Saint John's ThoughtZ™

[RichZ]

1. Mullins with 5 of our first 8. I wondered if he'd stay hot all game. He didn't. He had but one more 3 later in the half, and another with roughly 2 minutes left in the game.
2. We were up 16-10 at 13:43 in the first half, but little more than a minute later, we were down 16-19.
3. Mullins did get our lead back with a three @ 7:21
4. 39 all at the half. At that point, I though our chances for a victory were better than 50/50. We'd weathered the storm so to speak.
5. No player on either team reached double digits in the first half.
6. Very, very unusual for us to only have 5 dimes at the half. SJ Has 8.
7. And 7 minutes into the 2nd half, we're down double digits. So much for our decent chance for a victory. Whatever halftime speech coach used needs to be rolled up in a ball and thrown into a bonfire.
8. We did manage to get that deficit down to 5 at the 8 minute mark, despite blowing a great opportunity at 8:15 or so.
9. St John's Dylan(sp?) Darling is the kind of player I hate on an opponent's team, but would love on mine.
10. Mullins was definitely off his game, After hitting a 3 and a 2 about 45 seconds apart in the first 4 minutes of the game, he wasn't heard from again until hitting a three at about 7:30 left in the first half, and the next time he hit the scoreboard was a 3 with a bit more than 2 minutes left in the game.
11. We out shot them 55% to 50% from the field, but we got beat 22 (71%) to 5 (42%) at the FT line.
12. The wonderful officiating crew called 23 fouls on us and 15 on the home team. We shot a miserable 5 for 12 from the line, while StJ went 22 of 31. Yes, they shot 19 more FTs than us.
13. Silas led us in points, rebounds and assists. Also in turnovers, unfortunately.
14. I guess that despite two uncharacteristically bad plays on his part, I think I have to call Karaban as close to being player of the game as we got last night.

 

[jibsey]

How many FG attempts did Mullins get in the second half? He was 4-8 for the game. Except for Reed down low he should have the most shot attempts. And he hardly ever gets to the line either. Can he drive it? He’ll make the foul shots.

 

[HooperScooper]

How many FG attempts did Mullins get in the second half? He was 4-8 for the game.

Pitino’s adjustments reveal room for Mullins’ improvement​

Trying to guard Braylon Mullins and his lightning quick jumper proved to be a problem for Rick Pitino, who matched him up with 6-foot-8 forward Dillon Mitchell.

Mullins made his first three shots, two from beyond the arc and one a difficult turnaround from midrange over Ejiofor. But they were the only three shots he attempted in the first half. His shotmaking presence wasn’t felt after the break, as he went just 1-for-5 from the field in the second half.

“I just thought they were a little short with some closes, I don’t think that they, in the first half, kind of timed up how quickly he gets shots off and the distance he shoots from,” Hurley said. “Their adjustment they made was they ran at him a lot faster, and he needed to just mix in some shot fakes, he needed to use his eyes and his shoulders. And he’s a young player, and this was a big spot. I mean, this was an intense game. I think Coach (Pitino) might’ve been off on the ratio of the crowd. I looked around during the anthem, I saw a lot of red. It felt like a real road game.”

https://www.courant.com/2026/02/07/uconns-dan-hurley-frustrated-after-free-throw-discrepancy-foul-line-woes-contribute-to-loss-at-st-johns/

 

[upstater]

That free throw disparity is eye-popping.

I noticed a lot of wrestling down low and sometimes the player who had his arm pinned was the one who got the foul. Which seems bizarre. This was happening a lot to Alex and Tarris.

 

[Drfla]

1. Mullins with 5 of our first 8. I wondered if he'd stay hot all game. He didn't. He had but one more 3 later in the half, and another with roughly 2 minutes left in the game.
2. We were up 16-10 at 13:43 in the first half, but little more than a minute later, we were down 16-19.
3. Mullins did get our lead back with a three @ 7:21
4. 39 all at the half. At that point, I though our chances for a victory were better than 50/50. We'd weathered the storm so to speak.
5. No player on either team reached double digits in the first half.
6. Very, very unusual for us to only have 5 dimes at the half. SJ Has 8.
7. And 7 minutes into the 2nd half, we're down double digits. So much for our decent chance for a victory. Whatever halftime speech coach used needs to be rolled up in a ball and thrown into a bonfire.
8. We did manage to get that deficit down to 5 at the 8 minute mark, despite blowing a great opportunity at 8:15 or so.
9. St John's Dylan(sp?) Darling is the kind of player I hate on an opponent's team, but would love on mine.
10. Mullins was definitely off his game, After hitting a 3 and a 2 about 45 seconds apart in the first 4 minutes of the game, he wasn't heard from again until hitting a three at about 7:30 left in the first half, and the next time he hit the scoreboard was a 3 with a bit more than 2 minutes left in the game.
11. We out shot them 55% to 50% from the field, but we got beat 22 (71%) to 5 (42%) at the FT line.
12. The wonderful officiating crew called 23 fouls on us and 15 on the home team. We shot a miserable 5 for 12 from the line, while StJ went 22 of 31. Yes, they shot 19 more FTs than us.
13. Silas led us in points, rebounds and assists. Also in turnovers, unfortunately.
14. I guess that despite two uncharacteristically bad plays on his part, I think I have to call Karaban as close to being player of the game as we got last night.

 

[RitzLuce1]

That free throw disparity is eye-popping.

I noticed a lot of wrestling down low and sometimes the player who had his arm pinned was the one who got the foul. Which seems bizarre. This was happening a lot to Alex and Tarris.

How are people surprised by the free throw disparity when our championship teams ( who had much stronger athletic physicality than this current team) also were outshot by a lot on the free throw line?

 

[Drfla]

Wondered if Mullins would stay hot? Can’t stay hot when he doesn’t get shot opportunities. Was 3 for 3 in the first half. Why didn’t we look for him when he made 2 shots right away. We have to get him the ball more and he has to get more aggressive going to the basket. Mullins should be our best scoring option and should get up 15-20 shots a game. How is 4 for 8 off his game? NEEDS MORE SHOTS

What you missed was after Mullins made the 3 to put us back ahead we stopped SJ 4 times but instead of extending the lead we either turned it over or took bad shots. Lost opportunity to extend the lead.