Three Takeaways – Sacred Heart edition | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Three Takeaways – Sacred Heart edition

pj

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1) Providence is a much better team than us this year.
2) Providence shot almost 50% from 3
3) UConn was favored by 16.5. They covered by a decent amount.
4) SHU was 23/24 from the line. If they have an average night there UConn wins by 30.
5) You can’t draw conclusions from one game

Providence is the better team now ... I'm not so sure whether that will be the case in March. ... I like the last 4 points which help refute the first point.
 

Rico444

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Biggest takeaway for me is the bench can score. 34 points off the bench I believe, past few seasons the starters go out and the offense stagnates.

Interesting...isn't that the same number of points that Syracuse's entire team scored in their 1st game?
 
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- Akok is going to be special. Don’t care he only had 4 points. That will come. Great alterer on defense. I see him being a big time player for us as year goes on. Something about him.

I agree, no limits for this guy.

The obvious UCONN comparison for his skill set is Donyell Marshall but his body type is closer to Luol Deng from Duke. Akok can be an All American in a couple years.
 

Matrim55

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Providence is MUCH better than us ? Really? I guess I’ll have to check providence out. I find that hard to believe.
Hurley said as much in the postgame interview. "We're nowhere near as good as Providence right now" when explaining how the team came out so flat.
 

intlzncster

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5) You can’t draw conclusions from one game

One conclusion you can definitely draw is mentioned in Matrim's first point. Out-rebounded 41-49. Against this level of competition, that's incredibly poor.

Out the bare minimum, we should have out -ebounded them by 10. That would be a 20 rebound swing.

Agree that drawing anything from a comparison of this game to any other 1st game is pretty useless.
 

intlzncster

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Our free throw defense was concerning. Can’t allow the other team to shoot 96% from the line and expect to win as the competition ramps up. DH will figure that out though.

we could definitely foul less
 

intlzncster

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Top 3/4 team in the Big East. Ranked 20th in kenpom. UConn is 70th

Can't take !@#$ from KP rankings yet. But yeah, they're def better than us this year.
 

intlzncster

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I'm not seeing it from Akok at this point. He's closer to Brimah than he is to any top level guy.

Long way to go for him though, he's got plenty of time and will get plenty of experience playing by getting minutes early in his career.
 
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ESPN3 view:

Well not only did I not get to watch until the 2nd half but even then I was limited as they went to a commercial during one time out only to miss another 3-4 minutes. ESPN sucks but anyway...

2nd half view they focused on getting Josh the ball early and often and he was ready. Nice job against a pretty decent big who had some beef. Showed a nice drop step, really knows where the hole is and took advantage. One thing I read on here having not seen him is he was bigger and a couple people thought in the exhibition his size had slowed him. Only a couple of times but I would agree, loose balls in his area very slow to them and lost the race both times. It's early Im no sold on that as of yet.

Vital was all over the place, worked his butt off as expected. The steals showed he's a smarter player but you have to admit also showed SHU wasn't really good with the ball. He is our best shooter and those 3 of 4 in that run were huge. He had a really good 2nd half from what I saw.

Gilbert, heard bad first half, not a great 2nd half but decent though. He passed the ball well, didn't turn it over and made a great wrap around pass to Josh for an easy bucket. Nice pull up from inside the FT line after betting past the first level of defense would like to see more of that form him. Played good defense but a little too aggressive a couple of times beaten to the hole. He will be fine.

Polley made one 3 and a lay in, but still ran away from too many rebounds. When I read about his improvement I thought I would see him trying to take his man to the rim here or there, none of that. Need more from him to see improvement we hear of. Only one game but looked like the same guy to me in those few minutes.

Akok kind of quiet player. Not a lot going on unless he's in the middle of it. Again first game needs to get more aggressive on both ends but as sj and others have said, just nice to have that shot blocker hanging around and he IS that. Expect mid way through the year we see more form this kid, nice athlete.

Adams is improved. Just his confidence is noticeable by the fact he can get to the rim off the bounce. He plays really hard both ends and made a couple shots which he needs to. Plays hard defense, not sure he's as quick as many seem to believe here on that end but we will see as we move into the schedule. Nonetheless he will get minutes with his improvement.

Whaley obviously didn't get to see much because of foul trouble but can see a different guy on the court confidence-wise just by the way he plays. Different guy but needs to stay out of foul trouble.

Wilson heard a great 1st half good to hear. In his first appearance 2nd half I saw the same guy as last year. Although he did have a nice offensive rebound and put back. But he got lost on D twice in a row, once lost his guy at the foul line, ended up a wide open back door lay in. The next D down he had a nice help opportunity and instead of moving his feet to stop the guy he lined up a block and never even attempted, easy lay up. I mean to me he only plays if he can defend. He blocked a couple of shots too from the 2nd level but if he's more concerned about the blocks than defending his won guy he won't see the court as much as he'd like to. Listen, uber athlete but needs to be smarter on both ends. Hope he gets it.

