Well That Was A Letdown

[jleves]

After all the great expectations in Sept., this kind of sucked. Boat can't play because of some unknown NCAA issue which nobody has a clue about. AD has to play his first game after getting fitted for a mask a few hours earlier. Roscoe is benched for the first half for 'team issues'. Bradley is out with an injury til December. There's another player I can't remember with a groin pull.

Kind of hard to get an idea what the team will be like with all that going on.

Hopefully Boat gets back on soon and the other issues work out.

Just kind of disappointing.

 

[Rico444]

Obviously some issues to work out...but WOW, this team is going to dominate defensively this year. AIC only tried to go into the paint a few times, and pretty much every time it didn't end pretty for them.

 

[huskyniner]

There's another player I can't remember with a groin pull.

That was Wolf, who played in this game and looked fine to me.

 

[AJC88]

Scoe was out because he skipped class. I love the fact that Jimmy sat him for it, it means that they are actually getting on these guys' case about academics.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

I never appreciated the length of this team enough until I actually saw it in person. Obviously it's different playing against AIC, but with that length they can afford to play a little off the man and still contest shots. I think offensively were going to see growing pains with everyone getting used to the post-Kemba era but the defense is not something I worry about. Really like Olander's play today also. Always seemed to be in the right place defensively.

 

[DieHardHusky]

I'd be looking a lot more at the positives in this one than the negatives. Napier nearly a triple double (9 pts, 7 boards, and 15 assists!) Olander coming through with 9 and 9, AO 13 and 8 in just 20mins.

 

[kobebeanbryant]

idk about Bazz as a positive. I was hoping for a lot more out of him.

Although it is tough to get a good feel for the team when they're playing in an exhibition.

 

[Sportsman5]

idk about Bazz as a positive. I was hoping for a lot more out of him.

I honestly can't tell if this is a joke. He didn't shoot well from the field, so I can see you being serious. However, his overall numbers seem to point to him being the player of the game.

 

[Peacefrog]

idk about Bazz as a positive. I was hoping for a lot more out of him.

Although it is tough to get a good feel for the team when they're playing in an exhibition.

Yeah, 15 assists and no turnovers for our point guard. That sucks ass.

 

[kobebeanbryant]

I honestly can't tell if this is a joke. He didn't shoot well from the field, so I can see you being serious. However, his overall numbers seem to point to him being the player of the game.

not a joke. i will say that i only watched the first half (should've stated that above), but despite his numbers it didn't seem like he was very effective initiating the offense. and on several occasions he over dribbled and then jacked up a desperate shot. maybe the second half was a different story.

i have very high expectations for him this year, so maybe i'm being overly critical.

 

[Ts5034]

The defense was great. I think AIC was just scared to go inside at some points. We still have yet to see the team full strength because Boatright was out. Hopefully he will be back soon

 

[kobebeanbryant]

Yeah, 15 assists and no turnovers for our point guard. That sucks ass.

honest question. did you watch the game? if you did and disagree with my opinion, i'm cool with that. but if you just looked up the stats and are going to post sarcastic responses, then it's pointless debating with you.

maybe someone at the game can give a better analysis, considering i was watching on the online stream.

 

[RayRay19]

First half bazz was trying to be kemba...second half he became shabazz...we had zeto offense the first half...we def need boatright...we need his.speed to push the fast break

 

[Waquoit]

There was a play in the first half that gave me a good feeling for this team. Bazz has the ball up top with the other four guys on the corners of the lane. He starts the play and all four guys broke at the exact same time. It was so precise it stood out to me. The play ended up freeing AD all alone underneath.

 

[CTpessimist]

I enjoyed the dance teams mishap. The clapping for it was much better than when they actually performed. Also, AD looked scared against this team. Freshmen gitters hopefully along with that first free throw. I love Olander's intensity. I like Calhoun's intensity.

 

[Walker11]

honest question. did you watch the game? if you did and disagree with my opinion, i'm cool with that. but if you just looked up the stats and are going to post sarcastic responses, then it's pointless debating with you.

maybe someone at the game can give a better analysis, considering i was watching on the online stream.

