Rhode Island Post Game Thread | Page 5 | The Boneyard

Rhode Island Post Game Thread

I really enjoyed reading all the great observations and analysis. No need for me to rehash many of the individual performances which were well described.

Samson definitely struggled on the defense end. Found himself pushed to far under the basket, and far too often out of rebounding position when trying to contest or block shots.

Now I don't think he needs to rack up a lot of rebounds, but like last season's bigs, whoever is at the 5 and 4 just needs to block out and let the 3s, 2s and 1s come in and clean up the defensive glass. Last season Newton, Cam, Castle and even Diarra would swoop down on snatch their share of rebounds. (Hum...I wonder if it's worth the staff digging up some tape on Dennis Rodman for Sampson to study to improve his D and rebounding. Their probably around the same size and level of athleticism.)

UConn is not going to be an eye popping big's rebounding team, but we need Samson, Reed and whoever is playing the 4 to keep the other teams bigs from collapsing the pocket around the basket to keep our team rebounding from giving up many second chance opportunities.

The other observation was I'd like to see them maintain their motion offense longer. They seemed to bail out a tad early with players trying to take their man off the dribble and/or drive into traffic a tad too soon with a lot of time on the shot clock. Most of the roster are new to their roles, and some new to the system, so it will take time, which is completely understandable.

It's so early in the season, and team oriented stuff (multi-action motion offense, team defense/rebounding) will simple improve as the season goes on, where they will be a title contender by the end of the BE regular season, if not sooner.

IIt's great to be a Husky fan.
 
Depth that can score- Liked seeing Alex and Tarris mixing it up on the boards-Aidan playing like he belongs-Solo gonna make the second year jump-Freshmen not backing down- Decent game for mid-October.
 
superjohn said:
The only question is if the center position will be good enough and Hurley seems to think they will be. This is the best collection of forwards and guards top to bottom we've ever had. They should be preseason #1 but Hurley will use it as bulletin board material again.
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It will if Reed can play into the majority minutes. Samson just isn’t the guy, unfortunately. He can’t even do basic 5 things consistently, like defensive rebound. Just doesn’t have the body type to hip check with solid bigs, lacks leverage in his lower half. Given the strength of the 1-4 offensively, we just need a guy that can anchor the paint, swallow up rebounds and make it challenging for the opposing team to take it to the rim. The offense would be gravy.
 
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storrsroars said:
The end of the game was quite impressive, garbage time or not. Singare balled. Seemed he knew exactly where he needed to be. Nowell could be an offensive spark. Looked like a deadeye shooter. Ross reminded me of a frosh AJax - has the ability to come out of nowhere to make a play. The touted frosh looked like they deserved to be touted.

I was one who was not sold on Ball last year as I didn't think he was playing firmly within the system until tourney time. Glad to be wrong. He'll work his way up mocks with play like this.

AK and Diarra did their thing.

Not much to dislike here. Bring on the season.
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Singare looks like he belongs. We may be better served with a three-headed center model, particularly if SJ struggles with wet-paper-towel post defense and the penchant for fouling
 
bendm said:
the number of "liam off the bench" takes is...surprising. he's going to be our next lotto pick.
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The two are not directly related. He will or will not be a lottery pick based on how well he’s projected to help an NBA team a few years out. He will or won’t get starters minutes based on whether he helps us win games this year.
 
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We were so good with rim protection (Clingan) last year that yes it does look different but not weak. As this group continues to develop much like they did in the second half last night, I think that we will all be pleased. This group has incredibly talented depth. Dan Hurley will have work to do just to determine who gets the majority of minutes on any given night. The group of Ross, Stewart, Mahney, Ball and any of the big men might be as quick a team as i can remember seeing. Adding Nowell to this group as well, and I think it is a great tribute to this coaching staff and what they want to accomplish that they can get this much talent through the door. It takes a lot of luck to even compete at the level they hope to compete at but this group will for sure. Once again, I was stunned by the talent on display in the second half.
 
IndyLives said:
Reed will be the key to a FF/3peat run. We've been spoiled at the 5 the last 2 years, but dominate center play is critical to winning a Title.
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I agree with you but very few teams could be blessed with a 7'2" rim protector. We might see a lot of fouls out of our bigs this year for sure but after watching last night you never know we might even have 3 big boys to throw out there if needed. Last night, I think that I counted about 3 uncontested shots, and we all know how much Dan Hurley hates that!
 
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shizzle787 said:
Was there. Decent crowd. I think this should be a yearly charity exhibition game between the two schools. It just makes sense.
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I don't believe it is as simple as that. The announcers talked about a waiver being granted to play this game. A charity game early in the season is great but would involve more than just the two schools to be approved.
 
