Chief’s Briefs - UNC Edition

[coachn]

Chief you the best.

 

[CL82]

Here's the thing that I keep thinking about. We are nowhere near as good as we will be when have Clingan, Castle, Cam and Karaban fully healthy. Add to that that Castle and Solo are only going to get better over the course of the year as they get used to the speed and physicality of the college game and you get a sense of just how good we could be come March.

 

[RichZ]

I am ok with trying it with Samson Johnson right now DC just does not have the lift he had last year and those plays can be stressful on the feet when landing, especially if you get bumped in the air. They should lay off the alley oops to DC until he is moving better.

DC has always preferred (probably the wrong word. Not necessarily a preference, but he does better with...) catching the ball while anchored to the floor, then going up with it. As opposed to Samson who likes to catch it in motion, above rim height and flush it.

 

[warbler1055]

It's December not March. We are where we are supposedly to be. We are not firing on all cylinders but we don'ts want to be at this time yet!!!

 

[The Moose]

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

I thought Sampson was a quiet hero holding the fort in the first half when Clingan was in foul trouble.

 

[The Moose]

Ball wasn't the solo star. I would add Cam too. But breakout game for Ball.

Ball is taking advantage of an opportunity to be another trusted player...whether he stays as the starter or comes off the bench as Castle gets up to speed...he looks more comfortable every game.

 

[businesslawyer]

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.

To be fair, if playing Gonzaga in an NBA arena in Seattle as a road game, at least as far from their campus as MSG is from ours, the 3 MSG games are home games. I have no trouble calling all of them "neutrals."

 

[Waquoit]

^^^^^ this!!!

I first gave this a like when I thought the carots were profanity.

 

[gtcam]

Free throw shooting from this team is an enigma.

Never seen a team have so many injuries to start the year—-need to have a chat with the S&C coach.

Solomon Ball made 3 pointers tonight. Dreams do come true.

Great game

Make sure you tell us what you hear from S&C. Thanks much
Making 3s for Ball doesn’t require dreaming

 

[AllHusky]

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.

Watched the strides that Adama made yr 2 to 3, his footwork was like ballet. Can Clingan get there? I know his feet hurt, and maybe suspect fitness, just wondering the impact on skill development

 

[gtcam]

Overall, I felt UConn played a B-/C+ game but it was enough to beat UNC
Ball’s game was refreshing as well as expected from him. Great to see
What is going in with the FTs? If it stays at this level, it would spell trouble in close NBE games.
3pt shooting will improve.
Officiating was horrible and never seen so much diss for a reigning NC
The team and DH need to focus on the game rather than looking to show up the imposters in stripes
Good win. Gonzaga next.

 

[AllHusky]

Watched the strides that Adama made yr 2 to 3, his footwork was like ballet. Can Clingan get there? I know his feet hurt, and maybe suspect fitness, just wondering the impact on skill development

Also watched the stroke on those 2 made ft’s second half. Pretty. When does that show up as a 8-12’ jump shot? Brutal for opponents when he( and Samson Johnson) does

 

[Chief00]

Chief you the best.

Than you.

 

[Chief00]

Here's the thing that I keep thinking about. We are nowhere near as good as we will be when have Clingan, Castle, Cam and Karaban fully healthy. Add to that that Castle and Solo are only going to get better over the course of the year as they get used to the speed and physicality of the college game and you get a sense of just how good we could be come March.

I agree, the question is will everyone (particularly Donovan) get fully healthy this season.

 

[Chief00]

To be fair, if playing Gonzaga in an NBA arena in Seattle as a road game, at least as far from their campus as MSG is from ours, the 3 MSG games are home games. I have no trouble calling all of them "neutrals."

Indiana showed up well at MSG. Ideally. We should have had one of these games at home, since we played KS at their home.
However, no matter where we play someone we don’t get the calls. But, it’s hard to complain when you miss nearly half the FT’s you do get.

 

[Captbluefin]

I thought Sampson was a quiet hero holding the fort in the first half when Clingan was in foul trouble.

Samson was very good in that situation. Held his ground and battled.

I was a bit concerned when DC got #2 but Samson answered the call.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Indiana showed up well at MSG. Ideally. We should have had one of these games at home, since we played KS at their home.
However, no matter where we play someone we don’t get the calls. But, it’s hard to complain when you miss nearly half the FT’s you do get.

The thing is we had zero say in the location of the three MSG games or the game at AFH. We could have declined (not sure if declining was a possibility for the Kansas game) but that wouldn't have been a good idea.

If we were willing to drop a pay game this season and next, and replace it with a home and home against a reasonably high profile non-conference opponent we could have had the home game that some are complaining is missing but with this season's schedule as it is, I'm not sure that would have been a good move.

One thing that puzzles me; many have claimed about how great the competition is and how important some of the opponents are in the BE. If those claims are true, wouldn't that alleviate some of the need to go out of conference for name opponents at Gampel and XL? The way some of the arguments are presented, it sounds as if a weak conference schedule (if we remained in the AAC for example) with a couple home games annually with two of St John's, Nova, PC, etc. sprinkled in would be more attractive than what we have.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Samson was very good in that situation. Held his ground and battled.

I was a bit concerned when DC got #2 but Samson answered the call.

Samson Johnson's play after DC's third was massive. His play after DC got his fourth was also very good but the situation wasn't quite as critical at that point.

 

[cohenzone]

To be fair, if playing Gonzaga in an NBA arena in Seattle as a road game, at least as far from their campus as MSG is from ours, the 3 MSG games are home games. I have no trouble calling all of them "neutrals."

what is the likelihood that the crowd will be neutral? That has something to do with the idea of neutrality.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

what is the likelihood that the crowd will be neutral? That has something to do with the idea of neutrality.

Yeah, but we can't complain about playing Gonzaga in Seattle after having played three neutral site games in Madison Square Garden. Storrs to NYC is half the distance.

 

[cohenzone]

Clingan brings the team FT shooting down. The one game I got to vs StonyBrook he was 0-2 and the rest of the team 21-21. Castle, who missec 1 yesterday was 5-5 vs. Stonybrook. So far, aside from DC, the guys who get fouled the most shoot pretty well. Newton shoots a relatively flat foul shot that he‘s accurate with I’m pretty confident with the overall foul shooting.

 

[cohenzone]

Yeah, but we can't complain about playing Gonzaga in Seattle after having played three neutral site games in Madison Square Garden. Storrs to NYC is half the distance.

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We definitely have nothing to complain about.

 

[Fan1978]

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

Hopefully his 3 point slump turns into a positive as he diversifies his game.

 

[jibsey]

Overall, I felt UConn played a B-/C+ game but it was enough to beat UNC
Ball’s game was refreshing as well as expected from him. Great to see
What is going in with the FTs? If it stays at this level, it would spell trouble in close NBE games.
3pt shooting will improve.
Officiating was horrible and never seen so much diss for a reigning NC
The team and DH need to focus on the game rather than looking to show up the imposters in stripes
Good win. Gonzaga next.

There was a tremendous team effort to win last night. We went all out, it didn’t always work but we fought harder to win the boards,

 

[inWV]

Make sure you tell us what you hear from S&C. Thanks much
Making 3s for Ball doesn’t require dreaming

Ball looks ready to take and make big shots.