Creighton Post Game Thread | Page 14 | The Boneyard

Creighton Post Game Thread

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Fatroony5 said:
Coming into this game, their last 10 game stretch ranked as one of the worst in the country in free throw rate, it’s like 41. That’s insane. They can’t stop fouling & I’m not sure how much they can clean that up. I think they can clean up some things offensively but this stretch defensively is certain concerning.
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41 of what?
 
Fishy said:
So, here’s the argument for either Stewart or Reed over Solo with the starting lineup.

Solo commits his third foul and goes out with just under four minutes left in the first half - we’re down 37-34. He’s out until about 16 minutes left in the second half. Stewie and Reed cover that span in his place.

UConn outscores Creighton 21-11 with Solo on the bench. We’re winning 55-48 when he returns. He comes back in and misses two threes as Creighton immediately goes on an 11-2 run to take the lead.
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Shockingly logical and obvious. Let's see if Hurley sees it. I feel like he develops blind spots sometimes.
 
Icehawk said:
Ouch. I gotta admit that one hurt. You know ish was going down by the rotations. I don't know what the hell happened, but I'm not changing my view on the team - they can still do anything. Hell, even our best teams had headscratchers.
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I think it hurt because it verified what we've been watching lately, and we we've been hoping we'd see a team that looks like a NC contender rounding into form at this point.

Was personally hoping for 19-1 and BE record too, which seemed well within grasp given this BE.
 
We looked so much better in December. Team is now regressing and getting worse. I could see this team getting upset by #15 seed if nothing changes.
 
First game I got to see in person in a while. The body language isnt great. There's no confidence out there. Everyone looks confused and does dumb things while others stand around. No one wants to take a shot. Every time it felt like we were going to go on a run, we bricked a shot, didn't get back on D and gave up easy points.
 
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buddy said:
Donut team. I would like to ask why on offense, Silas penetrates deep, then stops and looks to pass to anyone. If he just keeps driving, he can attempt a layup and likely get a foul, or then dish to Reed who should be right next to the basket opposite him. Never happens.
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He does this a lot - it's odd. He'll drive mid paint, stop and squat, dead ball in his hands. Then pivot around low looking for someone. I really don't know what the strategy is. Rather than stay tall, get a runner up or try to draw contact. Newton would carve into the lane strong and draw contact often.

Love Silas - super talented. Still feels like he's figuring out how to be a lead PG.

JMick said:
First game I got to see in person in a while. The body language isnt great. There's no confidence out there. Everyone looks confused and does dumb things while others stand around. No one wants to take a shot. Every time it felt like we were going to go on a run, we bricked a shot, didn't get back on D and gave up easy points.
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It's kind of what it looks like on TV. Discouraging to hear from an in-person view in game 27. We have 5-7 games to figure it out.
 
alphasigko said:
11-18 on FTs...61%...this has been a problem the whole season... How can this not be coached to get a better result on game day? Totally baffling to me.

Solo, Silas and Alex were totally inept on offense and their defense was not much better.

Not the way to be playing as the regular season ends and tourney time begins.
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Hard to call a 17pt/9ast/1To (miscommunication with Solo). He had 5 assists in the first 5 minutes.....then inexplicably we went away from him penetrating and dumping. He has to take some credit for that, as he is the on court ringleader, but baffling our approach in general.

His defense was mediocre, but still likely the best out there.

The PGs are dishing to the bigs to the tune of 12-17. At that point you just sit Solo, get Ross/Stewart rotation in. Let BM shoot what he wants. But mostly pound the paint. This last 4 game stretch really hasn't been a great one by players or coaching staff.
 
BigErnMcCracken said:
Look, I love Karaban and he's among the handful of most important recruits in the program's history so I'm not going to get in a back and forth dumping on him but if you think Creighton made a concerted effort to "take him out" and that's why he was bad tonight . . . you're certainly entitled to that opinion.
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“Maybe I shouldn’t have played Alex today,” Hurley said. “We’ve got to figure out what’s going on with him physically, because he was moving around out there like a cargo ship.”
 
Excalibur said:
Can’t say we didn’t have it coming. Can’t let teams hang around and rely on your ability to make shots down the stretch. Eventually you won’t.
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It's all about the defense, our defense is a disaster lately.
 
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Dropping like a Rock in KP - #14. I'd have to think that would be an all time low KP for a 1 seed. Yeesh. Down to 13 on D.
 
I have a question about what really constitutes a shot in the modern game. The play where they had a breakaway (Dix?) and Silas cut in front of him and he fell over his own feet. The refs just gifted them 2 FTs there right? That is insane to me that they called that a shooting foul...
 
Ya know, I always hear about how you can't look at the real +/- from one game and conclude anything. Every game is different and the matchups are different. True. The thing is, I see the same pattern show up every time this team struggles. At that point, it might just be real. This box score is going to hurt a few people but, feel free to just crap on it as being meaningless, if that makes you feel better.

To me, the worst part of this is that you probably can't give Ross more minutes than he already got in this game. But there ARE some other adjustments that COULD be made. It would mean playing people more who are constantly crapped on here. When the team is struggling, ya might need to redistribute the minutes a bit.

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HooperScooper said:
“Maybe I shouldn’t have played Alex today,” Hurley said. “We’ve got to figure out what’s going on with him physically, because he was moving around out there like a cargo ship.”
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They need to "figure it out"? How about, ask him - take some scans. Weird.
 
