Villanova Post Game Thread

[August_West]

also, sanogo had 15 and 13 -- even in his bad games, he is ridiculously productive.

Throw out the 13, 8 of them were on his misses via tips. Also he is not ridiculously productive he is ridiculously inefficient.

 

[UConnSwag11]

GQ Jay was doing what any smart coach should do against us- take away Cole and Sanogo (by cheating off AJ and Whaley) and dare everyone else to beat us. Martin took a good healthy bite but not enough to put us over the top.

Yup. And went inside a lot more in the second half compared to the first half

 

[Deleted at users request]

Typical game from this team. Tons of heart and grit but at the end of the day guys can’t create their own shots and beat their guy off the dribble.

I’m thankful for what these seniors did for the program to instill this kind of toughness back into it. But I’m looking forward to next year where all of our talents guys are forced to step up into these roles and seeing how they play. Think all the replacements are better and more capable of taking their guys off the dribble, getting their own shots, and possibly be better passers. Also hopefully we won’t be as reliant on Sanogo offensively.

Gaffney
Hawkins
Jackson
Akok
Sanogo

 

[Dove]

Can we talk about the AJ alley-oop at the end of the game…absolute killer demonstrating no situational awareness. Coming off a needed turnover where we really needed to convert he was playing like it was First Night.

I'll admit...he's reaching a level of cockiness that is making me uneasy. The play you reference is case in point

Hurley is feeding it

 

[StllH8L8ner]

His first comment in that post game TV interview was about how good we are and how well coached we are. Seems like a really good kid tbh.

I saw that too and softened up on him a little bit. Didn’t come off as a punk at all. Still hate his back down, pump fake, lower shoulder move but we didn’t seem to bite on those as much this time around.

 

[elmcityboy]

There’s always somebody on the board that says he had 15 points and 13 rebounds like that defines a good game. His 15 points were terribly inefficient. 6-15 from the floor (4 of the misses from 2 feet in) and 3-7 from the foul line including the front end of a one and one.
Face facts. He had a clunker of a game. He had a clunker against Seton Hall.

a lot of people are quoting my post as if i didn't outright say that sanogo had a bad game. i did!! obviously, he had a bad game. obviously, numbers alone don't define performance. i'm just remarking that the dude always puts up numbers. do you remember what it was like in the nolan-brimah-facey-onuorah-cobb-carlton era when our front court would disappear for long stretches of games??

 

[Edward Sargent]

It's fool's gold.

15 points on 6-15 from the field (most within 5 feet) and 3-7 from the line is awful, horribly inefficient.

The 13 rebounds, good, but he also fumbled away the most important one.

Adama had 7 offensive rebounds and we had 15 offensive rebounds and only 11 second chance points. Thats a lot of missed bunnies

 

[dennismenace]

The announcers drooling over Gillespie was pretty annoying

The "little bulldozer" who uniquely gets away with shoving and elbowing his way as "backs down" opponents has been everyone's darling including the refs for most of his career. The passes he gets from refs at times makes me think we are playing Georgetown back in the John Thompson era.

Have to give him credit though as he takes what they give him.

 

[Deleted at users request]

I'll admit...he's reaching a level of cockiness that is making me uneasy. The play you reference is case in point

Hurley is feeding it

I feel you… kind of need to go have AJ play as aggressively as possible. Has to learn to attack that himself eventually. Hopefully next year…

 

[ucp990411]

Typical game from this team. Tons of heart and grit but at the end of the day guys can’t create their own shots and beat their guy off the dribble.

I’m thankful for what these seniors did for the program to instill this kind of toughness back into it. But I’m looking forward to next year where all of our talents guys are forced to step up into these roles and seeing how they play. Think all the replacements are better and more capable of taking their guys off the dribble, getting their own shots, and possibly be better passers. Also hopefully we won’t be as reliant on Sanogo offensively.

Gaffney
Hawkins
Jackson
Akok
Sanogo

I strongly disagree that this line up is an improvement over this years line up. I expect Samson Johnson to start over Akok and either Diggins or a transfer in the backcourt with Hawkins.

 

[F101Voodoo]

Disappointing !

 

[jibsey]

I strongly disagree that this line up is an improvement over this years line up. I expect Samson Johnson to start over Akok and either Diggins or a transfer in the backcourt with Hawkins.

You saw Diggins get stripped twice in 1 minute his last time out?

 

[Valleyfan]

In team sports like basketball and in their biggest games, typically your best players have to play their best games to win. Our best player, at least as recognized by Dan Hurley, did not. Hopefully his injured hand heals up enough to make him effective.

 

[Brochacho]

@Zissou I sent you a PM.

 

[superjohn]

Typical game from this team. Tons of heart and grit but at the end of the day guys can’t create their own shots and beat their guy off the dribble.

