Chief’s Briefs - Florida Edition

[Chief00]

This sentence is an affront to the endeavor of written communication.

Chief loves the Casual Fan, who lives to be offended or “affronted”. Whatever gets you through life I guess. Always do my best, but invariably when you pick something up hours later, you quickly see a mistake/typo that wasn’t apparent before. The edit window doesn’t allow it to be changed at that point.

 

[my2cents]

Pretty hilarious that we have ID all the issues, while we destroy everyone in our path. The biggest difference I see in this team vs most of UCONN teams of the recent past, we are the big boys on the block now. No team in college basketball can match up with our physicality. NOBODY. This puts us way ahead everyone from the get go.
We know college kids are going to have off games, we have a team that can survive and win, despite that.

 

[Husky25]

If the game is on the line late, who is on the court? Who takes the shot?

Sanogo, Karaban, Jackson, Hawkins and Calcaterra.

Hawkins, Calcaterra, or Karaban, in that order, take the last shot.

 

[Chief00]

Pretty hilarious that we have ID all the issues, while we destroy everyone in our path. The biggest difference I see in this team vs most of UCONN teams of the recent past, we are the big boys on the block now. No team in college basketball can match up with our physicality. NOBODY. This puts us way ahead everyone from the get go.
We know college kids are going to have off games, we have a team that can survive and win, despite that.

That’s any excellent point. Physicality and good Bigs.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

With our current roster construction, player skill sets, and offensive strategies/sets, we just do not need a “traditional PG”

I repeat: WE. DO. NOT. NEED. A. TRUE. PG.

Enjoy the ride. This is the best UConn BB we’ve seen in nearly a decade.

 

[Icehawk]

1. How did Todd Golden avoid getting T'ed up?

No freakin' clue. I was 100% sure it was going to be called. These were definitely home town refs, 9 vs 28 FTs? Didn't matter

 

[Deadrody]

Shrugs, it’s the byproduct of a 15 minute limit on editing.

Which is, of course, entirely pointless.

 

[HuskyCLT]

The 15 TOs need to be cut, but it is tough to complain about much when they still win by 21. They completely controlled Florida from the tip and the game was never in question.

The only other negative I saw last night was the amount of times Jimmy Dykes said "ball." Definitely a good showing by the team when I start to take note of what the announcers are saying.

 

[PAHusky]

Completely unrelated to all of this but I sat next to Boeheim at Smith and Wollensky last night while I watched the game on my phone. Didn't catch him picking his nose but don't doubt that he did. Felt good for the mojo and turned out ok for the team.

 

[Scrutineer]

The key this year is if Adama has the recognition to pass the ball out to the shooter, while the double is coming but hasn’t arrived yet.

Part of the equation is the shooters have to keep working to get in position to be open on the switches.

 

[bendm]

there is still a role for Newton on this team -- I think we should take the main distributor role off his plate and let him concetrate on scoring by getting to the hoop and drawing FTs, his biggest strength

agree on the first part. slightly concerned about the second part.

i thought the last play of the second half was a perfect example/opportunity for TN to attack the paint and get fouled but he dumps it off to a guy around the hoop not necessarily in scoring position and time runs out. he hasnt attempted a FT in the past 2 games now. idk what the problem is.

 

[Vancat]

Chief loves the Casual Fan, who lives to be offended or “affronted”. Whatever gets you through life I guess. Always do my best, but invariably when you pick something up hours later, you quickly see a mistake/typo that wasn’t apparent before. The edit window doesn’t allow it to be changed at that point.

Aw Chief, you were doin' so good.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

Completely unrelated to all of this but I sat next to Boeheim at Smith and Wollensky last night while I watched the game on my phone. Didn't catch him picking his nose but don't doubt that he did. Felt good for the mojo and turned out ok for the team.

at Smith and Wollensky last night

humble brag.
did you have the horseradish sauce? outstanding!

 

[PAHusky]

at Smith and Wollensky last night

humble brag.
did you have the horseradish sauce? outstanding!

Took the wife for our annual Christmas dinner. Had to do it early this year with a little one at home now. Had never been before but thought the food was a solid 8/10 but the wait/service/ambience was a bit lower. No horseradish sauce, should have come here first for recs.

I recognized Jimmy B right away and asked my wife to confirm and she of course had no idea who he was. She did see a gigantic ring on his wife's finger though, so she googled his wife of all things and gave my hunch the nod.

