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Official UConn v Chaleston Thread

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Strange game - first half it felt like we were on the cusp of blowing them out if we could just make a bucket. Second half it felt like we were on the verge of blowing them out if we could get a stop or two. We ended up with a much closer game than it ever should have been.

But just in terms of looking for incremental progress - Brimah and Hamilton took big steps forward. Purvis at least got the lid off the basket and Cassell and Samuel made drives late when we didn't have to rely just on Boat. I think we need to find a way to avoid long sry spells on offense (18-0 to Bryant and 1-18 stretch today) and not have lapses on D when we have our foot on their throat. But those things you ca expect to get better at with time.

On the negative side, I'm just not seeing Purvis' potential as a playmaker. I understand rust and all, but as of now I don't see the raw materials. Maybe the slippery floor got in his head. That puts more pressure on DHam to grow up quickly.
 
They had a 2-20 stretch in the first half. Then they allowed over 90% shooting for a long stretch in the second half.

Yet, they still won and never lost their grip on the game.

Pocket the W and move on.
 
HuskiesAllDay said:
Well its clear we have a lot of talent, and I certainly wouldn't want to play us come March. But right now, we are not a very well put together basketball team. I know its only two games, but we shouldn't be in this close of games against Bryant and C of C. plenty of new guys or not.

In the offseason I worried about our outside shooting. After the exhibitions, I was worried about our outside shooting. And two games in I am still worried about our outside shooting. Boat, Ham, and Purv can all make threes, but they are more volume shooters than knock down guys. Cassell appears to be our only catch and shoot consistent knock down shooter (again its way early, but this is what I see). With almost no low post game to speak of (we are basically playing 4 on 5 on offense with facey in, and 3 on 5 with Nolan and facey in). That's a bad combo.

We could really use Niels right now...We have tons of talent, but a lot of it is redundant and not exactly a diverse set of skills. When t sam and Purvis are in together, both of them catch it and put their head straight down and drive to the hole. the d plays off and they have nowhere to go.

It's going to take a while for us to gel, and we all know this. Although, it has been 4 games now and its been single digits every game late into the second half. Still excited about the season and think we will have a very good team come March.
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However Brimah is scoring, alley oops, post ups, free throw line, he's still getting points up on the board so far so that's a plus. I don't really have an issue with the "4 on 5" on offense, its hard to recall many UConn teams that had scoring options at every position. You're always going to have a guy or two that is there to fill a role other than scoring. That's Facey's role when he's in, and given the matchups we're going to see alot of line-ups with DHam at the 4 to minimize the scoring issues and open up the floor anyway.
 
I am concerned about the foul shooting. That was our edge a few times last year.
 
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jibsey said:
63% on FT today, need to clean that up.
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We did in the second half (10-11, I think, and we can live with 3-4 from Brimah).

Brimah and Lubin are going to miss some. Cassell and Hamilton going 0-2 is the sort of thing we'll need to shore up and I suspect we will with more repetition. Samuel and Kromah looked awful early in the year and were 19-20 in the tourney combined. And Hamilton and Cassell are better shooters
 
Purvis looks too sloppy with the ball and is turnover prone. Feels like whenever we were on a run, Purvis would lose the ball or fumble the ball away.
 
These are early games and as we get to crunch time I think we see more TSam. We have capable shooters who need to step it up. Purvis should make open 3's.
 
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Purvis is really the only one I'm worried about. We've seen at least what we expected from everyone else, except DHam who has exceeded expectations at least in terms of play making skills.

I remember beating Maryland by 1, Indiana by 1, BC by 2, Loyola MD by 10 last November. You probably wouldn't have guessed a team with those results would have gone on to win it all. Not saying this team will win another NC, but considering it's still November, I'm not worried yet
 
Rocktheworld said:
Purvis is really the only one I'm worried about. We've seen at least what we expected from everyone else, except DHam who has exceeded expectations at least in terms of play making skills.

