Butler Post Game Thread

[HuskyHawk]

Didn’t see much of the first half (at Disney World) but I was impressed with the defense. I think Hurley knows that this team lacks the facilitators to run our peak offense. This team needs to use defense to generate offense. Ross was terrific. Mullins is great except the fouling. But the depth that we’ve asked Hurley to use for four years now, is finally a weapon. The guys on our bench would finish no worse than 4th in the Big East.

 

[superjohn]

A good W to chalk up but hardly a stellar performance. Ross was playing at another level and perhaps is coming into his own. He’s using his athleticism snd speed with intention. Reed started off ok but the O really bogs down with him. Puts the ball on the floor too much. AK apparently ran out of ammo and went silent. The guards are suspect on D and O. Overall, I don’t think these guys have quite put the puzzle pieces together just right yet. Too many dead scoring stretches but then they seem to get into another gear when they start getting pushed by the opponent. Just a lot of talent still needing to gel and find consistency.

The guards are suspect on D and O? We start three guards. One of them had 26 points, another had 11 assists and shut down Bizjack, and the other had 12 points.

 

[NJHusky]

And FEED REED!!

He turned into a black hole second half

 

[temery]

Who was it who missed three free throws in a row early?

 

[auror]

Who was it who missed three free throws in a row early?

Smith

 

[HooperScooper]

Officiating Crew​

Referee:Mike Roberts

Referee:Tony Chiazza

Referee:Roger Ayers

It was my imagination. I should have said 2 "good" refs. Lol

 

[DogMania]

Very much better, but especially those first 4 minutes were some of the worst I've seen in a long time. Very sloppy and the team wasn't locked in. They really didn't get locked in until the U12. Hurley can't let that happen.

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'!

 

[uconn_jack]

I watched that game and truly felt as though we have a point guard problem. Then learned that Silas had 11 assists. That’s how good we are. That was a very quiet 11 assist night that other teams yearn for.

We are averaging more than 18 assists per game, and had 19 tonight. I don't think we have a PG problem. Both Silas and Smith CAN score, but I don't think we NEED them to, we have a lot of offensive weapons this year and others capable of getting a bucket when needed. Take care of the ball, make good choices, set your teammates up, and score when needed, that's what we need from the PG position this year.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

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'!

Yeah they probably would have started playing better if he had done that.

 

[HooperScooper]

And make your free throws.

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.

 

[UCLJ0211]

Butler’s NET is 42 now. If they win enough conference games, I wonder if they could sneak into the top 30 at the end of the season and this becomes a Q1 win.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

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.

Smith's 3 misses were definitely a case of the ball don't lie. We didn't deserve that call.

 

[Stew Crew]

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'!

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."

 

[HooperScooper]

I would like to mention 1 negative that I keep seeing. Some others have brought this up. I hope they get better at it. In general they miss fast break finishing opportunities. In the first half Ball and I think it was Ross had a 2 on 1 fast break. Ball had Ross wide open for an easy layup but he kept dribbling to the hoop and got fouled and hit both free throws so 2 points anyway. Ball seems to be really bad handling the ball on fast breaks since I've noticed him doing this in other games.

In the 2nd half someone had Karaban for an easy layup but didn't pass to him. Karaban threw up his hands in frustration after not getting the ball.

 

[HooperScooper]

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 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.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

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'!

I was fine with letting them play through it unless there is something schematic that has to be done.

UConn coasted to an easy win over an NCAA bubble team. I can't tell if our defense was that good, or Butler was just intimidated, but Butler was missing some wide open shots badly in the second half. That is the worst game Bizzjack has had this year, by far.

I don't love our offensive execution. Too much dribbling and too many sketchy shots. Reed was a monster down low, but Ejiofor is going to be a tougher matchup, and Seton Hall drops a lot of double teams against post players. That ball needs to move.

It didn't matter tonight because UConn is just that much better than Butler. I don't want to have to out-talent 6 teams in March though. The execution needs to get better.

 

[Huskygrad88]

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."

Calhoun had more timeouts to take.

 

[FreeDogs]

First game all year I didn't get to watch and can't watch tomorrow because of Peacock and of course Solo and J-Ross go off!!! My wife said it was a super fun game to watch.

Great job boys...you impressed my wife!

 

[huskyjawz]

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'!

Said the same thing to my brother at the game.

 

[87Xfer]

Silas puzzles me. He's almost invisible for most of the game. But 6 rebounds and 11 assists? Seems like he needs to be more aggressive.

 

[Waquoit]

He turned into a black hole second half

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.

 

[thekollieman]

Hopefully, Stewart’s second half DNP was more precautionary than anything. Got banged up late in the first half.
We need everyone getting their full allotment of minutes between now and tournament time so we can be playing our best ball and jelling at that time.

I’m just catching up so maybe someone already said this but I noticed a big ice bag on his shoulder on the bench (also had it on going into halftime against Texas) and was wondering if he was out due to injury or just out because Ross was getting it done.

 

[HooperScooper]

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.

 

[Huskyforlife]

Anyone have word on Stewart’s injury?

 

[thekollieman]

His processing is instantaneous. He tried to go behind the back tonight before the ball actually arrived to him.

He also had an insanely fast and low crossover to maintain possession after rebounding, leading into the fast break oop from Demary to Ross. It was pure bball reflex.