Creighton Post Game Thread

[mauconnfan]

Bad loss at home number one. Protect your court is a must and the road will get tougher. Watching Xavier and Marquette these teams defend so much better than Creighton and we only got 63 today, not good. No answers on offense like Neal was for the Blue Jays need one, he’s hurt.

Amazing as horrific as we are defensively they played hard and held them to 68 but still, never get stops when you need them and that kills you as a team who likes to fall behind.

Diarra was very good almost the whole game but made 2 very bad decisions during crunch time. Too much time left on the 30 sec clock to take that to the hoop on Kalkbrunner bad choice for the lead. And again way too early down 1 to get in a situation where you foul Ashworth who’s a 97% FT shooter, stupid.

Stewie solid off the bench needed a stop or 2 vs Neal but everyone had trouble. He’s showing up and that’s a good thing.

Samson Johnson worked his butt off can’t deny that, diving trying to box out he laid it all out there but our 5s brought nothing to the offensive end. They’re going to get beat back to the rim if we continue to over hedge (sorry not a fan) but they need to be added to the offensive end. Reed I know a lot of people are all over him I’m not. How about running some plays where he is actually the focus on the block? It’s been a real long while.

Alex, well he worked his ass off but it’s beginning to look like limitations are what we should expect. Consistency is not there so it needs to change not sure it will.

Solo Ball showed he can still score and even shows the beginning of a nice mid range game coming on strong. He also helped Neal gain confidence early with his defense or lack there of. I will continue to say it, NEEDS to change.

Honestly, Coach McDermott and the Blue Jays own us period! Or maybe we’re just not that good and we continue to hope for something that isn’t there? No playmakers one on one to make the defense commit ever.

Last thing sorry but the Big East can’t continue to believe a team that’s guarding our offense all game though screens and cuts only fouled 5 times in 39 minutes, no damn way. (Not counting the foul end of first half or those end of game). Miller, Ashworth and others continually holding, grabbing and using the hand to stop momentum for the cutters. They can’t practice not fouling lol that’s B S. Stop the lunacy!

 

[husky99]

Bleed blue. Tough home L... next

 

[CL82]

Tough loss. I thought it was nice to see Stewart really step up. And honestly, I'm tired of the complaining about the refs. UCONN is far and away the jewel of the big east. If they really wanted to do something about it, they would throw their weight around and get it solved.

Benedict should have an intern clipping out the questionable calls and sending them to Val after every game.

 

[CL82]

Hate to always be right. This team is not very good without Liam

You mean that you actually predicted that losing a guy who's going to be playing in the NBA next season would hurt the team? You're a freaking basketball genius!

(Sorry, I'm not in the best mood right now.)

 

[RuffRuff]

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

Diff team. One guy of that caliber changes a game, pushes rotation down and forces teams to defend differently. With him still glaring holes defensively but he vastly improves us offensively. How much better is TBD.

Hindsight lever that would have changed the personality and feel of this team, would have been a better fit in the Mahaney spot. We needed an older developed junkyard dog, instead we got a soft, small kid from the west coast still trying to find his confidence. That was a miss and a half, and an important one.

 

[alphasigko]

We missed so many shots at the rim today, we have no one to blame but ourselves. We kinda stink right now.

You are being kind

 

[August_West]

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

Well I think our scheming, and coaching, and effort gets us some overachieving from a team defense aspect, which is absolutely great in making lemonades out of lemons, but at the end of the day there are some players who simply are bad defenders in isolation. Both can be true

 

[80shusky]

63 points from our offense isn't going to get it done. Are they ever going to figure out how to game plan Kalk sagging in the paint on D? The top half of the key was open the entire game. Why aren't we getting it into the bigs? Hoping for a better performance next game.

 

[giddyup]

Tough loss. I thought it was nice to see Stewart really step up. And honestly, I'm tired of the complaining about the refs. UCONN is far and away the jewel of the big east. If they really wanted to do something about it, they would throw their weight around and get it solved.

Crap conference with a useless commissioner. Not asking for special treatment but the persistent uneven whistle and blatantly bad calls that seem to come at critical times is too much.

 

[UCan3]

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

Well I’d think it’s fair to say we disagree

 

[August_West]

63 points from our offense isn't going to get it done. Are they ever going to figure out how to game plan Kalk sagging in the paint on D? The top half of the key was open the entire game. Why aren't we getting it into the bigs? Hoping for a better performance next game.

That is exactly where we were shooting from ( and missing) the whole game!

