Predicting starters, bench rotation, depth outlook for Huskies

[navery12]

Last time I asked who they were you didn’t respond.

Does our best player being #1 mean nothing?

I don't remember you asking me that, your posts show up for me like 2 hours after they're time stamped so no idea what's happening.

In 2019 it was Brendan Adams who won, he was certainly not our best player and didn't even start

In 2021 it was RJ Cole, who you have said over and over again was overrated and not good. You might also notice Richie Springs with the bronze medal here, and who never saw the floor for meaningful minutes

The winners have been all over the place, sometimes it's our best players and sometimes it's guys who never see the floor. Because it's a meaningless award that's all about intangibles, not talent or who's gonna start

 

[Umami Zen]

I think high octane offensive opponents are going to see more Nowell and Abrahams minutes against them. Hurleys options with this depth are going to bring nightmares to opponents. They are going to overwhelm teams once Hurley gets it figured how they fit best together. They lack experience but by Big East time they should be ready; maybe sooner.

I share your optimism for the team and for Nowell/Abraham as legit two way players. Our depth is our strength. To me-The defensive solution (pre-season) appears to be more team D/help D than having a defensive stopper(ala Steph) or an exceptional rim protector (ala Donovan). They were tremendously effective in how they could impact a game on the defensive side of the ball. Would be glad to see some returners step up their D. Our O is gonna be fine. Plenty of scoring options within the context of our offensive sets/schemes.

Different team-different roster-different year. Looking forward to the season.

 

[Ricker]

Name me the Mark Jackson/Collin Gellespie point guards in college ball who will expose our guard. The Nova you're talking about no longer exists.

You're this freaked out by the one Kadary Richmond matchup?

Who is this Scheierman you're talking about?

Your post strikes me as weird. I'll take other teams trying to match up with us

I bow to your wisdom.
No sense in advocating a larger stronger defender on guards like Kadary Richmond. I stand corrected.
No sense in considering taller defenders on 6'6 shooting guards. That would be weird.
Evidently the Nova I'm talking about with a 6'8 center doesn't exist? Dixon announced he was coming back, and I verified he is listed on the 2024-25 roster as of 5 min ago but whatever, its just my imagination.

Fedor Žugić from Podgorica, Montenegro the 6-foot-6 guard was a member of the Montenegro U20 team that won a bronze medal at the FIBA U20 European Championships, averaging 18 points, 3.1 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game to land a spot on the All-Tournament Team.
After watching clips of him, by size and deep shooting he seems similar to a Scheierman. Will it translate to ncaa ball in the Big East, unknown. Never the less, whether it is him or somebody else, we will have larger 2 guards to deal with in some games. I just didn't realize Mahaney was as good a defensive answer as necessary, my bad again.

 

[AllHusky]

I bow to your wisdom.
No sense in advocating a larger stronger defender on guards like Kadary Richmond. I stand corrected.
No sense in considering taller defenders on 6'6 shooting guards. That would be weird.
Evidently the Nova I'm talking about with a 6'8 center doesn't exist? Dixon announced he was coming back, and I verified he is listed on the 2024-25 roster as of 5 min ago but whatever, its just my imagination.

Fedor Žugić from Podgorica, Montenegro the 6-foot-6 guard was a member of the Montenegro U20 team that won a bronze medal at the FIBA U20 European Championships, averaging 18 points, 3.1 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game to land a spot on the All-Tournament Team.
After watching clips of him, by size and deep shooting he seems similar to a Scheierman. Will it translate to ncaa ball in the Big East, unknown. Never the less, whether it is him or somebody else, we will have larger 2 guards to deal with in some games. I just didn't realize Mahaney was as good a defensive answer as necessary, my bad again.

Ricker, your first post about our guards defensive weakness gave me pause. My thought is that Nowell and Diarra will give anyone they guard heck, Ball as noted is a superior athlete who should translate to a lockdown guy, with the same effect that Nowell, Diarra have on the game. Leaves Mahaney, who I don’t know enough about to guess. Seems like we should be ok.

 

[superjohn]

I bow to your wisdom.
No sense in advocating a larger stronger defender on guards like Kadary Richmond. I stand corrected.
No sense in considering taller defenders on 6'6 shooting guards. That would be weird.
Evidently the Nova I'm talking about with a 6'8 center doesn't exist? Dixon announced he was coming back, and I verified he is listed on the 2024-25 roster as of 5 min ago but whatever, its just my imagination.

