Marquette Post Game Thread | Page 16 | The Boneyard

Marquette Post Game Thread

A team that's fairly reliant on perimeter shooting can't shoot 3/24 from 3 and expect to win against anyone, even a subpar Marquette team. Hell, I'd argue that we were damn fortunate to even have a shot to tie playing that awful against a Power 5 team. Play like this second weekend of the tournament and you're probably losing by 20+. Play like this against a 14 or 15 seed in round 1 and ooooh boy that game is going to be a torture chamber to watch.
 
aceboon said:
I keep seeing draft board updates from respected media like Wasserman(BR) and Vecenie(The Athletic) who talk to team execs/scouts who say they're not worried about Mullins not putting up crazy counting stats compared to the other elite freshmen because of the system and UConn's balance. Forget big counting stats, at what point should he actually be expected to play well? He'll take the occasional deep long ball that he never makes but he's consistently bricking wide open shots. It felt like board consensus that after he got settled into the lineup that he would emerge as our best player and he's not anywhere close to that. This game would have been a dbl digit halftime lead if he could make an open shot other than an non contested lay-up.
Expand ...
Mullins has been so disappointing compared to his freshmen peers. He’s a one trick pony. Shot chucker and zero defense. Basically Solo Ball with NBA hype.
 
Brandon Miles said:
i agree solo has poor shot selection, i dont see improvement on his ball driving skills
Expand ...
Solo is at 30% this season. Karaban and Silas at 41 though Silas doesn’t shoot as many.
Mullins at 38%. Hurley keeps thinking Solo will break out. It seems like we have to live or die with him shooting those 3’s.
 
.-.
Brandon Miles said:
i agree solo has poor shot selection, i dont see improvement on his ball driving skills
Expand ...
Driving skills aren't great - he shies away from contact, and a big part why we don't get to the line. His two drives today were pretty embarrassing. His middy game is solid, but seems to abandon it for threes a lot. One of the more frustrating players I've seen in a Uconn uniform.
 
superjohn said:
We don't exactly have a lot of options. Jaylin is out and Ross played 22 minutes, Solo played 24. Ross was a lot less bad than AK, Mullins, and Solo and provided some energy plays but he went back to his bad habit of biting on pump fakes. Malachi has zero confidence.
Expand ...
I completely understand that. But when something is CLEARLY not working you at least have to try something else.

Or maybe, actually go back to something that WAS working????
 
The team cannot go to the rim. They rely solely on 3-point shooting, pick-and-roll, and dumping down to the Bigs. Perimeter defense is suspect at best. Ball handling is suspect. The motion offense allowed the team to thrive early in the season, but they have been exposed. With all of this, this team is very talented, but they continually play down to lower teams and they lack the killer instinct. Can't put teams away and often comes out flat. Danny has not been able to get the best of of this group and I don't know why.
 
Conndog said:
How is Hurley and UConn going to play against a zone defense? They couldn’t handle it today, and they surely will face it in the tournament.
Expand ...

They're not shooting 12.5% again. They had a lot of great looks from 3 today. Just didn't drop
 
.-.
uconngb said:
I completely understand that. But when something is CLEARLY not working you at least have to try something else.

Or maybe, actually go back to something that WAS working????
Expand ...
The whole strategy from the get go was confusing. There are exactly two things to know about Marquette: they force turnovers and don’t rebound. Every Shaka Smart team is like this, it never changes.

I get the bricked shots is mostly bad luck, but no reason to absolutely abandon a strategy that every year is shown to be his weakness, his teams don’t adapt like that. Their interior is awful
 
RuffRuff said:
Driving skills aren't great - he shies away from contact, and a big part why we don't get to the line. His two drives today were pretty embarrassing. His middy game is solid, but seems to abandon it for threes a lot. One of the more frustrating players I've seen in a Uconn uniform.
Expand ...

What is the highest level of basketball you've played or coached? Not trolling, just curious. In full disclosure, I never made it past 5th grade youth league.
 
We missed the play of Jalen Stewart today for a variety of reasons. He definitely would have helped today on both ends of the court with his size and athleticism. He could have been used to defend Royce Parham in particular, and just his all-around offense/defense that he contributes. We need his play going forward. We are not as deep, and that showed today.
 
