Point Guard Situaton

[mauconnfan]

Liam and Nowell have missed lots of time/games in order to heal. Why can’t Hass miss a couple of games to rest up and get ready. Just because the injury doesn’t incapacitate you, doesn’t mean you should play through it.

I think they are unfortunately bubbled if he sits a week or 2. Lucky to win 18-19 if he does. But he can’t play like last night no matter.

 

[Hunt for 7]

It was a statement game by a really talented team. The 'skies were toyed with. It means something.

Could not agree more. This is a game you have to win. Get your stud back a win puts you back into a higher seed and potential chance a BE regular season title. This was not just another game it was highly relative. And our cornerstone player AK had one of the worst games of his career at the worst possible time.

I personally went from high expectations for this team to now hoping we can win a game or two in the tourney. Both BE and NCAA.

Hurley just is not making enough in game adjustments. Team can’t shoot what do you do….play a freakin zone for a few possessions. It is not rocket science. We can’t even get the ball in bounds after a made basket how bad is that….and it is not one game we have not been able to get the ball in bounds most of the year.

This is something you can fix but we look to be getting worse at it.

 

[RuffRuff]

I think there has to be a candid conversation w AM at the end of this year. “Son, we are not taking your scholarship away but we think you are best suited to play eisewhere”

If he makes no sense in this years roster construction 2/3 of the way into the season, it should be pretty darned apparent he won’t next year. This is at a point where we are desperate for an effective option at the exact position we brought him in for. The talk of making lemonade here is foolish in today’s world. We tried it, it didn’t work, writing is on the wall. Learn and move on. Not sure it’s arrogance as much as it is over indexing.

You can whiff on HS recruits and recover, but a situation like this makes you realize how critical it is to get your portal recruits right.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

Is next year the year the scholarships increase or is that not definite yet?

 

[navery12]

Is next year the year the scholarships increase or is that not definite yet?

Not official yet, so as of now it's still 13 for next year

 

[Drame]

Probably not all that productive an input, but Pettiford at Auburn is killing it. Having a Bazz-like freshman year, and he’s too small to go pro very soon. That was Hurley’s option A at point guard - he’d definitely help this team

Pettiford is from Jersey City. Hurley knows him well and never recruited him. Dont think he s a Hurley type player in terms of working hard or mentality. He was ranked top 10 then dropped to the 20s. When I saw him a couple times he was goofing off non stop on the sidelines.

 

[CTBasketball]

It was a statement game by a really talented team. The 'skies were toyed with. It means something.

Far too often have we been punched in the mouth at home. Soft team.

 

[navery12]

Pettiford is from Jersey City. Hurley knows him well and never recruited him. Dont think he s a Hurley type player in terms of working hard or mentality. He was ranked top 10 then dropped to the 20s. When I saw him a couple times he was goofing off non stop on the sidelines.

Hurley recruited him. He visited UConn and mentioned us a bunch, but we ended up going with Nowell

 

[UCFan1513]

Pettiford is from Jersey City. Hurley knows him well and never recruited him. Dont think he s a Hurley type player in terms of working hard or mentality. He was ranked top 10 then dropped to the 20s. When I saw him a couple times he was goofing off non stop on the sidelines.

We offered and recruited him as option 1 until he went to Auburn, then we offered Nowell and pivoted. From his 2022 visit:

“I took an unofficial to UConn about a month ago. I just went up there to look around. My dad is really close with the coach, so I just went up there to look around. Just to look at the campus. I really like the school. The coaching staff, the players, and I met everybody. I spoke with the coaches, and they are recruiting me heavy. They are probably recruiting me the hardest of any school.”

 

[JungleLobo]

The fans on Husky BY are spoiled in year 3. They are weak on their points after tough losses.

 

[Hunt for 7]

We offered and recruited him as option 1 until he went to Auburn, then we offered Nowell and pivoted. From his 2022 visit:

“I took an unofficial to UConn about a month ago. I just went up there to look around. My dad is really close with the coach, so I just went up there to look around. Just to look at the campus. I really like the school. The coaching staff, the players, and I met everybody. I spoke with the coaches, and they are recruiting me heavy. They are probably recruiting me the hardest of any school.”

Money, money, money is the answer.

 

[Hunt for 7]

Is next year the year the scholarships increase or is that not definite yet?

Not sure it will help us more than the schools with huge NIL bankrolls.

 

[RuffRuff]

We offered and recruited him as option 1 until he went to Auburn, then we offered Nowell and pivoted. From his 2022 visit:

“I took an unofficial to UConn about a month ago. I just went up there to look around. My dad is really close with the coach, so I just went up there to look around. Just to look at the campus. I really like the school. The coaching staff, the players, and I met everybody. I spoke with the coaches, and they are recruiting me heavy. They are probably recruiting me the hardest of any school.”

