Paralells to 2010 team

[campcalhoun2009]

Watching this team and seeing all the circumstances makes me think back to the 2010 team with Sticks, Dyson and Gavin at the core.

They had just come off a Final 4 birth like this team.

They lost their real emotional leader and best player (AJ/Hash vs. Kemba)

They were supremely talented but lacked a vocal leader or a player with real killer instinct.

And it felt like every night they could beat any team in the country or lose to any team. Turnovers and sloppy play plagued that squad as well. It just seems eerily similar.

I don't belive the sky is falling and I think this team will be fine. We went 9-9 in the Big East last year, you're going to lose road league games. A win over WVU at home will help out alot with the confidence of this squad.

 

[wpq4elamin]

except that team had seniors and this team has none.... our biggest problem right now is too much talent and not enough chemistry/leadership... for everyone on suicide watch, chill out and wait til march- the team was without JC for a few games and practices and that transition can't be easy for a team that had yet to find their identity before he left...

i remember a bunch of people on the blog last year going crazy when we were 9-9 in the BEast, losing games we should have won and winning games we should have rightfully lost... the highs and lows of an inexperienced but ridiculously talented team are going to be there... just stick it out and try not to jump off the coaster when it's at the bottom- this team was not built for a perfect conference season or a perfect January. It was built to win another NC, and it still has it in them.

 

[willie99]

seniors vs sophomores and freshmen, thus there is no comparison whatsoever.

Young teams improve with experience, experienced teams are supposed to be much better out of the gate

 

[Gurleyman]

Everyone talks about the parallels, but nobody ever talks about the perpendiculars.

 

[Lefty2one]

I don't think the 2010 team was supremely talented. Supremely athletic, yes, but not talented. This year's team is much more talented and has infinitely more skill and smarts.

This team is still trying to find their identity and the front court is a mess. Drummond is the only guy who has his niche set and AO, Olander and Roscoe are still trying to adjust. I think this is a just a bump in the road and a growth period.

 

[businesslawyer]

To me. the important comparison is not '10 but '06. Yes, we aren't nearly as good right now as we were in '06, but let me explain.

In '06, we had Rudy Gay, as a soph, and Rashad Anderson and Denham Brown, as seniors, playing the two wing positions. Calhoun determined early that the team's highest potential would be reached with Rudy Gay developing his substantial potential. In order to do so, game after game Rudy would be on the floor come crunch time, whether or not he was one of the two best wings that day or at that moment. And, again and again, either Denham or Rashad was on the bench at crunch time, even if they were the two best wings that day. Calhoun (and I'm not saying he wasn't right) didn't care what was going to win a particular day -- he was trying to get the team to be the best he could be by March.

Right now, Andre Drummond has the potential to be a monster, and we are going to play him at the five whether or not he deserves to be on the court and whether or not the team will be better with him at the high post instead of the low post. We are going to do that because Calhoun has determined that our best chance of winning a championship is for Drummond to be on the court and to develop his potential into performance. And we're going to do that whether or not we'd be better with Drummond on the bench more or on the high post, with AO on the low post, more often. Again, I'm not saying that's right or wrong. JC deserves me, and us, giving him the benefit of the doubt. But when we see a true frosh stay on the floor when he commits more turnovers than a 5 ever has, and when he refused to actually square up in the low post and either offer the guards a target or catch in position to shoot, we're going to have to life with the losses and hope that by March the sacrifices pay off.

If I haven't made it clear, I'd be playing AO in the low post more, and demanding he gave us what he gave us down the stretch last year, and I'd clear the space by having Drummond only play 10 to 13 minutes at the 5 and get his further minutes at the 4. Because AO can't play the 4, and we're not winning anything without them both contributing.

 

[champs99and04]

I don't think the 2010 team was supremely talented. Supremely athletic, yes, but not talented. This year's team is much more talented and has infinitely more skill and smarts.

This team is still trying to find their identity and the front court is a mess. Drummond is the only guy who has his niche set and AO, Olander and Roscoe are still trying to adjust. I think this is a just a bump in the road and a growth period.

