This Year Vs Last Year Roster?

[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.

 

[mussels]

This time last year against the cupcakes we also looked great, and the yard was saying how we could beat anyone in the country. So this comparison is a little skewed because we are evaluating the current roster against cupcakes, to the old team against conference and post season competition.

Going to take some games against top teams before we will really know.

 

[Excalibur]

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.

Cole averaged 6+ assists/game in his two years prior to coming here. Newton averaged 4. Let’s also consider that our offense in the two years that Cole was here centered around a ball dominant guard (Bouknight in year 1) and a post player (Sanogo In year 2). Not exactly a ripe environment for assists.

You’re just wrong here and should probably quit.

 

[Punkbo]

What is the rationale for thinking that Cole did not hurt us defensively? He was the definition of Mouse in the House. Whenever he was anywhere near the basket defensively, he got crushed. Is the argument that he was a good on-ball defender? Is it that he’s a warrior and gives great effort, the eye test, any specific metrics?

Thanks in advance for the insight. As an FYI, I thought Boat was the best defender on the 2014 team, so I’m not biased against small guards.

 

[3rdbass]

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

Exactly and people don't remember that Cole was really good with his hands and on the ball defense at times. Yeah he got bullied under the basket and beat off the dribble occassionaly but he more than handled his own on D. We just didn't have enough shooters and people to help him out last year on offense. This year's team is deeper with obviously has more offensive talent 1-10.

 

[Umami Zen]

Cole was a CG/SG in a PG body.. Kicked ass last year with a mediocre bench.. Run into the ground by the end of the game because of the minutes he had to play.. Exhausted many times.

Give him his due.. He was a BE First team PG.. Props to him

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Cole averaged 6+ assists/game in his two years prior to coming here. Newton averaged 4. Let’s also consider that our offense in the two years that Cole was here centered around a ball dominant guard (Bouknight in year 1) and a post player (Sanogo In year 2). Not exactly a ripe environment for assists.

You’re just wrong here and should probably quit.

I know Cole gets a lot of love because he played hard and smart but we don’t have to make him into something he wasn’t. Sanogo looks so much better this year because guys can find him. We NEVER saw him get the passes he’s been getting from Newton with Cole last year. Just look at the first game man. We couldn’t even draw up lob plays for Andre Jackson because that just wasn’t Cole’s game. He was not a good passer. He was very average. Newton actually has very good passing skills. He’s by far the better offensive player. He just got almost 20 points on a terrible shooting night.

Are we really going to say Cole couldn’t get assists because of Bouknight? Shouldn’t it be the opposite since he had such a great scorer to get the ball too? This reach is crazy.

 

[caw]

On paper the team fits better together than last year's team. Love Whaley but he was a bad fit next to Adama offensively. Not to mention the lack of depth when Akok and Hawkins were out last year hurt a lot, and no backup PG ready to play.

The depth on this team is just much better and better spread out.

Gaffney, Akok and on many nights Polley really didn't give much and they were all in the top 9 players last year.

This year's team just went seven deep without Jackson, Hawkins and Johnson.

 

[gtcam]

Too early to evaluate any of this w/o Ajax and Hawkins playing
This team will miss Whaley for his defense and his ability to hedge
The one position I can say is overtly better is at the 5 w/As and DC
Diarra needs to be much more consistent as I see him to be the best PG down the road this season
Let's revisit in early February

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

I know Cole gets a lot of love because he played hard and smart but we don’t have to make him into something he wasn’t. Sanogo looks so much better this year because guys can find him. We NEVER saw him get the passes he’s been getting from Newton with Cole last year. Just look at the first game man. We couldn’t even draw up lob plays for Andre Jackson because that just wasn’t Cole’s game. He was not a good passer. He was very average. Newton actually has very good passing skills. He’s by far the better offensive player. He just got almost 20 points on a terrible shooting night.

Are we really going to say Cole couldn’t get assists because of Bouknight? Shouldn’t it be the opposite since he had such a great scorer to get the ball too? This reach is crazy.

Another bad take machine.

 

[REB1094]

I looked for fun at Sanogo's first 3 games last year vs. his first 3 games this year:

Last year:
Game 1: 26 minutes, 20pts, 5reb, 82% shooting
Game 2: 25 minutes, 20pts, 9reb, 77% shooting
Game 3: 19 minutes, 11pts, 6reb, 43% shooting
17pts / 7 reb on 23 MPG

This year:
Game 1: 19 minutes, 19pts, 6reb, 73% shooting
Game 2: 28 minutes, 27pts, 15reb, 80% shooting
Game 3: 22 minutes, 11pts, 6reb, 36% shooting
19pts / 9 reb on 23 MPG

 

[Huskybass]

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.

Karaban is a much better player than Whaley.

 

[Kitaman]

Everyone looks great now, but RJ and the others were battle tested and succeeded. All of this will be obsolete once conference play and stronger competition arrives.

Just saying our current opponents (i.e. cupcakes) provide more team knowledge than individual.

 

[willie99]

After three games this team is an upgrade in every way imaginable. In large part because of the bench and depth

 

[husky429]

Karaban is a much better player than Whaley.

Seems like a stretch. Will he be better eventually? Yes. Hell yes.

Is he a better fit with Adama at the 4? Yes.

