So, We Ride with Liam??

[Chin Diesel]

Plenty of comments in the post-game thread about fans believing Liam is our best player.

He has shown a willingness to get dirty to rebound and he is capable of pushing the ball once he gets the rebound.

He consistently can take his guy off the dribble and can either finish or kick out to open shooters.

And as we saw last night, the lights of MSG on Saturday night in prime time wasn't too big of a moment for him.

There's much to like about his game.

I go back to 1992-1993 when Scott Burrell was the senior and expected to step up to lead the team. It became obvious as the season went on sophomore Donyell Marshall was the better player and he should lead the team and Scottie goes back to being Robin to Donyell's Batman.

And that is where we may be going. Junior Alex Karaban goes back to doing what he does best as the best glue guy in the country and Liam takes the lead.

 

[imno1]

yes

 

[HuskyHawk]

As I said a few weeks back, I think our lack of facilitators at guard means we have to run more of the offense through Liam, as a point forward. I was also glad to see him get a little more time with Stewart and Ross in a fairly switchable lineup. Tough to guard.

 

[kobebeanbryant]

yes, Alex isn’t ever going to be a playmaker off the dribble like Liam can be. He really needs others to pressure the defense so that he can make connective passes and hit open 3s.

Part of our problem at beginning of year is we had nobody in starting lineup that could attack a defense, so we just ran our motion offense in circles.

Inserting Diarra into starting lineup and the emergence and confidence of Liam have solved that problem.

Now guys like Alex and Solo can play their natural roles (off ball).

 

[WiseWillie]

Plenty of comments in the post-game thread about fans believing Luam is our best player.

He has shown a willingness to get dirty to rebound and he is capable of pushing the ball once he gets the rebound.

He consistently can take his guy off the dribble and can either finish or kick out to open shooters.

And as we saw last night, the lights of MSG on Saturday night in prime time wasn't too big of a moment for him.

There's much to like about his game.

I go back to 1992-1993 when Scott Burrell was the senior and expected to step up to lead the team. It became obvious as the season went on sophomore Donyell Marshall was the better player and he should lead the team and Scottie goes back to being Robin to Donyell's Batman.

And that is where we may be going. Junior Alex Karaban goes back to doing what he does best as the best glue guy in the country and Liam takes the lead.

AK is the captain and is this team's lead. Liam is talented and will have great games but looks up to Alex for direction, demeanor and overall calming composure during a game especially when things aren't going well on the floor. You can see it on the sidelines whenever Liam may not think he is doing as well as he should and Alex gives him words of encouragement and/or some correcting advice.

 

[businesslawyer]

Plenty of comments in the post-game thread about fans believing Liam is our best player.

He has shown a willingness to get dirty to rebound and he is capable of pushing the ball once he gets the rebound.

He consistently can take his guy off the dribble and can either finish or kick out to open shooters.

And as we saw last night, the lights of MSG on Saturday night in prime time wasn't too big of a moment for him.

There's much to like about his game.

I go back to 1992-1993 when Scott Burrell was the senior and expected to step up to lead the team. It became obvious as the season went on sophomore Donyell Marshall was the better player and he should lead the team and Scottie goes back to being Robin to Donyell's Batman.

And that is where we may be going. Junior Alex Karaban goes back to doing what he does best as the best glue guy in the country and Liam takes the lead.

Maybe. Liam was absolutely great last night. But he has not been anywhere near that great game in and game out. That’s not a knock — he’s an NBA caliber freshman, but he’s still a freshman. Honestly, I think we’re still a long way from knowing what this team is going to look like in March.

 

[businesslawyer]

As I said a few weeks back, I think our lack of facilitators at guard means we have to run more of the offense through Liam, as a point forward. I was also glad to see him get a little more time with Stewart and Ross in a fairly switchable lineup. Tough to guard.

Teams are going to have 2s that, of those three, only Ross will be able to guard. Ross learning to contribute on offense will be important to the team going forward. That having been said, Ross’s one play last night may have been the biggest moment of the game.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Teams are going to have 2s that, of those three, only Ross will be able to guard. Ross learning to contribute on offense will be important to the team going forward. That having been said, Ross’s one play last night may have been the biggest moment of the game.

I did see that one!

 

[That Guy]

I think it's funny because he was labeled as basically a "shooter" coming into college, but he's been much better at driving to the basket and creating his own shot than he has been shooting 3s (only 34% on the season). Once he starts shooting from deep at a 40% clip the guy is going to be unstoppable.

