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Wait Until Next Year

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Leebo said:
Why... he had a rough patch and then got hurt... so you're going to kick him to the curb?
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Rather than argue just to argue why don't you defend what you think he can provide or do well next year other than a vague "he had a rough patch"...
 
PcketknfNiels said:
Rather than argue just to argue why don't you defend what you think he can provide or do well next year other than a vague "he had a rough patch"...
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He was averaging 7.5 ppg 6 games into the season. He obviously suffered from confidence issues that plagued all the shooting guards at some point. Only, he didn't get the opportunity to work through it after getting injured.

I'm just wondering why you would want him to leave the team, considering he did have a handful of decent performances.

He's also an extra ball-handler, and unlike Samuel, has made a 3 point shot in his career.
 
mauconnfan said:
We need one magical recruit whether it be the 5th year kid from somewhere or a fired coach's recruit. Still think we need a piece, maturity with game would be a huge get.
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Mau,

Exactly. Was just going to post this when I opened this thread.

We need some springtime magic let it be a juco, foreigner or a kid that falls into our laps.

Somehow someway we have to add to this roster for next year with a more than serviceable player.



BTW hope your mother is doing ok.
 
Leebo said:
He was averaging 7.5 ppg 6 games into the season. He obviously suffered from confidence issues that plagued all the shooting guards at some point. Only, he didn't get the opportunity to work through it after getting injured.

I'm just wondering why you would want him to leave the team, considering he did have a handful of decent performances.

He's also an extra ball-handler, and unlike Samuel, has made a 3 point shot in his career.
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Because he's HORRIBLE defensively and not nearly the shooter/passer he had been touted as. Plus, in spite of not being a good shooter, he calls his own number way too often. At least Samuel provides some defense and doesn't go out of his way to take shots that he shouldn't.
 
No one is going to argue that he shouldn't have to work his way back to get minutes... I just can't get on the same page as someone who wants any player to leave the school, even if they were terrible.
 
Calhoun's Court said:
Mau,

Exactly. Was just going to post this when I opened this thread.

We need some springtime magic let it be a juco, foreigner or a kid that falls into our laps.

Somehow someway we have to add to this roster for next year with a more than serviceable player.



BTW hope your mother is doing ok.
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Thanks CC....getting better slowly. Moved to Elim Park in Chehire so hopefully they are pretty damn good. Beds are tough to find in all of the good rehabs. Thanks again

Big game for Maloney vs Career - Go Meriden! LOL
 
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Cassell isn't getting kicked off the team. I don't think Ollie would do that to any of these kids. Personally, I think that's a good thing -- everyone we have has at least some potential to be a contributor in some form by the time they graduate. If that upsets you, you have my deepest sympathies.
 
Leebo said:
Why... he had a rough patch and then got hurt... so you're going to kick him to the curb?
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He was putrid every minute he was on the floor this year. I didn't see any discernible skills from him, including being able to hit open jump shots. He's not going anywhere, and I don't want Ollie to push kids out of the program, but Cassell's play this year wasn't some anomaly.

I really want one of the graduate transfers. We need some prime time-ready talent.
 
Leebo said:
He was averaging 7.5 ppg 6 games into the season. He obviously suffered from confidence issues that plagued all the shooting guards at some point. Only, he didn't get the opportunity to work through it after getting injured.

I'm just wondering why you would want him to leave the team, considering he did have a handful of decent performances.

He's also an extra ball-handler, and unlike Samuel, has made a 3 point shot in his career.
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6 games into the season, he was shooting 29% from the floor. At no point this year was he playing well.
 
If you're not arguing to kick him off the team, we don't have anything we disagree on.

Call me a glass-half-full guy. He was offered a scholarship for a reason, and I'll cheer him on until he graduates, like I will for anyone who is trusted by the staff to join the team.
 
