I have to admit, the football season sorta put me in a funk in terms of writing on this blog, but all it takes is a little basketball at Gampel to get me back in the saddle.
It's funny because, with a few exceptions, this is it when it comes to the Jim Calhoun era. Take a good look at the players who were on the court last night. The majority of them will make up the last run for Big Jim, unless you're under the delusion that he will fill out his full five years and sign on again. Let's face it, there isn't a chance in hell of that happening.
So, the team you saw last night, the core players, will either bring Uconn back to the top of the college basketball world and help send one of the iconic coaches in the history of the sport out on a high note, or they will add to the questions already surrounding the program, most notably "has Uconn seen its best days pass it by?"
Stony Brook isn't exactly the greatest indicator of where a team is at, especially early in the season playing on the road. However, I think you take a few things away from last night.
Here's what I learned:
*Kemba Walker needs to learn who he can trust, who he can't trust, and his jump shot still needs to be more consistent. If Walker is going to affirm all his coaches praise (he has called him the best point guard in the country) then he needs to still improve in certain areas, and improve quickly. I think understanding his teammates will come with time. Sometimes, as a point guard, your play is determined by the guys around you as much as you determine their play. Last night, there were times where it seemed some of the younger guys had one thing in mind: get Kemba the ball and then get out of the way. Kemba, for as great as he can be, isn't that type of player. He isn't a Lebron James physical specimen who can just take over a game by himself. He needs to be able to play like a Chris Paul: shoot when needed, drive when needed, pass when needed, always taking what the defense is giving, exploiting what is available. He has the great open court vision when it comes to getting guys the ball in the right spot, and at the right time, on the break. He still needs to improve his vision when it comes to the half court, creating for guys and putting them in the best position to succeed.
He also still has a somewhat inconsistent jump shot and, in order to go from a really good player to terrific, that needs to become more of a weapon. We'll see what happens.
*No one could buy a basket for long stretches last night it seemed, but it is obvious the coaching staff believes this will be a perimeter-oriented team. They took a lot of threes last night and if Calhoun and his guys didn't think they could make them, I'm sure a time out would have been called and a new strategy would have been kindly requested of the players. They kept launching, which tells me they think, on most nights, those shots will go in. Of the guys shooting, the one who was the most impressive and would seem to have the potential to be the lethal was Shabazz Napier. I loved what I saw from him. He is going to be very disruptive. He'll make some bone head plays, but he has range on his shot, he played pretty good defense, and he had one killer cross over move that almost broke a guys knee that he didn't finish on, but it was a special kind of move that shows the talent he has. He and Walker in the same back court will pose a lot of problems for other teams.
*Alex Oriaki was a man among boys last night, and I'm not sure what that means because he won't be playing boys starting with the Maui Invitational in a few weeks. But, last night, he was unstoppable. He looks like an absolute beast. He is huge. He actually looks somewhat intimidating, and he was flying all over the place. You saw some of that last year, but it only came in flashes and there would be times where Oriaki got pushed out and around way too much. He also seemed to disappear, even from a hustle stand point, at times. If he plays the way he did last night, that shouldn't be a problem, and considering there doesn't seem to be the depth of big men in the Big East this year as there has been in the recent past, Oriaki has a chance to really make his presence felt.
I have no idea if his overall offensive game has improved or not because he didn't need to show anything other than put-back ability last night against Stony Brook. Everything came from point-blank range so whether he developed a real nice little hook or mid-range jumper remains to be seen. The one thing I did like is that Oriaki finished everything last night. Last year, he had some difficulties putting it in the basket even after a rebound. No problem last night. Hopefully, the beast continues to thrive as the season moves forward.
*The guy who disappointed me last year more than anyone else was Jamal Coombs-McDaniels. He was touted as a sharp shooter, and if hitting the side of the backboard is considered sharp shooting then, by all means, he lived up to expectations. Besides that, he was an airball waiting to happen and never really contributed anything of substance.
