We need a point guard

[mauconnfan]

We’re very good and very deep. Yes, it would be better if we had an alpha PG. Frankie Says Relax!

We haven’t been very good at all in the last 2. Not beating anyone of significance playing like that not sure why there’s such a celebration going on. Win is a win but seeing the same pattern of things which good coaches will prey upon is not good!

 

[superjohn]

When most teams lose that many starters, minutes, and points, they have down years. That's the point. We're NOT having a down year, and are quite likely to get the best NCAA tournament seed we've gotten in 12 years. Because of the talent Hurley has assembled and developed.

Oh cool, we're comparing our team to most teams in D1 now. A bunch of teams lose their starters and a bulk of their mintues/scoring/great players and do great. Three of them are playing on national tv right now.

The excuse making around here is tiresome. I seriously hope we go on a run this season or we'll see all the same excuses again next season when most of our scoring moves on and we'll be absolutely loaded with talent.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

We don't have a true point guard; at least not one who could handle the responsibilities that a true point guard from one of our better teams could handle.

Where this is most concerning (at least in my opinion) is how it impacts our prospects in the tournament. We seem to have no problem letting our opponent dictate terms of the game. JC used to speak of "imposing our will" on the opponent. The floor general, the guy with the ball in his hands for most of the offense, the point guard is the head of the snake and the source of a team imposing its will. We don't have a guy who can help force the pace and style of the game to align with our strengths, which may allow a lesser team to once again send us home after one game.

 

[superjohn]

You missed the point. It being his 5th, 6th, 7th, 30th season has nothing to do with anything. If we make the final 4 I promise you won’t care about a 5th place conference finish

Of course if we make a final 4 the Hurley criticisms will go away. My guess is you'll continue making excuses if we flame out again.

 

[superjohn]

That’s an insane mark to hold pgs to. You named 3 all time great college pgs . We’re spoiled

I take it you only watch UConn games.

 

[DW1361]

I find it confusing that here we are again saying “ We need a point guard” when in the past two weeks it did seem we had a point guard. There even was a thread for Newton and once again we had our PG. Now he has had two subpar games in a row and once again we are saying we need a pg? Credit was given to Hurley for having the “talk” with Newton that turned him around. Does Hurley need to have that “talk” again? I say there is something dark and sinister going on here. Maybe there should be a thread on “Do we have a point guard or not?” and merge all these PG threads together. I conclude there is something dark and sinister about this board, that being new here, I have only recently come to realize. It is just a hypothesis and probably nothing, but I need to learn more about dissociation and fugue states of mind. Is this the Boneyard or is it the Twilight zone???!

 

[uchusky32]

Biggest problem today was game management with 5 minutes left. Running down the clock. Then trying to run our offense wirh 12 seconds without a strong ball handler who can get their own shot. We continued to run Hawk off screens with 10 seconds in the clock. He ends up giving the ball to Sanogo who has no business with the ball with 4 seconds left. .

How many times does Danny have to see this before he realizes it's not working?

 

[boog204]

I've said this before, but it baffles my mind that for the last 8-9 years we've primarily operated, coached by successful D1 PGs, with a total dearth of playmakers or guys who can direct an offense. It's bizarre to me.

 

[Edward Sargent]

We need to get Newton going. And IMO that means less effort in trying to get Jackson going.

No get Jackson and Newton going. One doesn't need to exclude the other

 

[upstater]

What is up with Sanago with this shot fake on wide open 3's. Dude you can make it so shoot it. I guess he was hoping to get some points near the basket or show the NBA his drive game. LOL!

He actually can't make it unless he's wide open. Whenever he has any one near him, he misses. He knows when to take it. And I think he does well when he shot fakes

 

[HeGotGame]

Xavier was basically .500 last year and went to the NIT. Now they’re where we are right now. I don’t get your point.

Xavier was picked us ahead of us in the preseason poll.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

I am stunned that someone built a team without a point guard and thought it would work. And that he thinks he can do it again next year.

If Seton Hall doesn’t lose KR in the first half, we’re 0-2 against Seton Hall this year - we can only score against them in spurts and when they start to pressure our offense, we simply fall apart. We had Sanogo out there at the end trying to run the offense.

