Creighton Post Game Thread

[HooperScooper]

I expect we’ll hit the portal hard for a playmaking guard or wing to complement the freshman class. That’s what the staff thought we had in Mahaney and they were probably a little overconfident in the Sophomores’ development as guys that could put it on the deck and go create.

Before the season Hurley said for the team to be championship quality Mahaney was going to have to play at an All American level. Big swing and a miss on that.

 

[Connecticut13]

The Big East refs clearly don't like Hurley. There's a reason why we've dominated the NCAA tournament the last two years, but have had a more difficult road in the Big East. Right now, I'm all for getting out of this conference -- it wouldn't be nationally relevant without us. I'm completely fed up with Big East officiating.

 

[navery12]

It already has derailed any chance of a top seed and the Providence to Newark path. And don’t say that doesn’t matter. Hurley even said this stretch without Liam will be meaningful only if we can keep winning, which we are not. Can we win it all as a 6/7/8 seed? Sure, we’ve done it before. But the numbers suggest, no chance.

No it hasn't. Before this stretch we were likely looking at a 3-4 seed, now it's probably 4-5 seed. That is by no definition our season being derailed

 

[superjohn]

The Big East refs clearly don't like Hurley. There's a reason why we've dominated the NCAA tournament the last two years, but have had a more difficult road in the Big East. Right now, I'm all for getting out of this conference -- it wouldn't be nationally relevant without us. I'm completely fed up with Big East officiating.

I love the conference, I hate the refs.

 

[superjohn]

No it hasn't. Before this stretch we were likely looking at a 3-4 seed, now it's probably 4-5 seed. That is by no definition our season being derailed

I think we were going undefeated in conference until a huge away game at Marquette had McNeeley not gotten injured. We're at 2 losses now and we'll be dogs at Xavier. Season not derailed but I think we likely lost more than one spot on the seed line.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

I wouldn’t say it’s derailed entirely but we’d have to catch fire and win out once Liam is back and sweep series with Marquette and StJ to get there. Weirder things have happened.

Have to just hope he’s back soon as I’m not even confident we win at Xavier, who just won at Marquette today, without him.

That’s fair. Depends how you look at it. We have top 10 aspirations with a healthy Liam. Top 20-25 without. I guess that’s how I look at it.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

No it hasn't. Before this stretch we were likely looking at a 3-4 seed, now it's probably 4-5 seed. That is by no definition our season being derailed

We beat Villanova and Creighton with Liam. Top 5 in the country if he’s healthy. Now, what, 18-20? And a lot of pressure to not drop any more home games or “bad” losses. For instance, at Xavier wouldn’t be a bad loss normally, now it’s a critical game.

 

[navery12]

I think we were going undefeated in conference until a huge away game at Marquette had McNeeley not gotten injured. We're at 2 losses now and we'll be dogs at Xavier. Season not derailed but I think we likely lost more than one spot on the seed line.

No disagreement there, we definitely lost a seedline there, but I don't consider that a derailed season. And we're definitely not 1 loss away from being on the bubble like he's claiming either

 

[navery12]

We beat Villanova and Creighton with Liam. Top 5 in the country if he’s healthy. Now, what, 18-20? And a lot of pressure to not drop any more home games or “bad” losses. For instance, at Xavier wouldn’t be a bad loss normally, now it’s a critical game.

You want to panic, I get it. We can discuss this in March and we'll see who was right. Maybe you'll be right and we'll be having this discussion before our 1st round NIT home game

 

[mauconnfan]

A few people mentioned this. When I saw that, I took it as a pride type of thing.

Ashworth was way overplaying Diarra’s left hand, and basically daring him to take a free trip to the hoop to challange Kauk with his right. Hassan couldn’t resist the “taunt”

But he had to resist key possession needed a good shot there. That certainly wasn’t it.

 

[RuffRuff]

That’s fair. Depends how you look at it. We have top 10 aspirations with a healthy Liam. Top 20-25 without. I guess that’s how I look at it.

I would have zero confidence this team has an upside beyond first round without him. The kid is our best player and emotional leader with Hass. I love AK and all his contributions but man his body language is that of a mailman.