Last night wasn't a huge night for him offensively, but two things stood out for me: first, he looks freakin huge. Does the NCAA check for steroids because he added a lot of bulk muscle. Man, did the kid looked ripped. He went from an incredibly skinny milktoast of a wafe to a guy who looks to be inviting opponents to the gun show. That showed up a couple of times when Coombs-McDaniels went up and grabbed a rebound over a few guys. I don't remember him playing physical at any time last year, so his increased size could make him a more versatile, and valuable, player this season. He also hit a couple of jumpers and even the ones he missed seemed to be somewhat on target. Maybe Coombs-McDaniels takes a big step up and a big step out of my shit list this season.
*I already talked about Shabazz who, from this point on, get's the Prince and Bono one-name treatment, but two other freshman jumped out at me: Jeremy Lamb and Roscoe Smith. First on Lamb: he looks like a Daddy Long Legs spider out there. Arms and legs seem to be going everywhere all at once. Yet, he played with a fluid, almost graceful style I wasn't expecting. I was expecting something a lot more disjointed, as if it would look like a kid learning how to deal with a new body. Instead, he handled the ball well, his jump shot, while way off last night, looked really nice, and his one chance on the fast break looked like a guy who could use his freakishly long limbs to keep other faster guards away from him when going to the basket. Oh, and I loved his agressiveness. He had a couple of offensive fouls going to the rim, but he took it inside and attacked. I also loved his mid-range jumper he hit in the second half where he grabbed an offensive rebound, turned, righted himself in mid-air, and hit the little jumper. That's a play I always thought Stanley Robinson could have, and should have made with more consistency but, like everything else with Stanley, it just never completely clicked.
As for Smith, I was ready to be disappointed. This was the big recruit and, from what I had read, he had not performed well to that point. Yet, when he walked on the court, he immediately passed the eye test. He is obviously the most physically impressive player the Huskies have, and his athleticism was obvious. He had two offensive rebounds in the span of a few minutes, one where he layed the ball back in, the other where he got the put-back blocked, but both times he simply out jumped, and out muscled the other guys for the ball. He didn't assert himself offensively all that much so it is hard to say whether he can get to the basket or hit a jumper but, man, if Calhoun can coach this kid up, he could be a reallly good one.
*The one kid I was dissappointed in was Niels Giffey, who shall now, and forever more, be known as Giffey Lube. Calhoun and the staff have pumped him up, and one game doesn't give a very good indicator of what he can do, but last night was not a very good coming out party for the German sensation. I liked his quickness on defense and his length is going to give smaller guards problems because it looks like he might be able to stay in front of them, but his offensive game, last night, was not overly impressive, from his shaky ball handling skills to a shot that was way, way off. Again, I'm not going to go crazy off one night where everyone's shot was off and even the veteran guys like Kemba and Oriaki seemed a little tight at times, but whereas Lamb and Smith stood out for me, Giffey Lube came across as a disappointment.
Overall, I think you have to be happy with the performance. Again, difficult to judge off of a game against Stony Brook. The defense looked like it could have holes against better teams, you don't know what to expect in terms of rebounding when the bigger squads come to play Uconn, and the entire team's jump shot was off, so you don't have a great read on what this team will be offensively. Yet, a couple of things stand out to me, and the first is that this team hustled from the opening bell to the end. Aside from one loose ball that got away, Uconn never let up. There weren't a lot of mental breakdowns where guys were caught standing around while someone went to the basket, an unfortunate trend of last year's team. They are also very quick and the length that guys like Lamb and Giffey will bring to the guard position will really make for interesting matchups going forward. I also love the fact that Stony Brook was put out of its misery early. I have this sneaky feeling that last year's team would have allowed that game to get to a 10 point margin late, and would have had to scramble to pull out a victory. This team, however, added on. A 10 point lead turned into 20, which turned into 30, and hovered around there from that point forward. Last year's team, to me at times, seemed to suffer from a sense of entitlement. They had talent, they were coming off a Final Four year, and even though the leaders of that team had all left, they acted like they were a better team than they were. This one seems to be playing for their lunch money. They looked as energized as could be last night, even up 30.
As a young team, there will be ups and downs. They are gonna run into games where things go wrong and they make mistakes. But the talent level seems to be there and, if the effort is there, they will win some games they perhaps shouldn't. You have to like that, if you're a fan of this program.
So, the season starts well and all I have to say at this point is BRING ON VERMONT!!!!!!!!
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