Chief’s Briefs - St John’s Edition

[GotNets?]

Any team with more than one guy who can dribble drive is going to give us trouble on D. We give up layup, after layup, after layup. And all that breakdown also leads to fouls.

Very true — why is that? I understand why we can’t do the opposite on offense (the roster is poorly constructed with just jump shooters that mostly can’t shoot). But why can’t we guard the penetration? The high hedge makes sense.

 

[QDOG5]

Jackson was saddled with 4 fouls.

Jackson saddled himself with four fouls. It was the worst game I have seen him play. He brought nothing today. Although his nifty dribbling 35 feet away from the basket was a pleasure to watch.

 

[GemParty]

Remember it’s hard to win on the road in this league.

 

[connVA]

Any team with more than one guy who can dribble drive is going to give us trouble on D. We give up layup, after layup, after layup. And all that breakdown also leads to fouls.

Exactly this. The foul disparity was/is largely because none of our guards can keep their man in front of them. Pinzon was making even Jackson look silly.

The secret sauce for beating us is no longer "secret"- bring a 4 who can play inside/out, at least 2 quick, penetrating guards (St. John's has at least 3 or 4), or both and it's a UConn matchup nightmare

 

[Drfla]

My eyes can’t stop bleeding.

I don’t know I define what Alleyene/Newtown are doing on the court as basketball.

Joey C is lost in the sauce

Jackson looked like he had a NIL event to get to.

Sanogo can’t make a decision with the ball unless the ball has been in his hands for 8 seconds.

We run an offense that takes 10 seconds of the clock just to pass it to someone 5ft away on the perimeter.

Can anyone play defense?

LOST IN THE SAUCE

You pretty much said it all
take away 2 garbage 3s from Joey C and our vaunted transfers went 2-15.
Worst game from Jackson all year by far
Hawk can score but if the other team forces him to make plays…7 turnovers
Sanogo just can’t pass out of double team and when he does try he isn’t accurate. He was outplayed by Soriano basically one on one.

 

[Chief00]

I actually can’t believe you’re complaining about the refs. That’s laughable. Our team legitimately sucks. And you’re complaining about the refs.

14-0 start and we’re a bottom half of the BE team. Funny how that works.

Perhaps you did not see his conduct going up in the stands behind the basket, then tossing a fan as he as going into the tunnel for saying “rabbit ears”. He was very unprofessional and did impact the game. That Clingan double technical was rediculous. I said we played terrible so I wasn’t blaming our poor play on that.

 

[Hankster]

Any team with more than one guy who can dribble drive is going to give us trouble on D. We give up layup, after layup, after layup. And all that breakdown also leads to fouls.

Agreed. No matter what team. They penetrate with ease. This has been happening since the start. AND we can't?

 

[Chief00]

Agreed. No matter what team. They penetrate with ease. This has been happening since the start. AND we can't?

That’s why you need two Bigs back there to protect the rim.

 

[JonnyRI]

That’s why you need two Bigs back there to protect the rim.

Sanogo doesn’t protect the rim though. My wife has more hops than he does.

 

[giddyup]

Agreed. No matter what team. They penetrate with ease. This has been happening since the start. AND we can't?

Perhaps stop preaching toughness and put the players in positions where they can do their jobs. If they don’t move to a 2-3 with occasional pressing, we are screwed. Teams will continue to spread us out and kill us off dribble penetration.

 

[RJScootin]

That’s why you need two Bigs back there to protect the rim.

Sangoe doesn’t protect the rim the rim at all.

 

[Malamute]

There are no excuses. Refs suck? Sure but we foul way too much, they call them like it or not. Could understand the fouls if we were an aggressive lock down D but we are not. We are below average. Four out? Give me a break, that offense relies on those 4 being able to shoot or drive and we can do neither. Effort? Sure but misplaced and out of control. End of game strategy? You tell me. I can’t remember a UConn team being this undisciplined. We look like we are scrimmaging and that is on the coaches. Given our fast start to the season and all the hype, this is as steep a fall as we have seen. We have not played a clean game since BE started. We have no identity. Back to drawing board to get it back for March.

 

[RJScootin]

Sanogo doesn’t protect the rim though. My wife has more hops than he does.

Sanogo doesn’t protect the rim though. My wife has more hops than he does.

Agreed seems like he can barely dunk.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

We don’t deserve to even mention the refs today, let alone have it be the first bit of analysis.

We were hot steamy stinky smelly dog poo from coaching down to most of the players.

