Solo Ball is a great player and key part of this team

[boog204]

Who the hell was saying any of that other that Andre can’t shoot which is true by the way? That was a dumb post. Sorry

And I read your post as just referring to Andre. Every single one of those things happened here or on the previous BY incarnations. Ricky was absolutely slaughtered here for his sophomore year. The Bazz post saying he is terrible has been posted here many, many times. There's an old thread about how dumb it is that our coach, a D1 PG, couldn't recruit a useful PG (Newton) when he knew we desperately needed one. Heading into the 23 tourney, there was a big question if our weak link (Newton) would hold us back.

 

[BGesus4]

They will not be able to win a championship without Solo. He is that important.

As others have said he has been a valuable contributor in other ways, a big improvement from last year where he was more one dimensional.

If he can rediscover his shooting form to be a 35% shooter, it will elevate this offense back into the elite ranks.

His defense has been improved, his passing and finishing around the hoop have been significantly better.

Saturday is a really good spot for a get right game versus a team that is really bad at defending the perimeter.

Somewhat of a homecoming for him too on Saturday

 

[HuskyHawk]

Solo is a good player. I wouldn't say great. He's been a great shooter and will bust out of this slump. His defense is better, he's rebounding better and taking it to the rim more effectively. He's not a good passer, if we're honest. In our offense that's not ideal. We need him, absolutely. But there are times when our best lineup doesn't have him in it, depending on game situation or matchup. He's due to put up 20 again soon. I don't think his shooting slump has anything to do with Mullins. Alex has had long slumps too. It happens.

 

[Gutter King]

There is nothing to complain about. We are blessed fans. Breaking down things to a understand how this team can finish the job is where the fun is!

These Solo hardliners are hopeless. They see any criticism and start frothing at the mouth. It's pretty delusional to think we are winning the championship with how our offense has been slipping gears (SH game obviously was played on a different planet), how we play defense in lengthy stretches, and how we don't put the nail in the coffin.

Just an FYI to all the non-critical thinkers: Solo gets the most heat because he is the most critical piece on this team. I'm a believer, I would imagine @RuffRuff is a believer, and any other fans are believers.

Solo HAS gotten better on D, he HAS rebounded his position better, he HAS created more offense in various ways this year, he IS a GREAT teammate and a good man. We are all rooting for him to find consistency in all those facets, limit the unforced errors, and move better on offense (especially when Braylon is in).

Here are other things that make us better: Tarris, Malachi, and Eric make their FTs. Braylon shoring up his defensive lapses (blown by at least 3x in the SH game) and the stepping out of bounds. JStew finding offensive consistency and attacking the FT line paint that seems to work everytime he is there.

It's not a "hot take", it's not "hate", it's just a discussion based around observations that a legendary coach and a good player get to try to figure out.

If it makes you feel better at the end of the season to get to say "I told you so" when Solo goes off and we win a NC, we'll all be here for it.

 

[Gurleyman]

The list of people who didn't have their detractors along the way is pretty tiny. It might really just be Rip, El-Amin and Okafor. And El-Amin caught a break when we won the Gonzaga game when he shot 0-12. But all were transformative as freshmen and kept getting better. Even KEA might have had a little as a junior for not being as good of an alpha without Rip (we had some bad days that year, getting our doors blown off at Michigan State, etc.), but that all got washed out in the end by his role in the title (he also sprained his ankle badly in the NCAA Tournament so he didn't get a final chapter).

I think Emeka truly reached rarified air of being bullet-proof, since he came in and was just way better than anyone expected at first, and then kept improving - and his lulls his final year were more a result of injury. I doubt anyone had much to say bad about him (other than FT shooting).

Henefeld was before the messageboard days, but he would have certainly been another, although playing only one year helps since people don't get the chance to have a vision of how much better you'll be in year two and be disappointed by not reaching that level. Ray was also pre-messageboard, but he might have taken a little heat for being a little soft at times if there was a public outlet (ie the Georgetown games, and Mississippi State).

