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Report Card vs USC Trojans

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Report Card

Report Card

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I. Whaley-8.5: This kid had more hustle plays than Mr. HotBalls had beers today. He has completely stepped into his expectations. What a unique player. Popper!
J. Carlton-8.5: Tears in my eyes cheering for this one. Simply put, he was dominant. He hustled, and then he hustled some more. If I could pick just ONE thing as the difference maker for the game, it would be his offensive rebounds. Clutch rebound after clutch rebound. Especially as we were struggling making shots, running the clock out seemed to be our only way out. What resilience from our big guy.
J. Bouknight- 7.0: Need to remember he kept the game from getting away from us early on. Could have settled with less turnovers, but I can't emphasize enough how comfortable I am with James forcing shots. He's so good, I encourage it. I always find myself yelling "Get the ball to BOUKNIGHT!".
T. Martin-7.0: Played great defense throughout. Stopped some important fast breaks. Even found himself shutting down the bigs a few times. Offensively I like his drives, not so much the 3 ball yet.
J. Gaffney- 7.0: Sound game. Needs to be more aggressive offensively.
R. Cole- 6.5: Not a bad game overall, just expect more from him. He's not just a good player, he's great. He's the offensive leader of this team, can't have our squad going so cold for such a long period of time.
A. Sanogo- 5.0: Love his stuff, just a bad matchup for him tonight. Those bigs move to quick for him. Footwork will be everything for Adama.
T. Polley- 3.0: Nope.
A. Jackson- Not quite ready yet. Still have lots of hope for him this season.

Player of the Match- J. Carlton: LA RESISTANCE!

The team responded perfectly to Hurley's demands. Those Mobley brothers are the real freaking deal. Whaley and Carlton won that game for us, who would have thunk. On to N.C State!!!
 
based on what hurley's said about adams in practice this summer i'm surprised he's not getting more PT than polley and AJ combined. instead all 3 have been complete no shows thus far
 
It’s actually unfair to say that Gaffney was the reason we lost the lead. The problem I saw was the team around him with the 2nd unit was absolutely garbage, particularly in the 1st half. In that 1st half he was sorrounded by Polley, Badams, and jax who all had rough outings. My eyes saw Gaffney moving the ball, driving and creating. This game solidified for me that Gaff is a very important piece to this team.

I think today also showed that Polley and Adam’s seem to be the 9-10 guys, soon to be 10-11 when Akok comes back. They received 10 minutes combined and didn’t bring anything good to the game.Jax is a freshman and I fully expect him to become an important piece once he gets comfortable and up to speed.
 
RayRay said:
It’s actually unfair to say that Gaffney was the reason we lost the lead. The problem I saw was the team around him with the 2nd unit was absolutely garbage, particularly in the 1st half. In that 1st half he was sorrounded by Polley, Badams, and jax who all had rough outings. My eyes saw Gaffney moving the ball, driving and creating. This game solidified for me that Gaff is a very important piece to this team.

I think today also showed that Polley and Adam’s seem to be the 9-10 guys, soon to be 10-11 when Akok comes back. They received 10 minutes combined and didn’t bring anything good to the game.Jax is a freshman and I fully expect him to become an important piece once he gets comfortable and up to speed.
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My eyes saw Gaffney dribbling while standing still, passing around the perimeter, and making no effort to break down the defense. It was like watching Michael Bradley play for the USMNT.
 
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If I watch Gaff hold and dribble the ball 35 feet from the rim anymore my eyes will bleed.

If we get a defensive rebound, it needs to be a sprint up the court before the defense gets set.
 
The scoring drought tonight was the product of a few things: Bouknight was cold, we had two bigs playing inside against two 5 star big men, and we had a point guard who wasn’t even pretending to look for his own shot. You can’t afford to be gun-shy when your offense is already starting out with negative spacing.

Nobody wanted the ball in their hands for that stretch. As hard as we played, we lacked aggression in the half court. Hopefully we see a little more leadership in spots like that going forward. I did love the offensive rebounding though.
 
We still need somebody else scoring other then bouknight. Guys are passing up shots looking for Bouk and no one on this team can penetrate to make a lay up. It’s always a kick out for 3 block shots or a wild get caught up in the air and throw up a hope I make it shot.
 
I don’t know. I’d say Bouk, Martin and Akok can drive the lane and make a layup. That’s about it though. Andre maybe.
 
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RayRay said:
It’s actually unfair to say that Gaffney was the reason we lost the lead. The problem I saw was the team around him with the 2nd unit was absolutely garbage, particularly in the 1st half. In that 1st half he was sorrounded by Polley, Badams, and jax who all had rough outings. My eyes saw Gaffney moving the ball, driving and creating. This game solidified for me that Gaff is a very important piece to this team.

I think today also showed that Polley and Adam’s seem to be the 9-10 guys, soon to be 10-11 when Akok comes back. They received 10 minutes combined and didn’t bring anything good to the game.Jax is a freshman and I fully expect him to become an important piece once he gets comfortable and up to speed.
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Problem is we have only 2 guys that can create their own shot. Cole and Bouknight. we have to keep one of them on the court at all times.
 
Excalibur said:
My eyes saw Gaffney dribbling while standing still, passing around the perimeter, and making no effort to break down the defense. It was like watching Michael Bradley play for the USMNT.
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I hope Gaffney can be anywhere near what Bradley was to the USMNT and honestly he is off to a good start, strong steady smart and a team first guy. I don't get the Bradley haters at all... so many good years from him.
 