I feel no desire, or obligation, to find anything wrong because I know Dan Hurley will. But I saw a lot of positives:

Solo is a Man. He's got the kind of body that this team needs, and his shooting and confidence are incredible. Going to be tough to take him off the floor.

Mahaney immediately displayed leadership skills, talking to other players during dead balls and directing teammates. He's an ignitor.

Hurley focuses on offense at this time of year, this team has lots of weapons, and a lot of fouls to give. How many times will we score 100 points this year? Probably a lot. Already looks like the raw version of a Dan Hurley-UConn team on offense. The defense will show up later.

Going to be a fun year.
 
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Hopefully after seeing the game tonight people will finally realize that Stewart and Mahaney coming off the bench doesnt mean they're struggling or not good players. The rotation of Ball, McNeeley, Mahaney, Stewart and even Ross is going to be fun to watch this year. They're all really good players who'd start on most teams in the country
 
Haven’t seen the game yet but my question is about the defense which was the reason we shut teams like Purdue down and built big leads. Will this team have that capability by year end? Scoring droughts happen but we have 2 titles under Hurley starting with D and that has always been his focus.
 
McNeeley O'HARA


sorry couldn't resist
 

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jibsey said:
Haven’t seen the game yet but my question is about the defense which was the reason we shut teams like Purdue down and built big leads. Will this team have that capability by year end? Scoring droughts happen but we have 2 titles under Hurley starting with D and that has always been his focus.
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Dan Hurley is our coach still, so yes. People are concerned every fall about how the defense is going to look after losing X and Y. But with 6 months to work with, Dan Hurley could turn you and me into good defenders
 
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jibsey said:
Haven’t seen the game yet but my question is about the defense which was the reason we shut teams like Purdue down and built big leads. Will this team have that capability by year end? Scoring droughts happen but we have 2 titles under Hurley starting with D and that has always been his focus.
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It won’t be as good. The defense in the tournament was epic. This team doesn’t have that defensive ceiling. It probably doesn’t have the ceiling of the 2023 team either.

That said, it should be good enough for the offense to carry UConn most of the time. Remember UConn won each game in the tournament the last two years by double digits. There is wiggle room.
 
jibsey said:
Haven’t seen the game yet but my question is about the defense which was the reason we shut teams like Purdue down and built big leads. Will this team have that capability by year end? Scoring droughts happen but we have 2 titles under Hurley starting with D and that has always been his focus.
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Defense was really good in second half. No Cling Kong- but we all knew that would bring us back to earth this year.

On a side note I loved this early game. My dad - a huge Uconn fan- would always tell me ”you have to wait to see the team play on the court”. I think we are in for an entertaining season.
 
Also could not watch due to conflicts but surmising the halftime “conversation” was on a par with those of last year because out 2nd halves have been a show of force. We don’t always crush in the first half but this was typical Hurley halftime magic.
 
Good Game - Rhode Island came to play! They had size and strength - perfect first game opponent.

Impresssions?

First half was the guys learning to play together. Figuring out who’s going to stick around and rebound and who was going to get motoring on the fast break. Learning how to play pressure D together - no issues w/1st half - growing pains.

Mahaney is the guy that will be the lynch pin to the whole operation. In March, he will be the man. Surpassed my best expectations.

McNeeley picked the right place to play for a year or two. His game will come along and he‘ll be ready for the draft. He didn’t have the best night but kept at it - still figuring out how he fits in.

Solo Ball looked great last year when he took over for Stephon - at the time - I was thinking how do you keep him on the bench. His D has improved greatly and his offense looks next level. I knew he was real deal.

Johnson needs to continue to work on his game, otherwise the minute/split may not be good for him.

Karaban also has to find a flow - how to play with this new team. He got better as the game went on.

The one takeaway is unlike any other program in D 1, the guys coming off the bench come in ready to “tear it up” and there is no drop off when they come in. They often “turn it up” on the opponent… it’s not fair LOL… Opposing coaches, good luck with drawing up schemes to go against 12 starters.

We will lose some games this year - more than the past few years - but watch out for us come March!
 
huskyharry said:
Singare looks like he belongs. We may be better served with a three-headed center model, particularly if SJ struggles with wet-paper-towel post defense and the penchant for fouling
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He got two minutes at the end against URI’s backup center. He looked like he had improved, but nothing about his usage tonight tells me that Hurley expects him to play meaningful minutes this season. I’ll be happily wrong if he plays well enough to insert himself in the rotation, but I’d be happy if he plays well enough that we’re not running out the Stewart/Karaban look at center when there’s foul trouble.
 
Iluvsuebird said:
WAIT, wait just one minute: i am the president of the Solo Ball fan club! You can be vice president, but i was there first!!!
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Not so fast! Lol, I've been saying he's my break out player this year and I got some flack for it. Fortunate or unfortunate he was replaced by Castle and his minutes were diminished. He is going to be a special player for us.
 
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