Thoughts - We're Florida's Team.

[Fishy]

Alert the Big 12 - if you want to win in Florida, you need UConn.

1) Anthony Collins has officially been around forever. And it's not over - he'll be back for a fifth-year next year. Still the same player he was as a freshman, though.

2) South Florida's uniforms don't fit. Half of them had the jerseys bunched up under their armpits and the other half had jerseys that were too big.

3) I have a huge pit dug where I'm planning on trapping Phil Nolan for the rest of the year. I had originally planned to store Cassell there, too, but he actually did some good things tonight. I don't think we need to see six shots in ten minutes, but I really only thought his first shot was ill-advised. (Two of his misses were immediately put in by Brimah and Calhoun...so they were just fine.)

He was really the point guard for the run that brought UConn from down 18-16 to leading 28-24. He had a couple of assists and an offensive rebound and generally kept the offense moving.

During that same time, I think Lubin put in some quality minutes - he turned the ball over when he forgot he can't drive to the basket from 15' out, but other than that, I still want to see him get Nolan's minutes. I just don't see whatever it is that Ollie sees there. (Is it just me or does both Lubin and TSam look a little thinner than they had?)

4) Squirrel?

5) This team is much better on offense when they're moving towards the basket - it plays to their strengths. When they're content to fire threes over a zone, it's a grease fire.

They're 4-14 on three-point attempts. At one point, they'd missed nine three-point attempts and had scored ten points. When they got that out of their system and started driving into South Florida, they blew USF out. (1-10 on threes in the first half, 3-4 in the second.)

6) I thought Brimah and Facey were quietly terrific. A combined 8-9, 19 points, 13 rebounds, six blocks. Generally solid defense. There was a point with about 17 minutes left where Collins got into the lane and instead of ball-hawking the shot, Brimah let the brick-layer throw his stone and then collected the rebound. No fouling, no leaving the rim allowing for an offensive put-back.

7) From the USF website, the glass half-full game summary - " USF stayed ahead of defending national champion UConn for most of the first half as a packed crowd of 6,128 rocked the Sun Dome, but the Bulls cooled off down the stretch in a 58-44 loss on Tuesday night."

In Florida, 'down the stretch' is the last 30 minutes of the game. I don't know how they define "packed" and "rocked", but I think it differs from my own understanding.

8) The Hamilton-Brimah lobs are starting to border on the paranormal.

9) Notables - Calhoun looks better by the game. TSam with four assists and generally just looking faster and more comfortable. Purvis still knocking rust off game by game. Defense is still reliably oppressive in the second half.

Long story made short - two road wins when the team desperately needed wins. After the Temple loss, I thought they needed to go 4-1 in the stretch between UF and Stanford and at 2-0, things are looking up. Strangle Cincy on Saturday and there might be actual optimism.

 

[stick]

Alert the Big 12 - if you want to win in Florida, you need UConn.

1) Anthony Collins has officially been around forever. And it's not over - he'll be back for a fifth-year next year. Still the same player he was as a freshman, though.

2) South Florida's uniforms don't fit. Half of them had the jerseys bunched up under their armpits and the other half had jerseys that were too big.

3) I have a huge pit dug where I'm planning on trapping Phil Nolan for the rest of the year. I had originally planned to store Cassell there, too, but he actually did some good things tonight. I don't think we need to see six shots in ten minutes, but I really only thought his first shot was ill-advised. (Two of his misses were immediately put in by Brimah and Calhoun...so they were just fine.)

He was really the point guard for the run that brought UConn from down 18-16 to leading 28-24. He had a couple of assists and an offensive rebound and generally kept the offense moving.

During that same time, I think Lubin put in some quality minutes - he turned the ball over when he forgot he can't drive to the basket from 15' out, but other than that, I still want to see him get Nolan's minutes. I just don't see whatever it is that Ollie sees there. (Is it just me or does both Lubin and TSam look a little thinner than they had?)

4) Squirrel?

5) This team is much better on offense when they're moving towards the basket - it plays to their strengths. When they're content to fire threes over a zone, it's a grease fire.

They're 4-14 on three-point attempts. At one point, they'd missed nine three-point attempts and had scored ten points. When they got that out of their system and started driving into South Florida, they blew USF out. (1-10 on threes in the first half, 3-4 in the second.)

6) I thought Brimah and Facey were quietly terrific. A combined 8-9, 19 points, 13 rebounds, six blocks. Generally solid defense. There was a point with about 17 minutes left where Collins got into the lane and instead of ball-hawking the shot, Brimah let the brick-layer throw his stone and then collected the rebound. No fouling, no leaving the rim allowing for an offensive put-back.

