Chief’s Briefs - Arizona Edition

[DAC17]

And my comments weren’t intended to say the teams weren’t any good; I just made the point that the average fan cares less about them than old long-time rivals. 14,600 fans do not frequent this board!

 

[Stainmaster]

He laid on the floor for a possession, never came out

The ref was concerned enough to stop the game and go over to check on him personally. I don't think I've ever seen that one before.

 

[Stainmaster]

Not for anything, but he wasn't playing so well before he got hit in the head. So I don't think that was the reason he was so bad today.

Don't you have a bevy of comments on this site proclaiming how certain you are that Gilbert wouldn't play another game for UConn after last year?

 

[smoothcriminal]

Agreed on the wet spots on the court. Not Appropriate for high major level athletics. Don’t blame the weather or the condensation, focus on the mopping

 

[zepfan]

Great game today. The crowd was absolutely terrific. Hurley is a very active coach with great energy on the sidelines. He calls good timeouts and his player substitution decisions are as good as he can make them.
I think Whaley may still be nursing that ankle.

We played a good Arizona team that played very competitively with two top ten programs, Gonzaga and Auburn. They've been tested, they play tough. As a team we hung with them blow for blow the entire game. It was a very hard fought contest and really, either team could have won this game.

Individually some of our players did not have their best games but the team as a whole played very hard, and there are many very positive takeaways from this game. We played them right to the wire.

Agree with your identification of the positives. The consistent negative, however, is that our guards often try to do too much off the dribble one on one. Hurley needs to take the air out of the ball (literally) and teach them to run offense with moving without the ball, screens and passes. It's a great drill. The one on one play will work against lesser teams but not against the better team defenses. Our guard play has too many "I can make a great move right now" type of decisions that often lead to bad shots or turnovers. Hurley has a tough job to try to give the freedom... but teach them control. Need to trust the team offense.

 

[zepfan]

Good offensive teams take care of the ball better and have solid shot selection. We are very inconsistent with these two things.

 

[AdamaNation]

I know I'm in the minority, but today showed me how the pipe dream of football somehow getting us into a P5 conference is killing basketball. We had a good team show up today, and the XL was rocking; just like the old days. Bring in more teams like that, i.e. Big East teams, and the place regularly sells out and brings the spirit back to UConn athletics.

Now wait to see what happens when the AAC teams that no one cares about show up. Low crowds, low fan interest, low revenues. As long as we hang our hats on this football dream, that will never change.

I hope I'm proven wrong as the year goes on, but I don't see anywhere near full crowds for USF, Tulsa, Tulane, Houston, SMU, etc.

Especially when football is ranked as the 2nd worst team in college. Who wants to come here to play or coach? Short list.

 

[blue93]

We played pretty terribly and were in it at the end against a good team. That in itself speaks volumes. We’ll get there.

 

[Chief00]

I think Gilbert had gotten totally spoiled by taking it to the rack on dribble drives successfully against an array of cupcakes. He needed to adjust his expectations.

Agree, it’s a different ball game when your opponent has more length and he doesn’t see enough qualify length in practice either.
That’s one reason when asked which recruit Big to take over another, Chief says take them both.
That video of I believe the 2000 Arizona game - we had Jake, Edmund, Wane, Kfee and Deng - all in that rotation of bodies down low.

I do think we need to re-examine playing Yakwe over Whaley. I recognize there is more of a recruiting network to sustain around Yakwe and that Whaley is more of a KO legacy one off. Neither makes a huge difference but Whaley is better on defense and has more upside if he got stronger.

 

[Towney007]

To Gilbert - I was kind of wondering if his bell was rung a bit too. Not that he was hurt -but that he was a little woozy. That was a hard shot he took. I was sitting above the rim and his shots weren't just missing - they were missing really badly even the decent ones that he took.

He played poorly today, but I dunno if thinking he was knocked for a loop was all that out of place. There's no way he's that bad of a shooter.

 

[Chief00]

I know I'm in the minority, but today showed me how the pipe dream of football somehow getting us into a P5 conference is killing basketball. We had a good team show up today, and the XL was rocking; just like the old days. Bring in more teams like that, i.e. Big East teams, and the place regularly sells out and brings the spirit back to UConn athletics.

Now wait to see what happens when the AAC teams that no one cares about show up. Low crowds, low fan interest, low revenues. As long as we hang our hats on this football dream, that will never change.

I hope I'm proven wrong as the year goes on, but I don't see anywhere near full crowds for USF, Tulsa, Tulane, Houston, SMU, etc.

