Chief’s Briefs - Hartford Edition

[Chief00]

And the Dam Breaks and recruits came and we got a talented team. But, we did not play sharpe tonight.

However, Chief is not sold on our starting lineup. Jackson and Sanogo need more time. Polley had a really hard time getting in the flow tonight. Maybe rusty from his injury but a veteran needs to know how to do things that will get you going.

How do we go over 7 minutes without a hoop or a meaningful change in strategy? I don’t understand our game plan. We keep making the same type of dumb foul over and over again.When will we start playing defense with our feet and keep the offensive player between our knees.

Sanogo continues to impress. His hands are like a vacuum sucking up the ball. Adama also uses his broad shoulders to create space on his soft baby hook.

Bouknight can make it look easy and when he hits the 3 he’s nearly impossible to defend. Quite frankly though, he needs to guard against being too non-chalant on his drives. Keep his eyes on the basket/blackboard. Have an offense when his outside shot is not falling.

On defense. Chief noticed we picked up a few feet outside the 3 line, thus Hartford seldom had an open, comfortable 3 look. The refs kept Hartford in the game - half their points came from the line.

Chief is old school, why do we double team 25 feet away from the basket, when we don’t need to in order to stop anyone - then we foul the guy who was an open man trying to recover. Our defensive switches creates mismatches that benefit the other team.

Martin hasn’t really blended in yet. He looks like an imposing specimen but quite frankly didn’t play with the energy AJ Jackson does.

Starting to see Coles as a guy we go to if Bouknight goes cold. I was surprised even given some foolish plays and fouls how come Jackson did not play more? On a night like tonight all depth is that everyone is equally cold.

Quite frankly, Chief thinks we need to establish an identity as an offensive rebounding team that crashes the boards, especially if we don’t shoot great. We need to do that, but also have to have a rotation back to the opponents basket.

Josh DNP.

We have a lot to clean up in practice.

 

[Dooooooomed]

Hurley should have been benched for Kimani.

 

[WrenchFan69]

That was a disgusting game. UHart +13 on free throw attempts but -18 on points in the paint. Bouknight "foul" at the end sums it up perfectly. Win is a win

 

[ucawn]

Terrible game. Still salvaged a double digit win, but it was awful. I like Martin a lot. We had no paint presence on defense H2

 

[husky429]

And the Dam Breaks and recruits came and we got a talented team. But, we did not play sharpe tonight.

However, Chief is not sold on our starting lineup. Jackson and Sanogo need more time. Polley had a really hard time getting in the flow tonight. Maybe rusty from his injury but a veteran needs to know how to do things that will get you going.

How do we go over 7 minutes without a hoop or a meaningful change in strategy? I don’t understand our game plan. We keep making the same type of dumb foul over and over again.When will we start playing defense with our feet and keep the offensive player between our knees.

Sanogo continues to impress. His hands are like a vacuum sucking up the ball. Adama also uses his broad shoulders to create space on his soft baby hook.

Bouknight can make it look easy and when he hits the 3 he’s nearly impossible to defend. Quite frankly though, he needs to guard against being too non-chalant on his drives. Keep his eyes on the basket/blackboard. Have an offense when his outside shot is not falling.

On defense. Chief noticed we picked up a few feet outside the 3 line, thus Hartford seldom had an open, comfortable 3 look. The refs kept Hartford in the game - half their points came from the line.

Chief is old school, why do we double team 25 feet away from the basket, when we don’t need to in order to stop anyone - then we foul the guy who was an open man trying to recover. Our defensive switches creates mismatches that benefit the other team.

Martin hasn’t really blended in yet. He looks like an imposing specimen but quite frankly didn’t play with the energy AJ Jackson does.

Starting to see Coles as a guy we go to if Bouknight goes cold. I was surprised even given some foolish plays and fouls how come Jackson did not play more? On a night like tonight all depth is that everyone is equally cold.

Quite frankly, Chief thinks we need to establish an identity as an offensive rebounding team that crashes the boards, especially if we don’t shoot great. We need to do that, but also have to have a rotation back to the opponents basket.

Josh DNP.

We have a lot to clean up in practice.

Martin was a beast tonight Chief. Did you watch the same game as me?

I want more Sanogo and Jackson vs Adams and Polley right now.

Wouldn't be against some mimutes with Whaley/Sanogo together vs big teams if we're going to shoot like crap anyways.

