Chief’s Briefs - BU Edition

[Chief00]

Adama Sanogo had a monster game: 27 points, 15 rebounds and even went 2-3 from the theee line. Along with Donovan Clingan we got 75% shooting from the center position, 37 points and 22 rebounds. That’s production.

With 2 of our 3 best players sidelined other guys had an opportunity to step up.

Alleyne shot 50% from the floor and along with Diarra, Newton, and Joey California gave the team energy. It was also nice to see one of my favorite guys on the team, Richard Springs, get some playing time.

Karaban gave us both points, rebounds and assists and he’s going to be part of the rotation.

What I like about this team is we have 2 monsters in the paint and some guys who love to push the ball. That’s how you put your opponents back on their heals and that’s what happened tonight.

One thing that was unacceptable was 54% foul shooting. Time to get some individual time in the gym to fix that problem.

 

[Kolumbo]

Adama Sanogo had a monster game: 27 points, 15 rebounds and even went 2-3 from the theee line. Along with Donovan Clingan we got 75% shooting from the center position, 37 points and 22 rebounds. That’s production.

With 2 of our 3 best players sidelined other guys had an opportunity to step up.

Alleyne shot 50% from the floor and along with Diarra, Newton, and Joey California gave the team energy. It was also nice to see one of my favorite guys on the team, Richard Springs, get some playing time.

Karaban gave us both points, rebounds and assists and he’s going to be part of the rotation.

What I like about this team is we have 2 monsters in the paint and some guys who love to push the ball. That’s how you put your opponents back on their heals and that’s what happened tonight.

One thing that was unacceptable was 54% foul shooting. Time to get some individual time in the gym to fix that problem.

Often there was one player from last year on the floor and they were still playing great. That's what happens when your program is back baby.

 

[wheelerdog]

I think the guard play is kind of a mess. Way too many live ball turnovers. Andre should help settle the offensive end

 

[shizzle787]

I think the guard play is kind of a mess. Way too many live ball turnovers. Andre should help settle the offensive end

Not really sold on any of our healthy guards. IMO we have a Final 4 front court and a Round of 64 back court.

 

[Chief00]

Not really sold on any of our healthy guards. IMO we have a Final 4 front court and a Round of 64 back court.

The front court is definitely our strength. It is very visible, even to a casual observer, how over matched our opponent is. We definitely got two guys at Center who are going to The League, when their day comes.
Diarra, 3-6 from FT, can’t happen from the PG position. Joey California (1 assist, 3 turnovers) and Tristen Newton (1 assist, 4 turnovers) need to clean up their ball secuity.

Having said that, Chief does love the way we look to push the ball this year. Alleyne is underrated as a shooter and we often had out on the court some triple threat guys (shoot, drive and pass) with Diarra, Newton and Alleyne.

 

[Chief00]

Alleyne, Diarra and Newton may not be great at all three threats (shooting, passing, penetration), but they can’t be ignored either. In aggregate, that puts pressure on our opponent’s defense and leaves their Center living in a Torture Chamber trying to defend someone, who belongs in another League

 

[UCLJ0211]

Not really sold on any of our healthy guards. IMO we have a Final 4 front court and a Round of 64 back court.

That’s a good baseline for our backcourt prior to Hawk and Ajax returning. Our backcourt should match our frontcourt once they return.

 

[M.S.G.]

Sure the opponent was weak but I sat back at one point in the first half and said, our 2nd and 3rd best players are out and we are still laying the wood here.. We have a nice deep team with a ton of weapons, rejoice!

 

[Umami Zen]

My two cents.. We are obviously playing vs opposition that are not BE/PKI level teams.. DC/AK are already playing like upperclassmen with their BBIQ/passing/vision and they both have a good set of hands.. Sanogo is setting up deep in the paint and has added some moves with both hands to get his shots off. Alleyne looks like a prototypical catch and shoot SG/CG.. Diarra adds some solid depth but started telegraphing his passes in the second half for a few easy steals. Staff might want to start thinking about giving Springs some minutes until SJ returns. Portals looked solid.

Keep developing our depth until we've got our Big Three back on the floor.. PKI can't get here fast enough for some legit competition.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I thought we had a potential top 10/sweet 16 team all summer. I didn’t understand how anybody picked us behind Xavier and I expect UConn to be better than Villanova too. What’s impressive is that we are demolishing teams like BU without 3 of our 7 best players. It’s going to pay dividends down the line. We haven’t seen this team at close to full strength yet. Team executed much better last night than in the opener, except for the last 10 min of 1H where they got lazy/cocky.

 

[gtcam]

Can't help but feel that Diarra will be the PG (of those on the present roster)that needs to run the show. Agree that the FT shooting needs to improve in his game.
There is a lot of parts on this team and not enough minutes to go around when Hawk and AJax are ready. AS and DC look like they are ready for the season and that is so important.

