Chief’s Briefs - USC Edition | The Boneyard

Chief’s Briefs - USC Edition

Status
Not open for further replies.
C

Chief00

Quite frankly, one thing we have learned with the exception of Bouknight other guys are up and down. Especially with Polley not playing well, the book on UConn is to play a zone against them.

We box out and go to the ball well on the defensive boards. A bad trend is giving away foolish fouls and allowing your opponents to tally easy points at the line. We do far too much reaching, taking very bad gambles. Otherwise our defense was decent.

Josh looked thinner and played well early. The Josh and Whaley combination is interesting and shows the value of experience. Whaley played well. Sanogo got in foul trouble and it’s tough to be productive on the bench. While Chief really likes his game he needs to make better decisions on the court.

Unfortunately, Chief hasn’t changed his assessment of Polley. He just isn’t moving well after his injury and is having problems getting in the flow of the game. He got in foul trouble as a result. For a guy who is suppose to be a shooter, he’s displaying very little confidence in his shot.

E Mobley is going to be a great player but other than some foolish fouls on him, we defended fairly well until late.

Chief thought Danny was slow to call a timeout on USC’s run halfway through the second half. Nor did we make any offensive adjustments. Gaffney is a good player but he needs to be much more aggressive offensively. We are very dependent on Bouknight offensively. When he’s out of the game, it shows. Even when he was in the game shooting was cool the second half.

Martin is solid but not the star some posters made him out to be after last game. Jackson did not seem ready.

Chief doesn’t know why refs allow timeouts when the ball is basically being contested on the floor. Those are really jump balls.

We desperately need another scorer. But, we did play tougher than our opponent.
 
Joined
Dec 28, 2018
Messages
2,210
Reaction Score
7,650
Nothing else to say. Ugly ugly second half but boy did we show heart. That’s all you need to see is heart and toughness. Our boys had it. We’ll clean up the mistakes but we saw the heart we needed the last 2 games
 
Joined
Jun 8, 2014
Messages
8,205
Reaction Score
26,588
I’m sorry, I know everyone thinks of Hurley as a god around here, and I really, really, really like him. But figure out an offense against a zone. It’s atrocious. 3 points in the last 8 minutes against a bad defensive team. Something has to change or it’s going to be same old. Also Gaff and Cole are as of right now net 0 players. All these offseason pics/vids of pickup game domination and ripped muscles don’t matter until you show it on the court, and neither of them have.
 
Joined
Jan 19, 2019
Messages
885
Reaction Score
9,861
Agree with everything.

Martin not a star but has done his job well the last 2 games.

Defense, toughness and rebounding won the game.
 
Joined
Dec 8, 2015
Messages
12,527
Reaction Score
94,465
I don't think this game is close if Hurley is more flexible as a coach. Hurley pulling 4 guys when we were up 13 was an abysmal coaching move. He missed some obvious timeout opportunities. He needed to ride that momentum as long as possible when we were up. No movement against a basic 2-3 zone is just not okay. I LOVE a lot of what Hurley does, tonight didn't feel like his night on the offensive end to me.

That being said, our D looks very very good IMO. Much better than a week ago, MUCH. I thought our double-teams on Mobley were textbook, even our rotations afterwards to the weak side were pretty darn good too.

We haven't seen enough man D to really know what normal big east play will look like offensively. But man the zone offense...

Bouknight needs to be assertive after the first 5 minutes. He's too talented to float and give the darn ball to Cole in crunch time? WHAT WAS THAT? 5 TOs and 5/15 from the floor is unacceptable. He should be a 20/7/3 on 50% shooting and 35% from 3 guy with maybe 2 TOs every single night.

Whaley looked like Whaley. Smart decision on D. Versatile defending the perimeter. Energetic. Makes plays when we need it. He has looked like the team leader to me so far.

And CARLTON? He wasn't *as* good the second half, but he earned his minutes tonight. Much quicker, good decision making. Proud of him.

Gaffney is slowing down the offense too much but otherwise looked just okay.

Cole looked okay... not great.

Martin continues to impressive. Unbelievably tough on defense. He really needs to work on his finishing and shooting... everything seems to tough and stiff instead of smooth.

Our freshman were not ready tonight. Not ready at all. I'll give them a pass--it was their first high-major game.

This is a game we lose the last 6 years. Happy to see the improvement.
 
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
8,170
Reaction Score
15,331
How does Chief absorb and synthesize this level of information so quickly and boil it down for the casual fan?
 
Joined
Jan 4, 2014
Messages
288
Reaction Score
1,111
We had trouble attacking the gaps and getting the ball to the middle against their zone.
 
Joined
Mar 27, 2017
Messages
790
Reaction Score
2,863
Cole is a bench player. The fact that he plays so much isn’t good.

Gaff needs to be more aggressive.

We need Polley to step up.

PS: Props to Carlton. He was the hero of this game along with Whaley
 
Joined
Dec 8, 2015
Messages
12,527
Reaction Score
94,465
He just said they will have to gut out victories. Scoring isn't there.

The scoring isn't there because he isn't scheming well against the zone at all. He didn't last year when we had plenty of practice time either.

IMO Hurley needs to recognize this and hand the zone offense over to Kimani. Kimani is a really talented offensive mind, and we should be utilizing that. The best leaders use the resources at their disposal.
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2015
Messages
3,448
Reaction Score
9,813
D looked solid much of the game. Not looking at the stats, but I thought we took care of the ball ok. Got an early season win against a power conf school. We just didn't make a ton of shots.

The season is young. I'll take it.
 
Joined
Aug 27, 2011
Messages
6,578
Reaction Score
16,671
I’m sorry, I know everyone thinks of Hurley as a god around here, and I really, really, really like him. But figure out an offense against a zone. It’s atrocious. 3 points in the last 8 minutes against a bad defensive team. Something has to change or it’s going to be same old. Also Gaff and Cole are as of right now net 0 players. All these offseason pics/vids of pickup game domination and ripped muscles don’t matter until you show it on the court, and neither of them have.
He has work to do. In game adjustments is just not his strength. Running the same stupid high screen perimeter swing the ball routine is not going to cut it. Chief is 100% right. You play extended zone on us and keep your big in the hole and make us shoot contested 3s.
 
Joined
Aug 20, 2014
Messages
93
Reaction Score
212
Cole right now is not the poised decision maker he was described as. Win is a win, though. Outrebounded them 42-31. Impressive effort by Whaley and Carlton tonight.

agreed. Cole was described as a playmaker who can shoot. So far not much playmaking and alittle bit of a “gunner” mentality on offense. The last possession why is he not passing to Bouk and let him go to work?
 

HuskyWarrior611

Mid range white knight
Joined
Sep 5, 2011
Messages
4,489
Reaction Score
14,491
Whaley did an amazing job on Mobley tonight. Big time defensive performance from him. Looks like a potential all defense guy.

Can't wait for Akok to rejoin the lineup. I don't think this game is close if we had him for today. Really looking forward to seeing a lineup of Cole, Bouknight, Martin, Akok, and Whaley.

Bouknight has to find some consistency throughout these games. This is the 2nd game he's gotten off to a great start just to disappear for stretches throughout the rest of the game. We need Cole, Gaffney, or Martin to step up more as a playmaker offensively.

All in all happy for the win from our boys tonight!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Online statistics

Members online
657
Guests online
3,966
Total visitors
4,623

Forum statistics

Threads
156,890
Messages
4,069,182
Members
9,951
Latest member
Woody69


Top Bottom