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Message: [QUOTE="UConnRock, post: 2568927, member: 1024"] Two Interpretations of Gilbert's Injury - I lean toward the Gilbert injury being the turning point of this season as the team had practiced all fall with him as the leader. The offense ran through him and has never looked semi-decent since he departed. Positive - With Gilbert UConn beat a decent Oregon team in Oregon. UConn was hanging tough with Mich St. until Gilbert got hurt. The freshmen were still lost on the court, but if Gilbert had played the entire season his handle and distribution would have enhanced the development of the young guys. There would have been less standing around watching Adams do his thing and Ollie's offense would have been more successful. Jalen would have accepted his role as the 2 guard and would have benefited greatly from Gilbert's skill set. Anderson could have played the role he was brought in to play as the 4th guard and defensive pressure guy. With a healthy Gilbert there would have been more penetration and dishing to the wings for easier 3 pt attempts by Larrier and Vital. UConn's issue for most of this year was that there are limited scoring threats with Adams, Larrier and Vital, and you don't know if and when Larrier and Vital would show up. Gilbert would have been a much needed 4th scoring threat to put more pressure on the defense. He was averaging 9 pts, 4 rebs and 3 assists and was just getting back into game shape. The assumption would be that Gilbert would have improved throughout the year and also assisted in the improvement of others. His presence may have made the difference in games like Arizona, Wichita St, Cincy where a 4th scoring threat and quality PG play was needed in what were close games late into the 2nd half. Estimating he would have resulted in 3-4 more wins thus far (Tulsa, UCF, Arizona, Maybe Cincy at home. Fewer blowouts which is essentially meaningless. +3 puts UConn at 15-9. Still not an NCAA team, but lots of potential shown and gets into NIT. Negative - Gilbert was not hitting a high % and was not playing smartly against lesser competition. He would not have been the true difference maker that would have pushed UConn even toward the top of the AAC. Maybe he would have meant 1-2 more wins. Not an NCAA team but no idea what the future holds. [/QUOTE]

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