Creighton post game thread

[WhereistheDove?]

Strange freaking game.

Ball and Karaban were so far off of their shots tonight. I thought Ball did a good job trying to take the ball to the basket to compensate. Thought Mahaney actually played well.

Reed and Samson were treated like felons - the headwind caused by the refs calling such a one-sided game, it’s a miracle we were in it, let alone won it.

After 30 minutes, Reed had four fouls, Samson had four fouls and Creighton had four fouls. Creighton was not called for a foul in the second half until there was five minutes left.

I didn’t have a huge issue with the fouls at UConn - Creighton got a very kind whistle, but eh, it was not too far out of bounds. Tonight, however, was gross. Criminal.

Oh, and McNeeley played well.

Agree on the Ball point, he’s been much better recently at putting it on the floor and getting to the hoop when the defender overplays. He also drew a lot of contact today on those drives and only shot two FTs before the intentional foul at the end.

McDermott has the MO of not fouling, which becomes a self fulfilling prophecy a lot IMO. He just gets a friendly whistle. Today of all days, UConn took it to the paint a lot, drew a lot of contact on the primary ball handler, and still didn’t get to the line. Normally I chalk it up to us not taking it to the basket and the league not caring about freedom of movement fouls but this was just lopsided.

 

[BPT2Storrs]

That point where AK missed three straight 3’s, all of which were great looks was brutal to watch. However, I give AK a ton of credit. He had that great stretch of defense on Kalkbrenner when Reed and Johnson both went to the bench. He also did a bunch of little things, including a couple of key baskets and diving for loose balls.

I know it’s been a frustrating season but I am not ready to write this team off just yet. I believe a lot of people underestimate Diarra’s ability to run the point. When he is healthy we are a much better team and I hope the rest he got tonight helps in his recovery. We have two solid bigs we just need to ensure they stay out of foul trouble. The biggest issue that will make or break this season is AK on offense. The 3 isn’t falling. Hurley and Luke need to pivot and run plays for AK to get him closer to the basket and to the line.

 

[uconntoatl]

The Ghost of Alex Karaban still haunts us

 

[uconnyankee]

Surprised that Singare and Nowell didn’t see more playing time last night.

I thought earlier in the year, Singare played some great minutes spelling Samson Johnson and TR when the hit foul trouble.

I went from thinking this was a horribly managed game by Hurley to one of his best.

So many things going wrong, but all trumped by one thing going right…. LM was

 

[upstater]

Agree on the Ball point, he’s been much better recently at putting it on the floor and getting to the hoop when the defender overplays. He also drew a lot of contact today on those drives and only shot two FTs before the intentional foul at the end.

McDermott has the MO of not fouling, which becomes a self fulfilling prophecy a lot IMO. He just gets a friendly whistle. Today of all days, UConn took it to the paint a lot, drew a lot of contact on the primary ball handler, and still didn’t get to the line. Normally I chalk it up to us not taking it to the basket and the league not caring about freedom of movement fouls but this was just lopsided.

The most telling part for me was when Samson picked up his 4th for wrastlin with Kalk on one end, and then JStew was literally thrown to the floor on a rebound and there was no call.

That said it all.

The replays of lay-ins for UConn in a late montage during a timeout showed them going to the hoop and getting fouled badly with no call, but still scoring. Mahaney got bodied on one and McNeeley got smacked in the face hard on a layup.

 

[kobebeanbryant]

I’ve been as down on Mahaney as anyone but making Liam the de facto starting PG and Diarra the backup finally takes Mahaney out of that role. He is much better when looking to score instead of looking to pass. Idk maybe I’m just in a good mood but I like this 9 man rotation.

Liam / Diarra
Ball / Mahaney
Stew / Ross
Alex
Samson / Reed

remove Mahaney and you’re onto something

 

[kobebeanbryant]

Karaban is 4-47 from his last 7 games from 3. Yikes.

maybe a good sign to shoot less 3s…

 

[Stinger92860]

If you ignore Alex’s shooting woe’s last night, the rest of his stat line was 10 pts, 6 boards, 1 assist, no turns, and plus 7. The D he have us at the 5 was big. A very solid game.

It was not only AK, everyone not named Liam shot 1 of 16 from three. Thats 6% and almost requires Intentional missing. You have to hope that AK returns to the mean, hits one, hits two and builds on that.

 

[RuffRuff]

The reality is Karaban really needs to come back. He's not going to be a first round pick and he's clearly not ready to play in the NBA. I'm sure it's not something he would've expected but it makes sense for him to come back for his senior year with all that NIL.

I’m really hoping it doesn’t come to that. Still some time for him to regain form and assume his stock. Also I would think his coming back may push someone out.

 

[Dogfish]

Is this team better on the road? Maybe they feel good about the frequent flyer miles or enjoy hotels? Bodes well.

Well, they did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night!

 

[RuffRuff]

If you ignore Alex’s shooting woe’s last night, the rest of his stat line was 10 pts, 6 boards, 1 assist, no turns, and plus 7. The D he have us at the 5 was big. A very solid game.

It was not only AK, everyone not named Liam shot 1 of 16 from three. Thats 6% and almost requires Intentional missing. You have to hope that AK returns to the mean, hits one, hits two and builds on th

He may play defense better against 5s than he does 4s too.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

Reed also picks up multiple fouls setting screens as he did tonight.

