Chief’s Briefs - UNC Edition

[Palatine]

Ball did a much better job of letting the game come to him and taking his opportunities when they were there. He did a nice job handling the ball. That will keep him on the court even if his shots are not falling.

 

[UconnFanDC]

Once DC starts showing up in the big games like he does for the cupcakes, we'll be ready to win banner 6. All other cylinders are clicking

 

[alphasigko]

Opposing teams know that DC prefers to play a close shot off the glass in lieu of dunking the ball and they focus on that and can either block the shot or make him miss. He has to dunk the ball more often than not, or develop a solid mini hook shot instead of that chippy layup.

 

[Mr. French]

It did feel like a lot but If we go to conference play at 10-1 with wins over Indiana, Texas, UNC, and Gonzaga then we will be in very good shape.

Agreed. And at this point, I’ll be disappointed if we’re not.

 

[Gutter King]

Castle will be the top dog soon. Team is stacked

Steph had a 10 min lid tonight, judging from the box score and the pregame comments from DH. But man is he going to be a game wrecker when he's back to full speed. Our ceiling, if everyone is healthy, is insane.

 

[TXHuskyFan]

Castle’s baseline drive was real special. Most freshmen can’t finish that. When he gets back to 100% we’ll be a different team.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

While he is in a 3 game slump from 3, Karaban is shooting an absurd 76% on 2 pointers

 

[uconnfan68]

Opposing teams know that DC prefers to play a close shot off the glass in lieu of dunking the ball and they focus on that and can either block the shot or make him miss. He has to dunk the ball more often than not, or develop a solid mini hook shot instead of that chippy layup.

^^^^^ this!!!

 

[Samoo]

Solomon Ball the gold standard of the freshman class. Forget Castle. . . . unless he uses this as a motivation and his play proves he is top dog. High tide raises all boats, but Ball is looking strong. He and Castle in tandem . . . a bright future for UConn guards.

Ball's a good player but Castle is transcendent, and, unfortunately, won't be part of the future beyond this year.

 

[AllHusky]

Clingan has so far to go to be a good basketball player, he is however a competitor and 7’3. His game will come, hopefully development curve steepens a bit

 

[caw]

Clingan has so far to go to be a good basketball player, he is however a competitor and 7’3. His game will come, hopefully development curve steepens a bit

He plays defense well and boxes out pretty decently. His issue this year is FTs and he obviously isn’t getting up like last year (injury, weight, whatever).

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

The “Samson can’t play defense” crowd has been very quiet. Huge improvement just in the first 9 games.

It’s almost like guys just have to get used to being on the floor which happens through playing time. Go figure.

Samson has been phenomenal this season. It’s another luxury to have two bigs who are both great in their own right.

 

[Hankster]

Foul discrepancy second half it was 5-0, but just a great win against a current top 10 team. We have a very intelligent and gutty team, a great coach and staff. And we were a missed 3 away from beating Kansas at their home.

They tagged our guys with 5 fouls. Before the 15 minute TV timeout!!!

 

[Poe]

Shout out to Samson Johnson who held his own against one of hte better bigs in the country. He is the real deal. He is a huge piece that makes this team deep and talented at the center spot.

Other than getting pushed around one time on the missed free throw and rebound/dunk by Bacot, he did a great job on defense.

 

[Chief00]

Once DC starts showing up in the big games like he does for the cupcakes, we'll be ready to win banner 6. All other cylinders are clicking

You realize he’s been injured and he has been playing through it.

 

[RedStickHusky]

Yeah, talking about kids "not showing up" is really high level shade and rarely called for. I'm not seeing any lack of effort.

 

[RedStickHusky]

I watched Dauster after the game and he said Karaban showed him his injured finger... Probably not the first time he's been shown a finger. Anyway, he said it looked pretty bad. Hopefully he can get it right before the Zags.

 

[UConnJim]

We have wins against Indiana, Texas and UNC - Scheduling Gonzaga in the same time period is overkill with a lot of travel . 2 of the 5 games are away and the other 3 are neutral. Thankfully we have won all 3 MSG games.

It’s a tough schedule, but it highlights to the P4 conferences how valuable UConn basketball is. Plus, even Hubert Davis recognizes the value to playing in MSG and UConn brings it at MSG.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

He plays defense well and boxes out pretty decently. His issue this year is FTs and he obviously isn’t getting up like last year (injury, weight, whatever).

Great passer from the top of the key.

 

[JB75]

-Ball was balling(so controlled)
-Cam doing cam things(savage)
-Diarra gave us great minutes(exactly what u want from a guard off the bench)
-u can tell castle gonna be so legit
-Karaban rough night early shooting but deff solid in second half (finished with great stat line)
-Tristen not a huge game but still played well (as usual)
- wtf is up with clingan- ruff night for him - but u can tell he’s a UConn guy thru and thru- excited as hell after the win
-once castle gets back to normal and DC gets his act together I don’t see any team in the country getting within 10 points of us this year
- now everyone should be on ice for the next 10 days and let’s get healthy
Side note: I don’t understand why some yarders were saying before that Solos handle is shaky. I have never seen that kid get stripped or lose the ball this entire year. I think his handle is pretty solid. He’s going to be so good for us.

 

[Palatine]

Clingan has so far to go to be a good basketball player, he is however a competitor and 7’3. His game will come, hopefully development curve steepens a bit

He's just hurt. He's shown he is much better than we have seen lately. You can tell he is slower down the court and doesn't have the same explosion. If the injury doesn't linger, he will get back to what we saw, which is a very, very good and dominating player.

 

[asteinindc]

was watching some highlights and it's amazing the types of looks we get off our action and screening. there were more than a handful of instances where we just had open passing lanes into the paint. Towards the end, you can see one of their defenders literally runs towards the 3 point line cuz he assumes there is a shooter on the wing (Ball is actually on the baseline). There isn't. In the process he leaves Karaban wide open under the net. Same action earlier in the game. This time Spencer doesn't even notice Alex wide open in the paint and goes with Ball in the corner.

such a smooth offense right now. A real out of body experience to watch considering we had nothing like this even during the Calhoun years (or so i recall)

 

[my2cents]

Solomon Ball the gold standard of the freshman class. Forget Castle. . . . unless he uses this as a motivation and his play proves he is top dog. High tide raises all boats, but Ball is looking strong. He and Castle in tandem . . . a bright future for UConn guards.

Castle will easily be the biggest nightmare matchup for opposing guards.
Not sure we have had a 6'6" guard who has the handle he has.

 

[coachn]

-Ball was balling(so controlled)
-Cam doing cam things(savage)
-Diarra gave us great minutes(exactly what u want from a guard off the bench)
-u can tell castle gonna be so legit
-Karaban rough night early shooting but deff solid in second half (finished with great stat line)
-Tristen not a huge game but still played well (as usual)
- wtf is up with clingan- ruff night for him - but u can tell he’s a UConn guy thru and thru- excited as hell after the win
-once castle gets back to normal and DC gets his act together I don’t see any team in the country getting within 10 points of us this year
- now everyone should be on ice for the next 10 days and let’s get healthy
Side note: I don’t understand why some yarders were saying before that Solos handle is shaky. I have never seen that kid get stripped or lose the ball this entire year. I think his handle is pretty solid. He’s going to be so good for us.

Loved the game when Solo was hand checked by defender and slapped the defenders hand off several times until the defender got the message.
Big time competitor!!

 

[coachn]

Clingan didn't dunk at the end of game even with open lane . Just ran the clock out. Class.
DC is all about winning not stats. This will be the difference in uur road to NC.