What we learned tonight

[Huskies4ever]

Not to bag on KO, but his pro-style pick and roll iso offense isn't the best fit for Omar or DD. No excuse for lack of reb/defensive effort or missing open shots, but both guys seem to need plays run for.them.

I think both are so eager to make a play when they do get the ball that they make poor decisions.

Again, not condoning just looking for answers.

SN and RB aren't either. They are both scoring point guards, very ball dominant. On most other teams, DD would be the leading scorer. The problem is, there isn't enough ball to go around. Omar is just in a super funk. He had a few good games early on. His confidence is way down. Hopefully before the season is over, he will have had a big moment where he makes a huge impact.

How many times have we heard a commentator mention, "they should run more plays for Giffeye"?

 

[ConnHuskBask]

The difference is, I'm not arguing that Samuel be benched for the rest of the season. You want to jeopardize Omar's entire husky career because you think he's so detrimental to the team that playing 5-10 minutes a night is going to bury us? Over his last 4 games, Omar has taken a TOTAL of 5 shots while playing less than 10 minutes in 3 of the 4 games (and got exactly 10 in the other). Yeah, he's really killing us as the 10th or 11th man off the bench. And obviously you don't care much about next season, because you're giving zero thought to what benching Omar right now could mean for the future all in the name of 5 minutes.

Like I said earlier, thank the good lord Kevin Ollie doesn't take advice from this place. Our program would be much worse off if he did.

Yes - I want Samuel to take all of Omar's minutes. He is contributing a whole lot more than Omar in every facet of the game. If that means Omar gets some DNP's, then so be it. Each possession, each basket is huge this time of year we need our top guys in roles they should succeed in. How are you arguing against that? Omar has been flat out awful.

Another thing, that thinking by playing Omar 5-10 of awful basketball or giving him DNPs will be so detrimental to good development is preposterous. What exactly is he doing out there right now?

Since when in UConn basketball do we put a player ahead of the program?

Since when in UConn basketball do we prepare for next season by giving out minutes in March?

Minutes aren't a charity case - Samuel is better and had earned them. They should be his to lose

 

[ctchamps]

The difference is, I'm not arguing that Samuel be benched for the rest of the season. You want to jeopardize Omar's entire husky career because you think he's so detrimental to the team that playing 5-10 minutes a night is going to bury us? Over his last 4 games, Omar has taken a TOTAL of 5 shots while playing less than 10 minutes in 3 of the 4 games (and got exactly 10 in the other). Yeah, he's really killing us as the 10th or 11th man off the bench. And obviously you don't care much about next season, because you're giving zero thought to what benching Omar right now could mean for the future all in the name of 5 minutes.

Like I said earlier, thank the good lord Kevin Ollie doesn't take advice from this place. Our program would be much worse off if he did.

Early in the season OC had been a liability on defense. But recently his defense has been stellar. His funk is only on the offensive end. No reason to bench him. TS should be getting some of SN and RB minutes to give them more rest. Occasionally the three guard set can be utilized.

 

[Rico444]

Yes - I want Samuel to take all of Omar's minutes. He is contributing a whole lot more than Omar in every facet of the game. If that means Omar gets some DNP's, then so be it. Each possession, each basket is huge this time of year we need our top guys in roles they should succeed in. How are you arguing against that? Omar has been flat out awful.

Another thing, that thinking by playing Omar 5-10 of awful basketball or giving him DNPs will be so detrimental to good development is preposterous. What exactly is he doing out there right now?

Since when in UConn basketball do we put a player ahead of the program?

Since when in UConn basketball do we prepare for next season by giving out minutes in March?

Minutes aren't a charity case - Samuel is better and had earned them. They should be his to lose

Yeah, Omar isn't playing 5-10 minutes of awful basketball. His defense has been fine. The 5 times he's shot the ball in his last four games have been really the only "awful basketball" he's contributed recently.

