Big shout Hurley for you & AJ's adjustment.....

[the Blades]

He WAS singlehandly destroying your team with play after play of offensive ineptness but since you crowned him as your leader, SO I'm Glad you figured this out.

His upside is rebounding and D, but he should be handling the ball less than Lyman Depriest did for Jim Calhoun on the offensive end. And I don't care if he hits five 3's in a row..... it's all fools gold that will send you home once again come tournament time to another lower seed. But there you are having your team pass him the ball and deferring to him in crunch time like your trying to prove the whole world wrong. Every opposing coach in the Big East is laughing at this when they play you, including McDermott during the FOX in the huddle. WAKE UP DAN !

PS..... maybe you should also realize what a disservice it is to the players on the team, who actually do have offensive ability. But because you anointed him and allow it, they probably don't want to be a bad teammate and call it out.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

UConn has won before with guys who can't shoot in the starting lineup. Need I remind everyone that they won a national championship with Taliek Brown who couldn't shoot a lick as starting PG. Taliek was a much worse FT shooter than AJ. Like AJ, Taliek added something with great D. And he could push the ball and run a break. UConn needs to keep Andre on the floor and figure out ways not to be playing 4 on 5 in halfcourt situations. They did it before with Taliek Brown and they can do it with AJ. Just figure it out men!

Of course having 2 lights out 3 pointers in Ben Gordon and Rashad Anderson helped Taliek. AJ has Hawkins and Karaban, and Newton is competent.

 

[the Blades]

UConn has won before with guys who can't shoot in the starting lineup. Need I remind everyone that they won a national championship with Taliek Brown who couldn't shoot a lick as starting PG. Taliek was a much worse FT shooter than AJ. Like AJ, Taliek added something with great D. And he could push the ball and run a break.

Yep, good example, leaders need to play to their strengths and away from weaknesses. By his SR season Tailek and his coach realized him shooting 3's were a bad idea. He took only 5 attempts all year, after shooting .303 on 33 attempts as a soph. His role was 6.5 assists pg to lead the team to a NC as a push guard and defender. He was limited on offense & stuck to his role (as a .436 career shooter, which is way better than AJ, BTW)

Taliek Brown College Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

Taliek Brown - Stats, Game Logs, Splits, and much more

www.sports-reference.com

So on what planet does someone with as busted a game on offense as AJ ( shooting .357 FG's and .274 on 3's) get to keep shooting ? Obviously the work they did, nothing on his form, was a wasted summer.
But there's other stuff AJ can do that's he' good at. He needs to watch how a guy like Rodman deferred to the real scorers and went after O rebounds for the Bulls.

The bigger problem IMHO, is Jackson needs a kick in the ass from his coach ( not a hug), right from the start instead of allowing these awful shooting displays like his 0-7 vs Xavier (x2) or his 0-4 vs. Creighton to go on.....( biggest cause of these 2 or 3 loses.) McDermott was gloating over it in the huddle saying "just let them keep shooting these bad shots and we'll win this game."

Dan if you don't know how to call out unacceptable play just watch a Hall of Famer do it. As JC gets his point across in no uncertain terms. Because if AJ doesn't stop it with these busted looking shots and Hurley can't figure out how to isolate away from him, it'll be a wasted winter too.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

I think what prompted that comment by JC was that Boatright was thinking about hoisting up a bad shot when Oriakhi flashed open inside for an entry pass. JC comment came right after Boatright looked like he would hoist up a 3.

There can be no argument that AJ needs to shoot less. But at the same time when teams sag way off him and leave him wide open so it's 4 guys playing against a sagging defense, he has to figure out ways to make the other team pay. His shooting numbers are crookedly bad. They weren't that bad last year- 42% FGs and 36% on 3s are respectable numbers even though he shot a lower volume. He can cut down on the 3s and focus on drives and mid range shots and his numbers will not be as bad. But he needs to shoot less. Just figure it out !!!!!!!!

 

[the Blades]

I think what prompted that comment by JC was that Boatright was thinking about hoisting up a bad shot when Oriakhi flashed open inside for an entry pass. JC comment came right after Boatright looked like he would hoist up a 3.

No actually it was Boat not hitting Jeremy Lamb when he was open running around the curl screen to the foul line, but you get the point.

