Chiefs Briefs - Colorado Edition

[Chief00]

McNeeley, Ball and Diarra carried the load today. Ball continued making big time shots, McNeeley is a gamer even when hurt and a shooter, Diarra’s defense, assists and shooting were big the second half.

Our 3 point defense needs work. The players can’t seem to identify and find the shooters. Too much getting caught in between. With fouls so lopsided our defensive aggressiveness broke down the second half and Colorodo got good shots that won the game.

Hurley made one starting lineup change (Diarra) but he needs to make another (Reed).

McNeeley outplayed the 3 officials in the first half scoring 16 points, despite them giving Colorado 15 more foul shoots. Newell also stood out in first half with 4 assists and Stewart looked really good, as he did yesterday. Unfortunately, McNeeley got injured and is on the locker room and we miss his shooting in the second half.

While we committed more dumb fouls than yesterday, a 19-4 first half shot discrepancy is totally ridiculous. The Maui Tournament got sub par officials this year. It is an embarrassment. Five UConn players had 2 first half fouls or more. We were saved by Colorido only shooting 63% from line in first half.

Karaban needs to be more assertive and take charge more. But, that doesn’t mean taking 30 foot shots when he’s not on. He needs to cut and get the ball off those cuts.

 

[jibsey]

I think we can all cut out the 3 peat talk now.

 

[Hunt for 7]

My notes:

1. We cannot defend
2. Our centers can’t stay on the floor
3. AK took three really bad shots
4. This team will struggle to win 10 big east games
5. They missed on roster construction.
6. Guards, guards, guards…

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

I think we can all cut out the 3 peat talk now.

I Think Hurley is just trying to juice the line a bit

 

[Hi-Low]

Bridge Year...obviously team will get better but will be a bumpy ride

 

[jibsey]

That guy basically made an unbelievable shot to go ahead. The defense was good on that he flung it up there

 

[Mets8692]

Time to manage expectations. We are not a title contender this year and that's okay. Hopefully we make the tourney, but this feels like a bridge year.

 

[CTBasketball]

That guy basically made an unbelievable shot to go ahead. The defense was good on that he flung it up there

McNeeley was a step late, he has limited lateral quickness to stay in front of the ball handler.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Not good enough. Defense isn‘t good enough, not tough enough on boards, offense stagnates and we settle for deep 3s. Lots to work on. Tomorrow we may play a team that’s better than the two we just lost to. Maybe Hurley should have shut up about “respect” and scheduled some real teams.

 

[Dibbie]

That guy basically made an unbelievable shot to go ahead. The defense was good on that he flung it up there

Defense has been horrendous these 2 games

 

[housekeys]

I think we can all cut out the 3 peat talk now.

Too early for that, IMHO. There is a lot of work to do, and we have a lot of time to do it.

Teams are playing out of their minds to beat us. We can only get better, I am not sure our opponents can.

We don't need to 3 peat. We just need to make the tourney and win 6 games.

 

[Palatine]

Maybe hanging out in the paint then running over to the corner to stop the three point shot by your man isn't the way to go.

 

[housekeys]

Defense is horrible. I question how much of that is because of the officiating taking us out of our aggression.

 

[yungdowork]

A lot of talk about the guards, which I sort of understand, but getting 6 rebounds and 10 fouls out of Tarris and Samson is a huge issue. Singare seems like an awesome guy, but he's obviously not ready to be thrown into the fire, and we gave up a lot of good shots by having to double Malone after our bigs fouled out.

 

[Tiamat7]

Nowell deserves minutes.

McNeeley is tremendous.

Somebody on here said in the summer we needed another 6'8 or 6'9 240 pound power forward reserve. Could have used another beefy body today.

Our 3 point defense makes these teams look like Steph Curry and the Warriors.

Need Mahaney or Ross to become consistent high level players. Ross needs reps to move down the learning curve. Mahaney is still learning how to fit in. He's a liability on defense, unfortunately. They've both shown flashes against inferior competition, but have been no-shows in Maui.

 

[uconntoatl]

Slowly start turning the keys over to Nowell. Need a physical guard that can penetrate the defense.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

Traditional UConn defense stops drivers cold, or funnels drivers to shot blockers. Samson and Reed are not Clingan, or Okafor, or any of a number of shot blocking bigs we've had. So that leaves stopping the drives and marking 3 point shooters ...

Ooof.

