What makes this year's team so much better than last year? | The Boneyard

What makes this year's team so much better than last year?

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Conndog

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I'm as excited about this year's team as anyone else, and I was doing a quick comparison of position by position of this year vs last year. Some of the same players are still in some of the same positions, yet the sky is the limit with this year's squad. So, what's the difference?

At the point- RJ vs Tristan. Hard to say who I'd want more
At shooting guard- Hawkins vs Hawkins- no difference
At the 3- Andre vs Andre- no difference
At the 4- Alex Karaban vs Tyrese Martin- wouldn't edge go to Martin?
At the 5- Sanogo vs Sanogo- no difference
But,
Back-up 5- Clingan vs Whaley- big edge for Clingan
Other major players on this year's squad- Joey Calcaterra, Hassan Diarra, Naheime Alleyne
Other major players players on last year's squad- Tyler Polley, Jalen Gaffney, Akok Akok

What accounts for the explosiveness this year? Clingan and Joey C being on the squad? Having another year's development for the returnees? Some kind of team cohesion/confidence that is hard to describe but undeniable?
 
Conndog said:
I'm as excited about this year's team as anyone else, and I was doing a quick comparison of position by position of this year vs last year. Some of the same players are still in some of the same positions, yet the sky is the limit with this year's squad. So, what's the difference?

At the point- RJ vs Tristan. Hard to say who I'd want more
At shooting guard- Hawkins vs Hawkins- no difference
At the 3- Andre vs Andre- no difference
At the 4- Alex Karaban vs Tyrese Martin- wouldn't edge go to Martin?
At the 5- Sanogo vs Sanogo- no difference
But,
Back-up 5- Clingan vs Whaley- big edge for Clingan
Other major players on this year's squad- Joey Calcaterra, Hassan Diarra, Naheime Alleyne
Other major players players on last year's squad- Tyler Polley, Jalen Gaffney, Akok Akok

What accounts for the explosiveness this year? Clingan and Joey C being on the squad? Having another year's development for the returnees? Some kind of team cohesion/confidence that is hard to describe but undeniable?
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Quick comment re: your use of "no difference" for certain players. They may occupy the same position.. But they have all gotten much better in their skill development and they are very different from last year's version of themselves. Hawk/Andre/Sanogo as examples. Big Three
 
Conndog said:
I'm as excited about this year's team as anyone else, and I was doing a quick comparison of position by position of this year vs last year. Some of the same players are still in some of the same positions, yet the sky is the limit with this year's squad. So, what's the difference?

At the point- RJ vs Tristan. Hard to say who I'd want more
At shooting guard- Hawkins vs Hawkins- no difference
At the 3- Andre vs Andre- no difference
At the 4- Alex Karaban vs Tyrese Martin- wouldn't edge go to Martin?
At the 5- Sanogo vs Sanogo- no difference
But,
Back-up 5- Clingan vs Whaley- big edge for Clingan
Other major players on this year's squad- Joey Calcaterra, Hassan Diarra, Naheime Alleyne
Other major players players on last year's squad- Tyler Polley, Jalen Gaffney, Akok Akok

What accounts for the explosiveness this year? Clingan and Joey C being on the squad? Having another year's development for the returnees? Some kind of team cohesion/confidence that is hard to describe but undeniable?
Expand ...
Hawkins vs. Hawkins- no difference?

Jackson vs. Jackson- no difference?

Sanogo vs. Sanogo- no difference?

They are all light-years better than they were last season.

The talent is much better, the fit is much better, the depth is much better
 
For a kid who started playing basketball late the improvement in Sanogo's skill level around the hoop is borderline incredible. He's made so many tough plays look routine. He had those two gorgeous lefty post moves last night, including the one where he held the ball a split second longer to turn a little floater into an easy finger roll. He just looks really polished this year. My favorite was in the Alabama game when he pump-faked from the elbow and hit that little left-handed bank shot off the glass.

It really must be miserable to get abused by that kid and then have to deal with a mountain as his replacement.
 
