Chief’s Briefs - ECU Edition | The Boneyard

Chief’s Briefs - ECU Edition

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Our sloppiness either leads to deficits or restricts us from opening up a comfortable lead as was the case today until we got in an offensive rhythm and Carlton took over the game.

The first half sloppiness included Carlton and Smith losing a rebound, followed by a bunch of poor shots by Jalen or unforced Smith turnovers and stepping over the inbounds line. To some extent, the physical effort was mostly there but the mental breakdowns defined us.

Chief would have made a pre game wager on it and true to form Jalen disappointed again in a day time game. At best, it just doesn’t mirror his body clock. However, Danny’s response in benching him during much of the second half, means there’s probably more to it. Every time he shows signs of maturing he reverts back to lack of game preparation or focus during his senior year. Very disappointing, I wish the narrative was otherwise.

While the game was ugly, Chief thought building a good lead without Gilbert or Adams was a big plus.

I thought Carlton, in general, continued his improvement. He scored, rebounded and blocked shots. I thought he continues to be more active and aggressive than earlier this season. I still want him to finish stronger on his moves and knock down his foul shots and close to the rim shots. Coach Hunter, in Chief’s opinion, has done a good job working with Josh.

When ECU went to zone, Polley quickly missed two open 3’s, something he absolutely needs to knock down to truly be considered a shooter. He did hit one later.

Sid really looked good on two threes. When he makes shots it’s real clean. When Sid misses its more his body is not under control or poor shot selection. His shot mechanics are actually much better than even Chief realized. With some good guards if Sid can hit the open three and then do the explosive athletic thing down low - that’s a nice package.

ECU is not a good team today.

Chief is hearing UConn expects to sign two more guys. Definitely still in play for Precious and others. Great to get an opportunity to say hi to Coach Chill. A good guy.

Chief is hitting a Suoer Bowl Party so probably won’t be able to respond to replies until later. So have fun!
 
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HuskyHawk

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Sounds about right. Brendan Adams got some meaningful minutes that seemed to help his development. Vital got some time at PG. I think that is something we may see more of. Polley was decent. Sid was better than decent. Carlton was epic.

Overall, the guys who needed to improve got valuable real experience today. Jalen, maybe, hopefully learned something from this. Against Temple, I want an angry, efficient Jalen.
 

ctchamps

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Sounds about right. Brendan Adams got some meaningful minutes that seemed to help his development. Vital got some time at PG. I think that is something we may see more of. Polley was decent. Sid was better than decent. Carlton was epic.

Overall, the guys who needed to improve got valuable real experience today. Jalen, maybe, hopefully learned something from this. Against Temple, I want an angry, efficient Jalen.
On offense Polley and Sid were equivalent. On defense Polley was superior. Had assignment against Gardner. Shut him down.
 
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While I agree the the first 10 or so minutes were sloppy I would not consider it a sloppy game. We moved, the ball well and hit some big shots against the zone. I think Sidney’s shots prior to today were a little flat, not the case today. He had a bit more air. The guys who played, all played hard.
 
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Clearly a premature take, Mr. Chief. So many positives overlooked or passed over with barely a mention. Probably the most promising one-game performance we have seen yet from next year's returnees -- Wilson's shooting eye, Polley's continued strong defense and offensive aggressiveness, Carlton's array of moves underneath, even Brendan's confident ball-handling. A 24-point win without Gilbert and without a single point from Jalen. There will be downers from here, no doubt, but this is the game we will look back on where the pieces all came together -- or at least we saw how they might..
 
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Clearly a premature take, Mr. Chief. So many positives overlooked or passed over with barely a mention. Probably the most promising one-game performance we have seen yet from next year's returnees -- Wilson's shooting eye, Polley's continued strong defense and offensive aggressiveness, Carlton's array of moves underneath, even Brendan's confident ball-handling. A 24-point win without Gilbert and without a single point from Jalen. There will be downers from here, no doubt, but this is the game we will look back on where the pieces all came together -- or at least we saw how they might..
You haven’t noticed? He usually misses the last 10 minutes if not the whole second half. Too busy on the grind. Really a shame because before this year, I enjoyed how he took pride in giving thoughtful briefs. This year, they have been really...well, brief.
 
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There are positive signs occurring over the last couple weeks that have me feeling better at the direction this program is moving. Some players are actually showing signs of improvement. We are competitive on the road vs top teams in the league even without a key player. Frustrating we can't win the games yet but hopefully when Hurley gets his players we will. Certainly beats 20 points losses.
 
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I feel bad for Brendan Adams sometimes. He seems so anxious when he gets the game he usually throws up an air ball on his first shot which he did again today. In warmups he doesn’t freaking miss. Then sometimes he plays good defense and the guy makes the shot anyways. That’s also happened to him several times this year. Hopefully the extended minutes he got in the second half will make him feel more comfortable.
 

ctchamps

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Clearly a premature take, Mr. Chief. So many positives overlooked or passed over with barely a mention. Probably the most promising one-game performance we have seen yet from next year's returnees -- Wilson's shooting eye, Polley's continued strong defense and offensive aggressiveness, Carlton's array of moves underneath, even Brendan's confident ball-handling. A 24-point win without Gilbert and without a single point from Jalen. There will be downers from here, no doubt, but this is the game we will look back on where the pieces all came together -- or at least we saw how they might..
Carleton has been a beast going on five games now. He has always had great hands and holds the ball high. But now he demands the ball and frames himself to receive it down low. This is the second game in a row where teams are doubling every time he gets the ball. His pass to Wilson really got my attention.

But what really has me excited is his defense. Something clicked for him five games ago. He not only watches his player but pays attention to the ball movement. Countless times he stops drives at the top of the key, something Alex O. was decent at and Cobb is unable to do.

