Chief’s Briefs - St John’s Edition

[Chief00]

With Karaban’s high ankle sprain, we were down a shooter today, so driving and foul shooting were key. Still we shot around 50% FG, 50% from 3 and over 90% from the line. Turnovers were also key in the second half and a dozen rebound advantage in the game.

Stephon Cassell (21) played outstanding leading our team along with Tristen Newton (18) and Cam Spencer (23) . When Stephon hits a couple threes it opens things up. Then he’s a double threat on his drives when he’s shooting foul shots like he did today. Cam was strong in the second half.

I don’t fully understand how we are playing Soriano, the doubles and triple teams lacked communication and coordination leading to open shooters. However, it threw Soriano’s timing off.

With Karaban out, St John’s focused on shutting Cam Spencer down somewhat from 3 but Cam adjusted and made some penetrations followed by fade away shots.

I thought our fast break transition was good today and was a big plus early on despite us being down a shooter. Our foul shooting was outstanding as well, a key to victory.

Give Samson credit for allowing the team to built a lead with Donovan out. However, as Chief has been saying all season he needs to stop overplaying the high hedge. Today he had at least 2 fouls from 3 point land and the last one led to a 5 fouls exit.

We missed Alex for 40 minutes and Donovan for 25 and still won by double figures. Having 3 ball handlers helps. Did Ball get injured?

 

[WeAreUCONN]

We look unbeatable ahd Castle has transcended into our best player. Quite astonishing.

 

[DaMuttzNutt]

Weapons. Guards. Brains. We are full of them.

When our #2 best player is out, and one of the leading big men in the country gets only 15 and you still beat a tough, old, HOF coached team in their house. You are damn good.

Get through the BE slog and the NCAA games are going to be wild. What wins in March? Guards, guards, guards.

Proud of this team, it's rapidly becoming one of my favorites of all time

 

[JB75]

Best sequence of game was when -Ludlow got a Dunk started taking ish to cam

• cam gets ball on wing, ludlow still talking junk to him , he laces a three in ludlows eye , talks sh——to him
• then cam strips Luis and newton comes down and gets and 1

———god we re good

 

[jibsey]

St. John’s has been tight with many teams and I’ve seen them blow it and tire in the second half. We had too many answers for them even without Karaban and Clingan. That spells trouble for other teams.

 

[Kitaman]

By the 2nd half this team figured out how to play without Karaban. By the middle of the 2nd half this team figured out how to play without a center. Once that happened the double digit win was inevitable.

This is the best team in the Nation again and they already know how to win a Championship.

 

[GHSWolverines]

SC has demonstrated why he is a McD all american. He does not force things and lets the game come to him. Also he is a pretty good defender.
I hope DC Gets out of his funk bc we will need him. Lately Kling Kong has been playing like a ding dong.

 

[SoFla Steve]

KenPom Adjusted Defense back up to 16 !!

 

[scotty0330]

Just amazed at how strong Castle is. His ability to finish through contact is at a senior level. Not sure I can remember seeing a freshman embrace the contact and muscle through it like he does. His shooting comes around and becomes more consistent….scary

 

[dogpause]

I thought we covered well for Karaban's absence. And once again we proved that we can adjust to almost any style and circumstance. Don't know what caused Castle to turn the corner, but his mid-range and long-range shooting changes game plans for every team we will face. Tristen's foul shooting has returned. His form looked like it did last year. His long range shooting will soon follow.

 

[bendm]

Stephon Cassell…Any relation to Sam Cassell?

 

[WeAreUCONN]

Just amazed at how strong Castle is. His ability to finish through contact is at a senior level. Not sure I can remember seeing a freshman embrace the contact and muscle through it like he does. His shooting comes around and becomes more consistent….scary

Carmelo Anthony was the best freshman I’ve seen at drawing or finding contact and finishing through it.

 

[Fan1978]

Stephon Cassell…Any relation to Sam Cassell?

Funny, typos happen cut chief some slack

 

[willie99]

One sequence that I thought was very telling. Cam has the ball, both defenders leave him, and Cam sticks a wide open three

Pitino must have been like "are you kidding me?".

It takes time to fully implement your system, we know this

 

[CTRick74]

Clingan and Johnson have to learn to play without fouling. If they don't, it will come back and bite us in a big game.

 

[jdb50]

Clingan and Johnson have to learn to play without fouling. If they don't, it will come back and bite us in a big game.

When Donovan was in the game with 4 fouls late he was still ready to go up for an upfake by a guard. I don't know why he won't calm down and just be his 7'4" self. Put your arms up and then rebound. Don't try and block every shot. Samson gets caught outside reaching and over biting on fakes. Our bigs need to work on keeping their body square to their man on D. Too often we are turned sideways. Move the feet.

 

[cohenzone]

Just amazed at how strong Castle is. His ability to finish through contact is at a senior level. Not sure I can remember seeing a freshman embrace the contact and muscle through it like he does. His shooting comes around and becomes more consistent….scary

I’ve seen him play in person once this year and it jumps out at you how strong he looks in a way that doesn’t show up on TV.

 

[Chief00]

I’ve seen him play in person once this year and it jumps out at you how strong he looks in a way that doesn’t show up on TV.

I agree it shows going to basket, on defense and rebounding.

 

[Chief00]

I got a message relayed to tell me that a person (whose very close to Calhoun) doesn’t like the St John’s coach. The female who relayed me the message (his daughter) had no idea of context or history or who the coach is. LOL

 

[Spaceman213J]

When Donovan was in the game with 4 fouls late he was still ready to go up for an upfake by a guard. I don't know why he won't calm down and just be his 7'4" self. Put your arms up and then rebound. Don't try and block every shot. Samson gets caught outside reaching and over biting on fakes. Our bigs need to work on keeping their body square to their man on D. Too often we are turned sideways. Move the feet.

I think players feel like they let their team down picking up a couple quick fouls so they try to 'make up' for it instead of doing what they know they should be doing.

It is puzzling with DC because we all know he can play long stretches of great defense without fouling.

 

[Chief00]

Donovan is so good defensively playing basic , fundamental defense. He doesn’t need to take risks, go for pump fakes, block shots out of bounds, etc. - just play vertical position defense. That way he gets 25 not 15 minutes.

 

[husky8273]

Donovan is so good defensively playing basic , fundamental defense. He doesn’t need to take risks, go for pump fakes, block shots out of bounds, etc. - just play vertical position defense. That way he gets 25 not 15 minutes.

Good D advice for DC. Why is the PnR the only play they run for him?

 

[jibsey]

I got a message relayed to tell me that a person (whose very close to Calhoun) doesn’t like the St John’s coach. The female who relayed me the message (his daughter) had no idea of context or history or who the coach is. LOL

Not surprised. These guys are very competitive, and there’s plenty of history for them to have had disagreements or problems with each other.

 

[Chief00]

Not surprised. These guys are very competitive, and there’s plenty of history for them to have had disagreements or problems with each other.

LOL - Agree and if anything that is an understatement. And it isn’t water over the dam, the feud lives on, which is normally bad, but great in this case.