Chief’s Briefs - UNC Edition

[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).

 

[Deleted at users request]

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.

 

[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 SJ 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