Fedor Žugić from Podgorica, Montenegro the 6-foot-6 guard was a member of the Montenegro U20 team that won a bronze medal at the FIBA U20 European Championships, averaging 18 points, 3.1 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game to land a spot on the All-Tournament Team.
After watching clips of him, by size and deep shooting he seems similar to a Scheierman. Will it translate to ncaa ball in the Big East, unknown. Never the less, whether it is him or somebody else, we will have larger 2 guards to deal with in some games. I just didn't realize Mahaney was as good a defensive answer as necessary, my bad again.

Wisdom?

Nova ain't Nova anymore.

We exploit matchups now.

 

[Hunt for 7]

Ball may have the issues mentioned. But in a less athletic and certainly less talented conference in Mahaney’s two years;

Per game FR= 2 APG v. 1.5 TOPG, 32 .2 MPG, SO = 2.6 APG v. 1.4 TOPG, 30.6 MPG. -He almost got it to 2-1 ratio.

Much more methodical plodding offense so chances in the half court were most likely limited. I truly hope those who are in the business and evaluate talent as a job are completely right about Mahaney.

Using his body of work over two years in a weaker conference is not the best comparative metric at this point.

Hassan last year JR= 1.8 APG v. 1.1 TOPG 12.7 MPG, SR = 2.4 APG v. 1.1TOPG 19.2 MPG

Spencer last year = 3.6 APS v. 1.0 TOPG 33 MPG

Newton last year = 6.2APG v. 2.5 TOPG 33.2 MPG

So passing and ball handling may be an area that allows Nowell to find time.

Also expect Hass to improve and will be a +4 or 5 APG player with increased playing time but as noted passing and ball movement are so key to this offense that someone will need to be the center piece and they will need help. Nowell ability to break down defenders off the dribble create penetration and find the open player on kick outs may end up having too much value to keep him off the floor.

One thing I know for sure about Mahaney is he is a great shooter. So combined with AK and Liam we could have three of the top shooters in the conference if not the country.

Last year Newton was much better than his first year but had a lot of help from Cam who was an upgrade to Jordan in regards to helping facilitate the offense and AK also improved to help in that capacity.

 

[Scrutineer]

Everyone is comfortable wit Karaban starting and getting somewhere around 30-33 mpg.
We know Johnson and Reed are getting all 40 min at the 5 spot. And unless something drastically changes it will be closer to a 20/20 split than a 30/10 split.
That is about 70-75 minutes between Karaban and the 5 spot leaving about 125 minutes total for Mahaney, Diarra, Ball McNeeley and Stewart. That means those five can split 120 minutes at an average of 24 mpg.
Figure injuries, foul troubles and some bad match ups on any given night and four of them will be getting over 25 mpg and one will be around 10-15 mpg. How these minutes work out as being a starter or coming off the bench is not much a concern for me.
Ross, Nowell and Abraham will be spot minutes as available. If any of these three are so good they need to force minutes from the group of Mahaney, Diarra, Ball, McNeeley and Stewart, thst is a problem the staff will gladly take on solving.
Or, as we always realize by the end of February, these things have a way of working themselves out.

Mostly agree but early in the season I expect Nowell, Ross and Abraham will get more than spot, mop-up, minutes if what we've heard from pre-season practice is true.
Dan Hurley has to assess how each player handles the spotlight on the court (remember how much he praised Nowell's performance in the "open practice") and I can't see him limiting the team to a typical end of season type shortened rotation of eight guys.

 

[Deleted at users request]

This is why he was recruited, yes

So transfers don’t have to earn their time through practice because they get recruited for a certain purpose?

 

[Deleted at users request]

I don't remember you asking me that, your posts show up for me like 2 hours after they're time stamped so no idea what's happening.

In 2019 it was Brendan Adams who won, he was certainly not our best player and didn't even start

View attachment 103120

In 2021 it was RJ Cole, who you have said over and over again was overrated and not good. You might also notice Richie Springs with the bronze medal here, and who never saw the floor for meaningful minutes

View attachment 103121

The winners have been all over the place, sometimes it's our best players and sometimes it's guys who never see the floor. Because it's a meaningless award that's all about intangibles, not talent or who's gonna start

We’ll go with your train of thought here.

In an open competition for a starting spot, the more talented player that has shown better intangibles throughout the summer is also not the one who is practicing the best?

Is that right?

 

[navery12]

We’ll go with your train of thought here.

In an open competition for a starting spot, the more talented player that has shown better intangibles throughout the summer is also not the one who is practicing the best?

Is that right?

1. That's not what I said and 2. The more talented player is going to start, because it's Aidan Mahaney

 

[Deleted at users request]

1. That's not what I said and 2. The more talented player is going to start, because it's Aidan Mahaney

Talent = natural gifts in my definition which is Solo.