 

[Husky25]

I’m hoping Johnson comes back from his injury sooner than later because we need more depth in the front court. Karaban, Sanogo and Clingan each picked up 2 fouls in the first half.
Donovan was inserted back in with 1 foul after Adama picked up his second foul with 5 or 6 minutes remaining in the half. He proceeded to pick up his second foul within a minute and remained in the game. Luckily, Donovan did not pick up a third foul before the half ended.

With league play coming up there will be tough, physical games where we need another big to give up fouls and spell Adama and Donovan.

UConn is fully capable this season to execute Hurley's preferred (so I hear) 1 in-4 out offense. I understand what you are saying on the defensive end, when they play a more disciplined front court. Florida being undisciplined helped mask UConn's lack of length.

 

[Frank06830]

 

[TXHuskyFan]

at Smith and Wollensky last night

humble brag.
did you have the horseradish sauce? outstanding!

Humble brag. Knows that the horse radish sauce is worth having at Smith and Wollensky!

 

[ClifSpliffy]

Humble brag. Knows that the horse radish sauce is worth having at Smith and Wollensky!

once went on a ribeye spirit journey with a pal over the course of around one year. literally, planes, trains, and automobiles. i think metro nyc had aboot 5 places on our list.
like i said, 'planes, trains, and automobiles.' that Tampa place felt like a mob hit would go down at any moment. anyway,
pro tip. Texas, Oklahoma, and Kali Central Valley, are some kind of steak heaven. u can throw a rock there and hit a place that should have like 10 stars. apparently, people around my way don't get out very much. sumone should tell the new yak times that it's a big country.
and for dessert, sir? steak tartare!
and to drink, sir? meatballs! (got this one from homer simpson. lol)
my pal would answer the q 'and how would u like ur steak, sir?'
'walking.' every single time. imma 'black and blue' type of ribeye chomper.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Nice game summary Chief. Agree regarding your point about our big man play. Is this the best 1-2 punch we’ve ever had out of the five? Emeka was an amazing dominant player, but the combination of Sanogo and Clingan is inventing and so hard to defend. I have to believe that banging away against each other at practice is making each of them into Into better players.

Jackson going 2-5 from deep is so impactful. How often have we said the Jackson just needs to be good enough from three to force people to guard him. He delivered that last night. His athleticism and court vision allows him to impact the game without scoring, but hitting the open three makes people guard him out to the line, opening up the paint. I love to see him drive by defenders and take it to the hole more.

This x x is a fun team to watch. As long as they keep up the same intensity and focus we are going to be incredibly tough to beat.

Is it the best two we've had? On the offensive end, I think so. We've had teams with multiple good bigs.

What I think is so unique is having these two guys in an era when many college teams don't really have one. Or have a quality 4 playing the 5. Watching the NBA, you see the whole small ball era is shifting again. As with any sport, at some point, if nobody has true centers, anybody who does can exploit that. We have two. Cisse was a legit big, and OSU gave us the most trouble as a result. Castleton is a nice player, but he's a tall 4, more like Johnson. Sanogo and Clingan wouldn't look like this against Ewing or Olajuwon.

Obviously we have quality players all over, and lots of depth. I think the real key is our ability to defend with so much intensity for 40 minutes, and get scoring from many different sources.

 

[August_West]

The 15 TOs need to be cut, but it is tough to complain about much when they still win by 21. They completely controlled Florida from the tip and the game was never in question.

The only other negative I saw last night was the amount of times Jimmy Dykes said "ball." Definitely a good showing by the team when I start to take note of what the announcers are saying.

I dont like Jimmy Dykes. He was very complimentary of us last night, which is appreciated but he is a southern idiot (I dont like those people) , I would take Bill Walton every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Sorry for partying.

 

[August_West]

Humble brag. Knows that the horse radish sauce is worth having at Smith and Wollensky!

Thats a crappy Humblebrag. Smith and Wollensky is like 14th on my NYC Steakhouse list. (Ask me for my resume and pics)

 

[ColchVEGAS]

I dont like Jimmy Dykes. He was very complimentary of us last night, which is appreciated but he is a southern odiot (I dont like those people) , I would take Bill Walton every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Sorry for partying.

I do not feel strongly one way or another about Dykes in general. For whatever reason he was driving me crazy last night with shortening basketball to "ball" every time. I think there was one stretch where he was talking about Clingan choosing ball and ball not choosing him...and he just continued for minutes it seemed about ball this and ball that.

My Dykes rant is over. Back to UConn's "ball" product on the floor.

