Top Dogs: A Donovan Clingan interview, plus a not-so-secret scrimmage and practice reactions

[auror]

Worth a listen for sure. Jam-packed with insights.

Nugget bulletpoints:

• He has Marquette tops in the Big East. Should be the favorite. Past them, has UConn, Creighton, Villanova, Providence on the next tier. Thinks all are top 20 caliber teams.
• Practices are still super intense.
• Team is going to have a learning curve.
  • Castle isn't Andre F ing Jackson... yet. But like Andre, Castle is an excellent passer but a bit aggressive/risky with the passes.
  • Ross is a freshman and is no Calcaterra. Great traits, staff loves him. NBA someday... but not yet.
  • Solo will be a monster. He'll flash this year and take a leap next year similar to Hawkins.
• Less individual brilliance outside of perhaps Donovan, but overall offensive talent level is high.
  • Shooting and vertical spacing is everywhere.
  • Castle shooting or relative lack thereof lumped in with Diarra shooting as opposed to Spencer/Karaban/Ross/Ball/Newton group.
  • Seemed fairly optimistic about both Clingan and Samson shooting.
• Team lacks a bit of elite athleticism. Team has a lot of good positional defenders, but not a ton of great in-space defenders.
  • Diarra the exception, and Ball has the tools to be that type of defender... but probably not yet.
  • Clingan (whom Dauster has not seen playing with team due to injury) will cover up a lot, but has to get and stay on the floor.
  • UConn may struggle to defend teams that can pull Clingan away from the basket.
• As shown in the In The Paint episode, Clingan and Diarra taking leadership roles.
  • Clingan just yells stuff out from the exercise bike during practice. Hurley seems to be bringing out some of his crazy.
• Samson made some perimeter shots against Virginia and a few circus finishes in the practice Dauster watched.
• We'll need more scoring from Newton and Karaban this season. They may be our main scoring weapons this season.
• Spencer punches random objects and punts the ball frequently. Huge Señors.
• As reported a few times, Stewart a bit behind Ball and Ross due to late arrival, injury, etc. Mostly the mental stuff. Probably 10th man right now.
  • But talent wise, he can do a bit of everything (defend, shoot, has a presence, etc.)
• Roumoglou can't really defend at a UConn level, but he's a sniper.
• Clingan strained a muscle, slight stress fracture of 4th toe on right foot. Plan still to be back in time for 1st game.
• Clingan didn't put pressure on Adama to leave, Clingan would have stayed either way.
• Clingan all-time UConn 5: Kemba, Ray, Rip, Jackson, Emeka
• No idea where the Cooper Flagg - UConn rumors coming from. People he talks to still thinks Duke. Manifesting it is fun on Twitter, but...

 

[AtlantaHusky]

thanks! youtube link:

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

I love Andre, but him and Castle are two completely different players.

Every report of a game we get from him has him scoring 15-20 points, with probably limited minutes (nonstarter minutes).

Fully expect for him to be a star go to guy off the bat if we let him.

 

[auror]

I love Andre, but him and Castle are two completely different players.

Every report of a game we get from him has him scoring 15-20 points, with probably limited minutes (nonstarter minutes).

Fully expect for him to be a star go to guy off the bat if we let him.

Yeah Rob had a bit in there about not knowing how Castle will react when the opponent starts giving him a bit of a cushion and not respecting the shot ala Andre.

My thinking is he will just get a head of steam and drive right at the guy and score/get fouled. Castle is so much better going to the hoop than Andre. Like they're not even in the same conversation in that skill. It shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Fan1978]

Yeah Rob had a bit in there about not knowing how Castle will react when the opponent starts giving him a bit of a cushion and not respecting the shot ala Andre.

My thinking is he will just get a head of steam and drive right at the guy and score/get fouled. Castle is so much better going to the hoop than Andre. Like they're not even in the same conversation in that skill. It shouldn't be a problem.

Comparing andre being left at 3 point line to castle is silly. Castle is adept at getting into lane a scoring. For all of andre’s athleticism, he could not finish. Perhaps my all time favorite but never made logical sense

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Comparing andre being left at 3 point line to castle is silly. Castle is adept at getting into lane a scoring. For all of andre’s athleticism, he could not finish. Perhaps my all time favorite but never made logical sense

And no one should underestimate Stephon's 3-ball. He may not have the percentage of a Karaban but he's not going to shoot 25% from three either.

 

[Ricker]

All the preseason takes have ignored Donovan's need to improve FT % and, there has been no insight into team rebounding when Donovan is out of the game. Those are keys to winning that I wish there was insight about. Additionally, the point of view about Donovan not practicing seems to be solely on him being in game shape and delivering his production, and the benefits to Samson of getting first team reps. No attention seems to be afforded to the idea that there is no practice time with both Samson and Donovan on the court learning to play together, which was a stated expectation by Samson. The defensive scheme is just different with Clingan in the paint. How much will the team be set back by not practicing with him there. Does Hurley feel it only takes a handful of practices to overcome that?

We had been told foot strain. I hated Donovan saying stress fracture in the 4th toe of the right foot. That seems a bit more worrying in terms of recurrence possibility and a longer need to 'rest' the foot in the future.

For the record, he sees Providence as competing at the top of the Big East. I think .500 is their ceiling. I expect voting to have Marquette #1 in the BEast but I don't think they'll finish there. I'll tip my hat to them if they lose less than 6 games. I expect a logjam at the top with about 5 losses taking the top seed in a photo finish matching cards.

