Top Dogs: Andre Jackson, UConn PG?

[navery12]

Out of morbid curiosity, I'd love to know how Jason Kidd performed in the NCAA tournament? My spider senses are telling me his record of leading a team to deep NCAAT success is thinner than a beautifully sliced piece of prosciutto.

Sweet 16 freshman year and 1st round exit his sophomore year before he went to the NBA

 

[Chin Diesel]

The goal is to be one of the greatest point guards to ever pick up a basketball, haha. Jordan Hawkins goal is to lose the Hawkins and just be Jordan I guess.

Right. Shoot for the stars and you just may settle on landing on the moon.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Sweet 16 freshman year and 1st round exit his sophomore year before he went to the NBA

Jeepers. That's hardly the goal of a UConn PG. Wonder which team knocked off Cal in the tourney.

 

[Chin Diesel]

This will piss off the snowflakes and you can tell by the reactions to this...Newton can't have a worse NCAA winning percentage than Cole. A team led by Cole and Martin was destined to die on a vine and they did. Both of them played to the best of their ability and drew out the best qualities of their teammates. And all of that led to two consecutive first round defeats to worse seeded teams.

And there you see the same posters from last year who thought Cole was going to lead UConn to success. @navery12 can't let go of his narrative and simply examine the result. And he's not alone.

As I put on the football board earlier this week, being the best player when overall team talent level is low and overall team success is low doesn't make you a great player or an impactful player. Every team, regardless of record or success has to have a leading scorer and a best player.

And that's the concern with Newton. Does his individual success on ECU translate in to leading UConn beyond the first round of NCAA tourney??

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

I’m with you on Andre Jackson at PG. I don’t think there’s ever been a successful “make this guy a PG” experiment in college or the pros. Maybe Russell Westbrook? But even then he just was a 2G and his actual PG skills get called into question often.

Trying to make Andre Jackson a PG would be doing a huge disservice to his pro prospects imo. My comp for him has always been Andre Iguodala and he needs to work on being aggressive and a scorer more than anything else. Just because you can make good passes doesn’t make you a PG. Ask the Bucks and Giannas how that worked out.

@navery12 do you have an example of this being successful?

 

[I Bleed Blue]

Sooo… AJax has a broken pinky finger requiring surgery. May not be able to start the season off healthy. What’s our plan now?

PG: Newton
SG: Hawkins
SF: Alleyne/Karaban?
PF: Sanogo
C: Johnson

 

[Mr. French]

The goal is to be one of the greatest point guards to ever pick up a basketball, haha. Jordan Hawkins goal is to lose the Hawkins and just be Jordan I guess.

I get the ridiculousness of his statement, I really do ... but I'd guess it's not far off. High D-1 guys trying to become lottery picks have those types of goals in mind. We can collectively and objectively think that's not likely, but I'm sure it's within their range of goals. NBA All-Star, Hall of Fame, whatever. Do you think Andre Jackson or Jordan Hawkins would laugh at that?

I always looked at Zach Lavine as an example for Jackson. I never imagined his crazy blend of athleticism, but very little discernible PG skills, would translate into NBA All-Star. Jackson has a ton of the same tools.

 

[runner11]

I get the ridiculousness of his statement, I really do ... but I'd guess it's not far off. High D-1 guys trying to become lottery picks have those types of goals in mind. We can collectively and objectively think that's not likely, but I'm sure it's within their range of goals. NBA All-Star, Hall of Fame, whatever. Do you think Andre Jackson or Jordan Hawkins would laugh at that?

I always looked at Zach Lavine as an example for Jackson. I never imagined his crazy blend of athleticism, but very little discernible PG skills, would translate into NBA All-Star. Jackson has a ton of the same tools.

I’m sure there are a ton at the college level and most were small 2 guards and many didn’t work. Making a guy into a PG at the NBA level sounds asinine. Elite passing does not make you a PG. Forget Jason Kidd, he is more likely to end up as a juiced up Dalano Blanton without the same handles.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

I get the ridiculousness of his statement, I really do ... but I'd guess it's not far off. High D-1 guys trying to become lottery picks have those types of goals in mind. We can collectively and objectively think that's not likely, but I'm sure it's within their range of goals. NBA All-Star, Hall of Fame, whatever. Do you think Andre Jackson or Jordan Hawkins would laugh at that?

I always looked at Zach Lavine as an example for Jackson. I never imagined his crazy blend of athleticism, but very little discernible PG skills, would translate into NBA All-Star. Jackson has a ton of the same tools.

Nah man Jackson isn’t anywhere close to the scorer Lavine is. Like no where close.

 

[bigknight3]

Sooo… AJax has a broken pinky finger requiring surgery. May not be able to start the season off healthy. What’s our plan now?

PG: Newton
SG: Hawkins
SF: Alleyne/Karaban?
PF: Sanogo
C: Johnson

I was digging through this thread and didn't see the others with the news... I thought your post was purely hypothetical!!!

But all of the players listed below 1-3 are interchangeable around Hawkins and most likely Newton.

Hurley will put the best 3 out with the player who will be most efficient at PG followed by two wing defenders and scorers.

Sanogo is the center and Karaban probably doesn't start as the SF. We've haven't heard enough about Samson pushing for a starting role since practice has started to justify playing AK at SF. And we've heard that Newton, Diarra and Alleyne are all versatile and competing.

PG: Newton/Diarra
SG: Hawkins/Newton/Alleyne
SF: Alleyne/Hawkins/Karaban
PF: Karaban/Springs/Johnson
C: Sanogo/Clingan

Edit: and I forgot Joey California...

 

[navery12]

@navery12 do you have an example of this being successful?

