Creighton Post game thread

[Dperr11]

Absurdly inconsistent play most of the season. Admittedly not the same level of talent as last year, But with reasonably consistent play could haves had 25 wins, had a shot at winning the BE tourney and maybe a 4 seed? Most frustrating season I can remember.

 

[freshler40]

Should have put Reed in earlier in the second half imo. Sampson was not good defensively tonight. Made adjustments too late.

Let’s move on and win the first round of the NCAA tournament

Amen! Keeping our best inside defender/rebounder on the bench was odd.

 

[UCan3]

UConn doesn't have the same personnel as the last two years. The "e" in awEful raises the question: Do they even have a player who can dunk besides Reed & Johnson. Have seen to much evidence of that. Too unathletic.

I don’t think it‘s dunking but rather slow feet.

We just get beat again and again on “one of one’s” on both ends. On defense, McNeeley and Karaban and Ball - over and over they get taken to the hole. It was bit embarassing last night. 70%+ Creighton shooting? Hard to Watch.

But on offense when we try to do the same thing many times, we can’t shake defender.

McNeeley really needs another season at UConn if for no other reason to improve hit footwork and “nose for the ball.” He is often leaning in wrong direction, falling over, and never seems to be in right place/right time. Fighting Stewart or whoever it was at the key moment when they sent missed free throw back to Creighton at Key time perfect example. And so many other times where he was out of position.

 

[freshler40]

A fine offense wouldn’t have 3 shot clock violations.

This is well put, we often have just two offensive players on the court and work to a 30 second shot clock for a panic shot from these two. Odd!
It seems that our offense book is tightly scripted so little in the way of creative basketball is possible. Why isn't Reed a basic part of this offense?

 

[sdglast]

Newton became a really good defensive player. It would of been good to have him playing against some of our competition this year. I think you were thinking early on Newton. He became a lot better playing defense and used his body to keep people in front of him.

I would hardly consider him really good. I love Newton, and I certainly think he used his height to his advantage. He was also a 5th year who had guile and experience. I don't think he was this incredible athlete, and that was my point about Adams. He reminds me a lot of Newtown but is 18. I think we are underestimating how good this group coming in can be because we compare them to say last year, with 2 5th year guys starting at guard. Heck, I remember Newton's first year here where half this board wanted him benched. What UConn had for 2 years of Newton, Spencer, Hawkins, etc. was a 7 footer who altered shots and intimidated anyone driving the lane. Trust me, UConn's guards got beat last year off the dribble (not that they were bad defensive players), but Clingan was such a force that he altered shots and made up for defensive lapses. I have no idea how Riebe will be, but he is 7'1 and about 225 already. II certainly think his offensive game is developed (perhaps better than Clingan when Clingan arrived as a freshman), but we have to hope he has some defensive prowess coming in here next year. I guess I prefer glass half full, and I think this incoming freshman group has the potential to be pretty damn good, but you can't rely on them to carry you next year. They need to be guys who grow off the bench who become really good players as the year goes on, so certainly I want some guys to come in who are strong and athletic, but to have people suggest this is not a good group or there's questions about them surprises me a good deal.

 

[businesslawyer]

I can't say that I'll miss facing Kalkbrenner. Aside from the moving screens he sets at the top of the key and the shuffling of his feet in the low post (just once I wou have liked to have see either called when we played them), he has been a terrible matchup for us as in drop coverage, when we had any of our centers (Sanogo, Clingan, Johnson, Reed) with the ball at the top of the key (for a handoff), Creighton was basically defending four shooters with five players as there was never a threat of our center taking a shot from 20 feet out.

Something I don't understand is why some Creighton player seems to have a career game against us.

We lost. We deserved to lose. On to the tournament.

This. Our offense isn’t going to work consistently when their center is huge and just waits at the rim. After all these games, did we ever consider keeping Reed on the low block and making them play us 4 v 4 and not 4 v 5?

 

[Edward Sargent]

A lot of talk about the OOB play called off UConn. They played one replay of it on TV and it looked off Creighton to me. My question is why didnt the refs go to the replay monitor? It was such an important call

 

[willie99]

Back to attacking our players and our coaching staff. So bizarre, many don't deserve this program.

