sid helped limit his own minutes by fouling out. And there are two ends to the court, and as JC once famously said, he can’t guard a couch
This 1000%
He runs the floor better than anyone on the team. He can spread the floor, he finishes at the rim, he can drive to the basket. Just bc he went 1-9 doesn’t mean he’s bad offensively. His looks were clean and several were in and out. There is more to judging a player than just the box score
He can do all those things...but he really hasn’t yet...a couple oops and baseline 6-8 footers. But drive to the basket...really?
Does it really matter!
8th man or better on either 2011 or 2014 NC teams would be neither implausible nor warrant your dismissive lol, unless that was solely to rebut the "all-time greats" term.
That’s not saying much. Remember for every 2 good things CV does, there’s 3 bad-well maybe 2 bad this year
So the box score doesn't matter, got it. He's the best all around complimentary player on the team. But far from the best so far. Too many of you get hard ons for Akok and Bouknight. Yes they're talented FRESHMEN, but they both have a long way to go.
We are grading on a curve.
I'll rebut that it's not even 2 bad for every 3 good.
He wouldn't have been on the '04 team, he might have been on the '11 or '14 team as a late spring signing if we needed an extra guard. He would've been lucky to be an 8th man on those teams.
A bit premature don't you think. I can't even fathom how you would claim this when two of the three you mentioned haven't played a minute for UConn yet. Am I hopeful? Sure. Am I excited for what this line up will produce? Heck yeah. But slow your roll man.
I don’t disagree that I’m being premature. But I am very confident in Hurley’s eye for talent. I’m willing to be the one person who takes the mental leap of faith. Even if ppl on here give me crap for it.
Name a better player on the team and why they’re better than Akok.
How do you define "lucky?"
Christian Vital. He puts up numbers. At the end of the day, what wins you ball games? Potential and a 6 ppg scorer? Akok blocks shots. Vital steals quite a few a game. They play different positions. Vital is older, more experienced. He's the best player this team has. Akok can't break anyone down off the dribble. He weighs as much as a piece of paper. He's not going to back anyone down in the post and be a bully. He's got a ways to go. Defensively as a shot blocker he's been nationally great, without a doubt. But his offensive game is soooooo far from being developed. If you can't see that I don't know what to tell you. He doesn't even have an offensive instinct when he gets the ball in space. Most we've seen from him is put backs, alley oops, and fast break points. He's not a scorer. He's not yet. He's not the best player on his own team. He's 27% from 3 and 58% from the FT line. He's being out rebounded by a 6'2 guard, the best player on the team, Vital in almost the same number of minutes.