So in an open competition, the more naturally gifted player who has also shown better intangibles is not also the one practicing better?

 

[Deleted at users request]

There are a few posters about four that he refrains from this MO. At first I thought putting him on ignore was the best tactic.

But that was like just letting the bully win without even offering any resistance. Made me feel like a schmuck.

So I decided I would try to respond and he found a way to troll me as being to sensitive when I responded.

Now I have realized if you ignore him and his responses understanding what is will all ways be seems to work for me.

I mean I know he is convinced we are all idiots, except for a few probably those who were in his class.

I now find humor, because being so smart and right is a heavy burden to bear and I am certain it weighs in(not on) him.

Maybe I have some healing to do because I kind of find it funny personally lol

 

[awy]

We’ll go with your train of thought here.

In an open competition for a starting spot, the more talented player that has shown better intangibles throughout the summer is also not the one who is practicing the best?

Is that right?

various people have tried to explain to you that the open practice hour isn't the best indicator of who's been the best in practice. players have offdays, stomach viruses and just being tired etc. your absurd leap of conjectures from this single hour of open practice are a waste of everyone's time.

 

[Deleted at users request]

various people have tried to explain to you that the open practice hour isn't the best indicator of who's been the best in practice. players have offdays, stomach viruses and just being tired etc. your absurd leap of conjectures from this single hour of open practice are a waste of everyone's time.

You’re being purposely dense or not reading if you think it’s just the hour I’m basing it off of.

 

[navery12]

Talent = natural gifts in my definition which is Solo.

So in an open competition, the more naturally gifted player who has also shown better intangibles is not also the one practicing better?

What I'm saying is we have no idea who's practicing better and your idea that the only way Mahaney starts is favoritism is absurd

 

[Lambeau]

Solo has tantalizing potential, but he just hasn't proved much.
Aidan was instrumental in beating Gonzaga three times and has proved himself repeatedly.
Similarly, Stewart looks great, but McNeeley was arguably the best shooter in high school ball.

 

[navery12]

There are a few posters about four that he refrains from this MO. At first I thought putting him on ignore was the best tactic.

But that was like just letting the bully win without even offering any resistance. Made me feel like a schmuck.

So I decided I would try to respond and he found a way to troll me as being to sensitive when I responded.

Now I have realized if you ignore him and his responses understanding what is will all ways be seems to work for me.

I mean I know he is convinced we are all idiots, except for a few probably those who were in his class.

I now find humor, because being so smart and right is a heavy burden to bear and I am certain it weighs in(not on) him.

You should put me on ignore and continue to respond to me like your buddy UofCT. Then you can keep trying to score cool points like him by replying to me in every thread without me ever being able to see anything you say

 

[REB1094]

So transfers don’t have to earn their time through practice because they get recruited for a certain purpose?

I feel that Mahaney was recruited with an understanding that it was very likely that he would start. He was the 2nd and 1st leading scorer of two top 25 tournament teams, so I doubt he would transfer for a bench role. If Solo is breaking out and earns a starting spot, I feel like it would come at the expense of Diarra instead. Mahaney has experience as a starting G of a successful team, and Diarra has experience as the BE 6MOY on a championship team

Starting spot is never guaranteed, but I feel like if he was underwhelming so much that he gets bumped from the starting 5, there'd be a lot more noise about it

My guess is Mahaney and Diarra start, and Solo is the 1st G off the bench

 

[Deleted at users request]

I feel that Mahaney was recruited with an understanding that it was very likely that he would start. He was the 2nd and 1st leading scorer of two top 25 tournament teams, so I doubt he would transfer for a bench role. If Solo is breaking out and earns a starting spot, I feel like it would come at the expense of Diarra instead. Mahaney has experience as a starting G of a successful team, and Diarra has experience as the BE 6MOY on a championship team

Starting spot is never guaranteed, but I feel like if he was underwhelming so much that he gets bumped from the starting 5, there'd be a lot more noise about it

My guess is Mahaney and Diarra start, and Solo is the 1st G off the bench

I agree that’s what he was recruited for. But the prevailing feeling on this board has been everyone earns their minutes through practice and all that rah rah. We have a case here where despite him being brought in to start it does not seem like hes been practicing better than Diarra or Ball. So will we do the thing that we are so adamant that we don’t do in this program and hand him the role because we brought him in for a specific purpose?

Not even saying there’s something wrong with that either. Just saying it would go against what is preached often on this board.

Also he doesn’t even have to be underwhelming. It could just be a case where Ball is that good as an actual NBA talent.