That was just ugly.

I’m glad someone besides me has finally said it.

 

[uconnfan68]

But on the flip, all of our wins you give basically no credit yet you pile on after every loss. Interesting mindset.

4 years ago this team was under .500 in the AAC. They obviously need to win in the tourney and if we don’t everyone will be mad and there will be no pom poms.

But it boggles my mind how anyone can be that disappointed with where we are right now

Disappointed in seeing the same mistakes game after game. Just because we win doesn’t erase that. Good teams will eventually win. After a 14-0 start my expectations grew too high. Some of the games we’ve played have been brutal.

 

[Dean Wormer]

I could care less right now bout next year and who'll play pg. All's I know is that this year which is the one that matters right now, has this team with poor PG play and that could sink us come March.
Seton Hall is not a very good team, but they exposed our weaknesses big time.
Tournament play demands a solid Pg because every team is good. Some directional midmajor will likely take us out if Newton doesn't get his consistency act together.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Biggest problem today was game management with 5 minutes left. Running down the clock. Then trying to run our offense wirh 12 seconds without a strong ball handler who can get their own shot. We continued to run Hawk off screens with 10 seconds in the clock. He ends up giving the ball to Sanogo who has no business with the ball with 4 seconds left. .

How many times does Danny have to see this before he realizes it's not working?

We broke the press once, and Hawk and Adama had a 2-on-1; and Hawk pulled up and held the ball. I couldn’t believe it.

Seton Hall had no place bringing it within 6. We once again had 16 or so point lead that we pathetically nearly choked away. Late-game decision making continues to plague us. Seton Hall is not a very good team; if this happens again against Providence, we will be embarrassed again. It would be one thing if we just missed shots, or rebound’s didn’t land our way; but the way we tighten up late in games, now even with a huge lead, is really something else. I really wish I had no reason to be a broken record on this.

 

[Matt1010]

We broke the press once, and Hawk and Adama had a 2-on-1; and Hawk pulled up and held the ball. I couldn’t believe it.

Seton Hall had no place bringing it within 6. We once again had 16 or so point lead that we pathetically nearly choked away. Late-game decision making continues to plague us. Seton Hall is not a very good team; if this happens again against Providence, we will be embarrassed again. It would be one thing if we just missed shots, or rebound’s didn’t land our way; but the way we tighten up late in games, now even with a huge lead, is really something else. I really wish I had no reason to be a broken record on this.

The lowest our Kenpom projected win percentage got in the last 5 minutes was 98.5%.

 

[NEforceUConn]

This is our team, unless Coach Hurley wants to don a jersey.

I enjoy this discussion about the PG position.

I do hope the mods institute a 1 week suspension if (from now on) anyone includes the words point and Andre Jackson in the same sentence.

btw I thought AJ played one of his best games today as a forward, not as a you know what. Cheers.

 

[3rdbass]

He actually can't make it unless he's wide open. Whenever he has any one near him, he misses. He knows when to take it. And I think he does well when he shot fakes

Well not this game for sure and he was open before hesitated both times.

 

[superjohn]

That is nice, but its wrong.

We are 5-5 in BE play the first time we played an opponent, 4-2 in the second go around. How does this fit your narrative that teams gameplan for us and we cannot overcome it?

You have no idea what you're saying.

 

[freescooter]

I have thought for a while that Newton is the key to this team. If he plays effectively we are good. If not we struggle as we did against an underwhelming Seton Hall team that was not deep and lost their best player.

Maybe Hurley should tell Jackson that there was a rule change and you aren’t allowed to shoot from beyond that line. Other than his bricks fro 3 I thought he played really well today. Ran the baseline and scored instead of trying to be a 3 point shooter most of the time.

Sanogo, I thought, was our mvp. The last block probably saved the game and he basically outran a guard to make it.

All in all a much needed win against an undermanned and pretty average Seton Hall.

