Chief’s Briefs - St Joseph’s Edition | The Boneyard

Chief’s Briefs - St Joseph’s Edition

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Chief00

A good effort to come back late in the second half but the hole was too deep. We need more defensive pressure early to uptempo and take the legs out of the 3 point shots.

A combination of 3 pointers and foul shots beat us when St Joe’s was on offense. Our offense was very selfish and we are not a good team when AG and Vital take too many shots and force their offense without other guys getting touches.

When you can’t shoot and don’t rebound, you need to do the other things to mitigate those factors. There was no ball movement for most of the game and the defense was perplexing since Chief knows the goal was to take away Daly. Instead, they left him open and no one seems to have a clue who was suppose to guard him.

if Polley can’t/won’t rebound, seldom demands the ball to shoot and if he isn’t used as a defensive stopper - what’s his role? Why did we wait until about 11 minutes were left in the game to put Tyler on Daly? What Tyler needs to do is demand the ball from AG. It isn’t his personality to do so, but he needs to grow and do that. Or else you can argue, Sid or Adams get those minutes?

Gilbert looked terrible on his drives that have no option other than a force shot against three taller guys. If he gets fouled, he doesn’t make them pay due to poor foul shooting. Chief thinks Gilbert needs to think pass first and then shot. That would create more space for him and less poor forced shots. The bottom-line, it’s the point guard’s responsibility to get a team into their offensive flow and he’s not even close tonight to accomplishing that objective. Someone needs to tell Gilbert he’s not a good enough shooter to take so many shots. Akok, Josh and Polley barely touched the ball. Vital shot poorly as well.

What’s concerning on offense is the lack of self and team awareness. There appears to be no identification of who does what well and where?

The team defense lacked intensity and I fault Dan for getting down by 10 before using a time out. That gave St Joseph’s confidence and sent a message of zero urgency to his team. I can’t really explain why guys don’t put their hands up on defense. Is it laziness, a lack of focus or something else? They gave guys really good 3 looks, accounting for 10 in the first half.

Chief is not blaming the crowd for the loss, not much to cheer about. But, lots of empty seats to start of game. The student seats are free, the game is on campus, so the problem is deeper than people acknowledge.

One good piece of news, Javonte Brown Ferguson announced for UConn as Chief confirmed weeks ago and later via DM confirm+ his verbal on 11/3.
 
Defense was v embarrassing from the tip. That can’t happen and quite frankly, I was surprised given Hurley’s admonishment of their effort early on in the 1st game. Thought we’d come out with more fire.

The Javonte Brown Ferguson news somewhat cushions the blow, but still an ugly night in Storrs.
 
UCDaveD said:
Defense was v embarrassing from the tip. That can’t happen and quite frankly, I was surprised given Hurley’s admonishment of their effort early on in the 1st game. Thought we’d come out with more fire.

The Javonte Brown Ferguson news somewhat cushions the blow, but still an ugly night in Storrs.
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Exactly what I was thinking about the defense considering Hurley made it a point to say that we need to play with more intensity, and then we do the exact opposite for pretty much the entire first half. I really hope this is not one of those seasons where the team just continues a trend of coming out flat, and then decides to play basketball after half time. That is very annoying and Im sick of watching that. Its just the first two games of the season we played two very bad first halves. We scored 89 and 87 in the first two games which is good, but the defense was just terrible tonight. When was the last time we gave up 96 points in regulation?
 
too many rushed shots early on and the defense was non existent early on.

Hopefully one game that can be forgotten for this upcoming clash against Florida
 
This is a trend that has been going on for a while now; fall way behind to a team you should beat - then stage a furious comeback, which more often than not falls short.
I don't know how accurate this is but the Uconn web site had the attendance at 4,081. If that's correct for an on campus game - where students get in for free - then I'd say it's a pretty telling sign of how the fans reacted to the forced "seat donation" policy.
 
Ts5034 said:
Exactly what I was thinking about the defense considering Hurley made it a point to say that we need to play with more intensity, and then we do the exact opposite for pretty much the entire first half. I really hope this is not one of those seasons where the team just continues a trend of coming out flat, and then decides to play basketball after half time. That is very annoying and Im sick of watching that. Its just the first two games of the season we played two very bad first halves. We scored 89 and 87 in the first two games which is good, but the defense was just terrible tonight. When was the last time we gave up 96 points in regulation?
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Danny needs a quick Jim Calhoun time-out or substitution in the first 30 seconds if we come out flat or stupid. That sends a message of urgency and standards.
 
