RJ just not good enough

[JohnFSilver]

Common denominator in all these disappointments and late game droughts is the fact that RJ just is not good enough to pull out a W in these situations.

When he’s in hero mode and things are falling, sure we all love him. But he’s the DEFINITION of a ball stopper. He sits around and dribbles for 3/4 of the shot clock and we get up some hot potato shot.

On top of that, missing key free throws is just to be expected from him.

We need a new philosophy late game. The ball just can’t go through him anymore.

Terrible take .

The reason the ball goes through him is that no one else can do it. Gaffney is inconsistent, diggings is non-existent. Outside of Jackson, everyone else is a non-ball handler.

Jackson can’t create his own shot and Martin has tunnel vision. The issue with Tuesdays Game wasn’t late, it was UConn early. What was that first half? Why is the shooting bad and the offense not crisp?

You can not take 20 minutes to match your opponents energy level and purpose. UConn played too cool for school. Didn’t concentrate.

 

[JohnFSilver]

Something was clearly off with Cole last night. He would get by their pg at ease and have a clear lane to the hoop countless times but for some reason chose to pull the ball back.

7-footer who is one of the nation’s top shot blockers was there protecting the rim.

 

[BlueDogs]

Ill give Cole a pass since he's saved our bacon a lot more than he's fried it. The guy can't shoulder the entire load every game. What I do see is guys that are tired and getting run into the ground.

 

[Chin Diesel]

7-footer who is one of the nation’s top shot blockers was there protecting the rim.

Cole has a good pull up J from the FT line and I really like that shot from him rather than trying the floaters from 6'-8'.

 

[NJHskyfan8]

This is a terrible take.

RJ has been our most consistent player all year.

RJ looked like someone who is 72 hours removed from carrying a team to road victory and then was tasked with taking the opposing point guard out of the game, which he did. Nembhard had 6 pts on 2-8 shooting and 1 assist. He showed up on the defensive end and looked tired offensively which is compounded by not having a competent reserve PG. Still RJ was our 2nd leading scorer. Sure, he's not a #1 like Kemba or Shabazz but I don't think he was ever billed as such. He's a grad transfer from Howard not a McDonald's all-american like Kemba or a top 100 recruit like Shabazz. Expectations for RJ have gone up because of how wildly inconsistent the rest of the team is. That's not on RJ.

Again just an awful take.

RJ is the least of our issues.

 

[cohenzone]

Without RJ - this team is toast - Dan Hurley relies on him so much and RJ has carried the team to quite a few wins
They need another combo guard who has some length

Anyone ever hear of James Bouknight?

 

[PAHusky]

RJ gets a pass in my book because the guy has saved us multiple times this year.

Closest recent comp for him may be that year Boatright was carrying the team by himself for huge stretches of the season.

The only problem I had with his game last night - why the hesitation to shoot threes? I thought he had a few times coming around screens, with and without the ball, where he could have pulled the trigger but didn't. Odd

 

[CallMeBruce]

New posts should be frozen when the team plays badly, otherwise you get braindead garbage like this.

 

[navery12]

Anyone ever hear of James Bouknight?

 

[Psolo12]

The OP is absolutely insane for this post. This same Creighton team beat Nova by 20, is Gillespie trash too? Give me a break, time to delete your account or step back.

 

[Connecticut13]

Cole is perfectly fine. It's Hurley that hasn't shown he's good enough.

I'm honestly surprised at the number of "dislikes" that this comment received. I can't believe anyone can objectively look at the coaching this season and think that it hasn't been a significant concern. We haven't seen improvements from our young players outside of Andre Jackson (most notably, Jordan Hawkins), we've seen regression from others (most notably, Gaffney), we've seen an inability to manage a rotation, we've seen players whose confidence has seemingly been diminished and we've seen ridiculous late-game management. There are pro's too for sure, excellent recruitment, tough defense, etc. -- but still so many question marks. Hurley has significant room for improvement, and I'm hoping he's going to get there.

This team would be lost without Cole, so forgive me - but he is NOT the problem. He's not Kemba Walker and he is not without limitations, but he's still a pretty good D1 point guard. I'm happy he's with the program. And I hope he's back with us next year. I don't think we can win without him.

