UConn Men's Insider

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Some not terribly flattering comments by Seth Greenberg about Brimah, Purvis and Hamilton whom he calls "suspects."

http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-mens-basketball/hc-uconn-men-espn-gameday-insider-0211-20150210-story.html

 

[Dominicfrank]

he is 100% right

 

[the Blades]

Greenberg is on point, Uconn, this year, is everything they weren't last year during the NC run and it's mostly because
of about 3 guys. Uconn has been the anti-SMU he quotes: "They're in the category of 'they don't beat themselves,'" Greenberg said. "They take care of the ball,"

Calhoun with his lazy D along with Purvis, can both take the team out of games with their bad shots and poor handles.
And Hamilton has good vision and is a good rebounder, but hasn't learned to play quick but not in a hurry ( an old John
Wooden saying) especially when he tries to go end to end after he rebounds and makes a bad play or forced shot 80%
of the time, instead of just getting it into the frontcourt. Boat is the most under control and he used to be a guy who forced
stuff earlier in his career. So the problem is now the solution but you have 3 guys that have forced plays or shots written
all over their games.

I would add Samuels gets shaky sometimes but there was a reason Uconn won a NC with him as a rotation player and
Calhoun on the bench. It's because he played solid D, only took the shots he was supposed to, hit his FT's and played
smart in his minutes. Now he has to do a little more and he's out of his comfort zone. And even when he's gotten beaten
on D like last game, it's from trying to hard and over playing, not from lack of effort, which you can never say about Calhoun.
( who's also shot a putrid 22.7 % his last 5 games compared to Samuels 52.4%, and who's supposed to be the shooter ? )

As Greenberg mentions you replace Bazz in the backcourt with no handle guys like Purvis or Calhoun, and then lose
the combined shooting, under control play and D of Daniels, Giffey and Krohmah, it's tough to overcome with this new
group of " suspects" Plus anything Brimah has gained as a scorer and player, Nolan has gotten worse than anything
I've ever seen for a Uconn rotation player.

As he also says " You see some guys that show potential. The light bulb goes on for different guys at different times."
But I don't see this happening anytime soon because at least a couple of guys think they are better than they are.
This post was edited on 2/11 4:30 PM by the Blades

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Blades +1 on your entire post and the Greenberg analysis.

Greenberg singled out Purvis, Brimah and Hamilton because those are the 3 guys who most would think have a POSSIBLE NBA future. I think Boatright is a Europlayer- I would actually like to see him team up with Giffey in Germany or Daniels in Australia. Purvis, Brimah and Hamilton are guys who need 3 years to develop and truth be told, THEY MAY NEVER DEVELOP. They might just be good college players at best.

Regarding Samuel, he is a nice bench player especially to play D and help step up pressure and speed up a game, but you just can't give him a bigger role or starter's minutes because you see his warts on offense.

Bottom line, the recruiting of replacements for last year's veterans did not go so well. UConn really needs to step up recruiting the next few years and hope that these guys get better but like you said, Purvis and Calhoun are limited by terrible handles and in Calhoun's case, a propensity to play bad defense. Hamilton plays too fast and does not use good judgment resulting in an astronomically high TO total. Brimah drops 40 on Coppin State but, due to his physical weakness and establish or hold post position, he is useless against teams like Texas and Duke - which made him look like a boy trying to play with men. Add it all up and it spells NIT.

This post was edited on 2/11 12:43 PM by KhalidShockedTheWorld