7) From the USF website, the glass half-full game summary - " USF stayed ahead of defending national champion UConn for most of the first half as a packed crowd of 6,128 rocked the Sun Dome, but the Bulls cooled off down the stretch in a 58-44 loss on Tuesday night."

In Florida, 'down the stretch' is the last 30 minutes of the game. I don't know how they define "packed" and "rocked", but I think it differs from my own understanding.

8) The Hamilton-Brimah lobs are starting to border on the paranormal.

9) Notables - Calhoun looks better by the game. TSam with four assists and generally just looking faster and more comfortable. Purvis still knocking rust off game by game. Defense is still reliably oppressive in the second half.

Long story made short - two road wins when the team desperately needed wins. After the Temple loss, I thought they needed to go 4-1 in the stretch between UF and Stanford and at 2-0, things are looking up. Strangle Cincy on Saturday and there might be actual optimism.

3) Ollie must love seeing a charge as I'd wager that Nolan's charges per 40 minutes is not too far from his pts or rebounds per 40 minutes. In fairness, outside of tonight's game, Lubin has not looked any better than Nolan.

6) Brimah really was terrific tonight esp. with his rebounding and defense. Also, I really like how Facey really plays within himself and rarely forces things.

9) Calhoun really might be the key to where this team winds up. UConn really needs a dependable outside shooter and Omar at no point last season looked this good or confident.

 

[Samoo]

Alert the Big 12 - if you want to win in Florida, you need UConn.

Damn straight, we're Florida's team just like NYC. Almost doubled up their previous attendance high for the season. From ESPN:

"UConn, which has played before three of the four largest basketball crowds in NCAA history, is accustomed to playing in packed arenas everywhere it travels. The Sun Dome wasn't sold out Tuesday, however the Bulls did attract their biggest crowd of the season -- an announced 6,128. The previous high was 3,621 for the season opener against Flagler."

 

[mauconnfan]

Funny on the Collins #1 thought, I was thinking the same thing looking at him last night. I was like "damn this kid was impressive as a freshman and he's gotten stronger, yet his game hasn't" Weird - can't belive you can't get better in 7 years.

#9 spot on

 

[BoatShow]

I think TSam is feeling the heat of Omar coming around (though they don't really fill the same roll it's Boat-Purvis then a few guys fighting for the rest of the minutes) and it benefits everyone. Ollie probably told him he had to do something keep his minutes. There was a 3 minute stretch in the 2ND half where Terrence got seemingly every board (ended I think with 7). If he brings the energy and Omar brings the buckets that takes the heat off Boat a lil and this is a dangerous team

 

[huskyharry]

Definitely agree with 1, 6, 8, 9. It has been very encouraging to see incremental improvement from AB, TSam, OC and KF. Even if they don't improve much further, if they TSam and OC just give us what they have the last two games on a consistent basis, we will be a stronger team.

In regard to 3 can't explain why Phil has regressed so much, but I've got to think that at some point we will see a regression to the mean and at least have the moderately effective overall and strong-defender Sophomore Phil back again. Phil is a likeable kid, whom I would like to see succeed. Upside of this is that Rock gets some more development.

Hamilton is very talented. I think the freshmen mistakes will become more rare overtime. He also has a mechanically good looking shot, that with time will yield better FG and FT percentages.

4. Yes, no, maybe, lion?

 

[Thirty Three]

I'd love to know how many assists DHam has to Brimah on the season.

 

[imno1]

4) yes
9) Omar deserved/deserves more minutes
9) Omar deserved/deserves more minutes

 

[August_West]

Funny on the Collins #1 thought, I was thinking the same thing looking at him last night. I was like "damn this kid was impressive as a freshman and he's gotten stronger, yet his game hasn't" Weird - can't belive you can't get better in 7 years. #9 spot on

Carl Krauser was pretty good by year 9 so Collins still may get there.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

7) Knock one more item off my ToDo list by your copy-and-paste from the USF website: a genuine public service. Bless you.

 

[Kembacity]

Full agreement on Collins, early on in the game they said "Collins takes it" and I was thinking this cant be anthony collins still! I was thinking he had to be on his 5th year because of last years injury, but then they said some other guy was their only senior.