All in all not awful, not great even 2nd half. 1st half must have been horrific. But you look at scores across the country and teams who are good had scares, it's early. Long way to go and not sure where we will be as they head into he AAC. Will know more the next 2.
 
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I'm so excited for the future of this program. Dan Hurley is the man. I was just watching a replay from the season opener last year when Josh Carlton fell out of bounds into the stands and Dan ran over to go help him up, got me so hype.

With the recruiting he has going on now and the increase in talent that's coming to UConn, it's exciting man. And even with developing guys, we saw it last year with Carlton, and now maybe Sid and BA. Oh boy oh boy, let's go!
 

Hoops91

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Quick take

Vital - looked like vital - he didn’t turn the ball over as much and stayed in control

Polley - is going to be up and down

Akok - looked really good on defense, I don’t know what his offense looks like but I was impressed with him. Gets up and down the court fast for his size

Adams- role player that’s his game good d and gets to the hole - still a bit out of control

Al - looked rusty but will win games by himself during the season

Carlton- looked pretty good - it will be good to see what he does against better competition

Overall the offense looked good, they killed that zone in the middle just like you’re supposed to. Ollie would have struggled with that. Why didn’t the coach go back to Man? They like to run, I’m excited to see what they look like with boukright. Feeling optimistic- it’s been awhile since I thought that..
 
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Too hard on Gafney. Shows the class of a highly ranked recruit. Played within himself ,cool ,didn't force anything . Didn't see the bad defense that was alluded . Has a nice looking J and 3 pt shot just has to get a little more PT.
Will be a great player for us before the end of the season.
 
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1) Providence is a much better team than us this year.
2) Providence shot almost 50% from 3
3) UConn was favored by 16.5. They covered by a decent amount.
4) SHU was 23/24 from the line. If they have an average night there UConn wins by 30.
5) You can’t draw conclusions from one game
We also didn’t have Bouknight and Gaffney has barely practiced
 
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1) Providence is a much better team than us this year.
2) Providence shot almost 50% from 3
3) UConn was favored by 16.5. They covered by a decent amount.
4) SHU was 23/24 from the line. If they have an average night there UConn wins by 30.
5) You can’t draw conclusions from one game
Ijs
 

RichZ

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I only caught the second half due to cable issues
Vital was an animal in every aspect of the game.
Had you seen the first half, when he had 3 TOs, 1 board and did not score until he hit 2 FTs with 37 seconds left, you might not have been quite so high on him.

But based on the part of the game you so, your assessment is correct.
 
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Too hard on Gafney. Shows the class of a highly ranked recruit. Played within himself ,cool ,didn't force anything . Didn't see the bad defense that was alluded . Has a nice looking J and 3 pt shot just has to get a little more PT.
Will be a great player for us before the end of the season.
I definitely think Gaffney will be a fine player for us but I mean... he played within himself? It was hard to tell he was on the floor when he was out there. Looked that way in the exhibition too. Hopefully with time the confidence builds for him.
 
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Hurley said as much in the postgame interview. "We're nowhere near as good as Providence right now" when explaining how the team came out so flat.
Ok. I guess we ll see. I ll believe when I see it. Providence always folds come March anyways. I bet if we play them on neutral court right now the spread wud be 4-5 pts. Not that crazy
 
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Ok. I guess we ll see. I ll believe when I see it. Providence always folds come March anyways. I bet if we play them on neutral court right now the spread wud be 4-5 pts. Not that crazy

+6 points on a neutral court, +9 @providence, +3 at home according to Kenpom (which vegas tends to follow)
 
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I take a different spin on the opener. Granted SHU is a mid-major, but our 2 leaders/key players were virtually nonexistent the first half and we were up by 3
 

Dream Jobbed 2.0

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My big takeaway: Josh is still afraid of the rim!!! All those squats and deadlifts on Instagram gram and the guy can still barely dunk and is not explosive. Blew what should have 3-4 more assists for CV by going up weak.
 

intlzncster

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My big takeaway: Josh is still afraid of the rim!!! All those squats and deadlifts on Instagram gram and the guy can still barely dunk and is not explosive. Blew what should have 3-4 more assists for CV by going up weak.

What does that have to do with fear? He's not afraid. He's just not high level athletic. No amount of squats will allow him to play above the rim. He's not weak either, just limited. Is what it is.
 
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What does that have to do with fear? He's not afraid. He's just not high level athletic. No amount of squats will allow him to play above the rim. He's not weak either, just limited. Is what it is.
And we have people here worried he'll leave after this season for the NBA.
 

Dream Jobbed 2.0

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What does that have to do with fear? He's not afraid. He's just not high level athletic. No amount of squats will allow him to play above the rim. He's not weak either, just limited. Is what it is.
I had no idea that you had to be high level athletic to dunk at 6’11
 

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