USF-UCONN game thread

[bcgruber]

I'm sure they do

 

 

Defense wins champinships.

 

Watched an interview of the head coach at Wichita State on PTI.  His secret to recruiting was, paraphrasing, I look for good athletes that can shoot and score.  We can teach them schemes and defense. 

 

Like in football, you need to outscore the other team no matter how good your defense is.

 

 

I'm sure they don't complain about team defense in Wisconsin or Gainesville.  

 

At UF other then maybe Frazier they really don't have any scorers either, they do it with team defense.  Lets see how far they go this year.  My guess is the national championship game

[Triple B]

 

 

Love Collins, but I don't think him on the floor is worth a 10-15 point swing in scoring/defense which is what it would take to make us a palatable team.

 

True .... but I'm thinking his 100% presence, and the ripple effect that would give the team, gives us 2 or 3 more wins in conference, putting us at 5-7, 6-6, which is around where those who play the expectations game should have realistically put the team at this point.

 

 

Tough to say really. Do we see Freshman Collins or Sophomore Collins. I believe you and others remember the freshman Collins where he played hard for 30+ minutes like he had a chip on his shoulders. He was a great defender, could score to put the game away, clutch free throw shooter, and highly resembled Tony Parker where he constantly got in the lane and could either make the pass to an open teammate or make his tear drop shot over taller defenders that deflated the other team.

Now I lean more towards the sophomore Collins where he very much resembled what we briefly saw as a junior. Sophomore Collins was no longer a great defender, was a liability on offense as he struggled to make his tear drop shot, struggled from behind the arc as teams gave him that shot, turned the ball over at a higher rate, got frustrated at his teammates(Like Rudd does) as the losses started happening more frequently, and a guy that got beat up by opposing defenses that learned how to take him out.

 

Imo this team will still be about where they are now with Collins playing. Even this season I saw the frustration from him towards his teammates when they missed a shot, couldn't catch one of his passes, wasn't in the position he believed they should be. I saw the frustration when he got physically dominated by a bigger, stronger guard and he threw his hands up and shook his head at the sideline and his teammates for not helping like he believed they should have.

Rudd and Collins were the main guys last season showing up their teammates on the court(one only wonders when the eyes on the nation aren't on them). Sure they weren't as good but that type of behavior is unnecessary from the supposedly 2 leaders on the team. Embarrassing your teammates in a tough situation is not going to make them improve. Those same 2 were doing it again this season when things haven't been all roses. We call out Rudd for doing this, but the more likeable Anthony Collins doesn't get the same criticism when he's just as bad or worse when things get a little rough.

 

We call upon a leader among the players and claim AC is that guy when he has no history of being a good one. We cannot anoint he as such based of his freshman season when clearly it was Anderson, Gilchrist, and Robertson playing a huge role in that category.

 

 

Sophomore Collins scored the same per game as Freshman Collins (8.6/9.0), had a better 3 pt pct (.391/.292), less turnovers (2.7/3.4), more assists (6.5/5.2) .... I'd gladly welcome that this year. Almost everything else in your "assessment" is tainted by your warped opinion of AC .... I'm sure primarily based on the little "Sunbelt player" helping USF to its' best season in its' history and making you look kind of foolish.

 

And for the record, I wasn't touting AC as a needed leader. I was saying, if 100%, his on the court contributions would have been good for 2 or 3 more conference wins. Of course nobody knows for sure, but it's really not that far fetched when you look at the revolving door we've had at pg.