Chief’s Briefs - WSU Edition

[Chief00]

Wait, I thought the grind only pertained to recruiting?? I know blaze strategy did. Can you please specify the difference between the recruiting grind and the current players' grind?? When did the grind strategy start for the current players?? Are they aware that it exists?? Who is there to differentiate for them the recruiting grind vs the playing grind?? No wonder we have sucked for most of this year. No one told the players to switch from blaze to grind. Chief with your inside connections, I believe this deficiency falls on you. You need to be better.

Where does Chief start to Coach you up? I suppose at the very beginning and unfortunately that’s too much to cover here. The grind though can be applied to both recruiting and the current team.

 

[Robertelamin]

Why are your panties in a wad?

Tell me, if anyone had posted an update on AAC Q1 and Q2 records to date, would you get ugly?

Don't think so...I think you are just one of those xenophobes who get angry because they perceive slights in every post.

Tune down your paranoia and you'll be happier.

You suck. Go away. You aren’t a member of the UConn Community. I don’t go to your board and troll your trash school. Get a life.

 

[Chief00]

Chief, you should never dive into a pool that is only five feet deep. This is more a belly flop. Seriously, the league and Danny have an unspoken agreement to call the game roughly even? Huh?

It’s not an underhanded change as you seem to be implying rather things were unfair/out of control - and fairness and sanity has been restored. Good management.

They are not stupid and would never say that but the previous situation was out of control on both ends and that’s why Chief used the word “unspoken”. Danny did have to tone down his Jersey Boy routine, which he has done. And consistently calling 100% more fouls, in a basically Southern conference, against the team with (using Danny’s words) a “Northeast style” coach, was blatantly unfair. The changes or checking biases at the door on both ends made sense, since things had unconsciously gotten very unfair.

Not only Danny but Mick Cronin had complained and ejecting two coaches for trying to shake hands was beyond a stupid embarrassment to the league.

As in anything - let’s go to the data. Excluding the SMU game Chief already demonstrated UConn had 100% more fouls called against them in conference games before the blow up. Ok, let me look it up what’s happen since Tulsa:
UConn - 16 fouls
WSU - 16 fouls
UConn - 13
Tulane - 8 fouls
So we have 29 UConn fouls to 24 opponents fouls or 20% more UConn fouls since Tulsa. UConn has moved from having 100% more fouls to 20% more - a huge improvement that will drastically improve our chances of winning.

 

[billybud]

You suck. Go away. You aren’t a member of the UConn Community. I don’t go to your board and troll your trash school. Get a life.

You can ordain me not to be a "member"?....just ignore me..

You are just a mouth breather that reads something into a post that is not there because I have always acknowledged where I went to school. An insecure

You might as well go to the posts about current conference NET and Kenpom (I linked for U below)...and rave on to that OP as well...same type info...different author.

No need to continue this and bore other posters...we both know what we think of each other.

~60% of the way through the season

 

[pj]

You suck. Go away. You aren’t a member of the UConn Community. I don’t go to your board and troll your trash school. Get a life.

He's not trolling and he seems to have actually become somewhat of a UConn fan, as he watches games. Why are you so discourteous, so rude?

 

[Robertelamin]

He's not trolling and he seems to have actually become somewhat of a UConn fan, as he watches games. Why are you so discourteous, so rude?

He’s almost as awful as your it’s hard to recruit at Texas hot take. I’m sorry but there are fans from other schools that are welcome here and aren’t constantly negative.

 

[gtcam]

Back to discussing the game
These 2 school kids can take their argument behind the outhouse

I have been negative about Polley's defense this season and there was/is good reason for that assessment.
I have to give him kudos for his job on McDuffie. While he still had issues in moving with him he certainly used his length to his advantage.
When he is doing the job on D, DH can leave him in and then he might start hitting shots like he did last night
good job Polley

 

[Doctor Hoop]

Yesterday was a very interesting game. Lots of individual and team improvement.

• Few if any crazy hero ball drives and out of order 3’s.
• Team defense covered well for each other, shaded the ball well, and with Polley knocking McDuffie off his game they made lesser players try to beat them.
• Everyone hit the boards. I’d still like to see a little more boxing out, but it’s a move in the right direction. Cobb and Carlton were working hard, and all the guards helped, especially Adams. Even Polley got 4 plus a couple tip-outs.
• Carlton’s positioning is much better, so he’s in a good spot to get the ball, is ready to receive it, and now has his move in mind before receiving the pass.
• The perimeter ball movement was strong, and on penetration they had heads up, and looked for the shot, or for Carlton, or for kickouts. On the perimeter the quick passing, finding the open guy leads to better shots.
• Speaking of kickouts, Polley did a much better job sliding to the open area for his shot. His 3 for 5 reflected better shooting but mainly because they were less contested.
• They ran a better break, but that could still use some work.
• Adams did better not forcing it all the way to the hoop, and hit those little fades and floaters. That’s the best part of his game.

Keep it up. UCF will be a test, but winnable if they can bring this game to Florida.

 

[intlzncster]

He did look good for a preferred walk on. I kid, sort of. Diarra wasn't particularly good before the injury. While it seems he is a really nice kid and brings a ton of energy, he now has even less lateral movement and seemed to not be able to jump an inch off the ground. I know this was a long recovery back and definite kudos for getting back on the court, but Diarra is not the answer to our frontcourt woes. He never was.

