What we’ve learned about the 2024-25 UConn men’s basketball team through three games | The Boneyard

What we’ve learned about the 2024-25 UConn men’s basketball team through three games

drayenob

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What we’ve learned about the 2024-25 UConn men’s basketball team through three games


“I thought (Stewart) really did some nice things. He was better defensively, he was in the right spots. Once you learn to be in the right spots and you don’t have to think as much, now you can just go out there and hoop. I think you’re gonna see Jaylin’s improvement and those 15 minutes are gonna elevate,” Hurley said. “J-Ross’ minutes, he played 19-plus, those minutes will elevate into the 20s. I think we know how we want to play this.”
“We gotta figure out maybe if there is a better way we can start the game so we don’t get off to slow starts,” he said. “But I think that clearly we feel good about what we’ve got at center and we feel like the wing stuff is gonna be a great strength of the team.”

Hurley was happy with McNeeley’s approach on Wednesday, letting the game come to him and finding his shots within the offense. The preseason Big East Freshman of the Year recorded double-doubles in his first two games and is averaging 14.3 points (41.2% from 3) and eight rebounds per game.

“We’re gonna need his usage rate to go up a lot more, we’re gonna need him to facilitate shots for others while continuing to score in that 14, 15 a game, 16 a game average,” Hurley said.

“(Johnson) just settled in and had some conversations with his coaches,” Hurley said. “You could see his impact defesnviely with the four blocks. What just sucks for Samson right now is we’re missing him in the lob game, we’re missing him on the roll game. The guards are not doing the things that Tristen and Cam and Steph were able to do for him. Aidan, Hassan, Solo, the wings, they’re missing him on his patented lobs. So we gotta do a better job for him.”
 
These are really great snips -- and they show that nothing is missing Dan Hurley's attention. With respect to the slow starts, curious to see what the "better way" turns out to be. Also, if Ross and Stewart are going to get the added minutes Dan Hurley promises, it's not going to come from Alex, Liam or the center position. There's a heads-up there not only for Aidan but, imo, for Ball. Solo needs to diversify his contribution to the stat sheet or face the same fate he experienced last year.
 
The guards have been missing a bunch of assists. We'll run our sets and they dont make the critical pass. One egregious example last game, McNeeley was wide open under the basket and Mahaney looked him off and went around the horn instead. Totally unacceptable.
 
This is not a knock on anyone. I love all our guys. But so far what I've noticed is the chemistry and execution exponentially gets better when Hass and Stew come in for Aidan and Liam. Maybe it's because they're returners, but still something to note.
 
I don't think that our pre-season assumptions have changed much after three games.

Still looks like 30 minutes each for Liam and Alex at the 3-4 with Stewart getting most of the remaning 20. Stewart fell back for a while but came back against LeMoyne to pretty much restore the original expectation.

Still looks like a split at the 5, but is trending toward 25/15 in favor of Taris over Samson.

Until further notice, it's stil Aidan and Hassan splitting the 1, although trending in favor of Hassan.

Definite change in the 2 assumpion, and this may eventually change the 1 assumption -- Jayden taking minutes from Solo, and Solo poised to take minutes at the 1 from Aidan. Right now, the 2 is close to 20/20 between Jayden and Solo.

Overall, what has definitely changed from pre-season is that Ross has entered the rotation. Dan Hurley is clearly projecting a 9-man rotation as opposed to the 8 most of us assumed.
 
I agree with most of the comments- but I think it remains to be seen if Stewart or Ross gets more minutes moving forward. I don’t think it will be a huge difference in playing time either way.
 
You learn squat about a team until you are past the "cupcake" part of your schedule.
 
You learn squat about a team until you are past the "cupcake" part of your schedule.
Not true.

For one, I'm much higher on Reed, Ross and Ball now than I was in October. Also, thought Nowell would make more of an immediate impact, but with Ball, Mahaney and Diarra, there's just not enough PT for him to get big minutes.
 
You learn squat about a team until you are past the "cupcake" part of your schedule.
Maybe you learn little about the team, but you learn more about the players and how to fit them together at the right time to make the team better.

Right now we really don’t know how we will play and compete against the better teams in Maui, Baylor and Gonzaga. But we do know that Ross is going to play a significant role in our rotation. Mahaney has work to do. Samson might just be able to stay on the floor longer but if we have to go to Reed we gain offense and rebounding but sacrifice some rim protection.
 
“I thought (Stewart) really did some nice things. He was better defensively, he was in the right spots. Once you learn to be in the right spots and you don’t have to think as much, now you can just go out there and hoop. I think you’re gonna see Jaylin’s improvement and those 15 minutes are gonna elevate,” Hurley said.

Stewart is an interesting case, it seems like he's improved in various areas. He's been shooting well from 2 (4-6 / 67% so far this year after 27-41 / 66% last year) but poorly from 3 (27% last year, 0-5 this year) and from the FT line (44% last year, no attempts yet this year). His rebounds and assists are up (assists 0.3 per game last year, 2.7 per game this year). If he could turn the corner on his 3-point shooting and get to the FT line more, he'd be a star.
 
After playing 3 cucakes - a few things stand out
Mahaney isn't Cam and will not be Cam. I feel Nowell needs more PT
Not having a dominate 5 is going to be a lot to overcome
Need to drive to the hoop more on offense
Memphis may be a good 1st test for UConn
Dan Hurley will figure it out but there will be bumps in the road.
Sampson needs to have the opportunity to have a lot more roll to the basket slams - miss that part of the game.
IT'S EARLY......................................................
 

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