'll be spent by the end.

 

[Goat]

As well as more than 5 shots………partly on him as he had a couple chances but passed on them…….but still, run something for him please!

Totally agree. NG's first half heroics in early games may have been partially caused by defensive adjustments, but it was also distribution. He needs more touches. He passes well and doesn't take bad shots.

As to Boatright, I really want to like him. I think I am OK with the risk taking D, because the entire team takes chances to turn the ball over and he produces. That is also part of how a smaller, faster player checks a taller one. Offensively, I am sure someone has told him that his best NBA chance is not as a 2 guard and that he should be looking to up his assist numbers. It looks like he will not accept this. If Boatright made the conscious effort to involve others and we had more of a 2 pg attack, I think the baskets he sacrificed would result in more total points from Napier and the 3, Daniels and 5.

 

[johnhuskies95]

Boatright is plenty good on defense. He can really bother teams at times, he's probably the second most disruptive player on defense other than Kromah. He defends screens well also, in fact the entire team is fundamentally sound on defense. They just can't rebound to put teams away.

Giffey is lethal as a spot up shooter, but like James said, he's not a guy you want to just run off of screens constantly to get shots. He just doesn't set himself well enough when he's running off screens. He's not Ray Allen. If you run plays for him, do it with the pick and pop. Ollie's an NBA guy, he knows his personnel very well.

 

[Gurleyman]

Totally agree. NG's first half heroics in early games may have been partially caused by defensive adjustments, but it was also distribution. He needs more touches. He passes well and doesn't take bad shots.

As to Boatright, I really want to like him. I think I am OK with the risk taking D, because the entire team takes chances to turn the ball over and he produces. That is also part of how a smaller, faster player checks a taller one. Offensively, I am sure someone has told him that his best NBA chance is not as a 2 guard and that he should be looking to up his assist numbers. It looks like he will not accept this. If Boatright made the conscious effort to involve others and we had more of a 2 pg attack, I think the baskets he sacrificed would result in more total points from Napier and the 3, Daniels and 5.

Boat is taking 9.5 shots a game this year after taking almost 12 a game last year. He does take some bad ones - he's a guy who plays fast and the guys who play fast are prone to mistakes and look bad doing so. But I can't count how many times this year I've expected him to force up a step back jumper, only to see him find an open teammate. Folks here are cherry picking the bad possessions. Against Florida, Boat got us a good possession late with the ball in his hands (the 4-pt play), Bazz didn't (but got lucky). Against Stanford, Boat got Bazz another good look on almost the same type of drive and kickout, which he missed. Bazz by himself took an off balance 20-foot two pointer and gave Omar the ball 30 feet out. We need both of them, so we can try to get Bazz in situations where he can get the ball against a scrambling defense and not with all five defenders watching him dribble.

Giffey isn't a good passer - he averages about one assist every 50 minutes of playing time (five in 12 games this year). He won't take any risks - be it shooting when he isn't already squared up or making a tough pass to get a guy a shot. One nice thing when you never take any risks is that you avoid criticism, but someone on the floor has to make something happen. The defense isn't going to let you stand there and shoot uncontested spot up threes all night. There's a lot more in theory that Giffey could do for this team, but he kinda is what he is at this point. He won't make mistakes and can make some shots playing off others, but he isn't going to create anything and he's not going to shoot shots out of his comfort zone.

 

[Dmike]

Bo

All good points but reality is if he wins by default it will be a long year in half court offense, probably painful at times. They really need Samuel (who isn't getting off the bench at all so not a good sign) to improve or Cassell Jr to come in and surprise……..I have to stop worrying about next year but that is scary right now. He really has no clue how to run the team I'm afraid and everyone can tell me all they want about being "spoiled" because of kemba and Bazz but he has no PG skills, none! Stops his dribble too far away or goes to far in tot he defense never much in between……..he's fine where he is a 2G……...

Boat is not Kemba, Bazz, Taliek, Marcus, Sheffer or Ollie in terms of pure PG skills, but he does have good court vision, which occasionally and noticeably turns into tunnel vision. I do think he will be our PG next year and based off of my observations for the last 2 1/2 seasons, he'll be a good one. Hopefully AJ Price good which is not unimaginable. He's averaged about 4 assists per game in his Uconn career. Not bad at all. Also, for a guy with his ego, he's doing a good job of letting Shabazz shine. He has great leadership skills, he's fiercely loyal to our program, and he'd crawl over broken glass if KO asks him to did so. When this is his team next year, and it will be his team next year, we'll all be praising him for his senior leadership and heady play. He won't be Bazz, but I like our chances with a Senior Boatshow after KO gives him the reins.