Leebo said:
If you're not arguing to kick him off the team, we don't have anything we disagree on.
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I don't want him kicked off the team, but I certainly wouldn't be disappointed if he decided to transfer somewhere that is a better fit for his skills. He's very clearly not a high-major player.
 
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I'm personally excited by the room for improvement our guys have for next season.

I haven't seen this mentioned much, but I refuse to believe that both Omar and Phil are going to go out in their senior year and have a season like they did this year. We saw in flashes that these guys can be major contributors, albeit they have disappointed many times. If Phil plays like he did down the stretch for a full year and Omar can contribute with consistent play & shot, then we will have scary depth.

We will be a very junior-heavy team next year. There are plenty of guys on the roster who experienced what it takes to win a championship in '14, and these same guys experienced the disappointment of inconsistent play and a seeming lack of focus this year. We have some deficiencies in ball-handling and shooting, but that can seemingly be remedied by guys like Hamilton and Purvis stepping up and playing consistently. We have the talent, just need to have our heads screwed on right. This team showed great chemistry down the last stretch.

All in all, I'm expecting this team to return hungry to win, and we will have a lot of guys ready to step up and improve. Sure we can use another shooter or ball-handler, but it's hard for me to imagine this team being anything BUT tough next year.
 
If we had "high-major players" knocking the doors down to join next year, I could begin to entertain the idea that the lower skill guys might want to go somewhere else for more playing time... but we're not even using all the scholarships we have yet.
 
I expect Facey to be starting at the 4 for sure. I liked what I saw of him this year, I think he'll make a nice jump next year and give us something around 8 & 8. He's the only player on the roster that has shown the potential to be a legit high-major rebounder outside of Hamilton. We have to cross out fingers that Adams lives up to the hype, he can't be a bust. Not now, not in the situation we're in.

Adams
Purvis
Hamilton
Facey
Brimah

The depth is terrifying though. We need a damn shooter off the bench. Either Cassell or Omar needs to get their stroke right. We still don't have a solid ball handler off the bench either unless TS improves tremendously.

Looking way down the line to 16-17, that should be our starting line as well. That could be a fun year.
 
Honestly if Brimah could learn to rebound and not get in foul trouble literally every game we would be a top 25 team next year and made the tourny easily this year. But that's a big IF
 
BleedHuskyBlu said:
Honestly if Brimah could learn to rebound and not get in foul trouble literally every game we would be a top 25 team next year and made the tourny easily this year. But that's a big IF
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I agree.

Perhaps because of the history at UConn, I think next year will look like either the 1998/2002 type year, or the 2003/2008 type year.
 
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Lefty2one said:
I expect Facey to be starting at the 4 for sure. I liked what I saw of him this year, I think he'll make a nice jump next year and give us something around 8 & 8. He's the only player on the roster that has shown the potential to be a legit high-major rebounder outside of Hamilton. We have to cross out fingers that Adams lives up to the hype, he can't be a bust. Not now, not in the situation we're in.

Adams
Purvis
Hamilton
Facey
Brimah

The depth is terrifying though. We need a damn shooter off the bench. Either Cassell or Omar needs to get their stroke right. We still don't have a solid ball handler off the bench either unless TS improves tremendously.

Looking way down the line to 16-17, that should be our starting line as well. That could be a fun year.
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I hate to tell you but Facey's issues are almost mirrored by Brimah's. HIs ability is obvious, but can he bring the mental part of the game which this year again was way too fast for him, to the court? Will be interesting, love to see it. But can't be starting to box out when the ball is hitting the rim.
 
superjohn said:
Agreed, I think we have a chance to be very good next year.
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I won't be predicting three losses like I did before this season. I'm still in shock that with the talent we have we didn't make the NCAA Tourney. We're the Cup Cormier Huskies. I guess we all expected more offensively from Brimah and didn't realize how poor of a rebounding team we'd be. When a skinny guy like DHam is your top rebounder, you know it's been a tough season.
 
