Creighton Post Game Thread

[HooperScooper]

I got in the building at 6:10 and they were out of $2 Miller Lites. Instead they upcharged me a $11 Miller Lite for 4 more oz.

I’m fine with advertising a $2 beer night, but prepare for enough for the whole night. Not 10 minutes. Not sure what AD Dave was thinking here…last year was a mess and still run better.

Why does it seem the UConn athletic department always effs up the simplest things?

 

[CTBasketball]

Why does it seem the UConn athletic department always effs up the simplest things?

No idea but we’re batting like 3/34 on execution of the smallest ideas. Should be home runs.

 

[HooperScooper]

No idea but we’re batting like 3/34 on execution of the smallest ideas. Should be home runs.

That gets most people fired. Well except weathermen.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

This is deeply weird, totally confusing and really on brand. love it.

Kudos for getting that here as it was delivered. I knew that "man ish" or "man " weren't going to translate well if posted that way, and it was a highlight within the presser.

 

[Mr. French]

I think we're defining things differently. Makes and misses when you know your team can shoot can be statistical anomolies. I don't judge that really when considering how we played on offense. We ran a very good offense and got a lot of really good looks. To me, that means we ran good offense.

Castle: he missed not just 3s, but some midrange stuff he's hit in the past. My guess is that (a) the excitement of the crowd and the #1 ranking may have had him a bit over-energized, and/or (b) Creighton sagging off him as much as they did may have gotten into his head. Both are fixable.

Also, just to add to your point, it felt like we missed a lot of makeable shots but I didn't feel like we shot as poorly as the numbers show. I was pretty surprised when I saw the FG numbers for each guy. Even Castle didn't feel to me like 2-12.

Both teams were playing at a pretty high level and I thought Cam and Newton were getting good looks, stuff just wasn't falling. And they weren't way off. I felt like Spencer and Newton were actually looking unstoppable in the first half.

 

[Storrs South]

At one time in the 2nd half, Tristan was at the foul line for the front end of 1-1. It seems he was asking for the ball to take the shot, a few times, actually. What was up with that? Anyone else notice that? He missed the front end.

I had about as good of view of it as you are gonna get, granted I wasn't nearly close enough to hear what was being said but what I saw: the ref was lecturing Tristen (that was not visible on TV broadcast obviously) and he was doing it for AWHILE. No clue what it was about, but it seemed he was only talking to Newton and no other player but doing it while he is at the line ready to take the free throw.

Maybe Newton had yelled at the refs about a call or non-call earlier, but Newton was lined up and every other player on the floor was lined up ready to go but the ref would not shut up. It wasn't as if anyone was holding up the game, it seemed it was just the ref getting his pound of flesh from what I could tell.

 

[auror]

Hurley strong adjustment going back to Samson hard hedging to take away Creighton's primary PnR game. Knew it worked in the past against them, went back to the well. Team executed it well despite not doing it as much this season. Samson only one foul on it tonight. Clingan also unbelievable job in PnR D in his first game back.

Turns out we matched up pretty well against them because they had nobody to take Spencer off the dribble on D and as predicted they didn't have the athletes or the inclination to attack the boards hard (like the teams that found some success against us without Clingan). It's a bit of a different game if they make a few more 3s, but we didn't make it easy and that's what being on the road and the good crowd causes.

We took a lot more midrange jumpers in this one, seems like by design. St John's also killed Creighton from the midrange last game. Those are just pretty tough shots to rely on. But Creighton by sagging off Castle and Johnson/Clingan took away the paint and then switched and went over on the perimeter so we just took the "open" space. I'm afraid Castle is going to continue to get dorked out there.

There's something about Kalkbrenner. I used to defend his game a lot when he was under-appreciated, but he hasn't really added anything (except a fledgling 3pt shot) this season. He just gets a lot of cardio out there. Waves his arms on D. He needs to either be more physical or more mobile. He's like a B- on both and he's just... fine. I don't know if McDermott made him too risk averse with the lack of fouling or what. There's no excuse for him to not have a double digit block rate and 15+% oreb rate (he had it his soph year).

 

[TheChamps990411]

We're winning #6 in the Spring!!

If DC stays healthy, we`re playing this level of defense and we are scoring our usual 80+ ppg it wont even be close again. Last night we werent very good offensively but defense and rebounding were our A+ level game. If we can match that with our A+ offense itd be a heck of a sight to behold. Crayton is fortunate the shots werent falling tonight because that couldve gotten really ugly.

 

[TheChamps990411]

I like the slimmer DC. This was his first game back and yet he looked more mobile than he has all season. This was as close to freshmen DC as we have seen. I hope he stays healthy the rest of the way and keeps his weight down so we can finally see the player many expected to see this season. If he can give us. 12/10/4 a game the rest of the way the odds of #6 go way, way up. This team looked like the best team in the country today and should only get better over the next month.

