UConn vs Creighton Postgame

[DaveHuskiesFan]

This loss is on Hurley, 1000%.

what’d they get, 4 touches for Bouknight in the last 7 minutes?

calling ISO for your 5’6” point guard?

fouling with a 7 second differential in a one possession game?

up 4 with under a minute left and playing Olè defense allowing for an easy two?

WTH is he doing?

A hat tip to Cole for taking a step back long 2 with 16 seconds on the shot clock under 3 minutes left up 3.

 

[Milo65]

How about going 4 guards too early and Creighton eating us up underneath. Still, it’s on RJ Cole. Need to hit those free throws, terrible defense down the stretch and chucking up 3’s.

 

[uconntoatl]

Uconn misses 3.

Creighton offensive rebound

 

[UCfor3]

We have no point guard or 2nd scorer. Gonna be an issue all year if someone doesn't step up dramatically. BOUK cant drop 40 every game.

 

[Giddyup5]

When up 4 they let Creighton get 2 easy points in like 3 seconds. No contest at all on that play

 

[UconnFanNVa]

Too much cole. And shame on Hurley for allowing cole too ruin the offense time and time again.

 

[Ripper32]

The formula is simple. Get secondary scoring and they will win.

 

[Palatine]

If Cole makes two foul shots it's not an issue.

 

[krinklecut]

RJ tried to show Hurley over and over and over he wasn’t the guy

 

[I Bleed Blue]

F. Had this one in the bag. Just poor execution at the end. Sad cause this would have been a real statement to come back into the league with the W against the reigning conference champs.

 

[HooperScooper]

What a big time missed opportunity. That one was right there to be won. It's like the beginning of last year except this would have been a much bigger win. Hopefully they can bounce back and learn how to win these ones.

 

[Jaker]

2020

 

[tuvent08]

The foul when down three was just absurd. So dumb. I expect the neighbors to check on me given how loud I screamed.

 

[kobebeanbryant]

We have no point guard or 2nd scorer. Gonna be an issue all year if someone doesn't step up dramatically. BOUK cant drop 40 every game.

bingo, this is exactly it. hit our two biggest issues right on the head (pg play, 2nd creator).

we have so many great pieces, but without a 2nd creator i foresee a lot of frustration in our future.

 

[ucawn]

I’m pissed. I didn’t expect to win coming into the game. But we should have won that. You need to figure out how to win in any scenario and in a game where all around you don’t play the best you need to do the little things to win. 1 free throw broke this game. I’m heartbroken. Close losses are the worst, especially when you throw the game away with stupid mistakes. We need to get out there and run through everyone else because that was disappointing. Lost a lot on those FTs... a resume win come March, possibly being ranked tomorrow, a loss in conference play which is most important. You can’t lose conference games, like that. At least make the other team earn the win don’t throw it away. We need Cole, gaff, Adams, Martin to stop forcing the ball, and we need a big man to step up as a post presence.

 

[Ripper32]

BTW how good was the on the ball defense? Zekarowski was shut down. 4/14, 4 assists and 5 TOs.

 

[Tenspro2002]

This was our chance to make a "UConn's back" statement, and we choked.

There's basically no other story.

Oh, and congrats to Bouknight's eventual agent. He's gone this year and going to make a lot of money.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Cole absolutely deserves blame for choking on the two FTs that would have iced the game, but this ending had trouble written all over it when our offense down the stretch was bad 1-on-1 contested shots for 4-5 possessions in a row.

We won the USC game only because they missed every single shot down the stretch, not because we showed any kind of ability to close a game on offense.

 

[husky429]

Bouk was obviously an animal. 40/74 of our points is just ridiculous. Effecient too. Best individual performance since Kemba? It's sad that his fantastic play will be overshadowed by the loss.

No one else was ready to play vs a top 10 team on offense. Our lack of experience in high level games compared to theirs showed.

RJ cannot go 2/13 from the field, he just can't. He hit some FTs we needed early on, but the 0/2 to finish the game was bad. Hurley needs to tell him to facilitate or have some kind of consequence... that was bad. So bad.

Gaffney is such a milquetoast player. Doesn't seem to do much of anything, but doesn't turn it over. What else? And he certainly can't go 0/5 from 3 and expect to compete at a high-major level.

I thought Whaley looked pretty good in his minutes... he just is limited offensively.

