Creighton Post Game Thread

[Hunt for 7]

I was watching the game while playing poker so with no sound. Watching the game now. It really is too bad we lost the game as the crowd did everything they could to give us an edge.

The reality is everything we thought were strengths are not as much strengths.

Ball is a great shooter but he can not or will not play defense.

Johnson is a more effective player than Reed because Reed just disappears. We thought that could be coached up but it looks like the progress is slow.

AK what can you say he just does not have the skill set to be the main guy. Don’t think he ever will. His is defended the same way every game and the other team gets the same good results.

Diarra is clearly our best player. Let than one marinate…..he was a great energy guy off the bench last year and this year he is our heart and soul.

Liam coming back will help but we are just not consistent enough at anything to be a very good team. Just like all have said maybe a top 25 team but just don’t see how these pieces will elevate to be much more than a at best second weekend team. But if we get behind in the first round game the ghosts is years past could show up again.

Just disappointed as I thought we would be better than we are…..McDermott seems to have our number 2-7 against him. If Hurley and staff figures out a way to get this team playing more competitive and closer to their overall potential it will be the best coaching job he has pulled off at UConn. Honestly man for man we are more talented than Creighton but we were not a better basketball “team”.

Also Kalkbrenner fouled Diarra on that dive for the ball in the first half and that was definitely a shooting foul on Diarra at the end of the game.

 

[Hoophound]

I’m not surprised at all at where we are. To be really good, we needed a huge jump from Solo and Stew, we needed Samson to contribute more offensively and protect the rim, we needed Mahaney to be really good and we needed McNeeley to be as good as advertised. For all of that to happen was a big ask.

I actually came into the season thinking Diarra might be our best player and I knew AK couldn’t create off the dribble. I’m just disappointed the all star coaching staff hasn’t blown me away again with their genius. Reality is, you can’t win natties every year.

There’s still time for another amazing transformation, but our flaws seem a little too obvious this time around. We need more defensive speed and offensive firepower. We also need a serious rim protector to play this style of defense.

 

[freescooter]

McDermott is excellent, he ate Danny's lunch again. Talent wise there's no way Creighton should've done that to us at UConn. 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.

If you slow down Kalk and Ashworth enough like that Creighton isn't supposed to have a prayer of winning a game like that on the road. He spread us out and went to Neal on iso's and he killed us.

Hass was incredible and he's our best all-around player with McNeeley out. He did everything to try and will us to a win but it was only Jaylin helping him out on a lot of set ups from Hass until Solo helped out late. Can't win with just Hass as Batman and Jaylin as Robin with nothing from AK and Reed. I'm really disappointed with Reed no longer being a part of our offense.

I'm sad for Hass, that was an all-time effort and performance and then the refs criminally screwed him out of 3 ft's to tie the game at the end. I'm so sick and tired of the way the refs treat us, we're the back to back champs. If refs treated Kansas and Kentucky like this the fans would be showing up at the conference headquarters and at their houses.

Jaylin and Solo showed a lot of really good things on offense and Jaylin's Odell Beckham impression was incredible, still don't know how he did that. It will help us a lot when McNeeley comes back but man do we need him back.

McDermott has Hurley’s number. Beat a guy 8 times out of 10 and it’s hard to see it any other way. It happens. He is a good coach who has figured out a way to beat UConn. And of course he has the talent to pull it off. Other coaches haven’t figured it out. But his guys didn’t get lost with all the movement. They stayed home on defense. And on many occasions on offense they made the extra pass.

I will say that there seems to be a special rule book for Kalkbrenner. He is an offensive foul looking for a call when he takes it to the rim. And if travelling and 3 seconds were still rules they actually called any more he’d be a turnover machine.

 

[Hunt for 7]

What scares me is that although we have a great recruiting class are any of them premier athletes. They seem to all be offensive guys first and defenders second. We need an infusion of high end athletic ability to blend into the mix.

I will admit I am not as well versed on the exact talents of our recruiting class, but it does not seem to be overly athletic.

Really don’t see AK going pro after this year unless something changes drastically. Roebe, Mullins, Adam’s and Furphy are any considered better athletes than basketball players? Who’s is playing defense next year? Who is going to create off the dribble next year?

You just can’t expect non athletic players to all be Cam Spencer because let’s be honest he was playing chess on the floor and most were playing checkers. That super high BBIQ can be gotten with experience but think about how Cam at 6’4” would get into the lane use ball fakes, head fakes and rotating on his pivot foot to get the shot off.

Just imagine at his size if AK could do the same things when he gets into the lane. Kind of knew this was going to be a tough ride this year but losing at home with that crowd is really downer.

 

[Scoe]

There's so much doom and gloom in this thread. I wasn't expecting to hear rays of sunshine but wow I guess the world is gonna end now.