 

[Chin Diesel]

yes, Alex isn’t ever going to be a playmaker off the dribble like Liam can be. He really needs others to pressure the defense so that he can make connective passes and hit open 3s.

Part of our problem at beginning of year is we had nobody in starting lineup that could attack a defense, so we just ran our motion offense in circles.

Inserting Diarra into starting lineup and the emergence and confidence of Liam have solved that problem.

Now guys like Alex and Solo can play their natural roles (off ball).

In the zero sum game of playing minutes, Ball's minutes are now being shared with Stewart and Ross. Or, Ball gets better at playing the point.

Going forward it's potentially:

Johnson/Reed/Singare
Karaban
Ball/Stew/Ross
McNeeley
Diarra/Ball/Nowell

 

[Chin Diesel]

I think it's funny because he was labeled as basically a "shooter" coming into college, but he's been much better at driving to the basket and creating his own shot than he has been shooting 3s (only 34% on the season). Once he starts shooting from deep at a 40% clip the guy is going to be unstoppable.

He has also filled the rebounding void from what the team had last year with Newton.

 

[CL82]

I'm still waiting for the game where both Alex and Liam go off at the same time. We haven't seen that yet, but it's coming.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

Plenty of comments in the post-game thread about fans believing Liam is our best player.

He has shown a willingness to get dirty to rebound and he is capable of pushing the ball once he gets the rebound.

He consistently can take his guy off the dribble and can either finish or kick out to open shooters.

And as we saw last night, the lights of MSG on Saturday night in prime time wasn't too big of a moment for him.

There's much to like about his game.

I go back to 1992-1993 when Scott Burrell was the senior and expected to step up to lead the team. It became obvious as the season went on sophomore Donyell Marshall was the better player and he should lead the team and Scottie goes back to being Robin to Donyell's Batman.

And that is where we may be going. Junior Alex Karaban goes back to doing what he does best as the best glue guy in the country and Liam takes the lead.

After Maui, I came to the realization that this is a forward/big driven team, which is something I'm not necessarily used to as a UConn fan, but just another example of why Hurley is a fantastic coach: he doesn't necessarily play to a system, but adjusts to the talent around him.

 

[Gurleyman]

I feel like playing at a school like Montverde is a waste of time. You win every game by double digits, and you play with a loaded lineup that makes your role easy. They did have one close game last year, and Liam stepped up. But learning how to play against defenses geared to stop you and not just spotting up for open looks and running the break helps your development.

There’s AAU ball too, of course - but a different level of pressure when you’re trying to win state titles and things for your school.

 

[WestCoastHusky]

Liam was absolutely awesome last night. Other than Diarra, having another player that can attack the rim really opened up things for guys like Solo and AK. Had AK made some of those open 3s, we would have blown the door off the Zags.

I feel like getting Nowell to develop as another player that can play PG and attack the rim will be key for the rest of the season. We really need a solid PG that can give Diarra some rest from time to time.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Plenty of comments in the post-game thread about fans believing Liam is our best player.

He has shown a willingness to get dirty to rebound and he is capable of pushing the ball once he gets the rebound.

He consistently can take his guy off the dribble and can either finish or kick out to open shooters.

And as we saw last night, the lights of MSG on Saturday night in prime time wasn't too big of a moment for him.

There's much to like about his game.

I go back to 1992-1993 when Scott Burrell was the senior and expected to step up to lead the team. It became obvious as the season went on sophomore Donyell Marshall was the better player and he should lead the team and Scottie goes back to being Robin to Donyell's Batman.

And that is where we may be going. Junior Alex Karaban goes back to doing what he does best as the best glue guy in the country and Liam takes the lead.

Perfectly said.

Karaban was always best as a connective piece, a do-the-little-things guy, and it is really, really hard to force a square peg like that into the round hole of being a go-to guy.

McNeeley was always the best candidate to be that guy.

 

[Umami Zen]

Liam has a strong game going to the hoop-in traffic-with either hand. Can finish or dish. Looks much more comfortable doing that than AK. Initiating instead of deferring.

Couldn't help but notice the forwards sharing the floor at the same time- Game script -fouls-match ups. AK-Liam-Stewie. All of whom are pretty good passers-connectors with the ball in their hands. Looks like it can be a productive and efficient group with a ball handler and a Big.

