Chiefs Briefs - Colorado Edition

[gtcam]

Defense - Dan Hurley was blessed last year because DC and Castle were/are ELITE defenders so those two carried the weight off the other's shoulders. This year UConn does not have that shut down defender on the perimeter and in the interior - huge difference. Unbelievable how few on this year's team are able to play D with their feet - all hands and arms (which should be up in the air and not on the opposition's bodies). The refs are horrible and call the game like it is a Jr. HS match-up. What a difference the Bama/Houston game yesterday - let them play. On a side note - the NBE refs may be a welcome sight. Note to Dan Hurley - put your big boy pants on and direct your frustration towards how you are teaching D in practice - something you are doing isn't working - figure it out. Keep the ref bashing out of your press comments - amazing how one person can appear to be ignorant to the fact that he is hurting his team. Flapping lips deserve little respect. Can your staff teach these kids to not react to every up-fake by jumping out of the gym????? D101.
Team make-up - Yeah, UConn has athletes but very few of them are actually gamers at this time. What he saw in AM mystifies me. Ross needs to learn how to play basketball at a manageable pace, Stewie needs help on his D, Samson Johnson has no hands and seems to have lost his BBIQ when on the floor. Ball is a really good shooter but when he is playing it looks like he is afraid to make an error and lose his minutes. AK acts like a leader, now he has to play like one (T Newton) - drive to the hoop.
I have been saying since early fall that Nowell is the PG that this team needs. HD is an energizer bunny and perfect 6th man. They needed to get a 5th year big man in addition to Reed. Ball and AM are shooting guards. Period. McNeeley is a pure shooter but has a body that needs to be driving and finishing at the rim.
It's November with a lot of basketball ahead of us. The sum of the parts is definitely a NCAA tournament team, but they need to put it all together very soon. UConn is not the only team to have growing pains - Creighton suffers also. I expect UConn to become more competitive. Losing by a combined 3 or 4 points in 2 games is not the end of the world. Hopefully the turn around starts at 11:50 tonight.

 

[AllHusky]

Unfortunately this isnt early in Samson's career. He has to be committing these fouls in practice

Call the fouls in practice and make him run when he reaches in. Might make the track team if he fouls in practice like he does in games!

 

[HuskyHawk]

I may have missed some but below are BPI rankings for New England. teams. I think a nice non conference schedule of the non marquee games could be made from New England schools. I know there are things to consider but if Fairfield, Quinnipiac or Yale were on the schedule the game could be played in Bridgeport. We get to games at Gampel. Hartford and MSG each year but it would be great to have a game fifteen minutes form home. It would also give those Gampel/Harford season ticket holders who complain about the non league schedule one less game they need to purchase.

142 Umass​
159 Umass Lowell​
167 Vermont​
183 Maine​
199 Bryant​
348 New Hampshire​
150 Northeastern​
92 Yale​
190 Brown​
222 Harvard​
297 Dartmouth​
208 Quinnipiac​
242 Fairfield​
310 Sacred Heart​
237 Central CT​
344 Stonehill​
228 Boston U​
307 Holy Cross​
105 Boston College​

It can. Instead we played two of the worst on this list and added two more that are just as bad. Play Brown or something. This shouldn't be hard. Challenge the guys.

 

[HuskyHawk]

The point is that one true cupcake to start the season is fine. Game 2 should be against a team that will give you a game. Yale, Harvard, an A-10 team. Someone like that. Cannot go into a tournament like this playing only sub 300 Kenpom opponents.



How much do we pay the crappy teams? Is it possible we just didn't have the funds to cancel the games and schedule better opponents?

We paid Texas A&M Commerce the most, probably due to travel cost.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

The point is that one true cupcake to start the season is fine. Game 2 should be against a team that will give you a game. Yale, Harvard, an A-10 team. Someone like that. Cannot go into a tournament like this playing only sub 300 Kenpom opponents.



How much do we pay the crappy teams? Is it possible we just didn't have the funds to cancel the games and schedule better opponents?

Memphis played a decent San Fran team on their way to Maui. Would have loved to see us do something similar

 

[willie99]

WOW, talk about having to win the BET already

That's somewhat beyond hyperbolic, it's surreal, it's categorically incorrect

 

[HuskyHawk]

WOW, talk about having to win the BET already

That's somewhat beyond hyperbolic, it's surreal, it's categorically incorrect

I recognize that back to back to back doesn't allow much time for adjustments. But either the team makes the changes that are needed or it really doesn't beat any good teams. So it's less a literal reality and more an indication that maybe the team doesn't have it.

Let's just say they lose this they really need to be very good in the rest of OOC and in the Big East. They can lose to Gonzaga. They really can't lose to Baylor and Texas. Zero quality wins OOC is not good.

 

[ctkaiser]

The team REALLY misses Clingan's defense.

While Diarra is a gritty defender and tough as nails, he shouldn't be taking the final win/lose shot. He's only shooting 17% from three on the season. I think I heard the announcers say he was 3-15 from three coming into the game. Gotta be Karaban catching/not passing in.

We only needed a 2 so why not drive to the hoop. I know it was only 5 seconds but it can be done.

 

[Chief00]

I may have missed some but below are BPI rankings for New England. teams. I think a nice non conference schedule of the non marquee games could be made from New England schools. I know there are things to consider but if Fairfield, Quinnipiac or Yale were on the schedule the game could be played in Bridgeport. We get to games at Gampel. Hartford and MSG each year but it would be great to have a game fifteen minutes form home. It would also give those Gampel/Harford season ticket holders who complain about the non league schedule one less game they need to purchase.

142 Umass​
159 Umass Lowell​
167 Vermont​
183 Maine​
199 Bryant​
348 New Hampshire​
150 Northeastern​
92 Yale​
190 Brown​
222 Harvard​
297 Dartmouth​
208 Quinnipiac​
242 Fairfield​
310 Sacred Heart​
237 Central CT​
344 Stonehill​
228 Boston U​
307 Holy Cross​
105 Boston College​

I appreciate your research !