Chief’s Briefs- Marquette Edition

[auror]

We’re close to the ideal Syracuse team, we should be playing their zone. We’re getting torched by quick guards and wings.

Lmao good one.

 

[Chief00]

I’d love to hear from the fans of playing 2 bigs exactly how this is going to be done. High/low post? Is there any evidence that either of these guys has the passing skills to play the high post? Or the shooting skills to pop jumpers from the FT line?

Both of these guys are low post players who need room to maneuver inside. As much as I agree that we should play the best talent, I just see these two getting in each other’s way if they’re on the floor at the same time.

And defensively, which of them is going to get out of the paint to chase mobile 4’s likeHopkins or Prosper. The modern game is played out on the 3-point line even by 4’s. Sanogo would have to be the guy who would chase out there, but he doesn’t seem to have the quickness for that assignment.

Perhaps they could go to a 3-2 zone like Syracuse does, but Danny is a man-D guy. So that ends that discussion before it’s even begun.

Help me out. I’d really love to figure out how this could work, but I’m just not seeing it.

First thing you have to do is try it. Worked well against PC for 4 minutes and haven’t seen it since. Very strange. Calhoun use to do it all the time, and generally never had the issues you are so concerned about. Rather it puts the other team in a reaction mode.

 

[Billy Jack]

That is coach’s job to figure out but more of two bigs needs to start now. What we are doing is not working against well coached teams that have the now easy to figure out scouting report at their disposal. Also, hard to believe all you have to do is guard Hawkins tight and we can’t get him a shot or he can’t figure out how to do it. He is way too good of a player. I’m afraid tonight gents we simply just got beat by a team that played better. Going forward Chief is right let other teams adjust to us.

I frankly don’t Hinkle these 2 bigs will work well together, regardless of whose job it is. But they should be able to figure out schemes such that when the ball goes into the low post, the perimeter players can make cuts to get free and the big man passes out of the double team and they find the open man. I think that has much greater potential for generating more offense. We’re a good rebounding team. E should be able to take advantage of that, make better outlet passes, and find our perimeter shooters for open 3’s off the break. I thought we were doing more of that earlier in the season.

 

[XLCenterFan]

Hurley changed the lineup that went on a 14-0 run because… reasons? He’s a bad in-game coach and he proves it time and time again.

Yup. He can recruit. He can motivate. He cannot manage a game.

 

[Husker Husky]

Hey, give some credit to Marquette. They play hard. Always moving. Yes, they beat us at the foul line and at least 20 of their points were on balls thrown in the vicinity of the rim, that found the bottom of the net. But, they were at home, friendly rims. Next time we see them it will be at home. Different story.

 

[Scottobot]

If we had last year's PG, this team would be unstoppable. Cole is the missing piece.

Disagree. I liked Cole, but he didn’t pass the ball.

 

[uconn13]

Yup. He can recruit. He can motivate. He cannot manage a game.

I admit that I am old(er), but I seem to remember Hurley the player wasn't the smartest guard around when he was on the floor at Seton Hall back in the 90's, or am I wrong?

 

[freescooter]

Hurley changed the lineup that went on a 14-0 run because… reasons? He’s a bad in-game coach and he proves it time and time again.

Well you know he is just learning. He has never been a high major coach before. And it isn’t like we are paying him top dollar. By the time he has been here 4-5 years he won’t make the same mistakes.

 

[freescooter]

Tired BS. Clingan is in the best condition of ANY BE player.
Not an ounce of fat on that boy. What sacrifice that boy made before season..
Saw it with my own eyes last Saturday. Wants to win like his life depends on it.
Needs and should be in the game all the time . Winner. He and Jackson should never be out of the game. Karabn also when he plays like he did tonight.

Disagree on Jackson. He should come off the bench in certain situations. You can’t play 4 on 5 at the offensive end against good teams.Nobody respects his offense so they can cheat and double Sanogo and others. Heck he doesn’t even respect his offensive game. And his occasional highlight reel dunks = 2 points.