Pettiford in a really good situation down at Auburn coming off the bench behind 5 seniors, getting his 22-23 minutes a game. He’ll start down there next year, see little chance he even thinks about moving off Auburn. If this is a woulda coulda hindsight, yeah maybe.

 

[Kowalski]

And who plays the point? You have any eligibility left?

Mahaney, I know he’s struggled and been tentative & we’re going to hear he’ll get swallowed up. But the guy definitely has skills and I’m not buying that he can’t take minute away from a hobbled Diarra, especially with McNeeley there. He’s good at changing speeds off the dribble and he’s got a decent handle and can knock down jump shots, but he lacks confidence now. And i thnk his defense has gotten better lately. Yes, he was tentative yesterday but I think he needs more than 3 or 4 minute stints to try to work through it.

Look, Diarra’s been great this year before the last couple gant but he’s killing them with his play and turnovers now. Hurley bragged that he trusts the hobbled Diarra but I think that’s also a bad evaluation. Stop playing him 35 minutes/game and get him some rest to heal up. I don’t want to go into March with Diarra not at full strength.

 

[REB1094]

No point beating the dead horse too much. Mahaney was a recruiting miss, but I think he has value as a bench piece once the internal pressure of starting-PG-turned-benchwarmer wears off

Can't fault the staff too much on it. 247 had him as the #22 transfer that summer and he was a 14 PPG starter on back to back tournament teams that was recruited by other good teams. It just is what it is

I bet our situation is much improved next year as a high impact transfer PG is a definite area of need. Nowell as PG2 and Mahaney as CG off the bench with Adams is pretty solid with Solo/Braylon starting

For this year, we need Diarra to get healthy and Mahaney to just play within himself and with confidence. If Nowell can contribute once he's back from injury, it's extra. This season rides on Solo and the forwards

 

[Rocktheworld]

I agree with all that you wrote. AM would have been a miss for all of the schools you listed, but he is on our roster. Dan Hurley had to take him out yesterday and keep him on the bench. He crossed half court yesterday and froze. He has been doing that all year. He was never a point guard at this level of competitiIon. Add in St Johns Defense (#4) and he is not able to compete at the level we require. Gotta give Hass credit for gutting out the minutes but he needs 2 weeks down time to get healthy.

Everyone (including us) wanted Timberlake last year.

At least we have another year that Aiden can develop into. I think from an athletic standpoint, there isn't much that Cam did that Aiden can’t do. All Cam has on Aiden is a little weight, which Aiden can put on. Again, Cam wasn’t asked to be our lead guard. I think we do need a more pure, big point guard from the portal with high D1 experience. With the sophomores coming back along with Tarris as a senior, with the freshmen coming in… it’s a great situation for a solid point guard to take the lead

 

[Hunt for 7]

No point beating the dead horse too much. Mahaney was a recruiting miss, but I think he has value as a bench piece once the internal pressure of starting-PG-turned-benchwarmer wears off

Can't fault the staff too much on it. 247 had him as the #22 transfer that summer and he was a 14 PPG starter on back to back tournament teams that was recruited by other good teams. It just is what it is

I bet our situation is much improved next year as a high impact transfer PG is a definite area of need. Nowell as PG2 and Mahaney as CG off the bench with Adams is pretty solid with Solo/Braylon starting

For this year, we need Diarra to get healthy and Mahaney to just play within himself and with confidence. If Nowell can contribute once he's back from injury, it's extra. This season rides on Solo and the forwards

I don’t see Mahaney staying. Makes no sense. Someone in a mid major conference will offer him a better NIL deal and honestly it would be better for him to move on. He is not going to end his career on the bench playing 10 minutes a game.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Was Timberlake a big miss for Kansas last season?

I guess I figure a recruiting miss is more so going out on a limb for someone ie taking a calculated risk and it not panning out. Following the consensus and the kid not “delivering” (as I implied in my post, we don’t know exactly what the staff expected of Aiden) doesn’t feel like a “miss” to me. I guess I just don’t like that specific word being used.

 

[UCFan1513]

Pettiford in a really good situation down at Auburn coming off the bench behind 5 seniors, getting his 22-23 minutes a game. He’ll start down there next year, see little chance he even thinks about moving off Auburn. If this is a woulda coulda hindsight, yeah maybe.

No not saying he’d transfer. Moreso saying Hurley didn’t whiff on talent eval, and having a guy like that to backup Diarra would’ve been huge

 

[AllHusky]

I think they are unfortunately bubbled if he sits a week or 2. Lucky to win 18-19 if he does. But he can’t play like last night no matter.

The tightrope we walk.

Do we want to have to win BET? No. Do we want to limp into Tournaments? No.

