Villanova Post Game Thread

[UChusky916]

Was worried about how Karaban would hold up in league play physically. Led the team in minutes and had a nice fill of the stat sheet. Great glue guy in the making.

Great glue guy NOW as a freshman!
Will be a stud with some more experience and expanded offensive game

 

[BigFanCT]

Was it loud at the game? It sounded like the first 30 minutes of the GTown game on the tv.

As much as the crowd tries at the XL it’s just not nearly the same as Gampel. GTown was much, much louder.

Just not the same.

 

[AntG168]

As much as the crowd tries at the XL it’s just not nearly the same as Gampel. GTown was much, much louder.

Just not the same.

Nova last year was a mad house. Game trajectory influences UConn crowds. GTown was louder because Joey California went nuclear. Both are amazing home courts

 

[Kemba Time]

"This place was electric," Hurley said. "It was cool to see, walking over from the hotel in the pregame around 5:15 p.m. or so, to see all the UConn fans in the restaurants ... probably having a couple of cocktails. The city being buzzing hours before the game was pretty neat. This venue played a huge factor in us being able to get a tough, Big East win."

UConn men's basketball team remains unbeaten with win over Villanova before capacity crowd in Hartford

Hawkins led the way with 22 points, but Diarra was a defensive dynamo with four second-half steals and a key charge.

www.middletownpress.com

 

[Kemba Time]

 

[auror]

Nova last year was a mad house. Game trajectory influences UConn crowds. GTown was louder because Joey California went nuclear. Both are amazing home courts

This game had pretty horrible flow. Every time we made a run, something dumb would happen or Nova would hit a 3 or whatever. Nova also was liberal with calling timeouts to stop our runs mostly before they got started at 4 or 6 points, not letting them get to net 8 or 10+ differentials.

 

[HuskyHawk]

"This place was electric," Hurley said. "It was cool to see, walking over from the hotel in the pregame around 5:15 p.m. or so, to see all the UConn fans in the restaurants ... probably having a couple of cocktails. The city being buzzing hours before the game was pretty neat. This venue played a huge factor in us being able to get a tough, Big East win."

UConn men's basketball team remains unbeaten with win over Villanova before capacity crowd in Hartford

Hawkins led the way with 22 points, but Diarra was a defensive dynamo with four second-half steals and a key charge.

www.middletownpress.com

This is how it used to be. More than anything, bringing this back is a key to success.

I still remember my job with the state that got off at 4:00. I’d stake out the best seat at Challenges for my friends and we’d wait 3 hours for the game. It’s the passion that helps drive things.

This was a big win. Villanova is no easy team. We made many mistakes and still had enough. Love the ability to add what is needed. Need D intensity? Diarra. Scoring? Joey. FT shooting? Newton. Nova game planned well. Better than Dan. But UConn had too many options.

 

[August_West]

Nova last year was a mad house. Game trajectory influences UConn crowds. GTown was louder because Joey California went nuclear. Both are amazing home courts

Yeah but Gampel is better.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Yeah but Gampel is better.

They both have to be great. It’s our reality.

 

[August_West]

They both have to be great. It’s our reality.

No doubt.

 

[Mike Honcho]

This game had pretty horrible flow. Every time we made a run, something dumb would happen or Nova would hit a 3 or whatever. Nova also was liberal with calling timeouts to stop our runs mostly before they got started at 4 or 6 points, not letting them get to net 8 or 10+ differentials.

Yea pretty interesting strategy there to use TOs early and often to stop momentum and not save any for end of game scenarios. Hard to argue with the approach I guess, as holding on to them becomes immaterial if you're down by double digits.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Yea pretty interesting strategy there to use TOs early and often to stop momentum and not save any for end of game scenarios. Hard to argue with the approach I guess, as holding on to them becomes immaterial if you're down by double digits.

Given the massive runs we’ve put on teams this year, I think it was smart.

 

[LIUCHusky]

Adama was very underwhelming. Apart from his lack of scoring (partly due to great denial from Nova) he had 1 whole rebound in 25 mins. He has not been rebounding well this year, down almost 2 per game from last year. Dixon seems to win the majority of matchups against him.

Games like this have become somewhat common for Adama, he and the team need to work better to get him more involved. Opens up our entire playbook.

Do you think he may be down 2 rebounds per game because he is playing less minutes per game? Duh

 

[AtlantaHusky]

Games against anova sous vide bullyballTM are not going to ever be a fun win. Guys stepped up, that's our game. Hopefully the fans in Hartford had a blast. "Next man up" can take us a long way with our killer bench of Donovan, Joey, Diarra, Alleyne. Adama was denied tonight, kudos to anova for that. Pick your poison as long as we win, IDGAF. This should be a good learning experience for the guys. Love the killer instinct and desire by all of them. They will tighten the emotions. Just like Danny has had to.

We can play small, big, tough, finesse, inside, outside, etc. Always happy to get a win vs. Nova. they are tough. Their fans can KMA. No respect from reading all their boards comments that I could find.

Saturday should be a pretty wild game with a better flow. Xavier has a fun brand of basketball.

Thanks to Hurleys Army for this special highlight.

 

[SoCalCanine]

Most improbable stat - Diarra had as many rebounds as Sanogo and Clingan COMBINED!

