Our best lineup.

[Scot-e]

Bazz
AD
AO
RS
JL

First three players to sub in Boat and Daniels and TO. While I love his effort and improvement if TO is playing 25 minutes a game for us that is not a good sign with the talent we have on our team this year.

This team- just like our NC team- will win games because we play great defense. There are tons of teams that can be better offensively then UCONN on any given night. There is not a team in the country that will be better on defense if we play our "A" game on that end of the court. I hope we see more of this type of lineup to start games- go big on them- then let JC do his thing. Our D will get our offense engaged and create more fast breaks and less dribbling around the perimeter till we have no choice but to shot a jump shot. It also will stop the chance of any easy baskets in the paint for the opposing team which builds confidence early the game.

DOOMED!

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

I think

RB
SN
JL
Roscoe/Olander
Drummond

is the best. From what i've seen, AO and AD havent worked well with each other. Doesnt mean they wont ever. Down the line i could see them meshing real well. But RB drives the lane and can kick to SN or JL for an open jumper or DD if hes in the game. Drummond is great off pick and roles. I just havent been too impressed yet with AO's offensive game.

 

[imno1]

I think

RB
SN
JL
Roscoe/Olander
Drummond

is the best. From what i've seen, AO and AD havent worked well with each other. Doesnt mean they wont ever. Down the line i could see them meshing real well. But RB drives the lane and can kick to SN or JL for an open jumper or DD if hes in the game. Drummond is great off pick and roles. I just havent been too impressed yet with AO's offensive game.

I agree. We will need RB to spell Shabazz so I don't expect him to start but when we need a spark or at crunch time look for this lineup. Alex will replace Roscoe (prefer him over Tyler) or TO when he figures it out.

 

[Burnsbros23]

Roscoe shouldnt play a minute at small forward anymore. Go three guards or play DD there. And honestly if someone else has to play the 3 I rather see Giffey there think if he got confidence he could be a nice player.

Roscoe should only play the 4. I think Olander minutes will really decrease come big east time.

Best lineup to me is
SN
RB
JL
AO
AD

 

[Dogbreath2U]

Bazz
AD
AO
RS
JL

First three players to sub in Boat and Daniels and TO. While I love his effort and improvement if TO is playing 25 minutes a game for us that is not a good sign with the talent we have on our team this year.

This team- just like our NC team- will win games because we play great defense. There are tons of teams that can be better offensively then UCONN on any given night. There is not a team in the country that will be better on defense if we play our "A" game on that end of the court. I hope we see more of this type of lineup to start games- go big on them- then let JC do his thing. Our D will get our offense engaged and create more fast breaks and less dribbling around the perimeter till we have no choice but to shot a jump shot. It also will stop the chance of any easy baskets in the paint for the opposing team which builds confidence early the game.

DOOMED!

This year is so interesting because the chemistry of the lineups change drastically depending upon who you start with. Scot's lineup here has power underneath and could be good defensively, but is weak in ball handling and passing. If you put AD and AO in together, then we need a 3rd ballhandler passer to compliment the big guys (IMHO). I actually think that NG may be the best 3 to go with this group (unless we play the 3 guard lineup). DD was rendered ineffective against FSU, a team that attacked him with defensive pressure and he could not really handle it (yet). Jeremy did not do that well with it either, to be fair. Roscoe is probably even less able to function as the 3 where he needs to be solid with the ball and pass effectively. I think that this is why Olander was getting so many minutes, as he can be a much better passer and has shown better ability to hedge and get back into position. The need for the 4 to be able to handle the ball and pass will be very important against zones as well.

I don't know how this will work out, but I sure would like to see AO get more minutes and become a solid contributor again. I wonder if he might be better playing the 5 with AD moving to the 4 if he can get better at perimeter D (especially hedging and then getting back into position underneath).

