Thin Josh

[gtcam]

Not much you can tell from a picture
However, I do feel that Josh needed to add some weight after his Soph year, someone made a miscalculation with how much and what type/where the added pounds needed to be concentrated.
While he was much more of a physical presence, it was easy to see that Josh was not comfortable in moving with that bulk.
If he can be the player that he was in last part of that soph. year, the team has bigger bodies to compliment him, I think that Josh can be a great asset to the line-up
He's a nice kid with a great personality and he will look to go out with a high note.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Without his bulk or strenght last year there’s games we would have lost .
Weight loss or gain in itself can be detrimental. Finding his optimum is the key. Face it he is never going to be quick at any weight.

 

[joober jones]

Rough year last year but props to the kid for buying in 100%. When they wanted him to get bigger, he worked his tail off and he’s clearly done the same when the coaching staff asked him to slim down.

Didn't this same thing happen with Phil Nolan?

 

[glastonbury50]

Without his bulk or strenght last year there’s games we would have lost .
Weight loss or gain in itself can be detrimental. Finding his optimum is the key. Face it he is never going to be quick at any weight.

Huh? Which games do you speak of?

 

[Umami Zen]

Hoping Sal will be working on those fast twitch muscles on the slimmed down version of JC once back on campus.. Need some explosion off the floor.. Maybe JC will benefit from our PG tandem of(RJ/JG) throwing catchable passes into the post.. He's got to have a sense of urgency.. His younger teammates (Bigs) want some PT.. Wish him a great senior year for us to achieve our Tournament goals.Don't see a ton of minutes coming his way compared to previous years.. Rotational player..BTW..Would love to be wrong on him being just a rotational player.. Major talent upgrades among Bigs since he was recruited..

 

[uconngb]

Hoping Sal will be working on those fast twitch muscles on the slimmed down version of JC once back on campus.. Need some explosion off the floor.. Maybe JC will benefit from our PG tandem of(RJ/JG) throwing catchable passes into the post.. He's got to have a sense of urgency.. His younger teammates (Bigs) want some PT.. Wish him a great senior year for us to achieve our Tournament goals.Don't see a ton of minutes coming his way compared to previous years.. Rotational player..BTW..Would love to be wrong on him being just a rotational player.. Major talent upgrades among Bigs since he was recruited..

Didn't matter if they were catchable or not, he's dropped everything thrown at him for 3 years. Improving his hands alone makes him such a better player. Not sure how that happens, but with better hands Josh could be a force.

 

[Umami Zen]

Didn't matter if they were catchable or not, he's dropped everything thrown at him for 3 years. Improving his hands alone makes him such a better player. Not sure how that happens, but with better hands Josh could be a force.

Sometimes the person delivering the pass has to make a split second decision as to who is receiving the pass(and their ability to catch that pass).. 2019 guards seemed to have "one gear" on their passes..IW..On the other hand..Showed that he had soft hands and could handle most passes thrown his way.. I agree with you about improvement for JC with better hands.. AS looks like he has great hands in videos shown..

 

[Mooch82]

Sometimes the person delivering the pass has to make a split second decision as to who is receiving the pass(and their ability to catch that pass).. 2019 guards seemed to have "one gear" on their passes..IW..On the other hand..Showed that he had soft hands and could handle most passes thrown his way.. I agree with you about improvement for JC with better hands.. AS looks like he has great hands in videos shown..

Josh's hands aren’t great...but they are way better than Akok's. Akok dropped about 10 alleyoop passes last year. Hoping during his rehab we are working on strengthening his hands with medicine balls or something.

 

[HooperScooper]

Didn't matter if they were catchable or not, he's dropped everything thrown at him for 3 years. Improving his hands alone makes him such a better player. Not sure how that happens, but with better hands Josh could be a force.

When Thabeet was at UConn they used to make him put his hands in a bucket of sand and squeeze the sand off and on. That was the training they used to strengthen his hands so he would be better at catching passes. Not sure if that works or there are other training methods for this.

