Well

[SaeHusky]

We don't have the personnel to play Defense the same way like last year. These guys can't pressure the ball above the 3 point line. It's always a blow by. Since we have nobody on offense who can attack the rim and create their own shot -they need to play through Reed in the low post. If he gets doubled the ball gets kicked back out to one of our shooters.

 

[Travelman6]

This happened to Arizona in 2017-18. #2 in the poll, lost 3 games in an MTE and dropped out completely

They would climb back into the polls soon after and still made the NCAA tournament at least

Very interesting but they made something of their season in the end. Similar type of Schedule to this year's UConn.

 

[Dooch]

Clingan made us totally different and Sanogo was a highly skilled 3rd year player. No team in the country had anyone like Clingan to bring off the bench. The question is really do we win that year without him. We have no idea. Last year, is there any real question. By the way, I think Reed is a fine college player, but he just does not come close to Clingan’s impact.

My point is we win the first one even without Clingan. We blew everyone out. Last year he definitely was a monster so not debating that one.

 

[Dooch]

And every time he came in for one of his 5-8 min stretches we always went on runs instantly.

He was so good his freshman year that we made Sanogo enter the draft prematurely because we rightly knew we had to free up time for Clingan the next year.

Of course, but Sanogo was no slouch and I think they still win pretty handily that year even if Clingan wasn’t on the roster.

 

[RuffRuff]

Let's go through your points:

1. Alex is going to be fine. If he wants to be a 1st round pick he is going to have to be more consistent from 3, and drive the ball more. Obviously been a great player for us, but he has historically been an inconsistent shooter.

2. I'm not sure what this even means, and I'm calling BS on you actually getting info. The game was getting out of hand, and it was the last game of the day. In 2024 you will have to deal with families complaining about not getting playing time. Why do you think the portal has become the wild wild west?

3. Do you think Braylon Mullins is having 2nd thoughts because we struggled in Maui? I mean Indiana lost by almost 40 to an unranked team yesterday. Yes, they have to keep in touch with their recruits. That's normal practice.

4. Do we honestly care if people hate the guy? He has won 2 titles, and back to back. He was hated before he won. He is hated now. Who cares.

5. The portal comment is fair.

You are way too dramatic in your posts, whether it be about the team, or the Big East. This may turn out to be a rebuilding year. It happens. Can we let it play out? And while last night was disappointing, they lost their first 2 games in Maui by 3 points. I'll wait until they have played 20 games to really look at what this team is or is not.

I have a buddy who’s there and he actually told me the exact parents who took off. I’d rather not say specific names but will just say it’s parents whose kids were getting little PT in a game you might expect them to start getting more. Sure it could be because it was late and they were losing, just noting it as part of the larger. Not like you have to beat traffic out of there.

Don’t mean to be dramatic just look for conversation starting. General theme of points is that it’s easy to manage things when they’re at an all time high, winning breeds confidence and momentum. When it falls off a cliff and you start being questioned, how do you handle that adversity and manage personalities in todays portal matrix? DHs head swelled with the back to back, and had a lot of people believing in him to an almost cult-like level. When the shine dulls a bit and you’re throwing tantrums that get national attention, it makes the personality management a lot harder.

 

[Scottzer]

If given the choice of either DC or Castle to help fix this team, I would pick Castle. With the metrics from last year, when one of the other was on the floor, the team had very similar defensive efficiency. The team was only elite with both on the floor at the same time.
We really miss that guy who can penetrate and get to the line at will, and facilitate. I can’t blame him for leaving, but we’d be a final four or better contender with him on this team.

 

[kansashusky]

My favorite quote is that Danny called Jayden Ross a first round pick….

I get he is trying to motivate Jaylin, but that is comical.

Gotta adapt to the roster we have. I hope we are already looking at potential portal pg options.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

I have a buddy who’s there and he actually told me the exact parents who took off. I’d rather not say specific names but will just say it’s parents whose kids were getting little PT in a game you might expect them to start getting more. Sure it could be because it was late and they were losing, just noting it as part of the larger. Not like you have to beat traffic out of there.

Don’t mean to be dramatic just look for conversation starting. General theme of points is that it’s easy to manage things when they’re at an all time high, winning breeds confidence and momentum. When it falls off a cliff and you start being questioned, how do you handle that adversity and manage personalities in todays portal matrix? DHs head swelled with the back to back, and had a lot of people believing in him to an almost cult-like level. When the shine dulls a bit and you’re throwing tantrums that get national attention, it makes the personality management a lot harder.

Yeah it’s harder to tell super talented guys to sacrifice, wait their turn, and play roles that are not maximizing them when you’re losing.

