Chief’s Briefs - VCU Edition

[ConnEd]

I believe Gaffney has a ton of ability as a player, but right now he's thinking too much. You can see him hesitating when he has the ball. Two strong dribbles, then slow down. And, in doing so, he takes pressure off the defense. He's far better when he's acting decisively, attacking, and putting pressure on the defense. He has to learn how to run the offense while, at the same time, looking for attack opportunities every time he has the ball. That's the main difference between him and RJ.

 

[CL82]

I believe Gaffney has a ton of ability as a player, but right now he's thinking too much. You can see him hesitating when he has the ball. Two strong dribbles, then slow down. And, in doing so, he takes pressure off the defense. He's far better when he's acting decisively, attacking, and putting pressure on the defense. He has to learn how to run the offense while, at the same time, looking for attack opportunities every time he has the ball. That's the main difference between him and RJ.

He reacts to pressure defensively. He will turn to protect the ball, move laterally etc. On the other end of the spectrum do you have guys like Taliek who attack pressure. Every player needs to have a balance between the two. Personally, I think Gaffney plays too conservatively probably because his handle isn’t great. That burns time off the clock forcing us to rush into our actions. At this stage in his career, he is what he is. I’m not sure that there is much Hurley can do about it, except making sure he has safety valves and encouraging him to pass up the court rather bringing it up himself.

 

[Husky Alien]

Hawk has been given a very short leash. I don't recall Hurley doing this to Bouk his freshman year, seemed like he would have him play through it. But not the case with Hawkins. I find it a bit perplexing and frustrating.

 

[Husky Alien]

Against MSU abd VCU Sanogo started about 6 feet further out than he should have in the post resulting in missed Juno hook shots.
A quick fix against tve bigger and better teams is to have another Big screen for him down low as he moves to the opposite block for the entry pass.

Like screen down low, also needs to use the glass a bit more and some resemblance of a jump shot would be nice.

 

[Chief00]

I think it was important that this team got shown how much work they have left before they're calling themselves a Sweet 16 caliber team. The two wins showed that we will fight to be in every game but the loss showed that we have the ability to take ourselves out of high-level games through mistakes. Hurley will have hopefully seen how badly pressure affects our ability to get into our offense and be working on that with all of our ballhandlers. St. John's and several other Big East teams will be desperately hoping we don't improve our ability to deal with the press

Agree, lots of stuff to clean-up. But, it’s good that we know now what needs to be cleaned-up to beat good teams,

 

[Chief00]

I believe Gaffney has a ton of ability as a player, but right now he's thinking too much. You can see him hesitating when he has the ball. Two strong dribbles, then slow down. And, in doing so, he takes pressure off the defense. He's far better when he's acting decisively, attacking, and putting pressure on the defense. He has to learn how to run the offense while, at the same time, looking for attack opportunities every time he has the ball. That's the main difference between him and RJ.

You captured Gaffney well. We really need guys to be mentally locked in and ready to go with purpose.

 

[bendm]

we haven't won a tourney game in years yet making the sweet 16 and contending for the BE title is modest?? put down the kool-aid.

 

[PAHusky]

Hawk has been given a very short leash. I don't recall Hurley doing this to Bouk his freshman year, seemed like he would have him play through it. But not the case with Hawkins. I find it a bit perplexing and frustrating.

I am similarly frustrated with his short leash, but maybe part of Dan Hurley’s rationale behind the quick hook for Hawkins and not Bouk is that the current squad is much stronger top to bottom, which affords them the luxury of a longer timeline in season for Hawkins to develop.