Caron had lots of detractors his freshman (NIT) year. Rudy had plenty. CV had plenty. Rashad was popular in his gunslinger role, but took some heat for defense.

 

[RuffRuff]

These Solo hardliners are hopeless. They see any criticism and start frothing at the mouth. It's pretty delusional to think we are winning the championship with how our offense has been slipping gears (SH game obviously was played on a different planet), how we play defense in lengthy stretches, and how we don't put the nail in the coffin.

Just an FYI to all the non-critical thinkers: Solo gets the most heat because he is the most critical piece on this team. I'm a believer, I would imagine @RuffRuff is a believer, and any other fans are believers.

Solo HAS gotten better on D, he HAS rebounded his position better, he HAS created more offense in various ways this year, he IS a GREAT teammate and a good man. We are all rooting for him to find consistency in all those facets, limit the unforced errors, and move better on offense (especially when Braylon is in).

Here are other things that make us better: Tarris, Malachi, and Eric make their FTs. Braylon shoring up his defensive lapses (blown by at least 3x in the SH game) and the stepping out of bounds. JStew finding offensive consistency and attacking the FT line paint that seems to work everytime he is there.

It's not a "hot take", it's not "hate", it's just a discussion based around observations that a legendary coach and a good player get to try to figure out.

If it makes you feel better at the end of the season to get to say "I told you so" when Solo goes off and we win a NC, we'll all be here for it.

Team is still not a finished product. You can tell by watching Hurley that he knows they have more to work on, while winning. Not a bad place to be. I also think Hurley knows it's not in best interest to peak too early. 23 team didn't peak until the tourney. 24 the team didn't peak until mid Feb.

 

[noelle]

I'm not that hugely invested in the solo 'debate' mostly because he's not the most critical piece right now. their closing lineup with mullins and stewart is looking like a death star level lineup. It's seriously good enough to win it all. So the team doesn't need solo to recover form but it would sure be nice. Even in the worst case scenario Solo can be an effective decoy and take up minutes, and he's not bad just not the most winning impacting player right now and that's fine.

 

[Gutter King]

Team is still not a finished product. You can tell by watching Hurley that he knows they have more to work on, while winning. Not a bad place to be. I also think Hurley knows it's not in best interest to peak too early. 23 team didn't peak until the tourney. 24 the team didn't peak until mid Feb.

100%. This offense is capable of routinely hitting 80. With our pace of play and if we clean up our lapses on defense, it's hard to imagine losing any game when that happens.

The best part of this, and any season, is seeing players improve and have breakthroughs. We have MONTHS to see that, we aren't even close to seeing our final form.

 

[Arod18]

And I read your post as just referring to Andre. Every single one of those things happened here or on the previous BY incarnations. Ricky was absolutely slaughtered here for his sophomore year. The Bazz post saying he is terrible has been posted here many, many times. There's an old thread about how dumb it is that our coach, a D1 PG, couldn't recruit a useful PG (Newton) when he knew we desperately needed one. Heading into the 23 tourney, there was a big question if our weak link (Newton) would hold us back.

By over two people maybe but that’s not what was being said about those guys. You can’t take what one poster said and say that what we were saying here. It’s stupid

 

[RuffRuff]

100%. This offense is capable of routinely hitting 80. With our pace of play and if we clean up our lapses on defense, it's hard to imagine losing any game when that happens.

The best part of this, and any season, is seeing players improve and have breakthroughs. We have MONTHS to see that, we aren't even close to seeing our final form.

I get this feeling Hurley is intentionally staging the season to peak at the right time.

 

[noelle]

I get this feeling Hurley is intentionally staging the season to peak at the right time.

this is true. they are mostly just trying to run the offense so that guys get comfortable. in the providence game when they needed to make a comeback they played differently.

he's also getting the best lineup stabilized and have them play more together. the mullins/stewart/ak/tarris/silas lineup is almost +100 on evanmiya and that's just death star level. this lineup is the best in the country.