Gutter King said:
I have a question about what really constitutes a shot in the modern game. The play where they had a breakaway (Dix?) and Silas cut in front of him and he fell over his own feet. The refs just gifted them 2 FTs there right? That is insane to me that they called that a shooting foul...
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Was that a call that Hurley could've challenged? Cuz if he didn't, they might've saw some contact. I dunno, but you're right, Dix slipped and tripped of his own accord.
 
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It was actually a decent game for the first 30 minutes, back and forth, good offense. Reed looked good, Demary was facilitating, Mullins got hot. I like what I have been seeing from Ross lately, definitely promising. But we don't get to the line enough and when we do we miss our FT's. Our defense wasn't great again and we just stopped making shots the last 10 minutes of the game. Down the stretch no one could make a basket in the paint. Mullins, Reed, AK, Smith, Demary, Ball. They all missed shots, one after another. It was a perfect storm between our misses and Creighton getting 12 pts in 8 minutes from Harper who hadn't played the first 30 minutes. It was too much to overcome this time.

Ball and AK were bad tonight. Neither got to the foul line once! Stewart has been missing in action the past few games. Hurley started Ross over Ball in the second half, supposedly because of foul trouble, but he hinted there might be a shakeup to the lineup. That seems like the most likely move. Ross needs to get more aggressive on offense but I like what he brings in terms of defense and length over Ball. But the only guys we have that can draw fouls are Reed and Demary and neither seem to make their FT's. That missed front end by Reed late was a killer.

I think we will be fine. Need to bounce back against Nova. These next two are dangerous. Let's see how they respond to some adversity. It's not supposed to be easy. Go Huskies!
 
Just plain old bad basketball from the 15-minute mark in the second half onwards
 
HooperScooper said:
“Maybe I shouldn’t have played Alex today,” Hurley said. “We’ve got to figure out what’s going on with him physically, because he was moving around out there like a cargo ship.”
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Part of the bad coaching stretch for the staff. Short on his shot, slow footed and brutal on defense, innefective drives. It was clear early that there was something going on with AK. You could have scrapped him after ten minutes of this game and just rode with healthy players. Very strange, especially after his big hyperbole in last games post presser.
 
DawgEnjoyer said:
Does anyone know why Hurley decided to punt on rim protection for this team?
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Busy with his book tour last summer.......no time for player evaluations or coaching.
Flipside said:
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Don't forget the quality of our on-ball defense with Shabazz and Boatright.....and Reed is no Brimah.
The past two year's teams are proving (again) how important defense is. Our guards, even Demary, haven't shown they can routinely stop drives to the basket. Watch other teams' games and notice how many fewer uncontested layups the good teams allow.
 
EnochRoot said:
Was that a call that Hurley could've challenged? Cuz if he didn't, they might've saw some contact. I dunno, but you're right, Dix slipped and tripped of his own accord.
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I guess I am less questioning whether it was a foul or not, that sort of play gets a foul called 10/10 times on optics alone.

But where was the shot? There were no hands going up to resemble a shot, he was stumbling to the ground. That game was tight at that point and we had committed 3 fouls. Maybe a mistake that Hurley didn't challenge the "in the act of shooting", but I am not sure the NCAA is as sophisticated as the NBA when it comes to that.

One of those annoying things that the announcers just glaze over but obviously has some level of impact on the game.
 
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RuffRuff said:
He was being projected as an early 2nd round pick. You can't forget, those teams made him look much better than he is. In 2024 he was surrounded by 4 cerebral players and they dominated. That was a very weak draft, he did well in the combine. Easily his peak value. These last two years have done nothing to add to his market and he's walking into one of the strongest, deepest drafts ever.
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But he made some money with NIL and enjoyed his college experience. He probably wouldn't stick in the NBA anyway. Glad he came back. It's good for UConn. But in this game AK should have been benched. Problem is Stewart isn't playing any better.
 
HooperScooper said:
“Maybe I shouldn’t have played Alex today,” Hurley said. “We’ve got to figure out what’s going on with him physically, because he was moving around out there like a cargo ship.”
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Well that explains quite a bit. I mean Alex at full strength helped us beat many ranked teams scoring and rebounding very well. Maybe we sit him to get him right?
 
Gutter King said:
I guess I am less questioning whether it was a foul or not, that sort of play gets a foul called 10/10 times on optics alone.

But where was the shot? There were no hands going up to resemble a shot, he was stumbling to the ground. That game was tight at that point and we had committed 3 fouls.

One of those annoying things that the announcers just glaze over but obviously has some level of impact on the game.
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No you're right. He tripped over his feet just before he was about to go up for a shot. He wasn't even in the air.

Unless they were in the bonus?
 
After watching this evening game I remain confident in UConn being Final 4 team this season

UConn has superior talent to Creighton and the other big East teams . If UConn were to play Creighton 10 times it would win 9 times.

Tonight the UConn team was unfocused. You can be certain that UConn will be focused and on top of its game come Big East and NCAA Tournaments. Kenpom has us winning out the rest of the Big East season.
 
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Donyell 360 said:
But he made some money with NIL and enjoyed his college experience. He probably wouldn't stick in the NBA anyway. Glad he came back. It's good for UConn. But in this game AK should have been benched. Problem is Stewart isn't playing any better.
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True, I suppose. It's not the common path for anyone with NBA aspirations. I'm thinking more on his behalf. As someone said, he has his priorities and those are personal. He's likely made 3mm in NIL these last two years. Could have likely gotten twice that on a low second two way with some guarantees, always come back to school.
 
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