 

[TopDog18]

I think

RB
SN
JL
Roscoe/Olander
Drummond

is the best. From what i've seen, AO and AD havent worked well with each other. Doesnt mean they wont ever. Down the line i could see them meshing real well. But RB drives the lane and can kick to SN or JL for an open jumper or DD if hes in the game. Drummond is great off pick and roles. I just havent been too impressed yet with AO's offensive game.

I've seen a lot of nice picks set by AD, but not one pick and roll yet. Don't know why Bazz never passes him the ball after the pick as it could provide some easy scoring.

 

[TopDog18]

Roscoe shouldnt play a minute at small forward anymore. Go three guards or play DD there. And honestly if someone else has to play the 3 I rather see Giffey there think if he got confidence he could be a nice player.

Roscoe should only play the 4. I think Olander minutes will really decrease come big east time.

Best lineup to me is
SN
RB
JL
AO
AD

I agree especially offensively this is our best lineup offensively. You could see on Saturday how different this team is with our three guard lineup.

 

[UConnSwag11]

the best line up is bazz lamb roscoe ao and ad... boatright daniels and olander will provide depth and energy immediately off the bench

 

[champs99and04]

I would love to see an AD/AO combination on the floor and have UConn just pound the ball inside relentlessly. It's kind of like running the ball a lot in football. It may not get you big results right away, but over the course of a game it wears down the defense.

Also, during the last minute of the UCF loss, AO and Drummond combined to get like four straight offensive rebounds before finally putting one in. This is the type of work ethic and intensity we need these two to play with. It sickens me as a fan when I see these type of physical specimens going to waste

 

[ctchamps]

To me the best lineup is the one scoring more points than the other team. And I imagine that will differ game to game and even within a game. If the players project out like many of us think they will, and if they can coalesce with one another, then JC will have a lot of options.

 

[Gurleyman]

I've seen a lot of nice picks set by AD, but not one pick and roll yet. Don't know why Bazz never passes him the ball after the pick as it could provide some easy scoring.

Probably because they don't want him to unless he can get him the ball right at the rim. At this point, AD is a bit reckless and out of control when attacking the basket (when he spins baseline and there's no help, it's a thing of beauty - when he goes down the middle and there are defenders in the way, it's cover your eyes time). As a PG, if you throw the big man the ball in a spot where he gets a charge (and possibly into foul trouble), the coaches will be mad at you and not the big man. Later in the year, as AD gets a little more savviness to his game and a little more body control, we can take more risks with that.

 

[msgordon]

honestly idk what our best lineup is yet or who i would want out there down the stretch. obviously it would include bazz lamb and drummond. it would probably include roscoe as long as he didnt try to create anything on offense, even though that sounds kind of insulting

 

[Gurleyman]

I don't mnd Roscoe taking an under-control three or a 15-footer when the defense sags off him (he hit a face-up baseline J against UCF for example that was right in rhythm), and obviously attacking the offensive glass, especially against the zone. Although I will say that Roscoe sometimes falls into the "my rebound, my shot" mentality that we sometimes fall into on the offensive glass. Some of the worst shots in basketball are taken off of offensive rebounds because the rebounder feels he has carte blance to shoot at that point. Although there was oncelate against FSU when he tried to do the right thing and kick the ball out, but FSU was slapping at it and trying to tie him up, so he eventually put his head down and went to the rim and got his shot blocked. I was OK with that shot, because if he was passive with the ball, it was going to be a turnover and he made an aggressive play that just didn't work out.

 

[Ricky1Moore]

We have options. Serious options. Even for a program like uconn that is not too common. We'll play the lineups that will help us win that particular game.

 

[Burnsbros23]

I'm sorry but there is no chance our best lineup has Roscoe at the 3 right now. Unless the other team has a star SF like UNC he should not play the 3. He can't dribble he can't shoot and he can't pass. When he is in there at the 3 it puts too much pressure on Jeremy and Shabazz to create everything. DD at least can shoot and gives them some room. Boatright gives us a whole other dimension.

