This Year Vs Last Year Roster?

[MexicoHusky]

Comparing our starters from last year to the squad that started against Buffalo. This is too early for such and comparison considering all the injuries, but I'm doing it anyways.


Newton vs Cole - Cole was a very good shooter. I think he could shoot open threes as good as almost anyone who's played in a UCONN uniform. But he was a liability on D in basically all our big games. Against any team capable of winning a NCAA tournament game. Defense should be less of an issue for Newton. Newton also puts nice pressure on the defense. Pushes the ball forward a lot. In transition and in halfcourt - TBD, but I'm leaning upgrade.

Alleyne vs Martin - probably not the correct comparison considering Hawkins is a likely starter when he returns. At the moment I have to say Martin, but it's my understanding Alleyne is statistically a better 3 pt shooter. He's also physically capable and looks like an OK defender. Maybe even good defender. I don't think Alleyne is giving up a ton athletically or physically. - downgrade for now. We'll see when Hawkins returns and Allenlyne gets some games under his belt.

Diarra vs 21-22 Jackson - another incorrect comparison. Should be comparing 21-22 Jackson to this year's Jackson. And Diarra to Gaff. All that said, this year's Jackson should be better than last year and Diarra looks playable. Gaff was not. No matter how you slice it, we upgrade here. - Upgrade

Whaley vs Karaban - at the moment I've gotta say downgrade. But this is another spot that's been impacted by injuries. The upside of Karaban also seems very high. Whaley won us games with his grit, hustle and athleticism, but we also lost games where the other team appropriately played the numbers and left him wide open. - downgrade

Sanogo vs Sanogo - gotta go with upgrade. Gotta assume the older version of Sanogo is better. But not happy he hasn't learned to consistently pass out of double and triple teams. - upgrade


Last year Bench vs this year - a few of the players above are likely bench players when the roster settles. Based on what I've seen this far, our bench will be considerably better this year. Having a real backup pg is nice. And I haven't even mentioned Clingan - upgrade. I think a significant upgrade. Many of the reserves may put significant pressure on the starters for minutes.

 

[cap10dingus]

I don't think there is any question this years roster is better, deeper, and most importantly built more as a unit. I'm worried about 2 of our 3 leaders spending a lot of time on IR. This is not new for either of them and while they both have legit injuries, not arguing that, seeing your best players on the bench hurt can stall a season. Injuries are like a plague. Hopefully I'm just overthinking a few pre-season setbacks that will be long behind us by March but that is the only thing IMO that could keep us out of being a favorite for a sweet 16 appearance or better this year. They sit long enough this squad is going to mesh without them and if they come back and can't stay healthy the pecking order will be unclear.....This team is LOADED and oooozing with talent. This could quickly become Sanogo, Karaban, and Cling's team. As exciting as that sounds I don't think the other, older, egos in that locker room can take it. Hurry back boys!

 

[aburks41]

Hold on...you think that Karaban has been a downgrade over Whaley?

 

[navery12]

You basically hit the nail on the head by saying it's the wrong lineup to be comparing to with all the injuries. To compare to our actual lineup I'll go with this:

PG: Downgrade - Newton is a really good player and is more than good enough to be the starting PG on the Sweet 16 team we expect. But RJ Cole was 1st team All Big East, and has become so unappreciated by a lot of people on this board

SG: Downgrade - Hawkins will take a huge step forward this year, but Martin had an unbelievable season and brought so much to the team

SF - Upgrade - Jackson to Jackson; enough said

PF - Upgrade - Karaban is a huge improvement on playing Whaley at the 4. Freshman Karaban versus senior Whaley is a big talent gap, but it opens up the offense to do so much more and makes the team tough to defend

C - Upgrade - Sanogo to Sanogo; enough said

Bench - Upgrade - We have a legitimate backup PG and a legitimate backup C now. The other bench spots like Polley to Alleyne and having guys like Calcaterra and Springs ready to step up as 10th and 11th men make up for the only downgrade on the bench from Akok to Samson

 

[MexicoHusky]

Hold on...you think that Karaban has been a downgrade over Whaley?

it's very early in Karaban's career, but I wrote what I did partly out of respect for Whaley's efforts in a Husky uniform. But trust me, I see the same potential as everyone else. Karaban appears ready to shoot or pass before ball touches his hands. And thus far he's not getting abused on defense. So yeah, I see the potential.

 

[husky429]

I think doing a player to player comparison can be kind of misleading. For example... it's reasonable to say that Whaley was a better player than Karaban, but Karaban's STYLE of play is much better suited to maximizing our strength as a team.

Whaley is a beast, but having to play him at the 4 so much was tough on the offense. Having to play Whaley/Sanogo/Jackson together last year was brutal, just not enough shooting.

