Creighton Post Game Thread

[EROCK CONN]

Refs still bent us over but the win was nice.

They were all around terrible today.

 

[JMick]

Karaban is playing an insane amount of minutes for a non-lottery pick, non-one and done freshman. It's hard for me to criticize him. He's out there battling against dudes way bigger than him for long stretches so far in conference play. Can't really expect better than what he's been doing.

yeah he's being asked to do way more than he should be. he played 32 minutes today.

it's hurting us this year, but it's going to pay dividends next year after he has time to get stronger and work on his game in the off-season.

 

[Edward Sargent]

Some misc observations/thoughts:

Creighton only 5 assists (I think our guards defensively impacted and they missed some good looks). I'd be interested what was really key, whether our pressure on their guards or depriving other players of position.

Creighton 20 offensive RB but 8 were team rebounds where evidently we scrapped but the ball went off us.
I thought their missed 3 pointers lead to several deep rebounds that just happened to go to them. Kaluma 6 ORBs was the place he dominated Alex. (16 RBs overall)

Only 5 turnovers by us!!! And, 1 of those was the questionable screen by Jackson with a handoff to Hawk that took a 3 off the board. We win most games with that stat.

Still think Sanogo call in first half should have been a charge

There are plays where Karaban is overmatched defensively, but Kaluma only made 5 baskets total with 5-16 from the floor, ie 30% ish. Positioning was solid and the non-box score play like the rebound boxout gave us a 'team' rebound that wasn't just luck. Unlike others in 'chat' I thought the Karaban foul should have been a no call.

Liked that Jackson didn't take the bait to shoot threes down the stretch.

Diarra got caught needing to take desperation threes which at least he had shot clock awareness to take. He is turning into a UConn 'Posh' defensively on the ball.

Joey got 2 of our 6 steals in limited minutes. He's due for 3-4 made threes soon.

Glass Half full today, not half empty

And for the Donny haters he did say I don't know about that on review of the Jackson screen and also didn't think Adama's was a blocking foul

 

[HuskyHawk]

His scoring was huge all game but Clingan's impact was enormous in the second half. The game changed with Clingan and Diarra on the floor. Still needs to find a way to play Clingan more.

Come on. Clingan comes in when Kalk goes out (mostly). When he came in in the 2nd half he missed two layups and fouled someone in his first minute or so. He’s a really nice player and a huge asset off the bench. He wasn’t all that impactful today. Hawk and Newton were huge today. Hope we can get more from Alleyne, Joey and Karaban going forward.

 

[Poe]

Kalkbrenner got rattled on offense when the couple of times he tried to backdown Sanogo, he was an immovable wall. He couldn’t get good shots off. Credit to Adama for holding Kalk away from the basket and not getting into foul trouble.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Today felt like the right allocation considering Clingan's foul problems in 1H. Sanogo got big buckets in the block to stem the tides of their runs at 2 or 3 different points in the game, including at one point in the 2H when Creighton went on the 14-2 run and everyone was calling for us to put in Clingan. Sanogo then scored our next 8 points and we pushed the lead back to 5. He made a coupe post layups, hit a 3, and got to the line drawing Kalkbrenner's 3rd. Then Clingan got to feast on the backups.

But Hurley was smart and still played Clingan despite the 2 fouls with 5 min left in 1st and he had a big impact. Felt right overall.

That was smart. Needed to get Clingan minutes while Kalkbrenner was out with two fouls. Hurley pretty clearly didn’t want Clingan guarding Kalkbrenner for any extended period.

 

[GHSWolverines]

Karaban is playing an insane amount of minutes for a non-lottery pick, non-one and done freshman. It's hard for me to criticize him. He's out there battling against dudes way bigger than him for long stretches so far in conference play. Can't really expect better than what he's been doing.

And this is why SJ is needed to get back on the court

 

[MTBingNinja]

Good Quad 2 win.
Sanogo showed why he was the preseason POY for the BE over Kalkbrenner.
Finally beat Creighton.
Good to stop the bleeding after 2 losses.

 

[Dibbie]

And for the Donny haters he did say I don't know about that on review of the Jackson screen and also didn't think Adama's was a blocking foul

I didn’t like his take when AJ and Nembhard collided going for the ball late and AJ got the foul. He said Nemb was going for the ball and didn’t mean to make contact. Same could be said for AJ. Blowing the whistle there was just dumb, just say it.

 

[biggieb1950]

Newton had a big game, did what was needed.

He didn't play well the last few games, when he does, we are tough

 

[Rocktheworld]

Wow Hawkins 4-13 Yikes. It really was just Sanogo today. We really need a 3rd scorer to step up. Newton? Karaban? Joey C.?

Does he have any left hand? Looks like they were doing nothing but sitting on his right hip today.

Some please correct me if I’m wrong

 

[Hoopcrazee]

Newton had a big game, did what was needed.

Big difference when he plays like that... couple BIG threes

 

[Rico444]

Does he have any left hand? Looks like they were doing nothing but sitting on his right hip today.

Some please correct me if I’m wrong

No I think you're right. He drove left at one point and had an scoop shot with his left hand, but instead tried with his right hand and missed a much tougher shot.