 

[Kiddddddd34]

He is a 90% free throw shooter.
He’s the guy we want taking foul shots.

Said this at the beginning of the year and everyone on the board got all pissy... NO KILLER INSTINCT. Just because he's a 90% free throw shooter on the season doesnt mean hes necessarily the guy we want taking the free throws with the game on the line! Whos the best free throw shooter in clutch time?? Cole has proven over and over again hes not that guy. Big difference between free throws up 20 against maryland eastern shore then creighton this yr (AND LAST YR)

 

[UofCT]

The OP is a troll. He goes months without a post and all of a sudden he is blasting our only point guard?

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

The OP is a troll. He goes months without a post and all of a sudden he is blasting our only point guard?

It's always an avalanche of new names after a loss.

 

[UofCT]

It's always an avalanche of new names after a loss.

Seriously. @campcalhoun2009 needs to respect negative nancies like myself who post nonsense year round.

 

[auror]

I'm honestly surprised at the number of "dislikes" that this comment received. I can't believe anyone can objectively look at the coaching this season and think that it hasn't been a significant concern. We haven't seen improvements from our young players outside of Andre Jackson (most notably, Jordan Hawkins), we've seen regression from others (most notably, Gaffney), we've seen an inability to manage a rotation, we've seen players whose confidence has seemingly been diminished and we've seen ridiculous late-game management. There are pro's too for sure, excellent recruitment, tough defense, etc. -- but still so many question marks. Hurley has significant room for improvement, and I'm hoping he's going to get there.

What were your expectations that a top 20 ranking, top third of the Big East standing, beating the #1 team in the country, and winning 5 of the last 6 equates to a significant coaching concern?

You're just going to ignore Sanogo's improvement? He's improved significantly on both sides of the ball. Especially moving his feet on perimeter defense, free throw shooting, shotblocking technique, and most recently developing some more passing.

I'm not sure what inability to manage a rotation means. The rotation has been fine. Our best players play. Gaffney demonstrated he wasn't playing up to par, so now he plays less. Akok and Hawkins' minutes fluctuate a bit with matchup and how they look. The other freshmen don't play because they're not good enough.

Kinda hard for a guy's confidence not to be shaken when he just loses the ball the instant he starts dribbling for multiple games in a row (Hawkins). Either way, he's come back to have better games lately, so I don't see the concern there.

Hurley's track record isn't Cooley's in late game situations. You take some bad with the rest of the good and hope he figures out the issues there (because I can't really pinpoint any one thing specifically.)

 

[Connecticut13]

What were your expectations that a top 20 ranking, top third of the Big East standing, beating the #1 team in the country, and winning 5 of the last 6 equates to a significant coaching concern?

You're just going to ignore Sanogo's improvement? He's improved significantly on both sides of the ball. Especially moving his feet on perimeter defense, free throw shooting, shotblocking technique, and most recently developing some more passing.

I'm not sure what inability to manage a rotation means. The rotation has been fine. Our best players play. Gaffney demonstrated he wasn't playing up to par, so now he plays less. Akok and Hawkins' minutes fluctuate a bit with matchup and how they look. The other freshmen don't play because they're not good enough.

Kinda hard for a guy's confidence not to be shaken when he just loses the ball the instant he starts dribbling for multiple games in a row (Hawkins). Either way, he's come back to have better games lately, so I don't see the concern there.

Hurley's track record isn't Cooley's in late game situations. You take some bad with the rest of the good and hope he figures out the issues there (because I can't really pinpoint any one thing specifically.)

We'll agree to disagree. Hawkins has gone scoreless the last two games. He's only shot threes, and is 0 for 6 in that timeframe. Looks like a shell of the player we saw at the beginning of the year.

An inability to manage a rotation means just what it sounds like. He's essentially using 6 players -- hasn't developed the rest of the rotation, guys are gassed. You need to find time for Akok and Hawkins and I would expect that they'd be able to provide productive minutes at this point in this season.

He's allowed the other team to dictate the pace of player 100% of the time. And the late game situations are mind boggling.

I want Coach Hurley to succeed. We all do. I look at the talent on this team and I expect more than what we saw last night. And what we've seen on multiple other occasions this season. We look unprepared at times, we look scared more often than not, and we looked a bit out of shape. I put that on the Coach.