I remember beating Maryland by 1, Indiana by 1, BC by 2, Loyola MD by 10 last November. You probably wouldn't have guessed a team with those results would have gone on to win it all. Not saying this team will win another NC, but considering it's still November, I'm not worried yet
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It's so true--this team doesn't look much worse than the 2013-2014 team did at the beginning of the year. I remember being so annoyed at times with their play, especially against Stanford and for stretches of the Washington game, not to mention the games you mentioned. You just don't know how the team is going to improve over time.

I will say, I don't see anything in Purvis's game that excites me (unlike Hamilton or even Cassell, to a lesser degree). But it's early yet.
 
I only watched the first half live, and then watched the second half on replay after I already knew the outcome, so my viewing experience was skewed somewhat, but I didn't think they played that poorly. A lot of moving parts this year, once Ollie finds the right combinations I think we'll be in good shape.
 
I guess I expected Rodney to be a better shooter but if that's not his game he can create points off the dribble and assists. DHam is a monster, he gets the green light.
 
I may have not seen this discussed ealier; but, is it my imagination or is UConn geeting the least amount of press that I have ever seen for a defending national champion who is ranked #17. ESPN still does not even have a re-cap of the game up.

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=400586677

Meanwhile, unranked Dayton beats unranked Texas A&M in the same tournament and has a page-and-a-half summary. So, ESPN did have reporters in Puerto Rico.

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=400591096
 
Jluc said:
Second game of the season fellas relax. This team will be fine.
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Agree. We're 2-0. I can't imagine what the yard would look like if we lost one of these games. This team is going to have some bad losses before the season's done. It's going to take time for them to find their way. They lost a lot of veteran talent. There are a lot of players filling new roles. There are a lot of players needing to play meaningful minutes for the first time, some the first time at this level period. What did some of you expect?

Purvis played his first meaningful minutes in over 19 months.
Facey is needing to fill starters minutes when he barely got meaningful reserve PT last season. Granted he began to get a few late in the season, but very not much to speak of.
Sam C Jr is playing his first minutes at this level and is actually playing like an upper classman most of the time.
Brimah is beginning to figure out how to stay on the floor for longer periods of time, though KO still needs to manage his minutes due to the huge drop off when he's not in there. He needs to make sure he's available during winning time.
Nolan has had a very slow start. Hopefully he kicks it in gear sooner than later.
I could go on and on...

Maybe I should have led with the good:

Boatshow is filling Bazz's shoes quite well so far, and we're only 2 games in
DHam has lived up to the hype. He's already an impact player and he's just 2 games into his college career
Amida has looked very good on both ends
Facey is rebounding very well
Sam C Jr, as noted above has played solidly early on
TSam continues to play hard when he's out there and makes enough plays for an off-the-bench guy

It's just going to take time for the team to gel and play at a consistently high level. Heck, last year's team gave us little to believe they had a run of 6 in a row during the regular season, never mind the NCAAs.

What a bunch of unhappy and ungrateful whiners. I'm not saying that you can't share some constructive criticisms about the team and some of the players. But there's a big difference between pointing out a flaw, weakness or struggle, compared to some of the definative statements about our players such as Player X will never, or just is, or whatever conclusion some of you are landing on.
 
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DogMania said:
What a bunch of unhappy and ungrateful whiners. I'm not saying that you can't share some constructive criticisms about the team and some of the players. But there's a big difference between pointing out a flaw, weakness or struggle, compared to some of the definative statements about our players such as Player X will never, or just is, or whatever conclusion some of you are landing on.
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Wow! I guess you never read posts after a bad game before. Or read posts about Omar or Tyler last year. Or read the thread about the women's game on Monday. I thought this was pretty reasonable for the BY and I feel pretty protective of the players.
 
jibsey said:
I guess I expected Rodney to be a better shooter but if that's not his game he can create points off the dribble and assists. DHam is a monster, he gets the green light.
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I expected him to be a better ball handler. Many thought he could be a PG but he is another example of people projecting combo guards into PG's. Sometimes it works but more often than not it doesn't.
Rodney is a terrific athlete and moving forward he can be a force as a slasher and finisher on the break from the 2 position. He also has the skill to become a lock down defender. We haven't seen the best of him yet but we will.
 
KO had said RP would play the 2 and the one. That is why I thought he would be a better ball handler. Let's see what he is by mid season.
 
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