Creighton Post game thread

[tennmike]

We cut it to 5 with about 12 minutes to go, and I really felt Creighton would run out of gas. But we couldn't make shots.

Thought McNeeley played outside of himself, and didn't do the little things. But this team can't win with AK is off like that.

Officials are not the reason we lost, but that sequence were we had cut it to 3, and then the ball goes off Creighton in back to back sequences, yet gets the ball both times, and then increased it is inexcuseable.

Seems like there was some tension between the coaching staffs...

The officials had a couple bad calls late, but the foul shot disparity was 18-4. That's right. UConn had 4 foul shots the entire game. Can that be right?

 

[superjohn]

Wow all those great teams and the only thing he's accomplished is beating UConn...lol. Make a Final 4 once and we'll talk about "great"

Dude, nice swipe at UConn basketball.

 

[VA Blue Dog]

UCONN 2024-2025 is a slow unathletic team especially evident on defense.
After watching St. Johns and Marquette it seemed like we were in slow motion.
Quite a contrast visually. St Johns battles every play. Always looking for the double team or trap. Not afraid to over commit because they know they are quick enough to challenge the open man on the far side. This all out, every play doctrine is engrained in their minds by Pitino. In the Marquette game, after Marquette had finally made a three after 12 straight misses, when the camera went to the huddle Pitino's first comment was to blast his players "You just gave up an open three". For UCONN to win against a good team, assuming we can maintain parity at the 5, we need two of the three; Alex, Liam or Solo, to have a good game offensively.

 

[Zonepress]

Give me a break, Hurley threatened to knock out a fan in Omaha last season and then did his two rings routine this season. You bring that smoke and of course the coach and players are going to use it as a rallying cry.

You make way too much sense for this forum
Lol

 

[BugsyCT]

He's had Creighton #2, #3, #3, #3, #1, #2, #4, #3, #2, #2 in the Big East in 10 of his 12 seasons coaching in the league. His last 6 seasons- #7 in the country when Covid hit and they canceled the tournament, sweet 16, round of 32, elite 8, sweet 16, this season #2 Big East regular season Big East conference title game so far...

He's an excellent coach and he's 9-3 vs. Hurley since Hurley has been at UConn. It's pretty remarkable what he's done at Creighton.

Actually surprised he hasn't jumped to a P4 school - he must like what he has at Creighton.

Would be shocked if they beat St John's tonight at MSG though - Johnnies look like a defensive juggernaut.

 

[UCfor3]

When UConn screws around running down the shot clock, what ends up happening is one of the centers ends up with the ball out near the 3 pt line with 7 seconds left and panicking to find somebody to pass to and, in turn, they panic to get off a shot. UConn had THREE shot clock violations of this nature last evening. Not good.This team is too lacking in athleticism.

That's a seperate issue completely than I was responding to but yeah we stink at the end of the shot clock. No shot creators will do that. Not sure just coming down and launching a shot is an offensive system or philosophy that will help. The only remedy for what we have going on unfortuately will take place in the offseason with the portal.

 

[Gutter King]

The knee jerk reactions to wanting out of the big east are baffling.

We've been in that wilderness before it sucked.

And way more schools have failed in new conferences.

Prior two years were pretty, pretty good, it ain't broke.

The leave the big east movement is predicated on being accepted to one of the big boy tables NOT leaving just to leave. How/why does this need to be explained?

The Big East does not deserve us. We've given it credibility, and more importantly made it $$$ way above our share. And our reward? To consistently have to battle the whistle/downright horrid calls in marquee BE games.

 

[todbo]

Not the reason we lost, but Kalk only getting called for 1 foul with all the contact he made with our guys driving in the lane for layups sums up the BE refereeing issues nicely.

Yup. We were 2 for 4 from the free throw line. Creighton was 13 for18. The Creighton D did a good job of keeping us outside, too.

 

[Scrutineer]

He's had Creighton #2, #3, #3, #3, #1, #2, #4, #3, #2, #2 in the Big East in 10 of his 12 seasons coaching in the league. His last 6 seasons- #7 in the country when Covid hit and they canceled the tournament, sweet 16, round of 32, elite 8, sweet 16, this season #2 Big East regular season Big East conference title game so far...