 

[Kenny11]

Polley can’t move his feet on defense yet.
Bouknight and Cole couldn’t stay in front of anyone tonight.
off-game for most of the team.
martin can rebound welll
thank god for Zay aka Porkchop, aka Poppers, aka the wrench, aka the squirrel

 

[UconnFanDC]

I approve your briefings. I have to say just this:
I will allow the excuse of being off two weeks to be the reason. But I am watching and waiting for improvement as the competition also improves. Coach Hurley, let's do this!! But sorry, I think Polley needs to come off bench for now.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Atrocious outside of the first 5 minutes.

That's it.

 

[ucawn]

We need a new lineup and better lineups overall next week.

 

[husky429]

Hurley should have been benched for Kimani.

I know we missed practices and are trying out lineups. But our lack of cohesive offense and letting Adams go 1/7 and Polley take 0 threes is on the coach. He needs to own that

 

[auror]

I'm not sure you watched the same game that I did in regards to Jackson and Martin. Martin made the right reads, had a couple impressive finishes, rebounded well.

Jackson played out of control and fouled anyone in his remote vicinity.

 

[awfuldan]

Whaley almost single handedly won this game for us. Pretty hideous game outside of his play. Happy to get a win though.

Bouknight was electric at the start of the game. Thought he was going for 40.

 

[NC_Uconn_Fan]

Atrocious outside of the first 5 minutes.

That's it.

Thats it. Tough watch.

 

[TRest]

What was polley’s stat line, one assist in about 20 minutes?

Martin will be starting by the end of December.

 

[Mister P]

Well said Chief about playing D with their feet. Too many fouls using their hands and arms to defend.

Disagree about Martin though. I thought he played well and hit the boards hard. Not flashy but did his job.

Whaley should be mentioned as the Player of the Game. Double double, 5 blocks and led the team in assists. Back to his late season form from last year.

 

[husky429]

Whaley almost single handedly won this game for us. Pretty hideous game outside of his play. Happy to get a win though.

Bouknight was electric at the start of the game. Thought he was going for 40.

Whaley and Martin won the game for us together imo. The Martin to Whaley run out assist was the nail in the coffin

 

[navery12]

Cole, Gaffney, Bouk, Martin, Whaley should be the starting lineup. Highlights everyone's strengths and has plenty of rebounding from the 4/5.

Adams and Polley are going to be important but if they're not shooting well there needs to be a much quicker hook

 

[superjohn]

What was polley’s stat line, one assist in about 20 minutes?

Martin will be starting by the end of December.

He'll be starting on Tuesday.

 

[aburks41]

Adams needs to shoot way way way less.
Sanogo needs more minutes
Martin looked great

 

[JustbrewitMan]

Gaffney, Whaley, & Martin did a nice job of keeping us from getting into a real bad situation in the last ~8 minutes or so.

Sanogo showed CCSU was no fluke.

Other than the first few minutes, Bouk had a horrible offensive and defensive game.

Refs called the game wayyyy too right, but bad defensive efforts all around was the main contributor to the fouls.

Such is life/basketball in COVID times. I’m just happy I got to watch UConn MBB win. We could haveended up with a day like Virginia!

 

[BlueDogs]

That was a disgusting game. UHart +13 on free throw attempts but -18 on points in the paint. Bouknight "foul" at the end sums it up perfectly. Win is a win

I’ll agree. I expect plenty of mistakes but that was a low intensity effort, and Dan Hurley didn’t use the hook nearly enough for lazy mental mistakes. These guys are going to have to step it up against better quality competition.

 

[Justin M]

Gaffney was the biggest plus coming out of that game for me. 15pts, 2 assists (not enough), 2 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals. But most importantly...ZERO turnovers in a TON of minutes

 

[Palatine]

We see the same thing every year. The defense guarding guys 30 feet from the basket. Picking up cheap fouls or letting the opposing guards get by them. The defense is much better when we relax and drop back a little. The exaggerated overplay almost always gets us in trouble. Relaxing the pressure just a bit would make us much more effective.

Adams killed us tonight. He is the one player on the court playing hero ball.

Cole is still too sloppy with the ball. He had 4 TOs versus CCSU. He had, at least, two in the first half tonight. Not a good trend.

This game was custom made for Carlton in the second half. A few minutes would might have kept Sanogo out of foul trouble. Hurley must have Josh really deep in the doghouse.

 

[husky429]

We see the same thing every year. The defense guarding guys 30 feet from the basket. Picking up cheap fouls or letting the opposing guards get by them. The defense is much better when we relax and drop back a little. The exaggerated overplay almost always gets us in trouble. Relaxing the pressure just a bit would make us much more effective.

Adams killed us tonight. He is the one player on the court playing hero ball.

