Thoughts

[superjohn]

The energy is night and day from the past few years. Hurley is constant energy and the team is constant energy, we are in better shape and play harder than we have in a while. We are flawed but a lot of flaws can be covered up by energy and playing like a team, I'm confident we will do both.

As for singling out players, Carlton was a revelation. He's playing against guys a lot smaller than him but there is no way in the past he does the stuff he was doing tonight. He had a couple of drop step spin moves, he was confident, he moved his feet on both sides of the floor, and he was even diving all over for loose balls. Great game from him and should be a real confidence builder.

Alterique can get anywhere he wants to on the floor but still gets lost amongst the trees trying to finish around the rim, needs to use more of the pull up game (which he has) and not be afraid of injury drawing contact. He was rusty as evidenced by the overdribbling at the end and falling down but he is a stud and it will show soon. His elevation and squaring up on his jumpers is impressive.

Jalen shouldn't be getting in foul trouble like that but dominated when he was on the court. Having all these guards should really help him and allow him to take over games.

The other guards-
Brendan Adams can shoot and is pretty seasoned for a frosh.
Tarin is a big help to the backcourt giving us a veteran ballhandler who can score. He can shoot a little and is pretty fearless going to the rack.
Vital is good when he plays within himself and what the team is trying to accomplish. When he doesn't he can be pretty bad.

Polley is a work in progress, doesn't really know where he fits in yet but has the ability to knock down some threes from the corners.

We are incredibly thin at the wing and down low now, badly need Sid and Mamadou to be game ready and need Whaley healthy. We will be relying heavily on the 5 guards and Josh especially until we are at full strength.

You see a 10 point win against Moorhead and you think they probably didn't look that good but that's a game we easily could have lost the past 2 years and the score doesn't feel all that indicative of how we played. Moorehead was knocking down tough shots all night and had Jalen played it's more of a coasting 20 point win or so.

When we get out and run we look pretty damn good. This will be a team that is in your face and outscraps you, creating opportunities on the break. Again, the energy is night and day and I'm extremely pumped about the future of UConn hoops again. It feels like we had an exorcism and Husky hoops is back.

 

[husky429]

Box score anywhere? Espn app isnt giving me one

 

[Chin Diesel]

Total chub when Smith caught ball on wing in the air, faked pass to his left which got two MSU players to bite, and strong take to the hole.

Smith was player I was most excited to see how he performed tonight. You hope 5th year grad transfers play smart and he showed that tonight.

Breandan Adams showed a nice stroke on 3's as well.

 

[tcf15]

Box score anywhere? Espn app isnt giving me one

Men's Basketball vs Morehead State University on 11/8/2018 - UConn Huskies | University of Connecticut Athletics

 

[warbler1055]

Excellent post, superjohn. The team will get better. The energy is there, first game with new coach, they will get used to each other and click. Dan Hurley will get them to reduce TO and improve in rebounding. The 3s are not fallling and the jump shots are not there yet but they show promises. Surely it's a vast improvement over the lase 3 years!!!

 

[Dove]

11 for 17 from the line looks bad but when you really look no one missed more than 1. So, there's that.

 

[djct1999]

My overwhelming thought watching tonight's game was honestly how lucky we were to land Hurley. He is the perfect, PERFECT, man to bring UConn hoops back to Blueblood Status. It will be hard not to get caught up in results, but everything about tonight's performance felt different. It starts with the coaching. The most encouraging sign to me was this team already is beginning to take on the personality of its coach. The roster is flawed but it will undoubtedly overachieve because of one person; the Coach.

 

[Walker11]

Good post.

My thoughts:

I actually almost felt bad for the Morehead State pg. Gilbert and Smith were absolutely swallowing him up. Love that pressure D.

There was a lot of sloppy ball handling by the guards. CV, no surprise, but also Gilbert and Smith. Even balls dribbled off the foot. I think these guys have good handles, especially AG, so probably an aberration.

Alteriques jumper looks so much more pure.

