Chief’s Briefs - Gonzaga Edition

[Chief00]

During the first half, we shot very well for a open up for a road game, 63% FG and 77% from 3. The ball movement was outstanding, we led in assist 11 to 3. Their offensive rebounding kept them in the game (8 to 1).

I thought Spencer was outstanding with perfect 3 and FT shooting along with great balll movement. Clingan did his job in the paint and just needs to bottle his knee bending and mental approach on his second foul shot on the first foul shot. He shoots about 25% on the first one and 75% on the second one. Combined they had half our points.

An untold story this season is how well Diarra is shooting. He’s playing within his capabilities. 91% on FT’s. I can’t tell you how important it is that Diarra now can handle the ball late and not have to worry about his FT’s. Hard work does pay off. His defense tonight was outstanding.

We came out the second half and expanded our lead from 11 to 16. We are very comfortable playing on the road (sorry guys Seattle is not neutral against Gonzaga) . A sign of a mature and poised team.

I love Spencer but why was he bringing the ball up vs Newton? In the middle of the second half their good defense and our sloppiness with the ball gave them hope.

I thought the calls tonight favored the offense both ways. Lots of borderline calls going to the guy with the ball.

Alex’s did not have his 3 ball going tonight but made some key FG’s late. Donovan shot 75% from the field and led in rebounds. Samson did not shine on the boxscore but played well on. Donovan and Hassan combined on some plays late despite Honzaga extending their defense. It effected UConn for awhile in the second half but then we made them pay.

Tough game, good win.

 

[GHSWolverines]

It is nice to see DC have a solid game against a quality opponent. SC needs to shake off tge rust but man he knows how to go downhill.

 

[Huskybass]

Bottom line, you beat another top 10 team by double digits on the road, it's impressive. Karaban and Diarra both made plays down the stretch. Diarra is proving to be more of an impact player than many of us would have guessed. Great double digit win on the road.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Seriously am I tripping or did Clingan look different body wise this game? He looked about the size he was in Europe.

The foot is still a thing because he’s not dunking yet still, but he looks like he’s in much better game shape heading into conference play.

 

[Fan1978]

During the first half, we shot very well for a open up for a road game, 63% FG and 77% from 3. The ball movement was outstanding, we led in assist 11 to 3. Their offensive rebounding kept them in the game (8 to 1).

I thought Spencer was outstanding with perfect 3 and FT shooting along with great balll movement. Clingan did his job in the paint and just needs to bottle his knee bending and mental approach on his second foul shot on the first foul shot. He shoots about 25% on the first one and 75% on the second one. Combined they had half our points.

An untold story this season is how well Diarra is shooting. He’s playing within his capabilities. 91% on FT’s. I can’t tell you how important it is that Diarra now can handle the ball late and not have to worry about his FT’s. Hard work does pay off. His defense tonight was outstanding.

We came out the second half and expanded our lead from 11 to 16. We are very comfortable playing on the road (sorry guys Seattle is not neutral against Gonzaga) . A sign of a mature and poised team.

I love Spencer but why was he bringing the ball up vs Newton? In the middle of the second half their good defense and our sloppiness with the ball gave them hope.

I thought the calls tonight favored the offense both ways. Lots of borderline calls going to the guy with the ball.

Alex’s did not have his 3 ball going tonight but made some key FG’s late. Donovan shot 75% from the field and led in rebounds. Samson did not shine on the boxscore but played well on. Donovan and Hassan combined on some plays late despite Honzaga extending their defense. It effected UConn for awhile in the second half but then we made them pay.

Tough game, good win.

Spot on on diarra at the line. Looks automatic. Last year every ft was a prayer. Clearly he has put in a lot of works. Kudos to hassan

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Bottom line, you beat another top 10 team by double digits on the road, it's impressive. Karaban and Diarra both made plays down the stretch. Diarra is proving to be more of an impact player than many of us would have guessed. Great double digit win on the road.

Other than Newton coming back . I have mentioned multiple times how critical his return was with the lack of experience in the second unit. He is the rock that without that second unit would be a non factor, in fact I dubbed that group Diarra’s kids .
We would be in huge trouble without him.
Even Johnson depends on his passing.

 

[nomar]

Diarra has been fantastic!

Nice to see Clingan dominate. I’d like to see more dunks but I’m not complaining.

Spencer was getting torched. His offense made up for it, and things were better in the second half, but too many blow-bys.

