Chief’s Briefs - Kansas Edition | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Chief’s Briefs - Kansas Edition

Sorry but we were ambushed. They were ready for us. Marquette set us up dammit!
Once we settled down, we positioned ourselves to win. Anyway, 'A game' only in this place if you want to snatch victory at their place. But that opening was brutal and here's why:

 
caw said:
This was a problem this game. I don’t expect it to be a long term issue.
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I totally agree. I think this was a game changer stat., a very winnable game for us in a hostile inviorment.
 
uconntoatl said:
Karaban needs to wake up from his slumber. Expected way more from him tonight.
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They played great defensive on Karaban. I think he was they guy that Kansas worried about most.

He got a few good shots off, but they were immediately on him in transition.
 
Dan did state that last year's team was better on December 1st last year than this team is this year. As long as this team learns and grows, it will be fine in March. I was happy to see this team come back after tough start to game. Without Newton, the game could have been over early. Even the Jayhawk announcers mentioned that this was a very tough first road game of the year for UConn.
 
Kitaman said:
Sorry but we were ambushed. They were ready for us. Marquette set us up dammit!
Once we settled down, we positioned ourselves to win. Anyway, 'A game' only in this place if you want to snatch victory at their place. But that opening was brutal and here's why:

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I mean we took the lead by 5 or more points with about 8 minutes to go in the second half.

Despite our shooting woes from the foul line and behind the arc, and the crappy fouls they called on us, this was a very winnable game.
 
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uconn1999 said:
I don’t like our 7’2” center setting screens at the top of the key on almost every off set. Last game it was feed the big dog down low, this game we just seemed reluctant to give him the ball.
I would have liked to have challenged Dickinson on the low box and DC has shown some ability to kick out when defended.
Very winnable game, great effort.
Short bench hurt
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Their bench was as short as ours. I hate losing, but I walked away thinking both teams healthy, neutral court in March, I think we can handle them. We win if we’re not a man down. We win if DC and Spencer don’t have foot problems during the game. We win if we hit our foul shots. And while I thought overall the refs did an o.k. Job in such a high intensity, physical game, we win if they call the foul where Samson Johnson had chased down an offensive rebound on the left sideline and gets taken out by a clip directly from behind (even Bilas said something) leading to a KU 3 right when they took the lead back for the last time.

Point being, despite KU coming out with far, far more intensity than us at home to start the game, it took a heck of a lot going wrong to keep us from winning. Again, it hurt losing but we all know whether you won or lost that game doesn’t count for beans when we see who wins their conferences and when we start the big dance in March. All that will really matter is that neither DC nor Spencer is seriously hurt.
 
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ConnEd said:
I just think that Adams was a nightmare matchup for him on our offensive end. Adams used his advantages in athleticism to negate a lot of what Alex can do. He was quick enough to stick close to him on the perimeter to limit his three looks. That same quickness helped him stay in front of Alex when he tried to drive. And he was strong enough to challenge him on the rare occasions when Alex received the ball down low. Not too many guys can do all of that on the defensive end or will give that level of effort to do it.
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Newton said so himself in post game conf, that they hadn't seen anyone like Adams on defensive side being able to switch quickly, making it difficult for them.
 
I like our team. Spencer played really bad in the first half. He was giving up his dribble prematurely and looked tense. He was hobbled and played so hard in the second half but he was still off. Karaban needs to be better and more aggressive. I’m not worried about him though. He got screwed a couple times by the refs. We didn’t look very athletic without Castle and with Samson not playing many minutes. Ball’s ball handling seems to be getting better but not yet good enough to create on his own against good teams. That will come. Diarra played really hard but was a little outmatched talent-wise. Again, with castle that wouldn’t be a problem. Newton kept us in the game..what a performance by him
 
If we play like this on Tuesday we will not win -- UNC is as good a team on paper as Kansas, just not as well coached. If you're not named Tristen Newton, you need to look in the mirror or get healthy. Everyone was talking about this game (and rightfully so) but if you're expecting to waltz into MSG on Tuesday and expect a W you are sorely mistaken. They just put up 100 on Tennessee (who has KenPom #3 D AFTER that game still...our D dropped all the way down to 15 from being top 10 after last night, mind you). They are very similar to Texas in the sense they have very good -- but small -- guards, so that of course plays in our favor.

I trust Hurley to prevent this from being a letdown spot, but I am concerned. Tough to play big games-back-to-back in the regular season (of course different mindset in March when it's do or die).
 
This is a simple analysis. Kansas jumped on us early. Karaban and clingan did not play great. Spencer was a little hurt /out of it. No castle was huge. Despite all that , we had lead in second half. Newton balled out. No doubt in my mind, we beat them 8 times out of 10 on thier floor if everyone plays like they should and castle is back. Not a bad loss at all. Looked like it cudda been blowout city early on. Now let’s smash unc in the garden !!!!
 
Chief00 said:
Kansas came out strong both on defense and offense. UConn offensive spacing was poor. But then, Kansas meet Mr Newton and his 31 points.

We took Kansas best shot and injuries have started to accumulate for us. We took the lead but Kansas hit threes late and beat us in an exciting game.