 

[husky8273]

forgiving upcoming schedule - Nova then 4 home games

 

[mauconnfan]

Watched it at Chi Sam’s in Cromwell so had to watch the tape to listen and watch closer.
By far the best team defense they played all year. DH and the staff great game plan on that end, Creighton looked disheveled quite often trying to find a rhythm. MVP on the D end was Castle he was good. Scheirman looked lost at times, Stephon was more athletic and tougher made him look very normal. Also, not taking away the job SJ did but what a difference having the big man back. He just makes the lane look clogged and the lay up lines stop. Quite a show on that end and they needed it.

I mean you win easily against a very tough matchup while shooting 4-19 from 3 and what, 25 for 72 overall? Tremendous team win!

DC looked surprisingly fluid and athletic. Rusty around the basket offensively, didn’t square up enough but he did some good things too on both ends. Good to have him back.

Nova will be fun!

 

[Rocktheworld]

How was Gampel? On TV, it didn't seem to be anything special after the run when Clingan first came in. Could have just been because we were shellacking them

I’ve been to every XL game this year (granted no opponent like Creighton yet) and it was way way louder last night. Way way more standing; I was standing most of the game

We’ll see how XL is when Marquette comes to town but I don’t really think it can be much better than last night.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Yep…

View attachment 95302

Man Rothstein loves quoting himself lol

 

[ucp990411]

I liked everything about the game except the offense taking the last ten minutes off. How many games are they going to try and make that corny Wolf of Wall Street video a thing? Trash that.

The problem with our “delay” game is that Tristen waits too long to start some action

 

[ucp990411]

I had about as good of view of it as you are gonna get, granted I wasn't nearly close enough to hear what was being said but what I saw: the ref was lecturing Tristen (that was not visible on TV broadcast obviously) and he was doing it for AWHILE. No clue what it was about, but it seemed he was only talking to Newton and no other player but doing it while he is at the line ready to take the free throw.

Maybe Newton had yelled at the refs about a call or non-call earlier, but Newton was lined up and every other player on the floor was lined up ready to go but the ref would not shut up. It wasn't as if anyone was holding up the game, it seemed it was just the ref getting his pound of flesh from what I could tell.

Which ref?

 

[Tex-Lager93]

Giving a nod to the fans too. Gampel was electric.

 

[DaveHuskiesFan]

2004 killed everyone but Duke. And they were absolutely smoking Duke until the refs called a second foul on Okafor. It was like 11-2. The refs were awful on both sides in that Duke-UConn game, but Calhoun took the gamble to sit Okafor and we were down most of it. Turns out it was the right call because we had Horvath defending Okafor in key moments.

Long and short of it is that 2004 team won their tournament games by:

17
17
20
16
1* (random Duhon 3)
11

Almost all the games but the Duke game were over by the under-8 minute mark in the first half. And, again, we were up by almost double figures against Duke by the 16 minute mark before the terrible refs made that a game.

1999...that team had some tough games (Iowa, Gonzaga, Ohio State, Duke) but all were against good tough teams, and that win against Duke is the single best win against the single best team UConn ever played.

Revisionist history. Okafor finished that game with 3 fouls. It wasn’t a good call by Calhoun to sit him for 14 minutes in the first half. It almost cost them the game.

 

[businesslawyer]

Once we make a couple recruiting tweaks, watch out.

O.K., I’m confused. Watch out for what exactly? Recruiting the way we are now, we are defending national champions and are currently #1 in mid-January in a year where our starting 5 hasn’t yet been truly healthy for a single game. Exactly what should I be waiting for?

 

[Hunt for 7]

Why does it seem the UConn athletic department always effs up the simplest things?

They can’t be that bad at math. They did not it up. It was a -lan. Prime the well pre game and after one $2 beer you want another beer. But that will cost you more than 5X the cost of the first one. IMO this was on purpose. Had to be if it was not we need to check the IQ of everyone working for the AD. Pretty obvious. We punked the opponent while getting punked by the university. Sad

 

[Kitaman]

It was so exciting to see our best starting 5 on the court together again! Very few weaknesses in that group.

Best starting 5 in the Nation.

 

[Kolumbo]

Why does it seem the UConn athletic department always effs up the simplest things?

Let UConn drop the ball on the simple things like $2 beers as long as it continues to master the very difficult.

 

[TheShot1990]

Greg McDermott "We're gonna win this game."

Mike Tyson "Yeah, everybody got a plan, till they get punched in the face."

 

[Palatine]

At one time in the 2nd half, Tristan was at the foul line for the front end of 1-1. It seems he was asking for the ball to take the shot, a few times, actually. What was up with that? Anyone else notice that? He missed the front end.

Yes, and he should have walked off the line and reset.

 

[Vancat]

How was Gampel? On TV, it didn't seem to be anything special after the run when Clingan first came in. Could have just been because we were shellacking them

OMG it was super loud. Very engaged crowd

 

[Storrs South]

Which ref?

I think it was Gaffney