I’m thankful for what these seniors did for the program to instill this kind of toughness back into it. But I’m looking forward to next year where all of our talents guys are forced to step up into these roles and seeing how they play. Think all the replacements are better and more capable of taking their guys off the dribble, getting their own shots, and possibly be better passers. Also hopefully we won’t be as reliant on Sanogo offensively.

Gaffney
Hawkins
Jackson
Akok
Sanogo

There's no chance Gaffney is our starting point guard next year and it's weird you think the team would be better with Gaffney as the starting point guard.

 

[RichCTBB]

Gillespie and Nova are just so hard to hate. Very frustrating team to play though they just don’t make mistakes.

I think if we play 10 times this year, Nova goes 7 and 3 against us. They're elite and disciplined. System Basketball.

 

[UConnSwag11]

There's no chance Gaffney is our starting point guard next year and it's weird you think the team would be better with Gaffney as the starting point guard.

Agreed. But we saw him continue to get a lot of minutes this year at the expense of developing Diggins early on. Gaff’s minutes were drastically cut second half of the year and we had Jackson running point. I’m not confident Hurley can make the move away from Gaff.

 

[UConnSwag11]

Typical game from this team. Tons of heart and grit but at the end of the day guys can’t create their own shots and beat their guy off the dribble.

I’m thankful for what these seniors did for the program to instill this kind of toughness back into it. But I’m looking forward to next year where all of our talents guys are forced to step up into these roles and seeing how they play. Think all the replacements are better and more capable of taking their guys off the dribble, getting their own shots, and possibly be better passers. Also hopefully we won’t be as reliant on Sanogo offensively.

Gaffney
Hawkins
Jackson
Akok
Sanogo

I don’t see Akok starting next year as he barely got any time this year

 

[Bubba1957]

Can’t remember a UConn team (other than Geno’s) as effective getting the ball down low to their big man. Hurley gets credit for that. The big guy needs to finish.

 

[navery12]

Agreed. But we saw him continue to get a lot of minutes this year at the expense of developing Diggins early on. Gaff’s minutes were drastically cut second half of the year and we had Jackson running point. I’m not confident Hurley can make the move away from Gaff.

Doesn't your last statement prove the 3rd one wrong? Why wouldn't you trust Hurley to move away from Gaffney when as you correctly stated, he did exactly that and barely played the second half of the year?

 

[ClifSpliffy]

things we've discussed loooong ago:
1. colin is the smartest player in cbb. period.
2. adama is a marvelous player, who currently has an injured meat hook.
lost on many here cuz, you know, painfully few here actually play hoops.
3. ajax is a marvelous player, who has a looong way to go before he finds a repeatable offense. it ain't coming from pure shooting skillz.
4. coach dan is the man (except for his odd view of all things,

5. tyler. another year (is that 6 or 11 now, i forget...) with all the data to support that ... oh, why bother. mebbe he'll get a board, dime, block, steal, or a factually superior shot in the next life. i guess a lot of duffers here spend a lot of time expecting/hoping for a hole in one to get their score down. but hey, he's actually driven to the rim like ten times this season, and i have to give credit to him cuz, it might be like half the time when he manages to not fall down. impressive.

 

[alphasigko]

The book is out on how teams should defend Sanogo: Double/triple team him as soon as he gets the ball and he ether travels, tries to dribble and loses the ball, or tries to throw up a weak/impossible shot that easilly misses and becomes a rebound for the opponent. All four of our last opponents did this and 3 were quite successful in limiting his effectiveness.

 

[August_West]

There's no chance Gaffney is our starting point guard next year and it's weird you think the team would be better with Gaffney as the starting point guard.

There is also no chance cole is coming back despite your season long claims otherwise.

But I agree that gaff probably shouldn’t be our starting PG, but there are scenarios where he may actually be just that, depending on portal activity .

 

[QDOG5]

Two evenly matched teams and Nova found a way to win.
Refs didn't cost UConn the game although I was bummed the best ref in the league(Pat Driscoll) was watching from the sidelines.
I'm not happy about the loss but if I were a Friar fan I'd be in panic mode. The Yard would have melted down if we lost a game like that.
UConn gets a week to rest up. They need it.
I'm not going to knock Sanogo. Not his best game but UConn is better with him in the game.
My final wish is that the Huskies end up in Milwaukee so I can go to BOTH games.

 

[Vancat]

Big fan of AJ and his impressive improvement. But yeah that ill advised alley oop pass….ugh. Not sure why he doesn’t just attack the hoop with that ferocity. I think he felt bad about it. Still love the guy. His decision making skills will catch up with his athleticism. I hope. When it does, look out. Knowing how he improved himself this year, we should have high hopes for next.