Marquette Post Game Thread

[uconn_jack]

Contrast Shaka’s coaching last night where he was trying to be “Mr. Mellow” to get his team to relax… that didn’t work, kind of a head scratcher! Low energy IMO. Might work against most DIV 1 teams but not Mr. Hurley.

The homer TV announcers after cutting away from Shaka’s “pep talk” were locked in on showing how it worked after Marquette scored after Time out. “See it worked” they started this conversation about how good the speech was…

Then Ball drains a 3… Sorry announcers, sometimes you need to call what you see, not what you’d like to see.



It was funny seeing Dan fire up our team!!! How can they be more desperate than us!! That was one for the ages!

I disagree, I think that was the right call for Shaka for his team, they were way to amped up, and not in the good way. We were just better offensively.

 

[uconn_jack]

You can never tell on chat if we are winning or losing

The troll is strong on the chat.

 

[uconnfan68]

That was a great game all the way around. the 3 point shooting at 63% was unconscious. Obviously we don't do that hardly ever, but it worked this game.

One thing I noticed is that when we built our big lead in the 1st half, Marquette was literally playing offense 100% 1 on 1. Their guard would bring the ball up, dribble around, drive to the basket, and look for a foul. In fairness, the announcers even said several of our guys fouled them but the refs didn't call it. As much as it was a great game, could have looked a lot different if those fouls were called.

Regardless, great result, great win, great for our resume, and a fun game to watch.

I only wish someone would have had Hass' back. He couldn't keep up and there was zero offside help on those drives.

 

[uconn_jack]

Yeah, I saw that on there, almost spit out my beer.

 

[AllHusky]

Crazy that the yard goes from utter despair to euphoria in one game’s time.

Isn't that what the Yard is for? Allows otherwise healthy well adjusted people the opportunity to vent their mental illness amongst similarly afflicted nut jobs. Makes perfect sense to me.

I can't even publicly acknowledge my contribution to the Mojo(it worked). It is so bad I am embarassed and ashamed....and happy all at once

See, crazy. And everyone here is understanding, aren't you?

 

[Deleted at users request]

He's not demonstrated much to talk about his offense. I'm extrapolating a lot but I predict we are going to see great things from him in the future. He was our best ball handler in the Marquette game. I don't know about you but he was the only player I felt confident with bringing the ball up court. That's a rapid improvement from his previous games.

I know it's not a game situation but he won the 3 point contest pre season. He had a beautiful stroke under that pressure situation. I contend his poor performance in games is a lack of experience plus being the player who knows/thinks he's the last offensive option so he hesitates. He needs a couple of games like Stewart had at the start of this game to make the leap we are beginning to see with his defensive ability.

Who is this new ctchamps that’s been doing these thorough team/player breakdowns this season??

 

[Deleted at users request]

By the way I completely agree on Ross. You can continue to see the tools there. His handle, quickness, and IQ shows up. Made some pretty great passes and reads tonight too.

He can get to where he wants. As @ctchamps said though he plays like he knows he’s the last option on the court and hesitates to score and be aggressive because of it it seems.

That move in the lane though where he did a turnaround jumper over the defender is something I expect he can do more consistently in the future.

I’m really really hoping for even bigger leaps from him and Ball over the summer. Ball working on his handle and playmaking ability. Ross working on his overall scoring confidence.

They both have all the ability in the world to be high level two way playmaking guards. Which can be huge for next year and their draft stocks.

3:30 for that Ross play. It looked natural.

 

[alphasigko]

Great win in a very tough environment against a talented team albeit with 25 TOs... Also very fortunate that Marquette could not make their shots in the 1st half. Great efforts by SJ and Ball. One more week of rest for Liam before the St John's game. GO HUSKIES!

 

[sdglast]

Mahaney was unplayable last night. He was playing like it was a noon time pick up game at the Y when it was a summer league game at Rucker. He wilted big time last night.