 

[hungry husky]

I like Boatright off the bench; he's basically instant offense. First and foremost, UConn is a defensive-minded team and Roscoe provides superb defensive effort. This is Jeremy's team, there's no need for Roscoe/Shabazz to be offensive weapons.

SN
JL
RS
AO
AD

Is my ideal line-up. As far as I'm concerned, TO can hang with the cupcakes but not in the Big-East. AO was the real MVP in the championship game, and while he has some of the worst hands I've ever seen, he deserves to be starting. Defense first, and feed the ball to JL and Drummond. Ideally, Shabazz should be averaging 8-9 assists a game because AD/JL can't be double-teamed every possession.

 

[Kitaman]

I think this will be answered at the beginning of the year. There are still chemistry issues, learning how teammates play (i.e. tendencies), spacing, etc.. that the team needs to work out. By January I think we can definitively answer your question Scote. Until then we are a 'work in progress' and with RB eligibility, things have dramatically changed (i.e. more work).

I guess I'm saying that the 5 best players are not necessarily the best team to put out there. Calhoun surely has options.

 

[HuskyCarlJ]

This article talks a little bit about different lineup options, especially AO and AD playing together and the use of the 3-guard lineups against FSU. You can also check out UConn 5-man unit statistics, and UConn pace adjusted 5-man unit statistics.

One thing that I find fascinating is that if you look at the 5-man unit statistics, was how much Calhoun played the unit of Boatright/Napier/Lamb/Olander/Drummond on Saturday. They played 16.58 minutes which is the 8th most of any 5-man unit playing together this season. That's 16.58 minutes out of a possible 45 (37% of available minutes), and that was despite Olander having a fairly horrific 1-7 shooting day. The top minute-getting lineup for the year has been Napier/Lamb/Daniels/Olander/Drummond which has gotten 41.65 minutes out of a possible 125 or (33%).

I'm really interested to see if Oriakhi and Drummond can play well together, but so far the numbers show they haven't really complemented each other very well. I think that talent wise this team is probably best off with Oriakhi and Drummond in the front court with Napier, Lamb and either Daniels or Boatright, but so far Olander has brought more to the table with his BBIQ and ability to finish better than Alex.

 

[Scot-e]

I think this will be answered at the beginning of the year. There are still chemistry issues, learning how teammates play (i.e. tendencies), spacing, etc.. that the team needs to work out. By January I think we can definitively answer your question Scote. Until then we are a 'work in progress' and with RB eligibility, things have dramatically changed (i.e. more work).

I guess I'm saying that the 5 best players are not necessarily the best team to put out there. Calhoun surely has options.

I agree we are a work in progress. But I feel strongly that the players on the floor should be the ones that give us our best defensive squad to start the game. That is still is our strength even with the improvement in JL and Bazz's offensive game. Set the tone then sub in players as needed.

 

[huskyharry]

This article talks a little bit about different lineup options, especially AO and AD playing together and the use of the 3-guard lineups against FSU. You can also check out UConn 5-man unit statistics, and UConn pace adjusted 5-man unit statistics.

One thing that I find fascinating is that if you look at the 5-man unit statistics, was how much Calhoun played the unit of Boatright/Napier/Lamb/Olander/Drummond on Saturday. They played 16.58 minutes which is the 8th most of any 5-man unit playing together this season. That's 16.58 minutes out of a possible 45 (37% of available minutes), and that was despite Olander having a fairly horrific 1-7 shooting day. The top minute-getting lineup for the year has been Napier/Lamb/Daniels/Olander/Drummond which has gotten 41.65 minutes out of a possible 125 or (33%).

I'm really interested to see if Oriakhi and Drummond can play well together, but so far the numbers show they haven't really complemented each other very well. I think that talent wise this team is probably best off with Oriakhi and Drummond in the front court with Napier, Lamb and either Daniels or Boatright, but so far Olander has brought more to the table with his BBIQ and ability to finish better than Alex.

