AJ

[the Blades]

As I posted in this thread, #post #21 vs. SETON HALL ....DH has got to stop this kid from doing anything but rebounding and playing the solid D that he plays. In other words, make him play to his strengths. Think former Husky Lyman Depriest with more athleticism and better but often reckless passing. 2 or 3 times a game he throws passes right into the defenders hands and forces or makes a pass that has no chance to connect. His offense and body control to get off any kind of shot with good form is pathetic. Allowing him to shoot to help his confidence is not going to work when he has no form, shoots off the wrong foot on drives and it seems like he never learned because he was a dunk machine in HS.

So why does Hurley keep allowing him to shoot or even play him in clutch situations on offense ? He was 0-6 from 3 vs. Creighton last night and is 4-25 (16.0 %) in the last 12 games. Total he was 2 for 9 and single handedly killed Uconn's comeback last night right at a key point (down 3) in the game by turning it over (passed it right to the D) .Then on the very next play he made a typical out of control drive that had no chance to go in, to stop Uconn's run. DH allowing him to shoot that last second shot in the 1st half, that he threw over the top of backboard was a joke too. But what else could you possibly expect from someone who struggles like he does with shooting and form ? AJ has good athleticism for a limited role....But for the sake of winning ....please Dan.... shut him down on offense and don't let him near the ball when you need a clutch basket.

 

[CaNOLEE]

not the worst loss going into the BE tourney imo. Especially after a fortunate win against Nova, which may have given them a false sense of self.

Now go eat your humble pie and get back to work. .

agree on AJ. The turnovers and his ugly shot drive you nuts, But Sanogo had 3 point blank missed shots in crunch time that could have given us the lead. We’ll go as far as he goes.

 

[the Blades]

not the worst loss going into the BE tourney imo. (True it only dropped the 1 spot in the NET rankings and maybe they can learn from it. )
agree on AJ. The turnovers and his ugly shot drive you nuts, But Sanogo had 3 point blank missed shots in crunch time that could have given us the lead. We’ll go as far as he goes.

+1 on Sanago too. He's the other guy who can kill Uconn (and did) when he doesn't recognize double and triple teams or just flat out refuses to pass out of them to guys who are wide open because of it. Then he is forced away from the hoop or takes a bad attempt because of the traffic (as Rafferty mentioned ). He's shown signs that he can pass out recently but then gets stubborn and wants to bull his way up to bad misses. Or even if he'd learn it's OK to pass out to shift the D away from him and re-set in the post.

But the whole allowing AJ to shoot ( 9 attempts) - Sanogo being double and triple teamed was certainly McDermott's strategy. He can see like the rest of us that they will force shots up they shouldn't ( which makes it advantage Creighton). It's Hurley's job to get it into their heads.... not to.
Just like the other game ( Sanogo was 3-10 ) McDermott allowed AJ to shoot away and go 2-11 in the loss at the XL. AJ should never take more than a handful of shots a game and those should be mostly dunks or lay-ups. (which has been the case in Uconn's recent wins/ only 20 FGA total in 5 games, but had 25 assists )

(unless he takes a whole summer to correct how to shoot. Right now it resembles a shot put attempt with no form, ability to take a jump shot unless it's at his waist or high point the ball. Who the hell taught him this ??? AJ just take a look around all of BB, if you want to play after college what your doing now ain't gonna get you there.)

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

McDermott owns Hurley. He is now 5-0 including 2 wins this year with a team that was supposed to finish towards the bottom of the Big East. I do agree that he is good at recognizing and implementing the strategy of leaving AJ open or double and triple teaming Sanogo to create traffic in the low post, which can either result in a bad or tipped pass or the forced bad shot. Sanogo is getting better at handling it, but let's not forget this is all new to him. The dude is a sophomore, just started seeing these defenses this year. Similarly AJ, who is a fantastic rebounder, defender and passer (with some exceptions for unnecessary Pete Maravich imitations), is still learning to pick his spots with his shooting, which is a problem. But Jason Kidd had some of the same shooting issues at his age and it can be improved. It took Kidd a very long time though. I think AJ just really needs to be more of a threat who cannot be left wide open. Because when a player is left wide open due to bad shooting it is a 4 on 5 game, it leads to unbalanced or disorganized halfcourt offensive sets, and it's embarrassing both for the fans and the player. The problem is AJ does so many other things well, you can't take him out, you can only give him orders not to shoot, but that kind of messes up the other players in the 4 on 5 sets that result.