But at the same time you can only afford to put guys in roles that don’t maximize their abilities when you’re supremely talented than the rest of the field. We aren’t that this year.

 

[cohenzone]

My point is we win the first one even without Clingan. We blew everyone out. Last year he definitely was a monster so not debating that one.

The year before half the board wanted Hurley’s head in January, and we didn’t win either the BE or BE tournament. We did blow everyone out in the NCAA but even then I think it was vs. SD State that Hawkins hit a big 3 that stopped a shrinking lead. Cling was an important part of that team. I have no idea if we win without him.

 

[cohenzone]

If given the choice of either DC or Castle to help fix this team, I would pick Castle. With the metrics from last year, when one of the other was on the floor, the team had very similar defensive efficiency. The team was only elite with both on the floor at the same time.
We really miss that guy who can penetrate and get to the line at will, and facilitate. I can’t blame him for leaving, but we’d be a final four or better contender with him on this team.

You are kind of supporting my point. I think they are both what made us different although I tilt a bit more to Clingan. Anyway, neither stayed and so far it shows.

 

[UCTitleTown]

I wonder if the team plays this bad in practice. I'm other words, is Hurley shocked by this atrocious play or did he expect it could happen?

 

[uconnfan68]

If given the choice of either DC or Castle to help fix this team, I would pick Castle. With the metrics from last year, when one of the other was on the floor, the team had very similar defensive efficiency. The team was only elite with both on the floor at the same time.
We really miss that guy who can penetrate and get to the line at will, and facilitate. I can’t blame him for leaving, but we’d be a final four or better contender with him on this team.

Are you crazy? DC was a once in a generation player for us.

 

[navery12]

Reminder to self, never post immediately after a game. Some of the takes on here are god awful.

I opened the chat, saw the top message said something about this being worse than the last Kevin Ollie year and immediately closed it out. This fanbase is a disaster

 

[AntG168]

Glad to be of service, hangovers being what they are. And that you missed the main point. Happy TDay.

Okay, sport. You think the program is better with a string of one or two and dones and I think THAT is idiotic. Which is why I decided to make fun of your post since I knew exactly what you meant. And you have plenty of company who are whining about this year’s team. I think we are better with winning with experienced top talent. I think that attracts at least as much talent as does kids seeing that kids can go pro quickly from here. You are entitled to your opinion. Having a very experienced Newton was a big part of both championships and even he needed part of his first year here to get up to speed. If McNeeley goes pro after one season and we fall short, explain to me how that did anything to help the program as opposed to his sticking around. I am open to considering your point.

So Clingan, Hawkins, Castle etc left the program in a worse position because they were one and done or two and done? This take is VERY bad bro. Like REALLY bad. They won 2 championships. And on this team we have Karaban(RS Junior), Hass(fifth year), Samson(Senior), Reed(Junior), Mahaney(Junior), the four sophomores and 1 freshman that actually plays.

Where are all these one and done or 2 and done players that tanked the program? This is illogical.

If your argument is you don’t want a roster full of them then well……we don’t. And we haven’t. And we never will. So what exactly is your point?

Are you suggesting we purposely recruit less talented players? Or that we rely soley on the transfer portal? I’m struggling to see your logic.

 

[navery12]

So Clingan, Hawkins, Castle etc left the program in a worse position because they were one and done or two and done? This take is VERY bad bro. Like REALLY bad. They won 2 championships. And on this team we have Karaban(RS Junior), Hass(fifth year), Samson(Senior), Reed(Junior), Mahaney(Junior), the four sophomores and 1 freshman that actually plays.

Where are all these one and done or 2 and done players that tanked the program? This is illogical.

If your argument is you don’t want a roster full of them then well……we don’t. And we haven’t. And we never will. So what exactly is your point?

He just can't grasp the fact that kids don't want to stay in college for 4 years. It's not even really worth discussing with him because the starting premise is just completely off base

 

[bendm]

If given the choice of either DC or Castle to help fix this team, I would pick Castle. With the metrics from last year, when one of the other was on the floor, the team had very similar defensive efficiency. The team was only elite with both on the floor at the same time.
We really miss that guy who can penetrate and get to the line at will, and facilitate. I can’t blame him for leaving, but we’d be a final four or better contender with him on this team.

I think I’d also take castle. He would be our starting PG and perimeter defensive stopper. Offsetting Our two biggest glaring weaknesses. We could obviously use Clingan since we have NO RIM PROTECTION (I said this weeks ago and was crucified) but I think Reed will be really good by the end of the season and next year.

 

[superjohn]

Really interesting topic and something I’m gonna be curious to watch. To keep this train going off the two NCs, if Hurley wants to keep the talent levels high, he can’t be over-loyal when it’s clear as day some kids don’t have it. If anything these three games are an eye opener to the fact talent wins over system every day of the week.

