Discussion of UConn Program Going Forward
- Thread starter KhalidShockedTheWorld
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I don’t see Isiah Whaley or Mamadou Diarra having a future with this team. Vital, who may go pro anyway, might not have anyone to talk him out of doing that. That foul 70 feet from the basket which stopped the clock at the end of the USF game, putting a win in jeopardy, could be a legacy moment for him. That could be 3 open scholies right there. The team can be reworked by adding another 2 or 3 players, hopefully including a rim protecting, screen setting big who cannot be shoved around like an anorexic mannequin.
" Sometimes, ridding itself of certain players, no matter how talented, is a blessing for a program. " but Vital go pro ? ...transfer sure....if you can't start for a .500 Uconn team where's he gonna get a pro job ? With Stanley Robinson up in Canada ?
I really hope Vital isn't in Hurley's sites. To me, he has been the one bright spot on the team these last few forgettable seasons. As mentioned in the article, he seems to be a Hurley type of player. Yeah, he takes bad shots, tries to do too much, and has some stupid fouls - but while it's frustrating, I can excuse a lot of it because it comes from his effort. I would take him in the lineup over Polley seven days a week and twice on Sunday. Frankly, if I were getting rid of people from this team, I can think of five I would ditch before I even considered him. Actually, I thought the most interesting part about the article was Ollie recruiting Whaley instead of Yetna.
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Yeah, I found the Vital part interesting... Don't disagree that it looks like he's fallen out of favor, but also note that Hurley has said a lot of really great things about him in the past. It could be a recent, not permanent situation.
I think after the season Hurley will have a very frank conversation about cleaning up his act for his senior year, pointing out Jalen Adams and the wackness of this year's team as a cautionary tale. If that doesn't go well, he could transfer, or go pro I guess, but he's a long way from even being a solid option for European teams.
I think after the season Hurley will have a very frank conversation about cleaning up his act for his senior year, pointing out Jalen Adams and the wackness of this year's team as a cautionary tale. If that doesn't go well, he could transfer, or go pro I guess, but he's a long way from even being a solid option for European teams.
Yeah I've thought CV up until Jalen went down had made pretty good strides this year of reeling in his wild drives and was playing to his strengths, Reb, D and spot up 3pt shooting in rhythm. Seems like something has been off between him and DH since the SMU blowout.
Regarding Polley if he's starting anywhere but at the 3 next year it'll be this season all over again. They have to upgrade the 4 spot with a legit power forward. DH was talking today in his show above, how it's just to tough to match-up with USF and their 4 man rotation of grown men at the 4-5 spots with kids like Polley and Wilson who are 3's/4's..... Well Dan you better get on that transfer market soon.
Regarding Polley if he's starting anywhere but at the 3 next year it'll be this season all over again. They have to upgrade the 4 spot with a legit power forward. DH was talking today in his show above, how it's just to tough to match-up with USF and their 4 man rotation of grown men at the 4-5 spots with kids like Polley and Wilson who are 3's/4's..... Well Dan you better get on that transfer market soon.
Vital going pro probably means overseas. Stanley Robinson has been playing pro in Chile and that is a league where Vital can probably find a job. But he took time last year to consider his professional options, so possible pro talk should not be a surprise here to anyone. I do like Vital's effort, D and rebounding, but offensively he is not a productive player when all things are considered. He is a smaller version of Purvis, is what he is.
If Vital doesn't come back, UConn would have Gilbert and Adams and the two incoming freshman guards, Bouknight and Gaffney. The real area of need is at the 4 and 5 positions. They need 2 or 3 more bodies to join Carlton, and Akok Akok. One should preferably be a pure rim protector/screen setter with big , strong body who can hold his position in the post. No offensive game needed if he can rim protect and set screens. Jake Voskuhl would be the template, but will settle for a poor man's version.
