Chiefs Briefs - PC Edition

[nomar]

Chief can't be bothered with anything outside his briefs

Chief really concentrates on filling his briefs with material. Sometimes he has to sit there a long time before he's gotten everything into his briefs.

 

[Husky25]

I can keep going. I didn’t even look pre 2022. That is a lot of close wins.

The close game criticism was an early Hurley-era phenomenon and reached into 2023. This is a screenshot from Reddit from 2 years ago:

Rolling through two straight touneys and winning the Wood hides a lot of warts, but it was a thing. Whether people want to deny it or not is their prerogative.
...

Student season ticket holders were afforded multiple open practices ahead of the 1998-99 season. IIRC 26+ years later, Dave Leitao was the yeller at practice on that staff, but Calhoun wasn't afraid to raise his voice.

 

[inWV]

Agree with your Demary, Karaban and Reed observations. With this group Karaban has a real good sense when he needs to come up with a great play for the team and usually does. Last year there wasn’t that connection with everyone.

AK is now the occasional single set of footprints in the sand. He only carries the team when they need carrying, and he now knows better when that is.

 

[REB1094]

Not winning close games is a very old stat that isn’t relevant anymore

2024 season: Texas was a 4pt game with 5 minutes left and we won by 10. Butler was a 1pt game with 3:45 and we won by 7. Villanova was tied with 3 minutes to go, won by 1 (really it was 4 but Villanova hit a meaningless halfcourt buzzer beater)

2025 season: Baylor by 4. Xavier by 5 in OT. Butler by 4 (tie game at 4:40). Providence was tied with 8 minutes left, won by 3. Losing vs Butler again with 2 minutes left in regulation, won by 2 in OT. Creighton by 4. Marquette was a 3pt game at 4:30, won by 6

2026: massive collapse vs BYU but won by 2. Kansas by 5 (1pt game with 4:30 left). Florida by 4 (losing with 8m left). And of course this Providence win

 

[AllHusky]

Getting ready for UConn to kick DePaul’s ass. Larry McHugh and Susan Herbst at Red Fox now - I cleaned up the language but they knew what I meant - it is peddle to the medal the rest of the season. Casual Fans, we love you but u are not calling the shots now. We are going to beat up on our opponents
Love it!!!!!!

Chief, c'mon brother "Petal to the Metal"!! We know what you meant but geez. Don't know what you meant about Susan and McHugh, am I missing something??

 

[Chief00]

Chief, c'mon brother "Petal to the Metal"!! We know what you meant but geez. Don't know what you meant about Susan and McHugh, am I missing something??

They had dinner together with Larry’s wife and two other people. Do think I would lockeroom trash talk PC in that context? Lol Looking forward to game in Hartford tomorrow.

 

[Chief00]

The close game criticism was an early Hurley-era phenomenon and reached into 2023. This is a screenshot from Reddit from 2 years ago:

View attachment 115769

Rolling through two straight touneys and winning the Wood hides a lot of warts, but it was a thing. Whether people want to deny it or not is their prerogative.
...

Student season ticket holders were afforded multiple open practices ahead of the 1998-99 season. IIRC 26+ years later, Dave Leitao was the yeller at practice on that staff, but Calhoun wasn't afraid to raise his voice.

Howie was the yeller before Dave. George and Jim were very analytical and brilliant when they discussed basketball.

 

[Chief00]

Chief really concentrates on filling his briefs with material. Sometimes he has to sit there a long time before he's gotten everything into his briefs.

I always like Nomar’s humor. After-all he’s our self proclaimed #1 Casual Fan - tm

 

[AllHusky]

Howie was the yeller before Dave. George and Jim were very analytical and brilliant when they discussed basketball.

The day after a game Howies voice sounded like he had been intubated for a month

 

[Gurleyman]

I remember that being a thing and Hurley even alluding to it in press conferences. Largely coincidental and/or unlucky. Sometimes you put the close game away before the one minute mark.

The strange nuance is that our one close win in a stretch of a couple years was Villanova - when Hurley was ejected in the first half.

 

[Matias]

12/21/24 uconn 78-74
12/18/24 Uconn 94 xavier 89
12/23/23 Uconn 69 st johns 65
1/10/24 Uconn 80 xavier 75
2/13/22 uconn 63 st johns 60
2/16/22 uconn 70 setting n hall 65
2/22/22 uconn 71 nova 69
I can keep going. I didn’t even look pre 2022. That is a lot of close wins.

A 4/5 point win where UConn is holding off their opponent down the stretch is not where the reputation came from.

It’s the highly contested end game situations where the margin is 1/2 points where you see a majority being losses between 2019 and 24. Pair that with having a high average point margin of victory and there you have the narrative.

It was honestly more of a running joke than a serious concern on BY.

 

[Chief00]

This thread is for trolls and casual fans.

Casual Fans are very welcome. We love our Casual Fans.

 

[Chief00]

The close game criticism was an early Hurley-era phenomenon and reached into 2023. This is a screenshot from Reddit from 2 years ago:

View attachment 115769

Rolling through two straight touneys and winning the Wood hides a lot of warts, but it was a thing. Whether people want to deny it or not is their prerogative.
...

Student season ticket holders were afforded multiple open practices ahead of the 1998-99 season. IIRC 26+ years later, Dave Leitao was the yeller at practice on that staff, but Calhoun wasn't afraid to raise his voice.

So it’s better to win by 4, rather than blow the same team out by 20?

 

[JustbrewitMan]

I remember that being a thing and Hurley even alluding to it in press conferences. Largely coincidental and/or unlucky. Sometimes you put the close game away before the one minute mark.

The strange nuance is that our one close win in a stretch of a couple years was Villanova - when Hurley was ejected in the first half.

That one data point was what doubters and haters clung to in support of their argument for 2-3 seasons

 

[JustbrewitMan]

A 4/5 point win where UConn is holding off their opponent down the stretch is not where the reputation came from.

It’s the highly contested end game situations where the margin is 1/2 points where you see a majority being losses between 2019 and 24. Pair that with having a high average point margin of victory and there you have the narrative.

It was honestly more of a running joke than a serious concern on BY.

There was a strong vocal group that didn’t consider it a joke at all.

 

[Scottobot]

A 4/5 point win where UConn is holding off their opponent down the stretch is not where the reputation came from.

It’s the highly contested end game situations where the margin is 1/2 points where you see a majority being losses between 2019 and 24. Pair that with having a high average point margin of victory and there you have the narrative.

It was honestly more of a running joke than a serious concern on BY.

Once Hurley won a championship it became more of a joke, but before that people complained he was not running a good play on final possession. When a game comes down to one shot it is really luck more than anything else that drives the outcome.

Also whether or not the officials intervene on a call in the final possession can be a big factor. Big East refs have typically hurt UConn more then help them.

Finally having a great scorer who can create their own shot is a huge advantage on a game that comes down to final possession. UConn typically recruits scorers that score in motion. In this OT vs Providence Silas created his own shot for the game sealing basket.

Lastly, pre championship years they were a defense first team and didn’t really have great players to take that final shot.

All that said they still won close games so the narrative that Hurley can’t win a close won was stupid in my opinion and always bothered me when people said it. They did lose more close games than they won, but that was largely due to bad luck and the factors above.