 

[boog204]

By over two people maybe but that’s not what was being said about those guys. You can’t take what one poster said and say that what we were saying here. It’s stupid

The point is, just as there are a small handful of people saying Solo should be benched, it is being said. That's the nature of this idiotic message board. Just because you think it's "stupid" does not negate the fact that it has happened and will continue to happen with posters on this board making idiotic assertions about our players.

And I don't know if you were a regular poster/lurker or not, but that list of players received a great deal of ridiculous sentiment here. And wayyyyyyyyyyy more than two people in most of those situations.

 

[Woof]

There is nothing to complain about. We are blessed fans. Breaking down things to a understand how this team can finish the job is where the fun is!

It is crazy to me that people still don't get that.

 

[RuffRuff]

this is true. they are mostly just trying to run the offense so that guys get comfortable. in the providence game when they needed to make a comeback they played differently.

he's also getting the best lineup stabilized and have them play more together. the mullins/stewart/ak/tarris/silas lineup is almost +100 on evanmiya and that's just death star level. this lineup is the best in the country.

Mullins arrival has been a game changer and he's barely broken ice. Silas coming into his own has been a bar raiser, and that should continue. Tarris seems to be finding more of a groove.

Solo has not been great of late - but he has perhaps the hardest new position on the floor having to give up a chunk of his role to a player that is taking a lot of those reps. My biggest issue with him last game was the ridiculous turnovers. I'm fine with missed shots.

 

[RuffRuff]

It is crazy to me that people still don't get that.

It's funny, we are 17-1 with a clear path to a 1 seed in the East. We are winning our league, should be 10-0 going into a real road test. There isn't much to complain about.

 

[kobebeanbryant]

I think it is much more likely that Solo’s poor shooting has gotten into his head than Mullins ascendance.

Solo’s ticket to the pros is his shooting (and rounding out the rest of his game which he has shown this year).

I’m sure his preseason vision was to show out this year and get drafted. Things aren’t going according to that plan.

Hopefully his shot comes around. If no, he needs to prevent that from spilling over into the rest of his game.

 

[kobebeanbryant]

It's funny, we are 17-1 with a clear path to a 1 seed in the East. We are winning our league, should be 10-0 going into a real road test. There isn't much to complain about.

It’s all relative. People are nitpicking/complaining because of the expectations they have.

This team clearly has the potential to win it all. But we can also objectively see a few flaws that may prevent us from doing so.

It’s not a bad thing to call those out and discuss them further.

 

[RuffRuff]

It’s all relative. People are nitpicking/complaining because of the expectations they have.

This team clearly has the potential to win it all. But we can also objectively see a few flaws that may prevent us from doing so.

It’s not a bad thing to call those out and discuss them further.

It's natural when you are spoiled, have a NC caliber team, to start nit picking those things that may prevent them from winning it in advance. We still have a lot of season left to play to iron all the wrinkles out.

 

[ctchamps]

It's natural when you are spoiled, have a NC caliber team, to start nit picking those things that may prevent them from winning it in advance. We still have a lot of season left to play to iron all the wrinkles out.

Passionate fans who enjoy talking about games do it whether or not their teams are successful.

More successful programs generally have more fans that want to discuss things.

 

[aceboon]

this is true. they are mostly just trying to run the offense so that guys get comfortable. in the providence game when they needed to make a comeback they played differently.

he's also getting the best lineup stabilized and have them play more together. the mullins/stewart/ak/tarris/silas lineup is almost +100 on evanmiya and that's just death star level. this lineup is the best in the country.

don't know if you can evaluate any offense vs Providence, they don't play any defense. Providence and Butler let you have anything you want.

 

[Arod18]

Every one of those things absolutely happened

Absolute bs

Every one of those things absolutely happened

really? I don’t reme

Every one of those things absolutely happened

show me the post or where people were saying castle was overrated! I do remember the scouting report saying he needed to work on his outside shot but nobody in season called that kid overrated!

 

[ctchamps]

I must have missed many of the OTT posts about Solo. My observation is the vast majority of posters have critiqued his play. Some of those critiques did not appear accurate. Some have appeared juvenile. But on the whole the negativity towards Solo has been tepid and has not reached the level of treatment some of the other players in the past have received.

