The UConn men lost a tight contest to Arizona. The women beat Notre Dame’s brains out. Let’s talk about it.
Ben asks via email: What do you make of Hurley sticking with Gilbert (and to an extent Carlton) while he’s having abysmal games against Arizona?
Gilbert is the second-best player on the roster when healthy. Playing a team like Arizona with Gilbert on the bench is one step short of a forfeit. With that said, Gilbert looked awful for most of Sunday’s game after taking a hard fall early in the first half. He looked hurt, frankly. I thought there was a stretch late in the first half when it might’ve been worth sitting him down — maybe giving Brendan Adams a look when no one else’s three-point shot was falling. Down the stretch, however, you need your best players on the court and that includes Gilbert even on a bad night.
Carlton only played 15 minutes so not sure what the beef is there. I’m much less concerned about Hurley’s usage of Carlton than I am about Carlton’s ineffectiveness against quality teams so far this year.
Sam asks: What’s going on with Kwintin? I think I missed something between that tweet and him deleting his account.
If you missed it, after the game on Sunday Kwintin Williams tweeted: “I love basketball so much. These past two years have been a real reality check for me. I appreciate everyone in my life who has been a 100% honest with me about my talent level and where I’ll end up career wise. But God has plans already set in stone for all of us. #blessed.”
He then promptly deleted his twitter account.
No official news has come out of Storrs today so we’re left to speculate (no inside info here, sorry). That tweet, combined with Kwint’s lack of playing time and the arrival of Akok Akok, certainly seems like the end of Kwint’s time at UConn. Assuming that’s the case, it makes some sense for Williams. He needs to improve markedly to have a shot as a lucrative pro career and that’s probably not going to happen playing two minutes per game at UConn. Already 24 years old, spending the next six months working with trainers exclusively on basketball isn’t the worst career choice.
Conversely, if it turns out UConn is pushing Kwint out the door to make room on the roster for Akok, that’d be kinda sleazy. Kwint clearly lacks both the skills and instincts necessary to be a major contributor on this team but he has played with effort and energy and his Instagram account was the only source of joy coming out of the program for a full calendar year.
Deryl asks: We got 2 more chances (Fla St and Nova) against ranked top tier teams to make a statement prior to conference play starting. What are your hopes on going 1-1 or even 2-0 vs those teams and getting into the top 25?
Vincenzo asks: Where do you put our odds at against FSU and/or Nova
Putting these two questions together. Florida State is good and a problematic matchup for UConn. I’d be surprised to see the Huskies pull that one off. Someone on UConn’s roster would need to play out of their minds on offense and the team would need to have a bulletproof strategy to mitigate FSU’s interior game — something the Huskies aren’t really built for.
Villanova on the other hand might not be that good? Sure they beat the aforementioned Florida State but they also lost to the Fur Men and got their brains beat in by a very good Michigan team. Also, I can’t find a stat to prove this on KenPom but, crazy shit happens at Madison Square Garden. It wouldn’t shock me to see UConn come into that game with a level of motivation unmatched by Nova — similar to the Cuse game.
Odds of UConn winning each game: FSU, 30%. Villanova: 48%.
Ben asks: Again, can I get a tote bag instead?
No you may not.
Deryl asks: The Hurley touted defense has not lived up to expectations so far. Pick and roll D was horrible and AZ got to the rim at will (AZ had 42 points in paint). Carlton can’t seem to stay on floor and Cobb is questionable at best on defensive end. Does Danny have a solution?
The thing about a good defensive system is you still need good defensive players to make it effective. I’m not ready to admit this roster can’t do that but they’ve definitely struggled a lot this year. Much of it comes down to bad habits that probably look familiar if you suffered through the last few seasons: dumb fouls, failures to rotate, lazy defensive rebounding.
The team also failed spectacularly at defending ball screens against Arizona, allowing a ton of easy looks inside. A few games of genuinely shit officiating aren’t helping the overall optics either.
I remain hopeful that the defensive performance will improve as the year goes on. The guards seem to be enjoying Hurley’s uptempo offense but it’s allowed them to be reckless on defense at times, prioritizing steals and deflections instead of solid on-ball defense. The frontcourt personnel is just plain not good enough to absorb that extra responsibility — compounded by the lack of a Brimah-esque shot-blocker. Fortunately, some additional personnel is on the way with Isaiah Whaley and Mamadou Diarra getting healthy and the outside possibility of Akok joining the frontcourt in January.
Austin asks: Diarra is our best big man, how many games does he start this year?
That is a wild take and the answer is most likely zero, even if he gets healthy soon (which I’m kinda skeptical of).
Ben asks: AAC conference record prediction now that you’ve seen the team play a few games
They’ll hang at least one L on a good team on the road, and that will be awesome. KenPom predicts 10-8. I’m (shockingly) more optimistic and will say 12-6 with the losses (@Cincy, @Temple, @SMU, Houston, Cincy, @Wichita). Please note that prediction would give UConn four straight losses in February at which point I will shut down this website.
Christopher asks: Is Akok Akok able to jump to the NBA after half a season and do you think Uconn lands any other top 100 recruits?
It feels mandatory to do an Akok question so we’ll throw it in here. Yes, Akok can declare for the draft this spring and he probably will, though I’d be surprised if he hired an agent. There’s not a whole lot of sense in taking this route directly to the league. He’s also not quite the level of prospect who can slide into the lottery based on prep school ability. He’s going to need to both improve his all-around game and prove he can compete with better athletes. That said, kids make weird decisions so who knows. And yes, UConn will land at least one more top 100 recruit. At this exact moment I think it’ll be exactly one and the last open scholarship will be for a transfer. However, I also think an extra scholarship (or two) become open in the spring.
Greg asks: Will the women lose a game?
Yes, they’ll lose to USFhahahahaha, sorry I can’t even type it. I predicted them to lose the Notre Dame game and the January road game at Louisville. I think at this point I’m saying 30-0 though. Past Tyler’s an idiot.
BPM asks: Galaxy Brain: Being in the AAC is actually good for MBB Atm. I feel KO would’ve had program far deeper in the shitter against real competition & the path to a return would have a lot of more resistance. We cld be top 3 in conference, postseason team this year.
Not sure what galaxy that brain is in but it’s not this one. The AAC is a hindrance on recruiting, which is a hindrance on — you know — having good players, which is a hindrance on winning. I like saying hindrance. You can be a .500 team in a real conference and get to the tournament and you can land quality recruits by saying you’re a .500 team in a real conference. It may be more difficult to win the conference but it’s a lot easier to build a reasonably successful program. Remember, the third place team in the American has missed the tournament several times since the league was birthed. Everything UConn achieves in the AAC it will achieve by overcoming its conference affiliation.
Ryan asks: What is the smallest possible roll man who can still effectively stonewall Alterique on the pick and roll? o/u 6’4″
This is irrelevant because Gilbert should not be running into any screens ever. Any time Gilbert gets picked I gasp and wait for the sound of a shoulder exploding.
Lin asks: How good can Christyn Williams be?
That was some next-level shit against Notre Dame. Williams looks better now than Dangerfield was as a freshman, and Dangerfield looks like an All-American as a junior. There’s obviously a long way to go but seeing that level of fearlessness in a freshman is rare and starts to conjure memories of players with names like Taurasi, Stewart and Moore. Williams has a chance to be really special.
