Chief’s Briefs - Michigan State Edition | The Boneyard

Chief’s Briefs - Michigan State Edition

C

Chief00

Joined
Feb 20, 2021
Messages
20,206
Reaction Score
42,112
Down 2 key starters and a 7 point win against MSU for positive context.

However, John Gaffney continuation of his embarassing officiating for another year is a tribute to a failed Big East Commissioner.

74 foul shots tonight, MSU (44) vs UConn (30). What part of this is a result of his known dislike for Hurley and how much is just poor officiating can be debated but the horrible end result is unacceptable.

UConn needs to practice more discipline so they can play games like they practice and not be in the penalty with 11 minutes left in the first half.

Solo Ball, Alex Karaban, Silas Demary, and Jayden Ross were our best players tonight, despite Solo going 1 for 7 from 3.

It’s good when Alex drives, he didn’t always finish successfully but he was 8-8 from the foul line. Add that to Solo going 5-5 from the FT line.

Reibe is not a complete player yet, but he has a high upside. Eric has a good skillset and is pretty athletic. He needs to get stronger so he can play more physical in the paint without fouling. He had 5 fouls tonight. Silas Demary played well overall but had 5 fouls too against very quick guards.

Jayden Ross was 4-5 FG including 2-3 from three. While he only had one rebound, Jayden was a live body and kept the defensive intensity up.

Did not see much high hedging tonight.
 
Last edited:
Chief00 said:
Down 2 key starters and a 7 point win against MSU for positive context.

However, John Gaffney continuation of his embarassing officiating for another year is a tribute to a failed Big East Commissioner.

74 foul shots tonight, MSU (44) vs UConn (30). What part of this is a result of his known dislike for Hurley and how much is just poor officiating can be debated but the horrible end result is unacceptable.

UConn needs to practice more discipline so they can play games like they practice and not be in the penalty with 11 minutes left in the first half.

Solo Ball, Alex Karaban, Silas Demary, and Jayden Ross were our best players tonight, despite Solo going 1 for 7 from 3.

It’s good when Alex drives, he didn’t always finish successfully but he was 8-8 from the foul line. Add that to Solo going 5-5 from the FT line.

Reibe is not a complete player yet, but he has a high upside. Eric has a good skillset and is pretty athletic. He needs to get stronger so he can play more physical in the paint without fouling. He had 5 fouls tonight. Silas Demary played well overall but had 5 fouls too against very quick guards.

Jaylin Ross was 4-5 FG including 2-3 from three. While he only had one rebound, Jaylin was a live body and kept the defensive intensity up.

Did not see much high hedging tonight.
Expand ...
It’s Jayden Ross
Cmon man
 
Box score will bee meaningful for minutes. I think Smith was great when Demary was out and Furphy had some run with some great awareness and that offensive rebound and the harm was really good to see.

Not ready to jump on the Ross bandwagon quite yet as would rather see Tarris and Braylon play than worry about which wing comes off the bench.

Thanks Chief for the brief!
 
Lafayette said:
Box score will bee meaningful for minutes. I think Smith was great when Demary was out and Furphy had some run with some great awareness and that offensive rebound and the harm was really good to see.

Not ready to jump on the Ross bandwagon quite yet as would rather see Tarris and Braylon play than worry about which wing comes off the bench.

Thanks Chief for the brief!
Expand ...
I agree Reed and Mullins, when healthy, put us at another level. I do like Jayden Ross’s defensive intensity, live body with signs of an improving shot. It us always good if a guy can defend multiple positions with all the switching that goes on.
 
Silas at point will be huge for us this year, he's in control, doesn't turn it over, good defender, and can shoot. Big upgrade
Ross is a bench guy with good energy that will help but he's not a starter.
Alex is much more effective when he's a role player and not the focal point of the offense, just like he was on the championship teams.
With Silas, Solo, and Reed the offense should be fine, add Karaban they'll be really good. Defense looks much better then last year but MS doesn't shoot a lot of 3's and that's one areas that hurt UCONN defensively the last year. They look good against a solid MS team sitting 2 starters and Silas in foul trouble. Excited!
 
We've been consistent in our inability to get to the line. I dont have the stats but we are always towards the bottom of the league. Castle and Newt were good at getting to the stripe and Tarris should bring those numbers up but we are never + in that category.

Also not many mentioning Koroma? I thought he played great
 
Riebe hedged plenty but didn't blitz the dribbler like we have done with Johnson and Whaley.

I'll guess that we'll see a bit more of it with Reed. If Koroma gets minutes he will do it, and Riebe will do what we saw last night, which was more of a Calhoun-style hedge and recover.
 