The drive and kick game was extremely on point, especially in the first half. Primarily CV, Tarin and Alterique.

B Adams seemed a little slow laterally. We know he can dunk through the legs but vertical explosion does not always equal athleticism. It could be that he wasn't in a great defensive stance but he did get beat off the bounce badly a few times in the first half. Something to watch, but I am very high on his future regardless.

That kid chucking up those moonballs for MSU had an extremely pure, albeit unorthodox shot and made the game closer than it should have been.

 

[BigEastCT]

Vital 4 to

 

[AdamaNation]

The energy is night and day from the past few years. Hurley is constant energy and the team is constant energy, we are in better shape and play harder than we have in a while. We are flawed but a lot of flaws can be covered up by energy and playing like a team, I'm confident we will do both.

As for singling out players, Carlton was a revelation. He's playing against guys a lot smaller than him but there is no way in the past he does the stuff he was doing tonight. He had a couple of drop step spin moves, he was confident, he moved his feet on both sides of the floor, and he was even diving all over for loose balls. Great game from him and should be a real confidence builder.

Alterique can get anywhere he wants to on the floor but still gets lost amongst the trees trying to finish around the rim, needs to use more of the pull up game (which he has) and not be afraid of injury drawing contact. He was rusty as evidenced by the overdribbling at the end and falling down but he is a stud and it will show soon. His elevation and squaring up on his jumpers is impressive.

Jalen shouldn't be getting in foul trouble like that but dominated when he was on the court. Having all these guards should really help him and allow him to take over games.

The other guards-
Brendan Adams can shoot and is pretty seasoned for a frosh.
Tarin is a big help to the backcourt giving us a veteran ballhandler who can score. He can shoot a little and is pretty fearless going to the rack.
Vital is good when he plays within himself and what the team is trying to accomplish. When he doesn't he can be pretty bad.

Polley is a work in progress, doesn't really know where he fits in yet but has the ability to knock down some threes from the corners.

We are incredibly thin at the wing and down low now, badly need Sid and Mamadou to be game ready and need Whaley healthy. We will be relying heavily on the 5 guards and Josh especially until we are at full strength.

You see a 10 point win against Moorhead and you think they probably didn't look that good but that's a game we easily could have lost the past 2 years and the score doesn't feel all that indicative of how we played. Moorehead was knocking down tough shots all night and had Jalen played it's more of a coasting 20 point win or so.

When we get out and run we look pretty damn good. This will be a team that is in your face and outscraps you, creating opportunities on the break. Again, the energy is night and day and I'm extremely pumped about the future of UConn hoops again. It feels like we had an exorcism and Husky hoops is back.

Paragraph 3 all day. I was thinking we are playing with out what would be our starting 3&4 or with a project 5(okwandu 2.0 as a jr)

 

[HungryHuskies]

My biggest takeaway is that the players clearly respect Hurley, which is huge.

Also, it looks like Hurley brought back the two foul rule. The future is bright.

 

[superjohn]

Good post.

My thoughts:

I actually almost felt bad for the Morehead State pg. Gilbert and Smith were absolutely swallowing him up. Love that pressure D.

There was a lot of sloppy ball handling by the guards. CV, no surprise, but also Gilbert and Smith. Even balls dribbled off the foot. I think these guys have good handles, especially AG, so probably an aberration.

Alteriques jumper looks so much more pure.

The drive and kick game was extremely on point, especially in the first half. Primarily CV, Tarin and Alterique.

That kid chucking up those moonballs for MSU had an extremely pure, albeit unorthodox shot and made the game closer than it should have been.

The thing you realize is when we drive and kick, we have shooters. It looks like we couldn't shoot the past few years because we were always taking the wrong shots.

 

[JMick]

My biggest takeaway is that the players clearly respect Hurley, which is huge.

Also, it looks like Hurley brought back the two foul rule. The future is bright.

how could you not respect him after watching him rush to Carlton.