All of the returning players have gotten a lot better. We have no defenders we need to hide, other than JC. Karaban and Clingan are 2 of the most impactful freshman in the land. The roster just makes more sense and I think having a skilled 4 who can shoot unlocks a lot.
 
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1st step explosiveness, dribbling and ball movement.

As bad as Newton played last night, I would take him over RJ Cole. Just more explosive, dribbles and drives, whereas RJ pounded into the ground a lot. Newton creates space, and Diarra, Calcaterra and Alleyne are giving us much more than Gaffney ever did.

The floor is open because of better athletic abilities
 
Because it's a team built to work together and enhance the strengths of each of them. Last year we had a wonderful player, Whaley, at the 4. Given what he does well and poorly, he should never, ever play at the 4 next an offensive 5 like Sanogo. That's just one example.

You can put the 11 best QBs in the NFL on the field and they'd be a terrible team. Good players aren't enough if they don't fit together and become more due to complementary skills and abilities.
 
Sanogo’s footwork has really improved, as has his range. Hit an elbow jumper last night, has been hitting floaters from 8-10 feet out since at least last year, and obviously is hitting straight-on threes. He’s progressed from a no-name to an All-American.

Hawk is moving without the ball even better, quickly looking like Ray/Rip; and his shooting has improved and he’s looking like a potential lottery pick.

We have the best freshman in the country, who stands 7’2” 265. Who comes off the bench.

We have an extremely solid set of transfers that have bolstered our back court. Kromah-type kids all around.
 
Biggest by far - Shooters. Last year you really had two scoring options Cole and Sanogo. If Sonogo got in foul trouble, game over. Last year, Jackson's athleticism made him the 3rd athletic non-scorer on the floor. This year, his athleticism is a complement to the shooters/scorers.

Hawkins last year had no confidence and was a dissapointment. This year he is living up to the potential we all knew he had.
 
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It’s an entirely new system, with key upgrades made to the places we needed.

PG - last year RJ got forced into being an isolation scorer because we only had 1 other player that could reliably get a bucket (Sanogo). He did great in that role, but that wasn’t how we would want him to be used. Newton is playing the distributor role, almost to a fault. He’s wildly inconsistent but we know he can get a bucket too

SG - Tyrese was scrappy junkyard dog, Hawkins is smooth lights out shooter. And dare I say Hawkins is better defensively as well. Big difference here, and that hurts me to say because Tyrese was my favorite player last year

SF - Andre’s stats may be similar from last year but he’s grown as a leader, floor general, and has shown a willingness to take some shots. Better this year than last year

PF - we went from defensive stopper who couldn’t play a lick of offense to a VERY high IQ offensive player who is also a threat from deep. The team defense covers individual deficiencies

C - similar to Andre, even if the stats end up being similar, Sanogo is much better this year than last year. An upgraded offensive arsenal and much more disciplined defense.

Bench - went from 2.5 players (Hawkins was in and out of the rotation) with only 1 dependable guy, to 2 major contributors (Joey/Clingan) and 2 others who bring solid defense and are still capable of playing major minutes (Alleyne/Diarra)

Coach - Hurley is a young coach. He’s learning and growing along with the players. He seems much more mature this year

Playstyle - last year was a scrappy and bruiser team that would fight you tooth and nail and find a way to will out a victory. This year is improved core players with a number of shooters around them, several versatile players that can play multiple positions, and a bench that can completely switch up play styles at a high level. It’s really hard to defend if you can’t predict what the other team is doing. This team is much better prepared for the modern game
 
Better player and ball movement. Love that there’s no one dribbling the ball for 20 seconds before running a play. Not saying that was the case last year, but definitely was in years past.
 
Aside from Big Three's dramatic improvement.. Team first mentality-BBIQ-Sharing the ball.. Commitment to defense and roles.

Upgrade in talent from freshmen and the portal..
 
