Villanova Post Game Thread

[Kolumbo]

And SJ was any better?

In his 16 minutes? No. But he did have a nice too easy dunk. It seems like just yesterday everyone was salivating over getting Johnson back and suddenly he's a 6-10 nobody.

 

[RedStickHusky]

Cam's shot was off and he got burned badly a few times on defense but man for a guy who physically has trouble staying in front of people he makes a lot of big tough plays on defense. Whenever people in the chat start ragging on his defense he comes up with a big steal, he draws the offensive foul or he makes a play he has no business making helping out on a big man. He's such a good and tough player.

I suspect that in those times the chat is ragging on Spencer, he's beating himself up even worse. High strung dude, in a good way.

 

[RichCTBB]

I suspect that in those times the chat is ragging on Spencer, he's beating himself up even worse. High strung dude, in a good way.

Cam usually makes up for getting burned by getting a steal

 

[Huskyforlife]

Fwiw, I believe in these guys talent. I just don’t think they have the space to really carve out a productive role offensively. And we’ve shown we don’t need them to to win.

We aren’t going to prioritize getting them going so the margin for error combined with the opportunity available is just way to small for them to be that productive. I don’t think Ball even attempted a shot or drive tonight.

Don’t think it’s a situation like Joey or Alleyne last year either. Both guys who had a very green light even with limited minutes.

But like I said we don’t really need it to win.

I heard Hunter Dickinson on a podcast yesterday mention he’s heard Hurley practices are brutal. He also complimented our sets/offense and mentioned Hurley is a great coach.

Most freshmen seem to have a hard time picking up the offense. The complexities combined with the deference to the starters must make it extremely difficult to know when it’s your time to create within the structure. In Balls case he had more experience with Castle out, but he only settled for taking open 3s. Stewart I’m willing to bet will be a different player by seasons end, but he probably needs more game experience before we raise the floor with him.

 

[dennismenace]

Outside of Johnson and Clingan they were 18-20 from the line.

Karaban, Spencer, Newton and Castle are all damn good from the line.

Absolute ice in their veins down the stretch closing out. This is going to pay off as the season progresses. "You better get us now" because we'll kill you in the closeout. Just ask Coach Calipari.
"those guys don't miss."

 

[housekeys]

They had a foul to give and Clingan used it

Not sure that having Clingan take an intentional foul with under 10 seconds in the half is a good decision. If it was all possible I would send in a sub to take the foul and protect Clingan. But what do I know?

 

[Zonepress]

Anybody who thought Clingan had a bad game knows nothing about basketball and is probably mentally handicapped.

I think that about covers it

 

[alphasigko]

If SJ is our starting 5 next season, I can't see how that's a good thing at this point. Is anyone else seeing "wall potential"?

Not a hint of it!

 

[housekeys]

Didn't like the crazy long three from Tristen with a minute left but everything else was spot on.

Yea, I agree on a few head scratching plays by Newton. But, I am not sure we get the "clutch" Newton, without the "crazy" Newton baggage that comes along with it. It is a risk reward that is working out nicely for us.

 

[RedStickHusky]

-- @Huskyforlife Nice post on Moore's savvy hook move; sarcasm is often wasted on the yard...

-- back-back wins in the 60's; not our thing, but nice to know we can when we have to. Seems the league doesn't want to see games in the 80s

-- winning is hard, on the road even harder. Doesn't mean we suck when other teams make plays

-- Two half-games from DC has raised our Kenpom Defense about 20 spots. His effect on the other team goes way beyond his own individual stats.

 

[DogMania]

Villanova’s man to man was tenacious. We missed a few mismatches in the post but given how much pressure the guards were under and how far out we had to start our offense it wasn’t easy for them to see those mismatches let alone get the ball into the post.

Give credit where credit is due. Villanova decided they were going to make it hard to enter the ball into the post. To our credit, we didn’t force it.

Agree. Nova really made UConn work hard in their half court sets. Gotta give them some credit. Maybe they could have tried to work it in the post a bit more, but when they did in traffic we turned it over, so they got a little skittish other than a few back cuts.

 

[dennismenace]

I heard Hunter Dickinson on a podcast yesterday mention he’s heard Hurley practices are brutal. He also complimented our sets/offense and mentioned Hurley is a great coach.

Most freshmen seem to have a hard time picking up the offense. The complexities combined with the deference to the starters must make it extremely difficult to know when it’s your time to create within the structure. In Balls case he had more experience with Castle out, but he only settled for taking open 3s. Stewart I’m willing to bet will be a different player by seasons end, but he probably needs more game experience before we raise the floor with him.

Seth Greenberg said we are playing a European style offense and that our offense is the best in the country.

 

[Bomber36]

A road win on a Saturday night, you need to sacrifice blood, sweat, and tears in this conference, where sometimes it’s not your night how do you respond and responded like champions.