PS. The refs in the Big East might be the worst in Division. They seem in love with calling a charge, which was always a pretty rare call and never call traveling. Plus they seem to have bought into the rough tough NEWBIE image and let hacks, grabs and pushes go with impunity

 

[Kemba15]

Oh cool, we're comparing our team to most teams in D1 now. A bunch of teams lose their starters and a bulk of their mintues/scoring/great players and do great. Three of them are playing on national tv right now.

The excuse making around here is tiresome. I seriously hope we go on a run this season or we'll see all the same excuses again next season when most of our scoring moves on and we'll be absolutely loaded with talent.

You realize it works both ways right? Those of us who are happy with this season so far know that the complainers are going to keep crying no matter what

 

[UConnSwag11]

Go ahead. I genuinely don’t care. The point is boat, price, and Kemba were great college pgs. And it had as much to do with physical ability as it did “coaching”. An RJ Cole with this group and we might be the #1 team in the country

lol no we wouldn’t. We’d be right where we are now.

 

[UConnSwag11]

You realize it works both ways right? Those of us who are happy with this season so far know that the complainers are going to keep crying no matter what

“Whiners” & “complainers”= fans with standards….

It’s very obvious that those who are happy with this season were happy with last season, and will most likely be happy with next season if it’s a repeat of this one.

 

[Kemba15]

“Whiners” & “complainers”= fans with standards….

It’s very obvious that those who are happy with this season were happy with last season, and will most likely be happy with next season if it’s a repeat of this one.

your posts are so predictable. Always “yeah but..”

When we won a few in a row “yeah but let’s see what happens with Marquette.”

Then we rip Marquette, a top 10 team, from the tip. “yeah but…”

See a pattern?

 

[superjohn]

You realize it works both ways right? Those of us who are happy with this season so far know that the complainers are going to keep crying no matter what

Our coach said UConn would be winning championships by now. We've yet to win a regular season Big East, yet to make a Big East tournament finals, yet to win a NCAA tournament game, and we're going to finish a distant 5th in the Big East regular season this year.

Some people choose to ball wash when we have nothing to show for Hurley's tenure so far other than making tournaments, others choose to be realistic about where we are and what we've accomplished.

If UConn wins the Big East tournament and makes it to the second weekend I'm confident the overwhelming majority of the "whiners" will be happy and congratulate Hurley for accomplishing something. I'm also confident if we flame out again the excuse makers will continue to make excuses.

 

[KingAG]

lol no we wouldn’t. We’d be right where we are now.

Adding a first team all big east player would have us right where we are? Don’t be a bozo

 

[UConnSwag11]

Adding a first team all big east player would have us right where we are? Don’t be a bozo

How would Cole solve our defensive problems?

 

[AZHuskiePop]

You realize it works both ways right? Those of us who are happy with this season so far know that the complainers are going to keep crying no matter what

After going 14-0 how can any fan be happy about being 20-7
thats 6-7 In our last 13 , for team ranked as high a two looking for a minimum 2 seed and who was picked either first or second in the Big East that’s worthy of criticism.
That minimally tells you we have a lot of work to do.
People have a variety of opinions including maybe this team isn’t built for the physical nature of the league but pretending this is turning out to be a success is just not realistic.
The only way to shut critics up is win .

 

[Punkbo]

We haven’t been very good at all in the last 2. Not beating anyone of significance playing like that not sure why there’s such a celebration going on. Win is a win but seeing the same pattern of things which good coaches will prey upon is not good!

I’m also concerned about coaching and consistent PG play, but today is a tough day to complain. Everyone other than Newton played well, our first 36 minutes were solid and we won by 9. If Diarra can give us good minutes like today, we’re 8 deep with the possibility of being 9 deep if Joey is given a chance. Very few teams in the country can challenge our depth. Lots of weapons if utilized properly.

 

[freescooter]

That’s with the transfer portal. When we were .500 in the AAC that didn’t exist. The transfer portal changed the speed of rebuilds. And to add to that Xavier severely under achieved last season. Miller inherited more talent than Hurley

OMG, Hurley inherited his talent 5 years ago. Five. And our best hope is to finish 5th. We didn’t hire Hurley to “make us relevant again.” He was hired to win championships. This is UConn, not Seton Hall.