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Message: [QUOTE="Gurleyman, post: 5200290, member: 175"] We ended up with two fouls on that possession after we lost it o/b (Reed and Ball). Could have meant Reed had to sit late with 4 or 5 because we didn’t come up with that possession. That Hurley “inside the huddle” moment a couple games ago when he said “how, after everything that has happened this year, are they more desperate than us?” was actually after AK was beaten to a loose ball on the perimeter. I love AK and I admit I have been critical of him a lot lately, mainly because I want to see more from him. I don’t even care about the shooting slump - it’s that he hasn’t impacted games in other ways enough. Four rebounds in 35 minutes from your 4 man isn’t good, and he averages 5 so that isn’t an outlier. He has played too much basketball to only have 14 steals this entire season. You‘d like to think he could make defensive reads and earn us extra possessions once in a while. Some of it is AK does lack a little bit of foot speed, which limits his bag offensively and means other people get to the ball quicker … and it also means there are times when maybe he just looks too casual even if he’s trying. There are points in games and seasons when you have to treat loose balls like they are the last rife raft on the Titanic. This team has lots of flaws - but having Samson (who does have foot speed but has bad hands), and AK in the frontcourt results in a lot of 50-50 balls going the other direction. Liam’s return helps mask that - we’ve always had an Andre Jackson or Stephon Castle or Tristen Newton to get defensive boards (as well as Clingan and Sanogo). I’ve said it often, but AK’s legacy is secure, and if he goes down fighting in March and leads us in those games, he’ll become even more legendary. But he’s already drinking free for life in Storrs. This has been a frustrating stretch watching him, because he has allowed himself to become an ordinary player when we really need a good one. But the bigger games are ahead. [/QUOTE]

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