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

Chief’s Briefs - MSU Edition

Yesterday, the high hedge did work to an advantage about 75% of the game and to be honest, knowing that MSU depends on Fears penetration, the usage makes sense. So you having that in your arsenal is important but it is not something that you do 85% of the time as Dan Hurley has decided to be his team's MO. If Chief0 goes on about it so does Dan Hurley usage of the HH. There is a time and place for everything,
UConn should have won by 20 points but two things hurt them - Turnovers and empty, easy basket possessions. The turnovers happened at least 5 times where UConn was poised to open up appreciable leads or stem a MSU streak. Duke is prone to mindless TOs also, so, I feel the team that doesn't torn the ball over will win. Too many missed layups and short middies, at least three (3) three point shots going down 1/2 way and coming out. Rebounding issues are on the staff - the defensive plan to stem guard penetration allowed MSU to have players in rebounding position vs UConn have 4 players defending above the charity line.
Playing with free money - Duke is the national darlings, most every commentator of any channel talks them up and the refs always seem to find a way to award Duke more than any other collegiate team.
I see BM having a big game and UConn winning by between 5-9 points after Duke is worn out with 5 minutes left in the contest. Ross will make things tough on Boozer. Duke's speed at the 3, 4 and 5 do concern me. Need Stewie and Ross to play meaningful minutes. No sure if Silas is ready to play 100%.
Let's go Huskies - screw Dook
 
Chief00 said:
My goal is not to just beat #15 seed Furman but #1 Duke.
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How is your complaining about the high hedge going to help us beat Duke ? Staff isn’t scouring the yard for coaching tips.
 
businesslawyer said:
So your details deserve a response, so knowing that I’ve probably said this before (but not for the last decade) and at the risk of derailing Chief’s analysis (I’ll shorten it — less high hedging please), this was our story.

At that point my sons were 17 and 13 and to my wife’s utter chagrin the world revolved around basketball, largely UConn basketball. The moment the draw was announced on selection Sunday my sons and I all had the same thought, which was “oh crap, we’re going to be playing Duke in the national semi-final starting midway through our reception.” My wife could have cried, or started cursing us out, or bemoaned her strange choice in husbands, but God bless her, instead she ran with it. By the night of the game/event, she had decorated the children’s part of the room in a Final Four theme with mini-basketballs, pennants and trash bins of different college basketball powers, let a large screen TV be brought into the room by the bar, let our older son when dinner was finished before tip off change into a UConn jersey and paint his face blue and white, and even had the band ready to play the UConn fight song during breaks in the action. The party continued normally, but as the game wore on more and more people stopped dancing for a while and migrated towards the screen. I saw the last 8 minutes (and then saw the game when we got home afterwards). By contrast, we know another family who had a bar mitzvah reception that night, they were a hockey family that didn’t care about this, and just ignored that the game would be going on. Common friends who attended parts of each reception said that down the stretch of the UConn game at the other reception a third of the crowd were in their cars in the parking lot listening on their car radios. (And if any young person asks why weren’t everyone just watching on their cell phones I’m going right for the scotch.)

Good times. But I never dreamed it would be 22 years before Duke would get a shot at revenge from us in a tournament.
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Even if it escaped the bounds of Chief's Briefs, the coincidence in our stories was too good to ignore, and our tellings fit the spirit of the board within multiple threads on this celebratory off-day. Kudos to your wife for running with the opportunity to create the reception's theme.

The one thing I'll add is that my uncle died in December 2020 from COVID complications. The memorial service was limited in size and 'by invitation,' with limited social contact. I chose not to travel to the temple, and to free up my slot for a local friend to attend while I used the Zoom link instead.

The service overlapped with UConn hosting Creighton, so I set myself up to discreetly watch the game while wearing a UConn hoodie, knowing that it was a true instance of, "My uncle would have wanted it that way."

