Chief’s Briefs - Tulane Edition

[Chief00]

They play in Memphis on Tuesday. Tuesday.

Unless someone gets arrested how would this impact TUESDAY!?!?

Whaler11 - Have you ever been to New Orleans? LOL - I did give them the green light to celebrate a road win.

 

[Chief00]

I like the length of TL at the top of the zone but with length there needs to come some grittiness and hustle, neither is a TL hallmark. His handle was again horrible and he panics like crazy when two defenders merge on him, He has a lovely shoot but if that's going to be his forte he better get more consistent with it.
DO was huge today. Will he do it again? Who knows but it would a lot harder to win today without him.
Yeah Anderson was a train wreck on offense but he plays good D and is active. He is what he is and without AG there are few options.
Whalley is going to be a good one but he needs to take the 7-10 footer when available instead of the 15 footer - move in and do it.
What happened to the dunk? UConn missed 8 bunnies - an easy 16 points and 4 should have been flushed.
Carleton improves every game except in one area - intelligence - his fouls are head scratchers - much like Hilton when he was a frosh.
Overall a good game vs an athletic and much improved Tulane team, I saw them beat SMU and to be honest was very nervous about the game today.
JA should have had 15 assists today - if his mates could hit shots - he was a fantastic floor general and scored when needed - a great game.
Overall - great game
Not even going to comment on KO except he is doing what I knew all along he was looking at but the "EXPERT" haters and doubters can have their day
What is that silence I am now hearing????

Good observations.

 

[Chief00]

Some good signs from the frontcourt. On offense, each of the five guys on the court are playing with a purpose.

Have fun tonite!

Thanks, it has been fun so far - more to come.

 

[Chief00]

Maybe they need Shabazz to give them a Husky Pride talk before every game, I think Jalen took it in. Although once again he started slow with TO's, missed shots and not much then like a rocket ship he was last year JA and more. He was really good, passed the ball well made great penetration with a plan and made shots some very tough one's to boot. Another thing of note, he was continually caught underneath on D guarding someone bigger who was posting him up and he worked his tail off to front him, get around him and then box him out a few times. I've been on him so when credit is due I'm all in and he was the key, damn good game.

Co-MVP was another guy we all get on, David O. Happy for the kid, worked his tail off in a few minutes great D and some really nice strong rebounding. Good stuff and a deserving kid, hope he has more of those type games for certain match ups. Also took a charge which the stripes blew the call on.

Vital another hard effort on the defensive end as they were all up against it in size. And his typical offensive game, love the kid.

Carlton and Whaley 2 keepers. Slowly but surely they are showing they can be something for the program as time goes on. Both of these guy just need to figure it out with the very dumb fouls, although Whaley's first 2 weren't fouls. First one was a screen he was still on, the offensive guy drove him to move, the 2nd he beat the guy to the spot on defense and the ref called it on contact Ollie went nuts. The 3rd was plain dumb, a reach on a guy off the ball for him for #3 nd less time on the court. He needs to stay away form that - Carlton too over the back is tough for him, needs to know when to give and throw up the flag, just run back. Love these kids though see some improvement all the time.

It's crazy to think they won this game easily despite the way Anderson and Larrier played. Both were awful, although at least Larrier made some shots. But on offense Anderson is dreadful, can't make a shot and now he's turing it over too much. Larrier took a few ill advised shots today and his defense, well I'm not sure if he played defense. One time he did get a hand in the face of a shooter then left for a fast break rebound went right back to where he should have been. Can't happen he needs to be all in all the time.

Think KO and staff needed a little more offense/defense last 5 minutes or so - basically less Anderson and more Whaley at times.

Nice win, long ways to go but things are moving in the right direction it would seem. Thought Tim Welsh had a nice game too, talked about the youth and injuries as they are. Must've really pissed off some of the cronies!

Ironically, someone might argue putting Adams closer to the D boards than Larrier improves our boxing out and rebounding. I still think against the SMUs and Cincy type teams it will wear Jalen down and create fouls. But, since we won, we will do it again. Heck, KO even wanted the same TV announcers next game because we won. I get it.
Larrier does give us more length out front - he seems to feel puttting one arm up in the direction of the shooter after the shot has been released is defense. Oh well, NEXT!

 

[August_West]

Heck, KO even wanted the same TV announcers next game because we won.

KO believes in mojo

 

[whaler11]

Whaler11 - Have you ever been to New Orleans? LOL - I did give them the green light to celebrate a road win.

I have. If the game was Monday I might sweat it.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

If Onourah can follow up on this performance with similar efforts then this team will have enough inside between him, Whaley, Diarra and Carlton. He provides value in defense and rebounding when he plays like yesterday.

Whaley is starting to be used on offense both inside and outside, and he can handle it. When both he and Larrier are on the floor that draws a big outside the lane, and opens up driving lanes for Adams. To complete that process he needs to also knock down the 12-15 footer.