With regard to bigs and fouls, Clingan had a fouling problem early in his career, and straightened that out. History had better repeat.

 

[yungdowork]

With regard to bigs and fouls, Clingan had a fouling problem early in his career, and straightened that out. History had better repeat.

I'm holding out hope but Samson is a senior and Tarris is a junior. A lot of these fouls seem like things you'd expect to be ironed out of an upperclassman's game by now.

 

[ucp990411]

Time to manage expectations. We are not a title contender this year and that's okay. Hopefully we make the tourney, but this feels like a bridge year.

No it is NOT okay!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Chief00]

Total foul shot attempts, first two games of Maui:
Opponent's: 68
UConn 37
31/37 = 84% more foul shot attempts
A tough hill to climb.

And as we saw today the actual impact is even bigger with foul trouble and less aggressive defense. We need to figure this out. I understood Memphis Driscoll, has bad mouthed Hurley over the summer for years. It’s unprofessional and personal. But, we need to look at how we practice and why Johnson keeps making the same mistakes over and over again. I wasn’t even familiar with this game officials.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

I'm holding out hope but Samson is a senior and Tarris is a junior. A lot of these fouls seem like things you'd expect to be ironed out of an upperclassman's game by now.

I agree. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

I just don’t know why we went into the season at Center with a question mark transfer center, a guy who has never been able to stay out of foul trouble, and Singare who will likely never play meaningful minutes. A guy like Theo John who from Marquette/Duke would’ve won us this game just by being genuinely strong.

 

[willie99]

I think we can all cut out the 3 peat talk now.

It's November

If it was known as "November Madness", you'd be spot on

We'll be a lot better come March

 

[ctkaiser]

McNeeley, Ball and Diarra carried the load today. Ball continued making big time shots, McNeeley is a gamer even when hurt and a shooter, Diarra’s defense, assists and shooting were big the second half.

Our 3 point defense needs work. The players can’t seem to identify and find the shooters. Too much getting caught in between. With fouls so lopsided our defensive aggressiveness broke down the second half and Colorodo got good shots that won the game.

Hurley made one starting lineup change (Diarra) but he needs to make another (Reed).

McNeeley outplayed the 3 officials in the first half scoring 16 points, despite them giving Colorado 15 more foul shoots. Newell also stood out in first half with 4 assists and Stewart looked really good, as he did yesterday. Unfortunately, McNeeley got injured and is on the locker room and we miss his shooting in the second half.

While we committed more dumb fouls than yesterday, a 19-4 first half shot discrepancy is totally ridiculous. The Maui Tournament got sub par officials this year. It is an embarrassment. Five UConn players had 2 first half fouls or more. We were saved by Colorido only shooting 63% from line in first half.

Karaban needs to be more assertive and take charge more. But, that doesn’t mean taking 30 foot shots when he’s not on. He needs to cut and get the ball off those cuts.

Really makes you wonder why/how/what goes on with Samson Johnson and his incessant fouling. 22 feet from the basket and he's constantly grabbing.

 

[Greg]

McNeeley, Ball and Diarra carried the load today. Ball continued making big time shots, McNeeley is a gamer even when hurt and a shooter, Diarra’s defense, assists and shooting were big the second half.

Our 3 point defense needs work. The players can’t seem to identify and find the shooters. Too much getting caught in between. With fouls so lopsided our defensive aggressiveness broke down the second half and Colorodo got good shots that won the game.

Hurley made one starting lineup change (Diarra) but he needs to make another (Reed).

McNeeley outplayed the 3 officials in the first half scoring 16 points, despite them giving Colorado 15 more foul shoots. Newell also stood out in first half with 4 assists and Stewart looked really good, as he did yesterday. Unfortunately, McNeeley got injured and is on the locker room and we miss his shooting in the second half.

While we committed more dumb fouls than yesterday, a 19-4 first half shot discrepancy is totally ridiculous. The Maui Tournament got sub par officials this year. It is an embarrassment. Five UConn players had 2 first half fouls or more. We were saved by Colorido only shooting 63% from line in first half.

Karaban needs to be more assertive and take charge more. But, that doesn’t mean taking 30 foot shots when he’s not on. He needs to cut and get the ball off those cuts.

The foul shooting discrepancy was earned. Defense not final four level at this time. It may not get there. UCONN is still a formidable opponent and will be fine. This may be one of those years when the Women's team goes further than the men.