Creighton Post Game Thread

[navery12]

I agree with that. And I even know i’m pretty negative overall, but I think that’s coming from where we were at when we were 14-0. I was fully in the “This team is absolutely unstoppable when we are clicking” camp. Now it’s a shame to see us click like 1 out of every 3 games, or for short periods in said games. We just have too many faults to expect to be back to where we were. A lot of these faults are somewhat fixable, but it doesn’t seem to be happening.

Obviously it’s been beat to death in this thread and for the last number of weeks, but Hurley’s loyalty to Jackson just straight up loses us games. And I love the kid. I love his drive, effort, defense (most of the time) and his passion. But that only gets you so far. When your shooting, boneheaded plays and turnovers are the difference between winning and losing, that’s when there needs to be a change. When he came back early in the year he was an energizer bunny against 2nd units and tired 1st units, and we were killing it. There’s no reason to not try that out again. If not, I foresee a similar ending to this season as the last two.

I will agree that it's hard to see us making a Final Four like I was thinking when we were at 14-0. But I also don't see any reason this team isn't in the Sweet Sixteen. The talent is there, even if it's inconsistent right now

The biggest drawback to moving Jackson to the bench for me is I just don't see a viable replacement. Nobody on the bench has really shown anything to take that starting spot. I guess you could go back to Alleyne like you suggested, but my worry with that is Jackson's confidence is completely destroyed more than it already is and there's no actual upgrade by doing it

 

[BiggieSmall]

On the road against the top 5 teams. We are 0-5. Cool we didn’t get blown out and made it game. Can’t win the BE conference if you can only win big games at home.

Oh and St Johns took it to us at home and Xavier so while the top 4 teams are 28-0 at home.

We are what we are the 5th best team in the conference and borderline top 20 team. No first round bye in BE tourny.

 

[Palatine]

4 free throws compared to 17. We never had a chance tbh.

And it's time for Jackson to come off the bench. Start Alleyne. Please coach.

Alleyne was worse. 1-6.

 

[auror]

BUT what the everloving was that "strategy" in the last 30s or so?! Ok, I would have fouled early myself but I get the strategy of hoping for a defensive stop and having ~9s left - but after Hawkins fouled and we ended up with the ball with 2.4s left the clear strategy with 1 TO is to save that for AFTER you inbound it way downfield. What were they doing??? That is all on Hurley. It's 101 basketball man.

I just don't get it.

I agree the latter is not optimal. I said in chat I'd rather have saved the timeout for the catch after the inbounds, especially since you had a review break to make sure the guys knew what to do (call TO on miss FT, on make run a play). But it's not why we lost the game. Odds of converting with 2 seconds full court is very low even with proper timeout usage.

With the Hawkins foul. It's more likely he was just playing too aggressively and fouled. There's no chance Hurley told him to wait 15 seconds and then foul. That being said, when in the 1 and 1, down 3, with 38 seconds left, I'm in favor of not fouling immediately and playing hyper aggressive defense. Because the median "bad" outcome is what you want anyways: a foul sending them to the line 1 and 1. But you can get a steal or rattle the opponent or just force a miss with enough time. Fouling with 21 seconds left also didn't lose us the game. It's plenty of time even if he makes both FTs to come down, get a quick 2. Foul. Come down and hit a 3 if they miss.

Should always go for a steal before fouling with that much time left, because a steal raises your win% a lot more than a quick foul does.

 

[Dean Wormer]

I enjoyed watching the game as a basketball fan, it was a good game

Nothing against you, and I agree it was a good game. I just hate losing the same way over and over again. We have talent up and down the roster, and somehow find ways to blow it in these tight games and guess what, March madness is all about tight close, pressure-packed games. DH is trending negatively when it comes to those types of games, and that doesn't bode well for the tournament.

 

[navery12]

On the road against the top 5 teams. We are 0-5. Cool we didn’t get blown out and made it game. Can’t win the BE conference if you can only win big games at home.

Oh and St Johns took it to us at home and Xavier so while the top 4 teams are 28-0 at home.

We are what we are the 5th best team in the conference and borderline top 20 team. No first round bye in BE tourny.

Well as you astutely pointed out with your 28-0 comment, it appears that someone can indeed win the Big East by only winning the big games at home. Which isn't to excuse the no show today (or over the past 5 years) on the road

 

[husky429]

Don't be that guy.

