Three Takeaways – St. Joe's edition

[bmayuc]

Vital’s game is perfectly designed for losing teams.

He’s been here four years. He’s not fighting through a bad night, he’s a sixth or seventh man playing hero minutes for a bad team.

Twenty-one shots, two assists.

This is wrong. His game is fine, as you said - Vitals game is designed perfectly for a winning team... as a 6th or 7th man off the bench who's role is to expend max effort playing gritty defense and hitting open 3s for 15-20 minutes per game

The problem is that he has, by personality and organizational failure, been forced into a role as a lead scorer and secondary playmaker for 30-35 minutes per game that is wayyyyy outside his skill level. I mean, until the pups can take those minutes and that role, what are we gonna do?

 

[ctchamps]

I’m glad we scored more than 35. There was a long stretch in the first half I thought it wasn’t going to happen.

 

[navery12]

Please god tell me this is sarcasm

To be clear I meant it's time for gtcam to move on and accept KO is not our coach

 

[ConnEd]

- Polley was pretty much non existent except for those two threes late. Dude still refuses to rebound. Had a big box out lapse late that resulted in st joes bucket

I'm not defending Polley's play, but I think you're referring to the play where the St. Joe's guard (Moore) got an offensive rebound late in the game. It was actually AG that blew that box out. He let Moore get behind him along the baseline while he was staring at the ball then got bodied all the way out of the lane as the ball went up. Moore got the rebound in front of Polley - who ought to be able to get a rebound over a 6'3" guard. I think Polley then fouled him.

 

[bmayuc]

This box score is... remarkable.

1. How does Polley, who looks to be almost 6'10, only have 2 rebounds in almost 30 minutes? I truly cannot understand his inability to just happen to be in the right place 4-6 times per night by chance. It seems almost statistically impossible, particularly when 6'2 Christian Vital is pulling 16.

2. 87 points, 7 assists, 13 turnovers. I just can't. Its the mark of an atrocious offensive night.

3. We have efficient secondary scorers, but no primary creators. Carlton, Akok, Polley - these guys know their shots, and can put them in. We just can't get the ball to them in those spots efficiently, because Gilbert is not a PG and Vital SHOULD BE in teh same group with the aforementioned as a secondary scorer/shooter, but is forced into a creator role, which is just a shame.

4. Gaffney's amazing nearly blank season box score. In game 1, Gaffney played 9 minutes, missed a shot, and committed 2 fouls. No points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, or turnovers. In this game, Gaffney played 8 minutes, and had a single assist and 2 fouls. This mean in 2 games, he has the following box score

Minutes - 17
FG... 0-1
Points... 0
Assists... 1
Rebounds... 0
Steals... 0
Blocks... 0
Turnovers... 0
Fouls... 4

He has almost played a half a game with a single assist to show for his time on the floor. He's definitely on Trillion watch for each game he gets in this year - Basketbawful

Sadly, Gaffney has looked completely lost to date. He just sort of drifts around on the court, with a deer in headlight look, runs to spots, tosses the ball around the perimeter barely glancing at the rim or trying to attack the defense. Its weird.

 

[husky429]

Not a secret.

1. Our two guards are an undersized pg who has never been able to finish near the rim and a good shooter who has limited dribbling/driving ability. Two guys who can't get to the rack

2. Our best big man had a D- game and missed a bunch of bunnies he usually makes

3. Our other big men are finesse players with limited to no down low game. Polley is a spot up shooter, Sid literally has no niche offensively and typically just gets the ball at the elbow, takes a dribble and a random jump stop, and then wildly chucks the ball toward the rim. I swear to god, that's like 60% of his shots in his career. And Akok is basically teh same as polley. Spot up finesse big.

So, that's all of our players, and not a single even average finisher in the paint, outside of Carlton, who had the worst game of all players on our team today and was completely inneffective.

so, thats how 8-34 happens.

Your take on Akok is way off.

Akok is skinny, but he has 3x the potential Polley has. He battled for rebounds tonight in a way Polley has yet to show in 2 years.

"Finesse" isn't a bad thing if you back it up with some explosiveness. Akok is small now but working at it constantly. His talent level is noticeably better than the rest of our frontcourt. He's just working on consistency and strength.

 

[bmayuc]

Your take on Akok is way off.

Akok is skinny, but he has 3x the potential Polley has. He battled for rebounds tonight in a way Polley has yet to show in 2 years.

"Finesse" isn't a bad thing if you back it up with some explosiveness. Akok is small now but working at it constantly. His talent level is noticeably better than the rest of our frontcourt. He's just working on consistency and strength.

uh, the post was about why we shot 8-34 from 2 point shots. And in the context of where they get there shots, the are both spot up shooters who occassionally barrel into the lane with low scoring probability.

Nothing more.

 

[AdamaNation]

Vital’s game is perfectly designed for losing teams.