He really struggles again Big East level competition. He can handle himself against smaller guards, but anyone with size and quickness really disrupts him both in play and in confidence. He is not a good defender and will likely get limited minutes against St. Johns. They are way too quick and physical for him defensively.

 

[my2cents]

I never screamed more at the TV than last night in a win. My wife was saying, "Who are you yelling at?'
"Grab the damn ball"
Stop with the turnovers"
Who are you passing too?

You get the drift. But it is tiring.

 

[Palatine]

Mahaney picked up three quick fouls and that took away his aggressiveness. If he isn't aggressive he has very little to offer.

I don't think he "wilted"as much as he was passive and that led to 3 TOs in 8 minutes. He had a bucket , a steal and a missed three pointer. Not a good night. But his play has picked up lately on both ends of the floor.

Every game he seems to have a lapse in focus that causes a problem. But you can live with it if he hits his ceiling of a three, a lay up, two fouls shots and adequate defense.

 

[ucp990411]

One thing I was really suprised about is that Marquette didn't press us late in the first half when we didn't have any PGs in there.

With Solo at the point they backed off the press for some reason. We actually had good ball movement with Solo as the main ball handler. Shaka does not seem like a very good game coach to me.

 

[boba]

The chat is not the faculty lounge at Princeton.

Still, it achieves a higher standard than Yale's.

 

[UCan3]

I disagree, I think that was the right call for Shaka for his team, they were way to amped up, and not in the good way. We were just better offensively.

It was a right call if you are Uconn fan that's for sure. seriously though you can't really prove it one way or another, but Dan did out coach him

 

[superjohn]

He had some big moments and huge shots but I disagree. And also, Ball is doing it on volume with WAY more pressure.

I’m not mad or anything I just disagree. I’m more confident when he shoots than anyone in a long time.

He's a better shooter than Hawk. Hawk could go on heaters and hit super high degree of difficulty shots but he's not a consistent open shooter. He never has been. He's never shot over 40% in his college/NBA career from three.

 

[dennismenace]

Couldn’t watch live but just caught a replay. Man. Outhustled all night, crushed on the offensive glass, 20+ turnovers, and we still beat a top 10 team on the road. How? 12-19 three point shooting led by THE BEST GAME OF SOLO BALL’S CAREER! He is growing up right in front of us. He answered every single Marquette run with a soul crushing three

We came out with great energy and built a huge lead early thanks to Stewart popping off. Tarris got involved, AK got involved, then Solo took us home

We played great individual defense in the first half. Switched pretty much everything and everyone held their ground. I was disappointed with Marquette. Their strategy was to flop and pray for whistles. The basketball gods punished them with 12-22 FT shooting. They made their runs when they started playing real basketball and it made for a really exciting second half

LETS. GO. HUSKIES.

I liked the initial opening of the game when we ran up a 12-4 lead. When those three point shots started raining down you could hear a pin drop in that arena. It reminded me of the oft quoted "Bronx Tale" sequence when Chaz P locked the door and said "now youze can't leave" and the kid says "I saw the blood drain out of their faces" etc.

That stunned every person in that arena. That was not the script they had imagined.

 

[Conndog]

1. Stevie Mitchell was terrorizing both Diarra and Mahaney down the stretch, and is my pick for BE DPOY

2. I REALLY wish our guys were allowed to play defense like Stevie Mitchell lmao

The right kind of attacking guard would take advantage of Mitchell’s overplay and then go hard the other way- they’d be able to draw a defensive foul time after time. Mitchell is excellent, and his help defense is really superb, but he gets too close to man he’s guarding and tries to block any path forward. Our guards will take one dribble and then stop. Are they trying to penetrate or not? They need to push hard and continue. Hassan is injured, but it would fill such a need if they can find another Tristan in the portal.