 

[the Blades]

He can cut down on the 3s and focus on drives and mid range shots and his numbers will not be as bad. But he needs to shoot less. Just figure it out !!!!!!!!

I've seen 14-15 olds just learning the game with better looking form than those busted, wrong footed floaters ( shot put looking things) he tries to attempt, just sayin'

 

[the Blades]

Shout to AJ with the type of impact game he needs to play. 5-6 FGs on drives and dunks. Also helped ( when under control) on pushing the ball up court, + 10 rebs, good D overall. He didn't get suckered into takin' some 3's early on by SH, but at the end of the day he needs to go Taliek Brown on shooting 3's and just stop..... after more wasted trips down the court by going 0-4 behind the stripe. Now at 25.8 % for the year.

Seton Hall vs. Connecticut Box Score (Men), February 18, 2023 | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

Seton Hall vs. Connecticut Box Score (Men), February 18, 2023

www.sports-reference.com

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

If you take away the 4 3s he should not have shot, he played a pretty flawless game. What's brutal about AJ's 25% on 3s is that he has been wide open on the vast majority of them and still can't hit them. Interestingly, unlike Taliek Brown, he is not a terrible FT shooter (69%). Hassan Diarra, on the other hand, shoots FTs like Taliek (51%).

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Taliek Brown was a career 22.7% 3 point shooter at UConn- far worse than AJ, and pretty much as bad as it gets for a starting D1 guard- but one of his 17 career 3s won a Big East championship for UConn. He had to shoot it because there was 1 second on the shot clock, but it was all net:

 

[the Blades]

Taliek Brown was a career 22.7% 3 point shooter at UConn- far worse than AJ, and pretty much as bad as it gets for a starting D1 guard-

Well at a larger look true, but not recently since AJ is trending in a terrible direction. Currently he's career 28.5% from the arc, but last year seems to be an anomaly. Especially with his 11.8% as a FR and 25.8% this year, despite all his "shooting work" over the summer.

Just look at Uconn's 6-6 record since January. It's one of the main culprits in the loses, analytics wise. Should AJ keep taking 3's, while he's shooting 16.7% during that 12 game stretch ? ( I know the rest of the Big East coaches want him to, so that should be the only red flag DH needs)

Hurley needs to wake up to that shooting fact and shut it down, while having AJ stick to all the stuff he's really good at ....like vs. the Hall.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

A couple of things have to be looked at on the AJ/Taliek Stat Comparison:

1. Taliek took 75 3 pointers in his career, whereas AJ has taken 144- almost twice as many. However Taliek only took 22 shots his last 2 seasons after 55 his first two seasons. I believe that historically there were 2 very good reasons for this: (a) Calhoun didn't let him shoot; (b) he didn't need to shoot 3s his last 2 years, as UConn had Rashad Anderson and Ben Gordon as his running mates, 2 of the best 3 point shooters in UConn history, who didn't miss in the 2004 postseason and helped carry UConn to the NCAA championship.

2. AJ clearly can take way less 3 pointers, but the floor isn't being spaced the way it needs to be when he is out there and not making 3s. UConn isn't as good defensively or on the boards as the 2004 team, which had a cadre of shot blockers and rebounders who triggered numerous transition points. So I think resolving the AJ 3 point issue is harder than resolving the Taliek 3 point issue. Taliek had 2 other lights out 3 point shooters playing next to him. I think Karaban and Hawkins are solid 3 point shooters, but they don't get out in transition or get open as consistently in the halfcourt as Gordon and Anderson did. It would have been nice if AJ could have shot a serviceable 36% like last year, but he hasn't. So it's a problem and needs to get figured out. When teams sag off AJ and crowd the other shooters the spacing is all messed up and it's especially a problem against the teams that play a rugged physical D like Providence which is coming in Wednesday night.

So I don't know if simply stopping AJ from shooting 3s solves the problem on the spacing of the floor when he is out there.