 

[uconn1999]

Thats a crappy Humblebrag. Smith and Wollensky is like 14th on my NYC Steakhouse list. (Ask me for my resume and pics)

America’s Steakhouse, with a whopping 7 locations.
The one in Dallas shuttered a number of years ago.

 

[August_West]

For whatever reason he was driving me crazy last night with shortening basketball to "ball" every time.

I forgive that, I think it is cringe, but he and others think it's hip schtick, not different than Walton haters thinking he is cringe and I think it's hip schtick. Everyone has their preferences. No problem there.

 

[Husker Husky]

I was watching on my tablet, so I didn't tab away to check the stats until after the game, but I was thinking that if the Ref's didn't send the Gators to the line possession after possession, this would have been a 40pt blowout.

 

[jibsey]

I do not feel strongly one way or another about Dykes in general. For whatever reason he was driving me crazy last night with shortening basketball to "ball" every time. I think there was one stretch where he was talking about Clingan choosing ball and ball not choosing him...and he just continued for minutes it seemed about ball this and ball that.

My Dykes rant is over. Back to UConn's "ball" product on the floor.

Dykes loves our team. AJAX his favorite, then Sanogo and Clingan of course. Crazy about Hawk and Karaban. He did everything but send a Valentine’s day card and candy last night. He already is doing the Purdue matchup with us, Dec 8th.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

When your top two guys off the bench give you a combine 75% shooting (12/16) for 27 points over 39 minutes, you know you have a lot of answers. Donovan Clingan and Joey California did that tonight.

Couple that with solid starter minutes from our Big Three (Sanogo, Hawkins & Jackson) and good defense against poor shooting and we got yet another 20 point type win against a big name school.

A weakness tonight was the realization that we sometimes lack a traditional point guard. Newton had 3 assist but 5 turnovers and nor did he give us much scoring. However, the assists by committee seem to work with Jackson (4 assists, 0 to’s ), Hawkins (3 assists) and Diarra/Joey C (4 assists combined). Compare our 16 assists and 52% shooting against FL paltry 6 assists and 30% shooting and one realizes overall we got the ball to where it needed to go. We also defended. 89% foul shooting is part of a winning formula too.

Sanogo though continue not to have the inside out passing identification that we would like him to have. As Adama had 1 assist and 3 turnovers.

Three positional strengths are clear with this team:
1) Regardless of whatever you want to call Sanogo for draft reasons, with Sanogo and Clingan, we have the top center position in the country. Tonight we had 33 points (72% FG%) , 15 rebounds and 4 blocks combined. In my World that’s huge, no matter how trendy it is to have how many guys play outside. Dominating the paint still wins games!!!

2) Hawkins, Joey C, Newton and Karaban give us either the 3 point threat or production that we have needed to keep defenses honest.

3) Andre Jackson - What do I have to do tonight for us to win? Tonight it was dominant defense FL (30% FG), good ball movement/security (4 assists, 0 turnovers) and even 2 for 5. (40%) from the 3 line. Then who tied tonight for being our top rebounder? Andre Jackson at 8 rebounds.

Going 10-0 tonight on 12/7 and having played and won our top 5 out of conference games, it is clearly time to celebrate our good fortunate as fans following such a unique and successful team. More on that later today.
Good night.

Some of your best briefs ever, Chief. Those three points are spot on. This squad has answers to almost any question.

Re: the point guard question. Small quick ball-hawking guards will cause a bit of trouble. But Jackson, quick ball movement, and well-set screens can resolve that issue.

 

[coachn]

Right now Jackson is stirring the NATY drink.
Chief look forward to reading you after every game.

 

[Chief00]

Please check out my Andre Jackson event thread. The event is next Thursday, December 15th. It should be a great opportunity to talk to Andre. He will be there for 2 hours. The long term success of the program will have a lot to do with fans supporting NIL events like this one.

 

[gtcam]

He was not being doubled on that play. It seemed to me that Fla decided to let Castleton take him Mano a Mano and shut down the 3 point shots. Joey was open, but I don't remember seeing how close his defender was. Let's hope AS works toward more of that. I'll bet that is a subject visited in every practice.

It was supposed to be a target of off season work that Dan Hurley talked about after last season - didn't seem to check that box off
Dan Hurley also said that AS was going to work on his handle around the basket a develop a mid range game - still waiting
He definitely worked on his 3 pt shooting and unlike others I don't mind when he steps out and throws a few up every game.
AS is a huge part of this team but just wish that he showed improvement on the two aspects of his game that Dan Hurley said was going to occur.