Player Spotlight: A.J. Price

The great mystery that is A.J. Price. He is a talented player but to everyone’s standards he had a bad season. Its tough to fill Marcus Williams shoes and twice as hard when you haven’t played competitive basketball for a year. It showed early but toward the end of the season, he started flashing that talent Calhoun had been talking about.

The Good: He lead the team in assists with 113 assists, Dyson and Austrie came in second with 65. He has the court vision and sees the open teammate and the sky is the limit to his potential. He played solid minutes averaging fourth best on the team at 24 minutes a game, which shows his ability to be a starter.

His defense improved as the season progressed and was rarely in foul trouble, never fouling out. His quickness is not as evident as Dyson’s but he keeps his defender in front of him.

The Bad: Its not fair to nit-pick A.J.’s game with a fine tooth comb because of his two year hiatus but he had some glaring weaknesses that need to addressed over the off season. First is the shooting, his .387 field goal percent is not horrible but his .273 three point percentage is unacceptable. 30 percent of his shots were threes and he clanked more than swished. And his free throw percentage of .690 is just ugly for a point guard. Uconn has put up with point guards like Taliek Brown that have shot horribly from the stripe but if A.J. has aspirations for the NBA, he has to improve that line.

Price’s defense wasn’t his crutch but he had a hard time in rotation and transition defense, letting defenders slip behind him. He needs to play closer to his man and not let players shoot over him.

Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. Most of Uconn’s droughts were based on that one stat and Price had a hand in bad decisions. His 63 turnovers is not the worst on the team but he is the quarterback of the squad and that number is to high. He needs to play the game within himself and not force the action.

Overall: The talent is there but with two years already wasted, time is running out. This coming season is make or break for A.J. There are younger talented kids nipping on his heals and he needs to find his range, his game and his confidence, but if he gets all three on track he will be NBA bound.