He’s getting very good with his defense of the pick and roll and week side defense. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a big who is fundamentally sound with every aspect of defense.

And not since Kentan’s freshman year has there been a big who is effective on offense with missed shots.
 
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Carlton is steadily improving on both ends of the court. For the first time the guards were trying to get him the ball. Wilson made 2 threes. He needs to continue working on his outside shot. If he can be a threat from the outside he is going to be dangerous bc when he attacks the basket he has great explosion. JA better hire a great agent bc it will take a miracle for him to make a NBA team. Even though it was ECU. It was nice to see the other players step up with the absence of Al and a nonexistent JA
 

UconnU

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I feel bad for Brendan Adams sometimes. He seems so anxious when he gets the game he usually throws up an air ball on his first shot which he did again today. In warmups he doesn’t freaking miss. Then sometimes he plays good defense and the guy makes the shot anyways. That’s also happened to him several times this year. Hopefully the extended minutes he got in the second half will make him feel more comfortable.
He just needs more playing time. He’s the hardest working kid we have on the team.
 

ctchamps

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Slowly Tyler Polley is becoming our Niels Giffey. He’s starting to be effective driving to the basket, has the three point shot and is effective guarding opposing teams best players. The comradeship between him and Carleton at the end of the game was terrific.
 
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The impotent offense on both sides early on almost made me think there was an issue with the basketball. I assume also that Hartford has a slightly different backboard/rim/stanchion setup (aside from the depth perception) than Gampel that requires a perceptive adjustment for the shooters. But something didn't look quite right with the ball handling and shooting on both sides in the first half. Then there was a significant change in the second.

Anyway it was great to see Carlton progressing further, as well as Sid and Tyler getting their stroke down. Hopefully Josh can carry it over against the top end of the league. Not expecting a linear progression but things are looking up. And one other thing was clear. The team is really rooting for Josh. Says a lot about him.
 
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What we are seeing is the maturation and improvement of freshman and sophomores buying into the coaching and guidance from a high-quality coaching staff (I really hoped that Ollie was the right guy, and stuck with him into last year in hopes that 2016-2017 was an aberration - unfortunately, it turned out not to be).

Best combined game from Carlton, Polley and Wilson yet.

The future is looking brighter and brighter all the time fellas - and even more so if our coaches are able to complete "the grind" and get 2 of those elusive high-level big men to commit to play here... I'll take 1 of them being a grad transfer if he is front line player (a Shonn Miller type of contributor) and then they can follow it up with a Top 100-150 big in the 2020 class.

Coaching staff grade keeps going higher... as does the improvement of our young guns.

Winning ANY game by 24 without Adams or Gilbert scoring a single point would have been considered impossible even a few weeks ago. That is measureable, substantial improvement.
 
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Carleton has been a beast going on five games now. He has always had great hands and holds the ball high. But now he demands the ball and frames himself to receive it down low. This is the second game in a row where teams are doubling every time he gets the ball. His pass to Wilson really got my attention.

But what really has me excited is his defense. Something clicked for him five games ago. He not only watches his player but pays attention to the ball movement. Countless times he stops drives at the top of the key, something Alex O. was decent at and Cobb is unable to do.

He’s getting very good with his defense of the pick and roll and week side defense. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a big who is fundamentally sound with every aspect of defense.

And not since Kentan’s freshman year has there been a big who is effective on offense with missed shots.
Come on brother, you call him Carleton in every thread.
 

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I feel bad for Brendan Adams sometimes. He seems so anxious when he gets the game he usually throws up an air ball on his first shot which he did again today. In warmups he doesn’t freaking miss. Then sometimes he plays good defense and the guy makes the shot anyways. That’s also happened to him several times this year. Hopefully the extended minutes he got in the second half will make him feel more comfortable.
He came out looking like he was trying to dribble an 8 sided dice today. Kudos to Hurley for sticking with him and to Badams for making a few plays as as the game progressed. Wish he finished that dunk.
 
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What we are seeing is the maturation and improvement of freshman and sophomores buying into the coaching and guidance from a high-quality coaching staff (I really hoped that Ollie was the right guy, and stuck with him into last year in hopes that 2016-2017 was an aberration - unfortunately, it turned out not to be).

Best combined game from Carlton, Polley and Wilson yet.

The future is looking brighter and brighter all the time fellas - and even more so if our coaches are able to complete "the grind" and get 2 of those elusive high-level big men to commit to play here... I'll take 1 of them being a grad transfer if he is front line player (a Shonn Miller type of contributor) and then they can follow it up with a Top 100-150 big in the 2020 class.

Coaching staff grade keeps going higher... as does the improvement of our young guns.

Winning ANY game by 24 without Adams or Gilbert scoring a single point would have been considered impossible even a few weeks ago. That is measureable, substantial improvement.
Yes. A blowout win without Adams and Gilbert really says a lot, especially looking ahead to next season and beyond. Lets see what happens the rest of the month because we have a pretty brutal schedule ahead of us.
 
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Polley's defense on our opponents' stars these past few games has been fantastic.
He plays well against guys who aren't too mobile. As he can use his length to offset his lack of strength inside against more post up guys.
 

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Slowly Tyler Polley is becoming our Niels Giffey. He’s starting to be effective driving to the basket, has the three point shot and is effective guarding opposing teams best players. The comradeship between him and Carleton at the end of the game was terrific.


I think he is longer and more lean like DeAndre Daniels.
 
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Remember last year when we lost how many - 6 games by 20+ points? This year, we have SEVEN 20+ pt wins and only 1 20-pt loss, to Villanova. That's progress. The next five games will really test our mettle. I can see us very possibly going 1-4 or 2-3, but still improve by shooting like we did today, limiting turnovers, and having better scoring balance between our inside and outside players. Vital with zero turnovers!
 
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