Chief’s Briefs - St John Edition

[Stew Crew]

Which boxscore was that from? The ESPN one and the one from UConn both have 5 turnovers in the total but only credit 3 turnovers to players. 1 for Demary and 2 for Reed. Are there team turnovers like team rebounds? Maybe those last 2 aren't credited to a player?

UConn 72-40 St. John's (Feb 25, 2026) Box Score - ESPN

Box score for the UConn Huskies vs. St. John's Red Storm NCAAM game from February 25, 2026 on ESPN. Includes all points, rebounds and steals stats.

www.espn.com

University of Connecticut Athletics

University of Connecticut Athletics

uconnhuskies.com

Shot clock violations are not assigned to an individual player. I think there were two shot clock violations. One when Smith got his shot blocked in the first half and the other when Hurley told (I think) Millender to let shote clock run out near the end of the game. The box score does not show either as having a turnover.

 

[zls44]

There was only one challenged call against UConn that was overturned. Not three. There was one. There was an additional one for a late shot at the end of the half, but that's always getting checked, that's not them getting a foul wrong.

So Chief was only off by 300%. Standard Chief.

 

[RichZ]

But what can you do about it? Complaining doesn't solve for a thing.

Neither does discussing bad plays, errant passes, etc. This is a place to express concerns and congratulations both. Nothing we say (type?) here has any effect on the game or the players future efforts. We're just a bunch of fans sharing our opinions with each other.

I know for sure I kept the neighbors awake screaming at the screen last night. And every game night, for that matter. Didn't have any bearing on the outcome, whether I was screaming at a ref or at Hurley or an opposition player.

No harm, no foul.

 

[Chief00]

As great as it would be to have him back, it's hard to imagine this team getting to the final four without Mullins playing like a lottery pick, so I prefer to think of him as one and done at this point.

I wish him the best - there’s a difference between quick $ and best long term $’s. He will do well either way but I want the best outcome for him - top 5 pick - between Castle (4) and Clingan (7). I have been good predicting the slot - and all I care about is the player’s best interest. I told Castle to go pro in December of his freshman year.

 

[Chief00]

There was only one challenged call against UConn that was overturned. Not three. There was one. There was an additional one for a late shot at the end of the half, but that's always getting checked, that's not them getting a foul wrong.

So Chief was only off by 300%. Standard Chief.

Not true - you were out to lunch. There’s was one call appealed by Hurley but two more overturned on review. You embarrassed, yourself as ignorant big time. Were you at the game?

 

[Chief00]

Neither does discussing bad plays, errant passes, etc. This is a place to express concerns and congratulations both. Nothing we say (type?) here has any effect on the game or the players future efforts. We're just a bunch of fans sharing our opinions with each other.

I know for sure I kept the neighbors awake screaming at the screen last night. And every game night, for that matter. Didn't have any bearing on the outcome, whether I was screaming at a ref or at Hurley or an opposition player.

No harm, no foul.

Hurley and I are much closer to being on the same page than at mid season. So we are having an impact.

 

[Chief00]

And this stat of points in the paint should directly correlate to free throws, which didn’t happen last night. Every other game people on here say we don’t take many free throws because we take too many 3’s. We literally pounded the paint all game long and forced St. John’s into difficult jump shots and still had a foul and free throw discrepancy against us. St. John’s didn’t have a foul called on them for the first 8 minutes of the 2nd half. Imagine one of the most physical teams in all of college bball going 8 mins without a foul…that’s crazy

Exactly, it is great to see smart posters in contrast to a few here I won’t categorize - ok I will - uninformed posters.

 

[Kowalski]

Complaining about refs is a waste of time, every time. There is nothing you can do about it so why bother.

There are posts made about every facet of college sports on this board. Looking at it your way, it’s virtually all a waste of time because it’s not going to change anything. But I thought the point of this board is for people to post observations and opinions.

I don’t understand why the topic of officiating which, like it or not, has a clear affect on games & how they’re played falls into a special category that some on this board think should be off limits for comment/ or discussion.

I agree with Chief. I thought the officiating was terrible and I’m glad he commented on it. Of course, the refs didn’t come close to having any real impact though.

 

[gsmooth]

There are posts made about every facet of college sports on this board. Looking at it your way, it’s virtually all a waste of time because it’s not going to change anything. But I thought the point of this board is for people to post observations and opinions.

I don’t understand why the topic of officiating which, like it or not, has a clear affect on games & how they’re played falls into a special category that some on this board think should be off limits for comment/ or discussion.

