Big East Conference Games Thread - Jan '25

[BFieldHusky]

Swain left the game with a knee injury. Something to watch for. They only go about 7 deep with him.

 

[buddy]

Xavier plays so much hero ball. This would really piss me off if I was a Xavier big.

Number 2 for Xavier missed the front end of a 1 and 1 with about 30 seconds to go which would have put them up 4. St John's rebounded and tied the game. That did them in, in my opinion

 

[superjohn]

I don’t hate the matchup. Our defensive weakness is guarding the 3 point line. St Johns is the worst shooting team in the country. We’re actually not bad at guarding the rim. We’d need Taris to have a big game on the glass.

This is with Liam healthy in mind.

Opponents make like 6 three pointers against us per game. I don't get where people come up with our weakness is guarding the three point line. Our defense is bad because we don't stay in front of people, we get iso'd to death.

 

[superjohn]

It will work against us though. We can’t guard anyone. We’re in for a very challenging stretch and I don’t feel too good about it. Time for our guys to step up and show us something.

We simply have to play a lot better or we're going to have a bunch of losses coming up. The efforts we've seen lately certainly won't cut it against Xavier, Marquette, St. John's, and Creighton.

 

[jibsey]

St. John’s was 1-12 from 3 but wins and this happens a lot with them but they outrebound everyone and drive the ball inside. Can we defend that? Today they had 3 players score 16 and 1 score 19 points.

 

[aceboon]

Xavier splitting Marquette/St Johns sounds good on paper but up 16 in the 2nd half they gotta complete the sweep, would have completely flipped their season around if they hung on tonight.

 

[auror]

Opponents make like 6 three pointers against us per game. I don't get where people come up with our weakness is guarding the three point line. Our defense is bad because we don't stay in front of people, we get iso'd to death.

Yeah, this. While it is true that opponents have been shooting unconsciously well against us all season, we give up very few attempts. Even with that strong accuracy, we're in the top 20th percentile in terms of teams getting the least amount of their percentage of points from behind the arc against us.

I worry about getting iso'd and allowing a ton of dribble penetration to Richmond, Luis, Wilcher, and Smith and then committing a metric ton of fouls. We gotta hope to be able to make them settle for midrange jumpers to reduce that foul count.

It'll definitely be a Reed game for the rebounding and defending against Ejiofor.

 

[HCCForever]

St. John’s was 1-12 from 3 but wins and this happens a lot with them but they outrebound everyone and drive the ball inside. Can we defend that? Today they had 3 players score 16 and 1 score 19 points.

On the telecast, Dave and Donny mentioned that they were 3 for 23 or so from long range in one game and still won the game. Obviously, they do well driving inside with Richmond and others. Reed and Stewart will need to be on their games.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Number 2 for Xavier missed the front end of a 1 and 1 with about 30 seconds to go which would have put them up 4. St John's rebounded and tied the game. That did them in, in my opinion

Xavier blew a 16 point lead with out of control stat padding attempts by the guards. One crazy, contested attempt after another.

 

[HCCForever]

I noticed that Sean Miller was pretty quiet in the huddle at the end of the game. Much different than Dan. One of the assistants took charge in the huddle with Sean standing there with his arms crossed.

 

[uconngb]

Opponents make like 6 three pointers against us per game. I don't get where people come up with our weakness is guarding the three point line. Our defense is bad because we don't stay in front of people, we get iso'd to death.

We are 339th in the country in FG% defense. THAT'S the issue. There are only about 25 teams in the country that are worse than us at guarding the 3. I would say that's a weakness.

 

[Waquoit]

We are 339th in the country in FG% defense. THAT'S the issue. There are only about 25 teams in the country that are worse than us at guarding the 3. I would say that's a weakness.

In our two losses, we held the other team in the 60's. We should be able to score 70.

 

[superjohn]

We are 339th in the country in FG% defense. THAT'S the issue. There are only about 25 teams in the country that are worse than us at guarding the 3. I would say that's a weakness.

Teams have shot incredibly well against us from three but we've taken away the three. We give up the second least amount of three point attempts in the entire country. Inability to stay in front of people and getting killed on the drive is the main reason our defense is bad.

 

[gtcam]

This UConn team thrives off of take aways and a sped up offensive game.
However, if you can't stop the perimeter 3 pt game and you struggle as a whole on dribble penetration and iso defense - where are the take aways coming from????

 

[jibsey]

Teams have shot incredibly well against us from three but we've taken away the three. We give up the second least amount of three point attempts in the entire country. Inability to stay in front of people and getting killed on the drive is the main reason our defense is bad.

It’s pick your poison. When they drive inside we rack up the fouls and they go to the line hence the foul discrepancies. We don’t have the rebounding advantage it seems.
I think at this point we have to hope for McNeeley to be the savior on both sides of the ball that will allow us to be in any game against any opponent. It’s a lot to ask a freshman.

 

[auror]

In our two losses, we held the other team in the 60's. We should be able to score 70.

Regulation possessions in the last 4 games:
59, 65, 58, 60.

Scoring 70 points in a high 50s possession game is scoring 1.2 points per possession. Our nationally top 10 offense and best offense in Big East play has scored 1.18 points per possession in conference play. We CAN do it, but that's a high bar in these slow games. Especially without McNeeley.

 

[superjohn]

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

 

[Umami Zen]

4 out of our next 5 games will be Q1 games. Let's start stacking some more Q1 Ws

 

[buddy]

Xavier blew a 16 point lead with out of control stat padding attempts by the guards. One crazy, contested attempt after another.

Your point is well taken, but similar to the way UConn lost to Villanova, those particular missed free throws cost them the game.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Your point is well taken, but similar to the way UConn lost to Villanova, those particular missed free throws cost them the game.

Missed free throws are out of a team's control. The players are what they are from the line, and there is not a coaching move or a player decision that could cause the free throw to go in rather than rim out. On the other hand, taking contested pull ups in a taller player's face is a decision that an offensive player makes, and it usually turns out badly.

 

[Edward Sargent]

Swain left the game with a knee injury. Something to watch for. They only go about 7 deep with him.

Reporting sprained ankle

 

[Hey Adrien!]

 

[REB1094]

Lively crowd for Bryce Hopkins' current team vs. Bryce Hopkins' future team

 

[Punkbo]

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the top dog of them all….Coach Cooley! Do any of you want to reconsider your vote when you voted him the worst coach in the league?