 

[Horatio]

Competitive Depth (finally), a high Div.1 grad transfer guard and actual physical conditioning

 

[BlueMAB]

The thing you realize is when we drive and kick, we have shooters. It looks like we couldn't shoot the past few years because we were always taking the wrong shots.

And 7/21 from 3 isn’t terrible. It’s not great, but when you create turnovers, score in transition and can shoot over 30% from three you’re gonna put up some points. I don’t love “if” statements but if just one more of those drops we would have shot 38% from deep as a team, I’ll take that everyday.

 

[auror]

The thing you realize is when we drive and kick, we have shooters. It looks like we couldn't shoot the past few years because we were always taking the wrong shots.

Still not sure we can shoot. That one wide open Polley brick was haunting.

I'll say Gilbert does look like he can. Would be nice to get Jalen penetrating and dishing to Gilbert.

And 7/21 from 3 isn’t terrible. It’s not great, but when you create turnovers, score in transition and can shoot over 30% from three you’re gonna put up some points.

We shot 32.6% (rounds up to 33% like tonight) from 3 last year which was 286th in the country (flat 33% was 270th). It's not good enough. Elite teams are shooting 40% on high volumes.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

There was a moment where Josh went flying into the first row from a hustle play after scoring a couple buckets in a row. Then a TV timeout was called, and when Josh got up with some help, everyone was pounding his chest, including Hurley, and the crowd started to go nuts.
That was the moment I felt UConn was back. That was the highlight of the night, next to Hurley firing the crowd up after a big run in the second half.
Also I hadn't felt that much energy from the crowd, especially the student section in a couple of years.

A lot to work on from tonight, but we've got our UConn back.

 

[tcf15]

21 fast break points tonight. Most since 22 against Tulane on Feb. 7, 2015.

46 points in the paint tonight. Most since Mar. 11, 2016 and took 4OTs against Cinci. Last time in regulation was Feb. 7, 2016 against ECU.

 

[noeynox]

Josh only had 2 blocks? Certainly attracted several other shots. I was impressed with our shot blocking.

 

[jibsey]

Still not sure we can shoot. That one wide open Polley brick was haunting.

I'll say Gilbert does look like he can. Would be nice to get Jalen penetrating and dishing to Gilbert.



We shot 32.6% (rounds up to 33% like tonight) from 3 last year which was 286th in the country (flat 33% was 270th). It's not good enough. Elite teams are shooting 40% on high volumes.

I predict better shooting from 3 this year. Better ball movement and more guys who can make it by adding Adams and Smith.

 

[StingLykOllie]

Being able to play 5 Guards is awesome. I feel like we’ve been running against a brick wall the last few years with limited backcourt players and it was great to see transition and half court ball movement.

 

[lange10]

Vital 4 to

Vital is hard to watch in transition. But 3 assists and 7 rebounds is very solid. Could see him averaging 9/5/3 this year.

 

[Vuce]

Player assessments aside....from a pure fan perspective it is damn fun going to games again. I honestly can’t wait to go on Sunday for the next one. I find myself watching the game and Hurley throughout. Great entertainment. Awesome seeing Gampel filled up. Good times ahead fellow Yarders!

 

[jdb50]

First of all people need to buy tickets and show op. MANY empty seats to call it a sellout. We played defense hard all game. Who in the frontcourt is going to rebound when Carlton is not in? If Polley can't hit 3's can he score some other way? Smith is a great addition. As the season goes on Vital and Jalen should lose their bad habits more and more with each game and with AG leading the way we have many answers in the backcourt.

 

[elmcityboy]

21 fast break points tonight. Most since 22 against Tulane on Feb. 7, 2015.

46 points in the paint tonight. Most since Mar. 11, 2016 and took 4OTs against Cinci. Last time in regulation was Feb. 7, 2016 against ECU.

this kinda says it all. i don't really care how many games we win this season, i'm just happy to be out of the woods.

vital was tough to watch at times in this game. i wouldn't be surprised if he continues his fall to earth this season. i really like what we got b. adams and smith, though!