 

[HawleyArmou]

AK, (after his performances) should seriously consider staying for his senior season. Teams fits and starts has led to calls for Dan Hurley's head. Newsflash, this is NOT last years team. It's going to take time for this team to mesh. Diarra, and Ball play well together, Johnson is still too foul prone, Reid is learning Hurleys system, as is Mahany, the injury bug has bitten them as well. Maybe, just maybe by tournament time, this will all work itself out. It just remains to be seen.

 

[Hunt for 7]

There's so much doom and gloom in this thread. I wasn't expecting to hear rays of sunshine but wow I guess the world is gonna end now.

World is not going to end but the UConn season will more than likely end sooner than we had all hoped. Unless there is a miracle of St Anthony.

 

[willie99]

I watched the replay, if only because I wanted to see if James Breeding was really as bad as it felt being there. It was worse

The raw numbers, maybe I missed something, I almost hope I did because I don't want any official to be this bad.

Breeding called 8 or 9 fouls.

3 fouls were on Creighton

Just before halftime, an arguably wrong touch foul Creighton wanted him to call that took a 3 point basket away from us. An intentional foul on Creighton with 14 seconds left. An intentional; foul on Creighton with 8 seconds left when he wrongfully denied us three free throws. He called three fouls on Creighton, all choreographed by Doug McDermott

5 or 6 calls on UConn.

A moving pick on Reed which wasn't a foul.
A legitimate reach in call on Ball under the hoop
A late in the game rebounding foul on Alex,
A late in the game charging call on Alex
A late in the game touch foul on Hass giving the best free throw shooter in the country two free throws keeping their lead at 3
Can't remember the 6th call

He called 8 or 9 fouls, all of them for the benefit of Creighton. He even called anticipation fouls at the end of both halves as instructed by Greg McDermott

Maybe I missed something, I'm not going to pretend I meticulously broke down the game film, kinda on the fly actually, but my argument doesn't change. James Breeding is a horrible referee with complete bias against Hurley and UConn. I'm being kind here. He's got to go

 

[mauconnfan]

When the refs clearly decide the game and there is no defending the call, it’s dumber to say don’t mention the refs than to mention them.

You can win this game well before the refs have the ability to decide the game with a call like that. Alex missed a lay in, a floater or 2 while Hassan made 2 awful decisions at crunch time can’t take it to Kalk in that situation and worse down only 1 with plenty of time you can’t foul Ashworth ever. Hey I hate that the refs believe this Blue Jay team doesn’t foul but just win the game, make winning plays. Problem is their best player in this game is a 6th man so we don’t have the horses!

 

[Deepster]

There's so much doom and gloom in this thread. I wasn't expecting to hear rays of sunshine but wow I guess the world is gonna end now.

I think we all have dreams of a historic three-peat and are seeing the holes and reality of where this team is right now. Lots of work to do and not a ton of time left to do it.

The perils of being a fan of a 6 time champ.

 

[uconngb]

What scares me is that although we have a great recruiting class are any of them premier athletes. They seem to all be offensive guys first and defenders second. We need an infusion of high end athletic ability to blend into the mix.

I will admit I am not as well versed on the exact talents of our recruiting class, but it does not seem to be overly athletic.

Really don’t see AK going pro after this year unless something changes drastically. Roebe, Mullins, Adam’s and Furphy are any considered better athletes than basketball players. Who’s is playing defense next year? Who is going to create off the dribble next year.

You just can’t expect non athletic players to all be Cam Spencer because let’s be honest he was playing chess on the floor and most were playing checkers. That super high BBIQ can be gotten with experience but think about how Cam at 6’4” would get into the lane use ball fakes, head fakes and rotating on his pivot foot to get the shot off.

Just imagine at his size if AK could do the same things when he gets into the lane. Kind of knew this was going to be a tough ride this year but losing at home with that crowd is really downer.

Being an “athlete” doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to be a great defender.

As Exhibit A, I offer you Solo Ball

 

[lateralous]

I like AK a lot but he is not the alpha of this team. He is important cog but not the Alpha. Liam might be it, but he is out. Right now the team best player was last years 6th man.

It's pretty clear that this is a transition year. AK, Diarra and SJ are all very good college players and will help pass on the UConn culture while anchoring a pretty good basketball team in the meantime but they aren't exactly the centerpieces of a top 5 contender on their own

If people can block out making subconscious comparisons to last year's team, they will realize UConn has a pretty good team. I think they do.

Agreed. Also, I think this team can still hit another level if and when it gets healthy and we shorten the rotation. Since I believe this is a transition year, I'm all for continuing the 10-11 man rotation through about mid February. If there could be any complaint about last season it's that the sophomore class basically came into this year as Freshman with how little experience they got, so I don't think we want to do that again.

