St. John's Post Game Thread

[Donyell 360]

The best Malachi has looked the past month or so was when he and Silas played together. His constant ball pounding until then clock is under 8 seconds drives me crazy. It’s like he feels if he gives it up the ball he won’t get it back.

I don't recall Smith looking good this past month. He was 4-4 from behind the arc against PC, but he couldn't make a layup. I hope he can give us a few minutes where we don't get outscored terribly. UConn was outscored 13-1 in the 4 minutes Smith played.

 

[spudzj6]

At the 7:26 mark of the first half, we got a board and Mullins 3 top put us up 26-25. The officials then stopped the game and took the under 8 timeout. Why was the game stopped?? No official record in the play by play, no mention of it by the broadcast.

 

[DCKembaFan]

I don't recall Smith looking good this past month. He was 3-3 from behind the arc against Nova, but he couldn't make a layup. I hope he can give us a few minutes where we don't get outscored terribly. UConn was outscored 13-1 in the 4 minutes Smith played.

FWIW, Malachi was excellent in the second Providence game on 1/27

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Rick Pitino is a great coach and he did a fantastic job but he’s starting to look like Cruella de Vil.

If he doesn't get you, no evil thing will.

 

[Dibbie]

To who?

At Nova and SJ at home are possible

 

[Drfla]

We aren’t a top 5 team. Can’t rebound, can’t hit free throws, can’t defend, can’t beat pressure. Smith was unplayable forcing Silas to get worn down by the end. We shot well but were terrible at everything else. The elite 8 is the ceiling for the team.

Give it a break. St. John’s mucked up the game and the refs called it their way. We didn’t play well and have to shoot free throws better but we only got 12 to their 25 ( before the intentional fouls in the last minute). Tough to win that way.

Got little to nothing from the bench. I think SJ took us out of our game. Tarris made it him against Ejifor, which was to our disadvantage. Don’t think their press hurt us much but their pressure further up court was a factor. Despite too many turnovers and poor foul shooting, it was a 1 point game with just over 2 minutes left.

Need to shake it off and move on. One loss doesn’t knock us from the top tier and final four.

 

[DCKembaFan]

Oh for sure on that scenario

If they actually put Houston in the Houston bracket as anything other than a 1 seed, the committee should be disbanded

 

[Drfla]

I’d like for Mullins to inbound the ball.

We just have to get the ball to Demery. He gets open.

 

[Donyell 360]

I don’t agree with this. You can’t control your players turning the ball over stupidly or making free throws. If they are better protecting the ball, especially in the first half and 80% FT Silas hits FTs you’d never have posted that.

Yeah, pretty sure Hurley is not the problem. But can they work on a scheme to inbound the ball against pressure?

 

[KingAG]

At Nova and SJ at home are possible

Doubt it. We’ll see

 

[superjohn]

We have two tough games left in the regular season. Johnnies at home and Nova on the road. If we lost to Butler or Georgetown we have major problems, I don't see that happening.

 

[EBonz30]

We can say St. John’s took us out of our game- but we shot 55% from the field, 47% from three, had only 4 turnovers more than are average- obviously 55%|47% is way higher than our average.

 

[Fan1978]

The miss of the lane violation at the end there ticked me off more than the # of fouls called. I now agree with the Boneyard that Big East refs suck.

He was in the lane 5 seconds. Refs had there plan and would not deviate

 

[KingAG]

Yeah, pretty sure Hurley is not the problem. But can they work on a scheme to inbound the ball against pressure?

They turned the ball over once on the inbound. And that’s because Taris wasn’t where he should’ve been

 

[FreeDogs]

To who?

We really haven't been that good all year. Probably gonna drop another couple before the tournament. Is what it is

Beat #7 BYU 86-84 = Not Good
Losing to #4 Arizona 71-67 = Not Good (even though they are #1 now and we were without Reed and Mullins)
Beat #13 Illinois 74-61 = Not Good (even considering they are ranked higher now)
Beat #21 Kansas at the Fogg 61-56 = Not Good (oh BTW, they are also ranked higher now)
Beat #18 Florida 78-73 = Not Good (Aren't they ranked higher now too?)
Beat #25 Seton Hall 69-64 = Not Good
Crushed Creighton 85-58 in Omaha = Not Good


If this is not playing good, sign me up for this EVERY YEAR.

