Butler Post Game Thread | Page 5 | The Boneyard
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Butler Post Game Thread

In fairnesss only 3 guys took free throws tonight. Which is kind of strange. Ball was 7-8, Reibe 1-2 and Smith with that ugly 0-3 after being fouled on the baited three pointer. None of his 3 were particularly close either.
I’m very concerned about how badly he’s missing those free throws and he’s got to get that corrected soon. Don’t know what that entails but if you wanna get on the floor, you’re gonna have to make some free throws I mean it’s that simple
 
Haven't thought about this in a very long time, but does anyone remember how JC would call a time out less than a minute into the game when his team would come out low energy flat? Hurley, as great a coach he is in his own right, should watch a little JC tape and take a page out of his book. Just sayin'!

It makes me smile to think of that, but that’s also just not Hurley’s in-game coaching style (per Hurley). Whereas Calhoun would chew guys out, Hurley keeps it positive (albeit animated).
 
The offense will be better when they gel a bit more. I counted at 4 missed ally-oop opportunities, where in each of the title team runs would be no brainers. Silas had a perfect pick a roll to the rim with Reed early, then Reibe later. Not sure if the bigs are able to get up for it. Easiest miss was Solo break with Ross wide open for the stuff. Got fouled instead.
 
Nice to get that first Big East Win right out of the gate.

Strange game, though somewhere typical for this squad, where they look spectacular during some stretches, but horrible at other times where it's like watching two completely different teams. Hopefully they'll clean things up and play at a more consistent high-level.

They defend really well at times, while at other times still play some really poor BBIQ defense where they foul at an alarming rate. The FT disparity is alarming, where they are giving their opponent a lot of cheap points, plus having to sit some of their key players more than they'd like due to foul trouble. Though it hasn't stopped them from winning.

One strange observation is Hurley sometimes sits a player who was lights out doing it all, where I'd like to see him run that player right out to floor and keep him there till they collapse from exhaustion...kidding. He did that with Ross tonight where Butler had a mini run right after he sat Ross, and did the same the other day when Smith was doing it all, and we had a similar bad result. Ride those horses till they give him a reason to sit them. Of course if a player is spent and needs to rest for a bit, but that did not seem to be the case with those two at those times when both had changed the momentum in our favor.

Their poor FT shooting is going to cost them at some point. I hope that improves. I remember the Kemba & Bazz era how they won a ton of games where the difference between winning and losing was converting at line at a very high rate, especially during winning time. Just hope they improve in that area.

And hold on to rebounds for goodness sake. That has been an issue at times. Just grab the rebound and get it out to a teammate. If it's not getting knocked out, they seem to not secure it where the opposition gets their mits on it. Though with that said there were some really nice in traffic aggressive rebounds by Ross, Mullins, Reibe and others that stood out. But I don't think there's anyone hear that didn't notice the frequent lapses where they just didn't come down with the defensive boards. Granted they out-rebounded Butler by a lot but the offensive rebounds were even, and if you include the times they tied us up or the rebounds that went out of bounds off of us, it simply points to a area that needs improvement.

Reed was an enigma tonight. Unstoppable at times, but also a black hole where he kept the ball far too long in the post bogging down the offensive flow, where he should have kicked it back out for a J or repost. I just chalk that up to him not a 100%, a bit rusty and looked a bit fatigued at times. He'll be back to his early season form sooner than later.

Ross is starting to figure it out. Makes things happen on both ends of the floor. Excited for him. I've said all along that he'll be a special player while others have bashed him. Still reminds me of a young Reggie Lewis, for those who saw him play back in the day.

Reibe doesn't look at all like a freshman. Can't imagine how good he's going to be by season's end or even next year as he develops his game and physically.

Rim protection was outstanding! More blocks (13) than FTs made (8). Actually had the exact number of blocks as FTs attempted, which is a strange stat.

Beat a good team getting little scoring from our PGs, Alex and Stewart. 6 total from those 4 players, where 2 went scoreless. Imagine what things would look like if most everyone plays their A game.

The shot making was great at times. Half-court execution started off slow and poorly run, then really picked up as the game went on. They have so much talent and depth that they can and will win just about all their games even playing a mix of good and bad hoops. Once they clean up some or all of these things they will begin to roll anyone in their path.

Just going to sit back, watch them improve and enjoy the ride.
 
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Ross will be as good as he wants to be. Still don’t think he’s playing fully confident yet.

In our half court offense he’s always cutting away from the ball and avoiding going to get the ball unless it’s absolutely necessary. A sign he still isn’t comfortable with the ball in his hands to make a play and deferring to others.