 

[PAHusky]

Tired BS. Clingan is in the best condition of ANY BE player.
Not an ounce of fat on that boy. What sacrifice that boy made before season..
Saw it with my own eyes last Saturday. Wants to win like his life depends on it.
Needs and should be in the game all the time . Winner. He and Jackson should never be out of the game. Karabn also when he plays like he did tonight.

Is this Clingan fan fiction? He’s a hell of a player and a good kid. He’s not anywhere close to the best conditioned BE player. He’s not even close to our best conditioned player. He gets winded after dominating in five or eight minute spurts and needs breathers constantly.

 

[PAHusky]

That is coach’s job to figure out but more of two bigs needs to start now. What we are doing is not working against well coached teams that have the now easy to figure out scouting report at their disposal. Also, hard to believe all you have to do is guard Hawkins tight and we can’t get him a shot or he can’t figure out how to do it. He is way too good of a player. I’m afraid tonight gents we simply just got beat by a team that played better. Going forward Chief is right let other teams adjust to us.

Our problem on offense is lack of ability to get to the rim and no go to scoring option. How does double bigs solve that? All of you complaining about our spacing and lack of shooting last year want to go back to that now? You play those two with AJax and you have three guys the D knows won’t take a shot from outside 12 feet unless they absolutely have to.

On defense, assuming you don’t go zone, what have you watched from AS this year that makes you think he stays in front of 4’s at all on the perimeter?

 

[pj]

These games are lost in the off season

Good teams can take away our offense, because for whatever reason Hurley refuses to bring in guards that can drive to the basket and dish or score off the glass.
Teams get in our shirts on the perimeter and dare us to go by them and we can't because we don't have that guard. Ours just keep backing up, hoping they stop bothering them. There is no room for our shooters to shoot.

It is not enough to bring in great shooters. You need guards that can break down a defense.

Imagine a penetrating guard drawing defenders, dumping it off to our outstanding big men, or kicking out for open 3's instead of the rushed 3's we take now when we get a crevice to shoot in.

Tristen Newton has been that guard who can drive to the basket and score. Don't know why it hasn't translated yet to UConn.

It does seem like Hurley believes he can teach point guard skills, and doesn't need to recruit a natural point guard. But the best point guards have a gift that can't be taught.

 

[pj]

Never thought I’d see a Danny Hurley team be this soft defensively. Not going to win many games giving up 80 plus.

15-3 lost 3 really tough road games in the big east against 3 of the best teams in the country. Everyone calm down. All 3 of these teams come here as well. It’ll be fine.

This is what makes me optimistic. Defensive liabilities are something Hurley knows how to address.

 

[pj]

Our problem on offense is lack of ability to get to the rim and no go to scoring option. How does double bigs solve that? All of you complaining about our spacing and lack of shooting last year want to go back to that now? You play those two with AJax and you have three guys the D knows won’t take a shot from outside 12 feet unless they absolutely have to.

On defense, assuming you don’t go zone, what have you watched from AS this year that makes you think he stays in front of 4’s at all on the perimeter?

We have an ability to have a 7'2" guy stand near the rim and deliver lob passes to him, and our two bigs are shooting 70% that way. That's a very efficient offense.

Two bigs might call for a zone. That's the challenge with that lineup.

 

[kobebeanbryant]

With a huge opportunity available at pg and the amount of options available in the portal, ultimately choosing to go with a mis-cast sg to fill that role is looking like the critical error for this season.

Imagine we had gone after a player like Boum or Kolek instead?

 

[freshler40]

I’d love to hear from the fans of playing 2 bigs exactly how this is going to be done. High/low post? Is there any evidence that either of these guys has the passing skills to play the high post? Or the shooting skills to pop jumpers from the FT line?

Both of these guys are low post players who need room to maneuver inside. As much as I agree that we should play the best talent, I just see these two getting in each other’s way if they’re on the floor at the same time.

