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Uconn vs Morehead St.

Morehead State (Ohio Valley Conf.) plays in 2K Classic vs. Connecticut (Nov. 8) and Syracuse (Nov. 10)
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Courant- UConn men's basketball team anxious to show sellout crowd what a Dan Hurley team can do

* "This first game is sold out, so Gampel will have more than 10,000 on hand to see how much UConn has changed under Hurley, the first opening night sellout on campus since 2015, the first overall since March 6, 2016. The buzz is back. Now UConn must keep it."

* Hurley hadn’t settled on a starting lineup, but Adams and Alterique Gilbert figure to be in the backcourt together, with freshman Brendan Adams, sophomores Tyler Polley, Isaiah Whaley and Josh Carlton and senior Eric Cobb getting significant minutes. "

* Grad transfer Kassoum Yakwe, 6-foot-7, who has been out much of the preseason with a foot injury, is ready to go.

* Sid Wilson- "He’s still out indefinitely,” Hurley said. “We’ll update on that when there is a change with that. He’s been practicing well, though, and he’s been doing the things he’s supposed to do.”

 
I drank the Florida state football coaching change koolaid in March. And now it appears it was poisoned.


But I'm really confident this was a great hire. Starts tomorrow!
 
Not perfect, but so much more energy and toughness than the last few years.

This is a game I honestly think we could have lost in each of the last two years. Unless Jalen went for 30+ and won a one possession game.

And Carlton? Since when are big guys allowed to improve at uconn.
 
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The rebounding is still very substandard and that is why this game was as close as it was. You have to clobber teams like Morehead State on the boards. It's going to be a problem playing better teams and UConn really needs to step it up on the glass.
 
I thought Whaley going down for alot of the first & entire second half with the sprained ankle hurt them on the boards and D. He was real active right off the bat with 2 blocks. Playing down the stretch with 4 guards wasn't ideal for rebounding. And who was that guy playing the 5 spot ? I guess Hurley is making sure that he's more than a " glorified mannequin". ( BTW, Steve Enoch, the guy KO had no use for, started and led Louisville in scoring, reb & blocks in their opening night win)...

Also love CV's D and tough work on the boards (8 rebs) for a guard...but less is more from him on the offensive end.... because he still forces more bad plays, loses with his handle and keeps the other team in the game more often than not with his sloppy O... (3-8 FG's 1-4 on 3's with 4 TO's).

Mike Anthony: Josh Carlton meets the bar for intensity set by Dan Hurley
 
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If Hurley wants to play small, we are going to give up some rebounds to gain ball handling and skill. We have to clean up the turnovers.

And give Morehead credit, they made contested shots and didn't fold when we went up 12-15 a few times. I just liked our overall effort and we have 5 guards that can contribute.

Love Gilbert, but sometimes he needs to make the simple play instead of trying to make sports center. Kyrie Irving was guilty of this at times too.
 
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Can anyone say ball movement? I guess this is what happens when you share the rock and actually have a moving offense....instead of having a coach who has 4 guys standing around until one guy tries to go one on one as the shot clock runs down.
 
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Carlton started to show signs of being a solid player end of last year so I was not totally surprised but he made some sweet moves including the one where he spun to the baseline out of the double team and scored. He didn’t have huge guys on him so we will see how he does against Syracuse with bigger bodies clogging the lane in a zone. He will need to find gaps. Of course UMKC is up next and they played Iowa tough last night after losing to Loyola - Chicago by 31 in their opener.

I saw some excessive dribbling by Gilbert at the end of the game last night. He was being trapped and he should have passed the ball. However it’s nice to have all the different guards they have who all bring something different to the table. Adams looks like a pretty good shooter to me.
 
Can anyone say ball movement? I guess this is what happens when you share the rock and actually have a moving offense....instead of having a coach who has 4 guys standing around until one guy tries to go one on one as the shot clock runs down.

Looks like I'll actually be able to watch full games this year without falling asleep.
F U KO
 
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Definitely a different energy this year. The movement on offense was great - of course compared to last year's team any movement looks good. And how about those 14 assists? That was three games worth last year. Carlton looks like he stepped up his game, and he actually has some offensive moves under the board. On the negative side, all the energy on defense didn't transfer into results. That was a lot of scoring from a bad team. Also, I was a little disappointed with the turnovers, especially at the end. If you're going to play small and concede the rebounding advantage, you have to at least take care of the ball. Overall, I'm not sure how much you can take away from a (fairly close) home game win against a bad team, but last year this probably would have been a loss.
 
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