 

[Rocktheworld]

No I think you're right. He drove left at one point and had an scoop shot with his left hand, but instead tried with his right hand and missed a much tougher shot.

Yeah that play really stood out

 

[oshkosh]

We really need those 2-3 made threes per game from Joey C. Needs to be on floor more than a minute at a time to get the flow back.

 

[Puertorock43]

Is Sanogo still worse than Clingan? Or does this one not count?

Every time we doubt Sanogo he always seem to respond the next game

 

[Rico444]

If we had matched their rebounding we would've run them out of the gym. I'm sure Hurley is going to be on them this week in practice.

 

[ToolzieFan]

I love Adama’s postgame quote.

On his energy during the game and if Ryan Kalkbrenner had any influence
“Yeah of course, I knew he had said some stuff. If you know me, you know I take stuff personal. So, for him to say stuff like that, it changed the way I came into the game. For this game, I was ready to go.”

The rest are here.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/uconnhuskies.com/documents/2023/1/7/UCONN-CREIGHTON_POSTGAME_QUOTES.docx

 

[DW1361]

I am mostly thrill we all have stepped away from the edge. WIn or lose, this team is going to bring it every game. I love these guys!!!

 

[ucp990411]

Karaban has been through a meat grinder the last three games with Freemantle-Hunter/Hopkins/Kaluma..All of them will probably have opportunities at the next level. He's a smart kid and will learn from that/this experience.. I'm sure he's going to sleep well tonite.

Hunter at the next level? No. Hopkins yes. Not sold on Kaluma. Has spurts where looks great but then goes long periods doing nothing. Also a poor ball handler

 

[WhereistheDove?]

We really need those 2-3 made threes per game from Joey C. Needs to be on floor more than a minute at a time to get the flow back.

He’s had some bad looks recently. Not sure if it’s his work off-ball, just not having the kind of screens set that he needs to get open, or something else, but he had way more clean looks earlier in the year.

 

[gsmooth]

What a day to come down with COVID and miss the game. Clearly the Gampel was loud enough as Big Red’s chants let me know from this couch. Nice to see the team back to running their game while penetrating a bit more. Less desperate and more poised.

Sorry to hear that. Here is hoping for better health for you. UConnbreaking the Creighton hex surely will help you

 

[uconn_jack]

Is Sanogo still worse than Clingan? Or does this one not count?

Nobody said he sucked or that Clingan is better. They are completely different players. I am pretty convinced that Sanogo can take on anyone one on one in the post, our problem is when he gets doubled and denied and he refuses to recognize and kick out. In those cases, Clingan is the better option, and he was/should have been the last 2 games. In today's situation, Sanogo was the better pick for most of the minutes at the 5 (although Clingan did well in his minutes). To his credit, Sanogo did a much better job of passing out today when Kalk had and held better position, and when the occasional double flashed. Hope that continues to develop.

I will say I think this was one of Hurley's better coaching games, well timed time-outs and good rotations.

 

[uconn_jack]

Refs still bent us over but the win was nice.

Not sure they bent us over today, they just sucked in general.

 

[TXHuskyFan]

They were all around terrible today.

Early in the game, Creighton was inbounding the ball. It was not after a made basket and the inbounded took about 3-4 steps and inbounded the ball. It was clearly illegal and no one caught it. I was screaming at the tv.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

Refs still bent us over but the win was nice.

Ehh, I had a ton of issue with the refs in the past two games but I thought they were fine (as far as college refs go) today. There were some bad misses but some went both ways. We’re going to foul more than Creighton but it wasn’t to the completely absurd level we saw the last two games.

 

[HuskyFich]

Ehh, I had a ton of issue with the refs in the past two games but I thought they were fine (as far as college refs go) today. There were some bad misses but some went both ways. We’re going to foul more than Creighton but it wasn’t to the completely absurd level we saw the last two games.

I thought they officiated a great game in terms of hand checking, body fouls, and reaching in.

They were awful in terms of over the back, push in the back, and 3 seconds.

But overall, the game felt extremely fair in terms of the calls for both teams.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

One thing I would have liked is more time for Joey to try and get him back on track.

Highly disagree. Who would you have sat over Joey?

Hawkins? 17.2 ppg, 31.5 mpg in his last nine games.

Newton? His best game since the Oregon game who made shots, got to the line and played great D.

Diarra? Pestering defensive glue guy.

Those three players are far more important in our team's title dreams than Calcaterra.

 

[superjohn]

Karaban has gone underground; he passes up a number of shots. Why? He could easily be the 3rd scorer. Newton has his best game in a while. Kados to Santago, an outstanding game against a very good defensive player with length. Keep shooting Hawkins, mostly very good shots. They are in rhythm and are close. Nothing forced and we didn't often run down the shot clock and shoot in desperation.

Kados to Santago is the name of my third album.

 

[Huskyforlife]

Highly disagree. Who would you have sat over Joey?

Hawkins? 17.2 ppg, 31.5 mpg in his last nine games.

Newton? His best game since the Oregon game who made shots, got to the line and played great D.

Diarra? Pestering defensive glue guy.

Those three players are far more important in our team's title dreams than Calcaterra.

There have been plenty of games Joey put played Diarra. Recently Diarra has been better because Joey is slumping, but Joey hot streak was one of our most important players.