 

[Kowalski]

He's a better shooter than Hawk. Hawk could go on heaters and hit super high degree of difficulty shots but he's not a consistent open shooter. He never has been. He's never shot over 40% in his college/NBA career from three.

I think Solo’s probably a better pure shooter than Hawk with space to shoot. But I think Hawk was probably more effective coming off screens to elevate & knock down tough shots over defenders that were on him close.
Still, Solo’s only a sophomore & you can see growth in his ability to work for looks every game. The step back he hit last night was Kemba like.

 

[DogMania]

1. Stevie Mitchell was terrorizing both Diarra and Mahaney down the stretch, and is my pick for BE DPOY

2. I REALLY wish our guys were allowed to play defense like Stevie Mitchell lmao

I watched the game live and watched half of it again today, and Mitchell gets away with an incredible amount of contact without being called for a foul. Now granted some of his thefts and pressure is legit and impressive, but my gosh! If any of our players pressured like that they'd foul out by halftime.

I can't remember at what point in the first half, I think within the last 5 minutes they finally called on on him that was highly egregious.

And don't get me started about all the grabbing and impedence off the ball against both Karaban and Ball. What the h*ll has happened in the Big East with freedom of movement. Isn't there someway the UConn athletic department can petition the BE commisser and/or office, sending them a slew of tape on all this off the ball contact so that the BE leadership can inform the refs to look for and call fouls on this type of physicality? I think it would be in the best interest for the conference to empower the more skill teams such as UConn to succeed rather than being beaten by lesser teams who are just grabbing all the time.

As for bad noncall incorrectly called fouls last night we certainly had our share. There were quite a few we got away with that I thought were obvious. Though without looking closely and counting all of them for both teams, I'd still think it was tilted in Marquette's favor.

I don't usually complain about getting hosed by the refs, but this season has been a strange one. There's no doubt that this UConn team clearly struggles to defend without fouling. Most occur due to defenders struggling to keep their man front driving right by them, poor help D execution resulting in off the ball defenders scrambling when D gets blown up and a good amount when they fail to secure the defensive rebounds where they give up 2nd and 3rd opportunities. My guess is if you foul a lot, like a dog with Pavlov's law, the refs react in conditionally response and can't stop blowing the whistle. I swear I keep on hearing the whistle blowing even after they go to commercials. .

On the positive note on our defense, I thought they improved a lot with switching more than we've seen all season and hedging at the right times as well. Not sure if the frequent switching is a new wrinkle or was due to Marquette not having quality Bigs to worry so much with mismatched. One thing that bodes well for even switching sometimes on screens with our bigs is Johnson is long and pretty quick for a big, and Reed, while bigger and not as long, moves pretty well for a player his size. His problem lies more with recognition and technique than physical ability. Sometimes he's just a fraction too slow in closing out and retreating back to his man or late in recognizing to shade off his man to help stave off dribble penetration when a teammate has lost their angle. He's new to this type of D and seems to be slowly getting better with his help D.

That's a lot in that response but I hope it was worth reading.

 

[RuffRuff]

 

[Excalibur]

By the end of the year he was better….thats why he went in the first round. Hawk had some head scratching games when we went into that January funk. Solo right now is where Hawk was at about the same time.

Also I think Solo’s shot is more consistent. Hawk would have some games where he did not shoot well at all.

Hawk could get and make shots that Solo isn’t close to having in his repertoire. But if I want one guy to take an open 3, I’ll take Ball.

 

[444JR]

We saw tonight that we can play without Diarra or Mahaney’s on the court. That will be easier when Liam comes back.

I like Samson, Karaban, McNeeley, Ross and Ball as a potential go too defensive line up. Ross can cover anyone 1 through 3.

Ball is rebounding. This is the most excited I have been about this team this year.

Mahaney may have to really fight for PT when Liam returns.

I hope I am wrong about when he is going to come back. That hug between him and AK at the end of the game was a we got through it buddy, let’s have a good week of practice and get ready for St Johns.

What a great win!!!