He's an excellent coach and he's 9-3 vs. Hurley since Hurley has been at UConn. It's pretty remarkable what he's done at Creighton.

And he's done it over the best coach in the sport in the last few years..........

 

[JeffConn]

This has been one of the most baffling parts of this season for me. After watching what Steph turned into defensively by the end of last season, and frankly how much attention he got for said defense, I was sure Ball, Stewart and Ross spent the offseason competing to be that guy and they would all be dogs out there. It was clear pretty early that that wasn’t the case

Post game impression and some analytical differences from last year:
The defense suffered from losses of Castle and Clingan who were both elite college defensive players. Last year, Castle consistently shut down either the best opposing point guard or shooting guard. As someone previously noted, Clingan had such a large physical presence and was there to intimidate and erase when our outside defenders were beaten off the dribble. McNeeley and Ball consistently show high level offensive play, but as newer starters, sometimes their defensive play gets taken advantage of by opposing teams. Regarding our defensive schemes, besides the often-mentioned inadequacies of the high hedge, our defensive switching has allowed advantages to opposing teams. Last night, Ball, at 6'3" was continually left guarding Creighton's 6'8" Green to get isolated and backed down near the basket for an easy Creighton score. This year, we don't have someone as fearless as Cam and a ball handler that's as emotionally steady as Tristen; they were long-term college starters who helped last year's team maintain consistent, mental playing toughness; on-court decision-making was not as optimal as last year. Diarra and Johnson are warriers and they were elite depth providers as back-ups last year. Alex is a terrific all-round starting player and star; he does all the little things providing strong leadership that maintain team cohesion and may sometimes be unnoticed, but he was not a consistent scoring headliner offensively this year. Our sophomores are excellent players, but they started the year with limited playing experience to build on and they sometimes played like younger players. Hopefully they stay here to play next year so UConn benefits from their experience. We lost 4 starters from last year that were NBA eligible players; their starting replacements along with Alex each had to take on new roles this year. It's worth repeating that because of continuous annual roster changes in the current college game, as well as other things, It's really, really difficult to finish at the absolute top every year. I am thankful for this year's players winning efforts. You continue to make UConn Nation proud!

 

[caw]

After the past few days I think I'm actively rooting against SJU and Creighton in the NCAAT just because their fans were horrendous at the Garden. MU fans were pretty chill. X fans were a mixed bag.

 

[UCfor3]

McDermott is sort of a phony imo. He's also not a "great" coach although everyone seems to say it. He's made 1 Elite Eight & 2 Sweet 16's in his entire coaching career (age 60) and has had some highly ranked teams that lost early....underachiever. Great coaches tend to win something, he's not making the HOF because he beats UConn.

McDermott also started the $1 beer game thing against UConn so his drunken fans could scream obscenities at UConn players & Dan Hurley for 2 hours. Then McDermott gets "offended" when Dan Hurley gives it back to drunken fan's at the end of 2 hours of constant nonsense and uses it as an excuse for his player dunking the ball with a second left when UConn had already waved the white flag.

Maybe I'm in the minority but not a McDermott fan. Pitino is a great coach, Dan Hurley is a great coach....McD not so much.

I think he's a solid coach. As far as a person....I don't know him personally so I won't say he is a jerk but I also won't say he is a class act or a good guy. 90% of this board said Ed Cooley was a great guy and a class act. Public persona is different than actually knowing someone. Joe Paterno had one of the best reputations going. Not comparing the two. Just saying we just don't know these people. As far as last night, he did make some qualifiers I didn't care for as far as Neal's dunk. He said the loss at Creighton "was emotional"(as if losing at Gampel wasn't emotional for us). Heaven forbid we win one game at their building and they are so traumatized that they have to dunk and show bad sportsmanship. He also was in an argument with Luke about a 2 rings comment apparently??? He said he didn't like what Neal did but what else is he going to say with a mic in his face. I guess I should take him at his word but he may have privately enjoyed it. Who knows. He certainly revealed he and the team had some underlying animosity about our last game for sure. Kalk, Ashworth and Neal are all seniors. They have work to do this offseason as well.

