Marquette Post Game Thread

[Chin Diesel]

I agree. We are now seeing flashes of a guy who can be solid as a scorer, if not great, while doing other things really well. There was a reason he led the team in minutes yesterday.

But if he wants to play over 30 minutes a game, he can’t go away on offense for such long stretches. He has to remain a thread to take his man off the bounce.

10 points
7 rebounds
3 assists
3 steals
0 TO's

 

[Huskybass]

Despite the funniest looking shot I've ever seen, Jackson looks comfortable out there and ready to impose his will. I thought he had a great first half yesterday and then he seemed to disappear in the second half.

He seems to have harnessed his energy and athleticism to the point of being more poised and efficient. He still doesn't seem to trust his handle enough to take his man off the dribble very often, but he will get there. Love what he brings overall, point forwardish with elite athleticism.

 

[Tenspro2002]

This is the 2nd or 3rd time this year we’ve gone up double digits and Hurley sits Cole and Martin and the lead immediately evaporates. That cannot happen again. We do not have the offensive firepower to sit our 2 best scorers at the same time and frankly I’m not sure what Hurley thinks when he does it??

He probably thinks that these guys can't play 40 minutes and he has to sit them sometime, and the best time to do it is after building a 10 point lead when we have a little cushion.

The only problem is sitting both of them at once, you have to stagger it -- maybe sit Martin from the 12 minutes mark to 9 minutes, and Cole from 9 minutes to 6, something like that.

 

[Tenspro2002]

This is absolutely spot on. Whaley has not looked good guarding the 5 lately. Sanogo sliding back in should help, I just worry about the 5 defensively when Sanogo is out. Would like to see Johnson play 5 min or so minimum so Whaley can limit the time he has at the 5. Granted, I though Whaley did an excellent job staying out of foul trouble given the whistle fest.

Akok’s rotations aren’t merely a struggle — they are BAD. With that said, his ability to block shots makes up for it to a degree. My biggest gripe in his overall game currently is his ability to finish at the rim. For someone so long and athletic his touch lacks a lot to be desired when he gets to the rim.

Akok's offense is really limited to spot-up 3's and the occasional alley-oop.

He can't take a guy off the dribble, post up, or finish through/around contact, e.g. on an offensive rebound. Same is true of Whaley, really. This is a large part of why our offense stagnates. Hopefully the guys we're bringing in next year are more well-rounded.

 

[Fairfield_1st]

I thought the refs were awful.

I expect bad officiating. My question is why bother reviewing plays, like the ball still being in the shooter's hand with the shot clock expired, if you're still not going to get it right? Boggles the mind.

 

[Greathusky]

I'm rooting for Gaff hard. He's actually one of my favorite players. I'm not sure why, but he is.

Sadly, this was one of his better games against non-cupcakes. Hopefully he makes some strides in the coming games.

He's a spring semester guy. I'm confident

One of his better games???

I swear that sometimes after reading the comments on this board, I feel like I was in a twilight episode watching the game from an alternate universe. Gaffney's turnovers and Polley's bricks were TUMS grabbing moments.

Gaffney and Polley are serious liabilities right now. Hoping that they straighten out because we will need them in March.

 

[Fairfield_1st]

Their bigs ran us over but Hurley did finally doubled down from time to time late in game.

Are you saying Hurley made an adjustment? That will come as quite a shock to many of the armchair coaches on this board.

 

[imno1]

My biggest observation relating to last nights game. This board is getting more insufferable every day. I should have known that if we didn’t play a perfect game many BYers would pick this team apart rather than celebrating a hard fought entertaining win. It reminded me of the old BE with lots of battles at the hoop. When there’s are more negative comments than positive ones after a conference road win I just have to smh. Xavier will be an even tougher test especially a since they just got beat.

 

[Chin Diesel]

The review of the basket vs shot clock was the most egregious take this year. Both announcers saying it didn’t look close, and the refs still gave it to MU. Followed with another bizarre offensive foul, but they gave Lewis any bullrush move he wanted.