PKI can't get here fast enough for some legit competition.
Please dont hurry this - UConn needs to have Hawk and AJax back and play a few games before we face the team in the PKI. The guard play has to shake out and the FT shooting has to improve. UConn needs to be on top of its game in Oregon

 

[Chief00]

Can't help but feel that Diarra will be the PG (of those on the present roster)that needs to run the show. Agree that the FT shooting needs to improve in his game.
There is a lot of parts on this team and not enough minutes to go around when Hawk and AJax are ready. AS and DC look like they are ready for the season and that is so important.

PKI can't get here fast enough for some legit competition.
Please dont hurry this - UConn needs to have Hawk and AJax back and play a few games before we face the team in the PKI. The guard play has to shake out and the FT shooting has to improve. UConn needs to be on top of its game in Oregon

I agree with your comments and wish the PKI was a few additional weeks away. That’s the danger of playing all your elite OOC games by 12/7.

 

[Chief00]

I thought we had a potential top 10/sweet 16 team all summer. I didn’t understand how anybody picked us behind Xavier and I expect UConn to be better than Villanova too. What’s impressive is that we are demolishing teams like BU without 3 of our 7 best players. It’s going to pay dividends down the line. We haven’t seen this team at close to full strength yet. Team executed much better last night than in the opener, except for the last 10 min of 1H where they got lazy/cocky.

Agree, if we can get 12/7 respectable - we will get on a roll. Never underestimate two studs at the center position. Very few teams have an answer to that.

 

[Chief00]

My two cents.. We are obviously playing vs opposition that are not BE/PKI level teams.. DC/AK are already playing like upperclassmen with their BBIQ/passing/vision and they both have a good set of hands.. Sanogo is setting up deep in the paint and has added some moves with both hands to get his shots off. Alleyne looks like a prototypical catch and shoot SG/CG.. Diarra adds some solid depth but started telegraphing his passes in the second half for a few easy steals. Staff might want to start thinking about giving Springs some minutes until SJ returns. Portals looked solid.

Keep developing our depth until we've got our Big Three back on the floor.. PKI can't get here fast enough for some legit competition.

Richard Springs knows how to play with his teammates. You got to love a kid who lives on the offensive glass. Good kid.

 

[ColchVEGAS]

I have been really impressed with Diarra thus far. He started off the BU game completely under control and playing within himself. Agree with everybody that Diarra needs to improve greatly on his FT shooting, as does the team in general.

Newton has been underwhelming, but I think playing off the ball with be beneficial for him especially if Diarra keeps playing like he has been.

 

[jibsey]

Richard Springs knows how to play with his teammates. You got to love a kid who lives on the offensive glass. Good kid.

He constantly shows skills. He would play for many teams and produce.

 

[pj]

I have been really impressed with Diarra thus far. He started off the BU game completely under control and playing within himself. Agree with everybody that Diarra needs to improve greatly on his FT shooting, as does the team in general.

Newton has been underwhelming, but I think playing off the ball with be beneficial for him especially if Diarra keeps playing like he has been.

Newton just has to get experience with his new distribute-first role and his new teammates. He knows that being able to play with top-quality teammates as a distributor is his path to the NBA. He's motivated, seems intelligent, and can be expected to learn.

Diarra has been great but Newton's size and scoring ability give him a higher ceiling.

They'll both be playing a lot of minutes together while Jordan and Andre are out, but how things shake out when those guys are back remains to be seen.

 

[freshler40]

Agree, if we can get 12/7 respectable - we will get on a roll. Never underestimate two studs at the center position. Very few teams have an answer to that.

Our bigs are real. They play like the earlier NBA teams that were center orientated. This will be a massive defensive problem for most teams we play and allow our guards much more space and options.

 

[mauconnfan]

I think the guard play is kind of a mess. Way too many live ball turnovers. Andre should help settle the offensive end

Guard play isn’t great right now considering who they’ve played. The bad turnovers are mostly lazy passes as their crappy offense runs through the motions on top of the perimeter. Need to cut down on those in a big way and take care of the ball much better against stronger more athletic teams who will turn them into breakaway dunks. As far as Andre settling them down hopefully he’s improved because he had a few of those last year as well. Right now turnovers and FT shooting needs to improve but there’s time.

 

[Chief00]

Guard play isn’t great right now considering who they’ve played. The bad turnovers are mostly lazy passes as their crappy offense runs through the motions on top of the perimeter. Need to cut down on those in a big way and take care of the ball much better against stronger more athletic teams who will turn them into breakaway dunks. As far as Andre settling them down hopefully he’s improved because he had a few of those last year as well. Right now turnovers and FT shooting needs to improve but there’s time.

Agree, Chief has seen some lazy passes. My rule of thumb is to accept a few turnovers, if we are trying to push the ball in the transition from defense to offense. Lazy passes in the half court are unacceptable.

 

[coachn]

Defense of the 3 particularly in the first half was impressive.