 

[UCTitleTown]

Teams are going to have 2s that, of those three, only Ross will be able to guard. Ross learning to contribute on offense will be important to the team going forward. That having been said, Ross’s one play last night may have been the biggest moment of the game.

I think that play by JR, the back to back buckets by JS, and HD's crazy +1 layup stood out as key to me. LM a couple huge threes. I'm sure there were others but these stood out to me.

 

[EBonz30]

I think it's funny because he was labeled as basically a "shooter" coming into college, but he's been much better at driving to the basket and creating his own shot than he has been shooting 3s (only 34% on the season). Once he starts shooting from deep at a 40% clip the guy is going to be unstoppable.

If you watched him in high school it was pretty obvious that he was much than a shooter- quiet sure most scouts who did said the same thing.

 

[Hunt for 7]

I think Liam proved last night that he is our first option on offense. He has all the tools. He gives us options. Before Singare became a real option we could have seen a lot of small ball teams with AK, Stewart , Liam , Ross and pick a guard when the bigs got in foul trouble. Now Hurley has options.

One of the things that stood out to me yesterday was the defensive improvement and a fair whistle. Johnson would have been called for at least one more foul when he went up early on a drive kind of slapped the backboard with both hands and the Gonzaga player made their first basket of the game. In Maui that would have been an and one foul.

But even Ball played better defense. I think most of us knew we would get better defensively and I think we are starting to see that.

Also the quick start no doubt helped by that crazy loud crowd but we did struggle with some slow starts earlier in the year.

I know Hurley has to say that AK is our best player and I understand last night was AK at his worst, hey it happens, but Liam is the best player on this team. 26 points handling the ball ball as much as he did and 0 turnovers. He may not be as good an NBA player as Steph is going to be but he is a more all around player at this point than Steph was as a freshman.

We may have a strangle hold on BE FOY for a while.

 

[uconn_jack]

I think it's funny because he was labeled as basically a "shooter" coming into college, but he's been much better at driving to the basket and creating his own shot than he has been shooting 3s (only 34% on the season). Once he starts shooting from deep at a 40% clip the guy is going to be unstoppable.

Until last night he wasn't a great finisher at the rim, but that will continue to get better while also drawing fouls. That skill set along with his three-point shooting, rebounding, and passing is going to be a nightmare for other teams

 

[pj]

I feel like playing at a school like Montverde is a waste of time. You win every game by double digits, and you play with a loaded lineup that makes your role easy. They did have one close game last year, and Liam stepped up. But learning how to play against defenses geared to stop you and not just spotting up for open looks and running the break helps your development.

There’s AAU ball too, of course - but a different level of pressure when you’re trying to win state titles and things for your school.

True! Also I feel like playing at a school like Duke is a waste of time. You win every ACC game by double digits, and you play with a loaded lineup.

Instead, top players should come to UConn so that they can get the benefit of beating Big East teams by double digits, and practicing against a loaded lineup.

 

[Hunt for 7]

Teams are going to have 2s that, of those three, only Ross will be able to guard. Ross learning to contribute on offense will be important to the team going forward. That having been said, Ross’s one play last night may have been the biggest moment of the game.

Agreed, Ross and his defense is going to be a key. He can guard 1-3 and that is going to be significant for us. His offensive, I think will get better. Hurley thought enough of his passing to put him at the free throw line when they went zone and he had one very good pass and we scored and Gonzaga decided to ditch the zone idea.

I think reams will figure out zones will not be the way to defend us. With AK, Ball, Liam, Stewart and Mahaney when he is on the court we just shoot to well for teams to play zone.

Let’s hope these sophomores keep getting better I think they will. We did what we thought was not possible after Maui. Went 3-0 against the real meat of our OOC schedule.

 

[uconn_jack]

Liam has a strong game going to the hoop-in traffic-with either hand. Can finish or dish. Looks much more comfortable doing that than AK. Initiating instead of deferring.

Couldn't help but notice the forwards sharing the floor at the same time- Game script -fouls-match ups. AK-Liam-Stewie. All of whom are pretty good passers-connectors with the ball in their hands. Looks like it can be a productive and efficient group with a ball handler and a Big.

Yes, those three definitely help to patch our lack of PG depth

 

[slepers]

True! Also I feel like playing at a school like Duke is a waste of time. You win every ACC game by double digits, and you play with a loaded lineup.

Instead, top players should come to UConn so that they can get the benefit of beating Big East teams by double digits, and practicing against a loaded lineup.

Huh?