team had zero answers last night

[champs99and04]

"This team is young."

This is the oldest young team in the universe. These guys are physically mature - everyone save Hamilton, Lubin and Samuel are over 21. Even the freshmen old for the grade - they'll both be 20 before next season.

I'm not even going to tackle the rebounding thing because it requires a complete departure from reality to even get into that particular discussion.

You can't just cite Brimah and Facey's age and pretend that they are the same in terms of development as other 21-year-old kids. Brimah sometimes looks like he just picked up a basketball and Facey is all over the place. I don't know if Purvis is salvageable or not but let's not pretend that Hamilton or Brimah in particular are even close to being finished products.

 

[Fishy]

Why not?

Much of the improvement that comes from going from freshman to sophomore or soph to junior is related to the physical maturity that comes with it - these guys are already more mature than their years and their upside is more limited than, say, a 19 -year old soph.

Please don't lump Brimah and Hamilton in the same sentence - the two are on vastly different trajectories.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

I think we'll be much better next year losing Boat and adding 4-5 new players that fill a need. Most frosh improve a lot in their first two years.

Unless you know something I don't about recruiting, who are the 4-5 new players being added?

 

[jibsey]

Unless you know something I don't about recruiting, who are the 4-5 new players being added?

Those would be the 2 or 3 we don't have yet, but are going to get. And boy do we need them.

 

[superjohn]

"This team is young."

This is the oldest young team in the universe. These guys are physically mature - everyone save Hamilton, Lubin and Samuel are over 21. Even the freshmen old for the grade - they'll both be 20 before next season.

I'm not even going to tackle the rebounding thing because it requires a complete departure from reality to even get into that particular discussion.

Brimah and Facey are physically mature? They are both beanpoles and are extremely new to the game compared to other D1 basketball players. I'm not sure how much bigger they can get physically because they very lean builds but they absolutely both have room for improvement because of how new the game is to them.

 

[Kitaman]

I want to know where our leadership will come from next season? Boat seamlessly filled that role replacing Bazz.

Scary thought is that next year we just might be rudderless on the court.

 

[huskiesnyc]

Unless you know something I don't about recruiting, who are the 4-5 new players being added?

The 2 we have and the 2-3 we're going to add???

 

[champs99and04]

Why not?

Much of the improvement that comes from going from freshman to sophomore or soph to junior is related to the physical maturity that comes with it - these guys are already more mature than their years and their upside is more limited than, say, a 19 -year old soph.

Please don't lump Brimah and Hamilton in the same sentence - the two are on vastly different trajectories.

Of course Hamilton and Brimah are on different trajectories. Hamilton was a five star expected to contribute as a freshman and hopefully evolve into a star by his sophomore year. Brimah was a project expected to learn his freshman year, contribute as a sophomore, and hopefully turn the corner as a junior. I don't think either are behind schedule.

To your point, yes, the physical maturity of a 21-year-old sophomore is going to be vastly different than that of a 19-year-old sophomore. But I don't think physical maturity has ever been the major knock on Amida - no, Brimah will never be Dwight Howard, and his frame may prohibit him from ever being a great rebounder/post scorer, but he's a mobile seven footer with decent touch and a passion for the game. In regards to his basketball development, his instincts for he game are way behind what you would expect from a typical 21-year-old. That's my point.

 

[Marty Jackson]

Coach can't expect Boat to play the full game and not get worn down. At the end of the game it seemed fatigue hit him. He's scoring, rebounding, making assists, setting up plays, defending, leading, the kid got no rest, and SMU is a high caliber team.

We actually didn't have an answer for Boat.

So sad this is happening to such a great player.

not disagreeing with your point, but it was only the first 3 minutes that Uconn held. After that, they were blown out. It didn't happen in the final 5 minutes so I don't buy the 'Boatright was gassed' argument in this case. I do think starting a game at 9:00pm has something to do with the lack of performance.

 

[ASweet3781]

• Overall talent (DHam & Amida especially)
• Defense (we're going to be killer next year, last night not withstanding. I can't stress enough how well-drilled and sophisticated SMU are)
• Expected improvement curve (Amida, Kentan & TSam are all significantly improved in Year 2 under KO; I expect the same out of DHam & Purvis next year)
• Specialist depth (Omar's shooting; Phil's hedging vs. P'n'R-heavy teams; Enoch as an additional rim-protecting big)
• Chemistry (9 of 10 guys will be back)
• Kemba-in-'09-level contributions from Adams

The teams we've looked horrible against this year aren't the super-talented ones, like Duke & Texas. It's been the well-drilled, well-coached veteran teams like SMU and Stanford. Those teams are what we were last year, and while I don't believe Stanford can make the Final Four, I sure as * think SMU can get there. Neither's loaded with lottery picks, but both are stuffed with guys who know how to win college basketball games by punishing slow defensive rotations and drawing tons of fouls.

Replacing Boat won't be easy, and I'm sure there will be some ugly losses in December and January. But I'll be shocked if we're not consistently excellent defensively. It's easy to forget how young - not just in terms of age, but in terms of basketball experience - guys like Brimah, Facey and DHam are. They simply don't know how to execute yet because they don't have the number of high level reps that last year's team did.

So, next year they'll be better. Hell, I think next week they'll be better. I'm not sure if, by next month, they'll be good enough to win the AAC tournament. But I wouldn't be comfortable betting against them.

In order to win the AAC, you can't lose games your supposed to win like at Houston.

UConn has not won a regular season conference title since 2006.

 

[CAHUSKY]

In order to win the AAC, you can't lose games your supposed to win like at Houston..

Losing a regular season game at Houston has absolutely zero correlation to winning the AAC conference title on your home court