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UCDaveD said:
Defense was v embarrassing from the tip. That can’t happen and quite frankly, I was surprised given Hurley’s admonishment of their effort early on in the 1st game. Thought we’d come out with more fire.

The Javonte Brown Ferguson news somewhat cushions the blow, but still an ugly night in Storrs.
Expand ...
Got to keep the hands up and more active on defense with feet moving. Too many good looks and comfortable shots. When you listen to Hurley’s post game press conference about losing culture, you wonder if we wouldn’t have been better off cleaning house when Danny arrived?
 
I hope JB is as good as advertised. After what I have seen the past 2 games he will get major minutes quickly once his 3 game suspension is over. AG is getting worse than better. I will vomit if I hear someone says he is still shaking off the rust. There was no true leader out on the court. Offense was basically nonexistent and the defense ducked. Hopefully they rebound (pun intended) from this mess.
 
Chief00 said:
A good effort to come back late in the second half but the hole was too deep. We need more defensive pressure early to uptempo and take the legs out of the 3 point shots.

A combination of 3 pointers and foul shots beat us when St Joe’s was on offense. Our offense was very selfish and we are not a good team when AG and Vital take too many shots and force their offense without other guys getting touches.

When you can’t shoot and don’t rebound, you need to do the other things to mitigate those factors. There was no ball movement for most of the game and the defense was perplexing since Chief knows the goal was to take away Daly. Instead, they left him open and no one seems to have a clue who was suppose to guard him.

if Polley can’t/won’t rebound, seldom demands the ball to shoot and if he isn’t used as a defensive stopper - what’s his role? Why did we wait until about 11 minutes were left in the game to put Tyler on Daly? What Tyler needs to do is demand the ball from AG. It isn’t his personality to do so, but he needs to grow and do that. Or else you can argue, Sid or Adams get those minutes?

Gilbert looked terrible on his drives that have no option other than a force shot against three taller guys. If he gets fouled, he doesn’t make them pay due to poor foul shooting. Chief thinks Gilbert needs to think pass first and then shot. That would create more space for him and less poor forced shots. The bottom-line, it’s the point guard’s responsibility to get a team into their offensive flow and he’s not even close tonight to accomplishing that objective. Someone needs to tell Gilbert he’s not a good enough shooter to take so many shots. Akok, Josh and Polley barely touched the ball. Vital shot poorly as well.

What’s concerning on offense is the lack of self and team awareness. There appears to be no identification of who does what well and where?

The team defense lacked intensity and I fault Dan for getting down by 10 before using a time out. That gave St Joseph’s confidence and sent a message of zero urgency to his team. I can’t really explain why guys don’t put their hands up on defense. Is it laziness, a lack of focus or something else? They gave guys really good 3 looks, accounting for 10 in the first half.

Chief is not blaming the crowd for the loss, not much to cheer about. But, lots of empty seats to start of game. The student seats are free, the game is on campus, so the problem is deeper than people acknowledge.

One good piece of news, Javonte Brown Ferguson announced for UConn as Chief confirmed weeks ago and later via DM confirm+ his verbal on 11/3.
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Agree on all points. I really don’t understand the crowd. St. Josephs is a traditionally strong local program. There are enough students on campus to fill that place every night. Is it midterm?
 
Sitting at the game I said this crowd could fit in the fieldhouse. Just an unreal attendance level with the students in session. The few fans that were there got pretty loud. We had a chance to get their lead 10 at the half and had a good shot to win being down 3 late but the level of dysfunction at the offensive end of the court killed both chances. Finishing around the rim seems impossible for these guys and doomed us to lose.
 
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Having a team shoots lights out three against our guys is not new. Happened more than a few times last year. I agree defense should be better but still, they have to make them. And they did. They showed a stat on TV before the game where Daly was 0-11? Was that last game or for the season which is 2 games. the second half they went flat. I think Daly got 1 maybe 2 three's? Also, how many times did we storm back from a huge hole, get it at three then fall apart. Happened last night. Didn't even get it to half court and they picked the ball twice with 1:20 left which accounted for 4 points. After that, game over. Just cannot close it out.
 