If we go into the tourney as a 5/6 seed that 12/11 seed is gonna come out hair on fire playing us.

 

[uconngb]

Stop being blind, that foul on Diarra is a shooting foul 100 out of 100 times.

Apparently it’s 99/100

 

[TheHorde]

If only UConn could get the kind of officiating the Kansas City Chiefs get

 

[Dove]

A mere 18 haiku today. The mojo is weak. It is what it it is.

 

[BugsyCT]

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?!

Seems ridiculous, but they don't commit fouls. McDermott coaches them not to. In recent years they've been among the tops in the nation of fewest team fouls per game, including this year. We can argue individual calls all we want but stats are stats.

NCAA Basketball Stats - NCAA BB Team Personal Fouls per Game | TeamRankings.com

NCAA Basketball personal fouls per game, by team.

www.teamrankings.com

 

[3rdbass]

This is a really bad loss. Karaban needs to figure it out, fast. Diarra is the only guy who played well.

Yeah, If Karban isn't scoring and we aren't getting much from our Center positions we are in trouble. Our guards both Diarra and Ball played great. Diarra 7 assists and 0 turnovers and great D. Also, we got robbed on his 3 point shot at the end of regulation. That was a foul while in motion. Still we have to play better. Stewart played pretty well on offense but his D was suspect at times. A horrible loss. We ar going to get in but I just don't see this team as they are right now make a big run to win it all in March.

 

[WiseWillie]

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.

Ageee 100%. If UConn wanted to do something about the officiating they would. They obviously don't so no use complaining about the BE refs. But bad calls or no calls don't lose a game. There's a lot bigger problems than the calls we get to don't get right now that need to be corrected asap and every player and coach knows it.

 

[gsmooth]

Seems ridiculous, but they don't commit fouls. McDermott coaches them not to. In recent years they've been among the tops in the nation of fewest team fouls per game, including this year. We can argue individual calls all we want but stats are stats.

NCAA Basketball Stats - NCAA BB Team Personal Fouls per Game | TeamRankings.com

NCAA Basketball personal fouls per game, by team.

www.teamrankings.com

I know they foul the least or close to it year after year. But even with that 5 fouls the entire game with 1 minute left is still absurd.
Having said that UConn didn't play all that bad, but they made too many losing plays.

 

[mauconnfan]

Seems ridiculous, but they don't commit fouls. McDermott coaches them not to. In recent years they've been among the tops in the nation of fewest team fouls per game, including this year. We can argue individual calls all we want but stats are stats.

NCAA Basketball Stats - NCAA BB Team Personal Fouls per Game | TeamRankings.com

NCAA Basketball personal fouls per game, by team.

www.teamrankings.com

The point is they do and the refs read it like you do I’m guessing.

By no means why we lost the game though I would like to be clear on that.

 

[uconngb]

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.

Good perspective……but it still SUCKS

 

[uconngb]

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

You thought that was a GOOD defensive effort? The first half was awful. We gave up yet another career high to a guy averaging less than 10 points a game and got 3d to death. Just cuz we made it close at the end does not offset how awful that first half was

 

[boog204]

Ashworth just had a kid.
Kalk got married..

Thank god this is the last year of COVID guys

The Kalk has been here forever thing is so overblown. Hassan is a year older than him. Samson is just a few months younger. Tristen and Cam were both older than Kalk. Get over it.

 

[boog204]

The Kalk has been here forever thing is so overblown. Hassan is almost a year older than him. Samson is just a few months younger. Tristen and Cam were both older than Kalk. Get over it.

 

[August_West]

We beat Villanova and Creighton with Liam. Top 5 in the country if he’s healthy. Now, what, 18-20? And a lot of pressure to not drop any more home games or “bad” losses. For instance, at Xavier wouldn’t be a bad loss normally, now it’s a critical game.

Buckle up. The next 4 weeks are going to (more likely than not ) contain a pretty decent share of lumps. Hopefully we fight through it and grow through it and don’t get confidence shattered.