Strangely optimistic

[Gurleyman]

Couldn't disagree more. I question whether Hamilton's decision is the best move for him, but the team will be fine. Very talented kid but enough warts that his departure by no means sinks their season.

It's getting to be a numbers problem. We now have 10 scholarship guys, one of whom is injured and we'd ideally like to redshirt. And Purvis could be gone too.

Obviously a lot depends on what happens to fill some spots between now and October.

 

[tcf15]

Cool, hopefully he was waiting on the offer and some spots to open up. Off topic but another guy I wish we were interested in was Giannis' A's brother, not gonna try to spell that last name. Looks like a great athlete and very smooth.

Yeah, I mean, if hiring an agent was always DHam's plan, it's best to do it now to give KO a chance to fill his spot instead of waiting until the withdraw deadline. This makes the spring recruiting period a bit more interesting to say the least.

 

[Jerry1714]

Seems like a lot of people changed the channel when DH went to the bench. You might want to go back and watch the team when he was not on the floor, it was not good.

 

[superjohn]

Seems like a lot of people changed the channel when DH went to the bench. You might want to go back and watch the team when he was not on the floor, it was not good.

It was not good with him on the floor much of the time. The kid shot 20% from the field for a good chunk of the season.

 

[Matrim55]

Couldn't disagree more. I question whether Hamilton's decision is the best move for him, but the team will be fine. Very talented kid but enough warts that his departure by no means sinks their season.

I think the team will be fine, too - top 25-to-35ish. Our season isn't sunk by any means.

But I honestly thought we were a borderline top 10 team with him returning. The group that showed up in the AAC tourney and the second halves of the Colorado & KU games would've been tough to beat.

 

[Matrim55]

It was not good with him on the floor much of the time. The kid shot 20% from the field for a good chunk of the season.

Yes, and we were still better with him out there than on the bench. That should tell you what a huge all-around impact he had for us.

 

[Jerry1714]

It was not good with him on the floor much of the time. The kid shot 20% from the field for a good chunk of the season.

Can you at least try to put together an intelligent post?

 

[ConnHuskBask]

This is crazy talk.

We are a terrible rebounding team with Hamilton.

Who's going to handle the ball? Jalen and Freshman Gilbert for 40 minutes each?

We struggle to score and rebound and lost our best player in both those categories.

Sure Hamilton had his flaws and I'm not saying we'll suck... But this is lunacy.

 

[superjohn]

Yes, and we were still better with him out there than on the bench. That should tell you what a huge all-around impact he had for us.

Disagree, his play was hurting us a lot during that horrible stretch. He was still rebounding and the rebounding will be missed but he was ball stopping, taking lousy shots and turning over the rock. Wanted the kid to come back for his sake and for the team's sake but let's not overrate his season. I welcome the Adams, Gilbert era. Hamilton is a jack of all trades who isn't good enough at any one trade. I like his game but a 38% shooting guard at the end of the day is still a 38% shooting guard.

 

[uconngb]

We now desperately need Rodney to come back and Ollie is gonna go to town on the recruiting front with three open schollie. As far as DHam, I just hate seeing young talented people making awful decisions about their future, especially when it is one of our own.

Couldn't agree more. And can't say I'll be rooting for someone that is making such a bad decision.....not for the fans, for himself. He is forfeiting his future over one lousy year. So short-sighted.

 

[uconngb]

if he's going to get paid playing basketball in say australia, i say that's much better than to go to school when you dont want to

Not when staying just one extra year likely greatly improves your chances at playing in the only league that matters. And by the way, it is far more likely he ends up in a hell-hole than in Australia.....ask Khalid

 

[James]

I'm pretty optimistic to get back to the 2-pg attack with a real athlete/finisher on the wing. Issue for me is depth , Ollie desperately needs a late signee or a grad transfer.

 

[gtcam]

Couldn't agree more. And can't say I'll be rooting for someone that is making such a bad decision.....not for the fans, for himself. He is forfeiting his future over one lousy year. So short-sighted.

DHam could give a rats if you root for him

 

[Stainmaster]

Not when staying just one extra year likely greatly improves your chances at playing in the only league that matters. And by the way, it is far more likely he ends up in a hell-hole than in Australia.....ask Khalid

Khalid's spent roughly 10 out of 13 years in Europe. France and Germany seem like pretty nice places to play ball compared to others.

