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Starting line up

husky429 said:
Akok is not nearly as bad as you are suggesting. You choose some weird hills to die on sometimes. He's an excellent defender. Are we even watching the same game?

Whaley is definitely marginally better defender. But he's also a better defender the 99.9% of college players. However, If he's gonna blow it on offense this bad consistently, it really isn't worth the better defense. It's not like our D is bad without him.

I suspect Whaley will regress to the mean soon enough. He isn't going to shoot 1/8 forever.
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Akok against a muscular 5 is going to get eaten alive inside, and that's why Whaley is in there.
 
navery12 said:
But Whaley isn't playing the 5, he's playing the 4
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So the way I see it the guys playing 4 and 5 are defending the rim no matter their number especially with help defense. I like Akok's shot blocking and he should play a lot but Hurley is wedded to Whaley case closed. Fouls will dictate a lot of this against stronger teams we'regoing to pile them up.
 
jibsey said:
So the way I see it the guys playing 4 and 5 are defending the rim no matter their number especially with help defense. I like Akok's shot blocking and he should play a lot but Hurley is wedded to Whaley case closed. Fouls will dictate a lot of this against stronger teams we'regoing to pile them up.
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I agree with everything you just said, but that's different from what you posted before. You said Akok can't replace Whaley because he'll get eaten alive by muscular 5's. That's factually incorrect when Whaley is mostly playing the 4
 
husky429 said:
Akok is not nearly as bad as you are suggesting. You choose some weird hills to die on sometimes. He's an excellent defender. Are we even watching the same game?

Whaley is definitely marginally better defender. But he's also a better defender the 99.9% of college players. However, If he's gonna blow it on offense this bad consistently, it really isn't worth the better defense. It's not like our D is bad without him.

I suspect Whaley will regress to the mean soon enough. He isn't going to shoot 1/8 forever.
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Ya he won’t continue to shoot 1/8 that’s for sure. But his finishing at the rim continues to be an issue, he really needs to square up or try to dunk those put backs, he seems like he’s just throwing the ball at the rim at bad angles. I wonder if we’ll see more teams throw zone looks at UConn. The starting line up struggled early with that, having Whaley play high post with a high low look against a zone isn’t great. I hope he gets it going because I like him as a player, but against good comp, he can’t play like that. Wonder if he’d get it going more if he came off the bench and subbed directly for Sanogo.
 
jibsey said:
Akok against a muscular 5 is going to get eaten alive inside, and that's why Whaley is in there.
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Whaley is even worse against big 5s. He got destroyed over the last couple years by anybody with size inside. He’s been super effective against small ball 5s. We had to use Carlton against teams with a real 5. Akok is better than IW against bigger 5s. Johnson is probably the sub we will need should we face anybody like that.
 
I don't care who starts as much as who is playing well getting the minutes.
They've all had minutes that looked great and also looked lost.
 
husky429 said:
Akok is not nearly as bad as you are suggesting. You choose some weird hills to die on sometimes. He's an excellent defender. Are we even watching the same game?

Whaley is definitely marginally better defender. But he's also a better defender the 99.9% of college players. However, If he's gonna blow it on offense this bad consistently, it really isn't worth the better defense. It's not like our D is bad without him.

I suspect Whaley will regress to the mean soon enough. He isn't going to shoot 1/8 forever.
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Weird hills that I see we both choose at times. Your call but Akok who I like a lot hasn’t been very good on D it’s that simple and we aren’t playing anyone yet. Let’s see hope you’re right for now you’re not. He’s perfect off the bench for now, hope he did actually deserve to take that 4 spit it only makes us better.
 
HuskyHawk said:
Whaley is even worse against big 5s. He got destroyed over the last couple years by anybody with size inside. He’s been super effective against small ball 5s. We had to use Carlton against teams with a real 5. Akok is better than IW against bigger 5s. Johnson is probably the sub we will need should we face anybody like that.
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Akok was just as bad against the big guy for LIU it was definitely ugly for both our 4s. They were moved like sticks. Hence why we need Sanogo out of foul trouble
 
The battle of atlantis will be the barometer. Cole, martin, and sanago should start. After that will depend on match-ups and who is hot and practicing well. We are easily 9 deep with interchangeable parts. I am not worried.
 
