St. John's Post Game Thread

[HooperScooper]

With that big east championship performance, thoughts on declining an invite all together instead of taking an even more humiliating loss to a 15 seed? Especially with Silas potentially out. Just go back to the drawing board and come back better next year.

 

[superjohn]

The staff didn't want to deal with the family, and based on the quotes the Dad gave back in the fall, I think they made the right move.

I think it was a big mistake but we'll see.

A lot of pressure to bring in some elite athletes this portal season because we don't have any yet for next season.

 

[UConnSportsGuy]

I know we’re all debating whether UConn will win another game this year and all assuming St John’s will struggle to make the second weekend of the tournament after they get out of the Big East version of basketball…..

……but could you imagine if we have a rematch and game #4 of UConn v St Johns in the Final Four or Championship game in Indianapolis?! 🤪

 

[TheHorde]

The main issue last year was a lack of reliable PG and athleticism. He technically covered it with Silas but probably underestimated the need for another athlete/ball handler. I don’t even think it was out of arrogance this time.

If anything, I think nobody realized until the past few games is that the real missing ingredient is an AJax/Castle type player. Two players that can play in, but don’t rely on our offensive system. The system is fine, but you need a player who can deviate from it for the sake of always having an option on offense.

That and a shot blocking big. Clingan’s don’t grow on trees. But we need a big with those qualities. We need someone that can erase penetration if guys like Ball get beat off the dribble. Castle, Spencer, Newton, Jackson, etc didn’t allow tons of perimeter penetration, but having an eraser behind them often allowed them to overplay their guys and consistently run shooters off the three point line. We need that quality back on the roster in some form.

 

[Matias]

I don’t think his wrist is healthy. He’s clearly playing hurt like Alex did last year. But his defense hasn’t improved one bit in three years, and I still don’t think his passing and finishing in the lane and at the rim has made noticeable strides either.

Yea. He's shown flashes of being extremely capable in the lane, rim, and self-creating mid-range jumpers yet we've seen no development of that. Seems to be too stuck on his perimeter open-look comfort zone.

 

[freshler40]

Very surprising there wasn't adjustment to the midrange at halftime. We've seen that Braylon, Silas and Solo all have a good midrange shot but it was no where to be found last night

We were pressed the entire game and had a hard time getting to our offensive sets. Increasingly we relied upon getting the ball into Reed to go one on one. This exhausted Reed who also played to the ten (10 minute) mark of the first half, not the usual 14-15 minute mark. Rebie collected a lot of early fouls, that didn't help.

 

[BFieldHusky]

Philly is a Fri/Sunday schedule.

 

[TRest]

I think he thought Mal and Silas would fix a lot of the issues from last season. I thought the same thing, but then again, I don't get paid millions to make these decisions.

He may have also expected lights out shooting by Mullins, instead of just another inefficient 3 point shooter.

 

[TRest]

Philly is a Fri/Sunday schedule.

If the first opponent is weak enough do they rest Silas for that game?

 

[KingAG]

I’m not nearly as worried as some here.

Nothing that happened last night was all that unpredictable.

I figured one of us would get smacked. It’s how the games against SJ have gone all year.

No one else has also come close to making us look like that.

In 2014 Louisville pasted us the final game of the season.

The tournament is a different animal all together. OOC is a different animal. One we’ve shown to be dominant in.

Hurley didn’t forget how to coach or recruit because we lost to SJ. The same way Pitino didn’t forget how to coach and recruit when we beat them by 30.

News Flash but SJ has probably been a top 8 team the last 20 games. That loss is nothing to hang your head on. Conference tourney results aren’t necessarily an indicator on NCCA tourney results.

Regroup against whatever 16 seed and 7/10 seed we’ll face. I have no doubt we’ll be in the sweet 16. And at that point we’ll all be back on the wagon.

 

[gsmooth]

Hopefully they're scheduled on Friday to give Silas another day to get ready

That was the first thing I was crossing my fingers and toes for after the game ended yesterday was for UConn's first game to be late Friday.

