Your biggest concern(s) with this year's team?

[jibsey]

Ross has the size and quickness to get his own shot either driving or pulling up. He did that once from midrange on Sat but missed it. He has that Richard Hamilton build.

 

[willie99]

We're not blowing teams out in the first five minutes

 

[JerseyAlum]

We're not blowing teams out in the first five minutes

Did not seem a requirement of the last 2 years.

 

[EBonz30]

I think the point guard spot & the five spot- think it’s pretty obvious- I would imagine most of you feel similar. Probably have the most talented wings & the deepest wing depth in the nation.

Mahaney
Diarra
Johnson
Reed

Those 4- if 2 out of the 4 have good years- we should be scary good.

 

[Iluvsuebird]

We’ve won championships with Oriakhi (more of an 4)/Okwandu and Philip Nolan. I’m not worried about the Centers.

True, but they stayed on the court!!!

 

[Iluvsuebird]

After two games:
1. We have to be impressed with Reed, Jr.'s propensity to get stronger in the second half. He is already an offensive improvement. Can he provide rim protection?
2. We have to love Alex 3.0. Darn he looks good leading the young team.
3. J. Ross looks legit. And the exciting thing with him is that his ceiling is super high. Who knows what he will become.
4. Our best PG is Nowell. He is HD defensively, but with much better handle and shooting shot. I will be super shocked if he is not part of the rotation come January.
5. Who is the alpha dog? It cannot be Alex. He cannot create his own shot at will. HD's handle is too lose. Aidan is too slow and slight. Maybe Ross? Nowell? Reed, Jr. on the low post? If we develop multiple options then we will have a repeat of the last two years, which is why we have been impossible to stop.

 

[dennismenace]

Lack of veterans at the guard positions (losing Cam and Tristan). Interior defense against bigger and stronger opponents (losing Castle and Clingan). Just how much they can make up these losses of veterans and lottery picks remains to be seen. On the plus side we have without a doubt the best coaching staff bar none. We also have more overall depth. It will depend on getting a lot of the kids, sophs and portal players to jell quickly which is a tall order. I'm not anticipating they will three repeat (at least not having expectations). I want to enjoy the season and watch how the staff grows this mass of talent and depth which combined with next years incoming class is setting up for some interesting and exciting years.

 

[Griggs]

Love J. Stewart but do not see him getting many minutes.

 

[navery12]

I'm very confused by all the concern over the supposed inability of a player who can create their own shot. It's like some of you haven't watched the UConn offense the last 2 years

 

[inWV]

So DH tells Jared Kotler he's not worried about the 5; he's repeatedly expressed confidence in Reed and Samson--hard to accept, but...
With Alex and a plethora of wings, hard to worry there.
So it's PG that seems to perplex him; perhaps Mahaney is still getting the hang of the offense, and he's not sure about Hass' shooting.
I guess my concern is how you keep everybody happy, motivated, and out of the portal.
I love the depth, but even sitting Nowell and Abraham, it's a nine-man rotation. Huh?

Diarra and Mahaney combined for 37 minutes, 13 pts, 6 assists, 1 turnover, 2 rebounds and 1 foul. Not bad productivity given the insane number of scoring combinations on the rest of the roster.

 

[JerseyAlum]

No real change worth talking about on stats from first 2 games 2023-2024 to 2024-2025

Most stats are very similar for FG, Rebounds, Assists..slightly up on Steals and Blocks this year, but pretty consistently ~32 FG made for all 4 games.

If there is worry about the PG situation it's because Diarra has not had a great shooting 2 games and Mahaney has had 1 game with any points. But 6-1 assist to TO ratio is pretty good so let's let them work it out - more games, more consistency

Shot creators? Would say top 4 on the team are: Alex, Solo, Liam, and Reed, Jr. thus far and would love if Maheney could develop but more likely Ross, Stewart rise faster in this department with their athleticism.

Fouls on Samson? Honestly, so what? Reed, Jr. has been great as a 3rd/4th option on the Huskies vs 1st or 2nd on the Wolverines. Samson is best suited for dunks and passes while Reed, Jr. is better on backing down opponents, rebounding, kind of like poor man's Joel Embiid.

But I would rather delve into critical analysis under adversity and not after blowing out the likes of SH and UNH. 2 More games against sub-opponents then we play Memphis, which is at least a honorable, quality opponent compared to the first 4 games. By Maui all tune-ups should be tuned.

 

[Iluvsuebird]

Lack of veterans at the guard positions (losing Cam and Tristan). Interior defense against bigger and stronger opponents (losing Castle and Clingan). Just how much they can make up these losses of veterans and lottery picks remains to be seen. On the plus side we have without a doubt the best coaching staff bar none. We also have more overall depth. It will depend on getting a lot of the kids, sophs and portal players to jell quickly which is a tall order. I'm not anticipating they will three repeat (at least not having expectations). I want to enjoy the season and watch how the staff grows this mass of talent and depth which combined with next years incoming class is setting up for some interesting and exciting years.

this is a great take. Scary take, very valid.