Yes on the post players just driving their shoulder in to UConn defenders and it's either a no call or foul on UConn. It's a blatant offensive foul using the shoulder instead of thee arm to push off and create space. Others have said this in previous post game threads- if refs aren't going to call that on the post player the defender has no chance.
LO

 

[Watchdog]

They can’t play every minute of the game. They need a minute or two to rest, especially when we’re consistently pushing in transition.

I'm guessing Uncle Spliff's key point was "at the same time".
They're not conjoined twins.

 

[Fatroony5]

Much needed win, happy to see them close it out in the last 4 minutes there. Actually looked good breaking the press as well; shows how important that first pass after the inbounds is. Once that gets in, it’s usually beatable.

Few things I noticed: Andre Jackson having a bigger and bigger role on this team, his emergence is key. Definitely getting more comfortable and making better decisions when pushing the pace. Surprised they haven’t run that backside screen alley oop play from the top of the key for him yet. I don’t think they’ve run that action all season. We saw Bouknight hit on that at least 3-4 times in his career, wonder if they break that out next game.

Interior D needs to step up, especially against X. Cole is much more efficient when other guys are helping to share the load, much needed. Heard Hurley say it post game, this is the Cole we want. Not him jacking too too many shots. And last Gaff. Idk what to say, maybe it’s confidence or something else but he looks a bit lost out there. Shorts minutes tho at least. I’ll keep saying I’d like to see Diggins get a short run in a first half with a veteran line up around him just to see what he has, yank him if it’s that bad. Overal big win and restoring some confidence, bring on X!

 

[Umami Zen]

On a lighter note-- Gotta admit- RJ finally got a few lucky bounces on the rim.. All good

 

[HuskyHawk]

We won a league game on the road. Nothing much to complain about. Sanogo was rusty as hell. Cole and Martin carried the team. Jackson and Akok had nice games. Whaley was abused down low. Really hoped we’d see Johnson to see how he’d handle it. Everyone raves about Whaley on D, but he has never been very good in post defense against strong players.

 

[Huskybass]

On a lighter note-- Gotta admit- RJ finally got a few lucky bounces on the rim.. All good

He is a bit of a magician. Still not sure how 2 of those shots dropped.

 

[MTBingNinja]

Completely agree on the Pick-n-roll defense. If we do this against better teams we’ll get shredded.

Said this too as early as last year. Why doesn’t an opposing coach exploit the hard hedge with a pick-n-roll!? They certainly have scouting reports

 

[businesslawyer]

Akok's offense is really limited to spot-up 3's and the occasional alley-oop.

He can't take a guy off the dribble, post up, or finish through/around contact, e.g. on an offensive rebound. Same is true of Whaley, really. This is a large part of why our offense stagnates. Hopefully the guys we're bringing in next year are more well-rounded.

Really unfair to Whaley. He showed the second half of 19-20 that he could hit midrange jumpers and finish through contact. And hit foul shots. He was our third threat behind CV and Bouk coming down the stretch that year and was a consistent double digit scorer. He has been asked to play differently for the good of the team.

 

[businesslawyer]

I expect bad officiating. My question is why bother reviewing plays, like the ball still being in the shooter's hand with the shot clock expired, if you're still not going to get it right? Boggles the mind.

I guess I'm in the minority, but I wouldn't have overturned the live call from that replay. The only thing that was clear was that before the ball left the area of his hand, the light had gone in. But I wasn't sure that the ball hadn't left his hand, but was still surrounded by a moment by his fingers, before the backboard lit up.

 

[Waquoit]

We still need to better utilize the glass down low on offense.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Amen to to whoever said it is was a road win those will all be huge.
Win at Xavier and I could exhale

 

[Fairfield_1st]

I guess I'm in the minority, but I wouldn't have overturned the live call from that replay. The only thing that was clear was that before the ball left the area of his hand, the light had gone in. But I wasn't sure that the ball hadn't left his hand, but was still surrounded by a moment by his fingers, before the backboard lit up.

I thought his hand was still bent backward in the cradle position and he was starting the actual shooting motion/follow through. The video quality leaves something to be desired. There shouldn't be grainy gray area about a call.