He’s been here four years. He’s not fighting through a bad night, he’s a sixth or seventh man playing hero minutes for a bad team.

Twenty-one shots, two assists.

Not saying he’s nba bound. But srs find other ways to contribute. Yes d Beverly is probably better.

 

[AdamaNation]

I think this is a perfect summation of Christian Vital. Whenever he does something good, he does three things bad. He will go down as the greatest stat accumulator in modern UConn history. And nothing more.

Earl Kelley. Loved him. But could win either. Similar careers.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

4. Gaffney's amazing nearly blank season box score. In game 1, Gaffney played 9 minutes, missed a shot, and committed 2 fouls. No points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, or turnovers. In this game, Gaffney played 8 minutes, and had a single assist and 2 fouls. This mean in 2 games, he has the following box score

Minutes - 17
FG... 0-1
Points... 0
Assists... 1
Rebounds... 0
Steals... 0
Blocks... 0
Turnovers... 0
Fouls... 4

He has almost played a half a game with a single assist to show for his time on the floor. He's definitely on Trillion watch for each game he gets in this year - Basketbawful

Sadly, Gaffney has looked completely lost to date. He just sort of drifts around on the court, with a deer in headlight look, runs to spots, tosses the ball around the perimeter barely glancing at the rim or trying to attack the defense. Its weird.

View attachment 48078

Two games into Gaffney's career, you sure got the early line on him. Think it'll hold up?

This is what happens when you can't resist posting a #4 in a Three Takeaways thread.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Our senior backcourt is not one second smarter than they were four years ago.

Those were the worst 26 and 22 point performances that I can remember.

They’re not good players right now and they haven’t been good players - there is a reason why they’ve been present for some of the worst losses this program has ever had. Get better or take a seat.

Well we can sit them because no one is better. Adams and Wilson had good games against SHU, woopity-doo, but they had like 5 points between them tonight. Maybe once the upperclassmen are out things will change, but the whole talk the offseason was how Vital was buying in to everything Hurley was preaching.

Oh well, on to the next one.

 

[KodiacKemba]

Well we can sit them because no one is better. Adams and Wilson had good games against SHU, woopity-doo, but they had like 5 points between them tonight. Maybe once the upperclassmen are out things will change, but the whole talk the offseason was how Vital was buying in to everything Hurley was preaching.

Oh well, on to the next one.

Adams couldn’t stay on the floor with fouls which is ridiculous against a spread team like st joes , he took 2 shots and made 1 in 11 mins court time .... so although his aggressive approach to the game cause him to miss most of the game it doesn’t compare to Sidney ( I hope he don’t clank these free throws Wilson ) ... but what is sid excuse my lord 0-4 in 22 mins , he’s on the court doing a whole bunch of nothing he should have 6 boards a game easily with some blocks and steals ... he can’t be on the court in my mind producing like that smh

 

[HuskyHawk]

Even though vital had a horrible shooting game, he still stayed in attack mode getting to the line 14 times and grabbing boards 15 of them with some steals n block

Gilbert was bad all around now his stat line might be misleading but I didn’t see one floater from him , he just kept penetrating, trying to lay the ball up amongst the bigs with zero success , turning the ball over countless times 5 and just didn’t trust his teammates 2 assists really , hero ball is not going to cut it with this team ... Polley got hot second half and when the lead was cut to 4 or 5 we had two or three consecutive possessions where we didn’t even get him a touch then boom lead back to 10 game over

His attack mode is a major part of the problem. It’s selfish basketball. He also overcommits on D all the time. Yes, he gets steals, and he also gets burned over and over. I’ve said it before, if he’s stuffing the stat sheet we are a bad team.

Everybody but Akok was bad yesterday. But Vital and Gilbert were the worst. They are the guys who need to set the tone and get others involved. Our off the ball movement is terrible. We stand like statues and are so easy to defend as a result.

 

[freescooter]

Story of this game and 5he main take away is talent. Or rather how little talent we have. Probably not a single guy who would see the floor on our Top teams. We are what we are in terms of talent. A mid level mid-mid major

 

[bmayuc]

Two games into Gaffney's career, you sure got the early line on him. Think it'll hold up?

This is what happens when you can't resist posting a #4 in a Three Takeaways thread.

1. I think its a fair obvservation that it is bizarre that in 17 minutes of play he has not put up a single unit of production outside a single assist! That is unusual and worthy of note. It's hard to do!

2. Do you disagree with my assessment that he looks lost and uncomfortable on the court to date?

3. ...

4.

 

[GemParty]

Not a secret.

1. Our two guards are an undersized pg who has never been able to finish near the rim and a good shooter who has limited dribbling/driving ability. Two guys who can't get to the rack

2. Our best big man had a D- game and missed a bunch of bunnies he usually makes

3. Our other big men are finesse players with limited to no down low game. Polley is a spot up shooter, Sid literally has no niche offensively and typically just gets the ball at the elbow, takes a dribble and a random jump stop, and then wildly chucks the ball toward the rim. I swear to god, that's like 60% of his shots in his career. And Akok is basically teh same as polley. Spot up finesse big.