 

[Stasher599]

I agree that if someone we recruit in the portal and they transfer here because of a vision the staff has for them must still prove to be better in practice than anyone else competing at that spot. No promises or guarantees for anyone that commits here.

 

[IndyLives]

Reed will have to get his FG% and FT% up if he wants to start. Both well below average for a 5. Yes, he's an athletic Big, but Dan Hurley prides himself on productivity and getting the best shot possible. His athleticism might serve the team better by coming off the bench.

 

[UofCT]

You should put me on ignore and continue to respond to me like your buddy UofCT. Then you can keep trying to score cool points like him by replying to me in every thread without me ever being able to see anything you say

You “ignore” me but then respond to everything I post. Insert the mean girls why are you so obsessed with me gif.

 

[Lambeau]

Reed will improve with coaching, or they would have recruited someone else; he won't have to improve much to start if Samson can't stop fouling.
Mahaney, if I remember, won a medal for practice last month; Ball needs to learn to play better with others, and less...solo?
McNeeley averaged 24 ppg as a junior at Montverde, ten times Stewart's 2.5 last season.
Nowell is coming on fast, being mentored by Hass; I expect they will share PG duties. A confident kid--says it took him about a week in June to pick up the offense.

 

[7774]

There are a few posters about four that he refrains from this MO. At first I thought putting him on ignore was the best tactic.

But that was like just letting the bully win without even offering any resistance. Made me feel like a schmuck.

So I decided I would try to respond and he found a way to troll me as being to sensitive when I responded.

Now I have realized if you ignore him and his responses understanding what is will all ways be seems to work for me.

I mean I know he is convinced we are all idiots, except for a few probably those who were in his class.

I now find humor, because being so smart and right is a heavy burden to bear and I am certain it weighs in(not on) him.

I see the guy who hoped NCAA tournament committee members would die young because they didn't include a Big East bubble team has climbed back up on his cloud of judgement. Always hilarious.

 

[yungdowork]

I agree that’s what he was recruited for. But the prevailing feeling on this board has been everyone earns their minutes through practice and all that rah rah. We have a case here where despite him being brought in to start it does not seem like hes been practicing better than Diarra or Ball.

I just feel like there's absolutely no way that any of us could know anything about who has been the best in practice. I'm sure Ball earned his spot on the podium but it just doesn't tell us anything about the roster dynamics. I think Mahaney will start, but even if you're right and Solo has been better, why does that mean Hurley couldn't see him as more valuable as a 6th man? Whichever one doesn't start is still going to see like 20-25 minutes a game

 

[WhereistheDove?]

Reed will have to get his FG% and FT% up if he wants to start. Both well below average for a 5. Yes, he's an athletic Big, but Dan Hurley prides himself on productivity and getting the best shot possible. His athleticism might serve the team better by coming off the bench.

Remember that everything is relative. I’m not sure FT%, where his competition shot 43% last year, is going to hold Reed back from starting. FG% probably also not particularly comparable between the two. Samson was almost exclusively a lob threat, so his FG% is going to be higher than Reed, who was asked to do a lot more offensively at Michigan. The ceiling is there, but both of the options at the five have serious question marks heading into the season.

 

[Mister P]

I wouldn’t consider the summer workouts a true gauge on who will be starting once the regular season games start. Per the NCAA rules and reg’s, the workouts were limited to a total of only 8hrs per week with 4 of those hours allowed for skill related instruction. Those 4 hours were probably mostly used for scrimmages and players getting familiar with the offensive and defensive sets and motions along with the returnees and newcomers getting familiar with each other. Conditioning, weightlifting and whatever else made up the 4 hours of non skill related workouts.

Once official practice starts on Sept 25th, they will have 20hrs. of practice per week and that’s when practices will ramp up and be more structured.

Whether it’s on or off the ball, my money would be on Mahaney being in the starting lineup.

 

[Deleted at users request]

I think Mahaney will start, but even if you're right and Solo has been better, why does that mean Hurley couldn't see him as more valuable as a 6th man? Whichever one doesn't start is still going to see like 20-25 minutes a game

Then it’s not a competition that they’re having to earn a spot through practice. The role was handed.

 

[NotADime89]

Then it’s not a competition that they’re having to earn a spot through practice. The role was handed.

 

[Umami Zen]

Then it’s not a competition that they’re having to earn a spot through practice. The role was handed.

Practice doesn't start until Sept 25th-- That's when the true evaluation period starts.

Enjoy the rest of the summer or the start of your Fantasy Football season. Maybe some chillin' and grillin'.

Danny has this covered.