 

[Fatroony5]

Said this too as early as last year. Why doesn’t an opposing coach exploit the hard hedge with a pick-n-roll!? They certainly have scouting reports

It can be tough to exploit at times, matchup depending. When it’s Whaley, he does a really good job of getting on the ball handler quickly and making the ball handler move backwards. He’s lightning quick with it, throws off the timing, often tipping the ball. UConn does a good job of scrambling on the backside too if Whaley doesn’t recover in time and teams have to work the ball around to get the open look which isn’t always easy. If the guard can keep the momentum off the screen, it can be there. Or split the hedge/defenders.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

I guess I'm in the minority, but I wouldn't have overturned the live call from that replay. The only thing that was clear was that before the ball left the area of his hand, the light had gone in. But I wasn't sure that the ball hadn't left his hand, but was still surrounded by a moment by his fingers, before the backboard lit up.

I agree, I didn’t see anything conclusive either way in the video. Just not good enough quality.

 

[Get a Job]

I guess I'm in the minority, but I wouldn't have overturned the live call from that replay. The only thing that was clear was that before the ball left the area of his hand, the light had gone in. But I wasn't sure that the ball hadn't left his hand, but was still surrounded by a moment by his fingers, before the backboard lit up.

When the light on the backboard started to illuminate, the shooter's hand was approximately perpendicular to his arm. His wrist then flicked as the light was clearly on, and the ball launched from his hand. I grant you that no replay I saw definitively showed contact between the ball and the shooter after the light went on, but I can tell you the ball could not have accelerated as it did unless his hand was touching it after the shot clock expired.

 

[uconnfan68]

i think the issue is that the things he does well hes not doing very well over the last two games. We need him rebounding, blocking shots and defending. He has had his lunch handed to him in the last two games by opposing bigs. If that continues he may lose minutes to Akok who right now is a better one on one defender but gets lost on rotations at times which is keeping him from really taking his defense to an elite level.

I think Akok is a much more effective shotblocker off the ball. Whaley is much quicker and can handle someone closer to him. In any case, to have lineups playing without either guy in borders on malpractice. They are the only rim protectors in the rotation. They need to find ways to keep them near the basket too.

 

[uconnfan68]

It can be tough to exploit at times, matchup depending. When it’s Whaley, he does a really good job of getting on the ball handler quickly and making the ball handler move backwards. He’s lightning quick with it, throws off the timing, often tipping the ball. UConn does a good job of scrambling on the backside too if Whaley doesn’t recover in time and teams have to work the ball around to get the open look which isn’t always easy. If the guard can keep the momentum off the screen, it can be there. Or split the hedge/defenders.

Only IW can do it right.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Amen to to whoever said it is was a road win those will all be huge.
Win at Xavier and I could exhale

So, you're Waiting To Exhale?

 

[HuskyHawk]

I guess I'm in the minority, but I wouldn't have overturned the live call from that replay. The only thing that was clear was that before the ball left the area of his hand, the light had gone in. But I wasn't sure that the ball hadn't left his hand, but was still surrounded by a moment by his fingers, before the backboard lit up.

What I saw on replay was the backboard light went on but the clock showed 1. They didn’t seem to be in synch. So go with clock and call it good.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

I guess I'm in the minority, but I wouldn't have overturned the live call from that replay. The only thing that was clear was that before the ball left the area of his hand, the light had gone in. But I wasn't sure that the ball hadn't left his hand, but was still surrounded by a moment by his fingers, before the backboard lit up.

watch the replay again. u know who was sitting right behind the play?
coach. and being an actual former baller, he is wholey familiar with the rhythm of the moment. u know what he did instinctively at that moment?
he waived it off. instantly. no head hurting deep doodoo analysis paralysis. iffn it could have been good, he wouldn't do the umpire 'safe at the plate' move that he did (meaning in this case, 'doesn't count'), emphatically. prolly would've done the two handed, thro both arms in a slap move, like, 'well, that stunk.'
on the udder hand, there's always sketchy calls in a game, and it's fun to look back and see if they got it right. guys fingers were still touching the ball when the clock expired. no hoop.