And the senior's coach did his masterful best to have his player's make the most of how the fouls were and were not called. By the time UConn made adjustments and calls were more equivalent, the hole was dug too deep by Creighton's confident shooters.
After Clingan's second foul, UConn readied for the shift to small ball. And the, there were 4 consecutive body-to-body fouls -- adding one each to the foul total for Diarra, Johnson, Castle, and Spencer, as UConn's team fouls quickly moved from 3 to 7 -- while Creighton's stayed at 4. In each case, clear collision contact did occurr, resulting primarily from a UConn player's momentum. I'll venture to say that there was a hand-assist from the UConn player's rear and/or a position-shift toward the UConn player from the bumped-into, foul-drawing Creighton player on each of them. Call it "Husky sandwich." I was concerned that Trey Alexander might injure his neck by the time of his third or fourth head snap. Ashworth was reliable with his snapping, though less extreme except once. Scheierman looked frustrated that he couldn't get such calls most of the game.
I highly credit McDermott for recognizing the opportunity and getting his players to exploit it. For those who have trumpeted Pitino's coaching prowess elsewhere prior to and even during this season until most recently, McDermott faithfully followed Slick Rick's huddle advice that Spencer needed to be stuck to like glue everywhere on the court. It worked. Props to Ashworth's energy level in execution, unlike the "laterally" deficient St Johns players that Pitino trashed by name. Up until a year ago, McDermott totally owned Danny; last night was a reversion.
I watched the Creighton-SDSU Elite 8 game at the YUM! Center last March. As much as I wanted multiple Big East teams in the Final 4 to boost the conference reputation, I was most uneasy with the prospect of playing Creighton. Even during the worst moments of last night, I did not have the same fear. But that's meaningless for the next 4+ games.
The possibility that winning the BE Tournament would require 3 consecutive games with the test of beating a conference opponent 3 times in one season was quite real going into last night. Now, fwiw, it's much less so.
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That's what passes for "a heated run-in with a fan" these days? And picked up, mistype and all because there was no better video or source, by SI.com? Oh how major media have fallen.
All those cell phone videos of the court-storming, and this guy got the scoop that went to @CreighTakes to SI.