He's been dealing with the 'injury' the entire time he's been at UCONN though. It's a carryover from high school. We haven't seen him 'uninjured'.

 

[MuchoDogYears]

...made a great move to the hoop for two. My wife upstairs was screaming at me asking what happened.Nice move.

Two hour game. Wife’s screams heard from upstairs bedroom. Hate to think that Josh wasn’t the only one making a nice move right then. Best be asking for clarification on the screams next game.

 

[intlzncster]

Back to discussing the game
These 2 school kids can take their argument behind the outhouse

I have been negative about Polley's defense this season and there was/is good reason for that assessment.
I have to give him kudos for his job on McDuffie. While he still had issues in moving with him he certainly used his length to his advantage.
When he is doing the job on D, Dan Hurley can leave him in and then he might start hitting shots like he did last night
good job Polley

Same. Because I've particularly ripped him on this, I'll throw my hat into this ring.

He needs to do this every game as a baseline. And his offense will flow from there.

 

[coachn]

If we would only use the pick&roll ourselves like it has been used against us. Our big man pick had Josh and sometimes others open on the roll and they rarely got the ball. The NY Nets use the pick and roll ,watch them, thats one reason why they are 6-0.

 

[Chief00]

Again, a lot of great observations by many posters. My initial post, if successful, just opens things up for the excellent insights that follow. Thank you.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Again, a lot of great observations by many posters. My initial post, if successful, just opens things up for the excellent insights that follow. Thank you.

No, thank you Chief.

 

[glastonbury50]

Last 5 games:

vs. SMU: 8 points, 7 rebs, 1 steal in 29 mins
@ Cincy: 10 points, 9 rebs, 2 blocks in 35 mins
@ Tulsa: 5 points, 6 rebs in 19 mins (foul trouble)
vs. Tulane: 18 points, 8 rebs, 1 assist, 1 block, 1 steal in 32 mins
vs. WSU: 11 points, 6 rebs, 5 blocks in ~25 mins

When he plays well we play well. Still obviously need to recruit another big for next year, but he no longer looks lost or overwhelmed out there.

At the beginning of the season I thought we needed more bigs to push him out, but now I think he can really blossom.

 

[Chief00]

At the beginning of the season I thought we needed more bigs to push him out, but now I think he can really blossom.

I hope Josh blossoms, but we absolutely need more quality Bigs in the rotation. Coach Hurley has said that and it would also open up things for our perimeter players if we had an interior presence.

 

[glastonbury50]

Once Josh knew he was getting 25mpg restof season, he calmed down and started producing.

Clarifying rolls- Josh 25 mpg, Cobb 10-15 and Whaley riding pine, gave him confidence to play aggressive and play through mistakes.

I know he's only an average athlete but his shot blocking has really improved. Times it well and goes straight up. He's miniming the bringing arms down in to his opponent and getting called for fouls.

Couldnt agree more

 

[glastonbury50]

He would not have re-recruited everyone. Scholarships are more important than having a body you can throw out year 1 of a rebuild.

Maybe, but if this is what he was doing he would have not "rerecruited" others long before JC.

 

[tykurez]

Should have mentioned this in the original Briefs - While WSU didn’t exactly stress our defense, our handling of screens is much better. The Big is getting back to their Big and we are not seeing the ridiculous mismatches.

One player who still does not is Eric Cobb. The guy has no idea how to play a screen and got killed a few times.

 

[pj]

He’s almost as awful as your it’s hard to recruit at Texas hot take. I’m sorry but there are fans from other schools that are welcome here and aren’t constantly negative.

I didn't say it was hard to recruit at Texas, I said it was harder to recruit at Tennessee (Barnes) than at UConn (Hurley). Maybe if you had more charity, your reading comprehension would improve; maybe if you had better reading comprehension, you'd be more charitable.

 

[intlzncster]

He would not have re-recruited everyone. Scholarships are more important than having a body you can throw out year 1 of a rebuild.

You do need to have enough players to throw on the floor. I would have been disappointed to have Whaley playing center when Cobb eventually fouled out.

Our pipeline was pretty dry.

 

[intlzncster]

chief, there is only one set of briefs everyone wants to get into!

Taylor Rooks wearin briefs now?

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

chief, there is only one set of briefs everyone wants to get into!

Cannot unread.

 

[huskyrob1]

Last 5 games:

vs. SMU: 8 points, 7 rebs, 1 steal in 29 mins
@ Cincy: 10 points, 9 rebs, 2 blocks in 35 mins
@ Tulsa: 5 points, 6 rebs in 19 mins (foul trouble)
vs. Tulane: 18 points, 8 rebs, 1 assist, 1 block, 1 steal in 32 mins
vs. WSU: 11 points, 6 rebs, 5 blocks in ~25 mins

When he plays well we play well. Still obviously need to recruit another big for next year, but he no longer looks lost or overwhelmed out there.

His improvement in his command of basketball fundamentals the past few games has been remarkable. I was his biggest critic just six weeks ago. Hopefully he'll have a couple new career highs before the end of the season. If he can develop a short jumper in the off season he will be a force.

 

[huskyrob1]

Taylor Rooks wearin briefs now?

Chiefs briefs?