 

[BlueMAB]

As much as the crowd tries at the XL it’s just not nearly the same as Gampel. GTown was much, much louder.

Just not the same.

Nova last year was a mad house. Game trajectory influences UConn crowds. GTown was louder because Joey California went nuclear. Both are amazing home courts

When we went on the second half run, the crowd was ready to explode and Nova hit a three and immediately called a timeout.

We never went on that big run with 4-5 consecutive plays to get the crowd really building to a crescendo.

That’s all that was missing. Neptune and Nova did a good job managing the crowd with timely shots and timeouts. It’s not the venue. 15k is louder than 9k.

 

[giddyup]

We will have to see how Adama adjusts. The playbook is set based on GT and Nova. Deny Adama the entry pass and collapse on him and force outside shots. With long enough spells of cold shooting, it has given both GT and Nova a puncher’s chance to stay in the game. But, it hasn’t worked yet because we have too many good shooters that ultimately will find the bucket, but it’s about the best shot most teams will have.

 

[REB1094]

Just checked NET and Villanova actually gained 9 spots after last night. They’re at 89 now. Man that game felt too good to be a Q3 game

 

[David 76]

It is a great win, but am I the only one who feels the offense is not what it was a few games ago?
Credit to them for pulling out victories, but it is not the overwhelming offense we were seeing in our first games.

 

[mauconnfan]

Dixon was only 1-5 from three, so 5 of 9 from two.

UConn has 2 very good centers, but Dixon outplayed them tonight.

He didn’t outplay Clingan. He actually gagged on a couple bunnies near the hoop because there was 7’2 stretched out in front of him. We didn’t see enough Clingan and that’s on Hurley.

Having said that Dixon played well, tough kid.

 

[J187Money]

As much as the crowd tries at the XL it’s just not nearly the same as Gampel. GTown was much, much louder.

Just not the same.

It was a game flow issue. Place was about to erupt 4 or 5 times and a Villanova bucket or a whistle killed the vibe. Just couldn’t get a run going.

 

[JakeTheDog]

It is a great win, but am I the only one who feels the offense is not what it was a few games ago?
Credit to them for pulling out victories, but it is not the overwhelming offense we were seeing in our first games.

There’s a lot more game footage for opposing teams to dissect.

 

[Umami Zen]

My two cents.. First.. A great BE win.. Crowd really helped our guys.. Played with intensity and passion..Our identity.

What can be learned by watching this game's tape for players/coaches?? Nova is a team of method actors and know their roles.. Up fakes practiced in pre-game warmups/shoot arounds.. Sell the fouls(even Neptune) and get to the line.. Don't agitate the refs... Boxing out our Bigs. You cannot continue to get T's and concede four points to good FT shooting teams in close games. (Two points for FT and two-or three points-- with ball possession after FT)

Game MVPs.. Hawk-1st half.. Diarra-Karaban-2nd half.. Team D and bench depth won the game.. Our freshman playing like vets. I'll take a W over style points in BE any day. Great game for Betsey/Mulready to see in person

Next

 

[mauconnfan]

Let’s be honest. Nova was gifted 10-14 pts by the refs ignoring travels, calling phantom fouls (Sanogo one was the worst), and letting Nova do their usual backdowns and swallowing the whistle on some obvious offensive fouls.

This game should have been a 15-18 pt cakewalk with a fair whistle. A 22-26 pt win if we shot at our usual %.

Regardless, a nice grinder win with diverse contributions from our deep

The refs were dreadful, but both ways they had nothing to do with how well Nova defended and how bad we were on offense. Give Nova credit for getting Sanogo too far from the basket to be an impact. As I've said if he dribbles more than once, trouble can happen at any time, they made sure he didn't get it for drop steps or immediate lay ins. And we threw some dreadful passes to the interior, started the game with Hawk throwing one about 20 feet high blooper to him. And AJ threw 2-3 darts that weren't getting there as Nova was overplaying the ball. I know one thing, throwing it high to 7'2" is easier than to 6'8"!!

But offensively we weren't good. If Andre is shooting 11 times already an issue unless 7 are dunks. You do win the defensive battle (and we did) when AJ and Diarra are in the game but you will lose the offensive battle, Diarra is an open court guard not a half court PG. But he was good on the other end so how do you take him out? Karaban was good, needed to get him more looks than they did. Newton, got caught in the middle without a plan a few times. He needs to be more aggressive and less "point guardy", too much indecision. Thought Alleyne was able to create his own shot, maybe could've used a few more minutes as his defense was very good again. Biggest thing was Clingan getting just 14 minutes when Sanogo is so far off his game, can't happen. He was the better option in the 2nd half when the struggle continued.

Give Nova credit they had a game plan and it kept them in the game. I don't think they're that good but they will be good and consistent as they play hard. Thing is we should beat this team easier, home crowd waiting to chomp, and we struggled. Wins are great and keep winning is good, but the real test is Saturday for me. That team can and will score, can we. Our struggles can't continue on the offensive end Saturday or this board will be out of it's #1 minds.

 

[Chin Diesel]

It was a game flow issue. Place was about to erupt 4 or 5 times and a Villanova bucket or a whistle killed the vibe. Just couldn’t get a run going.

Even with an inspiring effort from Diarra in the second, UConn never got a great run.