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Game Thread- Southern Conn

Brimah with two quick fouls but my god the first one was standard defense. Cassell with a nice three but this offense is struggling, its looks very much like its first realg game together.

Southern is hitting the 3's for sure.
 
Shitty call on Hamilton there........... Nolan already had a couple weak plays. Facey cna board
 
I had to take a call but from the looks of it we kept missing and they didnt. What is the score ?
 
on a positive note. Hamilton looks like a real solid player. Boat had a decent stretch after a bad start...then he got a 2nd foul.
 
I'm normally of the mindset that I want to see our stars ball hog early in the season. Boat is taking over a little. I like it. Work on teamwork and offense later. Work on one-on-one skills early in the season.
 
Cassell is a smooth player and the only one to me that looks comfortable out there. Boat looks good in spurts but he isnt running the team like you want him too.

Bazz's leadership is clearly missing right now, that is the biggest thing I see out there. It can happen, its early but that is far more of the issue that I would have thought tonight. Purvis looks lost. Brimah and Nolan look lost. Hamilton looks polished for sure.
 
This game has been horrible...no doubt. But there are a few things I liked. Boat, Purvis, Hamilton and Cassel all tried to initiate some offense. I liked that.
 
Nolan needs to ride the Fing bench for the rest of the year, he is just the worst. I have seen enough already to know he has not gotten better at all.

Brimah has been good but his shot was ill timed and stupid, regardless that he made it it was terrible. He still is all over the place with his block attempts.

Purvis looks lost, 100% lost which seems impossible starting his 2nd year understanding Ollie's offense.

Cassell is the only one that looks like he belongs out there in a UCONN uniform. Hamilton and Boat are decent but nothing close to smooth.

Facey still looks passive, Samuels looks misused, Lubin looks like a freshman (the worst FT form I have seen in a LONG while).
 
Nolan tried a couple moves. Tried to dunk. It all sucked, but I like that he tried. Keep trying Phil.
 
Man he is clueless and a minus stat just by being out there.

I hated the attitude all game by this team except for Cassell and Hamilton. Body language was terrible.
 
All I know is KSTW... You are a JINX!! Lolol



Good call on spread btw...
 
I just got back from the game......wow !
All I can say is Uconn better close on a shooter like Mack..... ASAP and Stone can take Nolan (5 TO's vs. a bunch of
midgets) and Facey's minutes tomorrow..... my fears of Purvis look justified...seems like an all-airport team guy
( powerful looking athlete, looks great in the airport) but man he's a BB player trapped in a FB body....Afraid to take
open shots over and over, would rather put his head down try to edge around his man and then fly to the hoop into
a bunch of bodies...Slashing doesn't work in CBB !!!! .....

FT shooting was terrible...it's a simple game...put the round ball in the basket ...alot of guys were struggling with that
task so they decided to plow into traffic with no pull-up or mid range game. Boat did take control when he
needed to... but I don't know if we have an elite QB ( Like Peyton, Brady, Kemba or Bazz ) on this roster.

on the plus side Cassell Jr. looks like a real BB player who can shoot it and understands the game. Hamilton has a
handle and shows alot of potential and better vision than I expected.... if Rock is 6-8 Nolan is 7-0 but he can carve out
space....but overall...Wow... this team struggled against a team they should dominate...It is a first night for alot of guys...
so plenty of work to be done and I hope Omar comes back with an outside shot because this offense needs another
option to spread the court !


This post was edited on 11/4 10:36 PM by the Blades
 
I was at the game too.....listening to the post game comments of Asst Coach Glen Miller, he noted that UConn had 10 assists to 21 turnovers and they were not pressured by Southern!!!! That tells you all you need to know about the suckitude level of execution tonight.

And I ditto Blades comments on Purvis and Cassell. Purvis is 90% athlete and 10% basketball player. It is not a good ratio. Cassell is a MUCH better basketball player and I will bet any amount of money right now he starts over Purvis.

Brimah still looks foul prone but he was a major factor in the 2nd half of this game. He had 12 points, 11 boards and 3 blocks and asserted himself inside at the critical juncture of the game. UConn got just enough from Boat, Cassell and Brimah to win this game. Nolan had an awful game. I was very disappointed with Phil and Rodney with the way they played tonight.Both of them looked like they should be end of the rotation players. By the way Facey had 9 board and Lubin had 4 and Lubin actually looked good enough to where he could take some Nolan minutes. Rebounding was not the problem tonight....taking care of the ball was, shooting the ball and defending the 3. I actually think Southern was pretty good and they as Asst Coach Miller said they forced UConn to have to win the game which is exactly what I wanted to see and what all of you should have wanted to see. As Asst Coach Miller said it gives them things to work on and the most important thing was made UConn work to win the game.
 
Calm down folks. Southern is a decent team with good experienced guards which go a long way in college ball. The positives tonite UCONN dominated the boards. Southern out rebounded them last year. Brimah big improvement on offense, showed good hands and dominated the inside in the second half? The freshman all contributed to expectation.

For this team to be a factor in the tournament will require Hamilton to improve throughout the year and Calhoun to be dependable shooting the three. Purvis looked a little lost but hopefully will come back strong next game.
 
...very fair statements:

UConn Head Coach Kevin Ollie

Southern came out and played a real good game. Defensively they played real well. We forced a lot of shots
but that's why they call it an exhibition. We'll get better from it and make sure we come out and play a little
harder against Assumption. We got the first one out of the way and we'll just keep building forward. That's
what life's all about. That's what basketball is all about, and we'll get better from it.

We've got to do a better job on the offensive end, but I thought our defense was pretty good and our rebounding
was pretty good. I'm going to take the positive from those two aspects.
We're not worrying about anybody's shots right now. The only thing we're worrying about is bringing energy.
Some of the players didn't have the energy that we want. We will correct that. I'm not worrying about the
shooting right now.

Uconn-Southern Recap
 
Agree no need to overreact to this. Kids have to go hard and UCONN hard just like what is preached in practice everyday. Purvis will be fine. Nolan I'm not sure about but will find ways to contribute. I'm giving these guys some time to gel. Outcome was porous reading what you guys said and were at the game but chalk it up to going through te motions which can't happen anymore!!
 
Not meant to be a reaction or over reaction really.... just a critique and a first look at these guys skill sets in game
action in which refs and the rules of BB are used. Like the rebounding effort, doesn't seem like it will be an issue,
seems way ahead of anything we saw last year.. SNY's J. Silver also does a critique.. I think everybody is in agreement
of what we saw in game one, but it's a long way till March so plenty of time for KO to teach the game.. Silver added:
"A cranky Ollie was still annoyed after the game. Energy is not negotiable."SNY- UConn men: Observations on exhibition opener
This post was edited on 11/5 4:06 PM by the Blades
 
More quotes and look from the NHR...funny one from Boat:

"Boatright asked if Cassell plays like a young player: "He isn't a young player. He's older than me!"

UConn Men's Basketball Blog
This post was edited on 11/5 2:21 PM by the Blades
 
LOL... Yea Blades I believe Cassell Jr is like 22
laugh.r191677.gif
 
Cassell plays like he has been around for years and years. He understands angles and fallaways and has a very good technique on his jumper. He is what you would call savvy and old school. He stands in stark contrast to Purvis. While Cassell is all about skills, technique and basketball savvy, Purvis is the emodiment of raw and unrefined athleticism, a pure athlete who is still learning how to play basketball. They are Yin and Yang. With Yin And Yang you can sometimes achieve a whole.
 
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