 

[MexicoHusky]

You basically hit the nail on the head by saying it's the wrong lineup to be comparing to with all the injuries. To compare to our actual lineup I'll go with this:

PG: Downgrade - Newton is a really good player and is more than good enough to be the starting PG on the Sweet 16 team we expect. But RJ Cole was 1st team All Big East, and has become so unappreciated by a lot of people on this board

SG: Downgrade - Hawkins will take a huge step forward this year, but Martin had an unbelievable season and brought so much to the team

SF - Upgrade - Jackson to Jackson; enough said

PF - Upgrade - Karaban is a huge improvement on playing Whaley at the 4. Freshman Karaban versus senior Whaley is a big talent gap, but it opens up the offense to do so much more and makes the team tough to defend

C - Upgrade - Sanogo to Sanogo; enough said

Bench - Upgrade - We have a legitimate backup PG and a legitimate backup C now. The other bench spots like Polley to Alleyne and having guys like Calcaterra and Springs ready to step up as 10th and 11th men make up for the only downgrade on the bench from Akok to Samson

I do agree my opinion on Newton/Cole is debatable. I was on the fence for sure. Ultimately I think Newton will be better for the team. He's bigger, more athletic and pushes the ball more. The past two years we had no ability to dictate tempo. I suppose we could slow it down, but our transition game was lousy. This was a team problem, not solely a Cole problem. But Cole wasn't exactly great at pushing the ball.

 

[Deleted at users request]

It's hard to say for the 2 and 3 so I'll leave those alone. I assume they'll be upgrades once healthy but can't say until. 5 is obvious as Sanogo a year later should be better.

Newton vs Cole - Big upgrade. Cole was tough, played very smart and heady defense, and can score in bunches when possible. At the end of the day though he was more of a scoring guard than an actual PG. Newton has more length, can create better off the dribble, and is just night and day as a passer and getting teammates involved. Which is super important from the PG position.

Karaban vs Whaley - I like Whaley better individually. He's probably our best big man defender we've had here in the Ollie/Hurley era. He did all the small things for us and made great strides as a jump shooter. I've never seen a big be able to hedge as good as he did ever. I'm going to say upgrade this year though because he's not a 4 and Karaban fits in a lot better as a 4. Whaley was playing out of position all last year and that's not his or Hurley's fault because of how the roster was.

 

[lange10]

I love how the pieces we have this year compliment each other. The depth is obvious. It’s way too early to tell what the ceiling is, in my opinion, but I do think they are more talented overall. I’m not sure that’s really debatable.

The one “downgrade” I see is toughness. Last years group could take anyone’s best punch. You KNEW they were always going to scrap and claw back into any game. Martin & Whaley are two of the toughest SOB’s to ever put on a UConn uniform. We will see next week if this group can handle that.

 

[Deleted at users request]

I do agree my opinion on Newton/Cole is debatable. I was on the fence for sure. Ultimately I think Newton will be better for the team. He's bigger, more athletic and pushes the ball more. The past two years we had no ability to dictate tempo. I suppose we could slow it down, but our transition game was lousy. This was a team problem, not solely a Cole problem. But Cole wasn't exactly great at pushing the ball.

We were terrible as a fast break team last year. I've never seen a team so bad at it. Nobody found the open guy and layups weren't guaranteed. This year, that kind of thing is easier again. Cole as the PG is responsible for that. Just like every PG before him was for how their team was ran. He was a great scorer when he had the space and super tough. But he was very limited outside of that.

 

[navery12]

I do agree my opinion on Newton/Cole is debatable. I was on the fence for sure. Ultimately I think Newton will be better for the team. He's bigger, more athletic and pushes the ball more. The past two years we had no ability to dictate tempo. I suppose we could slow it down, but our transition game was lousy. This was a team problem, not solely a Cole problem. But Cole wasn't exactly great at pushing the ball.

Cole definitely wasn't great at pushing the ball, but we also schemed around that and had Andre pushing the ball and Cole spotting up for transition 3's as a result. So I agree we'll play faster and in transition more, but I don't think it'll be as drastic as you say

 

[HuskyHawk]

Way too soon for this. Let's see what happens when our actual expected lineup gets on the court.