The two players who receive the worst negative attention were Taliek Brown and Jerome Dyson. They both received highly charged written attacks by large numbers of people in this forum. Alex Oriakhi was a distant third.

Taliek was attacked by posters for bad play all season. There was a period where in spite of playing with turf toe and learning that his childhood's best friend was murdered people had zero sympathy for his play. Far more negativity than we are observing with Solo.

Dyson was lauded until his senior season and for the first part of that season. He was one of the leaders in a number of offensive categories and was being considered for national player of the year. But when Kemba demonstrated he didn't make the sophomore leap needed to run the team and Dyson was made the pg his play suffered and the team did poorly.

IMO the worst thing that has happened in this forum is that one of the posters riled up others and had them stalk Jerome reporting back to this forum anything and everything he was doing that demonstrated his lifestyle was behind his bad performance. The numbers that did that and the positive support for it still boggles my mind.

 

[RuffRuff]

I must have missed many of the OTT posts about Solo. My observation is the vast majority of posters have critiqued his play. Some of those critiques did not appear accurate. Some have appeared juvenile. But on the whole the negativity towards Solo has been tepid and has not reached the level of treatment some of the other players in the past have received.

The two players who receive the worst negative attention were Taliek Brown and Jerome Dyson. They both received highly charged written attacks by large numbers of people in this forum. Alex Oriakhi was a distant third.

Taliek was attacked by posters for bad play all season. There was a period where in spite of playing with turf toe and learning that his childhood's best friend was murdered people had zero sympathy for his play. Far more negativity than we are observing with Solo.

Dyson was lauded until his senior season and for the first part of that season. He was one of the leaders in a number of offensive categories and was being considered for national player of the year. But when Kemba demonstrated he didn't make the sophomore leap needed to run the team and Dyson was made the pg his play suffered and the team did poorly.

IMO the worst thing that has happened in this forum is that one of the posters riled up others and had them stalk Jerome reporting back to this forum anything and everything he was doing that demonstrated his lifestyle was behind his bad performance. The numbers that did that and the positive support for it still boggles my mind.

Solo gets heat because he spaces out on the little winning things that anyone can be doing when their shot isn't going down. I think many get frustrated with him when that part of his game impacts the other valuable sides of the sport. Some of the turnovers in the last game were egregiously bad. That makes you question decision making and reliability, especially in crunch time.

 

[boog204]

Absolute bs

really? I don’t reme

show me the post or where people were saying castle was overrated! I do remember the scouting report saying he needed to work on his outside shot but nobody in season called that kid overrated!

Some quotes -->

“While I think it’s waaaayyyy too early to start insinuating Castle is a bust, he did look absolutely lost out there last night. And frankly, Danny gave him more minutes than he should have."

“ But if you took Balls first chunk of time vs a similar span with Castle, I think Ball has shown more spark and life. I don’t think Castle is overhyped but he’s just not showing fire or guts.”

"I am no NBA scout. Not my area of expertise. Heck, I thought Bouknight would be great, and boy was I wrong! But as I watch Castle, I see a talented 'prospect'. The kid can't shoot. His handle is subpar (for a lead guard), and he has not shown an ability to score off the dribble with any consistency. I am not espousing reasons for all of this. I am just calling a spade a spade. I do not see a lottery pick.”

"I am most surprised at how passive he is."

"Honestly besides the recruiting ranking what has he done to deserve a starting spot? Solo has defended almost as well and even with his shaky shot has been better on offense overall. Solo also doesn’t need the ball in his hands to be effective."

"Jamal coombs vibes so far. Hopefully that changes."

“Castle will be good eventually but where’s his offensive game? And he got turned over with his passes tonight too. You can go to the NBA with what we’ve seen so far? He needs 2 seasons minimum.”

“Castle – Just simply has not shown he is an NBA pick. A non-shooter who isn’t creating anything off the dribble.”

“I hope Castle realizes this isnt HS or AAU ball anymore.”

