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When the season for the Connecticut Huskies started, it was easy to forget about freshman Jalen Adams, but it’s become clear that he won’t be forgotten ever again. The freshman hails from the same hometown as recent UConn great, Shabazz Napier, and he looks as if he has the real potential to follow Napier, Kemba Walker and countless other great UConn guards.
He has seen an increase in minutes from the previous game in each of the last four games. His minutes peaked Saturday in UConn’s blowout win over Ohio State. It’s certainly no coincidence that UConn’s best offensive game in a little while came when Adams saw his season-high in minutes played. With all respect to Sterling Gibbs, who will still have a special season in Storrs, the offense seemingly runs so much more smoothly with Adams running the point.
His quickness and insane athletic ability just makes the offense less stagnant than when Gibbs is running the show. Gibbs is a great three-point shooter and he should be able to play off the ball a bit more now with Adams emerging as a trustworthy guard. Through his first month, Adams is averaging 6.4 PPG, 2.4 RPG and 2.4 APG. He has been a bit inconsistent at times but when he’s on, he looks just like what a prototypical UConn guard has come to look like. He filled the stat-sheet against the Buckeyes, as he scored 11 points and grabbed four rebounds while dishing out four assists. All you have to do is look at the game tape to see just what kind of factor Adams could be for the Huskies’ offense.
His defensive play is also very solid. His quickness allows him to stay with some of the better guards. What he has to do is adjust on avoiding some of those ticky-tacky foul calls. He’s already got four games of at least three fouls this season and a bulk of them have been on soft reach-ins. If Adams can work on that and also develop better success with his three-point shot (he’s 4-15 on the season), he will most likely end up being another legendary guard.
What makes Adams the x-factor is the fact that he will always sneak up on opponents. Teams have to worry about Gibbs, Daniel Hamilton and Rodney Purvis as scoring threats. Now with Adams emerging as a legit threat, it makes stopping the Huskies that much harder. His big factor is the fact that he will help it be easier to be successful for all the other scorers. He also will allow UConn to put one potent lineup on the floor. They could go small for stretches with Shonn Miller at center, Hamilton at power forward and a three guard lineup of Gibbs, Purvis and Adams. He’ll allow the other guys to play off the ball and find more open shots.
The quick emergence of Adams is certainly something that UConn needs. After a bit of a slow start, it looks like they could now have a formula to find success and get back to the postseason. As he continues to get experience, he will go from an x-factor to being the factor. UConn seems to have found their next elite guard.
Andrew Frosceno covers the New York Giants, college football, college basketball and MLB for www.Rantsports.com. You can follow him on Twitter, Google or Facebook.
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