Vital last 13 games

[intlzncster]

Waters is a nasty 3pt shooter. He's very ball dominant though; he almost exclusively shoots off the bounce. It's hard to tell what it will look like catch-and-shoot because he's never had to do that much at all in high school. He's always been "the man."

This isn't a bad thing at all. Exactly what Shabazz was.

 

[Hankster]

We've been talking so much about how Vital stepped up his game the second hand of the season, but I'd never actually done the math to see what his stats were. Here's what I ended up with:

12 pts.
4.5 reb
2.2 ast
1.3 steals
1.2 TO
44 FG%
45 3PT% (on 4 attempts per game!)
68 FT%

That is a REALLY good second half of a basketball season. The reality is that, while he clearly doesn't have the same ceiling as Jalen, he actually had a better season than him as a freshman. I'm thinking we're going to have a very, very fun time watching this kid the next few years. He has the potential to be an extraordinary college player if he puts in the work.

If he works on his handle and finishing this summer, I could easily see him either a) keeping these stats on less minutes; or b) improving his points, rebounding and assists with good percentages still. I'd love to see him improve his 2PT% because he shied away from driving after some ugly finishes at the rim early in the year.

He is the PERFECT compliment to a player like Jalen, really. Jalen has great driving and finishing ability, but struggles to shoot; he's a little bit showy and turnover prone, and tends to get lazy on D (because of injuries this season sometimes). Vital has the nice 3 pt shot to give Jalen space, and is a competitor at all times and seems to have great composure on the court; he tries to make the smart, easy play; he's a capable ball handler, but in no way ball dominant like our other guards are. Great, great player to have.

Vital was fun to watch. Celebrated every point he made, When he came off the bench I could sense the energy he brought on the court. For a Freshman, no fear. He was just like Adams last year. Wanted the ball and be a leader. He was fun to watch his first year. Cannot wait for this season to start.

 

[willie99]

What i was very impressed with was all the heart and energy he displayed in our last game of the season.

That was Uconn, that was the blue collar work ethic our program was built on.

Those are the players i want, let the primadonnas go somewhere else.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

Any guard coming in is going to have to be damn good (on the floor, not just on paper!) to get minutes away from Vital. He literally did everything he was asked to do last year, and more. And he kept his game together those last 13 games when many were losing it.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

imagine the speed of passing that we could have with a team including Jalen, Alterique, Christian, and Tremont (or Tremont, Christian, Alterique, and Jalen). Put 2 or 3 on the floor at all times and mix with Terry, Mamadou, and our new guys. Terry would move between the two worlds, but I hope he can go strong on the boards and pass from the foul line against the zone.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

You can see 'likes' from people you ignore? Sucks to be reminded of them all the time. 'Ignoring' isn't quite the blissful ignorance they make it out to be.

Only the likes for others' posts which is fine with me.
It gives more clues as to who the trolls are and who I'd just rather not hear from. I have no idea if they get shown my posts or if they can like or comment on them. I don't much care.
And on OT threads I get to see where tastes intersect, or where I see that there's none.
One of the most interesting is when someone I'm iffy about posts something pretty annoying and a large number of ignorees Like it. It makes them unto a fellowship of sorts, and good for them, though I do kind of cringe thinking about recruits, parents, and casual fans who wander in with no context.

 

[80shusky]

 

[champs99and04]

I think this dude's ceiling might be a lot higher than people think. There are not many, if any, pressing flaws in his game, and purely from a conceptual standpoint, his skill set should stand to accentuate the overall efficiency of the offense in a way that it might not with other rosters. He has the look of a marksmen from deep, but he's not just that. He's proven to be able to put the ball on the floor and generate paint buckets. With Adams and Gilbert de-centralizing the help structure with their initial probes, Vital will likely find himself needing only to beat one or two layers of the defense (and one of those layers will be a sprawling defender closing out).

Essentially, he's a B+ driver who teams are going to have to defend as strictly a spot up shooter.