His 3 grandchildren, together and separately, eulogized and sang in his honor. From the start, there were numerous mentions of his UConn basketball & football fandom. When the time came for attendees to offer memories, I knew I had a safe enough platform to speak up. I was suitably respectful of those in the sanctuary, and also in synch with my often irrereverant & playful dear uncle. I admitted that I hadn't intended to speak up, but what others said had given me the green light to talk sports at an otherwise solemn & religious occasion. I took myself off of a generic, anonymizing background, revealed my casual UCONN attire, offered a quick score update by showing the TV, and got nods of appreciation from those in somber attire that my uncle would be delighted to see me balancing my priorities so healthily.

Favorite uncle, favored nephew, a life well-lived, and a fitting tribute, even if Creighton won the game 76-74 in overtime, with Bouknight scoring 40 points.

My uncle's obituary requested that memorial donations be directed first to UConn athletics and then to his synagogue. It had not been a casual matter when he honored his daughter-in-law (and supported his son for doing so) by foregoing the 2004 Duke-UConn NCAA semi-final game.

In the months that followed, Dan Hurley's coaching began it journey to playing close games to better outcomes than "excruciating losses." ♥️
 
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businesslawyer said:
1. We got outrebounded by 8 or so in the first 10 minutes. We rebounded evenly with them the rest of the game.

2. I think you’re way too against the high hedge. Some games it works better than others, but I thought it worked really well last night. Yes, sometimes it leads to easy buckets but last night it led to tons of tough shots that they didn’t make at a high percentage.

3. With about 10 minutes left, when it had become a 50/50 game, we were 1-6 from the line and I thought “we’ve been flirting with foul shooting being our poison all season and now it’s going to cost us this game.” And then we hit 9 of our last 10. WTF do I know.

4. I think Duke is a very tough match up for us (because Reed can’t cover Boozer outside and I don’t know that Karaban can inside and because they may outshoot us by 25 FT attempts). But it’s UConn— Duke. For those of you too young to get it, we played them in the tournament 4 times between 90 and 04. In 90, they ended our dream season in OT in the Elite Eight on a Laettner buzzer beater (that history has ignored because of his later shot against Kentucky). In 91 it was miraculous we were in the Sweet Sixteen and they were much better than us and crushed us (despite Rod Sellers trying to shove Laetner’s face through the court and into the center of the earth). In ‘99 we beat them for the national championship in what fairly should be considered one of the best finals ever played, when they were an outstanding team in both talent and performance but we were somehow vastly underrated by the media given our year. And then in ‘04, DURING MY SON’S BAR MITVAH RECEPTION OF ALL THINGS, we had a late comeback to beat them in the Final Four in a game everyone assumed would crown the national championship (and did). AND THEN NOTHING FOR 22 YEARS. (Yes, I know we played them in the mid-60s after beating Bill Bradley and Princeton but that had nothing to do with the rivalry that ensued.). Well, Sunday it all comes back. They were a better team than us this season and have more individual talent. But all that matters is who plays better for 40 minutes. We all have today to recover emotionally and get some damn sleep. And then be ready for tomorrow.
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Some us need today to recover physically as well as mentally.
 
My memories of ‘04 aren’t as interesting as @Hans Sprungfeld and @businesslawyer but I also just reminisced yesterday about it being 22 years since that Saturday evening.

My dad and stepmom were out of town so I, a college kid, was in charge of house and dog sitting (his beloved Husky) that week. I was distraught most of the evening until that last 3 minutes.

It’s one of my fondest memories watching UConn basketball, especially that Okafor rip away rebound and then the JJ 3 falling short.

I had some pops that night, I tell ya!
 
My memory was Ricky Moore scoring twice when Duke was getting out early and we looked a little bit star struck. Then at the end Ricky forced Taejon to travel. Under appreciated big time performance.
 