Like Canolee, I do not think it is a bad loss. Villanova lost by 20 at Creighton. More significantly, I don't know about playing Villanova rather than PC in the Big East semifinals. Some people would say, you have to beat them both maybe, anyway, to win the Big East. I would still rather get PC in the semis and Villanova in the finals than the other way around. If Creighton upsets one of those teams, I would take chances on a 3rd game against them.

 

[the Blades]

Good point on Jason Kidd's improvement, though Kidd was gonna be a top 3 pick whenever he left CAL,
and AJ isn't even anywhere near that conversation right now... (PS- I don't want to down play AJ's passing because it's been good when he's under control- see last 5 wins- 25 assists -11 TO's )

Can Jackson be an NBA Draft pick someday?

Scout : It’s always tougher for older, less-skilled players to make too much of a splash on draft night. Some things would really have come around, but people tend to take flyers on those guys the back half of the second round if you play hard, you’re a good athlete and can defend a couple different positions.”
“The problem is, he’s a little bit wild right now. The jump shot — I don’t want to say it’s busted completely. The 3-point percentage ( not recently -16%) and free-throw percentage look decent enough, but he has no confidence inspired when he shoots the ball. It’s tough to make it when you can’t shoot it. "

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

I think we are being a tad harsh with our assessment of AJ. Let's look at the big picture. Even with the 4 for his last 25, AJ is shooting 35.3% from 3, which is a very respectable clip for a guy who supposedly can't shoot a lick, and it is over 3 times better than the moose ball-sucking 11.8% he shot last year:

Andre Jackson Jr. Stats | ESPN

Latest on UConn Huskies guard Andre Jackson Jr. including latest updated stats on ESPN

www.espn.com

When he was 14 for 26, did anyone really think he was going to shoot better than 50% from 3 for the season? He was destined to hit a slump. The problem has been both that he is slumping on open 3s and he has also taken a few slightly rushed 3s, on which he has badly missed. He just has to get back to picking his spots carefully. When he was 14-26 to start, almost all of those shots were wide open. I think we can all agree that in order to avoid 4 on 5s the rest of the year, he has to be able to take and make that shot just often enough to get the defense to think twice about leaving him open. However his overall 3 point stats are very respectable and he just needs to work harder and pick his spots better with the 3s to get out of this slump.

 

[the Blades]

I think we are being a tad harsh with our assessment of AJ. Let's look at the big picture.

Not really, like you said he does alot of other things well. Like a better version of Lyman Depriest, who can pass. He was a very important part of winning in JC's early teams. Remember his reverse in the NCAA's on Shaq ?

The big picture was we called it last summer and as the NBA scout ( who was being nice about his shot not being completely busted) and I said... AJ's shooting form doesn't lie. I was hoping I was wrong. But 4-25 with that form over the last 12 games is probably about right. He certainly shouldn't being putting up six 3's in a game to try to figure it out. If he keeps shooting expect his 3 pt number to get alot worse, but again I hope I'm wrong. So somewhere between Lyman D. and very far from Jason Kidd probably lies the truth.

The recent G-town , Nova, Seton Hall games are probably the perfect stat line from AJ....3-4 FGA's, 6 or 8 assists ( ave only 1 TO in those games) and throw in his 5-7 rebs is nice. Usually less is more from AJ.

Andre Jackson Jr. (G) Stats, News, Rumors, Bio, Video - Yahoo Sports

The latest stats, facts, news and notes on Andre Jackson Jr. of the UConn Huskies

sports.yahoo.com

Thread from last June
PS.....I never said that...I said " If Jackson could get something done over the summer with his shooting and scoring I'd probably swap.....(him and Gaf in the starting 5 )" Right now he's shown no shooting ability ( except when he's stationary, at the FT line) and I also hope while he's taking all those shots, the coaches are helping him work on his form, which was terrible.