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

[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