I think you are right on target there. AO clearly has a lot of talent and will certainly bring a lot to the table for the team. However, one of the most telling statistics of that article for me is the +/- over the 3 games played in the Bahamas.
Over one game, the +/- stat is not very useful, but over a 10 game stretch, it helps to show some of the intangibles that a player brings to the court. The 3 game sample is not as good as a 10 game sample, but still starts to show a trend. Over those 3 games, when AO was in the game, the team was -26, when he was not in the game (AD was in by himself) the team was +29.
I want to see AO succeed, before he is given 30 minutes per game, he needs to demonstrate it on the court

 

[geordi]

There is no such thing as a 'best' lineup. The best lineup consists of 7, 8, 9 guys throughout the game. Just because you start what you consider to be the best 5, you still have to provide some rest of up to 8 - 12 minutes per game for each of them, plus those 5 might not be having their best games that particular night. The starting 5 of almost all teams is nearly equally as good as whoever they are competing against. Games are won because the folks coming in off the bench are better than their subs. To have a Boatright or Oriakhi or Daniels or anyone else come off the bench is an incredible resource and makes the whole team better in competition with other teams and in competition in practice.

 

[HuskyCarlJ]

I think you are right on target there. AO clearly has a lot of talent and will certainly bring a lot to the table for the team. However, one of the most telling statistics of that article for me is the +/- over the 3 games played in the Bahamas.
Over one game, the +/- stat is not very useful, but over a 10 game stretch, it helps to show some of the intangibles that a player brings to the court. The 3 game sample is not as good as a 10 game sample, but still starts to show a trend. Over those 3 games, when AO was in the game, the team was -26, when he was not in the game (AD was in by himself) the team was +29.
I want to see AO succeed, before he is given 30 minutes per game, he needs to demonstrate it on the court

I love Oriakhi and want him to succeed too. I'm also very interested in watching this team grow and develop. I would say that on paper, prior to any results from this season, you'd have to think that an Oriakhi/Drummond combo up front would give this team the best chance to succeed. I think Olander's success has thrown a monkey wrench into that, but I also think that maybe Oriakhi is going to need to adapt his game to fit this year's squad.

Justin, over at TheUconnBlog, posted an article where he said, "(I also have a theory that without

Kemba Walker​

and the bevy of shots he produced at the rim, having a monster on the offensive boards like Oriakhi is less important, especially since UConn seems to be taking far more shots from the mid-range this season -- which tend to produce longer rebounds -- with guys like ​

Jeremy Lamb​

,​

DeAndre Daniels​

, Napier and Olander getting heavy court time." ​

Couple that idea with Olander's improvement in his mid-range game, and it becomes clear why the team has functioned better with Olander than with Oriakhi. I'm not saying that's definitely what's going on, but it's an interesting theory. I also wonder if that would change with Boatright who would seem to bring more driving ability to the offense.

 

[ctchamps]

Part of the problem for AO is that he's played the 5 for two seasons and is now being asked to play the 4. He's having a difficult time adjusting to the new position.

TO and RS have spent a lot of their practice and playing time at the four. Aside from the FSU game TO has been the best offensive four between AO, RS and TO. He passes the ball better, sets better screens and has been the best mid range shooter of the three. On defense, the nod has to go to RS as being the best of the three, but only slightly.

RS did not play much at the four early last season. And when JC decided to switch him to playing the four, he struggled at first. As the season progressed that changed. Hopefully AO can transition as the season progresses.

 

[Rico444]

I think my biggest concern about TO coming into this season was his ability to handle a big frontcourt player, since he seemed to get thrown around a little bit in the paint last year. The first really meaty frontcourt he faces, he has his worst game of the year by far. I know one game isn't a good sample, but I can't say I'm not a little bit worried.

 

[huskymania]

completely agree with you letsgohuskies11 that was the lineup I gave yesterday. I think its the best for now. Oriakhi needs to show he can handle competition and play at a high level and with great defensive intensity. Roscoe brings alot which cant be replaced.