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

Chief’s Briefs - Memphis Edition

mlpavela said:
Simple Truth: Coach Baby Pants cost the team the game in the end with the bad T.
Enlightened Truth: Coach Baby Pants cost the team by not playing Stewart in the 2nd half.
Mega Brain Truth: Coach Baby Pants cost the team the game by thinking an undersized transfer from the perennial 2nd place WCC team was enough to replace Newton, Spencer, and Castle all at once, and continuing to start that player to double down on his own error.
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Lol
 
mlpavela said:
Simple Truth: Coach Baby Pants cost the team the game in the end with the bad T.
Enlightened Truth: Coach Baby Pants cost the team by not playing Stewart in the 2nd half.
Mega Brain Truth: Coach Baby Pants cost the team the game by thinking an undersized transfer from the perennial 2nd place WCC team was enough to replace Newton, Spencer, and Castle all at once, and continuing to start that player to double down on his own error.
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I take it you are not a "coach baby pants" fan. Or is this Ed Cooley trolling?
 
Hi-Low said:
Bench Technical, Samson J Technical, Dan Hurley Technical.....act like champs guys, bad calls happen....don't be dumb & make it worse

Can't give away points against real teams and expect to win
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I thought by the end of 2023 Hurley had outgrown the stupid Techs. Apparently he regressed. You cannot get a T there. Cost us the game.

I might also suggest playing a decent opponent early would have helped. Let guys know what real opponents will bring.

I suspect this team will be better by March. But I’m not sure they will be 3-peat better. Too many mismatched parts.
 
GHSWolverines said:
Not sure but that is what the announcers said.
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It was a bench T saw it in another post…if you go back and look the bench and Luke then Danny were gesturing toward the refs after we made three.
 
4:30 EST, lept from my office chair and we're down 13 points. I get to my car, turn it on, get the radio to 1300AM and we're down three!!! Not sure where I was when Solo hit the game tying trey and I almost hit a tree!!

Interesting finish. I come away knowing that Danny and crew just need time to learn how to use his players.

Tip: Start Tarris, sir.
 
mlpavela said:
Simple Truth: Coach Baby Pants cost the team the game in the end with the bad T.
Enlightened Truth: Coach Baby Pants cost the team by not playing Stewart in the 2nd half.
Mega Brain Truth: Coach Baby Pants cost the team the game by thinking an undersized transfer from the perennial 2nd place WCC team was enough to replace Newton, Spencer, and Castle all at once, and continuing to start that player to double down on his own error.
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Clown
 
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Tough game. Memphis played very well. Hunter killed our point guards.

Our point guard play was bad for most of the game until diarra made some good plays late.

I don’t care about practices. Stewart is a gamer and should be playing over Ross in crunch time if the choice is between them.

We will be fine.
 
GHSWolverines said:
I take it you are not a "coach baby pants" fan. Or is this Ed Cooley trolling?
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Very much grateful for what Hurley has brought back to UConn. But this was not a good game from him and we can be objective as to that.

The bigger concern - no subs were made today that were not absolutely forced on Hurley. Eerily reminiscent of the coaching freeze ups during the Pre-Tristen Newton Hurley era.
 
Trying to find Hurley post game press conference somewhere. Is there not one?
 
This was a game where a big guard that can drive would have been big for us.
I wish Stewart had gotten more run.
 
mlpavela said:
Very much grateful for what Hurley has brought back to UConn. But this was not a good game from him and we can be objective as to that.

The bigger concern - no subs were made today that were not absolutely forced on Hurley. Eerily reminiscent of the coaching freeze ups during the Pre-Tristen Newton Hurley era.
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Your assessment was not objective. It was as opinionated as a four year old, ask your mommy
 
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Refs, Hurley not able to contain himself. Whatever. The biggest issue I see is a major downgrade in defense from the entire team. We aren’t even a good defensive team let alone elite championship level. I am sure coaching will get this team to a higher level on defense but not sure who we have that will get to elite defensive status. Also diarra got a defensive board one possession late and I thought to myself we got those from newton castle or Spencer every time someone missed last year. I’m impressed with our offense though we have a lot of talent.
 
