Marquette Post Game Thread

[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.

 

[Hunt for 7]

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.

I think that big line up with Ball, Ross, McNeeley, Alex and Samson or Reed kind of negates their size. I hope Hurley goes to it if we are getting crushed on the boards.

 

[YearoftheHusky]

I must introduce you to my friend Cam Spenser.

Never heard of him. Cam Spencer wasn’t too bad though.

 

[uconn_jack]

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.

Yeah, it was wierd. When ot was Ball and Ross in there doing the ball handling, I thought for sure they'd punch any would get ugly quick. Pleasant surprises.

 

[DogMania]

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.

I don't know why our guards don't drive hard right into Mitchell when he closes in hard on them. Especially if he's coming in at any angle, just power dribble right into him and he get called for a blocking or reach in foul. Dribbling away from him just allows him to gain the advantage. It's counterintuitive, but important to teach or teams will get in their grill. Newton and Spencer were great at that. Hopeful the staff will teach this hard into them.

 

[PAHusky]

Kind of what I have been saying. We see the mistakes because they tend to be on the ball either on his man or a man he had to cover because someone else blew their assignment. But if you watch him on defense he is like having two players on the court. He moves so quickly and his length is next level.

He will be recognized as one of our best defenders ever by the time he leaves. He shows flashes of an offensive game that piece may not be part of the plan until next year but it is coming.

This crazy hyperbole about him becoming on of our best defenders needs to stop - thought this board would have learned from earlier in the year. He had a good game last night; he’s been at times flat out awful recently as well.

 

[PAHusky]

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.

Actual games are pressure situations, not a goofy 3 point shooting competition. He handle is also fine for his size but let’s not get carried away here. I think Ross is a good kid but for every good play on offense he has another three where he’s indecisive, throwing the ball away, etc. Maybe he does just need game time but he’s had the opportunity to do anything on offense with Liam out and didn’t show much. This is a team desperate for offense that can’t wait around for him to start feeling confident on offense.

At this point I even think his defense is getting overrated again. Let’s just give the kid props for what he did last night and hope he gets some confidence on offense soon.

 

[TheHorde]

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.

The problem is Val is overpaid and useless

 

[Mr. French]

Hawkins was better on really quick curls and screens because he was very effective on the 2 foot catch, whereas Solo is a TAD slower on release because he's usually 1-2 step. But his actual release is lightning quick so he makes up for it a bit.

The visual of Hawkins flying off screens, squaring and nailing is there, and it's real.

And I'd have said at the start of the year it's a no brainer he’s the better shooter, but Solo has been so good this year it's tough to ignore. At this stage, his shooting is more impressive.

 

[Waquoit]

Solo was great last night but just a couple games ago he took the collar down the stretch and the team lost a close one. Hawk made shots the entire season culminating in that dagger 3 to quash SDSU’s dreams. I think Ball has more to do to push Hawk aside.

 

[TheHorde]

Solo was great last night but just a couple games ago he took the collar down the stretch and the team lost a close one. Hawk made shots the entire season culminating in that dagger 3 to quash SDSU’s dreams. I think Ball has more to do to push Hawk aside.

Hawkins will always be beloved for the way he played in the tournament, especially with huge shots vs the U and the Aztecs. But he was objectively not good that January. Many on the BY thought he should stay for his Junior year at the end of that January. The reality is how kids play in March and April has a lot to do with defining their legacy.