McNeeley ending the season being featured on the ball more when Hassan sits will definitely cement his top-10 NBA draft pick status. Needs to happen. Absolutely loved the stretch at the end of the first half with Solo playing lead guard next to Ross, Stewart, Karaban, Samson. Size and versatility at every spot.

 

[Excalibur]

I dont remember any high hedges last night, which had been killing us. We were switching everything, which is what I thought our wings were going to be doing all year. Our lineups without Diarra and Mahaney were our best +/- last night. I think we'll be switching everything against St Johns as well.

They didn’t run a lot of high ball screens. Most of the action was around the elbow.

We switched everything except when Reed and Karaban were involved.

 

[gsmooth]

I think Stevie Mitchell had something to do with that decision

That and Aidan's lousy play. Everytime he dribbled up court with a Marquette defender pressuring him, especially Stevie Mitchell pressuring him, made me do this. ...

 

[gsmooth]

How was Diarra compromised?

U didn't see how injured and banged up Diarra was? He has been visibly limping the last 2 games and K Jones and other players were blowing by him with ease in a way that would never happen when he is close to 100%

 

[444JR]

Samson continues to to grow even this late into his career. Continues to finish in more and more creative ways, playing better defense, fouling slightly less. And he's seemingly become a pretty reliable free throw shooter. We love to see it!

He’ll keep getting better. It’s basically a redshirt sophomore year for him.

 

[Hunt for 7]

This deep in, in critical games, if you can’t show up and contribute as a junior and are a continued liability, you’re just not playable at all. If the light bulb was going to go off, it would have.

But to be honest none of us thought he would be this unplayable. Who knows maybe something unexpected happens, he probably has the best offensive skill set if you compare him with Diarra or Nowell (if he was healthy) so maybe he has a few games where he makes some shots and helps us win.

I kind of reached my limit when he missed those free throws against Xavier. His is a junior who has played in some big games and he did pretty well in those high pressure situations against very good teams and players but if you did not know that you would never believe it when you watch him play this year.

I think we should give Hass a pass on the turnovers. He was clearly bothered by that knee you could see him flexing it during breaks in the action. Being someone who has had 7 surgeries on one knee I can tell you when it is stiff that is just a natural thing to do. Hopefully it is not serious and he will be good to go with some rest.

 

[freshler40]

Hawk needs to prove himself to others. It's harder for him to dismiss bad plays. He does better when he doesn't have time to think. The fear of making a mistake is greater when he doesn't act reflexively. Solo stays in the moment. He doesn't let his poor play in a previous play impact the next play. He not only tunes out the background noise, he loves critical moments. He doesn't have the anchor of "what if I fail" dragging him down.

Solo is a linear thinker. He assesses what he needs to improve upon and makes adjustments to his skills. It's a challenge for him and he loves the challenge. He doesn't let those weaknesses get into his head so they don't impact what he does well while he works on them. It's good to be a critical thinker but Hawk will struggle if he keeps looking outside himself for approval.

Great thoughts. Some move beyond failure to great success. You can learn more when you lose if you let it!

 

[Peacefrog]

Conversely they are offensive rebounding machine (12th in country) and Ejifor is a big part of that. Keeping guys like him, Luis and Richmond off the O glass will be really important in this one as it’s a big part of their offense. This is a big part of what differentiates them from a team like Marquette, who is awful on the glass. Fun matchup.

Marquette had 17! Offensive rebounds against us at an almost 50% rate. They weren’t so awful on the glass against us.

 

[RuffRuff]

Marquette had 17! Offensive rebounds against us at an almost 50% rate. They weren’t so awful on the glass against us.

I see 13 but still a lot. Some of that is because they did so much missing. We need to be ready to defend our glass. Not sure who the better matchup is in that one of Samson or Reed. Samson had his best games vs StJ last year.

If anyone wants to relive Solos 3pt barrage, quite the assortment.