 

[80shusky]

UConn played a terrible first half. Like epically bad. Creighton did whatever they wanted to do offensively. It's not the conference. It's not the refs. It's not the coaching. They don't have the horses this year. There's no magic to this.

 

[buddy]

Actually surprised he hasn't jumped to a P4 school - he must like what he has at Creighton.

Would be shocked if they beat St John's tonight at MSG though - Johnnies look like a defensive juggernaut.

Tonight the rigging will be in St John's favor. The big center for St John's will eat up Kalk, and Ashworth will be put to rest.

 

[UCfor3]

This confuses me, though. Are we supposed to religiously believe in the metrics, or are they meaningless?

Neither. The choices aren't just everything or nothing. It's a tool but without context they can be deceiving.

 

[Waquoit]

Alex needs to play like a star for UConn to win. 3-10 with 1 rebound isn't going to cut it. I think we overestimated expected too much from him.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

This fan base is amazing.

All but maybe three or four fan bases would give their left nut, their eye teeth and their first born for what we've witnessed in the very recent past yet this season, one that all but maybe thirty or so programs would view as a quality season was evidently such an abomination that we end up with pages of posts criticizing our head coach, assistant head coach, a two time national championship team starter, a McD's All American (and soon to be NBA lottery pick) and the overall athleticism and skill of the team.

Wow. Just wow.

 

[superjohn]

You can be a good coach and a phony they are not mutually exclusive traits look at Pitino although he may be more of a liar than a phony but along the same lines. I don’t like McDermott, I grew up in CT lived in the Midwest for 20 years and hated it. They have this trait in the Midwest of appearing to be your friend to your face and then doing exactly the opposite behind your back. McDermott for me embodies many of the traits I experienced first hand living in the Midwest. I will never like him and his players actions at the end of the game showed their true colors.

If they are so pure he should have lost his job after the “off the reservation” comment. As much as I dislike StJohns and Pitino I will be rooting for them tonight. Don’t think I dislike a coach more than fake “McDermott.

Of course you can be a phony and a good coach. I think McDermott is a great guy and an excellent coach.

I like people everywhere but I've lived in the Midwest for just over 20 years now and I prefer the people out here to people on the east coast overall but I would never judge anyone based on where they're from or where they live.

My experience is the exact opposite of yours. I completely disagree with your stereotype and I don't undertand your takeaway at all with McDermott. Neal did the dunk with 1 second left as the coaches were shaking hands. Hurley and McDermott were cool with each other, they like each other. Luke had something to say, I don't know what it was and McDermott said something about how they didn't appreciate the 2 ring thing in Omaha. That was pretty clear because Neal did the same thing after the dunk. McDermott admonished Neal for the dunk and Neal apologized and gave respect to the UConn program. It's all a bunch of nothing and some of our fans sound like babies.

Hurley talks tons of crap, threatened to beat up a Creighton fan and was telling their fans he has two rings, told a ref not to turn his back on him because he's the best coach in the sport. I wouldn't stereotype eastcoasters as arrogant and fake tough guys because of Hurley's actions.

 

[Palatine]

The knee jerk reactions to wanting out of the big east are baffling.

We've been in that wilderness before it sucked.

And way more schools have failed in new conferences.

Prior two years were pretty, pretty good, it ain't broke.

The Big East is the wilderness.

 

[Kowalski]

Give me a break, Hurley threatened to knock out a fan in Omaha last season and then did his two rings routine this season. You bring that smoke and of course the coach and players are going to use it as a rallying cry.

I’m not defending Hurley. I don’t think he should be engaging with obnoxious fans. But it’s somehow a disrespectful affront to the Creighton team that he gets into it with taunting / heckling fans? No it isn’t. I don’t care if they use it as a rallying cry or not. And if yelled at Luke about it, he’s wrong.

