Monday, July 6, 2015

Player profile: Connor O'Neill

Connor O'Neill


Height:  6'6"
Weight:  220
Position:  F
Year:  Freshman

Overview:  The picture you see is some guy named Conor O'Neill.  It is the first image that comes up when you search for "Connor O'Neill" using Google Images, and it is not the Connor O'Neill we care about around here.

Something called Conor O'Neill's Irish Pub & Restaurant comes up in a standard Google web search.  It is also not the Connor O'Neill we're after.

This is literally everything I know about Connor O'Neill, a preferred walk-on from Roswell, GA.

The Bulldogs need forwards (related:  I'd honestly rather be writing a James White profile, no offense intended to Connor), and O'Neill would seem to provide just that if his bio is to be believed.  It takes a little digging to find the Connor O'Neill we're interested in, but here's an actual picture if you're curious:
If you're Mark Fox, what you're hoping for here is a practice superstar.  You want someone to dog and pester and challenge and annoy E'Torrion Wilridge and Yante Maten and Derek Ogbeide and Michael Edwards all week so they're ready to go come game time.  O'Neill isn't going to see any meaningful time (barring catastrophic injuries or disastrous foul trouble), so he's going to have to make a name for himself an hour at a time during practice.


2015-16 Season Goals:  Assuming the Dawgs get a couple of comfortable wins, Connor could see 6-8 minutes of game action this season.  Hoist something up.  Get a rebound.  Commit a turnover.  Just book something in the stat line.  Anything to start sorting out these Google results.  He's up against a lot of Con(n)or O'Neills.

2015-16 Stats I Could Get Excited About:  0's.  Doesn't matter.  In this case, game stats don't tell the story.

Let's go Connor, and let's go Dawgs!

[GeorgiaDogs.com]

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Player profiles

As I wind down my summer sabbatical (even though, yes, summer just started), I'm anxious to get back into player profiles - probably as soon as next week.

In the mean time, I've been enjoying the player previews posted at the Georgia Basketball Blog.  They have lots of great information, so if you haven't read them yet, go check them out.

I had to chuckle, though, when I started doing the math on the "expectations" section of the previews.  Here are the scoring numbers:
Mann:  15
Maten:  13
Gaines:  16
Frazier:  14
Edwards:  4
Ogbeide:  5.5
Wilridge:  7
Parker:  8 (healthy/yips)
Geno:  3
Jackson:  4
Kessler:  3.5
Add it up, and that's 93 points per game for our Bulldogs.  That'd be quite a leap for a Mark Fox-coached team.

Let's just say I'd take it no questions asked...

See you next week.  Enjoy your (hopefully) long weekend.

[Georgia Sports Blog]