Cole is still too sloppy with the ball. He had 4 TOs versus CCSU. He had, at least, two in the first half tonight. Not a good trend.

This game was custom made for Carlton in the second half. A few minutes would might have kept Sanogo out of foul trouble. Hurley must have Josh really deep in the doghouse.

Sanogo had 0 fouls. Whaley just played really well. Wouldn't have minded them both on the floor though since Polley wouldn't even try to shoot

 

[jdk1047]

How many timeouts would of Calhoun called before hurley called one

 

[ThabeetDown]

Whaley played like the senior he is. Glad to see it. Without his effort this game gets way out of control. He is invaluable as a point forward when the offense decides to be played through him. No one else on the team can play that role.

Martin needs time to gel, but I like he brings. Kind of reminds of a Shonn Miller-type who does the dirty week and grabs his hard hat and lunch pail when the team needs it.

You've seen both games what Bouk is capable when he plays at 100% effort x 100% focus. He just does not play like this 100% of the time. That's the only thing keeping him from being a Kemba/Shabazz.

Sanogo 8 points in 11 min. I know he can't play with Whaley per say but like come on Danny. He did miss a few shots he was making earlier in the 2H but still. Only two boards though -- Whaley and Martin each grabbing 10 probably had something to do with his lack of playing time in a game where Hartford was rebounding better (which is flat out unacceptable).

Brendan Adams giveth and taketh. 1-7 from the floor, 0-4 from 3. Hurley gave him 24 min and Jackson 5. If his shot aint falling he shouldn't be playing. It's not like his defense (which is usually pretty good) is that much better than Jackson's...Hurley seems a little too obsessed with him (and in all fairness he did deserve it last game but was flat out terrible tonight). If those two are seeing 30 min total, I'd rather see it at 15 each as of now.

Speaking of, Jackson only 5 min, 3 fouls. His effort on D is great (like the charge attempt that was a block by an inch). He'll be just fine but similar to Sanogo the gameplan didn't quite benefit him minutes-wise especially in the second half.

Polley looked real slow out there. Hopefully, it's just 2nd game back from a major injury slow. 0 3P attempts (only 2 shots). He needs to carve out his role quickly with this deep roster.

Gaffney, to me, continues to outplay Cole and is the better facilitator to the offense as a whole. Cole can score better sure, but what Gaffney brings is currently more valuabe. I'd much rather have Cole come off the bench and inject the team with some offense at the under 12.

Honestly disappointed Josh was a DNP. I feel like he could have given some positive, veteran minutes in the post and helped with the boards.

Lack of 3P shooting success is a concern. Hartford was the #1 3P% D in the country last year I believe. In today's game (and especially if you look at Nova) 3P shooting needs to be at least average to be successful. If Polley and Adams aren't hitting em I don't know who is! Vital ain't walking through that door, sadly.

Refs were terrible but Hartford adopted and we didn't, plain and simple. That's on the coaches and the player's mindsets. They got way too cocky after the hot start. It kind of reminds me of the St. Joes game from last year minus the scoreline. These guys needed to be taken down a peg and I think Hurley can get that message across.

At the end of the day, a win is a win. Hartford isn't a pushover like many think they are -- they could definitely win their conference. I think it's a great teaching game, especially with limited practices. On to Vandy.

 

[Lefty2one]

Adams killed us tonight. He is the one player on the court playing hero ball.

Agreed, he's the one guy who doesn't seem to "get it" yet. He makes way too many boneheaded, selfish plays. It really stands out on a team that's otherwise unselfish across the board.

 

[SaeHusky]

Yeah usually like Chiefs Briefs but I think he missed the mark on Martin.. He along with Gaff and Whaley got us the victory. And the #1 Brief should have been "Adams played way too many minutes tonight". Granted we had foul trouble but he didn't have it tonight.

 

[Ajs120102]

This team is almost too deep imo. But the talent is absolutely through the roof. One thing that sticks out, I don’t know if I’m buying into Andre right now. I want to so badly. Sanogo, Whaley, polley, Gaffney Bouk should start next game.

 

[aburks41]

Yeah usually like Chiefs Briefs but I think he missed the mark on Martin.. He along with Gaff and Whaley got us the victory. And the #1 Brief should have been "Adams played way too many minutes tonight". Granted we had foul trouble but he didn't have it tonight.

The problem I have with adams is that when he is cold (like tonight) he tries to shoot himself out of the slump. When he's hot he can take 7-8 shots a game, but when hes not he really needs to limit himself to 5 shots max