Take Villanova out of today’s Big East and you won’t find an Arizona. WSU and Cincy are always tough while Memphis and Houston are improving. At this point, UConn needs to spend some time educating the fan base.
Arizona was a national team and I hope we continue to schedule those types of home and home games. It’s fine to focus on the Northeast and MidAtlantic for OOC but eliminating the Arizona type games is a huge mistake.

 

[Chief00]

. Our guard play has too many "I can make a great move right now" type of decisions that often lead to bad shots or turnovers. Hurley has a tough job to try to give the freedom... but teach them control. Need to trust the team offense.

I think you nailed it. We used to call them bail out passes. When a guard only passes because his breakdown move with the ball failed. These passes are usually poor ones that lead to turnovers or non scoring opportunities. It’s about him not scoring rather than setting a teammate up with a true assist open look as it should be.

 

[Chief00]

Probably going to have to get used to the hedging. Dan is big on having his bigs hedge. Can lead to easy baskets sometimes and fouls on our own bigs 20-25 feet from the hoop (that really stick out when they happen), but overall...just part of the harrassing D.

As I stated Danny made some adjustments in the second half - hopefully they get institutionalized. Chief has always been skeptical of the value of the cupcake games, but coaches seem to feel a need for them. I know Calhoun did, Danny may be less so - based on recent comments. They do give you a baseline number of wins when you are decent.

 

[Ewekon]

Maybe I'm asking too much but Adams had a chance to make a mark today. He was stuck on 18 for a long time. He had good looks for important shots. If he converted an "and 1" late it would have been huge. Instead he gakks the first FT. Missed opportunity for our best player, imo.

Adams isn't sniffing the NBA. We have to get NBA future players in the roster before more is expected.

 

[Scrutineer]

Looking at simple economics, let's take four games now played against the likes of New Hampshire and replace them with two home and homes with teams like Georgetown and Syracuse.
Four New Hampshire level games drawing less than 6,000 at Gampel or less than 8,000 at the XL are easily balanced attendance wise with two games against name teams drawing 10,000 at Gampel and 15,000 at the XL.
The money's the same in the end, but you play before excited fans and likely a major TV audience that further builds the brand.

 

[Scrutineer]

Adams isn't sniffing the NBA. We have to get NBA future players in the roster before more is expected.

Hate to say that at this time. Give him a couple more months. He can create for himself, rebounds well, but is not there as a 3 point shooter and forces too many shots. Bad habits? Big ego?

 

[Chief00]

Hate to say that at this time. Give him a couple more months. He can create for himself, rebounds well, but is not there as a 3 point shooter and forces too many shots. Bad habits? Big ego?

I was hoping Danny’s discipline of Jalen and Sid would clear up a bad habit. Time will tell.

 

[Magic32]

Despite the overall poor play from our guards, we we were one BIG shot away from turning the game around on several occasions. Unfortunately, not a single one of those shots dropped. I loved the effort and intensity, decision making and shot selection will improve.

 

[DAC17]

Take Villanova out of today’s Big East and you won’t find an Arizona. WSU and Cincy are always tough while Memphis and Houston are improving. At this point, UConn needs to spend some time educating the fan base.
Arizona was a national team and I hope we continue to schedule those types of home and home games. It’s fine to focus on the Northeast and MidAtlantic for OOC but eliminating the Arizona type games is a huge mistake.

I agree completely with scheduling teams like Arizona; that brings in the bodies and returns to the fun. Educating the fan base is going to be way easier said than done, I think.

 

[Kitaman]

To Gilbert - I was kind of wondering if his bell was rung a bit too. Not that he was hurt -but that he was a little woozy. That was a hard shot he took. I was sitting above the rim and his shots weren't just missing - they were missing really badly even the decent ones that he took.

He played poorly today, but I dunno if thinking he was knocked for a loop was all that out of place. There's no way he's that bad of a shooter.

It looked like (on TV) when he fell to the floor the back of his head hit the court hard. You know when you fall and your heads snaps back to the floor. He was certainly seeing stars, but young kids are better at shaking it off, or at least they think they are.

If anything he has a good excuse for his performance yesterday, if he chooses to use it.

 

[8893]

AG wasn't playing great before he hit his head, but he definitely hit it hard and I was surprised that he didn't come out of the game for at least a breather and to see if he was okay. But I don't think it affected his play beyond perhaps a few minutes. It looked to me like his size was usually a factor yesterday. He just didn't seem to overcome it like he usually can. AZ was bigger than any team we've played this season except for Iowa, and they were faster than Iowa. AG seemed to just get swallowed up a lot of the time, and he couldn't create distance.

 

[CL82]

Agreed on the wet spots on the court. Not Appropriate for high major level athletics. Don’t blame the weather or the condensation, focus on the mopping

This post feels like a Haiku:

Wet spots on the court.
Weather or condensation?
Focus on mopping.