Butler Post Game Thread

[dalydosehoops]

UConn survives in overtime against Butler behind career night from Ball

Solo Ball set career high with 23 points Tuesday, including five 3-pointers, as UConn escaped upset bid from Butler. (Photo by UConn Men’s B...

dalydoseofhoops.blogspot.com

 

[Scottobot]

Karaban hasn't been any better, unfortunately.

Karaban made some big shot’s tonight that he created off dribble. I would like to see what Ball can do off the dribble. eg penetrate and them step back 2, or drive to elbow for pull up 2.

 

[fleaflicker]

Just got back from the game.

Scrolling through this thread, can’t believe there isn’t more mention of the refs.

That was probably the worst whistle we’ve gotten all year.

Ton of no-calls and whistle swallowing in Butler’s favor all game long.

The amount of clutching, grabbing, bumping, moving screens that they were able to get away with was breathtaking.

Unreal what a biased whistle we’ve get.


That being said, Liam can’t get back in the court soon enough. This offense can’t do jack crap without him on the court.

 

[alphasigko]

Three primary reasons:

1) We don’t have a bucket getter.
2) We don’t score much on the offensive glass
3) We don’t get to the foul line.

You can get away with the first, if you can get easy points from the second or third

All of that is true. Add to that horrible defense, and you get what we witnessed.

 

[fleaflicker]

So Fans realize that UConn is know wide and far due to Dan Hurley and GA. Hockey coach and Football catching up quickly....Roll Huskies
Dan Hurley winds two NC in a row. Now want 3. Me too. but not an easy take. Let enjoy the HUSKIES that everyone wants to take down.. Elite 8 this year Not bad

 

[nelsonmuntz]

UConn is the #7 offense in the country per KenPom. The offense consistently delivers.

 

[3rdbass]

People talk about him on this board like he’s one of our best players ever. You’re describing a good role player. Which…

He is more of a role player and better clutch player than Diarra would ever hope to be. You really are on a role tonight.

 

[HooperScooper]

Hurley getting lambasted by national media.

Did he really say this? Yikes.

Hurley after berating ref: Show other coaches

UConn coach Dan Hurley owned up to berating an official during Tuesday's win after he was caught on camera telling them "don't turn your back on me, I'm the best coach in 'n sport."

www.espn.com

 

[superjohn]

Yeah, I don't get the idea that UConn isn't playing hard or that there is some level of effort that we're not giving that will overcome every opponent.

We crash the boards with like 4 guys every play. We hack the crap out of people when they come into the lane and for the most part don't give up easy buckets.

If you want to argue they're not mentally tough, okay, I guess, but we've won a bunch of close games this year.

What we are is weak, as in not strong. We have younger, finesse players without a lot of muscle who play hard, but are playing against a lot of strong, ole upperclassmen. Diarra is quicker and longer than he is strong. Ball has insane shoulders/arms, but he's one positional height/weight size small. Stewart is athletic, but not particularly strong. Karaban is average size for his position. Samson has improved his body, but he's still lacking lower body and core strength. We have to use our hands to hold and grab or just get pushed aside, because we can't just use our shoulder and can't hold our ground, outside of only really Reed. This is particularly noticeable against teams with real strength and beef on the wing like Butler.

We're also just not that good in the overall sense (especially without Liam), so can't put teams away. For some reason, people on this board forgot the old phrase "everybody makes a run". We were immune last year because we were epically good. We're not this year. Everyone makes a run. Won the game.

They have two top 100 players on their team, they were 8-10 and 1-6 in league play before this game, they were playing on the road, and they were 12.5 point dogs.

I'm thankful we won but we played really poorly against a bad team at our place.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

He is more of a role player and better clutch player than Diarra would ever hope to be. You really are on a role tonight.

I agree he’s better than Diarra. I’m done trying to bring reality to Newton’s time here for the night lol

 

[Mora4Prez]

Wasn’t able to catch the game, just saw the box score. Not gonna overreact - it’s one game with our star player out. However, is it safe to say Mahaney is more of a practice team guy?

 

[Gurleyman]

Newton admittedly wasn’t a great 3 point shooter - I think he took a lot of our 911 shots at the end of the shot clock (Kansas being an example of when it was noticeable due to its success), but that isn’t based on actual science.

I’ve watched the NCAA Tournament games again on YouTube, though, and he was in full maestro mode sometimes and I didn’t even appreciate it all that much in real time. His feel and ability to throw lobs from all angles and off the bounce was remarkable. A lot of the reason that last year saw us win all those games by double digits was Newton’s (and Cam’s) game management. Teams just couldn’t get traction against us.

Castle was the role player last year- he didn’t have much responsibility on offense. And Clingan wasn’t usually a go to scorer on offense either .

 

[Gurleyman]

Wasn’t able to catch the game, just saw the box score. Not gonna overreact - it’s one game with our star player out. However, is it safe to say Mahaney is more of a practice team guy?

Mahaney is going to be given a few minutes a night to see if he has anything - if not, he gets a quick hook. If yes, a 10-points-in-20-minutes game is about his ceiling.

We have this huge gaping void for someone to give us a scoring lift off the bench (other than Reed). Or someone who can just create a bucket in late game/late clock situations. There’s a small window of time left for him to try to walk through that door, but it’s closing fast.

 

[auror]

They have two top 100 players on their team, they were 8-10 and 1-6 in league play before this game, they were playing on the road, and they were 12.5 point dogs.

I'm thankful we won but we played really poorly against a bad team at our place.