Jeff McDermott is a great coach, a good man, and it's obvious he gets the whistle. Creighton and the whistle is the antithesis of UConn and the whistle. That gets really ugly for us.

Conference officiating is the worst, I'm not even sure it's worth hoping for change at this point. It is what it is. All one has to do is look at how different the games are officiated once the dance begins. The contrast is undeniable, and Dan is still Dan.

I will acknowledge that we have to play hard for 40 minutes. We can't expect to overcome a large first half deficit every game. If this team has any shortcomings, it's not playing hard for 40 minutes.

Let's dance

 

[Mr. French]

Kind of simple really - they’re not good enough to win when they don’t play hard and they don’t play hard all that often. At least we do not need to see St. John’s blow them off the court again.

They really need a simpler playbook and the staff is still out there trying to prove they can play chess with this group of checker players.

They’re the exact same team they were in November.

Saying something is simple but then being wrong on a few accounts is certainly a take.

 

[StllH8L8ner]

A lot of talk about the OOB play called off UConn. They played one replay of it on TV and it looked off Creighton to me. My question is why didnt the refs go to the replay monitor? It was such an important call

I don’t get it. Everything is reviewed these days. They have the ability to review it from 20 different angles. Thought the goal of these reviews across sports is to get the important calls right.

 

[Edward Sargent]

Looking at the Box which I always do first thing no one on this team had a good night.
Liam 6-20 and 0-5
Alex 3-10 and 0-3
Jaylin 23 min 1 shot
Samson 24 min 1 shot, 1 rebound and 1 foul
But the most telling was Hass with only 1 assist and the team with only 7
They weren't running their plays it would seem and resorted to hero ball which we aren't good at

 

[UCfor3]

Take a look a St Mary’s. They are good at defense every year and have way less natural talent than UCon

They also don't play anyone other than Gonzaga after XMas pretty much every year. Has to make defensive metrics appear better. Out of conference they played some low level west coast teams like Arizona St, Utah, Nebraska, USC, Wash St, etc...

 

[Dove]

Almost 100 more posts in this thread than the Nova win thread. It's been 8 hhorse.

The power of anger and despair.

 

[Dove]

Looking at the Box which I always do first thing no one on this team had a good night.
Liam 6-20 and 0-5
Alex 3-10 and 0-3
Jaylin 23 min 1 shot
Samson 24 min 1 shot, 1 rebound and 1 foul
But the most telling was Hass with only 1 assist and the team with only 7
They weren't running their plays it would seem and resorted to hero ball which we aren't good at

That Samson line is a joke. He had the worst game.

 

[UCfor3]

Here’s what McDermott had to say about our “bad offense”.

Lmao

"Overnight scout?" Give me a break McDermott. He has known for almost a week he would probably be playing us on Friday and they already played us twice this year and play us twice every year. Not exactly scouting from scratch here.

 

[jibsey]

Luke runs offense Kimani defense, and defending sucks all year. It’s bad coaching

Yes but why does the defending suck? I say it’s not coaching. Karaban and McNeeley are great players but often get beat off the dribble by more athletic players, they just ain’t quick enough. Solo bites on every pump fake made which is on him. Hass defends pretty well but even he gets caught on help defense leaving wide open 3’s.
So we don’t have the guard size we once had to defend or get to the rim and our forwards as good as they are in many ways just don’t have great athleticism and speed. It all adds up to spotty defense, poor first halves, inconsistent plays AND our record for the season.

 

[AdamaNation]

Have you seen our team? Everyone on the team has drawbacks. He was the least of our problems this season. Our preseason all-American shot 15% from three for a significant chunk of the Big East season. Our star freshman was out for 5 weeks and now can't guard anyone the past 4 games and he's forcing everything on offense. Our starting center can't deal with the top centers in the league and still has a fouling problem. Our starting point guard should've been back in his 6th man role and has been playing on one leg for a while. Our backup center is great in spurts but only plays half the game and still has a fouling problem. Our backup point guard isn't a point guard and had a dud of a season until the last couple of games. Our backup wings have been unplayable for a lot of the season.

Despite his flaws Solo has been our one consistent offensive player all season and you consistently cr@p on him as do as bunch of other posters. We would've sucked without him this season.