I imagine that at some point this will slim down to an 8 man rotation with Reed Jr, Stewart and Mahaney being the three off the bench. I mean we get absolutely nothing from Ross in the minutes he's on the court and Nowell will be good but those minutes can also be better utilized. Its pretty clear McNeeley is the best player on the team and when we get him back it allows AK to slide back into a more appropriate roll for his skill set so we'll kill two birds there.

I'm excited to see how this team develops over the next month and a half. I still think they can make the second weekend in March if a few things come together.

 

[UCONNFAN179]

I’m not surprised at all at where we are. To be really good, we needed a huge jump from Solo and Stew, we needed Samson to contribute more offensively and protect the rim, we needed Mahaney to be really good and we needed McNeeley to be as good as advertised. For all of that to happen was a big ask.

I actually came into the season thinking Diarra might be our best player and I knew AK couldn’t create off the dribble. I’m just disappointed the all star coaching staff hasn’t blown me away again with their genius. Reality is, you can’t win natties every year.

There’s still time for another amazing transformation, but our flaws seem a little too obvious this time around. We need more defensive speed and offensive firepower. We also need a serious rim protector to play this style of defense.

What's scary is the roster next year appears to have the same problem... no real toughness or athleticism

 

[JustbrewitMan]

McDermott has Hurley’s number. Beat a guy 8 times out of 10 and it’s hard to see it any other way. It happens. He is a good coach who has figured out a way to beat UConn. And of course he has the talent to pull it off. Other coaches haven’t figured it out. But his guys didn’t get lost with all the movement. They stayed home on defense. And on many occasions on offense they made the extra pass.

I will say that there seems to be a special rule book for Kalkbrenner. He is an offensive foul looking for a call when he takes it to the rim. And if travelling and 3 seconds were still rules they actually called any more he’d be a turnover machine.

This is not a comment to you specifically but to all the “McDermott has Hurley’s number” guys…

To be fair, 3 of Creighton’s wins were in the 20-21 season where we were just a scrappy “mid” team with limited offense who played hard-nosed defense. We were underdogs in all 3 games to a strong team with a Coach whose program was already “built”. The home & MSG games were 2- and 4-pt losses.

In 21-22, we were a better team but still had the same issues with offense & lost each of those by 4 & 2 pts (in Omaha). I don’t have time to look up the lines but if we were favored in XL, it probably wasn’t by much.

My point is, realistically, until yesterday’s game, the series was basically at 2-2 since Hurley has gotten to the “mature” point of his team rebuild.

Don’t get me wrong, I really think McDermott is a great coach and great game planner and definitely comes up with schemes to neutralize other teams strengths.

But this “owning” narrative is overplayed.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

This is not a comment to you specifically but to all the “McDermott has Hurley’s number” guys…

To be fair, 3 of Creighton’s wins were in the 20-21 season where we were just a scrappy “mid” team with limited offense who played hard-nosed defense. We were underdogs in all 3 games to a strong team with a Coach whose program was already “built”. The home & MSG games were 2- and 4-pt losses.

In 21-22, we were a better team but still had the same issues with offense & lost each of those by 4 & 2 pts (in Omaha). I don’t have time to look up the lines but if we were favored in XL, it probably wasn’t by much.

My point is, realistically, until yesterday’s game, the series was basically at 2-2 since Hurley has gotten to the “mature” point of his team rebuild.

Don’t get me wrong, I really think McDermott is a great coach and great game planner and definitely comes up with schemes to neutralize other teams strengths.

But this “owning” narrative is overplayed.

Spot on. Remember when Cooley “owned” Hurley? That narrative sure changed quickly. Like you said, McDermott is a very good coach and prepares well for us. But until he gets to a final four he’s not a great coach. Danny is already a legendary coach.

 

[tennmike]

Being an “athlete” doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to be a great defender.

As Exhibit A, I offer you Solo Ball

Solo was more aggressive offensively this game, but cmon, put a body on someone when defensive rebounding. Guys are going over, around, and through him on the glass.
Sampson tries to one-arm rebound. Unfortunately, his arms aren't strong enough to hold anyone off. Miss the bbiq and rebounding of Cam, Newton, Jackson, Donovan, Castle. Opponents getting way too many chances.
The deficiencies are super apparent.

 

[CT2SC]

First congrats on Paul Skenes as ROY. Kid is must watch.

You’re onto something here. Hurley’s Midas touch lead to overconfidence he could reclaim anyone that could process the system. He confidence is not subtle.

The Mahaney selection makes so little sense the deeper we go. You can’t teach size, speed, quickness and toughness on a team that lacks all of that in the backcourt. A reach to find Cam 2.0, as well as he worked. I can rattle off 20-25 kids that were better fits. A kid like Poplar comes to mind.

