Chief’s Briefs - Memphis Edition

[mlpavela]

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.

 

[Mike Honcho]

An assistant got the first T

Who?

 

[GHSWolverines]

Who?

Not sure but that is what the announcers said.

 

[Mike Honcho]

Not sure but that is what the announcers said.

Yea, I'm curious to know who got teed up. The play by play I'm looking at just says "Huskies technical foul." Maybe someone at the game can add some color.

 

[HuskyHawk]

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.

 

[Zonepress]

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.

Lol

 

[GHSWolverines]

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.

I take it you are not a "coach baby pants" fan. Or is this Ed Cooley trolling?

 

[freescooter]

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

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.

 

[Hunt for 7]

Not sure but that is what the announcers said.

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.

 

[Dove]

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.

 

[DVD#12]

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.

Clown

 

[Kenny11]

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.

 

[mlpavela]

I take it you are not a "coach baby pants" fan. Or is this Ed Cooley trolling?

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.

 

[JB75]

Trying to find Hurley post game press conference somewhere. Is there not one?

 

[Jaker]

Oh snap!

 

[Magic32]

This was a game where a big guard that can drive would have been big for us.
I wish Stewart had gotten more run.

 

[slepers]

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.

Your assessment was not objective. It was as opinionated as a four year old, ask your mommy

 

[uc1990]

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.

 

[businesslawyer]

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.

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?

 

[Chief00]

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.

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?

 

[CbbisGreat]

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.

 

[Kitaman]

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.

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.

 

[storrsroars]

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.

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.

 

[hansonel-amin]

Who?

It was the trainer, James Doran.

 

[CT2SC]

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.