So, that's all of our players, and not a single even average finisher in the paint, outside of Carlton, who had the worst game of all players on our team today and was completely inneffective.

so, thats how 8-34 happens.

We have two guards that don’t scare anybody with the dribble & drive. I’m hoping Gaffney & Bouknight are the cure. Are they Freshman. Yes. I saw a Freshman kill us on STJoes yesterday.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

1. I think its a fair obvservation that it is bizarre that in 17 minutes of play he has not put up a single unit of production outside a single assist! That is unusual and worthy of note. It's hard to do!

2. Do you disagree with my assessment that he looks lost and uncomfortable on the court to date?

3. ...

4.

no. 17 minutes into his UConn career, you've already closed the book on him.
wowzer.

 

[Dogdeacon]

Earl Kelley. Loved him. But could win either. Similar careers.

There is no comparison talent wise. The similarity is taking over games more selfishly than doing so within the context of team play, but totally different situations.
Earl took over control of the team from his coach, he was competing against GREAT OG big east teams & though they stole a couple big Ws mostly UConn was way over-matched talent-wise & coaching wise. Earl was the only player on the squad near the talent level of the top 2-3 guys starting for the rest of that league. Earl's worst year in assists was better than CV's best and his athleticism and shooting were NBA level. I don't recall many games were he jacked up a ridiculous amount of shots and he was never a 'volume' scorer. IF JC had come along in Earl's sophomore year like he did for Cliff, 51% Earl has a similar 10+ year NBA career - OR 49% he'd have been booted off the team in year 1.
Good stats bad team guys are common, sometimes they are a product of their surroundings (Earl) and other times they are one of the causes (CV).

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

1. I think its a fair obvservation that it is bizarre that in 17 minutes of play he has not put up a single unit of production outside a single assist! That is unusual and worthy of note. It's hard to do!

2. Do you disagree with my assessment that he looks lost and uncomfortable on the court to date?

3. ...

4.

I think back to fall 2010 when I saw nothing in Lamb, and therefore make very few negative projections about early freshmen. More so when they've been slowed by injuries. I see no advantage in being ahead of the curve if by chance a harsh or skeptical assessment would turn out to be right.

 

[Nebraskan18]

Anyone going to post a game replay video or atleast the highlights for those of us who missed it??

 

[KodiacKemba]

His attack mode is a major part of the problem. It’s selfish basketball. He also overcommits on D all the time. Yes, he gets steals, and he also gets burned over and over. I’ve said it before, if he’s stuffing the stat sheet we are a bad team.

Everybody but Akok was bad yesterday. But Vital and Gilbert were the worst. They are the guys who need to set the tone and get others involved. Our off the ball movement is terrible. We stand like statues and are so easy to defend as a result.

So if players are standing around it must be systematic , so it’s coaching maybe Hurley needs to do better , instead of having a guy stand at the free throw line, which is making it hard for players to cut to the basket because the paint is clogged up with defensive n offensive of players... but Gilbert by far was horrid hopefully we will see how this season play out cuz if we don’t make it to the tourney in the American then we’re going to get killed in the big east

Again what system are we running..??????

 

[Psolo12]

Anyone going to post a game replay video or atleast the highlights for those of us who missed it??

Trust me, you don't want them to.

 

[bmayuc]

no. 17 minutes into his UConn career, you've already closed the book on him.
wowzer.

Closed the book on him? He's going to play 140+ games. I'm just pointing out the first two have been ineffective.

You guys are all nuts

 

[jdb50]

Earl Kelly was the reason to watch the team in his day. Al Frederick threw done some monster dunks also but those teams were very overmatched. Earl did beat Cuse twice. Once at the HCC with a game winning field goal on our last possession. The best though was at Cuse before a huge Carrier Dome crowd when he had to put the game away with foul shots. Taking the ball at the line he said "well that's the game boys." He made em both. He had confidence and if he had played for JC, JC would have loved him.

As for last night our horrible shooting night inside the arc doomed us. bmaycu is right on that.

 

[mauconnfan]

Earl Kelley. Loved him. But could win either. Similar careers.

CV is not Earl Kelley or close talent wise. I think CV has been a savior in many ways but he's also been part of the reason we lose. I do think he's improved his understanding of knowing his limitations and he does amazing things rebounding the basketball. But 16 boards or not he was horrific and back to his frosh/soph years play last night. Besides the 3-4 times he was mad Daly schooled him so he had to take the next shot from 25 he also took too many of his own boards coast to coast. Got bailed on a couple but also made some FT's off them but they were not at all good decisions. Gilbert did the same thing and it was amazing how bad they both were on the same night, whacked actually!