Chief’s Briefs - USF Edition

[Towney007]

Why is Hurley not getting more blame for this? Just curious

I think the question should be what the expectation is.

Because these aren't his players. Not really designed to play his system. He subs, he calls timeouts, he yells, he motivates. He gets T'd up.

At a point he just can't do everything for them. He's got what he's got but no one on the team is capable of stringing together good games consecutively never mind in consort. It's like playing whack a mole.

 

[Ts5034]

Why is Hurley not getting more blame for this? Just curious

Because 98% of the roster is made up of Ollie’s recruits.

 

[Edward Sargent]

South Florida killed us on the offensive boards. That was the key to the game. They played their style and tempo. We don’t have strong guys and lost the 50/50 balls.

At some point we realized with the refs calling it close - to take it to the rim. But it was too late and we were down by 11.

Chief’s goal was to finish the first half strong and get in at halftime up by double figures. We failed that test due to some late turnovers and not boxing out. But, give USF credit, they get after it on the boards. Thankfully, they aren’t a good foul shooting team, but they did improve in that area in the second half and it was all downhill from that point.

I still don’t understand the benefit of a 6-10 guy chasing a guard down 25 feet from the basket. Fortunately, USF did not take advantage of the Big on guard mismatch that this creates inside but a good offensive team would.

Both Carlton and Wilson need to go up stronger on their offensive moves. Cobb played tentative but having said that - he needs to play at least 25 minutes a game.

Rideau was the key to the game, he was aggressive and physically stronger than our guards. Over-all USF just outmuscle us and was more aggressive. Jacobs was right about Yetna. He murdered us. They got the crowd in the game, and Chief can remember years there when it was a UConn crowd.

Polley was a huge disappointment tonight. He had a ton of open looks and either turned them down or missed open shots. Your “best shooter” can’t perform like that.

Vital and Adams played good at times but not consistently. Gilbert played good defense.

Get ready to criticize me, but the first priority this year is recruiting. We need stronger, more talented players with good BB IQs.

Couple of added thoughts;
On rebounding we lost at least a half dozen rebounds off their missed free throws! At one point (I was in Section 103 Row B) we had four guys on the free throw line adjusting their shorts and lost the rebound to the one USF guy!
We had no answer to Rideau
Polly and Sid had bad shooting nights.
We missed all our one and ones
They were under 50% for FT in the first half
At one point with USF shooting free throws Eric is standing at half court - again adjusting his shorts when Jalen shoves him a bit and points to the box where he should have been.
Whats with the shorts? Can't we get them unis that fit?

 

[Jimdish255]

Unfortunately Hurley can't give Polley back his shooting confidence, or Carlton the instincts and quick feet he never had. Cobb proved again tonight to be a better option but when guys are missing bunnies and making sloppy passes and not getting enough boards Hurley gets the benefit. He's making some changes but the guys have to win games like tonight. They failed.

 

[Coach J]

I only got to watch the last 15 minutes, but it looked a lot like last year's KO offense. Basically trying to take their man one on one with whoever had the ball. Not a good look, not a way to win conference games.

 

[Edward Sargent]

It kind of has/hasn't. There's talent here. Adams has been a flame out and who knows why. But Gilbert is obviously really talented, but he's a first year D1 player for all intents and purposes. Ditto for Wilson. Those guys are legit. Polly can step it up, but he's inexperienced too and not that athletic so he can't do it consistently. Vital is one of those max effort that almost tries too hard sometimes and you just have to take the good with the bad. Those guys can do stuff.

What kills them is depth. There's almost no one off the bench that's good enough to play at a high level. And that depth issue really comes from the patch work job Ollie did two years ago. Then this past year in the transition, we didn't pull in much playable talent, either. So when you basically sit out two years of serious recruiting - when you're acustomed to the talent we've seen - that's going to hurt you - and maybe for longer than you'd like.

So you get this goofy limbo we have right now - where you've got really talented, inexperienced youngsters figuring their life out and under developed role payers who were really lottery tickets to begin with and a bunch of nothing after that. It's frustrating because they're at this place where everything hinges on your youngsters getting better as soon as possible and that's just asking a lot for any program minus a few.

Next year might be more of the same, but you'll have some talent that'll get better and mature and hopefully a lottery ticket that we have now gets a little better. Then the guys who are talented and starting this year, well the guys next year take their place but they're coming off the bench. Then you're in a spot where you can take a step forward. Get another recruiting class after that, well that's when the engine begins to turn over. It's just critical mass.

Townes we lost to a team of Freshmen and Sophs

 

[uconnbill]

lack of overall hustle bothers me the most

 

[AdamaNation]

Not putting our players down - but as Chief has been saying - we need stronger, better players.