 

[aburks41]

You basically hit the nail on the head by saying it's the wrong lineup to be comparing to with all the injuries. To compare to our actual lineup I'll go with this:

PG: Downgrade - Newton is a really good player and is more than good enough to be the starting PG on the Sweet 16 team we expect. But RJ Cole was 1st team All Big East, and has become so unappreciated by a lot of people on this board

SG: Downgrade - Hawkins will take a huge step forward this year, but Martin had an unbelievable season and brought so much to the team

SF - Upgrade - Jackson to Jackson; enough said

PF - Upgrade - Karaban is a huge improvement on playing Whaley at the 4. Freshman Karaban versus senior Whaley is a big talent gap, but it opens up the offense to do so much more and makes the team tough to defend

C - Upgrade - Sanogo to Sanogo; enough said

Bench - Upgrade - We have a legitimate backup PG and a legitimate backup C now. The other bench spots like Polley to Alleyne and having guys like Calcaterra and Springs ready to step up as 10th and 11th men make up for the only downgrade on the bench from Akok to Samson

Cole was a great player but it's also hard to compare these guys 1:1 because the overall roster construction this year is lightyears better. Newton doesn't need to be scoring 16PPG like Cole had to do, but Newton is also one of the best guards in the country at getting to the FT line. And he rebounds like crazy which is good because we needed him to fill that hole Martin left.

 

[navery12]

At the end of the day though he was more of a scoring guard than an actual PG. Newton has more length, can create better off the dribble, and is just night and day as a passer and getting teammates involved. Which is super important from the PG position.

This is just not the case at all. Cole for his career had a 1.92 Assist to Turnover ratio and 2.28 at UConn. Tristen Newton for his career has a 1.68 A/TO ratio and in his super small UConn sample size has a 1.67. If you thought RJ Cole was a scoring guard playing PG (spoiler, he wasn't) you're in for a rude awakening with Newton

 

[Punkbo]

I love how the pieces we have this year compliment each other. The depth is obvious. It’s way too early to tell what the ceiling is, in my opinion, but I do think they are more talented overall. I’m not sure that’s really debatable.

The one “downgrade” I see is toughness. Last years group could take anyone’s best punch. You KNEW they were always going to scrap and claw back into any game. Martin & Whaley are two of the toughest SOB’s to ever put on a UConn uniform. We will see next week if this group can handle that.

I agree with this post. Cole, Tyrese and Whaley had as much heart as any trio in UConn history. But the current team is deeper and more talented. The Newton/Cole debate is the most interesting, but basketball is played on both ends of the court and Cole was a major liability on defense due to his lack of size.

 

[UConn Esq]

All i know is... if your fourth best player can record a triple double, you are doing something right talent-wise.

 

[husky429]

This is just not the case at all. Cole for his career had a 1.92 Assist to Turnover ratio and 2.28 at UConn. Tristen Newton for his career has a 1.68 A/TO ratio and in his super small UConn sample size has a 1.67. If you thought RJ Cole was a scoring guard playing PG (spoiler, he wasn't) you're in for a rude awakening with Newton

People are still managing to underestimate Cole after going off for 16/3/4 last year. Shot 36% from deep at UConn and under 2 TOs. Yeah he wasn't an All American, but that is production we should be more than happy with from a PG. He wasn't nearly as poor from 2pt% last year either--47%.

 

[BlueMAB]

Way too soon for this. Let's see what happens when our actual expected lineup gets on the court.

 

[Deleted at users request]

This is just not the case at all. Cole for his career had a 1.92 Assist to Turnover ratio and 2.28 at UConn. Tristen Newton for his career has a 1.68 A/TO ratio and in his super small UConn sample size has a 1.67. If you thought RJ Cole was a scoring guard playing PG (spoiler, he wasn't) you're in for a rude awakening with Newton

Yes because Cole was dependable and didn’t turn the ball over. Not because he was great at creating for others. He averaged a little over 4 assists a game. Newton’s past game would’ve been Cole’s UConn career high in assists and he did that down 3 starters in his second game here.

Cole was not a good creator and that’s okay. He was just dependable and steady.

 

[yungdowork]

This is just not the case at all. Cole for his career had a 1.92 Assist to Turnover ratio and 2.28 at UConn. Tristen Newton for his career has a 1.68 A/TO ratio and in his super small UConn sample size has a 1.67. If you thought RJ Cole was a scoring guard playing PG (spoiler, he wasn't) you're in for a rude awakening with Newton

Rj was the best scorer in a starting 5 that featured 2 guys (Jackson, Whaley) that were not threats on offense. It's pretty obvious that we weren't set up in a way where he should have been playmaking first. The way people talk about his passing seems kinda disrespectful to me.

I love Newton's game and I was really happy with his passing vs Buffalo, don't get me wrong. But people acting like he's a pass-first PG because of one game is a little weird. He's had more games where he was an average passer than an above average one so far. He had 1 assist in 32 minutes vs BU and turned the ball over 4 times. He's going to be VERY good for us, but I think a lot of people had never seen him play before this year.

