Chief’s Briefs - Villanova Edition

[firstnline]

As far as I'm concerned, our post season started last night with a spectacular road win against a Big East bully for a number of years. Got a monkey off our back by winning a road game and sweeping Nova.

A couple of things that stood out for me was out suffocating perimeter D, and the fact after the 8 pt half time lead, we never let Nova back in the game. Our lead was maintained throughout the second half and you can see the confidence level rising with each game.

 

[Chief00]

Andre had a post up and score on Daniels in the second half where Daniels just grabbed and failed away at Jackson's arms. Easy foul to call. Clean view for the refs with one on one action in the post. Jackson fought through contact to make the shot but that was an obvious and 1 call.

That one I remember too. About as easy a call as you can make. Out in plain view. The officiating of UConn Conference games is broken. A very serious problem that’s systematic and needs to be addressed.

 

[ucp990411]

1) There’s a pretty good movie about the crusades with the Pirates of the Caribbean dude. At the end of it, he’s surrendering Jerusalem and he asks Saladin what it was worth. The answer was, “Nothing. Everything.”

That‘s basically this game. First, you always want to play well, but they killed some bogeymen tonight…Villanova and the road. I’d count this as the big road win we’ve looked for.

2) That was the quietest 22,000 person crowd I have ever heard. I want a recount.

3) I like that Alleyne is going to the rim a lot more over the past few games. Occasionally, we get a little static looking for threes and anything to shake things up is welcome.

4) We get the worst calls on earth. Joey California got absolutely blasted off his feet on defense and…nothing. If he had tried to do that to someone, he’d have charges pending.

5) Players played well, coaches coaches well. Everyone saw it. No reason to go into it.

6) Cam Whitmore is a good player, but it really looks like his teammates are not in love with playing with him. They just really do not like they’re having a heck of a lot of fun.

7) Providence. Lol.

Talking about bad calls, how about Adama being called for a push off when he posted and received a pass for a dunk. His 4th foul. Called by Brian O’Oconnell. The guy has a problem with us and it seems like he does most of our games.

 

[ColchVEGAS]

That Jackson and-1 no call stood out to me too. I thought there was a lot of contact that went uncalled our on end, but we are beyond complaining about it and just have to deal with it. I thought Hurley did a good job getting that message through in the huddle as well. Solid win and a nice double digit victory where the final score was closer than the game was played.

On to MSG. I like the Providence matchup better than Creighton and Cooley inadvertently threw gasoline on the fire with his comments. Let's keep it rolling.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

Most shocking part of the game for me was the refs actually called a foul on someone for holding/bear hugging Hawkins off the ball.

An event akin to hitting the lottery!

 

[CL82]

The team seems to be coming together at the right time. Now let’s make a run at MSG and take what is rightfully ours.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

Glad you picked out the positives from a road win against Villanova.

I give him props for having the best combo of avatar/post content on the yard. He’s nothing if not consistent

 

[Chief00]

The team seems to be coming together at the right time. Now let’s make a run at MSG and take what is rightfully ours.

Three Days of Big East refs and their unprofessional treatment of our team because they don’t like our coach.

 

[Chief00]

That Jackson and-1 no call stood out to me too. I thought there was a lot of contact that went uncalled our on end, but we are beyond complaining about it and just have to deal with it. I thought Hurley did a good job getting that message through in the huddle as well. Solid win and a nice double digit victory where the final score was closer than the game was played.

On to MSG. I like the Providence matchup better than Creighton and Cooley inadvertently threw gasoline on the fire with his comments. Let's keep it rolling.

Just saying when you throw out the intentional fouls at the end, which some here include, it is a 3x’s to 4x’s foul attempt advantage. I get the focusing on ourselves thing, but that’s a tough hill to climb over.

 

[Chief00]

Talking about bad calls, how about Adama being called for a push off when he posted and received a pass for a dunk. His 4th foul. Called by Brian O’Oconnell. The guy has a problem with us and it seems like he does most of our games.

Yes, Gaffney and O’Connell have been known to have said negative off the record Hurley things. It is personal with them. And these are the senior Big East officials.

 

[pj]

On the foul shooting, Villanova closed with 7 fouls to reduce the foul to disparity from 17-7 to 17-14.

The good news, we'll be away from Big East refs and onto NCAA refs in a week, and the team also seems to do better with NCAA officiating. I think we overperform our metrics. And at Kenpom #4, our metrics are pretty good.

 

[OkaForPrez]

Most shocking part of the game for me was the refs actually called a foul on someone for holding/bear hugging Hawkins off the ball.

An event akin to hitting the lottery!