 

[CL82]

It was an impressive win. The thing that I keep thinking about is that this team isn't playing anywhere close to its capacity. we can be much better. Scary thought… If you're not a UConn fan.

 

[jorge34]

Bud

During the first half, we shot very well for a open up for a road game, 63% FG and 77% from 3. The ball movement was outstanding, we led in assist 11 to 3. Their offensive rebounding kept them in the game (8 to 1).

I thought Spencer was outstanding with perfect 3 and FT shooting along with great balll movement. Clingan did his job in the paint and just needs to bottle his knee bending and mental approach on his second foul shot on the first foul shot. He shoots about 25% on the first one and 75% on the second one. Combined they had half our points.

An untold story this season is how well Diarra is shooting. He’s playing within his capabilities. 91% on FT’s. I can’t tell you how important it is that Diarra now can handle the ball late and not have to worry about his FT’s. Hard work does pay off. His defense tonight was outstanding.

We came out the second half and expanded our lead from 11 to 16. We are very comfortable playing on the road (sorry guys Seattle is not neutral against Gonzaga) . A sign of a mature and poised team.

I love Spencer but why was he bringing the ball up vs Newton? In the middle of the second half their good defense and our sloppiness with the ball gave them hope.

I thought the calls tonight favored the offense both ways. Lots of borderline calls going to the guy with the ball.

Alex’s did not have his 3 ball going tonight but made some key FG’s late. Donovan shot 75% from the field and led in rebounds. Samson did not shine on the boxscore but played well on. Donovan and Hassan combined on some plays late despite Honzaga extending their defense. It effected UConn for awhile in the second half but then we made them pay.

Tough game, good win.

Diarra was fantastic. Especially on D again. Offense was very good.
The overall defense and rebounding left a lot to be desired.
Never felt like they were in danger of losing, but felt like they should be running that team off the court

 

[Captbluefin]

It’s so nice to be back dominating again.

 

[Chief00]

Diarra has been fantastic!

Nice to see Clingan dominate. I’d like to see more dunks but I’m not complaining.

Spencer was getting torched. His offense made up for it, and things were better in the second half, but too many blow-bys.

Diarra can really extend and pressure the ball. I agree his defense was outstanding. When we put combinations of Diarra, Newton and Castle on the court, it often takes our opponent out of their offense.

 

[Waquoit]

What did you think about the Stewart cameo, Chief? Something or nothing? I thought it was something.

 

[ThabeetDown]

We won the second half and didn’t even make a 3. Defense finally showed up. We’re the best team in the country. We can beat you every which way.

Not winning the BE regular season by 2+ games would be embarrassing.

 

[OkaForPrez]

What did you think about the Stewart cameo, Chief? Something or nothing? I thought it was something.

Courtesy minutes in front of his home town crowd.

 

[businesslawyer]

Good overall effort and off the charts first half shooting. But the lack of rebounding was really unusual and disappointing. Still think our cieling is much higher than we’ve been playing if Castle can start understanding how to utilize his talent and Clingan gets to 100% physically.

 

[jibsey]

Hurley knows that defense is the key to everything because it keeps you in games when shots don’t fall like 3’s second half. Didn’t look like it but Zags are a good team, that’s how good we are and it was by no means a perfect game. BE will be interesting and tougher.

 

[dogpause]

I love that we keep getting better, and that we seem to be almost bulletproof. Gonzaga plays some really good on-ball defense, but no team is able to sustain that against us. To do so, you need a bench that is almost as good as your starters, and it needs to be eight deep. I thought there was no way we could lose three players to the NBA and still have a chance to become almost as good as last year. Now, I think we have a chance to be even better. This team plays with machine-like precision, they are really enjoyable to watch.

Clingan played his best game so far this year. He was everywhere, and he was very aggressive without getting into foul trouble. I think he's finally rounding into shape. And HD was amazing in both his execution, and the timing of it.

 

[Chief00]

I love that we keep getting better, and that we seem to be almost bulletproof. Gonzaga plays some really good on-ball defense, but no team is able to sustain that against us. To do so, you need a bench that is almost as good as your starters, and it needs to be eight deep. I thought there was no way we could lose three players to the NBA and still have a chance to become almost as good as last year. Now, I think we have a chance to be even better. This team plays with machine-like precision, they are really enjoyable to watch.

