Chief’s Briefs - Memphis Edition | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Chief’s Briefs - Memphis Edition

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.
 
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.
 
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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You “don’t know what Hurley said or did”. The official does.
 
Looking at the box score (like every college coach is rushing to do), and coming to the conclusion that you can beat UConn, in overtime, if your team shoots 54.7% FG, shoots 54,3% 3FG, and have 40 FTA with many of your points coming unassisted, will not instill a lot of confidence.

To me, UConn just got hungrier. Hopefully they will learn and continue to play their style of game.
 
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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Thank you for your interest in UConn men’s basketball.
 
housekeys said:
Looking at the box score (like every college coach is rushing to do), and coming to the conclusion that you can beat UConn, in overtime, if your team shoots 54.7% FG, shoots 54,3% 3FG, and have 40 FTA with many of your points coming unassisted, will not instill a lot of confidence.

To me, UConn just got hungrier. Hopefully they will learn and continue to play their style of game.
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That’s the main positive to take from this game. Memphis played as well as they possibly could and had to hang on for a 2 point win.
 
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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You must still be mad he told your team to suck it!
 
Chief00 said:
Mahaney is not a point guard at this level. He is a shooter, most likely coming off the bench finding his spots.
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If thats the case- I hope he is getting less than Joey California NIL ;)
 
We look like a team that lost 4 currently rostered NBA players.
Need schemes to get guys to their spots or the opportunity to create their own offense in the half court. We went from 3 NBA ball handlers to the microwave PG sub, who needs help
 
Hurley’s T did not lose the game. Memphis scored 7 points in the final 40 seconds, all on free throws. All 3 player fouls that led to those free throws were obviously bad calls. McNeeley also would have scored easily off his rebound. That’s a nine point swing.
 
The team is still a work in progress. A lot was revealed today. It’s an evaluation period and they really couldn’t see much when we played ApexTech and Devry. Plus, you gotta factor in all the new players, etc. I saw enough to know that we’ll be alright, especially after the Big East regular season molds the team, as usual.
 
Mets8692 said:
I love Dan Hurley the basketball coach, we all do. Dan Hurley the person is a different story..
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Many say that in private life he is an awesome guy.
I don't like the "WTF is going on?" Dan Hurley, like the early Dan Hurley years.
As a basketball coach he gets high grades for his overall work - his bench coaching is his weakest skill to date.
 

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