I’ll take one of these 2

 

[ASweet3781]

Why is Hurley not getting more blame for this? Just curious

Because this board always has to complicate everything. Former coach vs current coach vs players. The same tiring blame game with posters picking the side their on.

It's all of their fault.

Ollie for the mess he assembled. The core group of players the last 3 years who sadly will be the first group to leave this program worse off than when they arrived. I cannot believe what they have done to this program. I no longer recognize it. They have infested this program with a DNA of incompetence, humiliating defeats, and bad low basketball IQ basketball. Some of these guys have been playing 2-4 years here and have not fixed their flaws or gotten better at anything. And yes Hurley gets some blame here too. He gets paid a lot of money to win games and he wasn't facing a good or even decent team tonight. They played poor and still had a lead at the half and they came out and played worse. He shouldn't get a pass by any means for bad losses in winnable games just because they aren't his players. Every game matters.

 

[Chief00]

More than a skills deficiency, we don’t have enough guys with strength and physicality. If we could shoot and take care of the ball, we could offset this some. USF just beat the heck out of us - our guys are just not of sufficient physical stature to win this type of game.

 

[3rdbass]

More than a skills deficiency, we don’t have enough guys with strength and physicality. If we could shoot and take care of the ball, we could offset this some. USF just beat the heck out of us - our guys are just not of sufficient physical stature to win this type of game.

Yeah, we could get past not having good bigs if we could shoot. But under 40 percent total and 27 percent 3 pt shooting is embarrassing against USF. We need bigger guys for sure to stop all the easy layups but we need shooters who can put the ball in the basket. This team doesn’t have either one. I mean Polley should never be second on the team in shots going 1-10. Vital needs to step up and take more shots.

 

[Chief00]

Yeah, we could get past not having good bigs if we could shoot. But under 40 percent total and 27 percent 3 pt shooting is embarrassing against USF. We need bigger guys for sure to stop all the easy layups but we need shooters who can put the ball in the basket. This team doesn’t have either one. I mean Polley should never be second on the team in shots going 1-10. Vital needs to step up and take more shots.

Chief has been saying recruiting is our top priority this season and now I think that has gone from the minority to majority viewpoint.
I think you really do start with 4 to 5 open spots. That doesn’t mean we won’t get 1-3 starters from the current group but that will be due to experience rather than talent upside. Now, I think, even the most casual fan recognizes that this “experience” is a double edge sword due to the losing baggage of the last few years.

 

[Hankster]

Quick rant on Jalen: he had no turnovers in the first half until he seemed to realize he hadn’t passed the ball directly to the other team and then proceeded to do exactly that. I’ve never seen a player give the ball directly to the opponent like Jalen has since his freshman year. It’s almost like he’s color blind. Then with 6 minutes left in the game he made that beautiful drive and got blocked because he did a triple pump while bringing the ball to his right hand (plus avoiding contact) because after 4 years in college he can’t finish with his left hand. A few minutes later he got blocked again while refusing to go to his left hand and avoiding contact but was bailed out with a bad foul call. He just hasn’t really improved much here during his career and is an underachiever overall. Now that my rant about Jalen is over, he was our best player tonight (along with Vital) which shows how bad everyone else was starting with the coaching. This was a pathetic night for uconn. USF is not good.

It is sad where your star guard get's his pocket picked every game. For the last couple of years. Carlton is not good. Okay against CYO teams. I disagree on USF not being good.They are well....good. That is it. Rideau(sp) carried USF on his back the first half. It should of been a blowout for us in the first half.
What is going on the second half? Again play well, only to bottom out the second. Seems like these coaches figure us out then it's lights out. Seems we don't adjust to their adjustment.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

I think there's plenty of effort. But hey, believe it or not one time my fat blob self played one on one with Charles Barkley. I tried really hard. But.

I don’t think there were any future NBA HOFers on the floor for USF. Rebounding is 1/3 strength, 1/3 desire, and 1/3 technique. True, we in general lack strength, but desire and great technique boxing out and positioning can make up for a lot. But we are 0 for 3 on these components.

 

[Milo65]

Some teams can overcome lack of talent with grit and determination. Unfortunately, this group of guys (except Vital) lack the cojones and pure basketball IQ. They get punched in the mouth and instead of fighting back they resort to hero ball, turnovers, sloppy play, missed assignments and cold shooting. Give me a Rickey Moore, Spider Ursery, Lyman DePriest type of guy. Maybe not the most talented, but will layout and shutdown other players. Instead we have guys that lay down.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

Why is Hurley not getting more blame for this? Just curious

Hurley gets some blame, mainly for lack of offensive and defensive game planning and creativity, and for fielding a team that lacks discipline and intensity . All four of our guards put on blinders when the going gets tough. And I am so tired of seeing that guard weave out top that creates no mismatches and opens no lanes.