I can summarize all of this in fewer words. The team stinks. Most of the players on the team were Hail Mary recruits after missing on top targets from the last regime and it shows. No one on that court last night has the ability to take a game over, even against perceived inferior competition.

Here is a hypothetical: Take any one of UConns good teams and ask yourself if any current player would be part of the rotation. That should tell you all you need to know about our current state of affairs.
 
Why are we still cursed with slow starts? I thought this would end after Coach Ollie.
Dan Hurley called 1 time out as St Joe's built a 27 point lead?
Time to reset my expectations. I guess AG will never be the player he was in high school, but I didn't expect a deficit from him.
Depressed.
 
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djct1999 said:
I can summarize all of this in fewer words. The team stinks. Most of the players on the team were Hail Mary recruits after missing on top targets from the last regime and it shows. No one on that court last night has the ability to take a game over, even against perceived inferior competition.

Here is a hypothetical: Take any one of UConns good teams and ask yourself if any current player would be part of the rotation. That should tell you all you need to know about our current state of affairs.
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This is my view too. Akok starts for us. He is so raw he would likely be a 5 minute situational guy at a top program. Vital off the bench to score. Gilbert back up point who plays 5 minutes a game to give the real point guard a breather.

I also have to wonder what Hurley is doing. Gilbert seems to have regressed. Akok has been there half a season and looks like a raw recruit. Polley is no more effective. Despite the hype there has been no discernible improvement in any backups play.

As for attendance it is about wins and losses not who we play. If Hurley doesn’t make pretty serious progress over the next year or so that will be painfully obvious and costly.
 
Missed 9 Foul shots. Make 5 of those early, they are up by 1 with 2+ minutes to go. At that point perhaps the complection of the game changes, and St. Joes presses too much and with some decent Husky defense they crash and burn. But perhaps not, given the way our players cratered in the last 90 seconds. Bottom line, this overall poor performance for 3/4 of the game does not bode well for the Florida game and beyond.

It's time for intensive FT work during practice, especially for Sid and Polly.
 
freescooter said:
This is my view too. Akok starts for us. He is so raw he would likely be a 5 minute situational guy at a top program. Vital off the bench to score. Gilbert back up point who plays 5 minutes a game to give the real point guard a breather.

I also have to wonder what Hurley is doing. Gilbert seems to have regressed. Akok has been there half a season and looks like a raw recruit. Polley is no more effective. Despite the hype there has been no discernible improvement in any backups play.

As for attendance it is about wins and losses not who we play. If Hurley doesn’t make pretty serious progress over the next year or so that will be painfully obvious and costly.
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I actually thought Akok played well last night, much better than he played vs Sacred Heart. I guess one way to look at it is we averaged 88 PPG through the first two games and we are not at full strength with Bouknight out. Another thing that hurts is that we were expecting a decent contribution from Gaffney this season. I know he’s still not up to speed since he was injured, but he has essentially filled the box score with all zeros in the two games we played so far.
 
Chief00 said:
Got to keep the hands up and more active on defense with feet moving. Too many good looks and comfortable shots. When you listen to Hurley’s post game press conference about losing culture, you wonder if we wouldn’t have been better off cleaning house when Danny arrived?
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I thought the same thing. Its frustrating, but I can't have it both ways.. One the one hand, to honor the players who committed already was noble of Dan Hurley, it was the step he wanted to take as a leader.. On the other hand it has become pretty clear that the type of PG Dan Hurley wants is on the opposite side of the AG spectrum (i can only speculate that JB is in the mold). Not that last night was entirely his fault, he had a bad game, made some awful decisions and doesn't look like a leader on the court; at all, but last night was a shared collection of errors. I remember watching the upperclassmen on last year's RI team play a game vs StBon, and the way they played such intense defense under a coach who was previously under Dan Hurley, 2 or 3 star players Dan Hurley recruited that stay for 3 or 4 years and are the backbone of a team...... and this team (aside from CV and AA) doesn't have that component. I convinced myself that this year would be different, but it very well could be more of the same until the holdovers are gone. As much as I hate typing that.
 