Tell that to the tools that log in every 2 weeks to trash our players.

 

[Mets8692]

Alleyne was worse. 1-6.

I can't argue that but you have to admit the opposing team has to at least be within 5 feet of Alleyne. They have no such respect for Andre. Offense flows better when he is off the court. Simple as that.

 

[Scoe]

Is it just me or does most of the anger on this nearly 200 post thread seem unwarranted?

Some of it is selective outrage at AJ, criticism is warranted but then there is just piling on and singling him out which is wrong. No one except Sanogo showed up today.

We had an opportunity to seize the moment yes a win today wouldn’t have equaled a win in March but it would’ve overcome some demons, winning a close game on the road where we are scouted very well. What did we do instead of seizing the moment we fumbled it away.

 

[GameTime]

I am just coming in here to say that we went into a place, where no one wins except the home team, and we had an opportunity at the end. We are on an upswing, and as long as our guys can put this, not only behind them, but understand that the Jays had everything on their side to destroy us. They did not. A win would have made a world of difference to us, but the loss does not do that much damage. We are gonna do great things this year. 40 years a UCONN fan.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

I will agree that it's hard to see us making a Final Four like I was thinking when we were at 14-0. But I also don't see any reason this team isn't in the Sweet Sixteen. The talent is there, even if it's inconsistent right now

The biggest drawback to moving Jackson to the bench for me is I just don't see a viable replacement. Nobody on the bench has really shown anything to take that starting spot. I guess you could go back to Alleyne like you suggested, but my worry with that is Jackson's confidence is completely destroyed more than it already is and there's no actual upgrade by doing it

At this point, its a rock and a hard place with Jackson. He’s not a good shooter ever with confidence is the thing. He has said recently that he needs to learn how to help the team win without the offense. Well, he needs to take his own advice then. He has let his lack of scoring and shooting hurt every aspect of his game. His passing has been poor, both in open court and in the half court. He bites on jumpers too much, and he gets beat too often off the dribble.

I don’t know if it has happened, I hope it had, but him and Hurley need to have a sit down. These shots he’s taking are losing us possessions and games. 15 foot floaters don’t work. Driving to a good spot and not knowing what to do doesn’t work. Most important is winning games, and he is not helping enough.

 

[Palatine]

Newton only took 4 shots. And he hardly ever went to the rim.

We ran almost nothing for Karaban. He only had 5 shots.

Those two need to be much more involved with the offense.

 

[REB1094]

Like your take REB….9 games ago, I said they go 8-1 to close the season…..they have time to figure out the AJ situation and pretty sure he will be limiting his shots the rest of the way. Still have to love the Marquette performance and think they finish the season 5-0….building confidence and they will be be ready for the BE tournament….still optimistic after Marquette game and their defensive showing today.

Definitely need to win out to put ourselves in a position to gain momentum and make some noise. Looking at the schedule, Providence will be very tough. @ Villanova could be tough because it’s their senior night. But 4-1 needs to be worst case scenario

 

[August_West]

Matchup dependent. Those guys had a lot of space to operate against Marquette and it was a home game.

Creighton is a really good defensive team and they blanketed Hawkins and Newton on the perimeter and Kalkbrenner took away drives to the basket. This was made easy because Jackson was either with the ball out past the three point line at the top with nobody within 12 feet of him or at the three point line in the corners with nobody within 12 feet of him.

if pg is matchup dependent, fine , to the point they come off a triple double and go 7/3/2. That’s all I wanted out of that today. That too much to ask out of a pg who isn’t even our 3rd option on floor?

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The coaching and talent is just too good at the Top 50 level for Hurley to keep blowing games like this and hope UConn is successful. This isn't the A10, where the coaches are either on the upswing of their careers and won't be around long, on downswing of their careers and aren't that good, or are just mediocrities. Hurley can't out-talent the other team every night in the Big East.

McDermott, Cooley, Miller and Holloway have talented rosters and don't just blow games. Even Matta and Anderson, who are past their primes, don't just blow games. Stubblefield is trying to win in the Big East with an A10-caliber roster, but he doesn't blow games. Even Neptune seems to be coming around a little at the end of games.

But Hurley just blows games. How is UConn going to get to the second weekend in March when we are completely outmatched in game coaching? There aren't a lot of bad coaches in the NCAA Tournament.

