Creighton Post Game Thread

[UCONNFAN179]

Without McNeeley, we're just not all that great.

Can't take 20 minutes off and win.

With Mcneeley, we’re not that great either

 

[Palatine]

63 points.

 

[Kitaman]

He's open because he can't make that shot. It is what it is. He ain't learning to shoot overnight. It has been 4 years

I know I just wanted a two trick pony this season.

 

[Sea Goat]

Well that was depressing... The NY Post betting line analysis pegged it perfectly. You know you're in trouble when you're waiting for a freshman to return to save you..

But, in fairness, we're crying with pork chops in our mouths... We can still make some noise, but perhaps this group is not magical.

 

[August_West]

With Mcneeley, we’re not that great either

Probably not substantially, meaning the difference between a tourney team and a serious title contender, that’s true. But he is the difference probably between performing like a 6 seed vs performing like a 3 seed. And when you can consistently perform at 3 seed level, there is a slight chance that anything can happen.

 

[husky429]

Probably not substantially, meaning the difference between a tourney team and a serious title contender, that’s true. But he is the difference probably between performing like a 6 seed vs performing like a 3 seed.

Agreed. We're top-10 with McNeeley IMO. More like fringe top-25 without.

 

[Gurleyman]

I’ll ride with our guys and hope we can get hot at the right time - but the alarm bells are ringing watching us play. When we had our swoon two years ago, there was still a sense of how high our ceiling was based on our out of conference. This year, I’m not sure there’s anyone I would consider All-Big East on our team. We don’t have many places to get a bucket - and those we have we sometimes can’t get them the good shots we need against good defensive schemes. Felt like Creighton had the 3 best players on the floor tonight (Hass and Stew would be fourth and fifth). We also have some big flaws - defending the 3 and getting to the foul line - that are bad flaws for a one and done format. And we have 7 games coming up (two vs. SJU, two vs. Marquette, at Creighton, at X with Freemantle and at PC), where I’m not necessarily feeling confident. At PC, I’d like to think - but if they have Hopkins back by then - or just play harder than us, that could be a tough one too. They had us down 12 at our place.

That said, there are some bright spots - Stewart’s emergence as a more consistent threat and Ball adding some mid range to his game off curls are promising developments. That’s being offset by Liam being out, Mahaney not turning the corner, and Reed regressing a bit (plus AK being less than reliable). I don’t know if Liam’s return will be the cure all. He might not be the same guy coming back after missing a month and dealing with an ankle that might feel stiff. That push off on a three-point shot mechanically could be difficult to overcome.

But if we don’t have the right recipe to win it this year, hell, the last two years were magic and hard to complain after where we were pre COVID. Just hope we can play well enough to give a three peat our best shot. Nobody else has a chance at it.

 

[NickDanger]

We did not play well for large stretches but there is no team in this league that gets a friendlier whistle than Creighton. Absolute joke today. 15-6 before the fouls started at the end.

fail twice in a row in the second half and didn’t get called

Sorry, I was trying to say on two possessions in a row, the refs let UConn get away with fouling.
Losers love to blame the refs.

 

[Captbluefin]

Ashworth just had a kid.
Kalk got married..

Thank god this is the last year of COVID guys

 

[NickDanger]

The announcers said at end of the game “this is the benefit of not fouling” at the end of the game for Creighton.

I was yelling at the TV “No this is the benefit of not getting called for fouls for the entire game.”

Somehow, during the loose balls, they can WWF on our players with no fouls being called, but when we reach to grab a ball, it’s suddenly a foul.

Hate to say it, but karaban did kind of hurt us today… those three or four miss lay ups and miss defensive assignments came back to bite us from the end. And that last shot was just not good enough.

It was a very high-level basketball game and Creighton was playing out of their minds, so it is what it is.

Once again, I love the way that Stewart played and Hassan a true champion. Johnson got called for some Phantom fall, but he played well.

Mahaney just has to be so much better than he is right now, if we want to compete at the highest level levels.

The announcers, who try to be impartial, were correct. You were wrong.

 

[Waquoit]

The defense is not just going to happen. We have 3 guys that play a lot of minutes that are not just bad in defense, they are abysmal.

Geez. They held them way under their average despite fouling late. Abysmal?

 

[aceboon]

7 points from the 5 spot (all Samson) is the reason we lost. Kalk a very good defender but you still need more than 7 points from them. How does Samson only attempt 2 shots in 24 mins? & the bench overall just isn't proving anything on offense consistently.

Our best player and 16ppg scorer being pretty much a no show offensively is a far bigger deal. And before anyone points out the ankle injury he gave them nothing before that when they were put in a hole they had to dig out of. An 11ppg scorer going off for a career high because of Solo/Stew's defense would be reason #2.

 

[Hi-Low]

Because Clingan is about 45x more skilled than Samson? Love the kid but he isn't in the same category as Don or Adama.

Not everyone can learn everything. Samson has bad touch and pretty middling BBIQ. That he is playing as well as he is is a testament to his work ethic.