You are right, I think people often confuse talent with athleticism. The too often go hand in hand, but if you don't have the skills to go along with the athleticism, you're a track star. Stanley was more of a track and field star and Dyson was more of a running back. That's not to say they weren't good basketball players, but they obviously lacked the skill to lead a top 25 team. That team was capable of beating anybody when the shots were falling, but more often than not they weren't.

I think what will determine the success of this team is the rate of development. These sophmores are almost 60 games into their college careers, so ideally, you'd now start to see them make the jump. Kemba for example, really started to "get it" I think in the middle to the end of his sophmore year. If Shabazz starts to understand how to run a team, this is arguably a top ten squad.

 

[wpq4elamin]

I don't think the 2010 team was supremely talented. Supremely athletic, yes, but not talented. This year's team is much more talented and has infinitely more skill and smarts.

This team is still trying to find their identity and the front court is a mess. Drummond is the only guy who has his niche set and AO, Olander and Roscoe are still trying to adjust. I think this is a just a bump in the road and a growth period.

gavin was more talented than any of our big guys and dyson was probably just as talented (say what you want about other factors) as lamb, (better slasher, not as good a shooter) just not as long... (imagine if jerome were 6'5" and had jeremy's arms) stanley was as athletic as drummond and was more skilled as well... add in a freshman kemba and the starters were probably comparable talent-wise.... they just didn't have the bench to match up with the total talent we have this year... if you go watch the texas, nova or wvu game that year, you'll see some talent running up and down the court

the biggest difference between the two squads is the fact that this team is incredibly young despite our postseason experience... that team underachieved all year because they were talented and experienced as seniors

 

[Gurleyman]

To me. the important comparison is not '10 but '06. Yes, we aren't nearly as good right now as we were in '06, but let me explain.

In '06, we had Rudy Gay, as a soph, and Rashad Anderson and Denham Brown, as seniors, playing the two wing positions. Calhoun determined early that the team's highest potential would be reached with Rudy Gay developing his substantial potential. In order to do so, game after game Rudy would be on the floor come crunch time, whether or not he was one of the two best wings that day or at that moment. And, again and again, either Denham or Rashad was on the bench at crunch time, even if they were the two best wings that day. Calhoun (and I'm not saying he wasn't right) didn't care what was going to win a particular day -- he was trying to get the team to be the best he could be by March.

Right now, Andre Drummond has the potential to be a monster, and we are going to play him at the five whether or not he deserves to be on the court and whether or not the team will be better with him at the high post instead of the low post. We are going to do that because Calhoun has determined that our best chance of winning a championship is for Drummond to be on the court and to develop his potential into performance. And we're going to do that whether or not we'd be better with Drummond on the bench more or on the high post, with AO on the low post, more often. Again, I'm not saying that's right or wrong. JC deserves me, and us, giving him the benefit of the doubt. But when we see a true frosh stay on the floor when he commits more turnovers than a 5 ever has, and when he refused to actually square up in the low post and either offer the guards a target or catch in position to shoot, we're going to have to life with the losses and hope that by March the sacrifices pay off.

If I haven't made it clear, I'd be playing AO in the low post more, and demanding he gave us what he gave us down the stretch last year, and I'd clear the space by having Drummond only play 10 to 13 minutes at the 5 and get his further minutes at the 4. Because AO can't play the 4, and we're not winning anything without them both contributing.

Very true. Pretty mich agree the whole way through. There are some '02 parallels with Taliek as well -- maybe on a given day, we would have been off with Taliek sitting and a Tony/Ben backcourt, but he knew that it was important for Taliek to develop to give us a true PG with confidence come March.

 

[wpq4elamin]

To me. the important comparison is not '10 but '06. Yes, we aren't nearly as good right now as we were in '06, but let me explain.

In '06, we had Rudy Gay, as a soph, and Rashad Anderson and Denham Brown, as seniors, playing the two wing positions. Calhoun determined early that the team's highest potential would be reached with Rudy Gay developing his substantial potential. In order to do so, game after game Rudy would be on the floor come crunch time, whether or not he was one of the two best wings that day or at that moment. And, again and again, either Denham or Rashad was on the bench at crunch time, even if they were the two best wings that day. Calhoun (and I'm not saying he wasn't right) didn't care what was going to win a particular day -- he was trying to get the team to be the best he could be by March.