If Vital doesn't come back, UConn would have Gilbert and Adams and the two incoming freshman guards, Bouknight and Gaffney. The real area of need is at the 4 and 5 positions. They need 2 or 3 more bodies to join Carlton, and Akok Akok. One should preferably be a pure rim protector/screen setter with big , strong body who can hold his position in the post. No offensive game needed if he can rim protect and set screens. Jake Voskuhl would be the template, but will settle for a poor man's version.
If UConn can sign 2 bodies for the 4-5, then if another scholarship is available, bring in a pure 3 point shooter, someone like Brian Fair, Albert Mouring, or Rashad Anderson. UConn has not had one since Giffey, who actually could also defend really well. Leo Tolksdorf was supposed to be the next guy after Giffey, and then Vance Jackson after him, but neither guy stayed in the program. Let's go and get a legit 3 baller, someone who can shoot 40% taking shots from all over behind the line. Someone who can bust a zone all by himself.
Something seemed to sour Hurley on CV recently. Not sure what changed, but apparently he draws the ire of Hurley pretty often in practice. It's disappointing because he's been the lone bright spot at times the past three years.
As for "ridding itself of certain players", I think this team has shown this year that they're better without Jalen and will be better moving forward. Seems like he was viewed as the "leader" but didn't really have the traits to be that.
As for "ridding itself of certain players", I think this team has shown this year that they're better without Jalen and will be better moving forward. Seems like he was viewed as the "leader" but didn't really have the traits to be that.
My view regarding CV and Jalen. Is it's not a coincidence that they lost 6 in a row once Jalen went down. As a BB player JA is the only one on this team that can create his own shot off the dribble, score at a high % and has won games single handily throughout his career. Plus when he had a decent amount of talent around 2 years ago he lead the AAC in assists. CV has tried to do it all after JA's injury even though he has no clue how to even make the simple passes or score off the dribble and this drives DH nuts.
But the problem with Jalen as you mentioned is he's been such a mixed bag of inconsistency off the court and had way to many no shows where he's not as engaged as a leader should be. Sounds like DH knowing he has 2 more years of Rique has gone into the old Calhoun mode of really talking him up, even if he has along way to on the court.
But the problem with Jalen as you mentioned is he's been such a mixed bag of inconsistency off the court and had way to many no shows where he's not as engaged as a leader should be. Sounds like DH knowing he has 2 more years of Rique has gone into the old Calhoun mode of really talking him up, even if he has along way to on the court.
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What was most disturbing about Jalen is that in this his senior year, when a player of his caliber should be consistently scoring 18-22 points every game, he had 3 or 4 total no show games, scoring 0-6 points and being totally invisible and playing no defense at all. Blades mentioned all of his offensive attributes but on defense he was so bad stopping dribble penetration he was in one early Sunday game benched after 5 minutes and never reinserted by Hurley. I personally never saw this type of inconsistency by a star level player in his junior or senior year at UConn. You wonder about what was happening off the court that led to these total no show performances (of which he had about 4 before getting hurt), and you also worry that a team will take their cues from this type of leader. It’s not the culture that DH wants or keeps talking about. I found Jalen’s play this year to be alarmingly inconsistent and very concerning.
Vital had made strides and was playing better before Jalen went down, but after Jalen went down he seemed to interpret this circumstance as the team needing him to go back to old style which was basically being over aggressive and trying to do too much. This was never more apparent then at the end of the USF game when with 7 seconds to go, CV fouled a USF ballhandler 80 feet from the basket, not only giving USF free points, but critically stopping the clock and giving USF new life. This play could have lost the game for UConn. These are the kinds of plays that are not winning basketball. Winning basketball is in large part not doing things that prevent you from winning, and making the other team do things that prevent it from winning. CV is more or less a great effort, great motor but low IQ basketball player with a penchant for trying to make unnecessary plays that cause live ball TOs. He is from the Purvis and Dyson school of basketball. If Rodney and Jerome started their own basketball school CV is the kind of player it would produce.