Yeah I guess the "wall potential" talk for Samson by DH a few years ago was misguided. Nice role player though

 

[AllHusky]

To say we are not appreciated by the BE is to state the obvious.

They realize we are waiting for the first bus out of town
We are using each other, and the reffing is their way of saying we are ungrateful

 

[Punkbo]

Worst loss of the year. This one is going to really hurt with ranking & seeding. Losing at home as a favorite to a BE rival.

Bottom line is this team is really struggling executing down the stretch on both ends of the floor. Half-court offense is just too stagnant & inefficient. Teams are feasting on us at the foul line.... again! We only got 5 FTs all game at home?!? This felt like we gave this game away - with bad fouls on both ends in the last 2 minutes.

Diarra took a really, really bad shot when we finally go the lead - and that killed all momentum. Solo is the only guy you can count on consistently that comes up clutch. AK - just too inconsistent from game to game. A really bad game today.

What happened to Reed today - why is he not getting more minutes?!? Nice game from Stewart - he is starting to figure out.

McNeeley cant come back soon enough - this offense really needs his firepower! The team has heart & continues to fight, and McNeeley should hopefully right the ship on offense!

I still see this team as 3 to 5 seed come Tourney time (assuming everyone healthy).

If you think this is our worst loss of the season, you didn’t watch the Colorado and Dayton games. We’re not great right now, but we’re missing our best player. We clearly need more from AK, but this team will be fine if Diarra continues to play at this level. He was great again today.

 

[Fairfield_1st]

I may ask for the moon. But he could be a game changer for us if he can shoot that 12-15 footer at free throw area. It's there all the time and he can do it.

I thought the same thing. He acts like the ball is lava and he needs to get rid of it as quickly as possible.

 

[superjohn]

Credit to Creighton. Nothing went right for them early with Pop Isaacs going down to season ending injury, Zugic not being cleared until recently, and #57 recruit Larry Johnson going down to season ending injury in the preseason...

They looked like they would have a really good team but it was all supposed to be dependent on a three headed attack with Ashworth, Isaacs, and Kalk. Depth has always been an issue for them so they feel it more when one of their stars go down. Now McDermott is holding it together with Scotch tape and they're playing great ball and will likely be dancing, IMO.

Hurley is now 2-8 against McDermott since Dan arrived in Storrs. Hurley is the best in the business but McDermott is about as good as it gets in the country. He's had some really good players but from an overall roster standpoint he gets more with less than probably anyone in the country. He's built something there that's not going away. Creighton will be really good for many years to come.

Ashworth, dude is a stud. He's tiny and he looks like a jockey on the court but he's being asked to do more than any player in the nation and he's doing it really well. Dude played the full 40 today, and is averaging like 36 minutes per game. He has to handle the ball the whole game, make all the decisions for them and he's expected to hit the big shots. Hard not to root for him.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

Probably not substantially, meaning the difference between a tourney team and a serious title contender, that’s true. But he is the difference probably between performing like a 6 seed vs performing like a 3 seed. And when you can consistently perform at 3 seed level, there is a slight chance that anything can happen.

Hilarious that people really think Liam is not that important. He’s our best player. Guaranteed 10-15 ppg. The injury is costing us and that was so predictable. But people like to pretend that we will just figure it out.

 

[UCONNFAN179]

Agreed. We're top-10 with McNeeley IMO. More like fringe top-25 without.

We have top 10 potential with him if we play our A game, but in reality, this team is 15-20 even with Liam. We need some toughness and athleticism

What is most concerning to me is ALL our recruits are very much in the same mold…. Excellent offensive players but lacking athleticism

 

[superjohn]

With Mcneeley, we’re not that great either

Strong disagree. We're not going to get the seed we wanted because of the losses we're taking in his absence but we'll be the most dangerous team at our seed line and nobody will want to play us come tournament time.

 

[husky429]

Yeah I guess the "wall potential" talk for Samson by DH a few years ago was misguided. Nice role player though

That was a very different era for our recruiting. We don't go after the lower-skilled lanky athletes for bigs any more.

 

[Hi-Low]

We have top 10 potential with him if we play our A game, but in reality, this team is 15-20

Not alot of great CBB teams this year...so with Liam fringe top 10 is realistic, but otherwise we're fringe top 25. Lots of big games left.

 

[Tiamat7]

Me too. I am not into blaming the refs either and very rarely do it. But riddle me this, how does Creighton only have 5 fouls total in the game after 39.5 minutes of game time? WTF?!

But that's typical for Creighton. They're perennially among the top in the nation in terms of fewest fouls per game.

 

[Brochacho]

Ashworth just had a kid.
Kalk got married..

Thank god this is the last year of COVID guys

Love these takes. We won last year because of COVID guys. We would've lost by 20 today without this year's COVID guy.

Outplayed, outcoached.

 

[gsmooth]

With Mcneeley, we’re not that great either

Maybe not great, but a lot better than they are now.