Chief’s Briefs - Texas Edition

[Chief00]

Bottomline, the house was rocking and we have beaten 5 of 6 elite OOC opponents. A very good accomplishment given our injuries. Gampel fans will hate hearing this but statistically Hartford is our home court advantage and it started with a superb national anthem tonight. The back breaking play of the game was Solo Ball’s shot from almost half court with the shot clock running down. The crowd erupted!

After last game I said not having a muscle power forward is a concern and tonight magnified that fact. We got out rebounded again. Stewart played a good game doing what he does well but we need another muscle Big. Especially since our center often trails the play from the high hedge.

We did have a full court play off an inbound but timed out on a half court inbound. Still work to do in that area.

We shot 55% from FG but 54% from the line. Everyone needs more awareness, who should be touching the ball when it is likely we will be fouled. We did finally do that and Ball ran time off the court. Karaban, Ball, Mullins are the guys we want going to the line.

Don’t get me started but while Hartford is a great home court for our players, the refs gave Texas a 28 to 13 foul shot attempt advantage. More than 100% more. You have to be really good to overcome that obstacle with a worthless commissioner who never has your back. We are that good!

Mullins got hot early but Hurley put him in the chill box. My opinion is when a scorer of his caliber gets hot you ride him until he starts missing, damn the rotations. But give Hurley credit, he started him and that was big.

It is great being a UConn fan, we are all fortunate.

 

[Coach J]

I was incredulous watching it. They never set a screen for Mullins it's mind-blowing accept once from Reibe.

The kids the most dangerous player on the floor for both teams and he's got 7 shots and he literally had a force almost all of them.

How do you start a kid, the kid does excellent and then you don't have him in the last 8 to 10 minutes in a close game. Makes no sense, especially when we knew they would be trying to foul us at the end.

As awesome as a coach as Hurley is he truly dumbfounds me sometimes.

 

[CL82]

The back breaking play of the game was Solo Ball’s shot from almost half court with the shot clock running down. The crowd erupted!

 

[mjmoney23]

Jan 15, 2023. Last time UCONN lost in Hartford.

 

[Hunt for 7]

That foul on I still don’t know when both Texas players ran into each other. If that does not tell you the refs just would not call a foul on Texas even when they fouled only their players they somehow found a phantom foul on UConn. That was absolutely pathetic. Love to hear to pool reporter answer to that one.

 

[Chief00]

Jan 15, 2023. Last time UCONN lost in Hartford.

Thanks for the exact date on that. Will be three years soon.

 

[superjohn]

Bottomline, the house was rocking and we have beaten 5 of 6 elite OOC opponents. A very good accomplishment given our injuries. Gampel fans will hate hearing this but I statistically Hartford is our home court advantage and it started with a superb national anthem. The back breaking play of the game was Solo Ball’s shot from almost half court with the shot clock running down. The crowd erupted!

After last game I said not having a muscle power forward is a concern and tonight magnified that fact. We got out rebounded again. Stewart played a good game doing what he does well but we need another muscle Big. Especially since our center often trails the play from the high hedge.

We did have a full court play off an inbound but timed out on a half court inbound. Still work to do in that area.

We shot 55% from FG but 54% from the line. Everyone needs more awareness, who should be touching the ball when it is likely we will be fouled. We did finally do that and Ball ran time off the court. Karaban, Ball, Mullins are the guys we want going to the line.

Don’t get me started but while Hartford is a great home court for our players, the refs gave Texas a 28 to 13 foul shot attempt advantage. More than 100% more. You have to be really good to overcome that obstacle with a worthless commissioner who never has your back. We are!

Mullins got hot early but Hurley put him in the chill box. My opinion is when a scorer of his caliber gets hot you ride him until he starts missing, damn the rotations. But give Hurley credit, he started him and that was big.

It is great being a UConn fan, we are all fortunate.

I know what you mean about another muscle big but that would mostly be alleviated if Reed was healthy and played all season. He would be beasting, not giving us these 5 rebound nights.

 

[caw]

Ok honestly, ignore the distance and look at his form. He’s not jumping all crazy trying to create contact on this one.

 

[Chief00]

I know what you mean about another muscle big but that would mostly be alleviated if Reed was healthy and played all season. He would be beasting, not giving us these 5 rebound nights.

Reed I fear is still not anywhere close to being fully over his injury.

 

[superjohn]

Reed I fear is still not anywhere close to being fully over his injury.

Agreed.

 

[Matias]

I was incredulous watching it. They never set a screen for Mullins it's mind-blowing accept once from Reibe.

The kids the most dangerous player on the floor for both teams and he's got 7 shots and he literally had a force almost all of them.

How do you start a kid, the kid does excellent and then you don't have him in the last 8 to 10 minutes in a close game. Makes no sense, especially when we knew they would be trying to foul us at the end.

As awesome as a coach as Hurley is he truly dumbfounds me sometimes.

Seems like they might not have yet practice-locked sets for getting Mullins open looks, which I'm sure will come in time.

Also down the stretch seems like Hurley wanted to focus on defense, and with the refs being foul-happy and Mullins having 3 fouls and not exactly being a top defender, it just made sense.

 

[Edward Sargent]

Reed I fear is still not anywhere close to being fully over his injury.

