the Blades said:

Toughness was a big miss while DH got fixated on offense IMHO.

Click to expand...

I think Hurley thought he could get these guys to play good D but it's just not that easy. We saw rebounding issues and interior defensive issues right off the bat in the Rhode Island exhibition. With the loss of the big guards and Clingan it was very easy to predict that this team wasn't going to be as strong on D and rebounding as last year or the year before. But we drank the Kool Aid and believed that shortcomings could and would be hidden through coaching.

I don't believe UConn is as bad defensively as what they showed in Maui, however, nor are they anywhere near as good as they were last year defensively. I think Nowell is going to take a lot of Mahaney's minutes and eventually start, because he is obviously better defensively, and it looks like he can run the offense. We will have to live with some mistakes/TOs from him. I also think Mahaney could be a valuable bench piece if placed in a Joey C role. He can be as good or better than Joey C- if that is all you ask him to be. Don't ask him to be more, at least not yet.

The two attributes Tyrese Martin showed while he was at UConn (apart from a strong body with NBA potential), and which have likely served him very well in his difficult pro basketball journey, were toughness and confidence in himself. For guys trying to make it in the NBA while being yo-yoed from organization to organization and G League/European team to team, it can be very discouraging. The guys who rise from that are the guys who are the toughest mentally and have the strongest belief in themselves, even when nobody else does. From that standpoint it doesn't surprise me to see Tyrese now getting more than the proverbial cup of coffee in the NBA. He is at the table and eating breakfast.

Samson Johnson averaging 9.3 fouls per 40 minutes, and him and Reed fouling out in back to back games, brings back memories of the Amida Brimah/Kentan Facey days of foul prone centers. I haven't seen rapid foul acquisition like this since Brimah/Facey.

I think we are all seeing minutes being stolen by Nowell from Mahaney. Nowell had 4 assists playing the last 9 minutes. It looks like changes are being made.

14 foul first half after 31 fouls yesterday. UConn averaging 15 fouls per half in Maui. The kids are playing hard but some of those fouls were just not smart plays. Reed's 3rd foul very borderline IMHO but I think he had to let that rebound go with 2 fouls already.

I am not fully understanding how Johnson, an experienced player, is having these foul issues. I understand that he has always had trouble defending bigger bodied centers, and that he is arguably miscast playing the 5 on defense. It seems like he is putting himself in bad defensive positions almost continually and you would think this would have been coached out of him..

The other part of this is he really passes the ball well on offense and could be a lob threat if the guards found him. I wonder if he is getting frustrated by the guard play.

Was listening to the Locked On Podcast and heard that Nowell had a bandage on his hand which is why he probably didn't play at all yesterday. Not sure whether he has a hand injury or not. Despite that I will be curious if either Mahaney or Johnson start today. Starting Diarra and Reed in their places seems like the way to go.

the Blades said:

Time to go to that bigger line-up you've been talking about with more Solo/ Diarra along with some McNeely/Ross or even Stewart @ the 2 than the portal guy.

Click to expand...

Although Johnson and Mahaney were both huge liabilities for reasons you mentioned (and really have been in all of the games so far), I think another possible solution is to play Nowell more minutes and use Mahaney in the Joey California bench role he seems better suited to. Nowell is a dog on defense and moves his feet better than Mahaney while potentially providing the same scoring.

I think Hurley is intrigued by Mahaney's potential PG skills offensively and felt like he could coach up the D. But his defensive weaknesses so far overshadow his offensive potential. Some guys who have gone from mid majors to UConn or that level have difficulty with the adjustment, and Mahaney certainly has. Let's play Nowell more Minutes starting today. I want to see Dogs on Defense!!!!!!!!!!

The line is UConn -8.5. Which is the biggest spread of any of the 4 1st round games- tied with Michigan State also -8.5 over Colorado in the 2nd game.

Clingan 17 points, 12 boards and 8 blocks:
Login to view embedded media

I watched the game and thought a switch was flipped when Fagnano came in that game. Whether that was partly due to UAB being gassed is hard to say, but it's pretty obvious they made some very good plays in the passing game with Fagnano. That may have helped set up the clinching TD run by Edwards.

It was an impressive win.