Well

[KingAG]

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 Dan Hurley 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

 

[superjohn]

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 will be one of our best NBA players ever and has a chance to be a star but he wasn't Clingan last year. Clingan was the best defensive player ever here and the best defensive player in many years of college basketball. We hardly even think of his offense but only Edey had better advanced numbers than him on that end of the floor. Clingan also had the second best box plus/minus in the last 15 years of college basketball after Edey.

Castle was awesome and the best perimeter defender in college last season, Clingan was a generational player.

 

[Deleted at users request]

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.

It didn’t make sense to bring in Mahaney if he thought he was playing PG from the beginning.

It seems like the plan was to start Diarra and Mahaney at the beginning of the summer but Solo played his way into the starting lineup and Hurley still wanted Mahaney to have a role so he made him a PG.

Just made a bad bet that a WCC player was going to outplay his top 50 recruit and how important having a real PG is.

 

[gsmooth]

I was hoping to see some adjustments in this one and a plan forming, instead Dan decided Samson was his guy again. If there is one thing I feel good about, it’s that Samson is not a starting 5 on any aspiring college hoops team. I am as confused with the staff at this point as I am discouraged by the play. This is going to be a long season.

Moving into a state of preservation rather than aspiration, concerns being:

- getting AK drafted in the first round. The quality around him is so poor I just hope it doesn’t impact his draft status.

-this not being so miserable a season that some of our talented young kids don’t bolt for the portal. Hurley is going to have to manage that. I was told multiple parents of kids not playing left the game early yesterday. When you’re winning you can validate your rotation decisions, when you suck parents will be asking why their kid isn’t getting run.

- making sure the recruits hold. I’m sure they joined to be part of the systematic machine of an offense and now it looks like a group of drunk people in a conga line. Top that with a coach that is blowing his top. Shouldn’t be a worry but who knows.

- Danny keeps some positivity in the national spotlight this season. He went out of his way to take every interview possible this offseason and with a lot of “confidence”. Now that the kryptonite has been unleashed and he kicked off the season with cartoon like demonstrations, you are seeing how much opposing fanbases detest the guy. Really needs to find his zen.

Such a sharp fall from grace can be tough to swallow and it presents different types of challenges. If this is in fact a bridge year you have to manage it differently as you’re not “bulletproof” in your decision making.

The portal strategy has been mystifying, maybe the delay in getting to it did impact given the glaring mismatch.

As for parents leaving the game early or or anyone leaving early, I can tell you most UConn fans stayed in their seats to the bitter end, we just stayed seated quietly as the Dayton fans were celebrating and jumping around with jubilation. This includes Mahaney's mom, she stayed to the end. If the player's moms left it must have been with much more time remaining.

 

[cohenzone]

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?

I give up. You are clueless. I am saying that guys leaving early doesn’t translate into the team having top notch championship continuity. See us this year, not last year. Maybe this team will come along. The early departers left us with two really fun years. But a bunch of you are operating off unproved and pretty weak logic. Which is early departures to the pros by proven talent attracts other talent because they have the example of others being able to do that. You seem to totally discount the possibility that talent goes to winners and imply that they would not come here without the example of being able to be drafted early out of UConn. You really can’t prove that they wouldn’t come anyway. Plus now the NIL business.

Did those guys leave the program better off ? Time will tell. Them helping to make us a big winner while they were here is obvious. Winning attracts recruits. The key is winning with some continuity. On paper the program has a strong recruiting class. The winning is probably why, not the ability to leave early. We probably are way better off this year with Castle and Clingan and we probably get exactly the same recruits. So I say they did not leave us better off this year, which is really what our fans want, but people are whining anyway. The difference between you and me is the weight you give to early departures as it affects each year. This year it hurt because the talent and/or maturity is not at the same level in key positions. Will what they did before they left make us as good? Hopefully. But I don’t buy that talent leaving with a lot of remaining eligibility is a positive for the next year or the next. Its the continuity of winning. I hope we never come close to what Calipari built at UK And he really isn’t the worst coach in history he is jusr a pile of crap. Happy Thanksgiving. Go Huskies.