McCullar hurt us towards the end with his shooting. We continually loss him defensively despite all the shots he made. It is tough to win when you shoot 53% from the foul line and 9% less on FG’s than your opponent.
We need Karaban to break out of his mini slump and I think he will. Diarra is getting good minutes and good play but sometimes needs to give it up to a shooter with less dribbling with the game on the line.

Looking forward to getting Castle back if he is 100% ready to go. Taking Kansas to the wire on the road with one of our best players out is something we can built on.
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Karaban is too good a player to be non existent for too many stretches.
Also had some silly fouls, speaking mostly of the 5th.

Overall , I thought Kansas D overwhelmed us. Team fought back and really made it a great game. Free throws need some attention.

Home court, Castle out, and Spencer not 100% probably were the difference in this one. That and 50% from charity stripe
 
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JB75 said:
This is a simple analysis. Kansas jumped on us early. Karaban and clingan did not play great. Spencer was a little hurt /out of it. No castle was huge. Despite all that , we had lead in second half. Newton balled out. No doubt in my mind, we beat them 8 times out of 10 on thier floor if everyone plays like they should and castle is back. Not a bad loss at all. Looked like it cudda been blowout city early on. Now let’s smash unc in the garden !!!!
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Good post, but to be completely honest, if both teams bring their A game on their home court? I’d take 5 out of 10 wins and still feel good about this team‘s chances in March.
 
businesslawyer said:
Their bench was as short as ours. I hate losing, but I walked away thinking both teams healthy, neutral court in March, I think we can handle them. We win if we’re not a man down. We win if DC and Spencer don’t have foot problems during the game. We win if we hit our foul shots. And while I thought overall the refs did an o.k. Job in such a high intensity, physical game, we win if they call the foul where Samson Johnson had chased down an offensive rebound on the left sideline and gets taken out by a clip directly from behind (even Bilas said something) leading to a KU 3 right when they took the lead back for the last time.

Point being, despite KU coming out with far, far more intensity than us at home to start the game, it took a heck of a lot going wrong to keep us from winning. Again, it hurt losing but we all know whether you won or lost that game doesn’t count for beans when we see who wins their conferences and when we start the big dance in March. All that will really matter is that neither DC nor Spencer is seriously hurt.
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This game didn’t bother me at all. It’s hoops and especially between 2 good teams, every game is different As hostile as any environment they will play in all year. Down early, come back. Newton and Spencer will shoot better from the stripe most games. Newton won’t be so crazy but other guys will shoot better. Newton proves every night how great it is to have good 3-4 year vets on a team. But also no Castle who really needs action against teams that will test him. Hopefully as the season goes on, the other frosh besides Ball will give Hurley the confidence to play them. Aside from not winning, that loss means zero so long as they can take care of business most nights.


ETA: if Newton isn’t an NBA player, it’s only because of the evolution of the game. UConn once had a point guard about the same size as Newton drafted (inexplicably) in the first round. His name was Tate George and he wasn’t a third the talent of Newton
 
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IMO Dickinson would have not been able to run and jump with Samson for extended time. It was him who was in when we built the lead right? Donovan actually did okay against a bigger older guy but today showed he has a lot of room to grow.
 
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Palatine said:
You missed the most important thing Chief. The switch to the two big line up late in the game resulted in a 11-0 Kansas run that decided the ball game. We were leading when it was done. It killed our offense.

Yeah, the first ten minutes hurt us. And Spenser's 2-12 (or whatever it was) didn't help. But the two bigs was the key to final result.
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The two bigs was ok when we used it in the first half, and was only used in the second due to Karaban’s foul trouble.
 
I give Kansas all the credit in winning this game, but I think we benefited more from this awesome contest than the Jayhawks did. They game-planned to stop our screens on offense, and did a fantastic job of it in building a 12 point lead. They also closed out with an 11-0 run. Congratulations to them and to their excellent coach. But Kansas won a home game, and needed an element of tactical surprise to do it.

However, despite not winning the game, I believe UConn got more out this. Kansas got the "W" but UConn got the rest of the alphabet in terms of learning where they are and what they need to do to win another championship. They also benefited more psychologically from knowing they took Kansas' best shot, and still had a chance to steal a win if only Spencer were able to somehow will the ball into the basket with seconds left.

With one exception, I downplay the injuries because that's just part of the game. However, Spencer was coming up inches short on his shots all night, which I attribute to his weakened ankles. His shot were mostly dead-on but hitting the front of the rim. This happened multiple times, including on free throws.
 
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dogpause said:
I give Kansas all the credit in winning this game, but I think we benefited more from this awesome contest than the Jayhawks did. They game-planned to stop our screens on offense, and did a fantastic job of it in building a 12 point lead. They also closed out with an 11-0 run. Congratulations to them and to their excellent coach. But Kansas won a home game, and needed an element of tactical surprise to do it.

However, despite not winning the game, I believe UConn got more out this. Kansas got the "W" but UConn got the rest of the alphabet in terms of learning where they are and what they need to do to win another championship. They also benefited more psychologically from knowing they took Kansas' best shot, and still had a chance to steal a win if only Spencer were able to somehow will the ball into the basket with seconds left.