 

[KingAG]

That was the first thing I was crossing my fingers and toes for after the game ended yesterday was for UConn's first game to be late Friday.

We don’t need Silas to beat a 15 seed.

 

[TRest]

We don’t need Silas to beat a 15 seed.

I’m with you if it was a 16. We lost to Creighton and Marquette.

 

[KingAG]

I’m with you if it was a 16. We lost to Creighton and Marquette.

That’s not at all the same. Marquette and Creighton are probably better than the 15 seed we’ll see. At least from a talent stand point.

 

[aceboon]

We don’t need Silas to beat a 15 seed.

I don't underestimate what could happen with 30+ minutes of Malachi dribbling in place at the logos

 

[KingAG]

I don't underestimate what could happen with 30+ minutes of Malachi dribbling in place at the logos

True. I’d think Malachi would be fine against a 15 seed. I’ve been wrong before though .

 

[Henry]

As I have said for a few weeks, and others have recently, this team reminds me of the 2006 team. Their styles are not similar, but they are similar in that they both had high expectations throughout the year and we're ranked in the top 5 throughout the year, only to struggle down the stretch. If anyone remembers that 2006 team seemed to peak when they got their revenge and defeated Villanova and then after that every game was a struggle, including against #16 seeded Albany.

I was at the open practice in Worcester that year. All the other teams went through drills and took the practice seriously. Not UConn. They were disorganized, joking around, and coaches barely did anything. I said to the people I was with that I didn't have a good feeling for how the weekend would go. Unfortunately, I was correct.

I would hope that this team, especially with how the last few weeks of the season went, will take every practice and opponent seriously. Maybe Rudy can talk to them about the 2006 experience.

 

[RashadRay11]

I’m not nearly as worried as some here.

Nothing that happened last night was all that unpredictable.

I figured one of us would get smacked. It’s how the games against SJ have gone all year.

No one else has also come close to making us look like that.

In 2014 Louisville pasted us the final game of the season.

The tournament is a different animal all together. OOC is a different animal. One we’ve shown to be dominant in.

Hurley didn’t forget how to coach or recruit because we lost to SJ. The same way Pitino didn’t forget how to coach and recruit when we beat them by 30.

News Flash but SJ has probably been a top 8 team the last 20 games. That loss is nothing to hang your head on. Conference tourney results aren’t necessarily an indicator on NCCA tourney results.

Regroup against whatever 16 seed and 7/10 seed we’ll face. I have no doubt we’ll be in the sweet 16. And at that point we’ll all be back on the wagon.

100

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

I just got back from having a fantastic dinner out with my wife for her birthday. How was your night?

Sounds quite nice, even better than drunk texting in the haiku thread.

 

[RashadRay11]

I’m with you if it was a 16. We lost to Creighton and Marquette.

Do you understand how much better Creighton and Marquette are than a 15 seed? Probably not.

 

[gsmooth]

We don’t need Silas to beat a 15 seed.

Ok, but I would rather not test that. Plus a 15 seed would be a nice get right game for Silas.

 

[BFieldHusky]

I was at the open practice in Worcester that year. All the other teams went through drills and took the practice seriously. Not UConn. They were disorganized, joking around, and coaches barely did anything. I said to the people I was with that I didn't have a good feeling for how the weekend would go. Unfortunately, I was correct.

I would hope that this team, especially with how the last few weeks of the season went, will take every practice and opponent seriously. Maybe Rudy can talk to them about the 2006 experience.

Different team.

 

[BFieldHusky]

I’m not nearly as worried as some here.

Nothing that happened last night was all that unpredictable.

I figured one of us would get smacked. It’s how the games against SJ have gone all year.

No one else has also come close to making us look like that.

In 2014 Louisville pasted us the final game of the season.

The tournament is a different animal all together. OOC is a different animal. One we’ve shown to be dominant in.