That was during the phase where they needed to even out things so it wouldn’t be obvious that they weren’t calling the game evently.

It was 6-2 fouls at that point and one of the two fouls on nova was to kill a 3:1 fast break.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Three Days of Big East refs and their unprofessional treatment of our team because they don’t like our coach.

Let’s see if it works out that way under the spotlight and in a building with a lot of UConn fans. I thought they had stopped calling games like this, and the first half was loose but even. Then the second half was like the 2nd half @ PC. Just wildly uneven to the point of being an obvious attempt to help the team that needed a Q1 win. I’m glad we stomped all over that plan.

 

[Edward Sargent]

A good win, may not impact our Big East Tournament seeding but is psychologically important heading into the post season.

The two things that stuck out in the first half was our 7 to 1 assist advantage and their 7 foul shots to 2. It did not get better either with it 18 to 4 with 3 minutes left in game. For the game there is no reason why Villanova should have more foul shots than us other than the BS we have been subject to all season by Big East officiating. It is a disgrace and goes to the heart of the integrity of the game. This has got to end!!!!!! The league office lacks integrity, and the Commissioner needs to see the exit door.

The lopsided officiating help to offset a 10% shooting advantage from the field 45 to 35%.

Villanova feels they can post our guards and we tried to fast real and post Adama.

Hawkins, Karaban, Jackson and Sanogo played well. A rebounding advantage helped to offset the bias officiating calls. Good to see Karaban improve so dramatically since the last Villanova game.
At the end when they intentionally foul and we got to the line, we had the ball in the right hands, Hawkins and Karaban.

Won 8 of last 9, next victim PC and payback for my friend Ed Cooley’s arrogant talk.

To your first point when they miked Danny during a first half TO he told the team to stop talking to the refs about calls and added I’m not!!

 

[Fishy]

Three Days of Big East refs and their unprofessional treatment of our team because they don’t like our coach.

This is a concern.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Clingan 0.00 Pts...

It seemed like the only thing Nova prepared was a plan for denying Donovan the ball

 

[CL82]

Three Days of Big East refs and their unprofessional treatment of our team because they don’t like our coach.

To be fair, the first unprofessional volley was by our coach. Perhaps calling someone an “E’phing Clown!!!” may have been imprudent.

 

[Sportsfan71]

Can't wait to play PC. Make Cooley pay for his remarks

Missed it, what did he say

 

[Improviser]

To be fair, the first unprofessional volley was by our coach. Perhaps calling someone an “E’phing Clown!!!” may have been imprudent.

One thing positive I noticed while watching Hurley in the huddle on TV yesterday, was his telling the team not to argue with the refs.

If I am quoting him correctly, after telling that to the team, he said , "I'm not doing it today or "you don't see me doing it."

A first step to maybe modifying his attitude so as not to alienate the refs unnecessarily and provoking them into calling fouls to spite him.

Of course, it happened late in the game while we were holding a comfortable lead.

 

[Chief00]

To be fair, the first unprofessional volley was by our coach. Perhaps calling someone an “E’phing Clown!!!” may have been imprudent.

Refresh my memory on that incident please.

 

[Chief00]

One thing positive I noticed while watching Hurley in the huddle on TV yesterday, was his telling the team not to argue with the refs.

If I am quoting him correctly, after telling that to the team, he said , "I'm not doing it today or "you don't see me doing it."

A first step to maybe modifying his attitude so as not to alienate the refs unnecessarily and provoking them into calling fouls to spite him.

Of course, it happened late in the game while we were holding a comfortable lead.

Hurley has actually been like that for 4-5 games. Yet, I have NOT seen a corresponding change in behavior from the refs. It has gotten to be beyond unprofessional behavior to outright scandalous conduct by the refs.

 

[CL82]

Refresh my memory on that incident please.

Earlier this season, Hurley question to call and on camera use that phrase. It was right after that that we saw the calls start to turn against Connecticut.

 

[Chief00]

Earlier this season, Hurley question to call and on camera use that phrase. It was right after that that we saw the calls start to turn against Connecticut.

I don’t disagree that Danny’s last season and early this season demeanor was counter productive. Human nature is what it is in terms of how the refs reacted. However, at this point, the integrity of the game should be paramount and the refs need to demonstrate some professionalism too. It is unfortunate an in over her head commissioner can’t institute some structure and guardrails to make that happen too.

 

[Chief00]

Missed it, what did he say

Said UConn fans were arrogant and compared us unfavorable to PC fans.

 

[Chief00]

This is a concern.

We also don’t have Dave Gavitt or even Mike T to bring some resolution to the issue. Rarely after a 12 point win does officiating seem like such an important topic.