Guys are now starting to give up the ball, making that extra pass, and eschewing the hero ball offense that we’ve seen too much. I’d love to see Larrier used in pick and pop with his shooting. He needs to catch ready to shoot.

Rebounding is much better than last year, even when they are in the zone.

Speaking of zone, the 1-3-1 and 2-3 they used with length up high is coming along. Each time they went zone Tulane struggled. Gotta use it here and there, makes the offense adjust in real time.

 

[Chief00]

If Onourah can follow up on this performance with similar efforts then this team will have enough inside between him, Whaley, Diarra and Carlton. He provides value in defense and rebounding when he plays like yesterday.

Whaley is starting to be used on offense both inside and outside, and he can handle it. When both he and Larrier are on the floor that draws a big outside the lane, and opens up driving lanes for Adams. To complete that process he needs to also knock down the 12-15 footer.

Guys are now starting to give up the ball, making that extra pass, and eschewing the hero ball offense that we’ve seen too much. I’d love to see Larrier used in pick and pop with his shooting. He needs to catch ready to shoot.

Rebounding is much better than last year, even when they are in the zone.

Speaking of zone, the 1-3-1 and 2-3 they used with length up high is coming along. Each time they went zone Tulane struggled. Gotta use it here and there, makes the offense adjust in real time.

That extra pass when executed correctly works wonders. The only zone I like is a zone press or as you say an occasional brief change up zone to keep the opponent off balance. But, I agree against weaker or average teams they can be effective. Just be prepared to get knocked over against a good team draining threes on you.

 

[Husky68]

Was at the game and didn't see the team/coaching all the fire Ollie guys have been describing. Much more able to see everything in person than on TV.

Boy, most of guys look young (and pretty skinny). Looked for any bad body language and saw zero. Concerned about hero ball and saw zero. Larrier catches, thinks, then acts. Reminds me of Denham who had a habit of holding the ball in front of him and getting it stolen. As mentioned earlier by someone else, the team left significant amount of points off scoreboard where did everything but finish. Young guys look like are thinking "should I shoot, get closer, pass, etc." instead of just doing it.

Liked zone press back to half court defense as ate up 8-10 seconds of clock. Larrier and Tulane's best player really went at it a lot and Larrier seemed to me to be working real hard on defense (didn't always look pretty as hard to look athletic when are a tall skinny guy).

Man to man and zone both looked aggressive and really saw guys reacting to closing out on both drives and 3 point shooters.

I really liked the offensive ball movement and sets where have 4 guys above 3 point line and 2 on each side doing semi weave and then bring up center to pick for ball handler really got driving lane open. Some really good sets in second half to get Jalen open for 10 foot jump shots. If UConn shot 2-14 from 3 would have sure been a much uglier game

Couple of times did real bone head things on offense followed them up by settling down and getting good possession.
At the 8 minute mark of 2nd half were up 13 and to end of game UConn did a very good job of using the clock and yet mostly getting good shot and making Tulane use clock before shooting. Tulane only got 11 possession over last 8 minutes, that is good smart and tough basketball by UConn (and no foul fest by Tulane). Lead never got below 8 and then down to that at the 14 second mark.

Overall comment, this looks nothing like a team that plays like the coach needs to be fired 'cause he can't coach, game plan or motivate. If he needs to be fired for off court actions (of which I have still not seen anyone spit out specifically what that is although have seen lot of innuendoes) then so be it, if for not getting good enough recruits then not sure I agree but should be more disappointment in his bad recruiting rather than the semi hate shown here.

Been watching basketball for 60 years and saw something I have never seen before. Late in 4th quarter Anderson fouled and shooting 1 and 1. Tulane guy gets rebound like Anderson is shooting 2 (and everyone else just stood there also like he was shooting 2) and takes couple of steps with the ball before realizing was live ball and was called for walking, was funny since UConn guy wasn't the one being a bone head.

 

[Dove]

Reading Chief. Instant relief.

 

[David 76]

Was at the game and didn't see the team/coaching all the fire Ollie guys have been describing. Much more able to see everything in person than on TV.

Boy, most of guys look young (and pretty skinny). Looked for any bad body language and saw zero. Concerned about hero ball and saw zero. Larrier catches, thinks, then acts. Reminds me of Denham who had a habit of holding the ball in front of him and getting it stolen. As mentioned earlier by someone else, the team left significant amount of points off scoreboard where did everything but finish. Young guys look like are thinking "should I shoot, get closer, pass, etc." instead of just doing it..

Good post. A lot of what you saw was not there all year. Like passing on offense, consistent defense.
But they looked good, including Ollie.

 

[Vancat]

Jumpman in the doghouse?

 

[Kemba429]

I mightve missed it but was Kwintin injured or something? I thought he played relatively well the past couple of games to not get any minutes.

 

[Vancat]

I guess nobody knows.