All of his plays today were finishing plays but he did have a really nice dump off to Reed once he was feeling himself after a few plays.

Think he has a lot of potential as a playmaker once he thinks he can do that too. Hope today makes him more aggressive in wanting the ball in his hands to make a play.

He had a lot of right place right time plays today but it was good seeing him hit the boards better.
 
At the start of the game, Butler took a 7-2 lead because UConn kept feeding Reed and he would either miss or turn it over. And he still shot 67%. This is a case where I say, he's coming off an injury and it's December. We all saw what a healthy Reed can do last year. We saw flashes of that tonight.
Danny said that in post game . Reed still knocking rust off. Remember his improvement from this time last year to the Florida game? I think we’ll see that again, both from him and the offensive execution relative to him . Smith and Demary are going to learn how to drive and create within the offense as well, drawing help to them while freeing up Reed and Reibe.
 
Huskies killed it on the glass tonight with a 47-28 advantage. That was nice to see. I didn’t realize that Butler came in ranked 10th in the nation averaging 43.4 rebounds per game.
Butler ranked 10th in rebounds and was scoring 90/game. We destroyed them on the boards and held them to 60. Not a bad night work for a developing team.
 
I don’t think I remember a time where we weren’t almost automatic from the line. You can be the best team in the county but missing FTs eventually will come to haunt you at the worst possible time. Methinks Dan Hurley needs to call Glen Miller over to run some FT drills.
 
He's not wrong. No reason to have 13 fouls in the 2nd half.
If they played well for 40 mins would have won by 40. Pretty rough start and they had a slopp stretch in second half too. They had a few really nice stretches where they dominated.
 
I remember once Calhoun called a timeout about 10 seconds into a game and the announcers were joking that it may be a record for a coach calling one so soon into the start of a game.
If it’s the game I remember it’s because we won the tip and slowly started bringing the ball up. Calhoun wanted to push it. Ball barely crossed half court and he called the TO and let loose on the PG (don’t remember who it was).
 
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The second half fouling has to be cleaned up ASAP. 6 fouls before the first TV timeout, in the bonus before the second and the double bonus with the majority of the second half to play. Putting teams on the line allowing them free points with the clock not moving is gonna bite them in the ass sooner or later.

On the otherside though can't have only 2 reliable FT shooters in solo and alex. Mullins hasn't been there enough to prove he's reliable, malachi has been bad, the rest of the team seems hit or miss. Assumed it was a case of the wrong guys being at tge line but really looks like we might struggle there all year.
 
That happened right in front of me. Are they holding him back or just waiting to release the Kraken?

Hurley’s said a couple times now something along the lines of Braylon doesn’t really know what he’s doing in the offense and has been scoring on pure talent, which makes me think we’re gonna see him start putting out some 20+ point games in the near future as he sorts it out.
 
No one has seen any version of the Ross we saw last night. That was just incredible to see.
Ball played hard and well on both ends.
Reed is a mauler .
Riebe is turning in to one of my very favorite players. You could see it from game number one. He is going to be very special.

I don’t know what to think about Mullins just yet. He clearly is a superior talent and I’m glad that we have him. For a potential lottery pick as many have suggested, I don’t think that he sees the ball enough in this offense and physically I think that he gets knocked around out there. Maybe it is a case of learning the offense for him here or maybe he just needs to mature. He is just a kid. A magnificently talented kid but just a kid.
Our team is loaded.
 
Solo is automatic in the mid-range and the three is coming around. Electric first half. Ross was by far our best player second half, easily his best game as a Husky. Glad he filled up the boxscore because he was all over the court before the points came. Awesome game for him and his confidence.

Silas gets destroyed in the chat because his scoring game has been miserable since BYU as he's figuring out how to be a point guard. He had 11 assists and Bizjack did nothing. Once he figures it out this offense will be unstoppable. Tarris and Mullins are trying to figure things out right now as well.

AK should've come out of the game and been looked at after he bashed his head.
Agreed on Alex I am concerned
 
Nice to get that first Big East Win right out of the gate.

Strange game, though somewhere typical for this squad, where they look spectacular during some stretches, but horrible at other times where it's like watching two completely different teams. Hopefully they'll clean things up and play at a more consistent high-level.

They defend really well at times, while at other times still play some really poor BBIQ defense where they foul at an alarming rate. The FT disparity is alarming, where they are giving their opponent a lot of cheap points, plus having to sit some of their key players more than they'd like due to foul trouble. Though it hasn't stopped them from winning.