Why are we cursed with James Breeding? This guy makes the most mysterious calls in the country, and he and Hurly have to despise each other. I'm beginning to think it's just another way for the powers that be to handicap the Big East the best they can

James Breeding is a game changing scumbag, don't think anyone can argue with that fact now
 
Ricky kept us in it in the first half in 99’. 13 points in the half, then everyone else woke up. I always say, the blessing in that game was that Ricky was schooling William Avery with complete confidence. That’s because Ricky was 2-3 years older and abused Avery in high school. Ricky wasn’t much of a scorer but he was 100% confident in taking “little Will Avery” to the woodshed. That confidence from having been his superior propelled him to have that first half.
 
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Dove said:
Can someone take this gif and replace NEERRRDS with DUUUUUKE?

nerds GIF


I'd appreciate it.
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Oh Hell no.

The above was an integral part of our 2023 title.

Duke does not deserve to be attached to it.
 
businesslawyer said:
At that point my sons were 17 and 13 and to my wife’s utter chagrin the world revolved around basketball, largely UConn basketball. The moment the draw was announced on selection Sunday my sons and I all had the same thought, which was “oh crap, we’re going to be playing Duke in the national semi-final starting midway through our reception.”
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Love this story.

I was a junior in college and had been invited to a girl's formal weeks in advance. I had a similar oh s--- realization.

The night of, I was following the game in fits and starts, and had a friend TiVo the game for me. After the formal ended I went straight to his room to watch it. Since the game ran long and TiVo hadn't yet figured out how to record sports events, the damn recording cut off right before the epic comeback. I knew the outcome but I was in the dark on how it actually happened for quite some time. It was like time stood still.
 
businesslawyer said:
Good times. But I never dreamed it would be 22 years before Duke would get a shot at revenge from us in a tournament.
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That isn't our fault. We were waiting for them in the 2011 west regional finals. They sent Arizona instead.
 
Chief00 said:
I don’t attack our players like you did Solo Ball. That was my point our centers are talented and get good results when we are not extending the hedge. When we do extend it, Reibe looks loss, and Reed gets 4 defensive rebounds.
My goal is not to just beat #15 seed Furman but #1 Duke.
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After the MSU game, is Solo back??? He looked much much better.
 
Mike Honcho said:
Love this story.

I was a junior in college and had been invited to a girl's formal weeks in advance. I had a similar oh s--- realization.

The night of, I was following the game in fits and starts, and had a friend TiVo the game for me. After the formal ended I went straight to his room to watch it. Since the game ran long and TiVo hadn't yet figured out how to record sports events, the damn recording cut off right before the epic comeback. I knew the outcome but I was in the dark on how it actually happened for quite some time. It was like time stood still.
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We may need more information on this because there is missing information that might make you a hero. I’m imaging this dialogue at the end of the formal:

HER (looking very fetching in her formal dress): Thank you Mike. I had no idea you’d be such a charming and attentive date. Would you like to come back to my room for — say — coffee or something?

MIKE (remembering that it’s been a while): Thank you. I’d really like to but I’ve spent the entire evening thinking about when the dance was done ….

HER (nuzzling her face next to his and speaking softly): Yes Mike.

MIKE: A basketball game. Gotta go. See you tomorrow maybe.

Now that would make you a fan!
 
businesslawyer said:
That was ‘99, fwiw
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I got their early and met Ricky’s dad before the gates opened. He had a feeling Ricky was going to have a big game, but we also talked a lot of golf. He was a professional PGA tour golf caddy.
 
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businesslawyer said:
LOL. When both Silas and Solo only split a pair in the last 4 minutes when we needed every damn point, I wondered if my post had ruined the mojo as well.
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All it did is set up one of the most epic endings of an Elite 8 game, EVER. Thankfully! 🤣

Oh, and I was thinking the EXACT same thing when Demary missed his first and realized that the misses in each of our last 3 trips to the foul line were the difference in us being tied and not down 2 and in utter desperation mode.

But then, we played great D, Alex kept his head and made the smart play and pass to Braylon, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Sweet, beautiful, poetic history!
 
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