UCONN IG Story-Vital

[Huskymagic]

I like what I see from Vital. He is UCONN material and deserves to start next year. Kid is a baller and has the toughness and intangibles required to be great.

 

[superjohn]

I like what I see from Vital. He is UConn material and deserves to start next year. Kid is a baller and has the toughness and intangibles required to be great.

I'm a big fan of Vital but I fear many on this board are setting unfair expectations for him. Nobody deserves to start, that's earned in practice.

 

[uconndoit]

 

[UChusky916]

Love Vital and his attitude. He brings a much needed NY toughness to our guards.

It's going to be nearly impossible for him to maintain his 3-pt shooting percentage from last year. I'm sure people here will still unfairly criticize what is natural regression. Even if he regresses a bit in that regard, he's got a bright future and will be a key perimeter cog on the team for years to come. Keep working CV!

 

[Thirty Three]

He works as hard as anyone, period. He has a real chance to be great. If not, I can assure you, it will not be for lack of effort. He will absolutely be the best player he can be, I'm very confident of that. Love this kid. I also know he has his eye on the all time three point record here at UConn and wants to make a run at it. Should be a really fun player to watch.

 

[imno1]

Love Vital and his attitude. He brings a much needed NY toughness to our guards.

It's going to be nearly impossible for him to maintain his 3-pt shooting percentage from last year. I'm sure people here will still unfairly criticize what is natural regression. Even if he regresses a bit in that regard, he's got a bright future and will be a key perimeter cog on the team for years to come. Keep working CV!

I disagree. He most certainly could maintain and I expect him to improve on his 3%. He has good technique and a quick release. If they get him open looks he'll knock down a good amount of them.

 

[Kembacity]

He's just so easy to like and root for, so proud to have him in our uniform, I hope he continues to impress us for a few more years

 

[pj]

He got better at 3 pt % over the course of last season, so no reason he can't continue to improve. His handle is still a little too loose so he's likely to be in the sharpshooter role again next year. But glad he's working on it, if he can get a competent handle and moves to penetrate, it will make him a heck of a player.

 

[Kitaman]

I really believe that Vital will be instrumental in turning our ship the next 3 years. He's someone that to be has the stability we need and with maturity I see a leadership path for him.

 

[Chief00]

I agree with many of the previous comments. To improve like he did from the first to second half of last season you have to be smart (learn from your mistakes and weaknesses) and work hard on individual skills, S&C and on game prep. Blaney would absolutely love this guy and that's a huge compliment.

 

[husky429]

I think his percents may go down because we will be asking more of him with Rodney gone.

Love everything about this kids attitude and game.

 

[Huskymagic]

I'm a big fan of Vital but I fear many on this board are setting unfair expectations for him. Nobody deserves to start, that's earned in practice.

With great expectations comes great responsibility. If Vital knows that we the fan base expect big things from him, he will be even more motivated to work even harder and meet those expectations because after all his ambition is the NBA.

He's a leader, and great expectations don't hurt mentally strong good players from achieving team goals, it fuels them. I want to see some of that fire that Vital and Adams have naturally in Gilbert.

 

[bazz&boujee]

we're screwed if alterique isn't good enough to take starting guard spot over vital with ease

 

[David 76]

I think his percents may go down because we will be asking more of him with Rodney gone.

Love everything about this kids attitude and game.

I don't think he will have more pressure on him with AG and TL there. Plus I think he did very well with huge pressure last year. He won't shrink.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Love the chair

 

[jibsey]

we're screwed if alterique isn't good enough to take starting guard spot over vital with ease

I think Vital will be the recipient of Alterique passes. Doesn't matter who starts because they will all get plenty of minutes and they need to stay healthy enough to play them.

 

[joober jones]

It's not good if he starts next year, as it would mean that either Gilbert or Adams isn't starting. All three starting is far too small of a 3 guard offense.

 

[Huskybass]

It's not good if he starts next year, as it would mean that either Gilbert or Adams isn't starting. All three starting is far too small of a 3 guard offense.

On what planet does Jalen Adams not start? This is maximum Boneyard absurdity at its finest.

