We still haven’t played our A game yet.

[OkaForPrez]

What we can depend on:

RJ controlling the offense. Making timely shots. Playing gritty Defense.

Adama drawing double and triple teams when he’s on the court.

Whaley’s defense.

Team rebounding.

What we’ve seen about 50% of the time:
Martin’s offensive aggression.

Jackson facilitating well while ALSO minimizing unforced turnovers.

Bench Scoring out of Polley and Hawkins.

What we hoped for but shouldn’t expect:
Anything out of Akok.
Net 0 play out of Gaffney.

With the last two written off, the ceiling is still substantial if we hold the givens and see the 50%’s stabilize at the same time.

Tough to think Polley will be more than who he’s shown to be. Easy to root for, streaky. That puts a lot on Hawkins to grow up fast but we’ve been seeing more good and less bad of late. Better defense, better rebounding, more confidence. The only thing stopping him from getting even more minutes at this point is live ball turnovers. ‘11 happened when our freshman turned into sophomores in March. Lamb in particular. Hawkins growth is the biggest variable now.

Andre appears to be digging out a bit of a dog day rut right now. I wish his early three went in yesterday. I’d love to see him hit a few more and regain his early season confidence. I think his offense increasing to a more consistent output is a higher likelihood than Polley reaching consistency.

Martin is really interesting. He seems to fill a vacuum of need when other guys aren’t hitting otherwise he’s content to hard hat lunchpail it on the glass. I think we need to run more iso for him early and get him off more catch and shoots. You know his 3 is going in if he catches and fires in rhythm. One dribble, step back or hesitation and you know it’s a miss.

10-15% more efficiency out of Jackson and Hawkins and 10% more aggression out of Martin seem reasonable and enough to turn close losses into close wins.

 

[Sphinx]

Congrats, OP. This is the most intelligently-directed set of observations I've read on this forum in a good while. It's refreshing to see our limitations realistically weighed against our prospects for improvement.

I'd observe, recalling early season expectations, that this team has survived a frustrating set of worst-case scenarios. We've gotten next to nothing out of two 4-star recruits and our junior backup center. We've lost our PF backup to injury. Our PG backup has been largely ineffective. Our 3-point specialist (until yesterday) was averaging 32% from the 3-point line, and our most promising newcomer has gone from a 16-point performance against Auburn to an occasional trey and a hint of greater defensive awareness. Essentially, 7 of our 12 players have fallen short of expectation.

And yet your projections of how little improvement it would take to turn our close losses into close wins is, I believe, realistic. Despite everything, we are borderline being a very good team.

 

[businesslawyer]

I agree that we have a gear that we haven't hit yet. But I think it's unrealistic to think we'll get to where we can find it and keep it for a deep run in the NCAAs. To me, given how small our rotation has become, and the other limitations, at least one of Polley or Hawkins has to be hitting shots. Disagree that it's more likely AJ will be a different offensive player than that Polley gets hot for a month. I think the latter is far more likely.

 

[OkaForPrez]

I agree that we have a gear that we haven't hit yet. But I think it's unrealistic to think we'll get to where we can find it and keep it for a deep run in the NCAAs. To me, given how small our rotation has become, and the other limitations, at least one of Polley or Hawkins has to be hitting shots. Disagree that it's more likely AJ will be a different offensive player than that Polley gets hot for a month. I think the latter is far more likely.

I think that’s fair to challenge. In the context of max run I think it’s hard to see Polley putting 6 games together (the criteria I’m evaluating by) by vs an unknown in Jackson. I’m penalizing Polley for feeling more confident we know who he is vs rewarding Jackson for still not having as much time at this level.

I do love the idea of a red hot Polley in March if it does happen. But I also have concerns that we would react fast enough in the game where he has a power outage. We’d probably ride that train right out of a single elimination tourney.

 

[RichZ]

If and when foul trouble hits Sanogo -- and history says it will at some point between now and the ultimate goal -- it's imperative that Zay be on his game, and one of Martin/Hawkins/Jackson be on fire offensively.

 

[OkaForPrez]

If and when foul trouble hits Sanogo -- and history says it will at some point between now and the ultimate goal -- it's imperative that Zay be on his game, and one of Martin/Hawkins/Jackson be on fire offensively.

I think that’s why we’ve seen Hurley work on the 5 out offense loaded with shooters, Whaley slip screens and back door cuts. We’ve installed a plan B offense lately.

 

[alphasigko]

The win vs Georgetown was dang close... But then again it was Georgetown....

 

[imno1]

The Huskies played their A game in the first half yesterday. We're pretty damn good when we hit 3s at at least our average and don't turn the ball over at an alarming rate

 

[Palatine]

The original post is almost true. We haven't played our A game since he Bahamas.

I tend to dismiss the Georgetown game because they are custom made for us. They play almost no zone and match our pace perfectly. I also agree that the first half against Xavier was the longest stretch of our A game since the islands.

That said. I'm pretty over waiting to see our A game. Don't think it will appear anytime soon. Love to be wrong. But we're going to have win ugly. That's fine, any win is a good win.

 

[OkaForPrez]

The original post is almost true. We haven't played our A game since he Bahamas.

I tend to dismiss the Georgetown game because they are custom made for us. They play almost no zone and match our pace perfectly. I also agree that the first half against Xavier was the longest stretch of our A game since the islands.

That said. I'm pretty over waiting to see our A game. Don't think it will appear anytime soon. Love to be wrong. But we're going to have win ugly. That's fine, any win is a good win.

You were probably tired of waiting for Kemba and the kids to play like they did in Maui too.