I do get cold sweats thinking of possible cold starts at Atlantis. Dan Hurley's starting lineup just strikes me as a losing formula. And just as a winning formula doesn't win all the time, a losing formula doesn't lose all the time -- especially when it's pitted against opposition that does lose all the time. That's been the case to date. We have a losing formula that's just waiting for a chance.

Also. when you lack early offense, it is risky to bring in a streaky shooter (Polley) who is as likely to come in stone-cold as hot. It is a way to turn a 4-12 deficit into a 4-20 deficit in a blink. Since Hurley is already choosing to use two (maybe three) of his top five players as substitutes, he should not compound the situation by bringing in his ninth man ahead of his sixth.
 
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WestHartHusk said:
Thats fine, but you can't just leave points onnthe court. And that is what our starting unit is doing.
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The team is averaging 92 points a game. How many points should they score?
 
navery12 said:
I agree with everything you just said, but that's different from what you posted before. You said Akok can't replace Whaley because he'll get eaten alive by muscular 5's. That's factually incorrect when Whaley is mostly playing the 4
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Akok doesn't have the physicality against stronger players down low. He will block shots down there so it's give and take. With Whaley and Sanogo we lose shooting ability and range. Hurley has to figure this out so we don't get challenged offensively and off to bad starts.
 
By Christmas we will know who our starters are. Hurley is too experienced to make a determination on early blowouts of cupcakes.

Whaley is our Captain and brings a lot of experience to the starting squad. Whaley has a history of getting much better as the season progresses.

With that said, come Xmas we will see if he can hold it down.
 
bendm said:
why stop there? spread the floor as much as realistically possible by replacing whaley w/ akok and aj w/ hawk. we only have 1 of our 4 best shooters starting (and i say realistically because polley obviously shouldnt replace martin)

imo the intimidation effect of our uber physical starting lineup is overhyped. akok and hawk are nba level athletes too.

both a first unit of cole/hawk/martin/akok/sanogo and second unit of gaff/aj/polley/whaley would have great blends of physicality and shooting
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This. The Good thing about that second unit is at pretty much any position you can put the hot hand out of the starting lineup.
 
Kitaman said:
By Christmas we will know who our starters are. Hurley is too experienced to make a determination on early blowouts of cupcakes.

Whaley is our Captain and brings a lot of experience to the starting squad. Whaley has a history of getting much better as the season progresses.

With that said, come Xmas we will see if he can hold it down.
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It wouldn't make sense to me to change the starting lineup before Atlantis. If we play 3 games and Whaley or Cole hasn't gotten out of this funk, then a decision needs to be made. Right now, with SO many games in a short amount of time this weekend.. I think relying on a consistent lineup and rotation is gonna be better for our guys. Let's go out here and get a few wins.
 
Whaley can keep his starting spot if he starts shooting 3s. He doesn’t have to make them at a great clip (33% is fine) but he need to keep the defense honest like Akok can.
 
Cole is the floor general and I haven't really seen Gaffney pick that up - and that's a reason RJ is a starter even if he may have some weaker games IMO. If Jackson keeps hitting 3 like he did vs LIU it really changes a lot and the starting lineup looks better. Hawkins could be a game changer, I'm definitely seeing what everyone else is and hope it's legit. I'd much rather say picking a lineup is tough because of so many choices vs an empty bench!

I agree the cold starts are a bit disheartening but we've pulled through, admittedly by using the bench. Atlantis should give us a good peek into how the first half of the season will go but I am definitely hopeful this will be a strong one.
 
Let’s revisit this thread. Our starting lineup was absolutely stagnant to start the game (except Sanogo, obv). Need to get Akok, Hawkins or Polley in there to actually get some points on the board.
 
I don’t care if Whaley scores again this season as long as he keeps playing D like that. Jackson is a different story tho. He’s not scoring and giving the ball away at the same time. Get Hawkins in there.
 
Its not just that Jackson doesnt score, he doesnt even try. I think his first real attempt was late in the second half. We need someone that is a threat. Maybe Polley against most teams, Akok if the matchup warrants it.
 
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