“Castle does not have the offensive game right now of a lottery pick. The shooting woes mean Dan Hurley is going to have to scheme to his strengths like he did for Jackson.”

These are from two threads from Nov and Dec of his freshman year. So you’re right that I didn’t see the word overrated, but he was not exactly blowing people away when he got here. And that’s my point, there are tons of great players who got criticized, idiotically, and then turned great. Solo is going to be more than fine.

 

[ctchamps]

Solo gets heat because he spaces out on the little winning things that anyone can be doing when their shot isn't going down. I think many get frustrated with him when that part of his game impacts the other valuable sides of the sport. Some of the turnovers in the last game were egregiously bad. That makes you question decision making and reliability, especially in crunch time.

Solo gets heat because he spaces out on the little winning things that anyone can be doing when their shot isn't going down. I think many get frustrated with him when that part of his game impacts the other valuable sides of the sport. Some of the turnovers in the last game were egregiously bad. That makes you question decision making and reliability, especially in crunch time.

I’m aware of the criticisms. They’re tepid by comparison with what I wrote.

 

[gtcam]

Solo Ball has been the best UConn player on the floor several times this year and many times last year. It really upsets me when fans on this forums go super negative when a player has a stretch off a couple subpar games. We have seen Tristen Newton haters, Andre Jackson haters, Sanogo haters, etc. A constant stream of negative jerks who just want to bury players when they have a bad stretch. Please Stop. I don’t want to hear negativity about Solo. He is a great player. He has proven himself and deserves patience and the benefit of the doubt.

Solo is not unique to fans of the BY
Perhaps you are too young to remember the days of the OBE

 

[Scrappy3]

I’m not advocating this as a penalty to ball but rather a different look for the team

 

[mauconnfan]

I must have missed many of the OTT posts about Solo. My observation is the vast majority of posters have critiqued his play. Some of those critiques did not appear accurate. Some have appeared juvenile. But on the whole the negativity towards Solo has been tepid and has not reached the level of treatment some of the other players in the past have received.

The two players who receive the worst negative attention were Taliek Brown and Jerome Dyson. They both received highly charged written attacks by large numbers of people in this forum. Alex Oriakhi was a distant third.

Taliek was attacked by posters for bad play all season. There was a period where in spite of playing with turf toe and learning that his childhood's best friend was murdered people had zero sympathy for his play. Far more negativity than we are observing with Solo.

Dyson was lauded until his senior season and for the first part of that season. He was one of the leaders in a number of offensive categories and was being considered for national player of the year. But when Kemba demonstrated he didn't make the sophomore leap needed to run the team and Dyson was made the pg his play suffered and the team did poorly.

IMO the worst thing that has happened in this forum is that one of the posters riled up others and had them stalk Jerome reporting back to this forum anything and everything he was doing that demonstrated his lifestyle was behind his bad performance. The numbers that did that and the positive support for it still boggles my mind.

I had a tough time with some of the fans and how tough they were on Taliek Brown back in the day. They were unfair to say the least!😉

 

[Palatine]

This is more about our beat writers than Solo. Hurley says in his post G'town presser that Solo is dealing with an injury to his shooting hand.

If I'm a reporter, the next thing I ask is, "is this the kind of thing he will have to deal with all year?" or "Is he receiving treatment?" or "what kind of treatment is he receiving?" or "what kind of timeline is he on the fully healed?" I might also ask "how is shooting in practice?" or "is he making threes in practice?"

But of course there was no follow up because this is the amateur hour.

 

[husky429]

This is more about our beat writers than Solo. Hurley says in his post G'town presser that Solo is dealing with an injury to his shooting hand.

If I'm a reporter, the next thing I ask is, "is this the kind of thing he will have to deal with all year?" or "Is he receiving treatment?" or "what kind of treatment is he receiving?" or "what kind of timeline is he on the fully healed?" I might also ask "how is shooting in practice?" or "is he making threes in practice?"

But of course there was no follow up because this is the amateur hour.

Hurley isn't giving that info and they know not to ask. Free scouting report material for opponents.