 

[gtcam]

Hurley maybe behaved but he again came to the game without any apparent offensive plan or defensive changes. He is a horrible in game coach and this has an effect on the team play - no doubt in my mind. People will say Mike Anderson can't coach but he looked like a genius today
Allowing Sanogo to play matador defense is a mind blowing thing. If the guy can't play D without fear fouling then he shouldn't play. AS isn't Doncic. He allowed Soriano to show him who might be playing in the NBA. Sanogo has reverted to dribbling with his back to his teammates and throwing up hurried shots. He'll regret not developing a midrange game.
AJ has zero BB IQ and if he isn't running around crazy he is of little use
Newton and Alleyne - I don't see where they warrant any playing time at all
AK is progressing nicely and I see he is trying to rally the troops - next year he will be special.
The Hawk is The Hawk - he is getting physically beaten up in the college game and the inept refs are letting the defensive players to continue. His D is much better this season but today there were a few mental errors.
The refs the refs - bad yes - today they were incompetent but not the reason UConn lost
FTs - I'm going to ask the age old question - do they practice them?
This team is heading in the wrong direction but I feel that they over produced in the early season simply because the teams they beat didn't have enough info/tape of the new look players to adjust. Now in the NBE it has become a "as coaches match wits" and UConn is falling short. Want to play Bama or ISU now?
I don't think there is a quick fix for this recent play. It will take a lot of soul searching for players and coaches. They need offensive plays drawn for specific players. They need to learn how to rotate on defense and block out but first - everyone has to play hard nosed defense with their feet and not their arms. Most of all they have to find a leader on the floor, the HC and both captains are the only ones on the team that have been hit with T's for detrimental behavior - that's not leadership. Good teams always have a good floor leader - this team has none.
Great offensive game Hawk -

 

[Rico444]

Perhaps you did not see his conduct going up in the stands behind the basket, then tossing a fan as he as going into the tunnel for saying “rabbit ears”. He was very unprofessional and did impact the game. That Clingan double technical was rediculous. I said we played terrible so I wasn’t blaming our poor play on that.

The only complaint you can have about the Clingan tech is that the refs should've called him for an offensive foul before the retaliation. He threw an elbow and caught the dude in the face.

 

[Improviser]

Remember it’s hard to win on the road in this league.

Not so easy to win at home either if you are UConn.

 

[Spaceman213J]

Some people get killed for saying this, but hte effort isn't the same as it was through the first 14 games. Karaban, Clingan and Hawkins looked like the only 3 'all in' today. Effort is just not wanting to win. All the guys want to win. It's paying attention to detail, diving for loose balls, sharing the ball, moving without the ball, rotating properly... etc.. This team is not doing that at the same level they were before.
I don't blame Hurley with tthe X and O's so much, but accountability has been an issue for me. You can't have 5 guys on the floor getting beat, call a TO and put the same 5 guys out with no real changes other than to say to them 'stick your man.'
You can't have guys stepping out of bounds 3 to 4 times in a game. You can't have multiple passes to just absolutely no one. When your down and losing ground and can't start throwing no look passes in traffic.

That said, it also hard for a team or even individuals find their flow when refs are as inconsistent and bad as they have been. I'm not big on blaming the refs, but they have not been good as of late. I know some have said they are sick of DH, but these guys are suppose to be professionals.
I don't know how a guy running into Joey C. and shouldering him doesn't get called. Is it because he didn't lose control of the ball? Also, Sanogo got banged on a fadeaway early on, but no foul. Again, he made the shot. In the second half, Karaban's putback attempt on Joey C's miss from the baseline wsa as obvious as they get, but then DC gets called for a phantom illegal screen.

 

[gtcam]

Sanogo doesn’t protect the rim though. My wife has more hops than he does.

You are a lucky guy

 

[uconn13]

low basketball IQ coach + fundamentally dysfunctional players = nothing remotely resembling winning basketball. Ugly is ugly

 

[mike012]

If only it was a 15 game season. We might have been the champions. We started on fire and now are barely luke warm. Might be 4th best BE team if we are lucky. Middle of the road from the looks of it.

 

[UCONNRPh]

I so wish there was a youth pill---......we need coach Calhoun

 

[Seamus84]

How did every one of these things disintegrate? It’s a legitimate question.

Can anyone provide any redeeming perspective? Is there some silver lining I’m missing like the team will get better in March? They look absolutely abysmal.

Not sure this is a silver lining or a rationalization but it’s better to have your weaknesses exposed now when you can possibly fix or at least improve outcomes. For instance
1. Go big/experiment playing DC and AS together
2. try zone for a couple trips to neutralize a penetrator who can’t shoot (Curbelo)
3. leave a wing in the sting-side corner to give AS a passing option instead of clearing out,
Etc

 

[XLCenterFan]

I don't want to hear anything about how the refs impacted this game today. They sucked, but this 100%, entirely on the staff and the players. Hurley with the zone? All Jackson can do now is foul. Joey C hasn't hit a shot in like a month. DH kept subbing and subbing and subbing. We couldn't stop a nose bleed in the second half. Giving up 85 at home to SJU is criminal. We can't get to the line and all we do is put teams at the line. We don't have 1 PG that can play PG. Hawk balled...he needs support. Sanogo has one move and it's been figured out...yet even when everyone in the building knows he can't do it, DH keeps going to him! Wow, just wow. And yet it was a 4 point game down the stretch. Then all of a sudden it's 10 and game over. I don't boo college teams, so I didn't partake, but they got booed today. The wheels have fallen off. It's time for the boys and the staff to get back to work. Look at yourself in the mirror and get a stop. Even if the offense is off, you can play D. We played ZERO defense today.

 

[Valleyfan]

Need some kind of reset. Maybe a lineup change or three. Hopefully they have some refs at practice that can help them understand how to understand court dimensions, understand how to set a screen, understand how to set up a screen. Coach needs zero tolerance for on court antics like his sideline mannerisms. Make some people “earn” their PT. Abandon the 1-3-1.