Villanova Post Game Thread

[WiseWillie]

Ross hit 1 three and got beat a few times. One time he didn’t wait to run a set instead drove to the hoop got his shot blocked and then was pulled.

Hurley playing Ross, Mahaney, Nowell, and Stew together absolutely killed us in the first half. He can’t be doing that.

That lineup in first half took the mo and wind out from us. Can't understand that lineup at that time. Would have been lot more appropriate in 4th to get some players some playing time if we were up by 20 but at that time? Puzzling.

 

[freshler40]

I'm with ya

Dixon sold that foul.

 

[Mr. French]

He played 11 minutes had 3 rebounds, one turnover, albeit an important one, and one drive that actually was decent.

But for a player that was given the second least minutes (Nowell had that honor with 8) people are writing as if he was the major problem for this loss. Reed Jr. and Alex each had 3 turnovers. Ross had as many rebounds as Alex, Stewart and Reed.

Ross came in for Solo only after Solo got beat several times by players driving to the basket in the first half. Immediately after Ross had that turnover Mahaney was put into the game in his place. Ross had the shortest leash in this game and yet the narrative persists he’s treated as a favorite of Hurley.

That one drive that people are focusing on followed a sequence where there was little ball movement and Nowell was struggling to create.

The best thing about Ross is that this forum has moved on from making Samson their negative focus.

Ross has not looked good, he was lost a few times on O and D, and he’s not playing confidently or consistently.

He’s not the major reason we lost of course, but him filling in for an important piece and somewhat regressing, rather than “stepping up” is worthy of discussion.

Ross is clearly showing talent and skill set to be excited about, but everything I see is simple as a kid not being fully confident and ready yet. He’s a bit all over rather than just playing.

 

[TheShot1990]

It seemed to be an off night for Hurley and he made some key mistakes:

• Going to a player who was having an off night 3 times in a row at the end
• Playing Ross in critical situations is not a way to build his confidence. He's just not ready yet
• What happened to Luke's Euro-style offense? In the first half, the plan seemed to be have Hass dribble the ball around for 15 seconds, then pick up his dribble (which drives me crazy) then pass it behind him to a circling player only to start all over again but even further away from the hoop
• Stewie was all over Dixon - stick with that...more

What happened to "chucking cutters?"

 

[6Nattys4Us]

We had 4 total free throws so not gonna gripe about Alex missing 2....far from "home cooking" there were too many silly fouls and silly turnovers.

Positives were:
1. We shot well (54%)
2. We defended decently (they shot 44%)
3. We handled Dixon's shooting (6-20 total, 3-8 from 3s)
4. We rebounded well 32 vs 23
5. Brickus only had 7

Can't hang my head on a 2 pt loss - this was a learning experience, minus Liam so was good to see Stewart have a plus game as well. And hey, Ross hit a 3!

 

[Tenspro2002]

Karaban was great as a role player, but when pressed into being the main man he is struggling. He's too slow to defend smaller guys, not strong enough to go against big guys. He's settling for beyond NBA range 3's. He's making good NIL money. I think his money is in college and he should be back for a 4th year. Not trying to pounce on him in this tough time, but not seeing him having success in the NBA.

I actually disagree.

NBA teams would use him in his intended role as a super-glue-guy.

The square-peg-round-hole issues he's encountering now is because some people are under the misconception that the next step for an elite glue guy is to become a go-to scorer, when they're actually completely different roles. It's like expecting an elite 1st baseman to go step in and play catcher.

 

[Conndog]

Watching Jayden on the floor, what he brings, and how the team then plays, it’s one of two things. 1. He is not ready or 2. He is a not a high major player. Nothing against Jayden, but Danny is trying to force something here that’s just not there. In just five minutes, Nowell seemed more comfortable and quite frankly, had more of an impact. Even in small amounts of time in each game, the negatives far outweigh the positives. No other player is like that.

I have nothing against Nowell, and I sure hope he is an answer to some of team’s problems, but I didn’t see him do anything except dribble around a bit. I didn’t see him drive inside to open things up, which is an area of need. Probably I’m wrong, but that’s what I saw.

 

[FLDawg16]

I'm still a little perplexed at the play drawn up for the corner 3. Not the play itself - they ran it well enough and got a fairly open 3 off the inbound pass. What I don't understand is why it was drawn up for Alex to take that shot. I'm not sure I have ever seen him take an in-motion sideways fallaway corner 3 in his entire career at UConn. That's definitely more of a Solo/Hass shot. Maybe they thought he'd break free of his man enough that he'd have time to set his feet and shoot a normal straight set shot, but it sure didn't look like that was the intention of the play.

I was going full-on Ewing in my living room asking Danny "Has he ever shot that shot? Does he work on that shot? When?"

