What we learned from Rhody Game

[bmayuc]

1. Solo Ball... Yikes - He seems primed in the mold of Bouknight, Sanogo, Hawkins to have that second year breakout. His shooting and overall scoring was scary last night, and he seems much more composed on the ball and aggressive on defense. He's starting, he's starring.

2. We need to adjust to a new era defensively and reset our expectations thusly. A comparison of Hurley Defenses with Cling Kong and without. There are obviously "other" factors here like the players around him, but then again not really. We saw the team last year operate at about the 100th ranked defense in the country when Donovan was hurt, and basically the best in the country when he came back. The coaches have showed superlative ability and willingness to adapt scheme and style on the offensive end, famously. It is a well known fact that teams that win titles have offensive AND defensive efficiencies inside the top 20. Can we operate at that level without the big guy? That is the question of the season for me.

• 2020 - No Clingan - Torvik #65 ranked Defense 96.3 PP100
• 2021 - No Clingan - Torvik #30 ranked Defense 93.5 PP100
• 2022 - No Clingan - Torvik #52 ranked Defense 95.9 PP100
• 2023 - Clingan Freshman - Torvik #9 ranked Defense 91.2 PP100
• 2024 - Clingan Soph - Torvik #4 ranked Defense 91.3 PP100

3. Rebounding - a problem. Losing TNewt, Clingan, Cam - who are all above average to excellent rebounders for their position - will really hurt and I'm genuinely not sure what the answer is. If you look at the starting 5 last night, I'd say only Diarra is a "junkyard dog" average to above average rebounder. This will really be a struggle all year, and we almost lost the battle Rhody. Tarris Reed may end up starting and dominating minutes at the 5 only because we are so desperate for this and Samson just isn't a rebounder, for all his other strengths. Need a 6'10 post to be able to get more than 1 rebound in 20 min. Jaylin 6'8 - 1 rebound in 19 minutes. Jayden 6'7 - 2 rebounds in 17 minutes. Gotta get rugged.

4. Guards and Forwards on offense - Bombs away. This team is going to drop some preposterous guard scoring barrages, and I love Mahaney coming off the bench with full ownership of that 2nd group just gunning after the 1st team has grinded the opposition to dust. He'll find some really open looks as teams get caught in lineup changes. Just not sure how you guard Karaban, Solo, McNeeley at the same time. They can all shoot, drive, pass with really high efficiency.


Any other major takeaways or topics that you guys see running through the season?

 

[UCan3]

Good summary.

Ball doesn’t surprise me a bit. Last year he was so good… so good… but unfortunately the person he was trying to get minutes from was a GENERATIONAL talent - Stephon Castle. I have never seen a player like him come in as a Frosh and do what he did.

Rebounding it’s simply a matter of who is going to “crash the boards“ and who is running the break - they will figure it out soon enough.

As with Donovan, the guys need to stop fouling and let our bigs clog up the middle, and be that last stop. Fouling them on way to basket is not good approach - again we’ll learn.

The other thing is I’ve seen it posted that the URI game was meaninglesss.

I disagree - those teams came to play! Especially URI in that 1st half - oh my. I don’t think the kids cared that it was an exhibition game - they were there to play. Technically it doesn’t count but what we saw on Monday was a game! No holding back that I could see.

It was a good first look at team and no matter who you’re playing, it isn’t easy to score 100+ points. We’ve gotten used to it at UConn but it doesn’t happen often!

 

[auror]

3. Rebounding - a problem. Losing TNewt, Clingan, Cam - who are all above average to excellent rebounders for their position - will really hurt and I'm genuinely not sure what the answer is. If you look at the starting 5 last night, I'd say only Diarra is a "junkyard dog" average to above average rebounder. This will really be a struggle all year, and we almost lost the battle Rhody. Tarris Reed may end up starting and dominating minutes at the 5 only because we are so desperate for this and Samson just isn't a rebounder, for all his other strengths. Need a 6'10 post to be able to get more than 1 rebound in 20 min. Jaylin 6'8 - 1 rebound in 19 minutes. Jayden 6'7 - 2 rebounds in 17 minutes. Gotta get rugged.?

Coaches have not worked on rebounding much yet in practice. Expect that to improve.

 

[prankster]

This was a great game opportunity. We now have in-game film.

I have every confidence defense and rebounding will be foci for practices, more and more.

This was a much better early season game for us as compared to the typical early season cupcake schedule

 

[bikerburt]

Agreed! Rebounding and defense are the mainstays of any Hurley team! With an excess of shooters, PT will be earned by playing d and rebounding.

 

[RuffRuff]

Great rundown on the team defensive efficiency stats.

We had the best interior defender in the game last year, someone who altered everything and got into the opposing teams headspace. On top of that we had one of or possibly the best perimeter defender. Those two collectively took the paint away, and often took away the opposing teams best 1-3. That superpower effectively confuses and demoralizes teams. It left the other three guys (none of which are great defenders) with a very simple requirement to defend the 3 ball. With their size it worked well. We will not have that massive advantage this year.

Let’s not forget, the one real loss we had last year against Creighton, the whole game swung immediately after Cling got his second. I believe we were up 11-3 and then got boatraced once he went to the bench. Once they got their momentum and confidence going it was hard to stop.

We need Tarris to figure it out. I’m not confident Samson is going to be anything more than what we’ve seen. He’s a backup 5 best suited to play against other teams back up 5. There is no reason a kid the size of Tarris cannot dominate the glass. He looks like he was born to rebound, a total beast. He just needs to develop the consistency and tenacity to make that his priority. Hurley should starve him before games and tell him 12 rebounds results in a cheesesteak. To me the development of Harris into the primary 5 is priority to reaching max team potential. Offensively he has so much more to his game than SJ. He looked a little rushed with some of his shots the other night, needs to stay composed and intentional as he’s got a great touch and nice feet.