And defensively, which of them is going to get out of the paint to chase mobile 4’s likeHopkins or Prosper. The modern game is played out on the 3-point line even by 4’s. Sanogo would have to be the guy who would chase out there, but he doesn’t seem to have the quickness for that assignment.

Perhaps they could go to a 3-2 zone like Syracuse does, but Danny is a man-D guy. So that ends that discussion before it’s even begun.

Help me out. I’d really love to figure out how this could work, but I’m just not seeing it.

Well, unless we try the two bigs, one outside, Santago and Donavan inside we won't know. Many of our combination changes are guard types but mostly non shooting or defensive purposes. Jackson and Joey seem most successful at getting the ball to the bigs. But both need to hoist an occasional shot too.
Donavan is a better passer and alert to opportunities for others to score. Santago is less inclined to pass but did some in the M game.

We have had enough losses at this point to know a change in the lineup is a serious option. We have gotten bogged down in late game situations too often and need a new look so opposing teams also have to change. Jackson at point and the two bigs might be a healthy change. Is Danny holding off this option for later in the season????

 

[giddyup]

This! UConn goes on a 14-0 run with Clingan playing amazingly. Marquette calls a time out and Hurley comes out of the time out with Clingan on the bench and Sanogo back in. WTF!

As soon as we accept that Dan Hurley’s mind works exactly as he behaves, you realize higher level strategic thinking shuts down in the game. He has a terrible sense of what is happening other than in the immediacy of the moment.

 

[Chief00]

I frankly don’t Hinkle these 2 bigs will work well together, regardless of whose job it is. But they should be able to figure out schemes such that when the ball goes into the low post, the perimeter players can make cuts to get free and the big man passes out of the double team and they find the open man. I think that has much greater potential for generating more offense. We’re a good rebounding team. E should be able to take advantage of that, make better outlet passes, and find our perimeter shooters for open 3’s off the break. I thought we were doing more of that earlier in the season.

Jim Calhoun tried it for 2 decades, he did ok! LOL
We all have our opinions, that’s why you try new things rather than endlessly opine about them. It worked well for the 4 minutes this season we tried it, but never repeated it.

 

[JB75]

I’d love to hear from the fans of playing 2 bigs exactly how this is going to be done. High/low post? Is there any evidence that either of these guys has the passing skills to play the high post? Or the shooting skills to pop jumpers from the FT line?

Both of these guys are low post players who need room to maneuver inside. As much as I agree that we should play the best talent, I just see these two getting in each other’s way if they’re on the floor at the same time.

And defensively, which of them is going to get out of the paint to chase mobile 4’s likeHopkins or Prosper. The modern game is played out on the 3-point line even by 4’s. Sanogo would have to be the guy who would chase out there, but he doesn’t seem to have the quickness for that assignment.

Perhaps they could go to a 3-2 zone like Syracuse does, but Danny is a man-D guy. So that ends that discussion before it’s even begun.

Help me out. I’d really love to figure out how this could work, but I’m just not seeing it.

Well it’s worth a shot- especially for small stretches of time in these second halves where teams like providence Xavier and Marquette have taken control. Not saying it will 100% work, but might as well try.

 

[Punkbo]

Tristen Newton has been that guard who can drive to the basket and score. Don't know why it hasn't translated yet to UConn.

It does seem like Hurley believes he can teach point guard skills, and doesn't need to recruit a natural point guard. But the best point guards have a gift that can't be taught.

Newton is the biggest disappointment so far and makes PG our biggest issue. We thought we were getting junior year Newton who shot the ball extremely well and scored at will. Instead, we got sophomore year Newton. His stats this year are eerily similar. I thought if we played him off-the-ball with AJ, he’d get more opportunities. Well, he’s getting those opportunities, but not making the shots. I still think he could be the solution based on our other options, but he better turn it up soon.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Because guys get tired lol. What is this. Our best player in this one was a freshman who weighs like 270. He gets tired.

"Why don't we just leave Clingan out there 30 mpg?"

Does he remotely have the conditioning to do this? Wasn't this a major concern coming into the year and a reason why a 15-20 mpg backup role is ideal? I'll defer to the coaches who see him in practice every day.