But to have our bigs be even a little productive takes having multiple outside threats from 3, to open the middle. We had none last night. There are no knock down shooters. Polley can be, but wasn’t last night even when open. USF stopped worrying about everyone outside the arc. Recruit bigs, but dammit, recruit shooters too.

 

[CTBasketball]

I have a different take than most.

Look at their body language, expressions, reactions, etc. It’s awful. They all look like little Ollie’s out there, especially Jalen. It’s a toxic behavior that will not win you games. Hurley was screaming plays and assignments from the bench and most of the time it took the players 5+ seconds to realize they have to look over at him. Cuz Jalen sure as hell wasn’t relaying those plays. Lil Al was the only one I see trying to set things up.

 

[djct1999]

Is it too early to blame the coaching?

If you do, you don't know much about basketball. The coaching staff inherited this mess. Start blaming the coach after a full cycle of his recruits. I guarantee you the results will be different.

 

[ASweet3781]

If you do, you don't know much about basketball. The coaching staff inherited this mess. Start blaming the coach after a full cycle of his recruits. I guarantee you the results will be different.

The team gave up over 50 points in the 2nd half for the 2nd straight game and the coach is apparently off limits until he gets his players. Nice deal if you can get it.

 

[djct1999]

I have a different take than most.

Look at their body language, expressions, reactions, etc. It’s awful. They all look like little Ollie’s out there, especially Jalen. It’s a toxic behavior that will not win you games. Hurley was screaming plays and assignments from the bench and most of the time it took the players 5+ seconds to realize they have to look over at him. Cuz Jalen sure as hell wasn’t relaying those plays. Lil Al was the only one I see trying to set things up.

100%. The second half brought horrible flashbacks of last year. The self implosion, the lack of hustle, the static offense was a learned behavior. Not much Hurley can do or coach. He is trying. I am sure he is sick over this because his teams don't play like that. Best case scenario is we gut this roster and start over.

 

[djct1999]

The team gave up over 50 points in the 2nd half for the 2nd straight game and the coach is apparently off limits until he gets his players. Nice deal if you can get it.

Its called a rebuild. Blame the guy who brought these players in. What can the current coach do when the team is void of talent? If you are comparing apples to apples, this same roster has already out performed last years pile. KO burned this program to the ground. It will take time, and yes, D1 talent, to rise from the ashes.

 

[djct1999]

The other team is fighting us with grown man’s bodies against skinny teenagers.

The other team was fighting for loose balls while we were just standing there. The other team wanted it, while our players didn't care.

 

[dennismenace]

Fair, but it can't be that USF's big men are that more talented than ours. Maybe it is the case, but it's scary to think our talent level has fallen that far.

The bigs bodies on USF looked like night and day compared to Uconn. They were far more athletic and stronger and they had an attitude about the boards belonging to them. They also know how to position themselves. It's like we had more talented players for the aau circuit but USF guys were acquired to dominate the next level with the physicality not only on the boards but every aspect of the game. That point guard looked like he could be playing tailback on some D1 football teams and had a lot of heart. I think they have some upside and will be interesting to watch. As said above, we need to recruit to compete at the next level.
When Polley tried driving in those guys gave him a message. Very intimidating. And pretty much fearless.
Vital got clobbered but still came up fighting. That's what is needed and that will have to be found on the recruiting trail.

 

[djct1999]

More than a skills deficiency, we don’t have enough guys with strength and physicality. If we could shoot and take care of the ball, we could offset this some. USF just beat the heck out of us - our guys are just not of sufficient physical stature to win this type of game.

Disagree here, Chief. Its all about skill deficiency. Lets play a game. Take a top 10 program. Who on this team would see valuable minutes? Who on this team wouldn't even see the floor? We don't have talent. And our best player, well, he isn't that good either.

 

[ASweet3781]

The bigs bodies on USF looked like night and day compared to Uconn. They were far more athletic and stronger and they had an attitude about the boards belonging to them. They also know how to position themselves. It's like we had more talented players for the aau circuit but USF guys were acquired to dominate the next level with the physicality not only on the boards but every aspect of the game. That point guard looked like he could be playing tailback on some D1 football teams and had a lot of heart. I think they have some upside and will be interesting to watch. As said above, we need to recruit to compete at the next level.
When Polley tried driving in those guys gave him a message. Very intimidating. And pretty much fearless.
Vital got clobbered but still came up fighting. That's what is needed and that will have to be found on the recruiting trail.

After reading this description you'd wonder how USF ever lost to The Citadel.