 

[dennismenace]

After two games:
1. We have to be impressed with Reed, Jr.'s propensity to get stronger in the second half. He is already an offensive improvement. Can he provide rim protection?
2. We have to love Alex 3.0. Darn he looks good leading the young team.
3. J. Ross looks legit. And the exciting thing with him is that his ceiling is super high. Who knows what he will become.
4. Our best PG is Nowell. He is HD defensively, but with much better handle and shooting shot. I will be super shocked if he is not part of the rotation come January.
5. Who is the alpha dog? It cannot be Alex. He cannot create his own shot at will. HD's handle is too lose. Aidan is too slow and slight. Maybe Ross? Nowell? Reed, Jr. on the low post? If we develop multiple options then we will have a repeat of the last two years, which is why we have been impossible to stop.

Spanarkel pointed out in last night's game that he had not seen one bad (selfish) shot well into the second half. Good shots from very good passing. This happened a lot last year when shots weren't falling. He was very impressed with this and remarked that it was the hallmark of the last two years. That is perhaps the best template of this team along with the depth. They are going to wear down and wear out shorter rotation teams.
LOL watching DH drape himself over the scoring table and his early animate looks was vintage. So far so good for a lot of new players and combinations. We'll know a lot more after these upcoming tournaments and other games against stronger competition and going on the road.

 

[husky8273]

point guard

saw this early

 

[Hunt for 7]

Guards was my biggest concern going in and it has been the clear weakness of this team. We will be bigger at guard next year with Adams and I am not sure if Mullins is more of a guard than a wing but at 6’6” I am hoping guard. And I use the term guard not in the traditional sense. When I say guard I mean a player who is on the bigger side 6’4” or bigger can handle the ball well enough to bring it up with a player covering him full court. Then after expending energy doing that he has the ability to get in the lane put pressure on the defense by creating a shot for himself or kicking out for an open three.

Everyone knows the two type of three’s that are made the highest percentage of the time are the kick out threes or the pull up fast break threes.

We only have 1.5 play makers. Liam is one Ball is .5 working toward 1.

Also it was interesting Luis cannot make threes but move him in two or three feet and he never misses. I would have thought putting Ross on him was a move that could have been used but Hurley chose not to.

I understand they were pressing us but I would not even have put Mahaney on the floor last night. I would have went big with Ball, Ross, Stewart, Liam and Reed. AK sat most of the first half but he was not helping us much maybe he got a few rebounds.

If ball control was Hurleys issue it was not like we were not throwing the ball around with Diarra on the floor. I give him a pass I know he was playing through pain and if it is tendinitis it more than likely got worse as the game went on.

St Johns will lose in the tournament when they run into a team with great guard play. They can’t shoot so I have no idea why Danny did not even try a zone. Or even a gimmick defense on Luis at the end as he was taking it to the 16’-18’ mark and making every shot. He was not trying to go to the basket. I think Danny had options he could have used but he chose no to.

But against a team that shoots it as poor as St Johns from three I just don’t understand not even trying a zone. Can one of the experts on this board explain that one. Not trying to be a wise arse just trying to understand if their best two players Luis and Richmond cannot shoot from three why not a zone. Is it an ego thing.

 

[JungleLobo]

Guards was my biggest concern going in and it has been the clear weakness of this team. We will be bigger at guard next year with Adams and I am not sure if Mullins is more of a guard than a wing but at 6’6” I am hoping guard. And I use the term guard not in the traditional sense. When I say guard I mean a player who is on the bigger side 6’4” or bigger can handle the ball well enough to bring it up with a player covering him full court. Then after expending energy doing that he has the ability to get in the lane put pressure on the defense by creating a shot for himself or kicking out for an open three.

Everyone knows the two type of three’s that are made the highest percentage of the time are the kick out threes or the pull up fast break threes.

We only have 1.5 play makers. Liam is one Ball is .5 working toward 1.

Also it was interesting Luis cannot make threes but move him in two or three feet and he never misses. I would have thought putting Ross on him was a move that could have been used but Hurley chose not to.

I understand they were pressing us but I would not even have put Mahaney on the floor last night. I would have went big with Ball, Ross, Stewart, Liam and Reed. AK sat most of the first half but he was not helping us much maybe he got a few rebounds.

If ball control was Hurleys issue it was not like we were not throwing the ball around with Diarra on the floor. I give him a pass I know he was playing through pain and if it is tendinitis it more than likely got worse as the game went on.

St Johns will lose in the tournament when they run into a team with great guard play. They can’t shoot so I have no idea why Danny did not even try a zone. Or even a gimmick defense on Luis at the end as he was taking it to the 16’-18’ mark and making every shot. He was not trying to go to the basket. I think Danny had options he could have used but he chose no to.

But against a team that shoots it as poor as St Johns from three I just don’t understand not even trying a zone. Can one of the experts on this board explain that one. Not trying to be a wise arse just trying to understand if their best two players Luis and Richmond cannot shoot from three why not a zone. Is it an ego thing.

This game was lost on turnovers and free throws.