Have thought all along Stew needs to spend his time closer to the rim. Get off the three point line already and work the paint. He has a great touch around the rim, a nice handle for his size. And he’s clearly packed some muscle on, so go use it. He needs to think inside out and establish himself closer to the basket, get his twos and rebound/play great d. Get some put backs & and one’s. Him shooting threes and floating around the perimeter are not are not helping the team. I’ve seen zero evidence of him being a proficient 3 point shooter. He shot it at a 20% clip last year, was 0-2 in the scrimmage and I saw him miss a bunch in the open practice. He shoots a fairly rotationless ball. The threes will come, but should after all the other stuff gets going. We don’t need another guard, have plenty, we need a true PF. Think Harrison Ingram last year.

I’ve been high on Solo’s upside for awhile, hard to deny his traits and athleticism. He’s got a great attitude and just needs to put it all together upstairs and have a more defined role. I’ll go out on a limb and against BY consensus and say he has the stronger potential to go draft this year over Stew.

After the open scrimmage the one item to watch is how the PG spot evolves between Hassan and Aidan. I’ve been of the mindset that it’s Hassan’s to lose and you can’t replace his leadership and moxy, but Aidan certainly has more of the TNewt traits in being able to create his shot. Also obviously curious to see how Hurley leverages the depth, and how minutes look for the 11 deep once real games begin. Where does he stop the rotation?

 

[AllHusky]

For me, Tarris has been in some ways the most exciting new Husky. Watched his film numerous times. He CAN do it on both ends, need him to do it on the defensive end. Truly believe he'll be in the neighborhood of Sanogo in "impactfulness", big question is how quickly does he develop to that level of impact.

Before Tarris came along, you looked at Samson and wondered if he even can do what we need. Sadly, it looks like he will be a better version of his last year self. Pretty tough to become something you're not after 3 years in Storrs.

 

[Methalius]

I think especially early on this season, we Husky fans need to temper our expectations. This is an incredibly deep team but it is also extremely young. Hurley and staff will need to allow these kids room to make mistakes and learn from them. We have been spoiled recently and I think the Huskies are going to be a team in contention for another National Championship but we all need to remember that we need to have patience with this team. I agree with everyone's thoughts so far. Defense and rebounding will be critical areas that the Huskies need to focus on.

 

[UConnStats]

Coaches have not worked on rebounding much yet in practice. Expect that to improve.

Yeah Tom Moore made it pretty clear that the defensive and rebounding work has only just begun after a summer spent on offense.

As for the exhibition it’s also worth realizing that teams won’t always get 35 FTA against us, meaning more FGA, misses and rebounding opportunities.

I don’t expect rebounding to be a strength by any means, but wouldn’t draw too many conclusions off of this game.

 

[Drame]

Coaches have not worked on rebounding much yet in practice. Expect that to improve.

Or defense.. I exprect us to be top 10 by the end of the year. It wont look like last year but we'll be good. Ball pressure, roster depth, and more activity on the perimeter. Could employ a modified pack line defense a la Tony Bennet. We know those two have exchanged notes the past two years during the secret scrimmages.

 

[AllHusky]

One of the most encouraging takeaways from the Rhody game was Solos defensive intensity. As other guys ratchet up their commitment to D it'll just be a matter of what type of defensive system works best. Not sure if we will or even would want to become a Nolan Richardson 40 minutes of hell type of team, but with the depth, that level of intensity certainly could be achieved.

 

[Iluvsuebird]

The magic sauce for UConn's dominance is that most teams cannot match us for 40 minutes. When their legs are tired and their shots coming up short, we still have deep rotations of fresh players. More of the same this year.

 

[Lambeau]

I too am praying that Tarris sees the light.
Warning: The Sleepers know him well, being U of M fans, and swear after watching the URI scrimmage that this is as good as it gets,
that he will only break our hearts, that he always gives you five tantalizingly good minutes followed by spacing out and looking totally lost for the next twenty. But I think they have PTSD from the Juwan Howard Experience.
I refuse to believe that with his physical skills this staff won't be able to train and focus him. I agree it is essential for real success.

 

[awy]

the situation isn't either reed is awesome or the sleepers guy is right. he does have reaction/awareness issues but the question is whether they can train him up/use him in a way that's still effective. given that they have not been working on defense or rebounding at all, his 2nd half performance is pretty encouraging.

his strategic role is to be a stop loss against post offense that samson can't guard. he's one of the strongest post guys and should do fine guarding another post big one on one. that's why he's on the team. he's not going to be a rim protector so they would need to play defense differently than they did with clingan on the team. what that looks like I think is still yet to be revealed. in general he'll be in drop coverage and stay close to the basket, not asking him to commit hard for anything and focus on rebounding etc. it's a simple game plan that's not extremely exploitable most of the time if your offense is good enough so that the opponent is never going to win by settling for mid range jumpers.

 

[Rocktheworld]

I too am praying that Tarris sees the light.
Warning: The Sleepers know him well, being U of M fans, and swear after watching the URI scrimmage that this is as good as it gets,
that he will only break our hearts, that he always gives you five tantalizingly good minutes followed by spacing out and looking totally lost for the next twenty. But I think they have PTSD from the Juwan Howard Experience.
I refuse to believe that with his physical skills this staff won't be able to train and focus him. I agree it is essential for real success.

Clingan turned down Michigan/Howard, look what DH did with him

Will be very interesting to see how much better Reed looks with DH