Just like it was stupid to anoint Sanogo the second coming of Emeka Okafor after Hartford and CCSU, it's wrong to come to final conclusions about players' roles for the whole season after playing a team like USC who throws out a ridiculously unique lineup.
 
@UConnStats hit the nail on the head, the key to our good defense was also the biggest hindrance to our offense. To have Whaley on the wing at times was obviously not ideal.
Poor polley has zero confidence. He doesn’t seemed to have cleared the mental hurdle of his injury, gonna be a tough stretch for him with playing time so tough as it is.
 
It finally hit me - USC's roster is basically Syracuse.

A bunch of long, athletic big guys who can jump and run - but none are great shooters and they have one guard. They're tailor-made for a zone, but that's all they can do. They're good enough to beat some good teams but will never threaten to win anything significant.
 
Excalibur said:
My eyes saw Gaffney dribbling while standing still, passing around the perimeter, and making no effort to break down the defense. It was like watching Michael Bradley play for the USMNT.
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He also had 2-3 times where rebounds and outlets had given him the opportunity to get a 3-2 break and push it at USC, each time he backs it out never creating or being aggressive. Anyone who saw any offense from his PG play last night is dreaming, he needs to be more assertive if indeed he's even an answer.
 
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Yeah I would of had Cole rated a bit higher and gaff lower. Cole hit some big 3’s for us(again). Dude is money.
 
We need Polley to be in position to make 3’s which he can do. The guy can be a weapon and against different lineups he will be.
 
I think Cole is getting hurt by people's high expectations whereas Gaffney is getting extra leash because of his potential. We need both of them to be capable of double figures every night if we want to challenge in the Big East in my opinion
 
Excalibur said:
My eyes saw Gaffney dribbling while standing still, passing around the perimeter, and making no effort to break down the defense. It was like watching Michael Bradley play for the USMNT.
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Almost, Bradley only passes backwards, away from the goal. I don’t think Gaffney really know what to do when he sees that very long zone. AG would have dribbled into it, gotten stripped or blocked.

I am sure Hurley will work on this, but they need people moving through the zone without the ball, and the ball moving without the dribble. I expect them to get better at it as the season goes on.

I still think we need to run off of nearly every missed basket against zone teams. Push the pace, get to the offensive end before that zone can set up. It’s our best chance of getting easy baskets and forcing the defense to adapt to us. We won the game, but USC made us play their game.
 
More props is needed for Martin's rebounding. He has exceptional timing, good leaping ability and the frame to handle the physicality, especially if he's at the 3 spot.

He will be a super valuable 4 against smaller teams like Creighton.
 
Last edited:
Report Card said:
I. Whaley-8.5: This kid had more hustle plays than Mr. HotBalls had beers today. He has completely stepped into his expectations. What a unique player. Popper!
J. Carlton-8.5: Tears in my eyes cheering for this one. Simply put, he was dominant. He hustled, and then he hustled some more. If I could pick just ONE thing as the difference maker for the game, it would be his offensive rebounds. Clutch rebound after clutch rebound. Especially as we were struggling making shots, running the clock out seemed to be our only way out. What resilience from our big guy.
J. Bouknight- 7.0: Need to remember he kept the game from getting away from us early on. Could have settled with less turnovers, but I can't emphasize enough how comfortable I am with James forcing shots. He's so good, I encourage it. I always find myself yelling "Get the ball to BOUKNIGHT!".
T. Martin-7.0: Played great defense throughout. Stopped some important fast breaks. Even found himself shutting down the bigs a few times. Offensively I like his drives, not so much the 3 ball yet.
J. Gaffney- 7.0: Sound game. Needs to be more aggressive offensively.
R. Cole- 6.5: Not a bad game overall, just expect more from him. He's not just a good player, he's great. He's the offensive leader of this team, can't have our squad going so cold for such a long period of time.
A. Sanogo- 5.0: Love his stuff, just a bad matchup for him tonight. Those bigs move to quick for him. Footwork will be everything for Adama.
T. Polley- 3.0: Nope.
A. Jackson- Not quite ready yet. Still have lots of hope for him this season.

Player of the Match- J. Carlton: LA RESISTANCE!

The team responded perfectly to Hurley's demands. Those Mobley brothers are the real freaking deal. Whaley and Carlton won that game for us, who would have thunk. On to N.C State!!!
Expand ...

Whaley and Carlton against the Mobley brothers was like Cyrulik and Walker against Mourning and Mutombo in the 1990 Big East Semi.
 
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jibsey said:
We need Polley to be in position to make 3’s which he can do. The guy can be a weapon and against different lineups he will be.
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He just doesn’t “fit”.
 
arch said:
He just doesn’t “fit”.
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I’ve gotta say, I’m extremely concerned about Polley. He looked like a deer in headlights freshman in the game last night. That 1st foul he committed was a freshman foul, where he ran up to the guy 35 feet from the basket and rammed into him for no reason.

This guy is a senior, and I get he’s recovering from a major injury, but his mentality must be in very very bad shape. He forced everything in the 4 minutes he played.
 
jibsey said:
We need Polley to be in position to make 3’s which he can do. The guy can be a weapon and against different lineups he will be.
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We need the spacing he creates to open lanes for Bouk.
 
Report Card said:
T. Martin-7.0: Played great defense throughout. Stopped some important fast breaks. Even found himself shutting down the bigs a few times. Offensively I like his drives, not so much the 3 ball yet.
Expand ...
I wouldn't put him at the same level as Bouk. Tyrese was one of the best players for us. Bouk needs to step it up.
 
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