nolan is being encouraged to play this way

[northdakotahusky]

I'm sort of obsessed with Nolan. He really should be better than he has played. He's decent size and relatively quick. But against Bryant he played foolishly. I don't understand all his attempts to take charges. That's not really our style and he's not very good at it. That first attempt on friday was one of the worst charge calls I have ever seen. I assume the coaches are telling nolan to take all the charges and I wish they would just have him play straight up defense.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

I don't agree with you on Nolan's abilities to take charges. He is very good. He took one against Bryant that did not get called- it was basically the same play he made against Poythress of Kentucky, he beat the offensive player to the spot and established his feet. He just didn't get the call as he did against Kentucky. He should have had 2 charges taken in that game. His charge taken against Poythress was a HUGE play in that NCAA championship game.

Nolan has not really developed as we had hoped. But there have been other bigs at UConn who were never as good as it seemed they should be. Souleymane Wane developed into a serviceable backup center, but he was much bigger and stronger than Nolan and a better player. I thought he would become more than a serviceable backup, but he never did. Nolan isn't really even a serviceable backup, except for he is decent defensively but not a good rebounder and not a scoring threat.

Because of Brimah being foul prone, Nolan can virtually count on getting minutes whether he is sucking or not. There are no other backup 5s that can be used without complete embarrassment.

 

[northdakotahusky]

The bryant game was a new low for nolan. I thought it looked like he was trying to play poorly. Something is bothering him. He's mentally totally out of it.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

He played poorly in all 3 games so far, the 2 exhibitions and the Bryant game. I agree with you that I thought he would be better than this. However, he will not get buried on the bench. UConn will need him to play a lot of minutes behind Brimah. Brimah in all 3 games has had trouble staying on the Court. He is like Chuck Okwandu. You simply can't give him a lot of minutes as his play does not allow it. Nolan is all we have as a legit backup 5.

I think he will play better. He really has to.

 

[Dominicfrank]

I thought Nolan his freshman year at the end of the season really stepped up and was showing his real potential but after taht summer he was a ZERO. Last year he and Brimah played good enough but neither in my opinion have shown they have progressed least of all Nolan.

I agree with you guys that he seems lost and engaged which for all of this shortcomings is the worst possible thing to see. Even if he sucks as a player a good attitude can help the team on other ways. To me when you result to taking charges (one was so bad I cant believe a ref in any league would have called it) then to me you are so badly outmatched on the court. This isnt Shane Battier we are talking about here. Nolan still has no ability to finish at the rim even if he is alone. I have a feeling he will go down as a guy who barely helped win a title and had one nice dunk by himself at the end of one of those games that should have been passed to Giff.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

It's reminiscent of the Jonathan Mandledove situation. Mandledove got worse as his UConn career progressed - his freshman year was his most productive season. I don't think Mandledove liked basketball. I think after his career was over he was actually quoted as saying he wasn't into basketball as a sport or a career. Perhaps Nolan just isn't into it. However if that were the case I would expect the coaches to simply bench him, as eventually happened to Mandledove. The problem is that UConn needs Phil to be productive. There are no other legit backups to Brimah on the roster. It's Phil or nothing.

 

[Husky fan in Va.]

"I have a feeling he will go down as a guy who barely helped win a title and had one nice dunk by himself at the end of one of those games that should have been passed to Giff."

Dom I remember that play, I believe Giffey even had a "WTF" look on his face. With Nolan's history I am shocked he was able to throw it down. I'm not positive but I don't think that game was completely settled at that point so that could have been a big miss.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Nolan Dunk

Here is the Nolan dunk against MSU- he should have passed to Giffey:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVVMhmGdsA4

 

[northdakotahusky]

Re: Nolan Dunk

Seems like Ozzie called this a few weeks back. I think he said, nolan looked horrible in practice. Man was ozzie right. Khalid is right as well. We don't have a choice but playing nolan. This is hard for me to imagine, but olander would be playing over phil. I don't think I have ever seen a veteran play this bad. I hope he pulls it together. I really like the guy.

 

[Dominicfrank]

Re: Nolan Dunk

It happened so fast when he didnt pass but it felt like an hour watching him take the dunk himself because no one can expect him to make even a layup by himself under the rim. He is just so bad and I think it is deserving to question his WANT to even play basketball. He is a pretty boy, hell even his charges look weak, he puts his hands over his chest like a woman player protecting her boobs.

Energy is the easiest thing to show on the court and he just doesnt have any and to me energy comes from the mind. If you want to be out there and want to win you will show it in effort. I looked at Boatright in the first 3 games and you can tell when his energy is up on the defensive end. In the first 2 games Boat was not energized on D and it showed. You can tell what kind of game this team will have by looking at Boat's D plain and simple.