 

[gsmooth]

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

Hurley and the staff are excellent at what they do for sure. But your last statement hit the nail on the head that I wish UConn would get more of, high level athleticism without of course sacrificing basketball skill. I want UConn to get more shot creators because that's what's needed when the play breaks down and plays break down enough.

 

[TheHorde]

Boy did those refs suck today or what?

 

[giddyup]

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.

I don’t think they want to be bad. We are just too slow.

 

[metsfan2323]

So what . It was a bad call, but you don’t win basketball games by hinging your hopes on a fluke prayer of getting an “ in shooting motion “ call on what everyone in the building knows is an automatic floor foul call in that situation.

So what? So if the shot goes in and we are expecting a chance for a 4 point play to win and we instead get the bucket waived off are you still saying so what? It was an atrocious call!!!

 

[Waquoit]

Well I think our scheming, and coaching, and effort gets us some overachieving from a team defense aspect, which is absolutely great in making lemonades out of lemons, but at the end of the day there are some players who simply are bad defenders in isolation. Both can be true

Fine. My question is: is anyone questioning the effort of the players? I'm not. And if they are giving their best, what good is to keep beating that dead horse. Instead, let find a way to mitigate the flaws. And for this team, that means more production from the offense. For starters, they need to stop having those mid-2nd half walkabouts on O.

 

[UCan3]

Bad loss at home number one. Protect your court is a must and the road will get tougher. Watching Xavier and Marquette these teams defend so much better than Creighton and we only got 63 today, not good. No answers on offense like Neal was for the Blue Jays need one, he’s hurt.

Amazing as horrific as we are defensively they played hard and held them to 68 but still, never get stops when you need them and that kills you as a team who likes to fall behind.

Diarra was very good almost the whole game but made 2 very bad decisions during crunch time. Too much time left on the 30 sec clock to take that to the hoop on Kalkbrunner bad choice for the lead. And again way too early down 1 to get in a situation where you foul Ashworth who’s a 97% FT shooter, stupid.

Stewie solid off the bench needed a stop or 2 vs Neal but everyone had trouble. He’s showing up and that’s a good thing.

Samson Johnson worked his butt off can’t deny that, diving trying to box out he laid it all out there but our 5s brought nothing to the offensive end. They’re going to get beat back to the rim if we continue to over hedge (sorry not a fan) but they need to be added to the offensive end. Reed I know a lot of people are all over him I’m not. How about running some plays where he is actually the focus on the block? It’s been a real long while.

Alex, well he worked his ass off but it’s beginning to look like limitations are what we should expect. Consistency is not there so it needs to change not sure it will.

Solo Ball showed he can still score and even shows the beginning of a nice mid range game coming on strong. He also helped Neal gain confidence early with his defense or lack there of. I will continue to say it, NEEDS to change.

Honestly, Coach McDermott and the Blue Jays own us period! Or maybe we’re just not that good and we continue to hope for something that isn’t there? No playmakers one on one to make the defense commit ever.

Last thing sorry but the Big East can’t continue to believe a team that’s guarding our offense all game though screens and cuts only fouled 5 times in 39 minutes, no damn way. (Not counting the foul end of first half or those end of game). Miller, Ashworth and others continually holding, grabbing and using the hand to stop momentum for the cutters. They can’t practice not fouling lol that’s B S. Stop the lunacy!

Well, you don’t have to believe they only fouled 5 times because they didn‘t. I counted 3 fouls in 90 seconds in 2nd half that weren’t called.

You have to call it both ways - that's al I ask for... We got ticky tacks while Creighton had to mug someone to get a call. Those moving screens and light body contact fouls on way to hoop - those were only made one way today...

But we didn't lose because of the refs but had to play a perfect game to win - which we did not.

The NCAA Tourney is the great equalizer every year for us. We withstand playing -5 pts every game in the Big East only to excel in the tourney where the games are properly officiated.

 

[Jaker]

McNeeley gets back healthy,,we will be in good shape. And why constantly whine about Reffing? Serves no purpose, sound like Syracuse fans.

 

[prankster]

That’s absolutely ridiculous. I didn’t see that at all. We got beat by a disciplined , well coached team with 2 29 year olds who make very few mistakes. They were simply a better team than us today, they executed better, and didn’t blink.
The reality of the situation is at this point of the season and without McNeeley we are simply a good team. Just a good team. Not a great team. There are some glaring issues that keep us from being a great team at this point.

I don’t think we played poorly today , we played pretty well actually and didn’t lay an egg. This is just simply who we are right now. Would’ve been nice to find a way to hold serve at home as that is real important in the league race.