And Ollie has been preparing players for the future by playing them a few minutes here and there all season; in fact, Samuel has had his struggles earlier this season, but Ollie made sure to get him minutes here and there because of his potential and what he showed in practice, and guess what? Now it's looking like that's starting to pay off. If Ollie gives up on Omar and makes him a healthy scratch the rest of the year, I seriously doubt Omar is back next year. Like I said, if you think 5 minutes per game is too much to give up at ONE position in order to keep one of our most promising young players on the right track, you're entitled. But I think you're overstating the effect that 5 minutes and one shot per game will have on this team moving forward.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

@Rico444 Are you willing to sacrifice any advantage whatsoever gained on the court by not having OC in the game to win this weekend vs Cinci? The AAC Tourney? The NCAAT?

I'm not anti Omar, I want to make that clear. He was good last season, he's a local kid, hell I live in Brooklyn I want him to succeed. If there are minutes to be had vs. Rutgers or if were up big or down big vs Cinci/Ville then by all means, he should play.

The stakes are just too high at this point to let him work out of his season long slump.

 

[Rico444]

I think there's no point in stretching out this argument. Like I said, I think you're being overstating the impact of 5 minutes by the 11th man in our rotation. Hell, keeping our top 6 or 7 fresh so they're playing their best ball in the last 5 minutes of the game is every bit as important as having them all on the court for an extra couple of minutes.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Fair. Ultimately we want the guy to contribute. Hopefully next season he's the OC from his freshman season.

 

[champs99and04]

While I agree that Samuel has been better than Omar, and that in general minutes should be allotted purely based on performance, it's kind of difficult to make the argument that Samuel should take Omar's minutes when they play different positions. We were able to get away with the three point guard lineup against South Florida, but against other teams we may not be. I don't have a problem with getting Omar 5-10 minutes a game. Usually when players are in slumps, they break out in practice before they break out in a game. And as bad as things look (remember when Shabazz missed like 27 straight shots his sophomore year?), all it takes is the ball going through the hoop one time to change the fortunes of a player.

Samuel obviously needs to play more, though. Some coaches can get away with playing their stars 38, 39 minutes, but with the massive workload Napier is forced to burden on both ends of the court every night (and Boatright to a lesser extent), it just doesn't make sense to run him into the ground when you have a capable back up point guard.

 

[jleves]

We learned not to put Q-Tips deep into our ear canal. OOOOOWWWWWWWWWEEEEEEE!

 

[tcf15]

We learned not to put Q-Tips deep into our ear canal. OOOOOWWWWWWWWWEEEEEEE!

 

[Onions]

The single statistic of "points per minute" is hardly a comprehensive evaluation of each player.

What I saw last night and on many other occasions this year has been a veritable layup line to the rim, past Brimah, Nolan, and Olander. Last night Brimah and Nolan got pushed around like rag dolls by their bigs. You won't find that in the stat book. You won't find all the easy layups we gave up to their bigs because Phil and and Amida are skinny and have not mastered position defense.

What Wolf would have provided this year, that no one on the team currently does, is a legitimate "big body" to keep the other team's bigs out of our junk under the basket.

I don't think Wolf makes this team a final four team, but I think having Wolf would make the team noticeably better than it currently is, and SUBSTANTIALLY less likely of getting punted from the tourni by a team with a large body down low that is well coached enough to go repeatedly down low. Frankly, the FSU coach did a poor job of capitalizing on their dominance down low, but better coaches won't.

Wolfe was an atrocious defender. It is true he was big and could hold his position down low, but that was it for him on that side of the court. He was slow, he couldn't hedge on pick and rolls, he couldn't get down the floor. There was a reason he only played 15 minutes a game for a team that didn't have a legitimate 5. If you want to say that Wolfe would've gotten all of Olander's minutes from this year I wouldn't argue the point. If you think, as Scrappy 2.0 says, that he would be the difference between a sweet sixteen team and a final four team, I think your wrong. Very wrong. Mistaken. Unwise. Foolish. Misled. Drunk.