 

[NJHusky]

Tristen Newton has been that guard who can drive to the basket and score. Don't know why it hasn't translated yet to UConn.

It does seem like Hurley believes he can teach point guard skills, and doesn't need to recruit a natural point guard. But the best point guards have a gift that can't be taught.

Kinda like Baum @ X?

 

[Chief00]

Our problem on offense is lack of ability to get to the rim and no go to scoring option. How does double bigs solve that? All of you complaining about our spacing and lack of shooting last year want to go back to that now? You play those two with AJax and you have three guys the D knows won’t take a shot from outside 12 feet unless they absolutely have to.

On defense, assuming you don’t go zone, what have you watched from AS this year that makes you think he stays in front of 4’s at all on the perimeter?

You keep going to the same losing well after it has produced 3 straight road loses. What further evidence do you need that perhaps we should try a different approach?

 

[HuskyinWRNY]

Next game start both Clingan and Sanogo. Jackson is the starting PG with Newton coming off the bench. Get your best players on the court. Don’t be a prisoner of failed rotations.

When you have a formula that works game night, it is coaching malpractice not to use it until it doesn’t work. Tonight was a twenty point win that wasn’t.

Stubbornness is never good. What more of a case does Clingan have to make to get 25-30 minutes every game. There’s no excuse for that not to consistently happen based on results. And icing him on the bench doesn’t always mean a repeat performance later in the game.

One striking difference between Sanogo and Clingan was Adama’s 4 first half turnovers vs. zero for Donovan. While Donovan had 4 blocks vs 1 for Adama. Why not play more of the lineup that built the lead? Instead Danny inexplicitly changes things up when he didn’t need to.

I am tired of letting our opponents set the match-ups, let’s play Double Big 10+ minutes a game and let them match up to us. In the second half no excuse for Sanogo not playing with Donovan. Danny has Sanogo playing defense 25 feet away from the hoop anyways.

I thought Jackson played fairly well tonight. Great defense and pretty good offense. He made plays for teammates but had some turnovers too. Karaban did not have a muscle guy to defend, so he was able to play his game and played very well. Marquette did a great job taking Hawkins’ game away. Turnovers killed us and Marquette converted them into points.

Message to Dan Hurley, Newton is NOT a point guard. Time to go a different direction.

I couldn't agree more. I was flabbergasted that Clingon's effort was wasted. In my opinion, Clingon should be starting every night intil Sanogo learns how to send that ball back out when otger teams are packing it in underneath. We went from riches to rags last night, and will continue with this kind of loss until changes you outlined are put into place.

 

[PAHusky]

You keep going to the same losing well after it has produced 3 straight road loses. What further evidence do you need that perhaps we should try a different approach?

Change for the sake of change isn't necessarily the right answer.

You play two bigs last night and Karaban doesn't get the minutes he did. He was our second best player. Does that make sense?

Playing the two bigs together doesn't fix our biggest offensive problems, which are our guards inability to get by anyone at the perimeter/get to the rim and our dismal 3 point shooting. Instead, especially if we play with AJax out there, it kills our spacing. AS is not a good enough passer to make a high/low big game work. Playing with the three of them means we have two guys at most on the court who can shoot from outside 12 feet consistently.

Playing them together on defense also doesn't help. On offense we can't get by anyone on the perimeter; on defense we can't stay in front of anyone. I think the answer is zone. I don't think the answer is asking Sanogo to play out on the perimeter while DC anchors the paint, as I think it will immediately put AS or DC in foul trouble and won't be effective against most BE teams.

Unfortunately, I don't think the solutions to this year's problems are fixable. This team needs a guard who can break the defense down and get a bucket when no one else can. Without that, we're entirely too predictable as everyone is a one trick pony (AS is a black hole in the paint, Hawk shoots 3's or drives straight at the rim, AJax is scared to shoot, Joey C = 3, Newtown is a poor man's Hawk, etc.)