I agree with Chief. I thought the officiating was terrible and I’m glad he commented on it. Of course, the refs didn’t come close to having any real impact though.

That's interesting because I thought the officiating was very good in the sense they allowed contact both ways. St. John's was allowed to play with their physicality, but they allowed UConn to match without calling ticky tacky BS on UConn. I thought Riebe picked up 3 fouls that he should not have gotten called for and that's not good, but UConn got a few calls in their favor that they shouldn't have.

One thing I do agree with Chief about is James Breeding. I will bold this for emphasis: I never want to see James Breeding officiate another UConn game again, at least not for this season. He is awful and he was the official for the St. John's game at MSG and the Creighton game at Gampel where the opposition shot a combined 63 FTs to UConn's 30 FTs. I am not saying it should be even. I am saying there shouldn't be that big of a discrepancy.

 

[RuffRuff]

That's interesting because I thought the officiating was very good in the sense they allowed contact both ways. St. John's was allowed to play with their physicality, but they allowed UConn to match without calling ticky tacky BS on UConn. I thought Riebe picked up 3 fouls that he should not have gotten called for and that's not good, but UConn got a few calls in their favor that they shouldn't have.

One thing I do agree with Chief about is James Breeding. I will bold this for emphasis: I never want to see James Breeding officiate another UConn game again, at least not for this season. He is awful and he was the official for the St. John's game at MSG and the Creighton game at Gampel where the opposition shot a combined 63 FTs to UConn's 30 FTs. I am not saying it should be even. I am saying there shouldn't be that big of a discrepancy.

Exactly why it’s pointless - it’s being applied to both teams. It’s like saying the weather is impacting the game.

 

[Chief00]

The point of having all the calls overturned is valid.

Heck an MLB had five straight contested ball/strike calls overturned using the ABS review process. Technology is opening up the books on refs' bias in their initial assessment.

You can throw in the initial call to give the Johnnies the put back basket as time expired in the first half. It was an obvious no basket, but the refs initially gave the points to the Johnnies only to have to pull them off the board.

Good points. The natural instinct can be clouded in bias, even if it’s unconscious. The reality is that in our two Big East loses our opponent outshot us from the FT line 63-30 FTA. That’s 110% more foul shots. Even in a game we dominated Wednesday night, we were in deficit in FTAs 11 to 17. So SJU had 54.5% more foul shots when the wheels came off in every other facet of their game.

In fact we led points in the paint by a huge 42-12 margin, yet we get 54.5% less foul shots! And somehow that is logical to some of our beloved Casual Fans.

The basis for my complaint is not emotion but rather the data that I shared. Those defending it share no data because there is very little data that would support their emotional argument.

Again my opening post on this thread had only 1 of 12 paragraphs, that was about officiating. So I wasn’t obsessing about it, but worth mentioning since FTA’s was the one area of the game in which St John beat us. And we had evidence of a series of calls being changed upon review - All in the same direction.

Part of the problem of the Casual Fans is some may not have attended the game - and I am not sure while at the game when they go to commercial break. Perhaps they did not see the review of the shot at the end of the half etc? The ball was in the shooter’s hand when the clock was at zero, it was not a close when it left the last fingers thing.

 

[Mr. French]

That's interesting because I thought the officiating was very good in the sense they allowed contact both ways. St. John's was allowed to play with their physicality, but they allowed UConn to match without calling ticky tacky BS on UConn. I thought Riebe picked up 3 fouls that he should not have gotten called for and that's not good, but UConn got a few calls in their favor that they shouldn't have.

One thing I do agree with Chief about is James Breeding. I will bold this for emphasis: I never want to see James Breeding officiate another UConn game again, at least not for this season. He is awful and he was the official for the St. John's game at MSG and the Creighton game at Gampel where the opposition shot a combined 63 FTs to UConn's 30 FTs. I am not saying it should be even. I am saying there shouldn't be that big of a discrepancy.

Good post.

People complaining about a few calls are misguided. The overall flow of the game was fine. There’s going to be a few missed calls that you can complain about at the time, but the whole game was fine.

 

[giddyup]

Mullins should come back and will be top 5. This year is ridiculously loaded. Hawk made some money but his career is circling the drain. He was not ready and would have had a long career with one more year in college imo. In the new nil era you don’t need to rush things. Braylon is an amazing talent but could get buried on the bench if he is not physically ready. If he were my kid, I would have him stay. How is life working out for our first rounder last year, not well.

Amazing basketball skills but definitely not ready to mix it up with grown aze men let alone more physical college players. Put it this way, I’d take senior Cam over freshman Mullins every day all day. Just more physicality, better floor presence and more time in the saddle.