Hurley didn’t forget how to coach or recruit because we lost to SJ. The same way Pitino didn’t forget how to coach and recruit when we beat them by 30.

News Flash but SJ has probably been a top 8 team the last 20 games. That loss is nothing to hang your head on. Conference tourney results aren’t necessarily an indicator on NCCA tourney results.

Regroup against whatever 16 seed and 7/10 seed we’ll face. I have no doubt we’ll be in the sweet 16. And at that point we’ll all be back on the wagon.

Good post. I also think the advantage we have is in the 2nd round facing a team who has 36 hours of prep to get ready to face our offense and all the actions we run. This may seem like a weird comparison, but go back to when Cuse would struggle during conference play, but then get in the tournament and be a tough out. Teams having a day of prep for a unique 2-3 zone really struggled.

 

[RashadRay11]

Different team.

Different team different coach different era altogether

 

[gsmooth]

I was at the open practice in Worcester that year. All the other teams went through drills and took the practice seriously. Not UConn. They were disorganized, joking around, and coaches barely did anything. I said to the people I was with that I didn't have a good feeling for how the weekend would go. Unfortunately, I was correct.

I would hope that this team, especially with how the last few weeks of the season went, will take every practice and opponent seriously. Maybe Rudy can talk to them about the 2006 experience.

I think you're thinking about the 2005 team that played the first weekend in Worcester. The 2006 team started in Philadelphia and then played in Washington DC.

 

[amishboy]

Now that we’ve had more time to process yesterday’s loss, I’m trying to “reframe” things. While I still lean toward this being a disappointing season, maybe I should be more appreciative.

If AK, Solo, Stew, and Ross never became what we expected, if Silas, Malachi, and Braylon didn’t adjust as quickly as others in the past (e.g., Cam), maybe we should be impressed that this team managed to overcome their weaknesses so many times. They played well in the early OOC games, struggled to win in a weak BE, and somehow managed 30 victories. So, “well done” maybe?

 

[KingAG]

Good post. I also think the advantage we have is in the 2nd round facing a team who has 36 hours of prep to get ready to face our offense and all the actions we run.

I don’t blame the tone here. Last night sucked. But I think in a weeks time the tone here will be a lot different.

 

[navery12]

We've known this for how long this season yet they still have not been able to draw and execute sets that consistently create open looks or even train the shooters to develop routines to create shots for themselves.

You don't think we're getting open looks consistently in our offense?

 

[superjohn]

I’m not nearly as worried as some here.

Nothing that happened last night was all that unpredictable.

I figured one of us would get smacked. It’s how the games against SJ have gone all year.

No one else has also come close to making us look like that.

In 2014 Louisville pasted us the final game of the season.

The tournament is a different animal all together. OOC is a different animal. One we’ve shown to be dominant in.

Hurley didn’t forget how to coach or recruit because we lost to SJ. The same way Pitino didn’t forget how to coach and recruit when we beat them by 30.

News Flash but SJ has probably been a top 8 team the last 20 games. That loss is nothing to hang your head on. Conference tourney results aren’t necessarily an indicator on NCCA tourney results.

Regroup against whatever 16 seed and 7/10 seed we’ll face. I have no doubt we’ll be in the sweet 16. And at that point we’ll all be back on the wagon.

If it was one throw away game and we were beating other good teams it would be one thing but we play in a bad Big East this season and we haven't played consistently good basketball in over two months...

We won a lot of too close games against weak teams over those two+ months and our last 11 games we played one ranked team three times and we're 1-2 against them and we have two other losses to bad teams, one of which was a loss with the Big East regular season on the line against a 12-20 Marquette team. It's been a really bad close to the season and we're playing our worst ball at the wrong time of the season.

 

[Excalibur]

SJU only had 8 offensive rebounds. Huskies had 17. So I'm not sure that was a big issue.

That stat is meaningless when you consider how many shots each team missed.