Creighton Post Game Thread

[superjohn]

After watching this evening game I remain confident in UConn being Final 4 team this season

UConn has superior talent to Marquette and the other big East teams . If UConn were to play Marquette 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.

 

[AdamaNation]

I always assumed his best year at UConn would be his second year, like Newton.

All American next year and preseason big east poy.

 

[AdamaNation]

Busy with his book tour last summer.......no time for player evaluations or coaching.

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.

And Brimah is no reed despite his 30 point games vs cupcakes.

 

[SwingDog]

They deserved this loss. They've been playing with fire for so long and getting away with it. Atrocious defense. Were they even trying?

Hopefully a wake up call and they win the next 2.

Absolutely right. How many games did we think they would squeak by what are supposed to be lesser opponents before it caught up with them? It all starts with defense, and the defense tonight was atrocious. Tied at 45 at the half, I figured we would suffocate them in the 2nd half and pull away for the win, and that there was no way they were going to keep that pace, but it was just a copy of the first half. With a serviceable defense you can likely score 84 and figure on a win.

Creighton deserved to win tonight, and McDermott is an excellent coach. It doesn't get any easier with a matchup against Villanova on Saturday.

 

[uconngb]

1. Start Ross (I can’t believe I’m saying this) or Stewart (hasn’t earned it). Bring Ball off the bench for a shooting lift. We can’t live with his defense and him/Mullins shooting 30 3’s a game kills any offensive flow. Having a bigger 3 thru 5 makes it harder to finish at the rim. We can’t live with Mullins and Ball’s poor on ball defense against the dribble drive.

2. Reed is gassed at the end of games. Calhoun was right, we need more Reibe not only to benefit Reibe, but to save Reed’s legs.

We played our best basketball with Mullins being out or on a minutes restriction. Make that make sense.

can’t believe that I agree w it, as I’ve been the biggest Ross critic on this board. But that’s how bad Solo is. Would much rather have Ross’ D and give Braylon all of Solos shots

 

[uconngb]

Mullins actually plays good D and moves his legs laterally well. Problem is h can get outmuscled a lot. Ball even with his strong body gets outmuscled and laterally beat. He is hopeless on D.

Ball may be the worst defender we’ve had in the last 30 years

 

[uconngb]

View attachment 117206

PUT THE BONG DOWN

 

[uconngb]

We have been flirting with danger in games like this all year. We played like garbage against Georgetown then spent the last few days getting called out for fan support.

Well, tonight you had $2 beers, free t shirts, a kid walking 40 miles to the game and Okafor giving an impassioned speech at halftime.

And the team laid an egg.

Play better and the fans will act accordingly. This one is on the coach and the team.

In that order

 

[uconngb]

Now going out and winning at Nova and vs. St. John’s would be the most 2026 UConn thing ever

Except there is 0.0 chance of it happening

 

[uconngb]

Creightons a bubble team, we could still win the big east regular season and conference tournament, the sky isnt falling. At least not yet.

Bubble team for what, the CBI???

 

[Rich]

The ‘23 recruiting class just has not developed. Stewart and Ross are dead spots on the roster. Ball has a good shooting night every now and then but the totality of his career has been….meh,

Karaban is a good collegian…..but forget the pros.

Reed is the Nuke LaLoosh of UCONN basketball-million dollar body, $.05 head.

 

[UCann]

Ugh can sleep after this one. What if all the people who say that Hurley was just a Donovan Clingan merchant were righ?

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Yeah I’m completely down with being honest about how good this team is. We were waiting for tonight’s performance to finally happen.

But diminishing Alex’s contributions to those championship teams is just wrong. He was vastly overqualified to be the 5th best starter those years, that doesn’t take away from his performances. He’s having an objectively very good final season, he was never built to average 20 per game, neither was Andre Jackson or Clingan.

There’s nobody on the bench to reduce Alex’s minutes for anyways. Y’all really want 15 minutes of Stew?

24-2 was great, it was tremendous. But the people acting like really nothing was wrong are just as bad as those saying we really weren’t any good. Maybe this loss helps the team, but this is a bad, probably terrible loss. Losing to a bad team is one thing, but 91 points to Creighton is borderline unacceptable. Some will have to eat a bit of crow.

I don’t think there is a top 10 team in the country that loses to this Creighton team, at home, just as a reference. Maybe even top 15.

 

[Donyell 360]

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.

I assume he also earned a degree. That's worth something. More to some than others. Like you said it is a personal decision. Maybe he regrets it but I doubt it.

 

[uconngb]

“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.”

Smart Danny. Hurt last game, you played him anyhow. Hurt this game, was obvious, yet you left him in there.

Does he pay attention AT ALL to what’s going on in game?? We are good awful at in game adjustments and apparently also at identifying dead wood

 

[RuffRuff]

I assume he also earned a degree. That's worth something. More to some than others. Like you said it is a personal decision. Maybe he regrets it but I doubt it.

I think he got his degree in three years, redshirted a year no? Degrees will always be there to get. The NBA dream only happens once.

 

[DogMania]

I like what I saw with Tarris Reed Jr finally Dunking the ball with ferocity instead of the finesse bank shot. Message received!

I like Demary attacking the paint and effort on D.

I like how they looked for early offense instead of setting up their half-court set all night long.

I didn't like the lineup changes especially changing the one early in the second half that built a nice albeit short lived lead.

I didn't like the number of deep shots early in the clock when they were finding success in the paint.

I didn't like the horrible performance from AK and Solo and the bad results at the foul line. Solo's back to back misses after we had that nice run at the beginning of the second half flipped the momentum and the game.

I hated our defensive performance most of the night, which is looking like a D that will result in an early exit come March. Note that Creighton shot lights out tonight, so props to them.