We have a great coaching staff and coachable players, but we just are not a good defensive team individually . That isn’t breaking news , we know that. We simply can’t get stops when stops are needed. This in turn puts serious pressure on our fantastic offense, when you can’t get stops you pretty much can’t afford empty trips, and the game was in the balance when we missed floater after floater when Alex hurt the ankle. Really our season is going to hinge on our floater conversion rate as that is what every team is going to give us.

Right now we are no different than Creighton , St John’s and Nova. And we’ve lost to 2 of them .

This is Marquettes regular season to lose.

We will see what kind of bump we get when we get Liam back. It will be needed. But there are a lot of areas where at this point we just are what we are. A good team vying for position in top 3rd of league.

I see what I see.

John Cahill ...I just do not know what to say. Inept doesn't cover it. There is just one thing left.

Val Ackerman?

When does she come up for re-election.

This is not the first year those two pulled this stunt.

How to elevate the conference? Simple,! Manipulate conference records.

UConn 4th in the standings? Everyone above them must, therefore, get a tourney berth. First two below them? Bubble at worst.

Magnificent outcome for the Conference. Wouldn't you say?

Kind of like pro wrestling back in the late 1960's.

Not "rigged' exactly. More like it is "choreographed".

I'm out! Can't watch this crap any longer. I'll check box scores, but I can no longer catch this trash product.

Choreographed, as I say.

Thinking of starting a go-fund -me to buy the ACC. Couldn't cost that much. Then gift UConn a bid to land in a real conference. Home for football, too!

Big Easter can backfill with Sacred Heart. Maybe Fairfield if the rest of the conference insists on a Jesuit school.

If Val wants to take a strong stance on adding a Rhode Island school, maybe Roger Williams or Johnson and

 

[UCan3]

I don’t think they want to be bad. We are just too slow.

We don’t keep the play in front of us… lots of chasing,,, slow feet and got beat off cuts all day long. We played better D in 2nd half but too little, too late.

Other question I had is why creighton seemed to be in front of every play and we were lagging.. I don’t know if that’s being slow. Karaban seems like he lost his D assignment quite a few times - looked confused on who he was supposed to be guarding.. That’s not good…

 

[HooperScooper]

Under two minutes left Hurley calls timeout and I'm begging for him to draw up an elbow jumper for Solo and once again Hurley draws it up for AK to crash down the lane and throw up a floater. It's maddening at this point, AK isn't that guy and that's not his game. Stop trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

During the NBA draft process the NBA people told Karaban he had to work on hitting threes off movement and the dribble and score off the bounce going to the basket. I think he's been pretty good at the former but he's been terrible at the latter. I wonder if he's trying too hard to show he can get to the basket and it's just not his game. He either loses the ball because his handle isn't great, gets his shot blocked (which seems to happen a lot) or misses the shot. Or commits an offensive foul like today, which I don't remember happening before but figured add it to the bad after today's game. He doesn't seem to draw a foul on those drives although he did against Nova (which was a debatable foul).

I wonder what his percentage scoring is when he goes to the basket? Is he trying too hard to do that to the detriment of the team?

 

[UConnTrumbull]

You mean that you actually predicted that losing a guy who's going to be playing in the NBA next season would hurt the team? Your freaking basketball genius!

(Sorry, I'm not in the best mood right now.)

That’s the thing, it was so obvious. And yet people on here wanted to play it off as nothing. Also not in a good mood

 

[superjohn]

63 points from our offense isn't going to get it done. Are they ever going to figure out how to game plan Kalk sagging in the paint on D? The top half of the key was open the entire game. Why aren't we getting it into the bigs? Hoping for a better performance next game.

Probably not. McDermott owns Hurley, he's 8-2 against him since Hurley has been here and we never score much against them.

Our point totals in the 10 mathups against them-
63, 66, 62, 69, 53, 55, 62, (ot game) 74, 66, 56

 

[UCan3]

63 points from our offense isn't going to get it done. Are they ever going to figure out how to game plan Kalk sagging in the paint on D? The top half of the key was open the entire game. Why aren't we getting it into the bigs? Hoping for a better performance next game.

Our bigs stopped offensive rebounding and surrendered the paint - that was hard to watch at times.

And more drive / feed bigs Instead of setting for mid-range jumpers would have helped us.

But Kalbrenner has to mug someone to get called for a foul as well….

 

[uconnfan68]

He was, but he has no business being the guy trying to initiate offense from 20'.