It's not a good result. But I do think it's a pretty tough matchup for us because we have nobody who can guard Brooks or Telfort. Especially when the refs decide they can use their strength and play as physical as they want without calling reciprocal fouls for holding us or bumping our cutters. Butler played extremely physical defense and we were still in the 1 and 1 in OT. (To pre-empt anybody saying we're a jump shooting team, we scored 10 more points in the paint than they did, took 1 more 3, and got the same amount of offensive rebounds).

One of Newton's underrated attributes the last 2 years was he had a knack for drawing fouls against defenders that were being overly physical. Other teams upped the intensity and pressure, and he'd fall over and they'd get a foul. A few of those a game is worth several points on the scoreline.

 

[jostar1]

 

[uconnbill]

Disappointing but a win is a win.

This team has spurts good and bad.

 

[FearThePups]

I mean I don’t actually think the defense was bad tonight. The 4+ minute offensive droughts were the issue. Giving up 76 on OT isn’t bad

But it was butler for god sake.

 

[UCann]

The amount of negativity in this thread after this win is absolutely disgusting. Do you realize any of the following:

• If not for a foul shot and a bad call we could be undefeated in league play
• We’re playing without arguably our best player and finding ways to win (also a reminder we’re are UNDEFEATED with Liam on the mainland)
• Every team is giving us their absolute best shot and give all out effort all game against us
• It’s clear by now we’re also battling biased refereeing every game
• These are kids with a lot of pressure on them in this moment - they’re getting used to it slowly

I think all these factors will make us a much better team come March. In the meantime we continue to win at a sold clip despite the headwinds. Trust the process guys.

 

[FearThePups]

The team is a huge mess right now, we had a lot of luck tonight, and the refs were our friends after a lot of games where they weren't. That was gross but we got the win.

We're even worse than I thought we would be without McNeeley. We need his ankle to heal this second.

Ok guys. We’ve now had 3 or 4 games like this on the mainland. Once is an anomaly, twice is a trend and thrice is the reality.

 

[CTtoSanDiego]

I have two big complaints about this team (lots of little ones, too). Both are defensive. I wish our centers would stop hedging picks so far from the basket, often 30 feet away or more. Too often ends up in a foul (which neither of them can afford) or an open lay up for the opposing center. The other is the inability of some players (you all know who they are) to move their feet and stay in front of their man. We give up way too many drives to the basket with little opposition. I can handle when a good offensive player backs one of our guys down and hits a tough shot, but the easy drives annoy the hell out of me. The first complaint can be dealt with by a scheme change. The second seems to be about the willingness to dig in defensively, because the primary offenders are athletic enough to at least provide some opposition.
Still, we are not without talent, and I'm not giving up!

 

[Shine21]

I have two big complaints about this team (lots of little ones, too). Both are defensive. I wish our centers would stop hedging picks so far from the basket, often 30 feet away or more. Too often ends up in a foul (which neither of them can afford) or an open lay up for the opposing center. The other is the inability of some players (you all know who they are) to move their feet and stay in front of their man. We give up way too many drives to the basket with little opposition. I can handle when a good offensive player backs one of our guys down and hits a tough shot, but the easy drives annoy the hell out of me. The first complaint can be dealt with by a scheme change. The second seems to be about the willingness to dig in defensively, because the primary offenders are athletic enough to at least provide some opposition.
Still, we are not without talent, and I'm not giving up!

This. I lose my mind every time they do it, especially Samson. He's been doing that since he's been here.

 

[3rdbass]

I agree he’s better than Diarra. I’m done trying to bring reality to Newton’s time here for the night lol

You calling Newton a Good role player has already made any of your opinions about him worthless. He was a 1st Team All-American, 1st team All Big East and NCAA Final Four MOP. You don't become that by being a role player.

 

[3rdbass]

I have two big complaints about this team (lots of little ones, too). Both are defensive. I wish our centers would stop hedging picks so far from the basket, often 30 feet away or more. Too often ends up in a foul (which neither of them can afford) or an open lay up for the opposing center. The other is the inability of some players (you all know who they are) to move their feet and stay in front of their man. We give up way too many drives to the basket with little opposition. I can handle when a good offensive player backs one of our guys down and hits a tough shot, but the easy drives annoy the hell out of me. The first complaint can be dealt with by a scheme change. The second seems to be about the willingness to dig in defensively, because the primary offenders are athletic enough to at least provide some opposition.
Still, we are not without talent, and I'm not giving up!

yeah the High Hedging needs ot stop. It rarely works and doesn't really slow the opposing offense. Hurley was talking to J-Stew about getting in a defensive stance on one drive he fouled the player. J-Stew is sometimes too upright and makes it easier to blow by him. We have this problem with Ball, Nowell and Mahaney. Ross is alright defensively. Diarra is the only player who plays above average D on the perimeter.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

You calling Newton a Good role player has already made any of your opinions about him worthless. He was a 1st Team All-American, 1st team All Big East and NCAA Final Four MOP. You don't become that by being a role player.

I can explain all this. But it won’t matter. All those awards are cool man.

Just know Jalen Adams shot better from the field and 3 playing 1 on 5 in the backend of the Ollie years than Newton did with the best roster in college hoops and an offense designed to get him easy looks.

 

[3rdbass]

But it was butler for god sake.

Well as Hurley mentioned in the press conference a lot of teams are messing up our offense. Teams now our holding our players coming off picks and the refs are calling it since they would have to call fouls every time. We will have to adjust to this and the way games are being played. Our offense has been in a funk since McNeeley's been out too. We are definitely in between a rock and a hard place. There are areas in the middle at the top of the key were we can attack but we aren't doing enough of it.