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Umami Zen said:
Quick comment re: your use of "no difference" for certain players. They may occupy the same position.. But they have all gotten much better in their skill development and they are very different from last year's version of themselves. Hawk/Andre/Sanogo as examples. Big Three
Expand ...

superjohn said:
Hawkins vs. Hawkins- no difference?

Jackson vs. Jackson- no difference?

Sanogo vs. Sanogo- no difference?

They are all light-years better than they were last season.

The talent is much better, the fit is much better, the depth is much better
Expand ...
I stopped reading after I saw no difference...
 
Defensively this team is significantly better. They are currently 4th in the metric on kenpom and finished the year 43rd last year. They are also bigger at every position that had turnover … no offense to the guys last year but Tristan and RJ are not on the same level defensively and almost anyone you throw in there is a better rebounder than Polley.
 
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A good amount of this has already been mentioned but:

1 - the most important players are all a year older and their games are more developed (AS far more developed)
2 - we are a significantly better passing team this season
3 - we have more depth at all positions (especially center)
4 - we have more balanced scoring than last season
5 - our defense is improved for among other reasons better height at the 1, more physicality at the 2, better conditioning and better bench at the 5

There are additional ancillary items (including an additional season with Dan Hurley implementing his preferred style) that can be added but concisely this can be described as further development of the program
 
The pieces fit better and we no longer have to rely on one guy for buckets, one guy for rebounds, one guy to initiate the offense plus we have a lock down defense and more depth than we've ever had.

Some of the best passing is coming from the forward positions.

Florida was standing there like a little kid wading in the shallows only to have wave after wave break over his head burying him in the sand.
 
Subtle team structure. Our coach has made some adjustments. Increased BBIQ of players. Our player leader is all about 'Team'. More depth creating with the ball, Solid defense on opposing guards at 3 point line. More impact depth at center rather than just holding their own. Our biggest guy patrols the paint defensively when he is in and isn't asked to be Whaley. More offensive threats allowing things to just flow. Example 1: Cutting down on the number of times a player like RJ Cole had to figure out what to do with 3 sec on the clock. Example 2: Karaban couldn't do any better than Polley if the point of an entire possession was him running all over the court to find a 3. That kind of offense isn't the staple on this team. (I loved Whaley and the rest) (We also don't miss offensive rebound bunnies like we were doing - everybody misses sometimes but last year we might have approached a record)
 
Defense and Depth.
  • Even without Whaley this team just has so many ways to neutralize the other team's best player/ whoever is hot on that team. We lost the seton hall game 90-87 last year because we couldn't stop Kadary Richmond, we almost lost to st Johns bc we didn't have an answer for Champegnie. We had a really hard time guarding teams that had bigger guards and we didnt have multiple options for stopping them. Now we have at least 3 people we can put on a good opposing lead guard (Hassan, Jackson, Tristen). We also have a better defensive answer to stretch 4 prototype players (whaley was better big defender imo).
  • Spacing is much better without Whaley out there he was an awkward fit in last years starting lineup offensively. Karaban. at the 4 and the 4 guard/wings surrounding clingan/sanogo just works better. I think the awkwardness of the whaley/sanogo fit is why we haven't seen clingan/sanogo as much at least offensively.
  • Depth. Calcaterra, Alleyne, Diarra, Clingan off the bench is YEARS better than Akok, Hawk, Polley, Gaff off the bench last year.
  • We have answers to teams, we are bigger at the point guard and better defensively. We also have many more guards, one could argue RJ Cole/Hawkins were the only true guards that played meaningful minutes last year. With Gaff out there it was only when RJ was exhausted and needed a breather
 
upstater said:
1st step explosiveness, dribbling and ball movement.

As bad as Newton played last night, I would take him over RJ Cole. Just more explosive, dribbles and drives, whereas RJ pounded into the ground a lot. Newton creates space, and Diarra, Calcaterra and Alleyne are giving us much more than Gaffney ever did.

The floor is open because of better athletic abilities
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Unpopular take but I would have to agree
 
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