Our 3pt shooting was absent last post season

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Maybe we stop beating around the bush a little. I’ve only read 3 pages to be fair. Liam was 6-20 and played bad defense. AK wasn’t too much better. If our two best players show up we might win this game.

On to the next, but, its been about 3 weeks of poor play from Liam. Some anointed him our best player. Maybe he is, but let’s call a spade a spade. He has not been good enough.

Since the Creighton game Liam’s gotten confident to the point where he doesn’t make the right play and trust his teammates trying to be the guy. Hes been making a lot of bad plays and forcing stuff in the name of “wanting it” which has to be reeled in.

One of his best qualities before was being able to get his playing in the flow of the offense and making the right play. He's completely lost that.

And hate to keep beating this horse, but it’s something Hurley should’ve been stepped in on.

 

[UCfor3]

McDermott is now 9-3 against Hurley, that's crazy to me.

Every team has their weird matchup anomalies. The Dolphins used to beat the Brady led Pats in Miami almost every year for a while it seemed despite stinking out loud.
Some of those games were while we were rebuilding. We have mostly split with them the last 3 years. I suspect when Kalk leaves, things will even out a bit. I will take our post season record and they could have their "We are UConn slayer trophies." A few years ago, PC fans were bragging about the same thing.

 

[nychuskyfan]

I think there’s a bit of this but to me it’s more that we ask a lot of him because there’s nobody else who can create at the end of the shot clock. I’m more surprised about his so-so 3 pt shooting - his looks there are generally good and in the flow of the offense.

Since the Creighton game Liam’s gotten confident to the point where he doesn’t make the right play and trust his teammates trying to be the guy. Hes been making a lot of bad plays and forcing stuff in the name of “wanting it” which has to be reeled in.

One of his best qualities before was being able to get his playing in the flow of the offense and making the right play. He's completely lost that.

And hate to keep beating this horse, but it’s something Hurley should’ve been stepped in on.

 

[Stinger92860]

We still had plenty of chances to win the game. But our offense wasn't up to it in the last five minutes.

Yes, we played poor defense. But they shot out of their minds in the first half 75%. then we gifted them four point to start the second half. WE still were with a possession or two multiple times - with the ball - in the second half and we couldn't get it done. score in the 60s and you lose.

The five that helped fuel the comeback included Reed, Stewart, and Mahaney. Each of them brought energy, especially Reed and Stewart. When the starters came back in, they reverted to their play in the first half. We should have given the group which was getting it done more time and possibly rode them to the end.

Stewart +5 Karaban -18
Reed +8. Johnson -17
Mahaney +2 Ball -11

A simple stat (+/-) whick speaks volumes about who our best players were last night. As soon as the subs came in your could see the change. Add in Liam who is shooting 39% for the year on volume is a problem and hopefully he can start hitting outside shots again. Liam took 20 shots last night almost 2X anyone else, on a night he was cold.

 

[7774]

This was pretty much the same game we played against Marquette except they shot 13% from 3 on open looks so everyone here decided we were good.

 

[Ha Who]

My take is if Castle was driving down 5 and someone was wide open on the wing he would have swung the ball out to the wing. But you can’t fall behind by 17

 

[djct1999]

What’s this complex offense you speak of? I think the staff has already simplified dramatically if you know what you’re watching. It’s just constant DHO for McNeeley, Ball, and Karaban. With a few wrinkles(slips, back screens, etc). What would you suggest they run instead with no one who can break a guy down one on one? The roster is just flawed.

We are also better than we were in November. This was a disappointing loss that sort of encapsulated some of the good and a lot of the bad on this team. We are heading into the tournament playing good ball and have a week to recharge.
Let’s enjoy the ride. We talked ad nauseum why this team doesn’t stack up with the previous two. The reasons why can’t be fixed overnight or in season. With that in mind, as much of an emotional roller coaster this season was, this team and the staff probably got the most out of this group it could. Many on here have unrealistic expectations .

 

[scotty0330]

This. Our offense isn’t going to work consistently when their center is huge and just waits at the rim. After all these games, did we ever consider keeping Reed on the low block and making them play us 4 v 4 and not 4 v 5?

Short answer is no, but you’re right. Take away a game from McNeeley being out of his mind and the performance against Creighton has been pretty consistent - in a best of 7 series UConn ain’t coming out the winner.