I hope Hurley and staff can fix what is broken. They're much more talented than what they are showing. Saturday night will be a big test to see what this team is made of.

 

[Donyell 360]

I think he got his degree in three years, redshirted a year no? Degrees will always be there to get. The NBA dream only happens once.

Looked it up. You are right. He got his degree in finance last year and is pursuing a "certificate in non-profit management" this year. Whatever that is. But my point is just that education is more valuable to some than others. If playing in the NBA was the most important thing to him, then he missed his best opportunity. But at the end of the day, you have to earn your spot. Good timing only gets you so far. Those degrees will last longer than the euphoric high from being drafted.

 

[RuffRuff]

I like what I saw with Tarris Reed Jr finally Dunking the ball with ferocity instead of the finesse bank shot. Message received!

I like Demary attacking the paint and effort on D.

I like how they looked for early offense instead of setting up their half-court set all night long.

I didn't like the lineup changes especially changing the one early in the second half that built a nice albeit short lived lead.

I didn't like the number of deep shots early in the clock when they were finding success in the paint.

I didn't like the horrible performance from AK and Solo and the bad results at the foul line. Solo's back to back misses after we had that nice run at the beginning of the second half flipped the momentum and the game.

I hated our defensive performance most of the night, which is looking like a D that will result in an early exit come March. Note that Creighton shot lights out tonight, so props to them.

I hope Hurley and staff can fix what is broken. They're much more talented than what they are showing. Saturday night will be a big test to see what this team is made of.

I like the form of your post with 8 "I" statements perfectly spaced.

Something feels off with the coaching/player chemistry on this team.

 

[KingAG]

Looked it up. You are right. He got his degree in finance last year and is pursuing a "certificate in non-profit management" this year. Whatever that is. But my point is just that education is more valuable to some than others. If playing in the NBA was the most important thing to him, then he missed his best opportunity. But at the end of the day, you have to earn your spot. Good timing only gets you so far. Those degrees will last longer than the euphoric high from being drafted.

He didn’t miss anything. I’m not sure you’re familiar with the NBA draft process. 2nd rounders are non guaranteed. There’s guys who go undrafted that end up with contracts over guys who went second round. And Alex won’t go undrafted. If you’re a 2nd round pick you don’t lose anything by coming back to school.

Had he went he’d be making $500,000 playing for the Maine red claws.

 

[Scrutineer]

Another thing that bums me out is that there's been no progression from Jaylin, it's now at the point where it's regression. He's a really great kid and he showed a lot of game when I watched him in high school. He was all over draft boards early in his UConn career and now he's just a spectator whether he's on the bench or in the game.

Coaching? You can read it all over his face that he isn't really "in the game".

 

[RuffRuff]

Looked it up. You are right. He got his degree in finance last year and is pursuing a "certificate in non-profit management" this year. Whatever that is. But my point is just that education is more valuable to some than others. If playing in the NBA was the most important thing to him, then he missed his best opportunity. But at the end of the day, you have to earn your spot. Good timing only gets you so far. Those degrees will last longer than the euphoric high from being drafted.

My guess is he came back thinking he could escalate his draft value as a core player, along with NIL & the 3 peat as secondary benefits. I think that B2B jaded a lot of perspectives. That decision was encouraged by the coaching staff. They mis-evaluated. Hurley blind spot. Then when he generally tanked as a core player, he came back for the NIL and another year see if he could regroup.

Educated guess.

He didn’t miss anything. I’m not sure you’re familiar with the NBA draft process. 2nd rounders are non guaranteed. There’s guys who go undrafted that end up with contracts over guys who went second round. And Alex won’t go undrafted. If you’re a 2nd round pick you don’t lose anything by coming back to school.

Had he went he’d be making $500,000 playing for the Maine red claws.

AJX had a 4 year, 7.5mm contract with 5mm+ guaranteed. Presuming that's around where AK would have gone in 2024 as an early second rounder, you could use that as a gauge. That's a lot more money that he got in NIL, and he would have gotten his NBA career started earlier. Early second rounders usually get decent guaranteed contracts.

 

[Donyell 360]

He didn’t miss anything. I’m not sure you’re familiar with the NBA draft process. 2nd rounders are non guaranteed. There’s guys who go undrafted that end up with contracts over guys who went second round. And Alex won’t go undrafted. If you’re a 2nd round pick you don’t lose anything by coming back to school.

Had he went he’d be making $500,000 playing for the Maine red claws.

High second rounders can get some guaranteed money. We don't know where he would have been drafted, just projections which can be wrong. How do you think his draft stock compares to last year or the year before?

And to be clear, I think he made the right decision coming back, because he probably won't make it in the NBA anyway. Might as well make more money on NIL and get a degree and be treated like a king. But if we are strictly talking about his best chance to play in the NBA, that was last year or the year before.

 

[DawgEnjoyer]

We don’t have the rim protection we’re used to, at all. That’s the difference.

Yeah, I know Reed had 15 in the first half, but he likely gave up just as many letting everyone get to the rim at ease

 

[superjohn]

He didn’t miss anything. I’m not sure you’re familiar with the NBA draft process. 2nd rounders are non guaranteed. There’s guys who go undrafted that end up with contracts over guys who went second round. And Alex won’t go undrafted. If you’re a 2nd round pick you don’t lose anything by coming back to school.

Had he went he’d be making $500,000 playing for the Maine red claws.

Karaban may have been drafted late first round if he left after his sophomore season. Several teams at the end of the first were interested in him. He had his best season as a sophomore, UConn was coming off back to back and his flaws weren't exposed yet. He has no chance of being drafted first round now.

I'm sure he's comfortable with his decision, he's made a lot of money here in the past two seasons and he loves playing for UConn but the hype around him as a player in those two seasons doesn't at all match his on court performance.