The question is did Hass have a tough game or is he hampered physically. Most agree he is ground down, the knee-itis being a symptom of overuse in general.

Is Alex similarly hampered by a series of dings plus concussion? Hard to know exactly.

Threading this needle between bubble concerns and physical readiness going to be Art not science. Hurley teams generally play best ball at seasons end, I’d err on the being physically ready side of decision making process.

 

[UCLJ0211]

Me reading the same reply in this thread 600 times.

 

[RuffRuff]

The tightrope we walk.

Do we want to have to win BET? No. Do we want to limp into Tournaments? No.

The question is did Hass have a tough game or is he hampered physically. Most agree he is ground down, the knee-itis being a symptom of overuse in general.

Is Alex similarly hampered by a series of dings plus concussion? Hard to know exactly.

Threading this needle between bubble concerns and physical readiness going to be Art not science. Hurley teams generally play best ball at seasons end, I’d err on the being physically ready side of decision making process.

I think we have to give StJ some credit - they are a beast of a team.

I was kinda surprised that Ross, the ex PG that he is, got so little time when we were turning the ball over nonstop. He seemed pretty effective for the same reasons against Marquette. I realize we were playing from a lead in that one.

As was stated, turning point in this one was at the 10 minute marker in first half. We were up a super impressive 26-12. I bet they were sitting back questioning themselves a bit, wondering if our shooting would just be too hard to stop. On our next two possessions we missed 3s AND got the offensive rebound and still couldn’t score. We then missed another 3 on our third possession, after stopping StJ 3x. That was the chance to split it open. They then cut the lead to 1 in less than 4 minutes and the waterfall began. In a game of swings that was the ultimate swing and momentum completely shifted. 10 minutes of beautiful basketball down the drain in a blink, crowd taken out. STJ is not a team you want to play from behind on.

 

[6Nattys4Us]

Their defense on us was formulaic: like Marquette, extend some full court to eat time off Hurley's offense and that led to either last second shots or no shot turnovers. Shot clock turnovers don't attribute to a player.

But Diarra had an absolutely terrible game. 2:1 turnovers to assists. Made some horrendous passes, lost the ball as if acting like Johnson who seems to lose the grip. Mahaney for his limited minutes was 1:1 ratio, had to take a last second shot, but otherwise was steady.

I doubt Mahaney stays, as he is not a point guard, more of a shooting guard with decent handle. But the transfer portal opens before players announce for the NBA so likely depends on Solo Ball's rest of season if he goes. But we are bringing in a McDonald's All-American shooting guard (Mullins) with more height and build than Mahaney, and if Solo stays we have 2 high pct 3pt shooters who can also drive.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Nowell needs to get healthy. I think he's a player. Shown some early season flashes. He can take over and run the offense when Diarra isn't feeling it.

Borges said pre game that he was practicing and moving well. Thought he might play. Then he was listed as out. But he said Nowell is obviously very close to coming back. Wouldn’t surprise me if they want to make very sure he doesn’t miss time again given that Diarra will be hobbled all year.

 

[MyDorona]

I wonder if they try Liam at pg just try an spell a couple minutes for Hass

Season-long data suggests we are an average-at-best defensive team. Playing Liam significant minutes in place of Hass ensures that we’d be a terrible defensive team. Who guards the other team’s smaller, quicker guards?

 

[Hi-Low]

PG situation is a mess...what else can you say. It's been holding team back all year and will continue to. Major miscalculation by Dan Hurley & Staff on Mahaney transition to lead PG. Remember that season started with Mahaney as starting PG and Diarra in natural position as backup pg 6th man.

Dan Hurley scrapped that after 1 game...so he didn't have "faith" in Diarra as lead PG in the off-season and after 1 game he knew Mahaney wasn't a PG at all....so we're stuck with a hobbled Diarra as lead PG.

 

[Dove]

Far too often have we been punched in the mouth at home. Soft team.

I don't think they're soft at all. Something is off.

 

[mauconnfan]

Borges said pre game that he was practicing and moving well. Thought he might play. Then he was listed as out. But he said Nowell is obviously very close to coming back. Wouldn’t surprise me if they want to make very sure he doesn’t miss time again given that Diarra will be hobbled all year.

Need him and Dan Hurley needs a longer rope with him, one mistake and out can’t happen. Let him play through it has to be a piece the rest of the year somehow. It’s scary that HD had 6 days to rest and didn’t look any better at all. That’s an issue!

 

[Hoophound]

If the Thad Matta era at Butler ends, Bizjack is worth a look. He tore us up and he played great in another game I watched recently. He’s a Hurley kind of guy. Tenacious, creative, great handle, good shooter.

 

[ihatepants]

On the bright side, the coaching staff will have plenty of time to scout and tamper this year for a replacement because they won’t have to worry about another deep run in March.