 

[uconnfan68]

Unless you think Omar is completely done as a player, it makes zero sense to bench him for the rest of the season. He's not making shots, but giving him 5-10 minutes a night to see if he can break out of this is not going to kill the team, especially since Ollie and Shabazz said this past week that he's looking better in practice.

All of these people saying Omar should be benched for the rest of the season are the same ones who would say "Good riddance!" if he decided to transfer because his head coach lost faith in him and benched him. Then, they would be the same ones who would bitch in two years when he was kicking ass for another program. If you want to seriously risk losing Omar for good, then yeah, let's just sit his behind down on the bench for the rest of the year. Makes NO sense to completely give up on him, when you could just limit his minutes like Ollie has been doing the entire conference season. But this is the Boneyard, where hyperbole tends to trump common sense.

You must not have seen his shot selection. I've been saying for a while that he just isn't physically ready, and maybe he is and maybe he isn't, but his play isn't worthy of game minutes.

 

[Rico444]

You must not have seen his shot selection. I've been saying for a while that he just isn't physically ready, and maybe he is and maybe he isn't, but his play isn't worthy of game minutes.

His shot selection is fine; and he's taking one shot per game over the last 4, you think that's killing the team?

Benching Omar for the rest of the season means there's a very good chance you cripple his future here. It tells him you've given up on him, and he likely transfers. This isn't a video game; you can't just bench him for the rest of the year. He's a human being and will likely explore his options.

It's not just a choice of shutting down Omar for this season; you put him in street clothes for the next month, and he's likely never going to help this program out again.

 

[tcf15]

His shot selection is fine; and he's taking one shot per game over the last 4, you think that's killing the team?

Benching Omar for the rest of the season means there's a very good chance you cripple his future here. It tells him you've given up on him, and he likely transfers. This isn't a video game; you can't just bench him for the rest of the year. He's a human being and will likely explore his options.

It's not just a choice of shutting down Omar for this season; you put him in street clothes for the next month, and he's likely never going to help this program out again.

Also, Ollie is showing to current/future players and recruits that he's not going to give up on a player no matter what season struggles they may be going through.

 

[Strummer]

Also, Ollie is showing to current/future players and recruits that he's not going to give up on a player no matter what season struggles they may be going through.

I mostly agree with this, but there is a flip side.

Somewhere out there there may be a kid watching Samuel sitting on the bench and he might be thinking, "why do I want to go play for Ollie when there's a chance I'd be on the bench behind some guy who can't hit a bull in the ass with a shovel when I'm doing pretty darn well in the scant minutes I get?"

Here's a sentence with the same word four times in a row:

The success he had had had had a great impact on his family.

 

[Hoophound]

I mostly agree with this, but there is a flip side. Somewhere out there there may be a kid watching Samuel sitting on the bench and he might be thinking, "why do I want to go play for Ollie when there's a chance I'd be on the bench behind some guy who can't hit a bull in the ass with a shovel when I'm doing pretty darn well in the scant minutes I get?" Here's a sentence with the same word four times in a row: The success he had had had had a great impact on his family.

The bull and the shovel. God that was funny.

 

[CTBasketball]

His shot selection is fine; and he's taking one shot per game over the last 4, you think that's killing the team?

Benching Omar for the rest of the season means there's a very good chance you cripple his future here. It tells him you've given up on him, and he likely transfers. This isn't a video game; you can't just bench him for the rest of the year. He's a human being and will likely explore his options.

It's not just a choice of shutting down Omar for this season; you put him in street clothes for the next month, and he's likely never going to help this program out again.

If I was Omar, I'd rather see the team succeed then see myself holding them back.

 

[Rico444]

If I was Omar, I'd rather see the team succeed then see myself holding them back.

That's fine. But don't bitch and moan when he transfers, then averages 15 PPG for Seton Hall in two years.