UCweCONN said:
I won't be predicting three losses like I did before this season. I'm still in shock that with the talent we have we didn't make the NCAA Tourney. We're the Cup Cormier Huskies. I guess we all expected more offensively from Brimah and didn't realize how poor of a rebounding team we'd be. When a skinny guy like DHam is your top rebounder, you know it's been a tough season.
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You do realize you made a great point here right? "Skinny" guys can rebound if they know and want to.
 
tzznandrew said:
I agree.

Perhaps because of the history at UConn, I think next year will look like either the 1998/2002 type year, or the 2003/2008 type year.
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In past years that would be a reasonable expectation as part of a regular cycle of (1) rebuilding, followed by (2) predictable improvement (peaking at year's end with a high seed), followed by (3) wire-to-wire dominance.

That pattern was followed in 97-98-99 and 07-08-09.

02-03-04-05-06 was even better than that because we brought in top talent every year. 02-03-04 didn't follow the above pattern because a would-be rebuilding year in 2002 (with young Taliek, Gordon, and Okafor) was superceded by Caron's excellence. Likewise, 04-05-06 didn't follow the pattern because the would-be rebuilding year in 2004 (with young Boone, Armstrong, Villanueva, Anderson, Brown, and MW) was superceded by Okafor and Gordon still being around. That's what happened when we had stud classes every year or every other year, rather than every 3 years.

That said, our predictable cycle of occasion rebuilding, regular improvement, and frequent dominance has been missing for over half a decade. The abominable recruiting class of 09-10, defections post-2012, and related and subsequent recruiting failures are predominantly to blame.

Back to next year: it would be great if we could earnestly view 2015 as just one of those 1997 or 2007 rebuilding years. But that's an exercise in willful ignorance. Both 1997 and 2007 were extraordinarily young teams, led by freshmen (Rip, Voskuhl, KFree; Dyson, Sticks, Thabeet, Price -- not a frosh, but a first-year player) or sophomores (Rash, Ricky; Adrien, Austrie) at best. Our team this past year was not just led, but dominated by a senior PG, leaned on to an extent more than possibly any other player in a given year in our program's history (yes, even Kemba). [This is another disturbing trend in our program, but I'll leave that for another post.]

Those previous teams made the NIT with a group that was absurdly young and growing as a unit and as individuals. We made the NIT this year (as opposed to the CBI, or nothing) because our senior leader carried us.

If I had to give an analog for what next year will look like, I'd say more like 2001 or 2013 (albeit without the benefit of the BE).
 
Tenspro2002 said:
Back to next year: it would be great if we could earnestly view 2015 as just one of those 1997 or 2007 rebuilding years. But that's an exercise in willful ignorance. Both 1997 and 2007 were extraordinarily young teams, led by freshmen (Rip, Voskuhl, KFree; Dyson, Sticks, Thabeet, Price -- not a frosh, but a first-year player) or sophomores (Rash, Ricky; Adrien, Austrie) at best. Our team this past year was not just led, but dominated by a senior PG, leaned on to an extent more than possibly any other player in a given year in our program's history (yes, even Kemba). [This is another disturbing trend in our program, but I'll leave that for another post.]

Those previous teams made the NIT with a group that was absurdly young and growing as a unit and as individuals. We made the NIT this year (as opposed to the CBI, or nothing) because our senior leader carried us.

If I had to give an analog for what next year will look like, I'd say more like 2001 or 2013 (albeit without the benefit of the BE).
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The 1996-97 team finished the conference tournament at 14-14. They only made the NIT because the NIT knew we would draw, and it was run separately. They did have a senior leader (Kirk King), but he was nowhere near as dominant as Boatright.

The 2006-07 team was 17-14 and left out of everything. No seniors here.

This team has the same make-up: it's key players are freshmen and sophomores. Phil is a junior, but he barely played his freshmen year. Calhoun is a junior. He'll be the one upper-classmen.