I think that’s a little bit of 20/20 hindsight on Mahaney. At the time it didn’t seem like too much of a reach to take the leading scorer and all conference player from a top 25 team. He can shoot and create his own shot I can understand why they thought he would be a fit for the stuff they try to run. It just hasn’t worked out. I do agree we would be better served by picking up a dawg at guard to go along with AN next season. We are set at 2G with Solo and Adams.

 

[Waquoit]

I think folks need to ease up. We lost 7 guys to the pros in two years. Seven. From 2010 to 2020 that number was only five. Our guys are working hard, trying to figure it out and playing team ball. That's all I can ask. We lose a game and now the Fellowship decides to leave Samson alone and sink their teeth into Tarris? They had a similar funk two years ago around this time. Why can't we enjoy the journey instead of continuing to pick out the flaws?

 

[Iluvsuebird]

1. I am not “blame the ref” guy. Never have been. But when game after game I see nearly all questionable calls go against us, gotta start to pay attention. When I continue to see the number of calls over a 40 minute game be so overwhelmingly against us, gotta belive the trend.
2. We are going to show better once we get the tourney in March. This team shoots the rock very well.
3. One person alluded to it being silly (my word not his) that we are waiting for a freshman to save us. Well, to that I say this: that freshman‘s skillset cannot be provided by anyone else on the team. He is playing the “CAM” role, to wit, when we need a basket to stop a run, and the outside shot is not falling, he takes the ball to the hoop and draws a foul. He grabs the contested board. He is a sharpshooter. And he brings lots of energy. This kid will help us get better in March.
4. Need The Bear.
5. We will be okay,

 

[navery12]

I think we all have dreams of a historic three-peat and are seeing the holes and reality of where this team is right now. Lots of work to do and not a ton of time left to do it.

The perils of being a fan of a 6 time champ.

It might seem like time is short and there's a lot to be done. But 2 years ago at this time of January the general feeling on the board was we were gonna miss the tournament and Dan Hurley was headed for the hot seat if not fired. And then we won back to back championships.

Which isn't to say I think we're winning it all this year, but I'm expecting a very different team 2 months from now when the tournament is starting

 

[Icehawk]

Bummer of a loss, after the last two years it can be hard to remember this ain’t easy.

Finally saw the “lazy” Reed to my dismay on his first rotation, he picked it up afterwards though but Sampson was the better fit. Way too many blowbys on drives to the basket, our guys have got to do better with positioning - this felt like a regression vs the last game in this area.

I hate the “no continuation” on fouls but the refs didn’t kill us here even if, IMO, Creighton’s no foul calls seem more than a bit BS. I think they said Kalk had 1 foul in 5 games prior? Come on man. Then again, at one point I think it was Stewart had his assignment in a full on bear hug from behind with no call…

Sick of the Creighton kryptonite though and hope we find a way to beat them at home. With the recent losses we need to beat Marquette - twice.

 

[storrsroars]

It might seem like time is short and there's a lot to be done. But 2 years ago at this time of January the general feeling on the board was we were gonna miss the tournament and Dan Hurley was headed for the hot seat if not fired. And then we won back to back championships.

Two years ago at this time Dan Hurley had a super athletic guy who was being misused. Once the staff figured out what to do with him, it all clicked.

I want to believe Ross is that guy, but I can't sell myself on it. I'm pretty positive Ball is not that guy.

 

[CTBasketball]

Two years ago at this time Dan Hurley had a super athletic guy who was being misused. Once the staff figured out what to do with him, it all clicked.

I want to believe Ross is that guy, but I can't sell myself on it. I'm pretty positive Ball is not that guy.

The difference between Jackson and these guys is that Jackson had high basketball IQ. Often times he was thinking ahead of his teammates, combine that with athleticism and he had to be dialed back.

Ball and Ross don’t think. They rely on their athleticism to cover up mistakes. It works against Le Moyne and Sacred Heart. Does not work against good competition.

 

[Umami Zen]

Masterclass by McDermott on how to work the refs(again)- Cracking jokes with them-0 foul shots for UConn in first half- Setting them up for calls at crunch time on your opponent's home court. It's a formula that works for him vs Hurley .

Turn the page. Play with intensity- Get your shooters involved early and keep your foot on the gas.. Let's get a W on Tuesday. Xavier helped with the W vs conference leader. Drifting back to the pack.

 

[navery12]

Two years ago at this time Dan Hurley had a super athletic guy who was being misused. Once the staff figured out what to do with him, it all clicked.

I want to believe Ross is that guy, but I can't sell myself on it. I'm pretty positive Ball is not that guy.

Well luckily the goal isn't for Dan Hurley to complete a replica of the 2023 team but find a formula that works for this team