One strange observation is Hurley sometimes sits a player who was lights out doing it all, where I'd like to see him run that player right out to floor and keep him there till they collapse from exhaustion...kidding. He did that with Ross tonight where Butler had a mini run right after he sat Ross, and did the same the other day when Smith was doing it all, and we had a similar bad result. Ride those horses till they give him a reason to sit them. Of course if a player is spent and needs to rest for a bit, but that did not seem to be the case with those two at those times when both had changed the momentum in our favor.

Their poor FT shooting is going to cost them at some point. I hope that improves. I remember the Kemba & Bazz era how they won a ton of games where the difference between winning and losing was converting at line at a very high rate, especially during winning time. Just hope they improve in that area.

And hold on to rebounds for goodness sake. That has been an issue at times. Just grab the rebound and get it out to a teammate. If it's not getting knocked out, they seem to not secure it where the opposition gets their mits on it. Though with that said there were some really nice in traffic aggressive rebounds by Ross, Mullins, Reibe and others that stood out. But I don't think there's anyone hear that didn't notice the frequent lapses where they just didn't come down with the defensive boards. Granted they out-rebounded Butler by a lot but the offensive rebounds were even, and if you include the times they tied us up or the rebounds that went out of bounds off of us, it simply points to a area that needs improvement.

Reed was an enigma tonight. Unstoppable at times, but also a black hole where he kept the ball far too long in the post bogging down the offensive flow, where he should have kicked it back out for a J or repost. I just chalk that up to him not a 100%, a bit rusty and looked a bit fatigued at times. He'll be back to his early season form sooner than later.

Ross is starting to figure it out. Makes things happen on both ends of the floor. Excited for him. I've said all along that he'll be a special player while others have bashed him. Still reminds me of a young Reggie Lewis, for those who saw him play back in the day.

Reibe doesn't look at all like a freshman. Can't imagine how good he's going to be by season's end or even next year as he develops his game and physically.

Rim protection was outstanding! More blocks (13) than FTs made (8). Actually had the exact number of blocks as FTs attempted, which is a strange stat.

Beat a good team getting little scoring from our PGs, Alex and Stewart. 6 total from those 4 players, where 2 went scoreless. Imagine what things would look like if most everyone plays their A game.

The shot making was great at times. Half-court execution started off slow and poorly run, then really picked up as the game went on. They have so much talent and depth that they can and will win just about all their games even playing a mix of good and bad hoops. Once they clean up some or all of these things they will begin to roll anyone in their path.

Just going to sit back, watch them improve and enjoy the ride.
I always admire your posts even if I don't read them.

In fact I was missing your long posts for some time now. Glad to see your keyboard is healthy again and perhaps in Championship form. This is a great sign for our season!

Now we need @Scot-e to spit on Georgetown again and then we are back.
 
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Hurley’s said a couple times now something along the lines of Braylon doesn’t really know what he’s doing in the offense and has been scoring on pure talent, which makes me think we’re gonna see him start putting out some 20+ point games in the near future as he sorts it out.
Braylon is behind schedule, that much is evident. Some of his fouls (or reaches) appear freshman like, in that he has not realized the speed and physical strength of D1 ballers. Being a freshman his pre season injury (missing games) affects him much more than an experienced Reed. In time he will catch up and then he will explode. To me he needs about a month of reps, so mid January he will have arrived.
 
In our half court offense he’s always cutting away from the ball and avoiding going to get the ball unless it’s absolutely necessary. A sign he still isn’t comfortable with the ball in his hands to make a play and deferring to others.
I’d guess that’s more by design than a lack of confidence. He’s the fifth option in half court sets. That’s not a knock on him, we just have a really good team. But he is generally setting up in the weakside corner and has been a nice outlet when his defender rotates and it allows him to hit the offensive glass pretty hard. Especially have liked his aggressiveness to drive the ball when the lane is open and the drive and dish to Reed you mentioned was great. If we can get out running this much, that’s where he really adds a lot offensively right now.
 
I said the exact same thing to the guy sitting next to me. After allowing the fast break dunk immediately after our first basket, I told him, "Calhoun would have called a timeout."

I feel like Hurley is actually slow to call timeouts and lets them figure things out on the floor. I like that and think it will benefit them long term.
 
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People aren’t talking about the team’s defensive performance. Butler was a 90 ppg team going into this game and their three top scorers combined for 19 points. Mullins brings a lot of energy and smarts to our defense and last night was one of Solo’s best defensive games of his career (maybe he’s all-around game?) Loved his choice making on D.
 
Mullins just needs to slow down a hair and let the offense come to him. He seems to be hunting his shot a bit and forces it up early in the shot clock, leading to some ugly misses. When he has hit feet set and plays within the offense, he looks like a star. The talent is there, he just needs some patience.
 
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