And I dispute that this team wasn't growing. Or that those teams were. 1997 went into the NIT losing 5 straight, and 11 out of 14. The NIT is where they found some semblance of who they were. 2007 didn't make any postseason, and lost 4 straight to end the season--on top of losing 11 of 15 to end the year.

To be fair, the better comparison may be the 2001 and 2010 seasons. Those seasons ended poorly, and we had senior leadership. We were terrified about the next year in each case. And they turned out fine.
 
tzznandrew said:
The 1996-97 team finished the conference tournament at 14-14. They only made the NIT because the NIT knew we would draw, and it was run separately. They did have a senior leader (Kirk King), but he was nowhere near as dominant as Boatright.

The 2006-07 team was 17-14 and left out of everything. No seniors here.

This team has the same make-up: it's key players are freshmen and sophomores. Phil is a junior, but he barely played his freshmen year. Calhoun is a junior. He'll be the one upper-classmen.

And I dispute that this team wasn't growing. Or that those teams were. 1997 went into the NIT losing 5 straight, and 11 out of 14. The NIT is where they found some semblance of who they were. 2007 didn't make any postseason, and lost 4 straight to end the season--on top of losing 11 of 15 to end the year.

To be fair, the better comparison may be the 2001 and 2010 seasons. Those seasons ended poorly, and we had senior leadership. We were terrified about the next year in each case. And they turned out fine.
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The 1997 team did not have a senior leader after King was suspended for the season 14 games in. Of note: we were 11-3 when that happened.

What senior leader in 2001? Mouring?
 
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CallMeBruce said:
The 1997 team did not have a senior leader after King was suspended for the season 14 games in. Of note: we were 11-3 when that happened.
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Right. But that was probably a house of cards. They didn't really beat anyone of note before that suspension other than a mediocre Georgetown team (10 seed) and a mediocre Virginia team (9 seed). They already had losses to bad teams like St. John's Pitt.

You're right that I did not mention King being suspended for the rest of the year. But that was not likely an NCAA tournament team regardless.
 
Tenspro2002 said:
In past years that would be a reasonable expectation as part of a regular cycle of (1) rebuilding, followed by (2) predictable improvement (peaking at year's end with a high seed), followed by (3) wire-to-wire dominance.

That pattern was followed in 97-98-99 and 07-08-09.

02-03-04-05-06 was even better than that because we brought in top talent every year. 02-03-04 didn't follow the above pattern because a would-be rebuilding year in 2002 (with young Taliek, Gordon, and Okafor) was superceded by Caron's excellence. Likewise, 04-05-06 didn't follow the pattern because the would-be rebuilding year in 2004 (with young Boone, Armstrong, Villanueva, Anderson, Brown, and MW) was superceded by Okafor and Gordon still being around. That's what happened when we had stud classes every year or every other year, rather than every 3 years.

That said, our predictable cycle of occasion rebuilding, regular improvement, and frequent dominance has been missing for over half a decade. The abominable recruiting class of 09-10, defections post-2012, and related and subsequent recruiting failures are predominantly to blame.

Back to next year: it would be great if we could earnestly view 2015 as just one of those 1997 or 2007 rebuilding years. But that's an exercise in willful ignorance. Both 1997 and 2007 were extraordinarily young teams, led by freshmen (Rip, Voskuhl, KFree; Dyson, Sticks, Thabeet, Price -- not a frosh, but a first-year player) or sophomores (Rash, Ricky; Adrien, Austrie) at best. Our team this past year was not just led, but dominated by a senior PG, leaned on to an extent more than possibly any other player in a given year in our program's history (yes, even Kemba). [This is another disturbing trend in our program, but I'll leave that for another post.]

Those previous teams made the NIT with a group that was absurdly young and growing as a unit and as individuals. We made the NIT this year (as opposed to the CBI, or nothing) because our senior leader carried us.

If I had to give an analog for what next year will look like, I'd say more like 2001 or 2013 (albeit without the benefit of the BE).
Expand ...