Vital had made strides and was playing better before Jalen went down, but after Jalen went down he seemed to interpret this circumstance as the team needing him to go back to old style which was basically being over aggressive and trying to do too much. This was never more apparent then at the end of the USF game when with 7 seconds to go, CV fouled a USF ballhandler 80 feet from the basket, not only giving USF free points, but critically stopping the clock and giving USF new life. This play could have lost the game for UConn. These are the kinds of plays that are not winning basketball. Winning basketball is in large part not doing things that prevent you from winning, and making the other team do things that prevent it from winning. CV is more or less a great effort, great motor but low IQ basketball player with a penchant for trying to make unnecessary plays that cause live ball TOs. He is from the Purvis and Dyson school of basketball. If Rodney and Jerome started their own basketball school CV is the kind of player it would produce.
Regarding Gilbert- although his play has been inconsistent and wild, I think he has great talent and potential. His crossover dribble and first step are lethal. He is basically the equivalent of a college freshman player this year due to his myriad injuries so I am giving him a pass. He does need to make better decisions and take better shots, but I think he can grow into a very good player under Hurley’s tutelage.
This is all true concerning CV - and I especially enjoyed the part about the Purvis school of basketball. That being said, I like CV much more than Dyson/Purvis. I am so tired of seeing lack of effort out of UConn that I'm willing to look past the mistakes, because he can make up for them with his hustle and desire. You've heard it said before that rebounding is all about desire, and his rebounding stats the last two years don't lie about that. Can someone tell me the reason Polley gets less than half the rebounds CV gets, despite being considerably bigger? I, for one, would hate to see this program move forward without him next year. Sometimes, you can have addition by subtraction on a team, but I don't think that would be the case with CV.
As Blades has pointed out, CV’s rebounding stats, which are ridiculous for a 6’2” guard (almost 6 per game), are partly a result of his intensity and motor, but also are greatly a result of the ineffectiveness of all of the UConn bigs at rebounding the basketball. If UConn had real bigs like Emeka Okafor, Josh Boone et al who led the country in rebounding, there would be no rebounds for CV to get, no matter how good his motor is. His rebounding on this team is a positive; but on a better team with real big men, that positive wouldn’t even be under discussion since he would not have the same stats.
If you assume UConn can recruit competent rebounding big men, and then remove his rebounding from the discussion, CV is a bench player at best, given his other attributes. If he only took good shots, I think he would be a credible 3 point shooter and defender off the bench, but he takes some really, really bad shots that are too far out and not in the rhythm of the offense. And he does this way too often and also these bad shots and his many live ball TOs on forced moves become easy transition baskets the other way. So he is in my mind someone who shouldn’t have a prominent role next year.
If you assume UConn can recruit competent rebounding big men, and then remove his rebounding from the discussion, CV is a bench player at best, given his other attributes. If he only took good shots, I think he would be a credible 3 point shooter and defender off the bench, but he takes some really, really bad shots that are too far out and not in the rhythm of the offense. And he does this way too often and also these bad shots and his many live ball TOs on forced moves become easy transition baskets the other way. So he is in my mind someone who shouldn’t have a prominent role next year.
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"But those numbers don’t tell the whole story. UConn has been infinitely more competitive this season. A year ago, the Huskies had 11 double-digit losses, including nine by at least 15 points and a school-record eight by 20 points or more. This season, UConn has suffered just five double-digit losses and only one (81-58 vs. Villanova on Dec. 22) by more than 20 points......There have been no back-to-back losses at Gampel to Wagner and Northeastern, as there was to start the 2016-17 season. In fact, the Huskies nearly completed their first undefeated season at Gampel in a decade before losing to Temple. ".....
UConn was a little bit better, mainly due to having more experience, but they are headed for a 9th or 10th place finish in the AAC, a losing record and no postseason. So they were not significantly better. They clearly don’t have the size or strength on the roster to be able to play with top 75 D-1 basketball teams. The roster needs to be upgraded. Quality big men are needed, as UConn only has one on the roster.
+1, This is glaringly true as we have both discussed above in this thread....
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