St. John's Post Game Thread | Page 4 | The Boneyard

St. John's Post Game Thread

SilentDog said:
I guess I will be the first to mention it. Clingan looks less explosive in the last two games than he did in his first game back.
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Rocktheworld said:
Stewart was not great this game and hasn’t progressed much to my eye (seems less and less playable, doesn’t seem to fit into the offense well)
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Welcome to In Search of the Hot Take
 
navery12 said:
Felt like Newton had a pretty rough game, yet he still went for 18, 10, and 7. Such a calming presence when he's out there
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It feels that way with Newton sometimes because he always has some headcratching plays where you're left wondering why did he do that but he always rebounds on both ends, passes well, and gets to the line. He's a great player but his style is different from any other player I can remember.
 
SilentDog said:
I guess I will be the first to mention it. Clingan looks less explosive in the last two games than he did in his first game back. I am not saying it’s the foot, I am just saying it shows up most when jumping and more importantly landing after he jumps. But I am just a causal fan watching the game on tv. Not sure how it looks in person. The thing with Donovan only he knows how he feels and he wants to play.
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I wouldn't read too much into that, 90% of his minutes have been in foul trouble and he's purposely (albeit unsuccessfully) playing conservatively
 
Had to leave with 9 min left so my thoughts are all from before then. Seems like good things happened after I left!

Not sure why a home game vs. NET 38 is being counted as Q1, but that's another Q1 win!
;)


Good -
  • It's been so fun watching Castle progress throughout the year. Best player on the court today. Wish he finished that poster on Soriano lol
  • Choosing to ignore Newton’s TOs because he had 18/10/7. Very well rounded performance
  • Spencer came alive in the second half. Started taking (and making) huge shots
  • Pro-UConn chants were very audible on the broadcast. Great work from the fans who went out!
Bad -
  • Clingan is 7'2, all he has to do is put his arms up and stand still. Fouls #1, 2, and 4 were unnecessary and self inflicted. Foul #3 was...perplexing
  • Not much else I feel like complaining about because we won handily
That gap in the BE is getting wider and wider..gauntlet part of the schedule is coming soon. Let's go Huskies!
 
Cam and Steph great!

Tristen good!

Rest of team, not good.

We were sloppy with the ball (Diarra had 4 TOs with limited ball handling though he did have some great finishes). Many misshandles, drops, knock ons, etc.

Our offense was pretty stagnant in the half court. SJU was aggressive but I think we should have been more prepared for it. I didn’t think the SJU press was bothersome for our backcourt.

Great day at the stripe.

Tough, gutty win the beat marches on. After PC and SJU I may go back to rewatch the Xavier game to see some beautiful basketball.

As for the crowd. i would say 55/45 SJU maybe 50/50 so more SJU fans than in recent years. Some spurts of energy but I felt like the crowd today was a little subdued, in my opinion definitely leas energy than last year’s game at the Garden.
 
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SilentDog said:
If he shoots like this the rest of the year he will be in the top five imo.
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As much as I hate the one and done thing, I think if he is one and done we win our second NCAA championship in a row.
 
aceboon said:
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Man, Cam getting drafted would make me so happy. He’s been such an integral piece this year and made a HUGE impact off the court too. When we lost Andre and Sanogo, we also lost our 2 biggest dogs, and Cam has stepped up and been one of the toughest and most fiery competitors I can remember at UConn. He’s helped our transition from last year to this year so much
 
superjohn said:
It feels that way with Newton sometimes because he always has some headcratching plays where you're left wondering why did he do that but he always rebounds on both ends, passes well, and gets to the line. He's a great player but his style is different from any other player I can remember.
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Some of his rebounds are incredible for a guard. Like that one in the last minute.
 
Doctor Hoop said:
I'd really like to know that we can get a little more out of the bench when we need it ...
But with these starters, when will we need it?

Great performance against a team who designed their game to make life difficult, and yet a double digit win.

Spencer was on today, so was Castle. Newton less so, but still controlled the game.
Clingan still has to find a way to stay on the floor. Many of the fouls are mind boggling.
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I’ll beg to differ that Newton was off. He was 2 assists short of another triple double. He can get his numbers many ways.
 
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yungdowork said:
Man, Cam getting drafted would make me so happy. He’s been such an integral piece this year and made a HUGE impact off the court too. When we lost Andre and Sanogo, we also lost our 2 biggest dogs, and Cam has stepped up and been one of the toughest and most fiery competitors I can remember at UConn. He’s helped our transition from last year to this year so much
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He’ll be a solid G league player who might eventually get a shot. I see his size and speed being a problem. He has the smarts for it for sure.
 