Was Whaley also twice the level of defender.? Yes

Has Whaley played against >200 ranked teams? Yes.

 

[metsfan2323]

After three games this team is an upgrade in every way imaginable. In large part because of the bench and depth

This is definitely a more talented team. Hopefully the chemistry works and it turns into a great season. So far it looks good.

The guard upgrade via the transfer portal is really paying off, it was an amazing offseason for Hurley and the staff.

 

[CTBasketball]

Everyone looks great now, but RJ and the others were battle tested and succeeded. All of this will be obsolete once conference play and stronger competition arrives.

Just saying our current opponents (i.e. cupcakes) provide more team knowledge than individual.

We didn’t have any real success the last two years. I think this year’s roster is in a better position to change that.

 

[Psolo12]

Karaban is a much better player than Whaley.

This a wild statement to make when Whaley was BE DPOY and is currently in the G-League. He definitely has a higher ceiling, but to say he's much better right now is ludicrous.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

This a wild statement to make when Whaley was BE DPOY and is currently in the G-League. He definitely has a higher ceiling, but to say he's much better right now is ludicrous.

He’s a better fit for his position, but better player no. How some talk about Whaley seems like he’s super under appreciated for everything he did. Even comments like we didn’t have a backup center last year. Lol. Whaley was great when he played center.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Bench- This year is a big upgrade (so far) in versatility. I say this based on two of Diarra, Alleyne and Newton becoming bench players once Hawkins and Jackson are playing again. Most likely Diarra and Alleyne off the bench along with DC, Springs, Joey C. And I think k Samson is a bench player too when he returns. Huge upgrade.
Center- Big upgrade of Sanogo as a junior over Sanogo as a Soph.
PF- Karaban or Johnson vs Whaley. I'm calling this a push for now. Karaban has a great feel for the game and seems to work well with Sanogo or DC. Johnson is still a TBD for me. Whaley was much more rough on offense than AK but was such a high level defender, rim protector and rim runner on offense.
Jackson- Whatever position. He started last year and I'll assume he has improved. Upgrade.
Hawkins vs Martin. Downgrade. Martin proved to be durable and a plus 3 pt shooter. Add in his rebounding and toughness and that is a bug upgrade over Hawkins' yet to be shown offensive prowess. Neither one is good off the dribble and neither one is a good passer, distibutor.
PG. Here's the fun one (@navery12 and @husky429 get your dislike button ready). Newton so far is an upgrade over Cole. I was right last year that a team led by Cole gets you no where in the NCAA. I was wrong thinking anyone else on last year's roster was the solution. Cole had to take on the burden of being only player who could remotely play the point and that probably wore him down. Cole was a great shooter but was limited in his passing vision and defensively ability to stop PG penetration, pushing ball in transition. Every pro and con of Cole has already been brought up in this thread. Bottom line for me is he gave his all, was absolutely screwed by not having a back up but was still limited in how can affect the outcome.
Newton is obviously a better athlete, physically bigger and gets to the FT line. And, he will have more help than Cole did which will probably hide some of his deficiencies whereas Cole was completely left on an island by the roster surrounding him.

So, PG, Jackson, Sanogo, bench are all upgrades.
PF is a push; better offense worse defense so far.
SG/Hawkins. Downgrade from Martin.

 

[navery12]

Bench- This year is a big upgrade (so far) in versatility. I say this based on two of Diarra, Alleyne and Newton becoming bench players once Hawkins and Jackson are playing again. Most likely Diarra and Alleyne off the bench along with DC, Springs, Joey C. And I think k Samson is a bench player too when he returns. Huge upgrade.
Center- Big upgrade of Sanogo as a junior over Sanogo as a Soph.
PF- Karaban or Johnson vs Whaley. I'm calling this a push for now. Karaban has a great feel for the game and seems to work well with Sanogo or DC. Johnson is still a TBD for me. Whaley was much more rough on offense than AK but was such a high level defender, rim protector and rim runner on offense.
Jackson- Whatever position. He started last year and I'll assume he has improved. Upgrade.
Hawkins vs Martin. Downgrade. Martin proved to be durable and a plus 3 pt shooter. Add in his rebounding and toughness and that is a bug upgrade over Hawkins' yet to be shown offensive prowess. Neither one is good off the dribble and neither one is a good passer, dustibutor.
PG. Here's the fun one (@navery12 and @husky429 get your dislike button ready). Newton so far is an upgrade over Cole. I was right last year that a team led by Cole gets you no where in the NCAA. I was wrong thinking anyone else on last year's roster was the solution. Cole had to take on the burden of being only player who could remotely play the point and that probably wore him down. Cole was a great shooter but was limited in his passing vision and defensively ability to stop PG penetration, pushing ball in transition. Every pro and con of Cole has already been brought up in this thread. Bottom line for me is he gave his all, was absolutely screwed by not having a back up but was till limited in how can affect the outcome.
Newton is obviously a better athlete, physically bigger and gets to the FT line. And, he will have more help than Cole did which will probably hide some of his deficiencies whereas Cole was completely left on an island by the roster surrounding him.

So, PG, Jackson, Sanogo, bench are all upgrades.
PF is a push; better offense worse defense so far.
SG/Hawkins. Downgrade from Martin.

Only since you asked so nicely