Also noticed he grabbed his ankle after getting into a pileup on the floor towards the end of the game. He continued the game but hopefully no further damage

 

[GHSWolverines]

Seems like they might not have yet practice-locked sets for getting Mullins open looks, which I'm sure will come in time.

Also down the stretch seems like Hurley wanted to focus on defense, and with the refs being foul-happy and Mullins having 3 fouls and not exactly being a top defender, it just made sense.

I think he is a decent defender

 

[Willi Kid]

Thanks for the exact date on that. Will be two years soon.

Thanks for the exact date on that. Will be two years soon.

...or three!

 

[bazz&boujee]

IF this team doesn’t win a national championship..

it will be cause of FTs.

I know it, you know it, Chief knows it, the casuals know it.

 

[Dibbie]

IF this team doesn’t win a national championship..

it will be cause of FTs.

I know it, you know it, Chief knows it, the casuals know it.

Rebounding, as FT won’t mean as much as we’ll have bigger leads

 

[Old Man UConn]

We now have a consistent problem with Big East officials. Getting harder and harder to watch games in which the other team (non conference foe) shots more FT's than we do do home or away. Could this be a way to insure close games for ratings.
We will be a top seed in the NCAA Tournie with so many quad 1 wins. We will still improve once we are more used to playing with each other.
Chief is correct about the rebounding problems as our bigs are to far away to rebound with the hedging.
Boy to we we need work on free throw shooting.
The Butler game could be a tough one.

 

[imno1]

Also noticed he grabbed his ankle after getting into a pileup on the floor towards the end of the game. He continued the game but hopefully no further damage

Tarris mentioned in his post game interview that he’s still not 100%. Hopefully he gets there but he still had some really good moments last night

 

[bazz&boujee]

Rebounding, as FT won’t mean as much as we’ll have bigger leads

We won’t have bigger leads in the elite 8

 

[TheShot1990]

Bottomline, the house was rocking and we have beaten 5 of 6 elite OOC opponents. A very good accomplishment given our injuries. Gampel fans will hate hearing this but statistically Hartford is our home court advantage and it started with a superb national anthem tonight. The back breaking play of the game was Solo Ball’s shot from almost half court with the shot clock running down. The crowd erupted!

After last game I said not having a muscle power forward is a concern and tonight magnified that fact. We got out rebounded again. Stewart played a good game doing what he does well but we need another muscle Big. Especially since our center often trails the play from the high hedge.

We did have a full court play off an inbound but timed out on a half court inbound. Still work to do in that area.

We shot 55% from FG but 54% from the line. Everyone needs more awareness, who should be touching the ball when it is likely we will be fouled. We did finally do that and Ball ran time off the court. Karaban, Ball, Mullins are the guys we want going to the line.

Don’t get me started but while Hartford is a great home court for our players, the refs gave Texas a 28 to 13 foul shot attempt advantage. More than 100% more. You have to be really good to overcome that obstacle with a worthless commissioner who never has your back. We are that good!

Mullins got hot early but Hurley put him in the chill box. My opinion is when a scorer of his caliber gets hot you ride him until he starts missing, damn the rotations. But give Hurley credit, he started him and that was big.

It is great being a UConn fan, we are all fortunate.

One of your best yet and right to the point, and no pun intended but it was....brief (in a good way).

 

[husky429]

I was incredulous watching it. They never set a screen for Mullins it's mind-blowing accept once from Reibe.

I probably saw 50 screens set for Mullins tonight. Idk what you're on about.

 

[Chief00]

Seems like they might not have yet practice-locked sets for getting Mullins open looks, which I'm sure will come in time.

Also down the stretch seems like Hurley wanted to focus on defense, and with the refs being foul-happy and Mullins having 3 fouls and not exactly being a top defender, it just made sense.

True, they were foul happy against us. 28 TX to 13 UConn FT attempts.

 

[Mister P]

I probably saw 50 screens set for Mullins tonight. Idk what you're on about.

Yep, plenty of screens were set for Mullins. After his 3 for 3 shooting start, the Texas defenders clamped down on him. They were all over him coming off of picks and off ball defenders were helping out if Braylon tried to drive or create something. He had no space to shoot and to his credit, didn’t force up bad shots. I think Texas called a timeout out after Braylons 3rd shot, a made 3, and I’m guessing Miller told his team to suffocate Braylon on D so he doesn’t go off.

 

[Palatine]

I was incredulous watching it. They never set a screen for Mullins it's mind-blowing accept once from Reibe.

The kids the most dangerous player on the floor for both teams and he's got 7 shots and he literally had a force almost all of them.

How do you start a kid, the kid does excellent and then you don't have him in the last 8 to 10 minutes in a close game. Makes no sense, especially when we knew they would be trying to foul us at the end.

As awesome as a coach as Hurley is he truly dumbfounds me sometimes.

Hurley said he was gassed at the end. He also said that the reason he BM shoots so many contested shots is he hasn't assimilated the offense yet.

He did have one wide open three in the second half and missed.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

I probably saw 50 screens set for Mullins tonight. Idk what you're on about.

I honestly don’t know what some people are watching during a game. I watched one offensive possession last night where Mullins ran all over the court and must have ran around at least 5-6 various screens in the set.

And the thought that they haven’t been working on any sets for Mullins in practice is just as preposterous