I didn't really think Shabazz played all that well either but I can admit that I was apparently wrong. It may have been the lousy feed which made it hard to see who was really making the offense go - I don't know. But looking at his 15-0 assist to turnover ration, the fact that Calhoun said he was the best player, and that Uconn outscored AIC 74-26 with Shabazz in and was outscored 9-2 with him out (stats from CT Post's Duffy, discounting garbage time), its clear he did some things right but I can see what you are saying.

It may simply be that his assists were very subtle save one flashy dish to DD and that his errant shots were quite egregious.

 

[Chief00]

Bazz had 15 assists but missed 15 other ones.

 

[aceboon]

I didn't think Shabazz played well in the 1st half and the last possession pretty much summed up his play(alot of overdribbling), but the 2nd half he was excellent and was setting guys up left and right. Still would like to see him shoot better from the field, hopefully it gets better as the season goes along,

 

[Kitaman]

Scoe was out because he skipped class. I love the fact that Jimmy sat him for it, it means that they are actually getting on these guys' case about academics.

This is not the time to be skipping classes and getting caught. Everyone's nerves are on alert when it comes to class work.

 

[Deadrody]

honest question. did you watch the game? if you did and disagree with my opinion, i'm cool with that. but if you just looked up the stats and are going to post sarcastic responses, then it's pointless debating with you.

maybe someone at the game can give a better analysis, considering i was watching on the online stream.

Definitely. Because I can easily see how someone could rack up 15 assists against zero turnovers while simultaneously sucking. Maybe you could go with Calhoun's opinion that Napier and Olander were the highlights of the game.

Beyond that, you'd think, maybe - just maybe - you could reserve judgement beyond a single exhibition game. Maybe. Or maybe your need for instant gratification is really that over-the-top.

Nah, he sucked.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

His play definitely improved in the second half. He made some really nice passes for assists off pick and roll situations.

 

[Peacefrog]

honest question. did you watch the game? if you did and disagree with my opinion, i'm cool with that. but if you just looked up the stats and are going to post sarcastic responses, then it's pointless debating with you.

maybe someone at the game can give a better analysis, considering i was watching on the online stream.

Yes, i was there. My response may have been a bit strong considering there is certainly room for Napier to improve. It was more a product of anticipating that there would without doubt be some alarmist posts after the very first game where they pretty much did what they were supposed to. If you were let down then perhaps your expectations for the glorified scrimmage were a bit high. They did fine for the first time out together. Give it a little time. Let's look more at the positives, Olander looked like he can be a meaningful contributor.

 

[Rico444]

From being at the game, my impression was Calhoun wanted them to work on specific set plays in the first half...based on their execution, they have a ways to go with a lot of them. In the 2nd half, he let Shabazz loose, let him improvise and he did much more driving and kicking. He had the ball on a string and made great decisions. I think Shabazz ia going to be terrific this year running the offense.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

Think of it this way. Any criticism of Shabazz should be based on the 4-5 possessions where he dribbled to much and forced up a 3 at the end of the shot clock. At least in that scenario we have a chance at an offensive rebound. If he turned the ball over 4-5 times instead, you're probably looking at some transition baskets going the other way.

 

[HuskyCarlJ]

Calhoun on Napier,

"Fifteen to '0' was nice, but the '0' was because he wasn't doing anything in the first half," Calhoun said. "How can you have a turnover when you're not doing anything? But in the second half, he got us going."

I think, as much as anything, this game showed how important Napier is to the offense. In the first half they definitely looked lost at times and Shabazz was as big a part of that as anyone. In the second half though he really turned it on. There was a play around the 17 minute mark (to my recollection, could be off) where he drove in and hit a step-back jumper. Calhoun got up off the bench and loudly congratulated him, and looked to be saying "That's what I've been asking you to do all night!" (Might've been more colorful than that though).

From there on out Shabazz was on. The next few plays were (in some combination), Shabazz penetrated and fed to Lamb for a monster slam off the pick and roll, and Shabazz penetrating, drawing the defense and kicking down low to a wide open Drummond twice for rim rattling dunks (one of which was deemed the Muscle Milk play of the game). During that stretch they looked like a top 10 team. During the first half they looked totally out of synch on offense (though the defensive intensity was certainly there). There were improvements from a lot of guys I think the biggest change was the way Shabazz ran the offense.