I doubt Hurley ever goes there, but I do wonder if he'll ever be smart enough to cut bait with players that just don't work in his system. Other top program's this year have moved on productive players to build more balanced, productive rosters.

Duke - two years ago, Scheyer moved off upperclassmen Jeremy Roach, Mark Mitchell, etc to build a really good roster
AZ - moved off Vaessar, KJ Lewis
UM - May moved off Tre Donaldson

They all reloaded with players that raised the roster. With the portal, international recruitment, there are a lot of options that don't force you to have to hold on to pieces that don't work.

As we've seen with Purdue this year, rolling back players doesn't automatically equal NC contender. Building great rosters = NC contender. It's been pretty clear this particular group includes players that really don't work. The most important part of success in CBB is about building "bullet proof" rosters, not holding onto players for culture.
formerlurker said:
What is the highest level of basketball you've played or coached? Not trolling, just curious. In full disclosure, I never made it past 5th grade youth league.
Expand ...
HS
 
boog204 said:
The problem is if we have a bad shooting game - which as you stated can happen to any team - we are far too one dimensional to consistently overcome it. Running out a 2, 3, and 4 whose primary positive influences are basically completely dependent on hitting 3’s is, again, an issue in roster construction.
Expand ...
We rank 159th in 3s attempted per game. We shot 12% from 3 on 24 attempts. It was an aberration that will lose you just about any game in today’s basketball world.
 
.-.
RuffRuff said:
I doubt Hurley ever goes there, but I do wonder if he'll ever be smart enough to cut bait with players that just don't work in his system. Other top program's this year have moved on productive players to build more balanced, productive rosters.

Duke - two years ago, Scheyer moved off upperclassmen Jeremy Roach, Mark Mitchell, etc to build a really good roster
AZ - moved off Vaessar, KJ Lewis
UM - May moved off Tre Donaldson

They all reloaded with players that raised the roster. With the portal, international recruitment, there are a lot of options that don't force you to have to hold on to pieces that don't work.

As we've seen with Purdue this year, rolling back players doesn't automatically equal NC contender. Building great rosters = NC contender. It's been pretty clear this particular group includes players that really don't work. The most important part of success in CBB is about building "bullet proof" rosters, not holding onto players for culture.

HS
Expand ...
Did you just start following the program? Hurley has "cut bait" with over a dozen players.
 
Aar684 said:
Opposite for me. Getting older and going through a lot worse things in life makes sports seem trivial. I enjoy watching and get a little annoyed at losses for a few minutes then I move on.
Expand ...
Too good of a take for the boneyard
 
aburks41 said:
Mullins has been so disappointing compared to his freshmen peers. He’s a one trick pony. Shot chucker and zero defense. Basically Solo Ball with NBA hype.
Expand ...
Yup, basically having the same year solo did as a sophomore
 
Last edited:
gwhuskyfan said:
They're not shooting 12.5% again. They had a lot of great looks from 3 today. Just didn't drop
Expand ...

Just stop already. This team has look disjointed offensively for the vast majority of the season starting with the slogfest that was the New Haven opening game.

"The had a lot of great looks, just didn't drop" is the new rallying cry for some around here.
 
Son of Robert said:
We missed the play of Jalen Stewart today for a variety of reasons. He definitely would have helped today on both ends of the court with his size and athleticism. He could have been used to defend Royce Parham in particular, and just his all-around offense/defense that he contributes. We need his play going forward. We are not as deep, and that showed today.
Expand ...

If we needed Jaylin Stewart (who has no showed half the season) to beat Marquette than what exactly does that say?
 
.-.
navery12 said:
The point should be obvious, at least to anyone who has been paying attention this year. Sure there are games he settles for too many 3's and doesn't contribute much. But the idea that our leading scorer hasn't contributed anything beyond shooting in a year he's been a bad shooter is idiotic. He's done exactly what you are asking in a lot of games, particularly early in the season
Expand ...

Yes, early in the year. He needs to do it more is the basic point. He’s been benched twice for his lack of defense, he does not create for anyone (1.6apg), and I just find him and Mullins on the court together to be more and more redundant.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
167,500
Messages
4,525,427
Members
10,402
Latest member
TBone9989


Top Bottom