 

[CTBasketball]

That's fine. But don't bitch and moan when he transfers, then averages 15 PPG for Seton Hall in two years.

I won't. It'd be better for him I think .

 

[UConnNick]

I think KO is just as mystified as we are. On Saturday it's march. We don't have a solid go to rotation yet. He's still searching and trying to get guys going. We have not improved as a team heading into march, in fact we are playing our worst basketball of the season. Last night it was Samuel who gets no minutes, providing a spark. We are running out of time wondering if this is the game that OC or DD pilot light turns on again. We see what happens when Bazz can't carry us ( smu being latest example).

I'm as big a positive uconn supporter as anyone but I've been a fan a long time and recognize troubles spots and will call a spade a spade when I see it. Yeah 2011, blah blah. Not only will we never see uconn do that again in our lifetime ( 9th place to NC.)We will not see ANY team do it.

If people are hanging their tournament hopes on 2011, you may be in for a rude awakening.

In the end the best teams, teams that steadily improve over the course of a season teams that peak toward march, teams that know who they are, are the teams that you will look to make the runs.

I'm a realist. I would like to be proven wrong. And I really, really hope they do prove me wrong, but I'm not counting on a deep run, just hoping for one. No loss with this team will shock me. The margin for error is just way too slim with this bunch. Is there anyone besides Napier that we can count on for consistent production? I'm not seeing it.

I agree with a lot of these points, but let's not forget that the 2011 team kind of limped into the BET playing nowhere near top level BB for the last couple of weeks of that Big East season. Granted the Big East was light years ahead of the AAC in terms of competition level, but that team wasn't on any kind of roll late during the regular season. They even admitted they needed to get together in practice sessions before the BET and recommit themselves to accomplishing something in the tournament. It obviously worked for them, and let's not discount the fact that we still have three guys on the current team who went through that process before the BET in 2011. We've got a nucleus of players on this team that have been there, done that. I'm not suggesting we are going to run the table at the AAC tournament and win six again in the NCAAs, but it's not entirely out of the question, either. I also think some school will eventually do it again. Why not us?

 

[ctchamps]

I mostly agree with this, but there is a flip side.

Somewhere out there there may be a kid watching Samuel sitting on the bench and he might be thinking, "why do I want to go play for Ollie when there's a chance I'd be on the bench behind some guy who can't hit a bull in the ass with a shovel when I'm doing pretty darn well in the scant minutes I get?"

Here's a sentence with the same word four times in a row:

The success he had had had had a great impact on his family.

Well if that kid is thinking TS is not getting minutes because of OC then that kid is missing the same point most of the guys in this thread are missing. TS is a guard and is behind SN and RB. Currently KO is utilizing four players to play the 3 -4 spots - LK, DD, NG and OC with LK getting the majority of time at the three and NG getting the majority of time at the 4. OC is getting reduced minutes at the three. If DD gets out of his funk I expect NG to play more minutes at the three and OC's minutes to be reduced further.

OC is not the road block for TS minutes.

Funny how OC and TS both played really good defense in the USF game and the only difference between the two was one shot and the timing for UConn to finally play decently. You know TO was in during this streak and no one is implying he was the reason for the change, nor that TO should get minutes over PN or AB who is really struggling currently. I'm really excited about TS but there is no need to hammer a UConn player who is not having a good year. He's not the liability people are focusing on. KO has his slump under control.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Up 5. Omar comes in. 2 bricks and a turnover. Lead gone.

Future be damned, we're playing to win this season.

 

[Gurleyman]

Up 5. Omar comes in. 2 bricks and a turnover. Lead gone.

Future be damned, we're playing to win this season.

You have a very strange definition of brick.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

You have a very strange definition of brick.

When that round orange thing goes clank clank off the rim that's what I call a brick.

Or is not categorizing omar missed FGs correctly going to hurt us in 2016?