Clingan played his best game so far this year. He was everywhere, and he was very aggressive without getting into foul trouble. I think he's finally rounding into shape. And HD was amazing in both his execution, and the timing of it.

Agree on all points. A fun, efficient and unselfish to watch.

 

[JB75]

Like I said after unc game. There is no doubt in my mind we are best team in country and if everyone gets to thier expected level(castle, clingan) no one shud be within 10 points of us all year. Now I’m just kicking myself for not betting them yesterday when I loved the game all week. In control from start to finish never a worry( we ve been seeming to have a lot of games like that lately ) lol

 

[HCCForever]

What did you think about the Stewart cameo, Chief? Something or nothing? I thought it was something.

Courtesy minutes in front of his home town crowd.

I thought it was something. It may have been Danny's way of testing Stewart against Watkins. Watkins looked like he could over power Alex but Gonzaga never really tested that much in the game.

Good overall effort and off the charts first half shooting. But the lack of rebounding was really unusual and disappointing.

IMO Most of the Gonzaga offensive rebounds were first touched by UConn but not handled cleanly. There only seemed to be one or two where UConn didn't box out. One was early in the game where Stromer rebounded without anyone putting a body on him and scored on the put back.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

I love that we keep getting better, and that we seem to be almost bulletproof. Gonzaga plays some really good on-ball defense, but no team is able to sustain that against us. To do so, you need a bench that is almost as good as your starters, and it needs to be eight deep. I thought there was no way we could lose three players to the NBA and still have a chance to become almost as good as last year. Now, I think we have a chance to be even better. This team plays with machine-like precision, they are really enjoyable to watch.

Clingan played his best game so far this year. He was everywhere, and he was very aggressive without getting into foul trouble. I think he's finally rounding into shape. And HD was amazing in both his execution, and the timing of it.

I love where we are but hardly bulletproof..
The good thing about having great Big. East coaches is they will quickly find and exploit those areas of weakness. I look at them as a necessary step on the road .. Last year ,even though it didn’t look like it to some, we addressed the majority of our weaknesses and were a more complete team than on Jan1.
Let’s hope that happens again.
Successful teams grow as the year progresses.

 

[bendm]

According to kenpom 3 teams have a top 10 offense and defense: Zona, Purdue, and UConn but We 10th in D. That’s the only area I’d like to see marginal improvements.

 

[coachn]

Good read and recap as usual..

 

[Punkbo]

During the first half, we shot very well for a open up for a road game, 63% FG and 77% from 3. The ball movement was outstanding, we led in assist 11 to 3. Their offensive rebounding kept them in the game (8 to 1).

I thought Spencer was outstanding with perfect 3 and FT shooting along with great balll movement. Clingan did his job in the paint and just needs to bottle his knee bending and mental approach on his second foul shot on the first foul shot. He shoots about 25% on the first one and 75% on the second one. Combined they had half our points.

An untold story this season is how well Diarra is shooting. He’s playing within his capabilities. 91% on FT’s. I can’t tell you how important it is that Diarra now can handle the ball late and not have to worry about his FT’s. Hard work does pay off. His defense tonight was outstanding.

We came out the second half and expanded our lead from 11 to 16. We are very comfortable playing on the road (sorry guys Seattle is not neutral against Gonzaga) . A sign of a mature and poised team.

I love Spencer but why was he bringing the ball up vs Newton? In the middle of the second half their good defense and our sloppiness with the ball gave them hope.

I thought the calls tonight favored the offense both ways. Lots of borderline calls going to the guy with the ball.

Alex’s did not have his 3 ball going tonight but made some key FG’s late. Donovan shot 75% from the field and led in rebounds. Samson did not shine on the boxscore but played well on. Donovan and Hassan combined on some plays late despite Honzaga extending their defense. It effected UConn for awhile in the second half but then we made them pay.

Tough game, good win.

More ball handlers is better than less. That was one of our key concerns coming into the season. It’s a luxury that Newton, Diarra, Spencer, Castle, Ball and Karaban can all handle the ball in both the front court and the backcourt. It will definitely be a benefit when teams press us. Of our 8-man rotation, only our big men, DC and Samson, should avoid handling the ball.

 

[inWV]

Diarra is emblematic of the kids embracing their roles. Taking advantage of what works for him on offense and being very active on the floor. Ball defers but also has a green light when he’s at his spot. It’s hard to get a bead on Castle. It seems he could do more offensively but realizes being a defender and facilitator wins games.