HuskyHawk said:
Hard to argue with Chief. Dan stayed with Mahaney too long. Ball's defense was lousy in the first half. Johnson has to catch the ball. Made some huge plays late. Reed was a monster because Memphis was 100% focused on stopping our 3s. Wish we were as focused on stopping theirs. We have no facilitators in the starting lineup. Not enough off ball motion or screening.

Positives - Stewart broke out and dominated. I don't know why he wasn't in during OT. Nobody was more effective per minute than Stewart.

While we can say Dan's Tech cost us the game, I think the weak schedule cost us the game. The team came out like the were playing Lemoyne and seemed shocked by how athletic, strong and aggressive Memphis was. Yes. Welcome to real college basketball. Had we played even decent low majors we are prepared for this and win the game. So the important thing is what they learn from this game. Not just personnel groupings, but how tough they need to be. Liam, hate to break it to you but you can't only shoot when nobody is near you. Same for Alex. We aren't going to scheme wide open looks as effectively this year.
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This. We hadn’t played a real game yet. Warm up games against teams ranked 100-150 would be helpful before playing a team good enough to beat you.

Stewart only getting a few minutes in the second half was absolutely unbelievable. Which of Hurley’s relatives did he sleep with to be treated like that?
 
Hunt for 7 said:
This was a tough one. Hurley cannot get a T in that situation. I thought after two you are out of the game but he was still on the bench after getting his second. I mean two horrible T’s one on Samson also, we are not good enough to win if we are going to make these kind of gaffs.
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I added this to the opening post:
I don’t know what Hurley said or did to deserve that in Overtime, but was it any different than what he had been doing all game? Why did the official take it upon himself to determine the game outcome rather than the players?
 
Facts

Memphis is a very good team.
They outplayed us
We need to show that we can play defense against high level teams without fouling.
 
Karmacop said:
I like the optimism, but there are about 25 teams better than Memphis, some of them MUCH better. If we can't even beat Memphis, I'm not sure that bodes well for the season generally. Some of the other top 10 teams are already clicking at a high level, including some with numerous freshmen and new faces (Duke for example), so that's not an excuse here.

Look, there's nothing wrong with a ceiling of Sweet Sixteen or Elite Eight. We're so spoiled here. But I think it needs to be acknowledged that without SIGNIFICANT improvement from 3-4 of our main players, that's where we're at right now.
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Memphis was not an easy first game for any team. We traveled far (no excuse) with a new batch of players. Hurley is still doing evaluations, testing and discovery with this bunch. Reed and Stewart now have new considerations. Mahaney/Diarria needs to be addressed.

You can't base the season off of the first game with a whole new set of players. We could have won, but in November we're just not ready yet.

Memphis played their arse off, as well all others. We may have a long opening season lasting until end of Dec.

But Yes I am optimistic for 2025 with this group, we are that good. I see it.
 
Chief00 said:
40 foul shots attempts to 24 - really bad officiating. And then the big T. I don’t know what Hurley said or did to deserve that in Overtime, but was it any different than what he had been doing all game? Why did the official take it upon himself to determine the game outcome rather than the players?

One guy back from last year’s starting lineup, but we took Memphis to OT after being down 12 points with 3+ minutes left. McNeeley and Ball hit big shots.

What is apparent is our starting 5 designed for Euro Ball Utopia did not handle pressure well nor did guys create their own offense or defend well. The starting lineup has had poor chemistry all season. What this game made clear is the starting lineup handicaps we gave and overcame during the cupcake games won’t work against good competition.

We did not run our offense through Alex Karaban, a big mistake given the mistakes others made.

Honestly, my starting lineup would be Reed, Ball, Karaban, Diarra and McNeally. Stewart and Ross first guys off bench.

