Sacred Heart Post Game Thread | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Sacred Heart Post Game Thread

Karaban, McNeeley, and Ball: 12/20 from 3=60%--exactly what Danny's looking for.
Reed 15/11--now we see why Danny's been quietly cofident about the 5.
Mahaney's offense was as bad as he was good against URI--Danny's banking on the good Aidan prevailing.
So 80% great--not a bad beginning.
 
WhereistheDove? said:
Hot take prediction of the night based on way too small of a sample size: Nowell ends the season as the starting point guard. My god he looked confident running the offense.
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He’s got a lot of game and fire. Attacking the basket in this offense will open up a lot
 
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AK - most complete game of his UConn career, and a great litmus for him seizing that leadership role. He looked like a pro and at a different level than the rest of the floor.

Ian - active and fearless scorer. Lived up to the hype.

Tarris - glimpses of what he’s capable of once he refines. Great game as he’s so athletic for his size, with good hands.

Solo - great shooting night but still lacks activity on the overall. No reason a kid that long and athletic isn’t a constant disruptor. He stands around as an onlooker way too often. Needs to be more than just a jump shooter, especially if he wants to play in the league.

Samson - I thought he played well when he wasn’t fouling, which continues to be a massive issue for him. Offensively he showed things he’s never done. His FT form looked much improved. That said, he should be coming off the bench soon enough.

Mahaney - most disappointing Husky of the night. Things seemed to stall with ball in his hands. Didn’t really have much presence out there, felt a little stunted at the pace of action. Him throwing a donut up as a starter against SHU can’t happen. Can only go up from here, but the PG position is one to watch. Had a hard time staying in front as a defender at times.

Hassan - tough shooting night. Did have 6 assists and the team generally looks better with him out there at PG, as he pushes pace and is so active, and defends. It almost felt like he may have been pressing on the shot as it’s clearly one of the reasons he doesn’t start.

Stew - still waiting for the light bulb to go off and to understand his identity in the rotation. He continues to miss threes, yet constantly fades to the three point line waiting for a kick out which leaves him away from where his real value is. He did get into the paint more on the very back end of the game to grab a couple rebounds.

Other frosh looked good in limited back end minutes.

Great win to start the season, without Ross. All is a work in progress but great to see some of the core pieces show their stuff. The offensive complexity and precision will only go up from here.
 
Reed did what he should do against a physically overmatched opponent. Still worried the mental lapses will cost us against better teams, but he should be the best center on the roster by march. I’m fine with Samson starting until it’s absolutely clear Reed is the guy.

Idk who’s starting spot Ross was taking, cause Solo and Liam both looked like stars. Great problem to have.
 
Good early game to watch. AK was impressive as was Liam and Solo. Most improved since URI game was Tarris. Much to look forward with him.

Samson good in spurts but too many fouls. His 5th foul was the worst.
 
RuffRuff said:
Hassan - tough shooting night. Did have 6 assists and the team generally looks better with him out there at PG, as he pushes pace and is so active, and defends. It almost felt like he may have been pressing on the shot as it’s clearly one of the reasons he doesn’t start.
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Fully agree! The form on Hass' shot looked off. Seemed like he was heaving it a little bit, like a kid that is shooting out of his range. Not worried. It'll come around and in the long term he brings D and veteran intangibles.
 
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A lot of firepower on offense. Think Maui will tell us a lot about just how good this team can be.

As far as things to lookout for/improve:

Solo is shooting how Hurley thought he could last year. But I would like to see more from his offensive game. Didn’t see a lot of drives outside of attacking close outs. This is against SHU too so I hope he can show that against better teams.

Foul trouble at the 5 spot against a team like this is worrisome. Have to fix that against better opponents. Reed played well. Think he’s going to continue to get better and better under Hurley as he really simplifies the game for bigs.

Liam is Liam. He’s perfect fit for this offense and he’s going to score effortlessly all year. Only thing I’m looking out for is his defense against higher level competition.

Karaban played like junior team leader today. 7 blocks is crazy. Wonder if his defense has improved enough to keep those athletic 4s at bay that he used to struggle with.

PG play has a lot of room for improvement.

We are an incredibly deep team. Wish we could’ve saw Ross today. My only question is if we can survive an off shooting night with the amount of 3s we take when it matters.
 
I wasn’t up there tonight, but Connor Wilson, who will be covering whatever UConn home games I can’t make, was. Here’s his recap:

dalydoseofhoops.blogspot.com

Huskies hammer Sacred Heart on banner night as Karaban shines

Alex Karaban opened junior year with 20 points and perhaps most well-rounded effort of his career as UConn raised national championship bann...
dalydoseofhoops.blogspot.com dalydoseofhoops.blogspot.com
 
ScottCT said:
Some people judging the first game of the season like we're in February.
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Well, they better start improving their FT's now when their legs are fresh and the competition is light. Otherwise, it's going to be a long February.
15-23 is unacceptable for a championship level team. I don't know what the coaches are "coaching" in practice, but it obviously isn't FT's!!
McNeeley is a 5-star recruit and goes 3-6. No thanks. Park his but on the bench and give Stewart some run.
These guys should be in the gym before practice, after practice and any chance they get shooting FT's by the hundreds.
Hopefully once the crowd left and the lights were turned off Hurley got them all back in there shooting FT's.


(sarcasm off)
 
More love here for McNeeley. Super polished and confident. Bigger in person that I imagined, broad shoulders and occupied space. Can score a bunch of ways. Worked hard on the boards. Immediately loved the kid.

p.s. - I never want to read another complaint about the scoreboards. They're awesome.
 
