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.