 

[Deleted at users request]

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.

If we have Castle the keys last year offensively and let him do him I’m sure he would’ve been looked at as that in college too.

The Spurs believed in him largely because of his HS film but we asked him to play a much smaller role here.

 

[TroyHall98]

Donovan Clingan might’ve saved his reputation. Kind of crazy to think he took all the credit and thought his offense was the reason for all his success.

Tristen Newton also. Given what we are seeing so far, Newton’s steadiness running the point is sorely missed.

 

[Deleted at users request]

Tristen Newton also. Given what we are seeing so far, Newton’s steadiness running the point is sorely missed.

We need a point guard but it’s much easier to find a true PG than a Clingan.

We won many games where Newton didn’t play well because we always had Donovan to make it so it didn’t matter.

 

[KingAG]

I give up. You are clueless. I am saying that guys leaving early doesn’t translate into the team having top notch championship continuity. See us this year, not last year. Maybe this team will come along. The early departers left us with two really fun years. But a bunch of you are operating off unproved and pretty weak logic. Which is early departures to the pros by proven talent attracts other talent because they have the example of others being able to do that. You seem to totally discount the possibility that talent goes to winners and imply that they would not come here without the example of being able to be drafted early out of UConn. You really can’t prove that they wouldn’t come anyway. Plus now the NIL business.

Did those guys leave the program better off ? Time will tell. Them helping to make us a big winner while they were here is obvious. Winning attracts recruits. The key is winning with some continuity. On paper the program has a strong recruiting class. The winning is probably why, not the ability to leave early. We probably are way better off this year with Castle and Clingan and we probably get exactly the same recruits. So I say they did not leave us better off this year, which is really what our fans want, but people are whining anyway. The difference between you and me is the weight you give to early departures as it affects each year. This year it hurt because the talent and/or maturity is not at the same level in key positions. Will what they did before they left make us as good? Hopefully. But I don’t buy that talent leaving with a lot of remaining eligibility is a positive for the next year or the next. Its the continuity of winning. I hope we never come close to what Calipari built at UK And he really isn’t the worst coach in history he is jusr a pile of crap. Happy Thanksgiving. Go Huskies.

I’m clueless? Lmfao

You actually typed out all of that and thought it made sense.

You should give up my friend.

Happy Turkey Day

 

[superjohn]

If we have Castle the keys last year offensively and let him do him I’m sure he would’ve been looked at as that in college too.

The Spurs believed in him largely because of his HS film but we asked him to play a much smaller role here.

His role worked out pretty well, that was the best college basketball team of the modern era. A lot of that was because the roles were perfectly defined and our execution was flawless.

 

[g_smith]

Wasn’t there a rumor a while back that Samson didn’t play much his first year because he was struggling to understand the offense?

I think he might not get the WHY behind some things

 

[gmc1055]

Give Dan Hurley time. Last night, they had no legs left. They could have won game 1 and 2. This is an extremely young team. They have the perimeter game. Dan Hurley and crew will get the defense up and running. Let's see in January where they are. If defense is humming, that will
take care of the rest.

 

[gsmooth]

Tristen Newton also. Given what we are seeing so far, Newton’s steadiness running the point is sorely missed.

He knew what to do when the first few options were taken away from the set. Also, he had the ability to create off the dribble, not like Kemba or Bazz, but he was very good at it.
One thing Hurley is correct on that is that they are missing Samson for lobs, although they got better the last two games, and they are missing the roll on the PnR a lot. Another thing the guards and some of the wings are missing are the curl cuts about 5 feet in front of the basket

 

[NJHusky]

Let’s see how good of a defensive coach Dan Hurley is without a generational 7’2 center erasing all the mistakes

 

[TroyHall98]

He knew what to do when the first few options were taken away from the set. Also, he had the ability to create off the dribble, not like Kemba or Bazz, but he was very good at it.
One thing Hurley is correct on that is that they are missing Samson for lobs, although they got better the last two games, and they are missing the roll on the PnR a lot. Another thing the guards and some of the wings are missing are the curl cuts under about 5 in front of the basket

Good point on the curl cuts. I think you need a 1 who is a facilitator in order to be able to recognize those looks are open. We currently lack that quality in my opinion.

