Chief’s Briefs - WSU Edition

[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?

 

[Huskybass]

Josh is averaging 10 points and 7 rebounds over the past 5 games. Rod Sellers averaged 8 and 5 as a Soph and he seems to be very well liked by the fanbase.

Hard to not be excited about what Josh could become. I will take a 15 and 10 or 13 and 8 from a center any day, and that doesn't seem to he a stretch by his senior year.

 

[intlzncster]

Chiefs briefs?

I quite life if so.

 

[intlzncster]

Josh is averaging 10 points and 7 rebounds over the past 5 games. Rod Sellers averaged 8 and 5 as a Soph and he seems to be very well liked by the fanbase.

Hard to not be excited about what Josh could become. I will take a 15 and 10 or 13 and 8 from a center any day, and that doesn't seem to he a stretch by his senior year.

Rod Sellers was beloved cause he put an elbow to Laettner's jaw. He was a tough sonofabitch. If Carlton develops that, I'm in.

 

[Huskybass]

Rod Sellers was beloved cause he put an elbow to Laettner's jaw. He was a tough sonofabitch. If Carlton develops that, I'm in.

Rod Sellers was beloved for his play alone. The Laettner incident is memorable, but even if that didn't happen people would still remember him as a very good player.

 

[Dove]

Premature chiefbriefulation?

Waitin' ain't easy.

 

[Excalibur]

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.

The hard hedge has been a hot topic of debate this year. The practice was leading to one or two open layups by the opposing bigs every game, even if it limited penetration and open 3s from the opposing guards. Starting with SMU, the bigs stopped hedging almost completely. Against Cincy and Tulsa that led to consistently open driving lanes for guards coming off screens. Thankfully Hurley scrapped that plan and has gone back to a harder hedge. It's still not as aggressive as it was early in the season -- it's more of a quick show and recover. It also looks as if the guards are going under the screens and then jumping back out on the ball as the big recovers as opposed to fighting over the top and not letting the big get back to his man without abandoning the ball. It's been effective the past two games, albeit against weak offenses.

 

[Rico444]

The hard hedge has been a hot topic of debate this year. The practice was leading to one or two open layups by the opposing bigs every game, even if it limited penetration and open 3s from the opposing guards. Starting with SMU, the bigs stopped hedging almost completely. Against Cincy and Tulsa that led to consistently open driving lanes for guards coming off screens. Thankfully Hurley scrapped that plan and has gone back to a harder hedge. It's still not as aggressive as it was early in the season -- it's more of a quick show and recover. It also looks as if the guards are going under the screens and then jumping back out on the ball as the big recovers as opposed to fighting over the top and not letting the big get back to his man without abandoning the ball. It's been effective the past two games, albeit against weak offenses.

We were abysmal at defending the pick and roll earlier in the season, mostly because our bigs didn't know how to properly hedge. Glad to see they're finally starting to get it.