 

[blackbird]

Boat is either a selfish player or has horrible court vision. I like to give players the benefit of the doubt so I'm going with poor court vision.

There's no way he'll be the vastly underrated AJ Price good.

 

[ASweet3781]

To address one point the OP made, how can Shabazz play LESS minutes?

The game was a 10 point game going to the final timeout and EWU can shoot 3's.

There are consequences to not being able to put a team away.

 

[Gurleyman]

Boat is either a selfish player or has horrible court vision. I like to give players the benefit of the doubt so I'm going with poor court vision.

There's no way he'll be the vastly underrated AJ Price good.

He and Bazz had almost the exact same number of assists last year. This year, Bazz is playing the lead guard role and Boat's assists are down (but his assist to turnover ratio is up). Boat has decreased his shots this year from 12 a game to about 9.5 - and he's rebounding more (he has more defensive rebounds than DD and Giffey). He's not a pure point - he came in as a scorer - so he will certainly make mistakes or make the wrong read. But 4.4 assists a game last year while sharing point guard duties isn't bad at all.

Statistically, Boat was very similar last year to Price as a senior. Boat averaged 15.3 points on 42.9 percent shooting and 4.4 assists to 3.0 turnovers. Price averaged 14.7 points on 40.7 percent shooting and 4.7 assists to 2.7 turnovers. We just had a much better team in 2009, particularly on the front line/rebounding wise, so we won a lot more games.

 

[huskyharry]

Boat definitely seems to get tunnel vision which leads to really bad decisions. This seems to occur when he drives in among the trees and has a single-minded purpose...usually to fake a shot and make a pass to a big near the hoop. Unfortunately, our bigs have not yet learned how to make themselves "big" when trying to get a pass by creating space, proper positioning etc. and tend to more shy away from the ball, which takes away the potential passing angle that Boat had when he made the move. I think mostly because of his lack of height and very good leaping ability, Boat will often attempt to make this play in the air but when the passing angle is gone, he is stuck either forcing the pass where it isn't open or forcing up a shot at the last instant when he is actually coming down. This leads to either a bad turnover or getting stuffed by his defender. The sad part is that, if he didn't get tunnel vision, he could actually see that a wing (often Gif) is wide open but 90 degrees in the other direction.

I think Boat will actually display better PG skills next year, but it will have to be more from the Chaz Williams model of faster tempo creating rather than Bazz's ball control, use the clock model. UConn will need to use more of a running model and Boat could excel by getting into good position for the outlet pass and pushing the ball up quickly before the opponent's defense sets up. Omar, Purvis and Hamilton have the speed to fill the wing spots on the break quickly and should also be strong finishers (although Omar needs some work in that regard). TSamuel and Sam C Jr. have better potential as true half court offense PGs.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

I really think we're mixing up low basketball IQ/court vision with selfishness.

Boat takes a lot of the same criticism that Dyson took on here. Both guys play their tails off and play with a lot of UConn pride.

They both made a lot of errors over their careers that you could deem " dumb" and while it's not totally excusable, Boat and Dyson I think both were put in situations where they had to make things happen which leads to these mistakes.

Boat plays hard and due to being the only guy besides Napier that can create for himself, he sometimes gets in bad spots.

I think Boat is best suited as a 6th man ( like say on the 06 or 09 squads) but he's a lead guard on this team and I think he has a lot more to do with our success than failure.

 

[mauconnfan]

I agree with most CHB and for the most part he plays real hard. He also has some tendinitis so give him some credit for not complaining and just playing. But there is a mix of selfishness and IQ there along with the fact he plays reckless basketball. He's not a control guy but has improved albeit in a rather minor scope. But while he plays hard he gets lazy, misses box outs, looses himself in the middle and unable to get to his guy by the 3 pt line and because of that he's always jumping so ball fakes kill him……he can be a lot better if he played "smarter" shall I say…….

I like the kid, tough city kid with a swagger but he hasn't gotten to where I would have expected by now…..may still happen we'll see!