Ollie wants to win soon

[BUConn10]

I do not believe so but I may be mistaken.

 

[nomar]

Sandro Mamukelashvili.

Gesundheit.

I mean, it's not outside the realm of possibility that we land some post-grad transfers and incoming guys who are rotation players or even difference makers. And I know that's what Chillious is here for. But time is short and until I see some results I'm just looking at a roster that has some major holes.

I do think Gilbert is going to be great. I've been looking forward to seeing him a LOT more than I've been excited for MAL, which softened that blow for me. Larrier's really going to have to play well for us to be a good team. But without some reinforcements in the front court, this coming season's going to be tough. I'm expecting Polley and Carlton to play like freshmen. Cobb is a complete wild card.

 

[nomar]

Adams is not even close to being one of the best guards in the country, he had 99 turnovers, shot 43%, and had too many dead games. He is talented for sure, and could turn into one of the top guards in the country, but he is distant in that conversation. He is not even on the draft board for 2017, and also 2018, that could certainly change.

The number of turnovers is pretty much irrelevant if you don't consider the number of assists (195) and the ratio between the two.

I don't care about the draft board. Kid's a player.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

So the solution is to have no front court players at all?

Diarra, Cobb, Carlton, Larrier and Polley resemble front court players, at least superficially.

 

[BlueMAB]

Gilbert, Larrier and Adams are the next Shabazz, Deandre Daniels and Kemba Walker. Vital is Rahsard Anderson. Polley is our next Jeremy Lamb and Carlton = Josh Boone.

We're fine. Everything is fine. Ollie wants to win soon.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Diarra, Cobb, Carlton, Larrier and Polley resemble front court players, at least superficially.

Combined games in a UConn uniform: 2

 

[Doctor Hoop]

Combined games in a UConn uniform: 2

And yet, there are five of them!!

 

[Giddyup5]

Here's the thing: I'm on record as thinking that--providing we fill our roster out a bit (not a guarantee) and that Gilbert and Larrier (and Diarra to a lesser extent) stay health--I think this team can actually be sneaky good. We'd have a true PG, a dynamite combo guard who can run the point, a sniper in CV, and an all around stud scorer in Larrier. That team can win games when it jells and the injured get their legs.

But without a post player I'm confident in, or back-ups (and I think MAL would have gotten good minutes off the bench), I'm much less confident.

Problem is that we need to be great early. With the Nike tourney and our early OOC schedule, can we afford to wait until February & March to get our injured players their sea legs and new players their chemistry?

 

[BlueMAB]

Sarcasm off...

FWIW I'm impressed with Polley's JR highlights, and Carlton's SR highlights. But I was also impressed with the highlights of the guys we just lost. I expect Cobb to rebound, help defend the paint, and give us 4 fouls, anything else would be a bonus. Same for Diarra. We cannot afford for Carlton to go through Enoch's defensive struggles unless we sign another center.

I have no idea how much they'll be able to contribute, but we can't suffer more frontcourt recruiting misses.

Pray to the old gods and the new that Gilbert and Larrier come back healthy. With Adams, those three can all get to the rim, and hit enough threes that you have to respect the shot. There's speed and athleticism to contend with, our best offense is likely a turnover or rebound on defense and transition basketball.

If these three can develop a chemistry on the court, which would may happened last year, then there's hope.

 

[uconnbill]

Adams is not even close to being one of the best guards in the country, he had 99 turnovers, shot 43%, and had too many dead games. He is talented for sure, and could turn into one of the top guards in the country, but he is distant in that conversation. He is not even on the draft board for 2017, and also 2018, that could certainly change.

Not many returning that are better.
He is the best player on the team and had little help this past season. That should change next year.

 

[Danzz]

The comment that Durham was asked to leave makes me think that there may have been something going on off the court at least with some of the players. Enoch seemed to spend a lot of time in Ollie's dog house. Durham didn't get much PT. Jackson may have delusions of grandeur. Have no idea on Mal but if you guess PT more often than not you'll be right. Miller getting canned shouldn't be underrated. Purvis's tweet leads me to believe that there may have been an effort problem.
I'm not taking Ollie off the hook because the buck stops with him but his may have been a flawed group.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I believe Enoch should have played more than Brimah the last 1/3 of the year - to see what he could do before this type of thing happened. We weren't going anywhere last season.

I imagine if we didn't have that mid-January to early February stretch where got over .500 (I think we won seven of eight) Enoch would have gotten a lot more PT as the season winded down. Once a winning record and a post season appearance became a possibility, things changed, prioritizing the effort to win games over allowing future starters to gain experience took over.

 

[UCweCONN]

I imagine if we didn't have that mid-January to early February stretch where got over .500 (I think we won seven of eight) Enoch would have gotten a lot more PT as the season winded down. Once a winning record and a post season appearance became a possibility, things changed, prioritizing the effort to win games over allowing future starters to gain experience took over.

When you're a D1 head coach, it's always about winning. If you don't win, you get replaced. A good head coach develops players AND wins.

 

[Coach J]

If we're replacing players because they can't defend, then what is KO looking for? We were a pretty solid defensive team, 63rd rated adjusted defense and the 3rd best defensive team in the conference. For a team that was 16-17 that's pretty good...

Yeah, and most of the games we lost was because we couldn't score when necessary.