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jdb50 said:
Sitting at the game I said this crowd could fit in the fieldhouse. Just an unreal attendance level with the students in session.
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This is on AD Dave. Today's UConn fan that actually buys tickets has no use for mid-week games Gampel. They don't go even when they already bought the tickets. The first game had a good crowd, because it was on the weekend. So of course, the sched is loaded with weekend games at the XL. The exact opposite of what the market wants.
 
Watching Gilbert last night, Chief couldn’t help but think of the comparison with Taliek. Neither is a good outside shooter, although Taliek learned his role and by his senior year used more judgement when to drive. Taliek came to view himself as a distributor, defender and the guy who pushed the ball on the break for someone else to finish. I believe he was a better foul shooter than AG.
Since Taliek is now officially part of the coaching staff, he needs to immediately transfer his change and senior year mindset. It should be a nice but mandatory direction.
Admittedly, Taliek had Anderson, Gentle Ben, CV and DBrown on the three line to pass to and Mek and Josh inside.
This year’s team doesn’t have those NBA guys but Tyler, CV2 and Adams could be the 3 guys and Josh and Akok inside options.
 
Hankster said:
Having a team shoots lights out three against our guys is not new. Happened more than a few times last year. I agree defense should be better but still, they have to make them. And they did. They showed a stat on TV before the game where Daly was 0-11? Was that last game or for the season which is 2 games. the second half they went flat. I think Daly got 1 maybe 2 three's? Also, how many times did we storm back from a huge hole, get it at three then fall apart. Happened last night. Didn't even get it to half court and they picked the ball twice with 1:20 left which accounted for 4 points. After that, game over. Just cannot close it out.
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Daly though is a really good player for a mid major school. He was suppose to be the guy we took away in our scouting report. That didn’t happen.
 
freescooter said:
This is my view too. Akok starts for us. He is so raw he would likely be a 5 minute situational guy at a top program. Vital off the bench to score. Gilbert back up point who plays 5 minutes a game to give the real point guard a breather.

I also have to wonder what Hurley is doing. Gilbert seems to have regressed. Akok has been there half a season and looks like a raw recruit. Polley is no more effective. Despite the hype there has been no discernible improvement in any backups play.

As for attendance it is about wins and losses not who we play. If Hurley doesn’t make pretty serious progress over the next year or so that will be painfully obvious and costly.
Expand ...

Akok was the only reason the first half wasn't worse. Made some tough shots and was the only guy with energy. Yeah, he's raw, but a year of practice is night and day from a year of games. He deserves no negatives like that until next year. Relax on him; a freshman is still a freshman.

Gilbert is a head-scratcher, injuries and talent aside, he's looks more like a freshman than a RS Junior. Looks lost half the time, no rhythm, forcing up shots. He also looks smaller out on the court compared to past years -- couldn't finish at the rim due to his height. If he was struggling vs St. Joe's bigs I'm scared to see him against real bigs. His shot looks fine but wasn't falling, especially in the first. I think it's too early to write off his shooting but I'm getting nervous quickly.

Polley NEEDS to step up as a second or third option, especially if Carlton is out of the game. He will be a mismatch for most opposing teams when we have the ball. He was letting the game come to him until his spurt in the second half -- he needs to take the game or watch it pass him by like most of last night. Like Chief said, it's not in his personality. Hurley can only do so much with another coach's guys, I suppose.

Hurley was absolutely outcoached, NBA experience on the other bench really showing. They do have some Nova in them as well -- eerily similar to the second half at MSG last year. Perhaps Jay Wright's style is Hurley's random kryptonite.
 
I am not waxing nostalgic for the full court press and 2-2-1 that someone eventually brings up every year.

But,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

When Hurley went to the press with Sid on the player inbounding the tempo of the game picked up and the players had more energy. I fully acknowledge this was in the second half when St. Joe's was a bit winded and had to mitigate foul trouble, but I wouldn't mind seeing Danny try out the press in the first few minutes to get the players moving and active. For some reason the rest of the players seem disinterested early on when Vital and AG are jacking up shots with little ball movement. A press gets everyone involved.
 
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