Answered every time we were behind. Now get a week off pretty much and learn from this need to be better and less mental mistakes it’s a learning process.

Today’s word of the day is composed. That is what UConn was tonight.

 

[my2cents]

He forces about 4 or 5 missed shots, another 5 or 6 possessions away from the paint along with 2 or 3 blocks. He can single handedly shift a game without even scoring.

You know it PMAC!

 

[dennismenace]

The three he took from 30 feet after making one on the previous possession from 25 feet was a head scratcher. But he came up big when it counted.

Anyone else as nervous as I was when he went to the line with 4 seconds left? But he calmly nailed them both.

LOL not only does he calmly make them but he does it with a smile.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

I heard Hunter Dickinson on a podcast yesterday mention he’s heard Hurley practices are brutal. He also complimented our sets/offense and mentioned Hurley is a great coach.

Most freshmen seem to have a hard time picking up the offense. The complexities combined with the deference to the starters must make it extremely difficult to know when it’s your time to create within the structure. In Balls case he had more experience with Castle out, but he only settled for taking open 3s. Stewart I’m willing to bet will be a different player by seasons end, but he probably needs more game experience before we raise the floor with him.

I called it out when he was jacking all those 3s instead of driving to the rim that it was going to come back to bite him and here we are. Still not a big threat from 3 and not really comfortable attacking the basket so he has nothing he can go to.

I’m also not sure just how much time Stewart is going to get for the rest of the season now that DC is back. He played 3 minutes this game and 7 last game. Solo has played 3 minutes in his last 2 games too.

I really just don’t think the opportunity is going to be there for them to end up being impactful like a Joey or Alleyne later on. They might have to follow the Hawkins plan and just wait until they have more responsibility to show off their talent next season.

 

[superjohn]

Clingan credited with 2 blocks. I swear, he always gets shorted on blocks.

 

[DogMania]

In his 16 minutes? No. But he did have a nice too easy dunk. It seems like just yesterday everyone was salivating over getting Johnson back and suddenly he's a 6-10 nobody.

SJ has exceeded expectations. He's simply not a big body so he's going to get out muscled with some matchups and will need some help in the post. They'll need to pick up a bigger bodied 5 in the Portal next sesson and SJ will improve and get a little stronger as well. We'll be fine.

 

[3rdbass]

How they lost all of their Big 5 games to Philly teams I will never understand.

Well if we didn't play like trash on offense we would of blown them out.

 

[dennismenace]

We are shooting about 3% worse from the line this year. There’s not much to complain about with a team ranked first that’s on a very nice winning streak. But I don’t envision blowing people out in the tournament the way we did last year. It’s my opinion. You can disagree with it. The numbers are what they are.

I don't know but if we continue to get healthy we will be very hard to stop on neutral courts and teams unfamiliar with the many looks we have now.

 

[DogMania]

I called it out when he was jacking all those 3s instead of driving to the rim that it was going to come back to bite him and here we are. Still not a big threat from 3 and not really comfortable attacking the basket so he has nothing he can go to.

I’m also not sure just how much time Stewart is going to get for the rest of the season now that DC is back. He played 3 minutes this game and 7 last game. Solo has played 3 minutes in his last 2 games too.

I really just don’t think the opportunity is going to be there for them to end up being impactful like a Joey or Alleyne later on. They might have to follow the Hawkins plan and just wait until they have more responsibility to show off their talent next season.

Not a valid comparison, Joey Cak and Alleyne were experienced upper classman with a lot of experience. Ball and Stewart are freshman and don't provide the shot making, yet, that those two gave us last season.

 

[formerlurker]

Pretty stoked we won.

 

[dennismenace]

Referees save our bacon. I don't care how obvious those last offensive fouls were, they don't often get called in those spots.

Huge game from Newton picking up the offense. Only one to have a plus offensive game tonight.

That's because Nova not getting those plays with Jay Wright gone as another poster mentioned. In the past we'd see Colin Gillespie's version of "backing down" which was knocking people into left field.

 

[yungdowork]

I called it out when he was jacking all those 3s instead of driving to the rim that it was going to come back to bite him and here we are. Still not a big threat from 3 and not really comfortable attacking the basket so he has nothing he can go to.

I don't think Solo seeing less playing time has anything to do with his offensive performance though. Conference play started so the bench shortened, and Clingan + Castle are both healthy so there's less minutes available. Ball hasn't taken more than 1 shot in the last 5 games, and over that span he's averaging 6 mins a game, compared to the 25-30 he was getting during all of November and most of December.

The reality is that we're going to basically go 7 deep with some cameos from either Ball or Stewart depending on the matchup or the fouls. We only went 8 deep last year and that was with Clingan coming off the bench and a lot more upperclassmen with D1 experience

 

[Viet Vet]

I thought the refs did a very good job

Thanks. The whining is incessant.