 

[August_West]

The coaching and talent is just too good at the Top 50 level for Hurley to keep blowing games like this and hope UConn is successful. This isn't the A10, where the coaches are either on the upswing of their careers and won't be around long, on downswing of their careers and aren't that good, or are just mediocrities. Hurley can't out-talent the other team every night in the Big East.

McDermott, Cooley, Miller and Holloway have talented rosters and don't just blow games. Even Matta and Anderson, who are past their primes, don't just blow games. Stubblefield is trying to win in the Big East with an A10-caliber roster, but he doesn't blow games. Even Neptune seems to be coming around a little at the end of games.

But Hurley just blows games. How is UConn going to get to the second weekend in March when we are completely outmatched in game coaching? There aren't a lot of bad coaches in the NCAA Tournament.

Hurley didn’t blow this one.

 

[AntG168]

The coaching and talent is just too good at the Top 50 level for Hurley to keep blowing games like this and hope UConn is successful. This isn't the A10, where the coaches are either on the upswing of their careers and won't be around long, on downswing of their careers and aren't that good, or are just mediocrities. Hurley can't out-talent the other team every night in the Big East.

McDermott, Cooley, Miller and Holloway have talented rosters and don't just blow games. Even Matta and Anderson, who are past their primes, don't just blow games. Stubblefield is trying to win in the Big East with an A10-caliber roster, but he doesn't blow games. Even Neptune seems to be coming around a little at the end of games.

But Hurley just blows games. How is UConn going to get to the second weekend in March when we are completely outmatched in game coaching? There aren't a lot of bad coaches in the NCAA Tournament.

This is just inaccurate. All of those coaches blow games. Go to their boards. Creighton fans were killing McDermott early in the season for not adjusting to his roster. Cooley blew a game today. Neptune and stubblefield? Really?

 

[August_West]

In crunch time you have to protect the rock. AJ did none of that. Turned the ball over time and again, can't score. At one time I believed his strengths outweighed his weaknesses. He is a liability. We play 4 on 5 on every offensive set. He is out of control at times. I've never seen someone’s basketball IQ move from high to low as the game progresses.

When Newton plays well aj isn’t on ball so much

 

[jorge34]

Hot takes like this are what make the Boneyard such a special place.

He’s as bad as your post

 

[wheelerdog]

Is it just me or does most of the anger on this nearly 200 post thread seem unwarranted?

Without angry posts this place would be as silent as an empty church.

 

[wheelerdog]

On the road against the top 5 teams. We are 0-5. Cool we didn’t get blown out and made it game. Can’t win the BE conference if you can only win big games at home.

Oh and St Johns took it to us at home and Xavier so while the top 4 teams are 28-0 at home.

We are what we are the 5th best team in the conference and borderline top 20 team. No first round bye in BE tourny.

The top 5 teams get byes.

 

[husky99]

What happened? Seemed like no one was on the same page. Brutal

 

[August_West]

There are only 4 UConn players in that shot. Not sure what that proves.

The pass Sanogo threw in 1st half to a cutting AJax for an easy dunk. Where did that play go?

fwiw, AJax had 3rd most shots, 3rd most points. Newton, Alleyne, & Joey all shot worse %. Hawk only slightly better. And AJax got at least a couple of rebounds that would've been 2nd chance opps for the Jays.

It's simply not all on him.

You can separate the people who watch hoops or not by blaming AJ ( and he wasn’t great today offensively)

 

[nelsonmuntz]

This is just inaccurate. All of those coaches blow games. Go to their boards. Creighton fans were killing McDermott early in the season for not adjusting to his roster. Cooley blew a game today. Neptune and stubblefield? Really?

Hurley lost today's game all by himself. Scoring 7 points in the last 10 minutes (until 3 seconds left) when the opposing defense is completely gassed by the middle of the second half is what blowing a game looks like.

Providence didn't blow today's game, they were lucky to be in it at the end despite St. Johns probably playing its best game of the year. That is what having a good game coach like Cooley looks like.

 

[UCLJ0211]

Looking at this with the glass half full: Not a bad loss on paper. Probably the toughest game that was remaining on our schedule. If we meet them on a neutral floor we can beat them. Let’s win the rest of these and close out the season strong!