So I guess we will have to put him in the Scottie Reynolds hall of fame for guys who play big minutes as a freshmen and impress, and then play 4 years from there on out. Always seems like theyve been there 6 years, and I'm sure teams we faced felt that way about Shabazz. When Collins was a freshmen I remember thinking he was going to be big eventually, and I thought the same about Ashton Gibbs, both seem they will go nowhere, I guess they need to be taught at UConn to fully realize those NBA dreams.

I agree with the jersey comment too, Collins has gotten pretty huge since he was a lithe freshman, and his and some other guards jerseys it looks like they order 2 sizes too small so all the ladies on campus know how much time they spend in the gym, because it sure doesn't seem they care too much about winning. Almost didn't pay attention near the end when USF started barely caring about the game

 

[Kembacity]

Carl Krauser was pretty good by year 9 so Collins still may get there.

I was thrown off by their guy Zeigler, since its a name you almost always see on a very pale white guy. Ziegler and Krauser need to find a few more guys with very white sounding names to fill out that specialty team

 

[Inyatkin]

The previous high was 3,621 for the season opener against Flagler."

Am I the only one who's never heard the word "Flagler" before?

 

[junglehusky]

Come on folks, let's make Danmida Brimalton a thing. It's totally a thing!

 

[Edward Sargent]

Alert the Big 12 - if you want to win in Florida, you need UConn.

1) Anthony Collins has officially been around forever. And it's not over - he'll be back for a fifth-year next year. Still the same player he was as a freshman, though.

2) South Florida's uniforms don't fit. Half of them had the jerseys bunched up under their armpits and the other half had jerseys that were too big.

3) I have a huge pit dug where I'm planning on trapping Phil Nolan for the rest of the year. I had originally planned to store Cassell there, too, but he actually did some good things tonight. I don't think we need to see six shots in ten minutes, but I really only thought his first shot was ill-advised. (Two of his misses were immediately put in by Brimah and Calhoun...so they were just fine.)

He was really the point guard for the run that brought UConn from down 18-16 to leading 28-24. He had a couple of assists and an offensive rebound and generally kept the offense moving.

During that same time, I think Lubin put in some quality minutes - he turned the ball over when he forgot he can't drive to the basket from 15' out, but other than that, I still want to see him get Nolan's minutes. I just don't see whatever it is that Ollie sees there. (Is it just me or does both Lubin and TSam look a little thinner than they had?)



4) Squirrel?

5) This team is much better on offense when they're moving towards the basket - it plays to their strengths. When they're content to fire threes over a zone, it's a grease fire.

They're 4-14 on three-point attempts. At one point, they'd missed nine three-point attempts and had scored ten points. When they got that out of their system and started driving into South Florida, they blew USF out. (1-10 on threes in the first half, 3-4 in the second.)

6) I thought Brimah and Facey were quietly terrific. A combined 8-9, 19 points, 13 rebounds, six blocks. Generally solid defense. There was a point with about 17 minutes left where Collins got into the lane and instead of ball-hawking the shot, Brimah let the brick-layer throw his stone and then collected the rebound. No fouling, no leaving the rim allowing for an offensive put-back.

7) From the USF website, the glass half-full game summary - " USF stayed ahead of defending national champion UConn for most of the first half as a packed crowd of 6,128 rocked the Sun Dome, but the Bulls cooled off down the stretch in a 58-44 loss on Tuesday night."

In Florida, 'down the stretch' is the last 30 minutes of the game. I don't know how they define "packed" and "rocked", but I think it differs from my own understanding.

8) The Hamilton-Brimah lobs are starting to border on the paranormal.

9) Notables - Calhoun looks better by the game. TSam with four assists and generally just looking faster and more comfortable. Purvis still knocking rust off game by game. Defense is still reliably oppressive in the second half.

Long story made short - two road wins when the team desperately needed wins. After the Temple loss, I thought they needed to go 4-1 in the stretch between UF and Stanford and at 2-0, things are looking up. Strangle Cincy on Saturday and there might be actual optimism.

It was a half packed house but those that were there stayed loud throughout the game and they had fun. Must have something to do with the very attractive cheerleading squad, which between them, the dance squad, the band, drum majorettes, baton twirlers and the big head of my neighbor Hulk Hogan made up 75% of the crowd. Half of the remaining 25% were UCONN fans.

 

[junglehusky]

I was thrown off by their guy Zeigler, since its a name you almost always see on a very pale white guy. Ziegler and Krauser need to find a few more guys with very white sounding names to fill out that specialty team

Mario Balotelli. He's 3 star Michelin chef, right?