Right now, Andre Drummond has the potential to be a monster, and we are going to play him at the five whether or not he deserves to be on the court and whether or not the team will be better with him at the high post instead of the low post. We are going to do that because Calhoun has determined that our best chance of winning a championship is for Drummond to be on the court and to develop his potential into performance. And we're going to do that whether or not we'd be better with Drummond on the bench more or on the high post, with AO on the low post, more often. Again, I'm not saying that's right or wrong. JC deserves me, and us, giving him the benefit of the doubt. But when we see a true frosh stay on the floor when he commits more turnovers than a 5 ever has, and when he refused to actually square up in the low post and either offer the guards a target or catch in position to shoot, we're going to have to life with the losses and hope that by March the sacrifices pay off.

If I haven't made it clear, I'd be playing AO in the low post more, and demanding he gave us what he gave us down the stretch last year, and I'd clear the space by having Drummond only play 10 to 13 minutes at the 5 and get his further minutes at the 4. Because AO can't play the 4, and we're not winning anything without them both contributing.

you make a good point about keeping drummond in, but we still don't have seniors to even consider putting in right now.... for that reason, i don't know if there really is a comparison to any other year.... this is probably the most talented assemblage of talent at uconn ever in one year and i think that's a big reason for many poster's disappointment.... we know how good these guys can be in stretches and it's extremely frustrating knowing we have 9 extremely talented players sitting on that bench

 

[BLUEDOGHOUSE]

You are right, I think people often confuse talent with athleticism. The too often go hand in hand, but if you don't have the skills to go along with the athleticism, you're a track star. Stanley was more of a track and field star and Dyson was more of a running back. That's not to say they weren't good basketball players, but they obviously lacked the skill to lead a top 25 team. That team was capable of beating anybody when the shots were falling, but more often than not they weren't.

I think what will determine the success of this team is the rate of development. These sophmores are almost 60 games into their college careers, so ideally, you'd now start to see them make the jump. Kemba for example, really started to "get it" I think in the middle to the end of his sophmore year. If Shabazz starts to understand how to run a team, this is arguably a top ten squad.

Some well thought out points.

 

[willie99]

To me. the important comparison is not '10 but '06. Yes, we aren't nearly as good right now as we were in '06, but let me explain.

In '06, we had Rudy Gay, as a soph, and Rashad Anderson and Denham Brown, as seniors, playing the two wing positions. Calhoun determined early that the team's highest potential would be reached with Rudy Gay developing his substantial potential. In order to do so, game after game Rudy would be on the floor come crunch time, whether or not he was one of the two best wings that day or at that moment. And, again and again, either Denham or Rashad was on the bench at crunch time, even if they were the two best wings that day. Calhoun (and I'm not saying he wasn't right) didn't care what was going to win a particular day -- he was trying to get the team to be the best he could be by March.

Right now, Andre Drummond has the potential to be a monster, and we are going to play him at the five whether or not he deserves to be on the court and whether or not the team will be better with him at the high post instead of the low post. We are going to do that because Calhoun has determined that our best chance of winning a championship is for Drummond to be on the court and to develop his potential into performance. And we're going to do that whether or not we'd be better with Drummond on the bench more or on the high post, with AO on the low post, more often. Again, I'm not saying that's right or wrong. JC deserves me, and us, giving him the benefit of the doubt. But when we see a true frosh stay on the floor when he commits more turnovers than a 5 ever has, and when he refused to actually square up in the low post and either offer the guards a target or catch in position to shoot, we're going to have to life with the losses and hope that by March the sacrifices pay off.

If I haven't made it clear, I'd be playing AO in the low post more, and demanding he gave us what he gave us down the stretch last year, and I'd clear the space by having Drummond only play 10 to 13 minutes at the 5 and get his further minutes at the 4. Because AO can't play the 4, and we're not winning anything without them both contributing.

at the end of the day, JC is always making these type of sacrifices. Not only with the lineup, but with the style of play. They can be scoring at will off the break, but he makes them use the shot clock and execute their half-court offense. It allows the other teams to get back in the game or stay close in January, but it helps them win games in March.