 

[the Blades]

A couple of things have to be looked at on the AJ/Taliek Stat Comparison:

1. Taliek took 75 3 pointers in his career, whereas AJ has taken 144- almost twice as many. However Taliek only took 22 shots his last 2 seasons after 55 his first two seasons. I believe that historically there were 2 very good reasons for this: (a) Calhoun didn't let him shoot; (b) he didn't need to shoot 3s his last 2 years, ( but neither does AJ )

Good call, that's what HOF coaches do, they make the adjustment.....And as far as all-time best Fish Fry, was clutch but at 38.6% he was no better than Hawk ( 39.2%) , Karaban ( 39.7%) and even Sanogo( 39.0%) have been this year. I would also mention Joey ( 42.3 %) but he's tanked since the BE and can't even get open anymore.

Just sayin' there's options besides AJ's current 16.7% streak, which is pretty obvious.

 

[the Blades]

One other thing I see with AJ.... DH could play him closer to the hoop in offensive sets for screens and O rebs. You won't see teams leaving him wide open then, unless they want to give up wide open dunks. 3pt shooting problem solved.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

...And as far all-time best Fish Fry, was clutch but at 38.6% he was no better than Hawk ( 39.2%) , Karaban ( 39.7%) and even Sanogo( 39.0%) have been this year. I would also mention Joey ( 42.3 %) but he's tanked since the BE and can't even get open anymore.

It should be noted that Rashad was a VERY high volume 3 point shooter- 715 attempted in his career, nearly twice as many as his 2 point attempts. In the Calhoun era he seemed to favor designated 3 point shooters who were trained only to shoot 3s- guys like Brian Fair, Albert Mouring, Anderson. So clearly he had a bigger sample size.

Of course, Hawkins and Karaban are much better options than AJ. Why Joey C hasn't been able to get open at all is a bit of a mystery to me.

The bottom line is they need to fix the AJ shooting too many 3s problem, and as you have noted there are potential fixes. AJ is an excellent player in almost every other phase of playing basketball except the shooting of 3s, so just figure it out Coaches!

 

[the Blades]

One other thing I see with AJ.... DH could play him closer to the hoop in offensive sets for screens and O rebs. You won't see teams leaving him wide open then, unless they want to give up wide open dunks. 3pt shooting problem solved.

Pretty much covers what I posted in this over the top thread !!! Even a McDermott mention as I quoted Creighton's HC above. Gotta love it, will only make the team better...Big shout out to DH and AJ ...

“He’s figured it out,” Hurley noted.

"During UConn’s “forgettable” stretch of losing six of eight games between New Year’s Eve and Jan. 25, Jackson shot just 7-for-25 from 3 "........( It was even worse if you counted the 12 game stretch I mentioned above - 16.7%)

“They played him closer than the teams have been playing him,” Hurley acknowledged, “I think because of his effectiveness as a screener and getting to the dunker spot. ........So, I think teams are going to creep closer to him. That will allow him to get back into the ball-screen game, which is where he’s really at his best.......“Andre’s figured out how to play against people that are playing a little bit soft,” the coach declared. “He’s solved that puzzle.”

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Better late than never but I would have liked to have seen some quicker adjustments. There was also a mysterious and prolonged absence of Joey C from the offense when he couldn't seem to get any breathing room for a good look. UConn has had guys who were one dimensional stationary shooters with less skill than Joey C that never had that kind of prolonged slump. To me, not enough was being done to get Joey C open looks. He should be a fairly consistent 8-10 point per game guy off the bench with occasional 15-17 point explosions. Just have to keep him moving and have guys set screens without fouling. It shouldn't be that hard.

 

[the Blades]

There was also a mysterious and prolonged absence of Joey C from the offense when he couldn't seem to get any breathing room for a good look. UConn has had guys who were one dimensional stationary shooters with less skill than Joey C that never had that kind of prolonged slump. To me, not enough was being done to get Joey C open looks. He should be a fairly consistent 8-10 point per game guy off the bench with occasional 15-17 point explosions. Just have to keep him moving and have guys set screens without fouling. It shouldn't be that hard.

Didn't know it at the time, but it looks like Joey C knowing he had a much needed role @ MSG, helped him step up into beast mode as a scorer once again, seeing that Uconn was down to an 8 man rotation. Uconn's 3 man bench was a huge factor in the W. Sometimes all it takes is an opportunity.



Which was a big plus for AJ and one more guy he can leave the 3pt shooting to. Though AJ did take a couple when needed ( almost like the Taliek 3pt'er you posted) with no time on the shot clock and hit that huge 3pt too.