Alex can't continue to play those many minutes at the absolute beast mode pace he brought tonight.
 
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Here are my thoughts
1. AK player of the game. LM was close to this
2. I think we will be ok st the 5. SJ commits silly fouls and as a result fouled out. TR is going to be good. He had a double-double.
3. We shared the ball. I think we had at least 26 assists.
4. Hurley got on the boys as far as rebounding. Huge difference between the 2 teams.
 
Rewatching the highlights, there were 6-7 plays where Mahaney was the critical point of a play, but off a beautiful pass before the pass.

No stats to show for it, but 15+ points were directly because of him
 
McNeeley did a great job rebounding. Seems like he can pick up some of those weak side rebounds Newton used to get.
And I loved him being fearless and aggressive even after his adrenaline-boosted airball.
Reed can rebound. Good. Can't ever have too much rebounding support from bigs off the bench.
I'm curious to see what kind of money you could have made on a Karaban trifecta of 6 or more rebounds, assists and blocks. Exactly half the FG attempts, 31/62, were from 3.
25 assists on 32 made FG's. That's some good ball movement. It's especially impressive in the first game of the season 3-4 new starters.
 
Deepster said:
More love here for McNeeley. Super polished and confident. Bigger in person that I imagined, broad shoulders and occupied space. Can score a bunch of ways. Worked hard on the boards. Immediately loved the kid.

p.s. - I never want to read another complaint about the scoreboards. They're awesome.
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Yeah, he's not slight of build. Should help minimize the amount of "he needs to hit the weights and put on 10 lbs of muscle" posts on the BY. It Should. But it won't.
 
Chin Diesel said:
Well, they better start improving their FT's now when their legs are fresh and the competition is light. Otherwise, it's going to be a long February.
15-23 is unacceptable for a championship level team. I don't know what the coaches are "coaching" in practice, but it obviously isn't FT's!!
McNeeley is a 5-star recruit and goes 3-6. No thanks. Park his but on the bench and give Stewart some run.
These guys should be in the gym before practice, after practice and any chance they get shooting FT's by the hundreds.
Hopefully once the crowd left and the lights were turned off Hurley got them all back in there shooting FT's.


(sarcasm off)
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4 of the 8 misses McNeeley and AK. We’ll be fine. FT shooting with this team is last of the concerns.
 
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Deepster said:
More love here for McNeeley. Super polished and confident. Bigger in person that I imagined, broad shoulders and occupied space. Can score a bunch of ways. Worked hard on the boards. Immediately loved the kid.

p.s. - I never want to read another complaint about the scoreboards. They're awesome.
Expand ...

McNeeley debut stats
27 mins / shots 6-11 / 3pt 3-6 / FT 3-6 / Rebounds 10 / Assist 2 / steals 1 / points 18

Flagg debut stats
30 mins / shots 6-15 / 3pt 0-4 / FT 6-6 /
Rebounds 7 / Assist 5 / steals 3 / points 18

Very similar stats. I think McNeeley has a better supporting cast.

It's going to be very interesting if and when these two freshmen get an opportunity to face each other.
 
Chin Diesel said:
Well, they better start improving their FT's now when their legs are fresh and the competition is light. Otherwise, it's going to be a long February.
15-23 is unacceptable for a championship level team. I don't know what the coaches are "coaching" in practice, but it obviously isn't FT's!!
McNeeley is a 5-star recruit and goes 3-6. No thanks. Park his but on the bench and give Stewart some run.
These guys should be in the gym before practice, after practice and any chance they get shooting FT's by the hundreds.
Hopefully once the crowd left and the lights were turned off Hurley got them all back in there shooting FT's.


(sarcasm off)
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Umm, this is your really your concern? Then I noticed the tiny comment at the bottom. Nicely done.
 
B1GEast said:
McNeeley debut stats
27 mins / shots 6-11 / 3pt 3-6 / FT 3-6 / Rebounds 10 / Assist 2 / steals 1 / points 18

Flagg debut stats
30 mins / shots 6-15 / 3pt 0-4 / FT 6-6 /
Rebounds 7 / Assist 5 / steals 3 / points 18

Very similar stats. I think McNeeley has a better supporting cast.

It's going to be very interesting if and when these two freshmen get an opportunity to face each other.
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I’d actually liken McNeelys game more to Kneuppel, in terms of position and playing style.
 
WhereistheDove? said:
Hot take prediction of the night based on way too small of a sample size: Nowell ends the season as the starting point guard. My god he looked confident running the offense.
Expand ...
If Ahmad plays well enough to beat out Aidan and Hassan, this team will be well on its way to a Dynastic 3peat.

ScottCT said:
Tarris Reed is a monster and should be the starting center in my opinion.
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Totally agree. Would love to see Hurley reprise the sweet bench mob music of Hassan/Jaylin/Samson. Add Ross to that!

Letsgohuskies11 said:
I liked Abraham's size and defense
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Definitely good enough at both ends to be a part of the rotation. His shot is smooth and he’s confident with it. Looks like a future NBA player to me. Such a deep squad.
 
RuffRuff said:
I’d actually liken McNeelys game more to Kneuppel, in terms of position and playing style.
Expand ...

It was only a stat comparison. I agree, they are not similar players. Kneppel is probably a better comparison. He's a great shooter

The only reason I listed the stats is because we were involved with Cooper, but ended up with McNeeley.
 
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