 

[Deleted at users request]

His role worked out pretty well, that was the best college basketball team of the modern era. A lot of that was because the roles were perfectly defined and our execution was flawless.

Yes we were the most talented team in college basketball so sacrifices had to be made.

It also provided a lot of fools gold about this offense because of the kind of talent that was running it. It doesn’t work for everybody, we just had pieces to make it work.

But Castle probably sacrificed more than anyone else to do it despite being the most talented perimeter player on the team.

 

[cohenzone]

I’m clueless? Lmfao

You actually typed out all of that and thought it made sense.

You should give up my friend.

Happy Turkey Day

Difference of opinion on cluelessness is what makes are world go round. Enjoy.

 

[Deleted at users request]

Let’s see how good of a defensive coach Dan Hurley is without a generational 7’2 center erasing all the mistakes

The thing is his defenses were good in the past even with a guy like Whaley.

He just completely forgot his roots being so obsessed with proving to everyone he can have a good offense.

Also Clingan’s impact on offense can’t be understated. Having a vertical threat like him at the rim provided a lot of room for everyone else to operate. How many Newton assists came from just throwing it up to him for an easy finish?

 

[buddy]

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?

I believe he expected it and it is a possible reason for his even more animated nature than usual. Perhaps an attempt to take pressure off the players.

 

[JLW]

Were all you whiners and complainers whining and complaining when
the season started Or when they were 4-0?

 

[GemParty]

Next 4 games determine the season. Sink or swim. Even before conference play. They look awful on D.
Cupcake Baylor Zags TX

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I’m shell shocked honestly. Sophomores have all showed improvement. Reed is a good add. McNeeley although bad yesterday is as advertised. We stink. Why? It’s the D. The foul disparity is like 120-30. No down hill drivers, to draw them. I’d give anything for Tristan or Kemba.

/////

There’s not much we’re doing correct. Looks all broken. They had the game in 2nd half to 3 4x and kinda give up. Wtf

////

When guys move up the scouting report you need to do more, play smarter, and watch fouls.

/////

Would be so embarrassing to miss the tournament. I can see Hurley crying it’s a crime to not let us defend. But you need scalps on your resume, dude. You’re the one getting scalped right now.

 

[superjohn]

The thing is his defenses were good in the past even with a guy like Whaley.

He just completely forgot his roots being so obsessed with proving to everyone he can have a good offense.

Also Clingan’s impact on offense can’t be understated. Having a vertical threat like him at the rim provided a lot of room for everyone else to operate. How many Newton assists came from just throwing it up to him for an easy finish?

Agreed, it was also so much more than Clingan getting easy finishes. We ran so much offense through Clingan getting the ball out on the perimeter, surveying the court and making good decisions. He screened great, he never turned it over, he's an elite passing big.

 

[UCTitleTown]

Agreed, it was also so much more than Clingan getting easy finishes. We ran so much offense through Clingan getting the ball out on the perimeter, surveying the court and making good decisions. He screened great, he never turned it over, he's an elite passing big.

Clingan covered up for a lot of mistakes and SJ was a nice complement. Can't have a center getting two fouls at 16:45 mark in the first half.

 

[alphasigko]

One thing, besides Coach Dan's persistence in starting SJ instead of Reed, I do not understand is why Stewart is not getting more playing time. In the 1st game he was the only player to have an impact in the 1st half, and then he sat most of the 2nd half. In game 2 he played 19 mins and unfortunately was not that effective, and played only 7 mins against Dayton.

 

[mauconnfan]

Diarra is fine. It’s the rest of the team that’s not fine.

If Diarra isn’t your 6th man and is your PG you’re not good to start. He’s at best only a decent PG every good play is proceeded with a w t f play. He’s far from our biggest issue but being the man with the ball, it’s not good.

 

[UofCT]

We need a point guard but it’s much easier to find a true PG than a Clingan.

We won many games where Newton didn’t play well because we always had Donovan to make it so it didn’t matter.

We also went undefeated with Clingan hurt. The piss poor performances have made no sense