 

[MuchoDogYears]

[*]Spencer punches random objects and punts the ball frequently. Huge Señors.


What does this mean?!

 

[OkaForPrez]

• Clingan all-time UConn 5: Kemba, Ray, Rip, Jackson, Emeka

This is correct.

 

[auror]

@MuchoDogYears

 

[Cheddie]

• Clingan all-time UConn 5: Kemba, Ray, Rip, Jackson, Emeka

This is correct.

My opinion Donyell > Andre
DC likely never saw DM play

 

[Scottobot]

Comparing andre being left at 3 point line to castle is silly. Castle is adept at getting into lane a scoring. For all of andre’s athleticism, he could not finish. Perhaps my all time favorite but never made logical sense

Not putting any ball pressure on a point guard usually does not work out. It gives the PG too much time to think, and setup whatever play they want. If Castle plays PG and has no pressure on him, UConn offense will be scoring all the time. Good defense needs to pressure and disrupt the PG and mess up what they want to run. Andre was a great passer and a lot of plays were run through him, but he wasn’t a PG. He didn’t have he tight dribble and ability the drive into traffic and finish consistently at the rim. He may develop that as a pro, but wasn’t quite there yet at UConn. He was getting closer at that at the end, and in the tournament when Gonzaga tried to lay off Andre and double Adama, they absolutely torched them.

 

[ucp990411]

• Clingan all-time UConn 5: Kemba, Ray, Rip, Jackson, Emeka

This is correct.

Where is Johnnie?

 

[TheChamps990411]

My opinion Donyell > Andre
DC likely never saw DM play

DM may not have the hardware but he is still the best player i ever saw in a Husky uniform imho.

 

[Captbluefin]

DM may not have the hardware but he is still the best player i ever saw in a Husky uniform imho.

Same here

 

[CardiacAndre7]

And no one should underestimate Stephon's 3-ball. He may not have the percentage of a Karaban but he's not going to shoot 25% from three either.

And he doesn’t have a broken shot. It’s not bad form, he’s just inconsistent. He doesn’t need to be a big time shooter here anyways, we have 3 guys who will be 38-40% from 3 already in the starting lineup.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Yeah Rob had a bit in there about not knowing how Castle will react when the opponent starts giving him a bit of a cushion and not respecting the shot ala Andre.

My thinking is he will just get a head of steam and drive right at the guy and score/get fouled. Castle is so much better going to the hoop than Andre. Like they're not even in the same conversation in that skill. It shouldn't be a problem.

That and even though Castle isn’t a knockdown shooter, he should still be respectable where you don’t leave him wide open. He has a scorers mentality overall.

Going 1-3, 1-4 from 3 feels a lot better when you have 4 layups and you go to the line another 5 times.

 

[businesslawyer]

• Clingan all-time UConn 5: Kemba, Ray, Rip, Jackson, Emeka

This is correct.

No, it’s not. I loved having Andre here, but there is no rational case that he had a better career here than Donyell Marshall. None.

 

[Fan1978]

That and even though Castle isn’t a knockdown shooter, he should still be respectable where you don’t leave him wide open. He has a scorers mentality overall.

Going 1-3, 1-4 from 3 feels a lot better when you have 4 layups and you go to the line another 5 times.

A plethora of riches, uconn probably has 10 top 5 guys. Love andre but hard to make argument when adama was the best player on the court.

 

[OkaForPrez]

No, it’s not. I loved having Andre here, but there is no rational case that he had a better career here than Donyell Marshall. None.

The alert icon for a quote post from you should play a sad trombone.

 

[CL82]

The alert icon for a quote post from you should play a sad trombone.

Watching the football team can be kind of a downer. He'll be better once the basketball season starts.

 

[HuskyHawk]

My opinion Donyell > Andre
DC likely never saw DM play

There are a lot of forwards better than Andre. Donyell, Cliff, Burrell, Donny Marshall, Rudy Gay, Caron Butler. Putting Clingan on that list is absurd. Let's see him play. Incredible recency bias.

As for the observations, mostly obvious. If Castle isn't better than Andre, this team is in trouble. Need him to be a reliable double figure scorer, get similar assists and defend and rebound well, if less well than Andre.

 

[Psolo12]

Yeah, the providence take here I really don’t agree with. I think they absolutely finish below top 5 in the league. I’m fading them early on in the season every chance I get.

 

[LStudfellow]

• Clingan all-time UConn 5: Kemba, Ray, Rip, Jackson, Emeka

This is correct.

Donyell, KEA and/or Shabazz all belong on the list before Andre. I love what Andre brought to the team, and he was an integral piece to last year's title.

But yeah, Donyell was dominant his last year. Best single, full year performance a UConn player has ever had (end of Florida game not withstanding)... KEA was the "missing ingredient" and confidence that propelled us to the most important title we have ever won (the first)... and Shabazz was not only a big part of 2 titles, but he was also THE best player in the entire tournament in 2014.

Honestly, we are so damn lucky to be able to even debate this though!

 

[Rico444]

I listened to about half of the pod so far, and it seems like Rob isn't as high on the team as we all are. I could be wrong, and he could just be trying to temper expectations among the UConn crowd, but I get the sense he thinks we're more of a top 15-20 group than top 10 or 5.