UConnReport - UConn Hoops scholarship player review
A brief look into all 12 of UConn's scholarship players
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Basketball UConn Hoops scholarship player review
- Thread starter Richie O
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I saw this just before it was posted and I found the assessments of Johnson and Romouglu to be somewhat negative. We will need to see how things play out.
Pretty solid review, from what us serious Uconn fans know. Alot has to play out in terms of how the FR adjust to college ball, but if they do there's a possibility to go 10-11 deep. Seems similar to last year with alot of new faces. But it was mostly older portal guys, who picked up smoothly DH's complex motion offense, which kind of limits the need for a traditional PG that alot of writers and casual fans don't understand. Remember the Uconn doesn't have PG narrative BS last year, SMH !
Because DH's offense is not based on dribble drive and more on ball movement, cuts and screens...PS, until you get held and bumped like they did in Big East play, with refs swallowing their whistle. Then you have to adjust ( better late than never DH !) and beat your man off the bounce, when the cutters are getting held.
Also, for the FR, DH's defensive concepts will take time too. So it'll be be a fun rebuild regarding the "younger team" piece of the equation. And yes on Johnson, since he was one of the better players in the Blue & White scrimmage I watched and was the starting 4 before he got hurt. ( 7pts/ 3 reb/ 16 mins in game 1) .
Alot might be lost regarding Johnson because of the severity of the fact that it was a lower extremity injury (foot) that lingered on to heal for 2 1/2 months. Which unlike upper, is a killer in not being able to do much cardio and leg work right in the middle of the season and then trying to comeback from that. Also DH made a pretty confirming statement regarding Johnson, getting the minutes at the 5 behind Clingan recently.
"Samson, I think, is a guy that is going to be able to play both frontcourt (positions)," Hurley said. "We feel like at the five, he's got a chance there to be a nice complement to Donovan, more of a face-up, rim-runner player. And he'll also get minutes at the four. I think Sam's got a lot of positional versatility, but I do like him at the five."
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I could be wrong but my feeling is Johnson was never totally healthy last year. I also saw flashes from him pre injury that suggested he would be a significant contributor. His main problem his first year was on positional post defense. I remember a few games where he was lit up when Sanogo picked up some fouls and then he too picked up quick fouls, particularly against Villanova's center Dixon, who is a crafty kid with very good post moves. But like Karaban he will have learned since then and gotten better.
Romouglou is more of a question mark, but the preview seemed to think he was destined for mop up minutes exclusively. There is nobody coming off the bench, other than him, who can perform the Joey C role and he could be a candidate for that role. There is probably no scenario in which he gets more minutes than Joey C did last year (barring injuries), but he could be more of a end of rotation kind of guy when they need some one who can threaten the 3 on the floor.
Romouglou is more of a question mark, but the preview seemed to think he was destined for mop up minutes exclusively. There is nobody coming off the bench, other than him, who can perform the Joey C role and he could be a candidate for that role. There is probably no scenario in which he gets more minutes than Joey C did last year (barring injuries), but he could be more of a end of rotation kind of guy when they need some one who can threaten the 3 on the floor.
More on Samson ...."
Johnson’s former coach and mentor at The Patrick School in New Jersey, Chris Chavannes, told The Courant. “And in today’s world, people were calling him, calling me, (about entering the portal) and he never blinked.”
He saw little time as a freshman, but was one of the “biggest winners,” according to Hurley, after a pair of preseason “secret” scrimmages ahead of what everyone in the program expected to be a stellar season.
......“When I watched the UConn team play, I knew immediately he was not recovering from that injury,” Chavannes said. “Because that team was so good at the time, they were rolling early and the depth of that team, they were so impressive… That team was just that good and that deep and that well-coached.”