 

[gtcam]

I'm pretty optimistic to get back to the 2-pg attack with a real athlete/finisher on the wing. Issue for me is depth , Ollie desperately needs a late signee or a grad transfer.

agreed - needs at least 2 more signees

 

[Matrim55]

Hamilton is a jack of all trades who isn't good enough at any one trade. I like his game but a 38% shooting guard at the end of the day is still a 38% shooting guard.

He was the second-best defensive rebounder in the league and the second-best passer, by assist %.

Your analysis is laughably tautological.

 

[Chief00]

Not fazed by the Hamilton news - still think next year's team is going to be very good.

With Larrier and Vance coming, if there was one position where wecould afford a defection, it was the wing.

I think it may free the ball up more and allow the guards to dictate more of the game and the pace. I expected Jalen to be the star of next year's team and this may actually help him.

Not worried about this at all- I think it's a mistake for Hamilton, but less of an issue for the team. (Timing is so odd...he either got great feedback, bad advice or is just winging it.)

Still worried about rebounding, though. I'd like us to do more of it next year.

The biggest hurt on the team of Dham leaving early may be rebounding.

 

[superjohn]

I'm pretty optimistic to get back to the 2-pg attack with a real athlete/finisher on the wing. Issue for me is depth , Ollie desperately needs a late signee or a grad transfer.

Me too, it's where UConn has always really excelled. We need at least two signings now and they have to be impact signings.

 

[James]

@Matrim55 assist% and assist totals don't tell the whole story of players and how good of passers they are. There's a different between Russell Westbrook and prime cp3 for instance. Not saying he hunted assists all the time but it happens.

 

[Rico444]

Obviously we're a better team with DHam than without, but it would've been a bad fit next year with him and Larrier both looking for major minutes and neither one being an ideal PF. There's a good chance this makes us better for 17-18 even if we're worse off next season.

 

[Jerry1714]

He was the second-best defensive rebounder in the league and the second-best passer, by assist %.

Your analysis is laughably tautological.

No. 1 ranked player in the AAC by Kenpom, 2nd team all conference, you can go on but you are debating with someone whose basketball comprehension does not go beyond looking at FG%.

 

[Matrim55]

@Matrim55 assist% and assist totals don't tell the whole story of players and how good of passers they are. There's a different between Russell Westbrook and prime cp3 for instance. Not saying he hunted assists all the time but it happens.

Agree 100%. That said, the direction this thread seems to be heading is that "we didn't play the two-headed point guard attack because Hamilton demanded so much of the ball, which meant we were inefficient."

I think that's incorrect. The truth is we didn't play the two-headed PG system because we didn't have two PGs worth playing, and because of that Hamilton was given the ball in all sorts of bad spots, which helped lead to his inefficiency.

Next year we will have two ball-handlers, most likely. The thought of that in addition to Hamilton's passing & playmaking had me giddy.

 

[JimHurley]

Yep, I'm also strangely optimistic. A backcourt of Gilbert, Adams, and Purvis. Vance and Larrier on the wings. Then Brimah, Facey, Enoch, Diarra and maybe Durham down low. Still sounds pretty good to me!!

 

[superjohn]

He was the second-best defensive rebounder in the league and the second-best passer, by assist %.

Your analysis is laughably tautological.

No , I have google on my computer too. I'm aware of his rebounding and passing, I'm also aware of his shooting. I would ask you to call it straight but you fail to ever look at things with any sort of complexity. Hamilton is a very good player but has glaring holes in his game, shooting/finishing and balhandling are not at an elite college level and are nowhere near NBA level. UConn is historically at it's best with two elite level ballhandlers who can also score and an elite wing scorer. Hamilton has a lot of things he is good at, being an elite scorer at the wing position is not one of them. He will be missed for sure but not as much as some expect.

 

[djct1999]

Rodney posted this picture after the season and I didn't think anything of it. But now that Hamilton signed with an agent, It's making me think more and more that Rodney is leaving with him. If so, we need to sign a third guard badly.

Objectively speaking, Rodney should leave. Of course, that decision would most likely put a preseason nail in next season's coffin.