 

[DCKembaFan]

The one thing that makes me sad is that Liam could have taken this team to 2023-24 levels of dominant, but instead he's getting shuttled back and forth to the G League

 

[KingAG]

We have two tough games left in the regular season. Johnnies at home and Nova on the road. If we lost to Butler or Georgetown we have major problems, I don't see that happening.

Win those 2 games we win the conference.

 

[ATLDYKA]

You beat me to it... He literally did not play a meaningful minute in any of our big wins. Man, this place just gets worse and worse.

12 against Illinois probably one of the better front courts doesn't count?

 

[HuskyHawk]

Not sure why anybody is worried. They need to be better. We nearly lost to PC. This team has to make FTs, stop turning it over and execute. This game helps them towards that. Losses make you better. This was overdue and necessary

 

[KingAG]

Not sure why anybody is worried. They need to be better. We nearly lost to PC. This team has to make FTs, stop turning it over and execute. This game helps them towards that. Losses make you better. This was overdue and necessary

We should’ve been lost a game honestly. This was the best one to lose resume wise. Everywhere else is almost a land mine

 

[mike012]

To many mistakes. Reed with an easy layup and 1. Misses the layup and then the free throws. So end up with 0. Too many mistakes like that in a close game will cost you. We had a lot of them.

 

[boog204]

12 against Illinois probably one of the better front courts doesn't count?

He played one minute against Illinois. He played 12 in the loss to Zona. The poster claimed we won a bunch of games with Koroma as the backup.

 

[navery12]

12 against Illinois probably one of the better front courts doesn't count?

No because he played 1 minute against Illinois. He played 12 against Arizona when they lost

 

[jibsey]

No but we may need to run the table, anything more than 1 more loss will likely end our bid for a 1 seed.

Yeah? And you can’t win it from the 2 or 3 slot? 1 seeds get bumped off all the time as do 2’s and 3’s. That difference means little, it’s how we are playing at that time.

 

[Drfla]

That was on purpose by Pitino. He didn’t care about Silas. As long as Ball and Mullins don’t go off.

How can Mullins go off. He starts hot and somehow nobody looks for him when he’s hot. 3-3 in the first half. We should have gotten him more shots. Our own team shuts him down more than the opponents.

And he has to get more aggressive. The little fade in the lane over Ejifor was beautiful. Why doesn’t he do that more. I think as a freshman, he is too concerned with fitting in.

 

[Orange]

No but we may need to run the table, anything more than 1 more loss will likely end our bid for a 1 seed.

The race for a 1 seed is very deep this year. If the season ended right this second, we’d at best be the #4 overall seed behind Michigan, Arizona and Duke. We might even be the top 2 seed with Iowa State grabbing the last 1 seed.

We should climb back into a definite 1 seed if we win out. But if we suffer just 1 loss, including in the Big East tournament (at least if you think the committee even pays attention to conference tournament games), that likely ends our chances at a 1 seed.

 

[Shabazzkets]

If UConn goes into selection Sunday with 2 losses they are a 1 seed.

Yes I said this elsewhere in the thread. I’m just not sure they can run the table. Still have some tough games to play and then the BE tourney.

 

[Donyell 360]

They turned the ball over once on the inbound. And that’s because Taris wasn’t where he should’ve been

Not just once. Demary threw it away late, but he also threw a tough one to Reed in the corner who couldn't hang on and it went out of bounds.

 

[superjohn]

Win those 2 games we win the conference.

Yep and win the BE tournament and we have a 1 seed. This game pointed out our flaws. St. John's is just a tough matchup for us. I think there's only a few teams or so that can present us those problems.

 

[Dibbie]

Cam and DC with nice first halves. Yah!