There is a big difference in talent between a top 20 kid and an 80th kid. Sometimes there are outliers but law of averages is that the top 20 yield better results.

What top 20 kids did we turn down? I think Hurley actually believes Ross and the other sophomores are ultra talented, he's said it over and over. Hurley had his pick of who he wanted in the portal and he went with Reed who I am very happy with. He also went with Mahaney who had a pretty big rep, it obviously hasn't worked out but that seems to be an evaluation problem and a fit problem. If Hurley picked Enoch Cheeks off of Robert Morris over Aidan Mahaney people would've said Hurley lost his mind. If Hurley picked Nate Santos off of Dayton and told Jaylin to find a new program people would've said Hurley lost his mind. Cheeks and Santos crushed us last night and they've both been way better than our transfer guard and our sophomores.

 

[Scottzer]

Are you crazy? DC was a once in a generation player for us.

Maybe, but Castle is tasked with defending SGA, Steph Curry, etc on a nightly basis. The 23 championship team was good enough with Sanogo as starting center. But, it’s awful hard to win without a solid point guard, and Castle’s defense is elite. The ability to go get a bucket in crunch time is missed.

In time, we will recognize that Castle was also a generational player. If you watch his NBA games, he is going to be a superstar.

 

[Hunt for 7]

Maybe, but Castle is tasked with defending SGA, Steph Curry, etc on a nightly basis. The 23 championship team was good enough with Sanogo as starting center. But, it’s awful hard to win without a solid point guard, and Castle’s defense is elite. The ability to go get a bucket in crunch time is missed.

In time, we will recognize that Castle was also a generational player. If you watch his NBA games, he is going to be a superstar.

Castle is already being discussed as a generational talent by some media sources. Chris Paul has said he is the most advanced rookie he has ever played with.

 

[Lynyrd]

Cutesy time is over

 

[AntG168]

Castle is already being discussed as a generational talent by some media sources. Chris Paul has said he is the most advanced rookie he has ever played with.

Generational gets thrown around way to loosely

 

[HuskyHawk]

The "wall potential" talk of SJ from a couple years ago hasn't stood the test of time. It was ridiculous to say then and is even more of a head scratcher now. Samson is so frustrating. He's an A+ lob threat that puts great pressure on defenses in the pick and roll game but he cannot corral a rebound even if he gets both of his mitts on it.

And in four years he hasn't figured out how to defend his own man without fouling -- he is purely a weak side help defender who sells out on every shot attempt. Dayton got their first 4 points on easy putbacks because of this.

I guess. But he actually was the only guy on the team playing good defense in this game. His rebounding stinks but he might have been our best player in this game. One of those fouls on him as absolutely a phantom call.

Hurley gets an F for not playing Stewart more on a day when Liam had nothing.

 

[Icehawk]

Hate that I am replying to this but…

SJ shouldn’t start if only because he fouls early and that just starts us on the wrong foot. He did look a bit better vs Dayton.

My “concern” is this feels a bit like ’21 where it seemed DH was trying to force a style of play that didn’t suit the players. While rotations haven’t been fully static it still reminds me of then when he wasn’t flexible enough. I don’t get sitting Stewart or Reed, they made mistakes but so is everyone else even our solid guys.

We also need taller guards, height isn’t everything but we’ve given up like 5” at the 1 & 2. Last year Spencer was a rebounding machine, I don’t have #s in front of me but I kinda assume Castle was too and we are missing that dearly now. Some is skill but some is just being bigger.

 

[Hunt for 7]

Generational gets thrown around way to loosely

Actually I was going to add that in my post not sure why I left it out. I mean generational is like Curry, James, Bryant, Shaq, Jordan, Bird Jabbar, Wilt and now Joker. I am probably missing some but even Jokic could be a stretch. Castle I am certain will be great maybe SGA, Ant level or maybe even a tad better.

I am not sure we all knew he would translate this high at the next level so quickly. When he got to 100% last year we were almost impossible to beat. He and Cam made everyone around them better add in Tristen and you may have had one of the greatest backcourts in ncaa history.

 

[navery12]

I guess. But he actually was the only guy on the team playing good defense in this game. His rebounding stinks but he might have been our best player in this game. One of those fouls on him as absolutely a phantom call.

Hurley gets an F for not playing Stewart more on a day when Liam had nothing.

That was my initial thought too about Stewart, but his minutes should have been coming at the expense of Ross if anything. I don't love using +/- but in a game we lost by 18, Stewart was -12 in 7 minutes and McNeeley was -2 in 30 minutes. We got killed when McNeeley came out