Jaydumo20 said:
We've been consistent in our inability to get to the line. I dont have the stats but we are always towards the bottom of the league. Castle and Newt were good at getting to the stripe and Tarris should bring those numbers up but we are never + in that category.

Also not many mentioning Koroma? I thought he played great
Expand ...
Koroma will be a fantastic depth piece and injury insurance at two positions. Great to have him.
 
Yes the refs were ridiculous, BUT, UConn has been a fouling machine the past few years. Dan Hurley may let his players beat the crap out of each other in practice but there has to be some discipline instilled so the other team isn't always in the bonus for a good portion of each half. UConn was fortunate that MSU was as inept in their free throw shooting as they were in the field goal. percentage. Yeah, I know it's an exhibition game, but bad habits start here.
Thought that Silas was reaching in too much as was Smith (he was much more disciplined vs BCSU).
Pleasantly surprised with Karoma last night and Furphy looks like he is fitting in. Loved that Ball has decided to become active in getting to the hoop when his 3 pt attempts are not dropping. People in the chat were getting on Alex for his shooting etc. but I felt he was the rock that was holding the squad together and his stats were rather impressive. Riebe had some nice minutes, but he gets sloppy when he is tired - I am sure as the season goes forward, he will get in better game shape. He has a huge upside.
Tough game to watch and unless the coaches wanted the refs to call it so close (doubt it) these refs were horrible at best.
 
I was really concerned about this matchup with Reed not playing. The fact that we outplayed Michigan State at their strength, attacking the basket and rebounding, validates that we have a deep bench. And the depth is at every position.

After watching these two games I'm hoping Hurley considers doing what Geno did last season. In all the years I've watched the women's team Geno has played primarily 7 and less frequently 8 players the majority of minutes. Eleven championships were won that way. Last season he utilized a lot more of his players. More importantly he put out several different lineups that were situational rather than formulaic. He started towards the end of December and by the end of February I knew there was not team in the country that would give UConn a matchup problem. In fact it was the opposite. By being flexible with who he played he put on the court five players that opposing teams could not counter.

In 2023 Hurley used nine players primarily to wear down opponents. This season he has ten and maybe eleven players that are good to very good. Depending on how quickly the players develop Hurley could have the luxury of putting out multiple lineups the way Geno did last season and is doing this season.
 
SI's Kevin Sweeney went through 33 public exhibition games with official box scores. He saw the average foul count was 41.3, with last year's being 34. Average FT count 48.7 (average last season was 38.2). He said: "This aligns with a coach I spoke with this morning saying they spoke to their regional coordinator of officials who said something to the extent of 'we need to crack down on the physicality of the game and if our refs don't, we'll find ones that do'". An exhibition between DePaul and Loyola Chicago had 64 fouls.
 
auror said:
SI's Kevin Sweeney went through 33 public exhibition games with official box scores. He saw the average foul count was 41.3, with last year's being 34. Average FT count 48.7 (average last season was 38.2). He said: "This aligns with a coach I spoke with this morning saying they spoke to their regional coordinator of officials who said something to the extent of 'we need to crack down on the physicality of the game and if our refs don't, we'll find ones that do'". An exhibition between DePaul and Loyola Chicago had 64 fouls.
Expand ...
This is an issue. Once fouls of any kind start getting called its hard to not call them routinely. In football its gotten out of control with more rules and a whistle on every other play. But I think that has a lot to do with preventing injuries etc.

In basketball, injuries dont really happen as a result of rough play as much as they do cutting, landing wrong, slipping, rolling ankles.
I don't know why a precedence of heavy whistles was ever set in bball.
 
ctchamps said:
I was really concerned about this matchup with Reed not playing. The fact that we outplayed Michigan State at their strength, attacking the basket and rebounding, validates that we have a deep bench. And the depth is at every position.

After watching these two games I'm hoping Hurley considers doing what Geno did last season. In all the years I've watched the women's team Geno has played primarily 7 and less frequently 8 players the majority of minutes. Eleven championships were won that way. Last season he utilized a lot more of his players. More importantly he put out several different lineups that were situational rather than formulaic. He started towards the end of December and by the end of February I knew there was not team in the country that would give UConn a matchup problem. In fact it was the opposite. By being flexible with who he played he put on the court five players that opposing teams could not counter.

In 2023 Hurley used nine players primarily to wear down opponents. This season he has ten and maybe eleven players that are good to very good. Depending on how quickly the players develop Hurley could have the luxury of putting out multiple lineups the way Geno did last season and is doing this season.
Expand ...
True but this year they both get 15 schollys so even Geno might change.
 
Lafayette said:
True but this year they both get 15 schollys so even Geno might change.
Expand ...
He changed last season when there were only 13. In fact last season was the first season in many years that he filled all the ships. This year he took in five new players to add to his 10 returnees - three freshmen and two transfers. This was the inverse of the men who returned five and took in ten.