3rdbass said:
Castle is developing into a great 4th option on offense. His game is really developing. I did notice too they had him running point in this game more than before especially in the first half. He is just money now and hitting his FTs too. Cam Spencer is our more clutch player. Holding Soriano to 6 pts was key. This team is so versatile. If we could ever get Clingan playing well we would be unstoppable. Clingan is my only worry he needs to learn to play better positional defense and stop reaching. Favorite moment of the game was Spencer doing that turnaround shot over Alleyne.
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My favorite moment was Spencer looking back at Soriano and chirping something. He doesn’t back down.
 
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Credit to Hurley for coaching and managing the game perfectly today w/o having AK. His substitution patterns were timed perfectly as well as the minute allocations. He wasn’t afraid to bring Clingan back in for a couple of possession’s in the first half even though he could have picked up his third foul. He also picked his arguments with the refs to have his point made but knew when to stop so he wouldn’t get t’d up.
Diarra 30 mins., Castle 39 mins, Newton 37 mins, and Spencer 39 mins. These minutes were needed to win the game. And please, no one chime in saying Singare should have played to help out with Clingans and Johnson’s foul trouble or to say it was a good game for him to get more game experience.
 
I hate all this draft talk because when it finally happens you’ve got players who we never heard of from overseas taking many of those spots. I’m not knowledgeable about it but that’s the way it has been going it seems.
Castle already has an NBA body, creative on drives and he can defend.
 
Rick Pitino has had a halftime lead over Dan Hurley 3 times since 2023, with his teams outscoring UConn 108-99.

In those 3 games, Hurley has notched 3 victories, his teams having outscored those of Pitino 134-84 in the second half

No Clingan in December, and no Karaban today. No Castle at Allen Field House, but 43 points this week.

Maybe UConn picks up some #1 votes this week?
 
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storrsroars said:
35% fewer fouls than Tuesday. This was basketball.
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At the risk of getting lambasted, I thought the refs did a good job on the game. A few bad calls with Clingan blocking Soriano and getting called and Ledlum getting the fouls on the castle drive to the rim. The refs didn’t interrupt the flow today. Very enjoyable.
 
HuskyHawk said:
Impressive road win against a team that causes us problems. Even more so without Karaban. Castle becoming a reliable scorer has elevated this team significantly.

The next three games are against the worst of the Big East. It’s likely we will be 23-2 heading to a matchup with Marquette. Simply amazing.
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Eh don’t look now, but Butler is pretty good. Not one of the 3 worst in Big East. Will be a tough game especially if UConn has to play without Karaban.
 
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UCan3 said:
If you consider the fact that for the first 30 minutes St Johns got called for 1 out of every 4 fouls they committed and we still won by double digits - that’s what #1 teams do.

I hope we finish at #1 but for right now we are on top of the college BB world and it’s not even close!
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This. The amount of grabbing, holding, shoving that they got away with was ridiculous. A St John's fan was sitting in front of us and even he reached the point where he said "well, you have to expect home cooking from the referees".

One thing that made me laugh after the game was as we were leaving the Garden, a group of younger fans started a UCONN chant. Some woman tells "of course you're going to win when the refs are on your payroll". I don't know what game she saw but it wasn't the UConn-St John's game at MSG.
 
Newton 2nd game in a row with 10 made free-throws (10/11 & 10/16). Having Newton and Castle aggressive to the basket really opens up the offense when the shot clock winds down. This is a good sign for when our front court offense is limited.
 
AntG168 said:
Look up Newtons numbers. He was quietly VERY good
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Newton was ok today and still stuffed the stat sheet, 3 assists shy of another triple double and didn’t play that great. 4-11 missing all four threes and had 6 turnovers, but was money at the line and does a lot of other things.

But I’ll take this type of B game anytime. Love Tristen.
 
Bomber36 said:
He’ll be a solid G league player who might eventually get a shot. I see his size and speed being a problem. He has the smarts for it for sure.
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He’s definitely not an elite athlete but I think his defense gets underrated a lot because of it. He’s very good at jumping passing lanes and leads the team in steals.

If he shoots 50/40/90 (currently 48/43/89) it’s pretty hard to imagine him not finding a role somewhere as a bench shooter. I look at a guy like Sam Merrill and don’t see a lot that he provides that Cam couldn’t.
 
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