On the other hand, everybody in the game knows you don’t do what Neal did at the end because it’s disrespectful to the other team. Hurley doesn’t do it & I’m sure coach Mac doesn’t encourage it. But Neal apologized for it, so it’s over now.

 

[Hunt for 7]

64-58 and AK missed that open 3, you could feel the team and the crowd kinda deflate with that miss

I agree Alex is the key. I went back and looked at the final 4:30 of the game.
1) 4:03 62-58 Ball bricks a three might have been fouled but they never showed any angle and -payed on.
2) 3:11 64-58 Alex misses a wide open three and you could feel how bad it was
3) 2:43 64-58 Alex gets taken to the woodshed by Green
4) 38.3 66-60 game probably over but Alex can’t box out Green on a free throw miss but you never know. But after the rebound game over.

So out of 5 pivotal plays down the stretch Alex does not show up for 4 and we lose. Pretty simple your star has to make big plays or he is not a star. Alex really has had a bad year. Never thought he was Castle or even Cam but I expected more from him this year he just did not have it in him.

 

[uconnfan68]

Yeah switching on defense only works when you have guys with good height all across the lineup so you aren't a huge disadvantage.

They weren’t switches. He was their slowest guy.

 

[Hurleyman216]

The leave the big east movement is predicated on being accepted to one of the big boy tables NOT leaving just to leave. How/why does this need to be explained?

The Big East does not deserve us. We've given it credibility, and more importantly made it $$$ way above our share. And our reward? To consistently have to battle the whistle/downright horrid calls in marquee BE games.

This is 100% spot on. UConn literally pulled the Big East out of being completely irrelevant. Yes, Nova had a couple good years with Jay Wright, but if we left the league now, what do they have left? We must account for something like 50% of the media and more than 50% of the NCAA Tourney payouts that come into the conference. I get the refs don’t like Hurley but it’s time for a re-set for next year. They either need to get rid of some of these most egregious officials or the UConn AD needs to start embarrassing the league publicly. You don’t get to use us as your cash cow while simultaneously kicking us in the teeth. That ain’t gonna cut it.

 

[giddyup]

That's crap. Johnson invites penetration. It's not his fault. He sucks at the 5. This isn't rocket science.

Correct answer AK and Liam were awful on D, and terribly inefficient on O. The net impact: losing basketball.

 

[uconnfan68]

The officials had a couple bad calls late, but the foul shot disparity was 18-4. That's right. UConn had 4 foul shots the entire game. Can that be right?

Lucky we got 4.

 

[UCTitleTown]

I still think we can do damage in the NCAA Tournament. We historically underperform in the Big East Tournament. No one remembers years later who won the Big East Tournament.

 

[J187Money]

Yeah, nah. There is obnoxious. There is rude. Then there were Creighton fans.

SJU fans were pretty bad but they directed things at me (an adult). So maybe when I calm down I’ll change my mind on rooting for SJU.

I want Creighton to lose every game they play for eternity because of who Creighton fans targeted. Nothing bad enough could happen to them. Nothing.

lol I give them a pass because they have never won anything. Just jealousy. Haters. Yawn.

Being on top of the mountain means people are going to take shots at you. Best revenge is to laugh it off and keep winning.

 

[BlueandOG]

The loss is pretty simple: our team did not play very well. Perhaps they had an emotional let down after the big game the prior evening. Perhaps they were nervous playing a team that beats us almost every time we play them. Perhaps they didn't have the legs to play late at night on back to back dates. Whatever.

I am confident they will use the time to rest and prepare for the NCAA. If we end up playing a 1, that will be an opportunity to shine. Hurley will get them ready.

 

[alphasigko]

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

Sadly THIS.....

 

[yungdowork]

I think someone needed to pull Liam aside and just tell him to be patient on offense. He obviously has so much talent, but seems like he's making the game harder for himself right now. He took 9 more shots than anyone on the team and there was quite a few that weren't great shots. I don't think there's a ton of instances where taking 20 shots with 0 assists is great offensive execution.