Earlier in his career he took the full complement but he had problems with some players not getting enough playing time. The three seasons prior to last season his teams were devastated with injuries. So he's opting to have more than not enough.

What's changed is his choice to give more players playing time. His star players will still get around 30. But the rest of the pack will be divided according to opponents playing and how the his players are playing. Big difference from playing five players averaging thirty or more minutes and two or three coming in to give the starters rest.
 
Chief00 said:
I agree Reed and Mullins, when healthy, put us at another level. I do like Jayden Ross’s defensive intensity, live body with signs of an improving shot. It us always good if a guy can defend multiple positions with all the switching that goes on.
Expand ...

I noticed that Mullins was limping a bit but was not wearing a boot. Maybe a positive sign.
 
ctchamps said:
He changed last season when there were only 13. In fact last season was the first season in many years that he filled all the ships. This year he took in five new players to add to his 10 returnees - three freshmen and two transfers. This was the inverse of the men who returned five and took in ten.

Earlier in his career he took the full complement but he had problems with some players not getting enough playing time. The three seasons prior to last season his teams were devastated with injuries. So he's opting to have more than not enough.

What's changed is his choice to give more players playing time. His star players will still get around 30. But the rest of the pack will be divided according to opponents playing and how the his players are playing. Big difference from playing five players averaging thirty or more minutes and two or three coming in to give the starters rest.
Expand ...
I am factoring in for the injury years of Paige and Azzi and like most coaches, went a little too much the other way for a minute and is overloading. IDK maybe it's a factor, maybe not, but witness Hurley having PG problems last, year and he hauls in 3.
 
auror said:
SI's Kevin Sweeney went through 33 public exhibition games with official box scores. He saw the average foul count was 41.3, with last year's being 34. Average FT count 48.7 (average last season was 38.2). He said: "This aligns with a coach I spoke with this morning saying they spoke to their regional coordinator of officials who said something to the extent of 'we need to crack down on the physicality of the game and if our refs don't, we'll find ones that do'". An exhibition between DePaul and Loyola Chicago had 64 fouls.
Expand ...
Well that's horrible, basketball is already less physical than I ever remember it.
 
Hoops91 said:
Silas at point will be huge for us this year, he's in control, doesn't turn it over, good defender, and can shoot. Big upgrade
Ross is a bench guy with good energy that will help but he's not a starter.
Alex is much more effective when he's a role player and not the focal point of the offense, just like he was on the championship teams.
With Silas, Solo, and Reed the offense should be fine, add Karaban they'll be really good. Defense looks much better then last year but MS doesn't shoot a lot of 3's and that's one areas that hurt UCONN defensively the last year. They look good against a solid MS team sitting 2 starters and Silas in foul trouble. Excited!
Expand ...

Agree here for sure. Take away the foul trouble Silas is a huge change at PG. Very athletic and strong will get to his spots and can guard. I wonder if the defensive intensity pitch coming from Dan Hurley is new to him and while trying to be what Dan wants he’s trying too hard to be in the face? I mean even before he did get his 3rd in the first half, he hit Fears on a pull up jumper that wasn’t called. He needs to know we need him on the court and Dan needs to let him give the fast guards space. As so with many others too. While we have depth, I prefer the 1st 5 play their 25-30 minutes and not be on foul trouble because we think we have great depth. If we played a team that could shoot FTs Tuesday we lose.

A couple other things since everyone blew a lot of smoke on people, Solo much better finishing around the basket, noticeable improvement. Not as noticeable his improvement on defense. Got caught with his back to the ball a couple times where if he knew a driver beat his defender he could’ve helped. Also got best off the dribble a couple times. His D and shooting need to be better.

Stew, 3/3 in 24 minutes? Need more out of this kid so much more there it’s frustrating. Ross better for sure, hope he keeps that going but not following the HWC of he’s Ray Allen!!!😁

Furph has a little something I think, he won’t hurt you if needed to throw in. Koroma underrated, nose for the ball and plays much bigger than his size. Listed at 6’8 is hilarious if he’s 6’6 its stretching it but the kid plays hard in the paint and can move his feet outside of it.

Please stop reaching and move your feet, please I paid $7.99 to watch that crappy ref crew!!!
 
I am of the opinion that the two coaches told the refs to call it very close, so the players would know what they can and can't get away with. They increased the total fouls from 5 to 6 because they knew there were going to be a lot of calls.
 

Online statistics

Members online
297
Guests online
4,943
Total visitors
5,240
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
164,855
Messages
4,412,574
Members
10,239
Latest member
Dondadonone


.
..
Top Bottom