St John’s shot over 20 3s, their game plan didn’t call for that. D was fine.

There is a clear intangibles decline when AK is on the bench. Only thing he need to fix is his 3 point shot.

 

[UCan3]

We are playing three and five for significant portions of the game. With Alex and Aiden going through these long extended slumps, we’re just gonna have a hard time beating top-tier team teams.

We are also not fighting through screens on defense and setting enough good ones on offense to free up our guys for good shots.

With all the attention on Ball, we should’ve been able to get some other players open shots last night and we were not able to do this especially the second half. Where were the good screens?

Moving without the ball, I think is our biggest challenge.

And frankly, with Aiden and Alex, we’re just gonna have to look for some other options. We can’t just keep having these three on five sets on offense.

 

[UCTitleTown]

I now have no expectations for this team. The sample size is now large enough to say this isn't a good team. The sum is less than it's parts. By having no expectations, I'll enjoy it more of they catch lightening in a bottle and make a decent run.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Guards was my biggest concern going in and it has been the clear weakness of this team. We will be bigger at guard next year with Adams and I am not sure if Mullins is more of a guard than a wing but at 6’6” I am hoping guard. And I use the term guard not in the traditional sense. When I say guard I mean a player who is on the bigger side 6’4” or bigger can handle the ball well enough to bring it up with a player covering him full court. Then after expending energy doing that he has the ability to get in the lane put pressure on the defense by creating a shot for himself or kicking out for an open three.

Everyone knows the two type of three’s that are made the highest percentage of the time are the kick out threes or the pull up fast break threes.

We only have 1.5 play makers. Liam is one Ball is .5 working toward 1.

Also it was interesting Luis cannot make threes but move him in two or three feet and he never misses. I would have thought putting Ross on him was a move that could have been used but Hurley chose not to.

I understand they were pressing us but I would not even have put Mahaney on the floor last night. I would have went big with Ball, Ross, Stewart, Liam and Reed. AK sat most of the first half but he was not helping us much maybe he got a few rebounds.

If ball control was Hurleys issue it was not like we were not throwing the ball around with Diarra on the floor. I give him a pass I know he was playing through pain and if it is tendinitis it more than likely got worse as the game went on.

St Johns will lose in the tournament when they run into a team with great guard play. They can’t shoot so I have no idea why Danny did not even try a zone. Or even a gimmick defense on Luis at the end as he was taking it to the 16’-18’ mark and making every shot. He was not trying to go to the basket. I think Danny had options he could have used but he chose no to.

But against a team that shoots it as poor as St Johns from three I just don’t understand not even trying a zone. Can one of the experts on this board explain that one. Not trying to be a wise arse just trying to understand if their best two players Luis and Richmond cannot shoot from three why not a zone. Is it an ego thing.

Zones are for cats (getting past the filter here) and booger pickers

 

[uconngb]

This game was lost on turnovers and free throws.

St John’s shot over 20 3s, their game plan didn’t call for that. D was fine.

There is a clear intangibles decline when AK is on the bench. Only thing he need to fix is his 3 point shot.

That is not even close to all the things he needs to work on

 

[uconngb]

Zones are for cats (getting past the filter here) and booger pickers

Or teams that play horrific man to man defense

 

[TouchdownHusky]

We are playing three and five for significant portions of the game. With Alex and Aiden going through these long extended slumps, we’re just gonna have a hard time beating top-tier team teams.

We are also not fighting through screens on defense and setting enough good ones on offense to free up our guys for good shots.

With all the attention on Ball, we should’ve been able to get some other players open shots last night and we were not able to do this especially the second half. Where were the good screens?

Moving without the ball, I think is our biggest challenge.

And frankly, with Aiden and Alex, we’re just gonna have to look for some other options. We can’t just keep having these three on five sets on offense.

DH needs to abandon his offensive schemes. He doesn't have the Newtons, the Cams, the Sanogos who can create a shot with time running out. Too many times UConn is scrambling out beyond the arc without the ball in position for a decent shot . . . 7, 6, 5, 4 . . . turnover or hail Mary. Gotta make a lane or create space much sooner.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Or teams that play horrific man to man defense

Guys need to learn how to man up and play defense then.

 

[Hunt for 7]

Guys need to learn how to man up and play defense then.

But they are not doing it. How long do you do the same thing get the same bad results. I also hate zones and yes they are for cats. But we could not keep Luis from getting to his spot just at the foul line extended and he kept making them. Change something.

 

[storrsroars]

Guys need to learn how to man up and play defense then.

I hate gratuitous use of "man up" to explain deficiencies. Sure, you "man up" to take a charge or play thru discomfort. But your use of it is like telling Mahaney to "man up" and learn how to play in the Big East.

The thing I love about Pitino's post-game is his talking about how he and his staff knows his team stinks at 3 point shooting. So he has them shooting what analytically seems a dumb idea - taking long jumpers inside the 3 point arc. That's an adjustment to deftly employing what you have to work with.

IOW, if we're 2/3rds into the season and guys can't execute man-to-man vs certain teams, do something else. It's not about balls, it's about brains.