Yea, he's a big dude and sets hard screens by default. The scout is out to sell an illegal screen coming around Reed. That one where Neal fell to the ground was a floppity-flop.

 

[JMick]

The most telling part for me was when Samson picked up his 4th for wrastlin with Kalk on one end, and then JStew was literally thrown to the floor on a rebound and there was no call.

That said it all.

The replays of lay-ins for UConn in a late montage during a timeout showed them going to the hoop and getting fouled badly with no call, but still scoring. Mahaney got bodied on one and McNeeley got smacked in the face hard on a layup.

I really think Singare should play more. He does pretty well each time he gets a shot.

 

[Hunt for 7]

I’m really hoping it doesn’t come to that. Still some time for him to regain form and assume his stock. Also I would think his coming back may push someone out.

I have no idea how Dixon is rated so low. He has a game that could be useful at the next level.

 

[homunculus]

I think it's fair now to speculate how many of our 3 losses (@Nova, Creighton, @Xavier) would have been wins had McNeeley been available. We'd still be a deeply flawed team, but he's a huge difference maker.

And Liam was clearly still rusty against St John’s, going 2-9 from 3. There’s a fair possibility we’re 13-0 in the Big East and 21-3 overall if he didn’t miss all that time. Of course there are always surprises and you never really can know how things play out, but it sure feels like this right now.

Yeah, we’d still be deeply flawed - but we’d be deeply flawed and ranked #1 in the AP poll.

 

[RuffRuff]

We had a season low 10 assists and only 1 from Liam. I don't think Liam is going to be able to save us all year long. I know some of it is players missing shots too but we do need someone to step up and create more at PG. Maybe time for Nowell to play some minutes against Seton Hall.

The Nowell thing is starting to sound insane. We all keep begging for more and he just keeps riding the pine. We’re halfway into Feb.
We’re expecting a never used freshmen to become our PG at this point? We need to drop the idea.

 

[Iluvsuebird]

I just want whoever said we didn’t win there the last two years there’s no chance this would be the team to do it to raise their hand and take accountability for their stupidity

You thought we were winning this game? Sure hope you put money behind your incredible wisdom!!

 

[Hunt for 7]

I watched the game in a poker room with no sound. But I saw a lot of fouls when we went to the basket that were not called. Now this refutes the theory that we don’t get fouls called because we are not aggressive. One that stands out but there were many is the body shove that Kalkbrenner put on Alex on that late game drive. Everyday and twice on Sunday that is a foul that we get called on us.

Last night with like 8 minutes left in the game we had 8 team fouls Creighton had zero. That is not possible if the game was being called fairly it is utter BS.

It’s funny because they had to waste 10 seconds or so just to get us in the penalty and in the end that was a good thing for us. But for awhile don’t let Alex get the ball late in the game when free throws are critical he is just a miss waiting to happen. We can talk about all the intangibles but I am getting tired of this version of Alex.

We really can’t count on him in late game situations and I thought I would never make that statement about him.

 

[Stinger92860]

He may play defense better against 5s than he does 4s too.

Thats an interesting observation. He is more stationary and can body up instead of requiring a drop step and quick feet To stay in front of his man.

 

[RuffRuff]

Thats an interesting observation. He is more stationary and can body up instead of requiring a drop step and quick feet To stay in front of his man.

He bodies up really well, anchors in and holds his ground. He’s also much better than our 5s at staying vertical with his arms. His body type looks better suited as he gets older than chasing a perimeter guy around.

I don’t know if they’ll use it, but I could see blending it in for 5-10 minutes a game being effective. Then you can have Liam, Solo, Stew and another guard out there for more ball handling and faster pace. They did it last night out of pure necessity, so I’m guessing it won’t be a thing.

 

[gtcam]

As good as Liam was, man, Creighton was horrible on offense in the 2nd half. How do you not get it to Kalkbrenner when both bigs are on the bench with 4 fouls??

Plus Ashworth was not the usual Ashworth - thank you for that.

 

[gtcam]

I don’t think he can help himself.

its the little insecure boy in him that comes out way too often - but he wouldn't be DH if he didn't. I think the players feed off some of his antics, sure sounds like Liam does.

 

[StllH8L8ner]

Great win against a tough team on the road. Liam basically said “ Jobu, I do it myself”. (“Major League” reference for the youngsters)

I won’t speculate but I think there are going to be a few ‘tough conversations’ after seasons end because the matador defense is not going to cut it.

 

[RuffRuff]

its the little insecure boy in him that comes out way too often - but he wouldn't be DH if he didn't. I think the players feed off some of his antics, sure sounds like Liam does.

Love it or hate it, it really is good for the game. You can bet the Omahans are circling the date as soon as next years schedules is released. Shaka, nice coach. Danny, a personality, a sound bite, a villain, a stage act - people eat that up.

One thing about last nights game is that it gives us the fast lane for the 2-3 seed if we can hold court and beat Marquette at home, which will likely give us the ice breaker with Creighton on Friday night.

 

[gsmooth]

I am headed to surgery this morning so I taped the game but had to peak at the score. I can't wait for anesthesia to wear off to watch this game.

Best of luck in your surgery and your recovery. The feeling of the anesthesia wearing off is something else. When you wake up your eyes and vision feel like an unfocused binoculars coming into focus.