Reed and Stewart came off the bench with “Starters” in foul trouble and what we found out was they played like “Starters”. They combined for 29 of our 40 1st half points, and 11 of our 17 first half rebounds.
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I was screaming to get the ball to AK in OT.

fwiw, Memphis only had one scholly return. And replaced the assistant coaches in Sept. That they gelled together and beat UConn is something I didn't think Penny had in him.
 
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I agree this loss is on Hurley. The guy has won back to back so he’s earned the right to lose a game in November…but that T was terrible. And where tf was Stew in the 2nd half?! Stew and Reed are the only reasons we weren’t blown out.

If Memphis isn’t a top 25 team then we clearly have no business being ranked. Kudos to Penny and team for outplaying us.
 
I am guessing Memphis shoots 6-32 from 3 tomorrow. They played great which is a surprise with Penny. A lot of older players who were playing their “super bowl” against us. A lot of teams will do that. Good fight, we did not play great and could have won. Cant get that T under amy circumstance. I doubt refs wanted to T him up so must have been bad.
 
Memphis is a very good team even if unranked- they played very well, had a great strategy for neutralizing UConn’s strengths, shot fantastically, and UConn still almost won. It’s not the end of the world. I still think this team is very capable of putting it all together and could win it all again. I’d like to see more aggressiveness from Solo and especially Liam. Should Nowell see more action at point? Maybe, but I haven’t given up with Mahaney either.
 
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It’s been said so often, you need strong guard play to win an ncaa title. We don’t have that yet. Our only chance to change that is Nowell. Or make Liam or Stew a guard. Are they quick enough? Mahaney can be a nice player but he’s not physical or athletic enough to play studs.
 
The problem was obviously defense. 3 techs in the last 10 minutes (including OT) is tough to overcome too. As much as everyone likes Diarra, Mahaney still to me is the long-term answer at PG. I like seeing both on the floorm but I get the nips when Diarra has the ball. He's a spark, but he still has too many turnovers. Led the team in turnovers (again). Diarra is great, but if we don't get Mahaney's confidence and defense up we won't go very far. Guard play is essential, and Mahaney just seems more polished out there despite the in-process chemistry. Let's see what he looks like in February. The talent is clearly there. He could be averaging 10 pts a game if a few layups dropped. His defense is improving, slowly -despite some bad sequences. Nowell is going to see more time, I think, but Mahaney is still critical. Reed, on the other hand, needs to play Clingan minutes. It's not even a discussion. SJ is the change-up.
 
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The boneyard is always fun after a loss. I’m still waiting for the first “is Hurley on the hot seat” post. Granted Hurley hates losing but his focus is developing the team to win in March and April. Anyone who thinks Hurley doesn’t know Reed is a better player than SJ isn’t paying attention. Also, those who wonder why other teams seem to have integrated new players more effectively than Hurley are not paying attention. As has been stated numerous times over the last couple of years - Hurley runs a complex offense and it takes longer to learn. I have seen Duke play and was not impressed with their offensive sets at all.

I think SJ’s T was a result of frustration - he spent a lot of time falling to the floor and getting banged around and funally was fed up. As for Harley’s T -without knowing what he said I cannot judge whether he deserved it or not. Or, as the casual fan knows, sometimes it’s just the cumulative effect of what had transpired the whole game and the ref had finally gad enough.

i do think that both Mahaney and Diarra are under performing. After the year Diarra had last year he seems to have regressed. One has to wonder what is preventing Nowell from getting into fames when it counts. But I trust Hurley knows what he is doing.

One thing that I think shows the offense is not clicking yet is that SJ is not getting many dunks. I think when it starts clicking the pnp will lead to the dunks we’ve gotten use to.
 
I'm okay with the loss. We are gonna lose 4 or 5 more this year.

What I'm not okay with is Hurleys temper and arrogance. And saying after the game that the 2x national champs should get a favorable whistle is a dogshit excuse.

He said everyone should separate this years team from last years but even he hasn't been able to do that yet.
 
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