 

[Edward Sargent]

Am I the only one who's never heard the word "Flagler" before?

Flagler is a small liberal arts college which is hoiused in an old Flroida Hotel in St Augustine. Pretty campus

 

[bmayuc]

Alert the Big 12 - if you want to win in Florida, you need UConn.

1) Anthony Collins has officially been around forever. And it's not over - he'll be back for a fifth-year next year. Still the same player he was as a freshman, though.

2) South Florida's uniforms don't fit. Half of them had the jerseys bunched up under their armpits and the other half had jerseys that were too big.

3) I have a huge pit dug where I'm planning on trapping Phil Nolan for the rest of the year. I had originally planned to store Cassell there, too, but he actually did some good things tonight. I don't think we need to see six shots in ten minutes, but I really only thought his first shot was ill-advised. (Two of his misses were immediately put in by Brimah and Calhoun...so they were just fine.)

He was really the point guard for the run that brought UConn from down 18-16 to leading 28-24. He had a couple of assists and an offensive rebound and generally kept the offense moving.

During that same time, I think Lubin put in some quality minutes - he turned the ball over when he forgot he can't drive to the basket from 15' out, but other than that, I still want to see him get Nolan's minutes. I just don't see whatever it is that Ollie sees there. (Is it just me or does both Lubin and TSam look a little thinner than they had?)

4) Squirrel?

5) This team is much better on offense when they're moving towards the basket - it plays to their strengths. When they're content to fire threes over a zone, it's a grease fire.

They're 4-14 on three-point attempts. At one point, they'd missed nine three-point attempts and had scored ten points. When they got that out of their system and started driving into South Florida, they blew USF out. (1-10 on threes in the first half, 3-4 in the second.)

6) I thought Brimah and Facey were quietly terrific. A combined 8-9, 19 points, 13 rebounds, six blocks. Generally solid defense. There was a point with about 17 minutes left where Collins got into the lane and instead of ball-hawking the shot, Brimah let the brick-layer throw his stone and then collected the rebound. No fouling, no leaving the rim allowing for an offensive put-back.

7) From the USF website, the glass half-full game summary - " USF stayed ahead of defending national champion UConn for most of the first half as a packed crowd of 6,128 rocked the Sun Dome, but the Bulls cooled off down the stretch in a 58-44 loss on Tuesday night."

In Florida, 'down the stretch' is the last 30 minutes of the game. I don't know how they define "packed" and "rocked", but I think it differs from my own understanding.

8) The Hamilton-Brimah lobs are starting to border on the paranormal.

9) Notables - Calhoun looks better by the game. TSam with four assists and generally just looking faster and more comfortable. Purvis still knocking rust off game by game. Defense is still reliably oppressive in the second half.

Long story made short - two road wins when the team desperately needed wins. After the Temple loss, I thought they needed to go 4-1 in the stretch between UF and Stanford and at 2-0, things are looking up. Strangle Cincy on Saturday and there might be actual optimism.

1. Collins has like 3 ELITE skills(Dribble, Speed, Savvy) and has all other F skills(shot, decision-making, etc). Weird, weird player.

3a. Nolan plays really good position defense. He basically does nothing else. His inability to like, finish around the basket is and forever will be mystifying. But that is clearly what Ollie values. Lubin scored some points tonight but he is a freaking wreck on help defense, guys. I mean he's basically just wandering around in the paint.

3b. They second group brought some energy and opened the game up, but it felt more by accident/luck than skill. They basically played their usual uncontrolled, wild, reckless self, but instead of those turning into turnovers they turned into like 4 points for Lubin, a couple put-backs, and the ball rolling our way for once. In other words, great that Cassel had a better day, but it was more luck than skill. not good.

5. Penetration. Need to break first line of defense, and then we are awesome. Our entire goal should be to get boat/hamilton to just below the foul line. Once those guys are there we score 80% of the time.

6. I chugged a beer when I saw Brimah pass up that god-awful Collins layup and grab the board. that is SOOO much what is/has been missing from him, is the IQ to know when to go and when to pass up. Facey is going to be a warrior for us. Vice Grips for Hands.

7. HAHAHAHAHAAHH

8. Best Passer on the team. Best Wing passer ever.

9. So happy for Calhoun. He was looking a little swaggalicious in the second half, smiling and smirking after nailing that corner three. His stroke is there, if the confidence follows game to game, I think we have found our old friend Omar Calhoun. I mean, I'm so f*(king happy for this kid. Scorers need to see the ball go through the rim, ya know?