And here's the thing: basketball is a tricky game. It's tricky because, for all the negative stereotypes, it really is the ultimate team sport. It's not about finding five alphas, it's about finding one or two alphas and guys who can play with them. That sounds overly simplistic but it's really not. Take Shabazz as an example. Total maestro with the ball in his hands. But I'm not sure that any version of Bazz is capable of playing Vital's role like Vital is capable of playing Vital's role, just like I'm not sure Rudy Gay would have been capable of playing Giffey's role as well as Giffey played it. Such is to say that, it is possible to play a secondary role while being a primary asset. I'm not sure Vital will ever be thought of by this board as more than a role player, but my gut tells me he's going to be our second best player next year just like I think Giff might have been our second best player in '14.

 

[Kemba429]

And how many freshmen can hit two free throws for the win against your rival at MSG?

 

[uconnell]

I think this dude's ceiling might be a lot higher than people think. There are not many, if any, pressing flaws in his game, and purely from a conceptual standpoint, his skill set should stand to accentuate the overall efficiency of the offense in a way that it might not with other rosters. He has the look of a marksmen from deep, but he's not just that. He's proven to be able to put the ball on the floor and generate paint buckets. With Adams and Gilbert de-centralizing the help structure with their initial probes, Vital will likely find himself needing only to beat one or two layers of the defense (and one of those layers will be a sprawling defender closing out).

Essentially, he's a B+ driver who teams are going to have to defend as strictly a spot up shooter.

And here's the thing: basketball is a tricky game. It's tricky because, for all the negative stereotypes, it really is the ultimate team sport. It's not about finding five alphas, it's about finding one or two alphas and guys who can play with them. That sounds overly simplistic but it's really not. Take Shabazz as an example. Total maestro with the ball in his hands. But I'm not sure that any version of Bazz is capable of playing Vital's role like Vital is capable of playing Vital's role, just like I'm not sure Rudy Gay would have been capable of playing Giffey's role as well as Giffey played it. Such is to say that, it is possible to play a secondary role while being a primary asset. I'm not sure Vital will ever be thought of by this board as more than a role player, but my gut tells me he's going to be our second best player next year just like I think Giff might have been our second best player in '14.

Don't think of Vital as a role player in any way. He has proven his worth last season! Love him.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

Vital goes out there and just plays. He's ready to take big shots and got better at driving the ball effectively. One thing that I noticed was that he has a knack for anticipating passes to make steals, seemingly often leading to breaks. It's difficult to get a good sense of his ceiling. Not sure if he is going to be a top notch 3 point shooter, a good man-on-man defender, or able to show good court awareness with the ball in his hands. But he was pretty good at a lot of things late in the year, well beyond what I would have expected. He's got some of "it" and could be a great surprise story at UConn.

 

[Kembacity]

He had me locked in as a supporter by mid season due to the buckets and defense he played, but overall the effort and attitude. He's a tough dude and I hope we have him for his full college career

 

[husky429]

Vital goes out there and just plays. He's ready to take big shots and got better at driving the ball effectively. One thing that I noticed was that he has a knack for anticipating passes to make steals, seemingly often leading to breaks. It's difficult to get a good sense of his ceiling. Not sure if he is going to be a top notch 3 point shooter, a good man-on-man defender, or able to show good court awareness with the ball in his hands. But he was pretty good at a lot of things late in the year, well beyond what I would have expected. He's got some of "it" and could be a great surprise story at UConn.

He actually just didn't take many 2s the second half of the season (from the stats I did). 2/3 of his shots were from beyond the arc, if I'm not mistaken. Luckily he shot it very well.

For those talking ceiling--I don't see him ever being GREAT because of his lack of elite handle and average first step.

He was great at getting deflection and steals-he led the team in deflections-because he had terrific positional off-ball defense. A really undervalued skill imo. Just being there can deter penetration into the lane and force tough shots.

 

[gtcam]

If he didn't do anything after hitting those two FTs vs Cuse I still love the kid
F the Cuse

 

[80shusky]

Many of us have named all things that he does well. He doesn't do any of them exceptionally (but he was only a freshman so who knows), but he does them all well. He's a leatherman tool.

 

[Storrs South]