I do largely agree with most of this assessment of our program (although that 17-14 team in 2007 did not make the NIT), but I do think that this season could fit into the first phase of the cycle. We lost a ton from our championship team a year ago, and while Boat did come back, everyone else on the roster got their first taste of being relied upon as a consistent contributor at UConn. We are a young team. According to KenPom, we are 284th in the country in average experience. I envision next year playing out similar to 2008; a group of emerging players realizing how good they can be after a disappointing year.

We have some good things going for us. We all expect Hamilton to be a stud, starting as soon as next year. Purvis has played great basketball in March, and perhaps this is overly optimistic, but when Boat went out yesterday and we needed someone to step up, it seemed to finally "click" with Purvis how talented he is when he slashes to the hoop. Brimah has some major flaws in his game, but he's also already an elite shotblocker and finisher of lobs and dump-offs (#1 Block% and #3 True Shooting% in the entire country). Keep in mind that Brimah did not get a full summer of development due to offseason shoulder issues. In my opinion, most of Brimah's issues stem from his lack of physical strength. He will finally get an offseason to really focus on putting on weight (I also think players like Hamilton, Facey, etc. will greatly benefit from adding weight/strength in the offseason). It's tough to judge incoming freshmen, but Jalen Adams looks like a bonafide stud equipped with the swagger that we've had from our most recent championship winning PGs.

If we keep our core in tact (which granted, could be a big if), we should have one of the best starting lineups in the country in 2017, regardless of what recruits we bring in. This will be the phase 3 of our development:

2017 Starting 5
PG: Sophomore Jalen Adams
SG: Senior Rodney Purvis
SF: Junior Daniel Hamilton
PF: Senior Facey/Sophomore Enoch/Junior Lubin
C: Senior Brimah

It's unclear who our 4 of the future is at this point, but that team would be loaded if our players follow the traditional development curve. There's always a chance that Hamilton, Purvis, Adams, or Brimah could leave early for the NBA, but this season showed that they all still have a lot of work to do.

I'm as disappointed with some of our recent recruiting misses as anyone, but the "sky is falling" types are off base. We still have a great core of young players who should continue to improve and develop together. I'll be excited to watch them grow every step along the way.
 
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I expect a rotation of Brimah, Nolan, Enosch, and Lubin at the 4/5 spots, Hamilton, Purvis, Calhoun at the shooting guard/wing spots, and Adams/Samuel at point with Facey and Cassell playing sparingly. SC has a chance to take minutes either Calhoun or Samuel and Facey from Nolan.

I expect a pretty decent year from Omar. I think he figured something out this last month off the dribble and on D. If he can hit from outside consistently, he could be a 10 pt/game guy. Same goes for Purvis.

Of course my opinion may change if they can't rack up at least 60 against ASU.
 
UCweCONN said:
I won't be predicting three losses like I did before this season. I'm still in shock that with the talent we have we didn't make the NCAA Tourney. We're the Cup Cormier Huskies. I guess we all expected more offensively from Brimah and didn't realize how poor of a rebounding team we'd be. When a skinny guy like DHam is your top rebounder, you know it's been a tough season.
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Really? Bazz wasn't exactly Jahidi White!
 
Lefty2one said:
I expect Facey to be starting at the 4 for sure. I liked what I saw of him this year, I think he'll make a nice jump next year and give us something around 8 & 8. He's the only player on the roster that has shown the potential to be a legit high-major rebounder outside of Hamilton. We have to cross out fingers that Adams lives up to the hype, he can't be a bust. Not now, not in the situation we're in.

Adams
Purvis
Hamilton
Facey
Brimah

The depth is terrifying though. We need a damn shooter off the bench. Either Cassell or Omar needs to get their stroke right. We still don't have a solid ball handler off the bench either unless TS improves tremendously.

Looking way down the line to 16-17, that should be our starting line as well. That could be a fun year.
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Dham is gone next year if he explodes on the scene as most of us expect. He has so much talent and just has to work on his shooting touch.
 
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