Ollie has a system and the team has bought in, for now. Last year the stars came out or didn't, but there were few others to fill the space. Now, Ollie has a bench to mix and match and last year's team has improved and been improved by newcomers.
So, now the coach's art is at a different kind of premium. Ollie is feeling out how to mix the pieces to match different opposition. Jim Calhoun was great at having a near checkmate set at the end of the game. Friday, Ollie trusted, Boatright, Samuel, Giffey, Olander and Brimah. I believe the strategy was to defend the lead. He believes that those 5 are gifted enough and that he has coached up Brimah and Samuel for that competitive crucible.
I think we will see lots of the SN, RB, OC, DD, and probably Brimah and Nolan working Yale over. It will be back to bread and butter. Those players at 1-4 have already sat so others would develop sooner. They now need to get in sync. When they do, if we have the complementary bench we saw Friday, we are going to have some fun.
We learned that with competent big guards, our starters either rule with their speed or they don't. Bazz is amazing, but neither he or Boatright is very big and since he is Boat's partner in the back court they magnify each other's size weakness. If the opponents are big and handle the pressure, Calhoun, Kromah and Giffey will get increased minutes and Boatright will get less.
Boat is a great player. For the NBA he needs to dominate with speed, speed changes, fade-aways, shooting, drives to the basket - like Kemba. Next year, worse case, he will have a chance to be the litttle point with Purvis and Calhoun on the wings. He may star or he may fail to be drafted where he wants. However, we will have 3 point guards again.
There are some immutable facets to this team. One is that Boatright is an effective starter, but his ego will not permit him to be used like Giffey. I hope he doesn't read the BY because he can be drafted with coaching and hard work. If he starts to worry about negative fan assessments and press stories he can mess this up. That is probably why the BY loves Giffey and withholds it's love for Boat. He really thinks he is on Bazz's level, but he isn't yet. Napier's year will prove that.
Brimah is rolling. Please nobody tell him that playing the 5 like a star for a program like UConn as a freshman is unusual and hard. If he doesn't start thinking, Brimah will make his coaches look very skilled, this year.
My criticism isn't aimed at Bazz or this game. I feel his offense was struggling more than usual. I'm not arguing against the rebounding. He had 3 turn overs to go with the seven assists and one third of his scoring was at the foul line on three fouls. He deserved one more assist on that behind the back pass to a wide open RB who missed the three. But it still felt like Bazz was not his optimum self in spite of the excellent stats. He struggled to get past defenders more than usual. I only recall one game last season where that was the case. IMO he is able to create a lot more than he did in this game.