 

[RichZ]

3) I have a huge pit dug where I'm planning on trapping Phil Nolan for the rest of the year....

...6) I thought Brimah and Facey were quietly terrific. A combined 8-9, 19 points, 13 rebounds, six blocks.

And yet we constantly see posts wanting Brimah and Facey to put on 10, 15, 20, whatever pounds of muscle. Look how much good doing so did for Nolan.

7) From the USF website, the glass half-full game summary - " USF stayed ahead of defending national champion UConn for most of the first half as a packed crowd of 6,128 rocked the Sun Dome, but the Bulls cooled off down the stretch in a 58-44 loss on Tuesday night."

This reads suspisciously like the kind of game reports we used to see in the Daily Campus. I susect the site being quoted is written by 1st year Journalism majors.

8) The Hamilton-Brimah lobs are starting to border on the paranormal.

 

[dogpause]

I'd love to know how many assists DHam has to Brimah on the season.

I'd like to see others feeding the big guy too. How many times each game do you see Brimah wide open and the ball never gets thrown to him. OTOH, he doesn't always present himself, get into a good position, or demand the ball. However, I feel that as the season goes on our post game is going to get better and better, especially as our outside shooting opens the floor.

 

[Kembacity]

I'd like to see others feeding the big guy too. How many times each game do you see Brimah wide open and the ball never gets thrown to him. OTOH, he doesn't always present himself, get into a good position, or demand the ball. However, I feel that as the season goes on our post game is going to get better and better, especially as our outside shooting opens the floor.

Cassell did this last night, little pick and roll in the corner, Brimah left wide open under the hoop, Cassell misses it and passes out to hamilton

 

[HuskyBballFan]

I'd like to see others feeding the big guy too. How many times each game do you see Brimah wide open and the ball never gets thrown to him. OTOH, he doesn't always present himself, get into a good position, or demand the ball. However, I feel that as the season goes on our post game is going to get better and better, especially as our outside shooting opens the floor.

Thing is, we don't even need to feed him in the post to get him more touches. Hamilton is so ridiculously good at finding him for lobs that it stands to reason that Brimah is similarly open when the other guards get into the lane. I think it's a combination of Hamilton being a gifted passer and the other guards preferring to shoot their own floaters when they get into the lane.

Another thought: We've watched guys like Kemba and Shabazz live at the free throw line because they went out of their way to get fouled when they got into the paint. Right now Hamilton looks like he is more than happy to avoid getting fouled, which might contribute to his willingness to pass the ball when he's only 10 feet from the basket.

 

[Gurleyman]

Thing is, we don't even need to feed him in the post to get him more touches. Hamilton is so ridiculously good at finding him for lobs that it stands to reason that Brimah is similarly open when the other guards get into the lane. I think it's a combination of Hamilton being a gifted passer and the other guards preferring to shoot their own floaters when they get into the lane. Another thought: We've watched guys like Kemba and Shabazz live at the free throw line because they went out of their way to get fouled when they got into the paint. Right now Hamilton looks like he is more than happy to avoid getting fouled, which might contribute to his willingness to pass the ball when he's only 10 feet from the basket.

The floor is usually a little more spread when Hamilton gets in the lane - since our guards (Boat mainly) will keep their defenders at home. Hamilton typically just has to make one read - is Brimah's man coming to help - and then decide to take the little floater or put it up to the rim for AB to finish. And he's very very gifted at disguising that pass until the last moment and making it difficult on the defender.

He also attacks at a deliberate pace, rather than being a bullet train. Purvis tried to throw one and it was swatted back at him, but he was traveling one speed making it tough to put the right touch on it or find the right angle. Hamilton will maneuver better and find the right time and place to throw it (which on the down side sometimes results in sagging defense raking the ball from him). Boat being smaller doesn't draw AB's man off him very easily - the big is more apt to stay at home and challenge at the rim rather than step out to worry about Boat from 8-10 feet. Hamilton makes that little 8-10 footer all the time and will force the defender to commit to help a little sooner, giving space for the lob.

 

[James]

^ yup hamilton is a very nice passer intuitively. when we run our action where purvis/calhoun comes bolting baseline off a down screen for a boatright feed, usually hamilton comes next and he is so damn lethal when he gets his defenders hip; he is an ELITE mid range pull up shooter. makes it a lot easier for brimah to roam whenever everybody is eyeing hamilton high releasing jumper. he also has facey rolling on that action. the chemistry is rising with our offense