Carlton and Sanogo seem to be a wash this year. I can understand why Hurley went with Josh's experience late, but I hope Sanogo is able to get some more minutes going forward. He really could be a huge asset next year.

I like Martin's defense and rebounding a lot. He brings a done of toughness and that dunk was ridiculous. He needs to develop a simple catch and shoot 3 at 35% and the ability to hit basic layups when he gets a clean drive or we won't reach our potential in the coming years.

Jackson looked fine in his minutes. Coach doesn't trust him yet.

Adams was fine in a middling conference. His lack of ability to recognize his place in the offense, and what a good shot is, makes him nearly unplayable.


I'm worried about next year without bouk. we can't expect to have a transcendent player like him again. We're going to really need to rely on overall individual improvements to stay competitive in this league.

 

[GHSWolverines]

This loss is on Hurley, 1000%.

what’d they get, 4 touches for Bouknight in the last 7 minutes?

calling ISO for your 5’6” point guard?

fouling with a 7 seconds differential in a one possession game?

WTH is he doing?

A hat tip to Cole for taking a step back long 2 with 16 seconds on the shot clock under 3 minutes left up 3.

Respectively disagree. They had 2 and 3

This loss is on Hurley, 1000%.

what’d they get, 4 touches for Bouknight in the last 7 minutes?

calling ISO for your 5’6” point guard?

fouling with a 7 second differential in a one possession game?

up 4 with under a minute left and playing Olè defense allowing for an easy two?

WTH is he doing?

A hat tip to Cole for taking a step back long 2 with 16 seconds on the shot clock under 3 minutes left up 3.

I respectively disagree. There were at least 2 players all over Bouknight most of the game. Don't forget that they have not played for 17 days! Creighton is a veteran team and deserve where they are ranked. We will be near the top of the big east when all is said and done.

 

[glastonbury50]

Cole is not a point guard. He's an undersized 2 whose flaws did not come to fruition in the MEAC.

 

[Lefty2one]

Ugly loss. Dreadful offensive game. We clearly don't have a point guard. We don't have a second scorer. Our execution needs to get a lot better because we don't have anyone who can breakdown the D. Cole had his share of believers this offseason but as history has shown, transfers jumping all the way up from low-major to high-major simply aren't impact players. He'll be a floor-spacer and he'll have hot shooting nights but he has no right hand, he can't get past players at this level, and he can't finish inside the arc. He was very good defensively most of the night but he's not the answer at the point. Diggins needs to be good enough to be a Day 1 starter next season. Andre Jackson barely being in the rotation on an offensively-challenged team is a bit worrisome. Even though he can't shoot yet we all expected him to have an impact in other ways this year.

The best our offense has looked all year was when Hurley put Bouk in a ton of ballscreens to start the second half and we killed them before Creighton adjusted. After that, there was nothing easy offensively the rest of the game. Showing flashes of being a PnR ballhandler will only help Bouk's stock, but he can't do it alone. He's undoubtedly a Top 10 pick--get him in the spaced-out NBA offenses where teams can't pack the paint like Creighton did and he'll be a hell of a player. I really think he'll be Jamal Murray, possibly better as he's a superior athlete.

The positive takeaway is that we just lost to the #9 team in the country after nearly three weeks off, and our program is just getting restarted under Hurley. It's a frustrating loss but remain calm, we're just getting going.

 

[BugsyCT]

Disheartening loss considering we hung with a top 10 team for that long. Very winnable game that we should have finished.

 

[UconnFanNVa]

Cole absolutely deserves blame for choking on the two FTs that would have iced the game, but this ending had trouble written all over it when our offense down the stretch was bad 1-on-1 contested shots for 4-5 possessions in a row.

We won the USC game only because they missed every single shot down the stretch, not because we showed any kind of ability to close a game on offense.

I can live with some missed fts, it happens to the best of them. But down the stretch he had alot of really really horrible shots that had no chance of going in. He isn't a pg period, and makes poor decisions. What he does have is effort and a short term memory which allows him to keep shooting not remembering his previous bricks. Also early he started 1 for 7. He just Jack's up shots, that has to stop especially when he isn't hitting.

 

[UConn_Top_Dog]

Keep in mind if Creighton made a few more of their foul shots this would be a comfortable win for them. What we need is another reliable shooter from 3 point range in Polley and another defender to block shots in Akok. If those things happen we are a top 10 team.