Chief’s Briefs - DePaul 2 Edition

[Letsgohuskies11]

Chief getting to work on figuring out Martin’s layup “yips”

 

[VindiKate]

Scrappy W, how many of these type games have we lost in recent years. The role players are starting to gain their footing. Enjoy it!

 

[Chief00]

'and that's been Chief’s concern when well intended Casual Fans started talking top ten ranking.'
who u callin 'well intended' son?
missing 2 nba prospects, playing our worst game in ten months while also playing with freethrow bricks, we won, going away. on the road.
spur-ta-bil-ity.
top ten.

We grinded and gutted this one out with incredible defense. A top ten performance IDK - in terms of heart of course - offensive execution - not there yet. ?

 

[uconnyankee]

Chief getting to work on figuring out Martin’s layup “yips”

Top 10 nominee! Beautiful use of Rodney!
Nailed it!

 

[Chief00]

Chief getting to work on figuring out Martin’s layup “yips”

If someone could put together a brief video package, Chief would be happy to analyze.

 

[Waterbury]

Chief thinks Gaffney is really playing within himself. He turns down shots I know he can make too.

i can bang the open 3 he turned down today

 

[3rdbass]

Gaffney is terrified to do anything with the ball right now. Not sure why you’d take I’m over cole at the moment

I agree. Cole is better but he needs to learn to drive and dish out and not try to put up a crazy off balance shots. He can find guys open by driving. Gaffney just seems tentative in everything he does. Martin is man among boys. He gets away with just using his strength to muscle in shots. He need to learn to use a little finesse too so he can maybe make some of those bunnies he misses.

 

[3rdbass]

This was huge on the Bouknight recovery timeline, especially with Villanova being postponed.

No new updates on Bouk?

 

[Chief00]

No new updates on Bouk?

Next week is the hope. 3 games on the schedule but I promise I won’t jinx things this time.

 

[Kolumbo]

I was only comfortable when Charlie Moore did his 1999 imitation, but not of Ricky Moore.

 

[Bomber36]

Tyler days of playing in obscurity are over. Especially with Boutnight out.

Boutnight? it’s either Bouknight or Boatright...and Ryan ain’t here no more.

 

[willie99]

A very good rebounding team got destroyed on the boards. A very good free throw shooting team looked like a very bad free throw shooting team. Yet they still won a road game sans their leading scorer.

Nice win, albeit ugly

 

[ClifSpliffy]

We grinded and gutted this one out with incredible defense. A top ten performance IDK - in terms of heart of course - offensive execution - not there yet. ?

wrong score in the news. we left, easily, 10 or more points on the floor, while deepall, easily, with their circus makes, counted a half dozen too many. pally pallincamp (gonna miss saying his name) was their only stout. after his hack card got punched, we decided to just stand near the hoop and tap it in. great plan execution.

 

[Ricker]

I thought the inbounds play to Martin was the play of the game

 

[my2cents]

Sanogo should be sitting and Akok should be getting those minutes. If Akok is not healthy, then he should not be suited up, but we know what he can do.
Without Bouknight , Polley should be starting.
Why give the ball to our 4/5's at the top of the key, as soon as they turn to the basket to make a pass they throw it away.
Small point guards who can't break down their man, or finish it at the rim...really useless in a half court offense. Adams should play the point.
Martin is an enigma....even point blank lay ups that he makes, bounce in, but we lose this game without his two baskets at the end...his foul shooting is putrid.

 

[Bomber36]

Sanogo should be sitting and Akok should be getting those minutes. If Akok is not healthy, then he should not be suited up, but we know what he can do.
Without Bouknight , Polley should be starting.
Why give the ball to our 4/5's at the top of the key, as soon as they turn to the basket to make a pass they throw it away.
Small point guards who can't break down their man, or finish it at the rim...really useless in a half court offense. Adams should play the point.
Martin is an enigma....even point blank lay ups that he makes, bounce in, but we lose this game without his two baskets at the end...his foul shooting is putrid.

All is well.

 

[Husky1972]

Tyrese Martin: Welcome to the UConn All-Foxhole Team. Rod, Lyman, Donny, and Kevin have been waiting for you. The slogan is: Let's go to war!