 

[imno1]

we're screwed if alterique isn't good enough to take starting guard spot over vital with ease

If Vital proves in practice and preseason that he can knock down shots consistently he may very well start. Obviously I have more faith in the leap CV takes this year than you do. I see it differently in that if Christian is starting he really upped his game. I think we're do for an overachiever

 

[AZHuskiePop]

If Vital proves in practice and preseason that he can knock down shots consistently he may very well start. Obviously I have more faith in the leap CV takes this year than you do. I see it differently in that if Christian is starting he really upped his game. I think we're do for an overachiever

I don't think Gilbert shoots well enough to play the 2.
If he start it means Adams is the 2
Both Adams and Anderson can play either position . Unless CV made a huge leap in PG skills He is strictly a 2 except he can take it to the hoop.
He should end up being more versitile than Rodney.
KO has real depth in the Backcourt
Comparable to 2011 with Kemba , Bazz, Lamb, and senior Beverley who could actually run the team for crucial minutes without hurting you too much.
I'm not saying Adams or Gilbert is Kemba But JA may not be that far off.
Gilbert should be comparable to freshman Bazz (remember he almost cost us the semi game )and Sophmore CV actually is more versatile than freshman Lamb. He can also defend . Plus Anderson is much better than Beverly.
Anyone who doesn't love this backcourt probably learned BB from a vidio game.

 

[RichZ]

Going into the season last year, we assumed that Vital would get minimal minutes behind JA, AG and Rodney. Then AG's injury changed the dynamic of the back court, and we got to discover that we had far more in CV than we had expected. Now he's got a leg up on AG based on a year's experience.
They aren't in direct competition for the same minutes, but CV's minutes are still dependent on how AG plays. Gilbert is going to have to outplay last year's AAC assist leader at the point, to push him over to the two and seriously impact CV's minutes.
I think in the end, we're going to see a regular menu of every combination of guards possible on the court together, except perhaps all four of them with one big. Unless one of the bigs shows as a big time rim protector, and then we might see that, too.

 

[mauconnfan]

They will be needing to win and having some fun for all of this to work out because when losing minutes become important to the individual. The reality is if this years backcourt is healthy CV, no matter how well he plays, will play less minutes I believe this year but that's not a bad thing. Instead we will always have fresh people in the backcourt something that was rare at best last year, I think this will be huge on both ends and can't be measured.

 

[joober jones]

On what planet does Jalen Adams not start? This is maximum Boneyard absurdity at its finest.

Well that was my point. If Vital is starting, it means Adams isn't. Ergo, if Vital starts, something has put us in deep excrement.

 

[Huskymagic]

Well that was my point. If Vital is starting, it means Adams isn't. Ergo, if Vital starts, something has put us in deep excrement.

The only guaranteed starters are Jalen and Terry. There is no scenario where Jalen is not starting if fully healthy and ready to go. Despite your strong affirmation of Gilbert, he hasn't shown he can shoot from the perimeter, play well off the ball, and defend. Vital has and is 4 inches taller and a lot stronger. Gilbert has to be at Boatright level to start or else Vital will. A big reason we were so bad last year to start the season was the leadership conflict between Adams and Gilbert as point guard and who would be the lead guard. Our play against Wagner and Northeastern reflected that.

This is Jalen's team and he needs to be the one with the rock in his hands majority of the time.

#VITALONEM

 

[mauconnfan]

The only guaranteed starters are Jalen and Terry. There is no scenario where Jalen is not starting if fully healthy and ready to go. Despite your strong affirmation of Gilbert, he hasn't shown he can shoot from the perimeter, play well off the ball, and defend. Vital has and is 4 inches taller and a lot stronger. Gilbert has to be at Boatright level to start or else Vital will. A big reason we were so bad last year to start the season was the leadership conflict between Adams and Gilbert as point guard and who would be the lead guard. Our play against Wagner and Northeastern reflected that.

This is Jalen's team and he needs to be the one with the rock in his hands majority of the time.

#VITALONEM

Just s reminder to all of those who love to put point out that Gilbert and Larrier were part of the Wagner/Notheastern losses, Jalen played in those also and wasn't very good either. I mean no one was so this small sample of trying to prove Gilbert isn't any good is ridiculous.

I love CV and he's a huge piece of this squad but AG needs to live up to expectations.