Do I have an example of what being successful?

 

[navery12]

And there you see the same posters from last year who thought Cole was going to lead UConn to success. @navery12 can't let go of his narrative and simply examine the result. And he's not alone.

As I put on the football board earlier this week, being the best player when overall team talent level is low and overall team success is low doesn't make you a great player or an impactful player. Every team, regardless of record or success has to have a leading scorer and a best player.

And that's the concern with Newton. Does his individual success on ECU translate in to leading UConn beyond the first round of NCAA tourney??

View attachment 79727

Because you're an idiot when it comes to RJ Cole. I respect your basketball opinions but you are just unbelievably blind about him. I will dislike every single post you ever make bashing RJ Cole just like I have been

 

[Huskyforlife]

And there you see the same posters from last year who thought Cole was going to lead UConn to success. @navery12 can't let go of his narrative and simply examine the result. And he's not alone.

As I put on the football board earlier this week, being the best player when overall team talent level is low and overall team success is low doesn't make you a great player or an impactful player. Every team, regardless of record or success has to have a leading scorer and a best player.

And that's the concern with Newton. Does his individual success on ECU translate in to leading UConn beyond the first round of NCAA tourney??

View attachment 79727

The ncaa tournament cannot be your only barometer for success. Let’s just get that out of the way first.

Saying cole played on a team with little talent, when 2 guys already got nba contracts, with at least 2 more likely down the line, is also ridiculous. Especially when you consider he was the best player on a team ranked in the top 25 most of the year. Are you suggesting team talent is still low this year? Cause the starting lineup was likely 4/5 returning players before Jackson was injured.

And nobody is asking Newton to be our best player, he just has to be somewhere in the top 5, which is beyond reasonable for someone of his skill level and experience.

 

[husky429]

Sooo… AJax has a broken pinky finger requiring surgery. May not be able to start the season off healthy. What’s our plan now?

PG: Newton
SG: Hawkins
SF: Alleyne/Karaban?
PF: Sanogo
C: Johnson

Sanogo ain't playing the 4 brother. I suspect it's Alleyne and Karaban at the 3 and 4. Maybe Johnson at the 4.

Sanogo doesn't have a lick of PF to his game.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Do I have an example of what being successful?

Making someone a PG who wasn’t originally a PG.

 

[8893]

Sooo… AJax has a broken pinky finger requiring surgery. May not be able to start the season off healthy. What’s our plan now?

PG: Newton
SG: Hawkins
SF: Alleyne/Karaban?
PF: Sanogo
C: Johnson

Although I have never seen either of them play yet, I’d be curious how we look with Newton and Diarra playing alongside each other, which sounds like an old school UConn look to me.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

The ncaa tournament cannot be your only barometer for success. Let’s just get that out of the way first.

Saying cole played on a team with little talent, when 2 guys already got nba contracts, with at least 2 more likely down the line, is also ridiculous. Especially when you consider he was the best player on a team ranked in the top 25 most of the year. Are you suggesting team talent is still low this year? Cause the starting lineup was likely 4/5 returning players before Jackson was injured.

And nobody is asking Newton to be our best player, he just has to be somewhere in the top 5, which is beyond reasonable for someone of his skill level and experience.

The most talented guys on the team outside of Sanogo did not have huge roles because they weren’t ready according to Hurley. I wouldn’t really count them.

That’s what makes this team very good though that Newton isn’t going to be depended on as our best player. Same as Cole and Martin shouldn’t have been that last year (but we didn’t really have a choice).

 

[Bonamassa]

I think Jackson is poised to put it all together and absolutely explode this year.

 

[Mr. French]

Nah man Jackson isn’t anywhere close to the scorer Lavine is. Like no where close.

This wasn't to say he's as good as Lavine ... but did you see Lavine as an underclassman at UCLA?

It was mostly to say he's probably got "NBA ALL-STAR" as a goal of his, and it's been done before. He's got the raw tools.

 

[Huskyforlife]

I think Jackson is poised to put it all together and absolutely explode this year.

Buddy, do I have some news for you…

 

[bigknight3]

Buddy, do I have some news for you…

He meant put his hand back together...

 

[HuskyHawk]

Out of morbid curiosity, I'd love to know how Jason Kidd performed in the NCAA tournament? My spider senses are telling me his record of leading a team to deep NCAAT success is thinner than a beautifully sliced piece of prosciutto.

And he couldn’t shoot then either.

 

[navery12]

Making someone a PG who wasn’t originally a PG.

I'll skip the obvious example of first half of 2022 Andre Jackson to second half of 2022 Andre Jackson since I know my audience. For another UConn-centric example Sterling Gibbs played off the ball his freshman year at Texas and then become a very good PG at Seton Hall and serviceable at UConn. Jalen Adams also played off the ball freshman year alongside Gibbs before moving to PG his sophomore year and looking much better

 

[I Bleed Blue]

Sanogo ain't playing the 4 brother. I suspect it's Alleyne and Karaban at the 3 and 4. Maybe Johnson at the 4.

Sanogo doesn't have a lick of PF to his game.

Oops I flip flopped Adama and Samson at the 4 and 5. Brain fart

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

This wasn't to say he's as good as Lavine ... but did you see Lavine as an underclassman at UCLA?

It was mostly to say he's probably got "NBA ALL-STAR" as a goal of his, and it's been done before. He's got the raw tools.

Lavine was a scorer and very natural shooter in college though. He wasn’t no where near as good as he is now but you could see the skill and tools. His NBA Draft combine was amazing. Andre Jackson isn’t close to that right now. Even his jumpshot form needs a complete makeover.