 

[Caronimo]

Good sign of things to come but it ultimately comes down to improving his foot work and hops

 

[CL82]

Josh's hands aren’t great...but they are way better than Akok's. Akok dropped about 10 alleyoop passes last year. Hoping during his rehab we are working on strengthening his hands with medicine balls or something.

Many of those were off target. Not everyone has that Bouk ability to get to an off target pass and slam it home.

 

[Mooch82]

Many of those were off target. Not everyone has that Bouk ability to get to an off target pass and slam it home.

Eh...many of them were he got two hands on and they went right through. Happened a few times on non alley oops on passes right to him as well. Love what he brings to the table overall, but that’s something he needs to improve.

 

[navery12]

Eh...many of them were he got two hands on and they went right through. Happened a few times on non alley oops on passes right to him as well. Love what he brings to the table overall, but that’s something he needs to improve.

I'm sure there were some of both but the only ones I remember were him needing to reach below the rim and have to come down with the ball instead of dunking it

 

[mauconnfan]

Many of those were off target. Not everyone has that Bouk ability to get to an off target pass and slam it home.

Yeah thought overall the hands were okay but he did turn it over when he went to make a move or off the dribble more often than he should have.

 

[mauconnfan]

When Thabeet was at UConn they used to make him put his hands in a bucket of sand and squeeze the sand off and on. That was the training they used to strengthen his hands so he would be better at catching passes. Not sure if that works or there are other training methods for this.

I remember reading when I was a real youngster about a guy the Giants drafted as a kick returner in the 70's. He was special in regards to his ability to bring it home but when he was hit he fumbled frequently. The Giants had him, in the off season, jumping off some cliffs football in hands into the water to teach him how to secure the rock.

Think he was cut after a year, because he fumbled too much.

My point is you either have good hands naturally or you have hands you can improve, but rarely great hands if not already early on.

 

[mauconnfan]

Forget layups, can he dunk from a standstill, off an offensive board, or on a lob?

He's never going to be that guy the explosiveness isn't in his ability unfortunately. But if he can combine the end of his soph year to the more physical Josh of last year with just a little more quickness he's still a real nice piece to this team. While we're excited about Sanogo and Springs they are still an unknown and you can't throw experience. We'll see, hopefully everyone lives up to their potential then minutes will be divided game to game, who's playing well. The options are exciting in the lane for the first time in a long time.

 

[businesslawyer]

I remember reading when I was a real youngster about a guy the Giants drafted as a kick returner in the 70's. He was special in regards to his ability to bring it home but when he was hit he fumbled frequently. The Giants had him, in the off season, jumping off some cliffs football in hands into the water to teach him how to secure the rock.

Think he was cut after a year, because he fumbled too much.

My point is you either have good hands naturally or you have hands you can improve, but rarely great hands if not already early on.

Rocky Thompson?

 

[mauconnfan]

Rocky Thompson?

 

[NJHusky]

Didn't matter if they were catchable or not, he's dropped everything thrown at him for 3 years. Improving his hands alone makes him such a better player. Not sure how that happens, but with better hands Josh could be a force.

From doing it...Learn from Jerry Rice,,,,

Steve Young arrived one day at the team's practice facility to clean out his locker and saw Rice out on the field running sprints and catching passes from the groundskeeper nearly seven months before the start of the next season.
The most intriguing anecdote, though, had to be about how he got his work ethic, a long story that includes him chasing after horses and catching bricks in place of footballs.

 

[UCPharma11]

The beauty of our depth and rotations is that there is MUCH MORE competition for minutes. We should obviously be a much better team after all said and done. I don't want to speak early but I think everyone hear knows and sees that we have Final 4 potential if not winning it all. We have the pieces and I believe Hurley, like with last year, can show that the team will progress well from the beginning of the season into March.

 

[glastonbury50]

He doesn't necessarily need to be quick on his feet (lots of serviceable big men aren't) I feel like a lot of jc's issues are mental. He needs to stick to what he has been coached and chill out overall. Feel like his missed layups were almost a case of the yips.