Well That Was A Letdown

[Scot-e]

I thought we looked pretty good. If you have ever watched these first expo games they can be a total mess- in particular when you have a lot of young players.

Bazz looked good in the second half and NG and TO played well the whole game. AO looked like he is going to step it up this year. Love what I could see of DD and AD can do anything he want if he is trying hard. Maybe it is not "trying hard" but it did seem he was engaged some of the time and lost some of the time- no biggy he will learn the ropes.

I would have liked to see Boat play- hope this gets cleared up fast or we could be in big trouble.

 

[ctchamps]

AIC definitely struggled in the paint. AO and TO played great together. One criticism was AIC got several offensive rebounds when these two were in together. When RS came into the game this stopped.

TO and AO had great games on the offensive end. Hopefully they can do this against bigger more athletic opponents.

At this point JL is a serviceable point guard, and Ryan Allen is a serviceable 2 guard. But UConn will be in trouble if RB can't play. The drop off when SN is not in the game is just too large. And against teams like Louisville, UConn will struggle without a second player to bring up the ball.

AD had moments where you can see he will be unstoppable. But he played tentatively in this game for the most part and appeared to struggle with the mask. This is normal and hopefully he will get used to the thing by next week and not be worried about getting hit in the head.

JL will be a great player alongside SN.

I like the options of having NG, DD and RS. None of them have a complete game but each offers something to the team different from the others. As a group JC has a lot of flexibility. NG reminds me of Jamal Coombs-McDaniel a lot.

SN is a terrific passer. In the first half he struggled running the team in the half court. But he may have had more fast break outlet passes in this game than Kemba did all last season.

Part of the struggles in the half court were the teams inability to set proper screens. And part of the problem is SN waited too long looking for other players. He corrected that in the second half. That second half had a lot of positive moments.

 

[UConnSwag11]

it's the first exhibition game

 

[iam76]

give them time fellas..

 

[WhereistheDove?]

My thoughts on Shabazz for what it's worth. He looked excellent running the fast break. Found the open man and set up a bunch of easy baskets. That being said, I thought he was only decent in the half-court game. Anyone going purely by the stats is not being realistic. He had 15 assists but a lot of those were just feeding the ball down low and letting our frontcourt's huge physical advantage take over. Not something he had a significant effect on. All in all I think he had a good game. I think it will take a while for the team to get over the fact that it's now a complete team offense and not just Kemba, but I feel pretty good (but not great) about Shabazz's game.

 

[jleves]

Just wanted to clear up what I meant by my initial post. I wasn't complaining about the team or their play. I was just bumming that we had to start the season without Boat, AD with his first day in a mask (and hadn't practiced in days), Roscoe sitting for the first half and Bradley out hurt. In September, I was so pysched to see all these new guys on the floor and kids like Bradley getting their shot after such sacrifice. It was just kind of a letdown for me that we had to start this way. Hopefully everyone is ready (sans Bradley) come the first televised game.

 

[Peacefrog]

Just wanted to clear up what I meant by my initial post. I wasn't complaining about the team or their play. I was just bumming that we had to start the season without Boat, AD with his first day in a mask (and hadn't practiced in days), Roscoe sitting for the first half and Bradley out hurt. In September, I was so pysched to see all these new guys on the floor and kids like Bradley getting their shot after such sacrifice. It was just kind of a letdown for me that we had to start this way. Hopefully everyone is ready (sans Bradley) come the first televised game.

I'm with you from that perspective. The last minute Boatright thing was a real wet blanket.