With one exception, I downplay the injuries because that's just part of the game. However, Spencer was coming up inches short on his shots all night, which I attribute to his weakened ankles. His shot were mostly dead-on but hitting the front of the rim. This happened multiple times, including on free throws.
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True, that happened on Spencer’s shot last night. A shot starts in the feet/legs.
 
businesslawyer said:
Their bench was as short as ours. I hate losing, but I walked away thinking both teams healthy, neutral court in March, I think we can handle them. We win if we’re not a man down. We win if DC and Spencer don’t have foot problems during the game. We win if we hit our foul shots. And while I thought overall the refs did an o.k. Job in such a high intensity, physical game, we win if they call the foul where Samson Johnson had chased down an offensive rebound on the left sideline and gets taken out by a clip directly from behind (even Bilas said something) leading to a KU 3 right when they took the lead back for the last time.

Point being, despite KU coming out with far, far more intensity than us at home to start the game, it took a heck of a lot going wrong to keep us from winning. Again, it hurt losing but we all know whether you won or lost that game doesn’t count for beans when we see who wins their conferences and when we start the big dance in March. All that will really matter is that neither DC nor Spencer is seriously hurt.
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So true and of all the injury recoveries I worry most about Donovan’s foot. I have zero medical information but I just can’t get Bill Walton out of my mind. Reports are that my worry is not fact based and I hope they are right.
 
Kenny11 said:
I like our team. Spencer played really bad in the first half. He was giving up his dribble prematurely and looked tense. He was hobbled and played so hard in the second half but he was still off. Karaban needs to be better and more aggressive. I’m not worried about him though. He got screwed a couple times by the refs. We didn’t look very athletic without Castle and with Samson not playing many minutes. Ball’s ball handling seems to be getting better but not yet good enough to create on his own against good teams. That will come. Diarra played really hard but was a little outmatched talent-wise. Again, with castle that wouldn’t be a problem. Newton kept us in the game..what a performance by him
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Agree.
 
I also think this game is indicative of how important playing at home in a big matchup can be. There were several loose balls that Kansas was just a hair quicker to get too. That little boost of adrenaline that players feed off of that comes from a raucous home crowd most often shows up there more than anywhere else.
I agree I think while everyone would like to walk away with a 'W", this could be a big step in this team winning another national championship. This will give Hurley & staff a lot of teaching moments in the next few weeks and beyond.
If it happens in the future, I like this crew's chances if they are healthy, with Castle back against Kansas on a neutral court.
 
TheRealKBuks said:
we meet them in March and we win. There are many factors you can point to for reasons why we lost tonight. All of them fixable. That is the most hostile environment anyone on this squad has ever faced...while being hobbled...and without our best NBA prospect. The only thing I would've changed would be the last shot by spencer. I wanted newton to go full kemba/shabazz and break his man down on the dribble and drain a game winner. I can live with this result.

ATTN: Kansas Jayhawks... LETS DO THIS MORE OFTEN!!!
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It's about time they visited Connecticut!
 
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I give the D credit for many of Cam's misses. The attempts weren't quite from his spots, just a bit off it seemed to me.
 
Waquoit said:
I give the D credit for many of Cam's misses. The attempts weren't quite from his spots, just a bit off it seemed to me.
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Cam also had that uncharacteristic turnover on one of the few fast break chances when he traveled. The game was pretty clean otherwise with only 8 turnovers for each team.
 
When we went 2 bigs in the second half we could not matchup well defensively and lost the lead. When we started the game using DC as a screener only and did not make Dickenson play defense down low it was a mistake. Maybe having DC up top is a result of no Castle but make teams defend him down low! Get em next time.
 
1. Hurley waited way too long to make offensive changes in the 1st half
2. With Castle playing UConn wins by a dozen
3. Newton was awesome on offense but allowed too many 3's oi Kansas in the 2nd half by losing his man - Newton was a phenom on offense
Not a bad loss at all but should have been a W.
Life goes on.

Bring on UNC
 
businesslawyer said:
Their bench was as short as ours. I hate losing, but I walked away thinking both teams healthy, neutral court in March, I think we can handle them. We win if we’re not a man down. We win if DC and Spencer don’t have foot problems during the game. We win if we hit our foul shots. And while I thought overall the refs did an o.k. Job in such a high intensity, physical game, we win if they call the foul where Samson Johnson had chased down an offensive rebound on the left sideline and gets taken out by a clip directly from behind (even Bilas said something) leading to a KU 3 right when they took the lead back for the last time.

Point being, despite KU coming out with far, far more intensity than us at home to start the game, it took a heck of a lot going wrong to keep us from winning. Again, it hurt losing but we all know whether you won or lost that game doesn’t count for beans when we see who wins their conferences and when we start the big dance in March. All that will really matter is that neither DC nor Spencer is seriously hurt.
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This is a very fair take. While I agree with Hurley that we aren’t as good on Dec 1 as we were last year I think it’s also clear that this team has less margin for error. It’s not as strong and deep as it was. Castle will help a lot, as will the minutes Solo gets now. But it’s not likely to be as good. Still really good. Just not as good.
 
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