 

[superjohn]

You basically hit the nail on the head by saying it's the wrong lineup to be comparing to with all the injuries. To compare to our actual lineup I'll go with this:

PG: Downgrade - Newton is a really good player and is more than good enough to be the starting PG on the Sweet 16 team we expect. But RJ Cole was 1st team All Big East, and has become so unappreciated by a lot of people on this board

SG: Downgrade - Hawkins will take a huge step forward this year, but Martin had an unbelievable season and brought so much to the team

SF - Upgrade - Jackson to Jackson; enough said

PF - Upgrade - Karaban is a huge improvement on playing Whaley at the 4. Freshman Karaban versus senior Whaley is a big talent gap, but it opens up the offense to do so much more and makes the team tough to defend

C - Upgrade - Sanogo to Sanogo; enough said

Bench - Upgrade - We have a legitimate backup PG and a legitimate backup C now. The other bench spots like Polley to Alleyne and having guys like Calcaterra and Springs ready to step up as 10th and 11th men make up for the only downgrade on the bench from Akok to Samson

The bench is a massive upgrade.

 

[Excalibur]

Cole's supposed deficiencies on defense are waaaaaay overstated. Newton probably fits what Hurley wants to do better, but other than that it's pretty silly to call PG an upgrade.

The biggest upgrades are the bench and the number of guys that can make shots.

 

[navery12]

Yes because Cole was dependable and didn’t turn the ball over. Not because he was great at creating for others. He averaged a little over 4 assists a game. Newton’s past game would’ve been Cole’s UConn career high in assists and he did that down 3 starters in his second game here.

Cole was not a good creator and that’s okay. He was just dependable and steady.

Wrong yet again. You're correct that RJ Cole averaged a little over 4 assists per game at UConn, 4.2 per game to be exact. Know who else averages a little over 4 assists a game? Tristen Newton at 4.3

 

[Deleted at users request]

Wrong yet again. You're correct that RJ Cole averaged a little over 4 assists per game at UConn, 4.2 per game to be exact. Know who else averages a little over 4 assists a game? Tristen Newton at 4.3

Lol I don’t know why you’re leaving out that he did that sophomore year and skipped over his junior year to pull that. The point stands that Cole’s career high in assists at UConn was 8 (even with Bouknight here) and Newton just got 10+ in his 3rd game. This is a stupid discussion.

 

[Umami Zen]

Even without our starting lineup being healthy so that true player comps are not possible.. Two things jump out at me.. The overall ball movement/BBIQ is an upgrade from last year as well as the depth and versatility of our bench.. A major upgrade..

So far these guys are making Dan Hurley look pretty good.

 

[REB1094]

It’s already been said but while the intent is good, you can’t match up players to compare the teams.

Last year was junkyard dogs scrapping and fighting their way to wins. See: RJ, Tyrese, Whaley. In my opinion they overperformed last year (minus the NCAA loss). They brought back essentially the same exact team minus their superstar lottery pick and did BETTER than the year before.

This year is more fluid and positionless basketball. Less junkyard dogs, more raw talent. Tristen Newton, Jordan Hawkins, and Alex Karaban are completely different players than RJ Cole, Tyrese Martin, and Isaiah Whaley.

In the modern game, our current team makeup should perform better than last year’s. I agree with the poster above that said RJ is under appreciated. He had no business being a go-to isolation scorer, but was forced into that role and turned it into all BE first team.

All that said, this year should go farther in March than last year. So I’d call it overall Better.

 

[navery12]

Lol I don’t know why you’re leaving out that he did that sophomore year and skipped over his junior year to pull that. The point stands that Cole’s career high in assists at UConn was 8 (even with Bouknight here) and Newton just got 10+ in his 3rd game. This is a stupid discussion.

I'm not skipping over anything, it's his career average. You're the one twisting left and right to make facts fit your idiotic narrative. It's a growing trend for you

 

[Icehawk]

To echo what was said above - it's not whether a specific player is "better" but whether they are a better fit, or to use corp speak are they "creating synergy". I think this year the team will be a much better fit for how their coach wants them to play.

 

[Huskyforlife]

Cole on this team would be filthy. He wouldn’t have to do all the playmaking himself, allowing his shooting ability off ball to shine better. He’s gonna go down in the all time underrated seasons discussions based on how people slight him. His defensive limitations were exaggerated, it was really just against nova his man D stuck out.

Whaley vs Karaban isn’t a debate(yet). Whaley was the best defensive player in the conference, an extremely reliable role player, even if the fit was terrible. Once AKs 3s start dropping, the debate can be reopened, but I’m offended for Whaley if anyone disagrees so far.

 

[jibsey]

Could we play a decent team before we do this? And maybe get back 2 starters.