 

[nadavtheman]

Whaley plays ball screen defense like he has all the cheat codes

that's funny stuff, so true

 

[HungryHuskies]

Gritty win.

Hurley’s gotta dedicate a practice to free throws. Take it back to the Calhoun days where you don’t leave until you make 100 in a row.

 

[jimva]

Gaffney is terrified to do anything with the ball right now. Not sure why you’d take I’m over cole at the moment

We are not going far with Cole. Not really a scorer and not serving up a lot of assists. Not a good combo for a point guard

 

[Mike1984]

Sanogo should be sitting and Akok should be getting those minutes. If Akok is not healthy, then he should not be suited up, but we know what he can do.
Without Bouknight , Polley should be starting.
Why give the ball to our 4/5's at the top of the key, as soon as they turn to the basket to make a pass they throw it away.
Small point guards who can't break down their man, or finish it at the rim...really useless in a half court offense. Adams should play the point.
Martin is an enigma....even point blank lay ups that he makes, bounce in, but we lose this game without his two baskets at the end...his foul shooting is putrid.

Glad you put in your 2 cents!

 

[djct1999]

I thought the inbounds play to Martin was the play of the game

It sure beat the inbounds plays of our past.

 

[rcarj]

- Our free throw shooting needs work, it'll cost us some games but in a big spot I think we can still trust Polley, Cole, Bouk

- Wasn't obvious but on the back to back good players from Gaffney in the 1st half (steal and layup, then foul) you could see flashes of his athleticism. Just needs confidence to bring that out

- Our defense is good, unbelievably good

The close out d on 3pt shooters in the first half was amazing. Was really hard for DePaul to get a decent look. Offense just looks bad w out 1 on 1 play.

 

[DMIL]

Tyler days of playing in obscurity are over. Especially with Boutnight out and just off Big East player of the week - he will now get defensive attention. We will see if he is clever enough to create scoring opportunities. He made a couple of 3’s in the first half but needs more consistency.

Probably the surprise of the game is that we got out rebounded. Given our difficulty scoring we need to win in this category. We also had more turnovers than assists, a metric Chief watches.

While we got out to an 11 point lead our offense isn’t pretty and that’s been Chief’s concern when well intended Casual Fans started talking top ten ranking.

Again, we did a good job on Moore.

Josh played a step slow and a thought late. Several times he did not appear to be ready for the ball or a plan what to do with it. In the post he needs to create distance for his shot by using a jump hook with his shoulder creating separation.

Martin had a very good game but still needs to work at finishing around the rim. Chief needs to study better the reasons for that deficiency. It’s not readily apparent. He’s strong, has fairly log arms and plays aggressive. It may be a mental matter of concentration.

DePaul came out with a good run to start the second half. UConn was playing very tentative offensively and DePaul did not overthink their offense. I thought Whaley played with energy but not much focus or with awareness of where his man or responsibilities were. He was running around without much purpose to his activity and lost his man or was late to an assignment several times.
I would like to see Polley come in at 17 minutes mark rather than 15 minutes. Our offense really struggles. Gaffney is turning down shots while Cole is rushing his play on offense.

We don’t have an offense that can afford lots of turnovers, since our shooting isn’t that good either. Another game and Akok doesn’t look even remotely ready. Our half court defense is really good, and I think it wore DePaul down and led to the win. Martin had 5 steaks snd Cole 4.

A win is a win especially without your star.

Nice analysis of this game. I think it was a perfect trap game for UCONN to lose given their:

(1) First top 25 Ranking in a number of years
(2) Familiarity with DePaul with their recent blow out win
(3) Road Game and
(4) A bit of overconfidence.
(5) Still without 2 key starters ( Bouknight & Akok)

About 3 or 4 minutes into the 2nd half I knew UCONN was in for a slugfest. It was a physical defensive game and we did not respond well to it with offensive execution, early turnovers, suspect free throw shooting and lack of controlling the boards.