 

[Chief00]

Exactly why it’s pointless - it’s being applied to both teams. It’s like saying the weather is impacting the game.

That’s the problem a consistent whistle is not being applied to both teams. And again it’s just 1 of the 12 paragraphs in my opening post. But how often do you see a team that has 30 less points in the paint have over 50% more foul shot attempts?

 

[RuffRuff]

Amazing basketball skills but definitely not ready to mix it up with grown aze men let alone more physical college players. Put it this way, I’d take senior Cam over freshman Mullins every day all day. Just more physicality, better floor presence and more time in the saddle.

Both he and Hawk are fairly good examples of the downsides of how it can go in getting to that second contract. Hawk is not getting one. He's lucky he went in a weak draft.

If Mullins gets confidence he's going top 15, he should go. Top 20, still go. 20-25 - really question coming back, 25+ - absolutely come back. 10-25 is a logjam of really good high end talent, many of these kids would be lottery in an average year.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Hurley and I are much closer to being on the same page than at mid season. So we are having an impact.

It's a good thing Hurley started listening to you Chief.

 

[Improviser]

Amazing basketball skills but definitely not ready to mix it up with grown aze men let alone more physical college players. Put it this way, I’d take senior Cam over freshman Mullins every day all day. Just more physicality, better floor presence and more time in the saddle.

Senior Cam would intimidate and not be intimidated, tangible qualities honed by experience and developed physicality.

 

[ucp990411]

Hurley and I are much closer to being on the same page than at mid season. So we are having an impact.

So you actually thinks Hurley reads The Chiefs briefs for coaching knowledge?

 

[zls44]

That’s the problem a consistent whistle is not being applied to both teams. And again it’s just 1 of the 12 paragraphs in my opening post. But how often do you see a team that has 30 less points in the paint have over 50% more foul shot attempts?

Because UConn is a team full of hacking foul guys. Dan Hurley has even said it.

They get called for more fouls because they foul. A lot. That’s it. That’s all it is, Chief.

Put differently- do you think an organization as incompetent as the Big East is capable of pulling off a conspiracy?

They just foul too much!

 

[zls44]

So you actually thinks Hurley reads The Chiefs briefs for coaching knowledge?

Chief thinks this because that is how narcissists like Chief operate.

 

[zls44]

Not true - you were out to lunch. There’s was one call appealed by Hurley but two more overturned on review. You embarrassed, yourself as ignorant big time. Were you at the game?

Listen grandpa- I was at the game and rewatched it. Dan challenged one call. There was only one foul in the game that was overturned. One. Uno. Go watch it again after you take your meds.

 

[RuffRuff]

Because UConn is a team full of hacking foul guys. Dan Hurley has even said it.

They get called for more fouls because they foul. A lot. That’s it. That’s all it is, Chief.

Put differently- do you think an organization as incompetent as the Big East is capable of pulling off a conspiracy?

They just foul too much!

Let's reward our prized program by making life hard for them would not seem great logic.

 

[Chief00]

Listen grandpa- I was at the game and rewatched it. Dan challenged one call. There was only one foul in the game that was overturned. One. Uno. Go watch it again after you take your meds.

I was not addressing challenges but Reviews. You don’t seem to be able to process the most basic concepts. I was giving you the benefit of the doubt that perhaps you watch on TV and a commercial overlapped the review. Reviews are not limited to a foul. For example a made shot leaving the hand after time has expired. Or changing a regular foul to a flagrant foul. Both happened and were reviewed.

 

[Chief00]

Because UConn is a team full of hacking foul guys. Dan Hurley has even said it.

They get called for more fouls because they foul. A lot. That’s it. That’s all it is, Chief.

Put differently- do you think an organization as incompetent as the Big East is capable of pulling off a conspiracy?

They just foul too much!

You just insulted the kids on the team. You don’t see the grabbing and pushing of our players multiple times every offensive possession? I am not advocating for a lot of whistles but consistency. You provide a lot of name calling but zero evidence to back up your point. Sure we make dumb fouls but have you not seen Hurley complaining about calls on the sideline - lol.

 

[BFieldHusky]

I was not addressing challenges but Reviews. You don’t seem to be able to process the most basic concepts. I was giving you the benefit of the doubt that perhaps you watch on TV and a commercial overlapped the review. Reviews are not limited to a foul. For example a made shot leaving the hand after time has expired. Or changing a regular foul to a flagrant foul. Both happened and were reviewed.

Not your best look Chief.