Despite this I liked how the team stayed with it, pushed through and closed out a tough game where they were not able to establish any consistent rhythm offensively. The defense wore DePaul down and Tyrese Martin stepped up at the end with much better focus and closed the show.

I'm still a little concerned about the lack of consistency with our guard play overall offensively. I never feel like they are fully comfortable within the flow at games and we have a lot of headroom here if a chemistry can be developed.

Whaley's effort continues to be a bright spot even when he is a bit unfocused with his energy. Every bucket, rebound, steal from him was critical in a game like this when no one was really special.

Despite the increased focus on Polley I thought is game was solid. If we can get 12 to 14 points from Polley night in and night out I'll take that all day. When Bouknight is back Polley is going to be the x-factor for us against the best teams in the conference offensively. Polley has a bit of headroom as well.

The defense was certainly a star. There is a lot of headroom with this team. That is what I'm so excited about. They just have to put it all together at the right time. I'm enjoying this ride.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

We are not going far with Cole. Not really a scorer and not serving up a lot of assists. Not a good combo for a point guard

i watched only rj the last few minutes of the game. forget the box score. watch that and see how many times he was near the ball, at the ball, and on the ball.
sometimes, it just magically ended up in his hands. instinct. winning bball.
now watch that dee pall guy who mr tv announcer said was something like voted to preseason all big east. he stinks. i think he tripped over the end line, flying out of bounds.
losing bball.

 

[UconnU]

I want to see what Bouknight can do now that the scouting report to face guard Polley is out. This should create a lot of space for him. If Martin is hitting shots we become a deadly perimeter team with interior size and toughness to boot. The Cole, Bouk, Martin, Polley, Whaley lineup intrigues me.

 

[Chief00]

Nice analysis of this game. I think it was a perfect trap game for UCONN to lose given their:

(1) First top 25 Ranking in a number of years
(2) Familiarity with DePaul with their recent blow out win
(3) Road Game and
(4) A bit of overconfidence.
(5) Still without 2 key starters ( Bouknight & Akok)

About 3 or 4 minutes into the 2nd half I knew UCONN was in for a slugfest. It was a physical defensive game and we did not respond well to it with offensive execution, early turnovers, suspect free throw shooting and lack of controlling the boards.

Despite this I liked how the team stayed with it, pushed through and closed out a tough game where they were not able to establish any consistent rhythm offensively. The defense wore DePaul down and Tyrese Martin stepped up at the end with much better focus and closed the show.

I'm still a little concerned about the lack of consistency with our guard play overall offensively. I never feel like they are fully comfortable within the flow at games and we have a lot of headroom here if a chemistry can be developed.

Whaley's effort continues to be a bright spot even when he is a bit unfocused with his energy. Every bucket, rebound, steal from him was critical in a game like this when no one was really special.

Despite the increased focus on Polley I thought is game was solid. If we can get 12 to 14 points from Polley night in and night out I'll take that all day. When Bouknight is back Polley is going to be the x-factor for us against the best teams in the conference offensively. Polley has a bit of headroom as well.

The defense was certainly a star. There is a lot of headroom with this team. That is what I'm so excited about. They just have to put it all together at the right time. I'm enjoying this ride.

Good observations.

 

[Chief00]

The close out d on 3pt shooters in the first half was amazing. Was really hard for DePaul to get a decent look. Offense just looks bad w out 1 on 1 play.

Other than PG, we have great length to use in our close outs.

 

[buddy]

They need to drastically improve the free throw shooting. This game would have been no sweat if the free throw shooting was better, and of course, they would be undefeated if they were better at free throws.

 

[Chief00]

Sanogo should be sitting and Akok should be getting those minutes. If Akok is not healthy, then he should not be suited up, but we know what he can do.
Without Bouknight , Polley should be starting.
Why give the ball to our 4/5's at the top of the key, as soon as they turn to the basket to make a pass they throw it away.
Small point guards who can't break down their man, or finish it at the rim...really useless in a half court offense. Adams should play the point.
Martin is an enigma....even point blank lay ups that he makes, bounce in, but we lose this game without his two baskets at the end...his foul shooting is putrid.

Achilles is a really tough injury to cone back from. We need to be really patient.