Go to 3:28, Karaban buzzer beater corner three in the same exact building lol

 

[RuffRuff]

I’ve never argued Ross is better than Stewart.

Stewart can’t guard quicker 2s and 3s. He’s better at guarding 4s and in this game Alex guarded the three while Stewart guarded the 4. Stewart doesn’t get more playing time because he’s behind Liam and Alex.

Ross gets time against quick twos and threes. I don’t enjoy watching him making mistakes. I enjoyed every moment of Stewart’s game today. He was the only player who played well the entire game.

The difference between you and me is you feel those 11 minutes were useless. I don’t. If this was a good defensive team I’d agree with the majority and reduce his minutes. But this team is weak defensively and I’m for trying to get Ross comfortable because he’s the X factor for how deep our run will be post season.

IMO Hurley is utilizing him properly.

Ross cannot guard quicker twos and threes. The defensive specialist label is far from appropriate. He falls for every pump fake, he baits for every steal attempt. His defensive efficiency isn’t good, so how is Hurley using him well?

I actually disagree.

NBA teams would use him in his intended role as a super-glue-guy.

The square-peg-round-hole issues he's encountering now is because some people are under the misconception that the next step for an elite glue guy is to become a go-to scorer, when they're actually completely different roles. It's like expecting an elite 1st baseman to go step in and play catcher.

Do you really think NBA teams are looking for guys at the very end of the bench to be glue guys? They need competent production as a priority, the glue is a distant second. No one is drafting you for your glue.

 

[Get a Job]

Go to 3:28, Karaban buzzer beater corner three in the same exact building lol

Different building, same opponent.

 

[ctchamps]

Watching Jayden on the floor, what he brings, and how the team then plays, it’s one of two things. 1. He is not ready or 2. He is a not a high major player. Nothing against Jayden, but Danny is trying to force something here that’s just not there. In just five minutes, Nowell seemed more comfortable and quite frankly, had more of an impact. Even in small amounts of time in each game, the negatives far outweigh the positives. No other player is like that.

Nowell got 8 minutes. He’s a freshman, been injured and has played very few minutes so I don’t hold it against him but I saw nothing in those minutes to say he had more of an impact.

Hopefully he gets more time and can be Hass’s backup.

 

[Deleted at users request]

I’ve never argued Ross is better than Stewart.

Stewart can’t guard quicker 2s and 3s. He’s better at guarding 4s and in this game Alex guarded the three while Stewart guarded the 4. Stewart doesn’t get more playing time because he’s behind Liam and Alex.

Ross gets time against quick twos and threes. I don’t enjoy watching him making mistakes. I enjoyed every moment of Stewart’s game today. He was the only player who played well the entire game.

The difference between you and me is you feel those 11 minutes were useless. I don’t. If this was a good defensive team I’d agree with the majority and reduce his minutes. But this team is weak defensively and I’m for trying to get Ross comfortable because he’s the X factor for how deep our run will be post season.

IMO Hurley is utilizing him properly.

Agreed. These past few years and bringing ready made transfer players in have spoiled us.

This is a normal process for getting guys developed and ready to play. Ross will be fine and should learn from his mistakes as long as he keeps getting the minutes to learn.

 

[djct1999]

Agreed. These past few years and bringing ready made transfer players in have spoiled us.

This is a normal process for getting guys developed and ready to play. Ross will be fine and should learn from his mistakes as long as he keeps getting the minutes to learn.

Fair. I don’t have the time to revisit all your posts and will give you the benefit of the doubt. But if this is how you feel, don’t ever complain about a result because his +/- alone hurts us almost always, including last night.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Do you really think NBA teams are looking for guys at the very end of the bench to be glue guys? They need competent production as a priority, the glue is a distant second. No one is drafting you for your glue.

Draymond Green is a borderline Hall-of-Famer as a glue guy.

I don't expect Karaban to be that good, but it's not like NBA teams poo-poo that skillset.

 

[djct1999]

Nowell got 8 minutes. He’s a freshman, been injured and has played very few minutes so I don’t hold it against him but I saw nothing in those minutes to say he had more of an impact.

Hopefully he gets more time and can be Hass’s backup.

Nowell atleast passes the eye test and it feels even in this small sample set, he belongs at this level. Watching Jaylen, I never feel that. He is always in a hurry, scattered, and quite frankly makes mistakes and turnovers consistently.

 

[RuffRuff]

Draymond Green is a borderline Hall-of-Famer as a glue guy.

I don't expect Karaban to be that good, but it's not like NBA teams poo-poo that skillset.

Draymond Green is first and foremost a highly highly productive NBA player.

Take a look at the end of NBA benches, the G league and Europe and you’re likely find much better comps in terms of college glue guys.

 

[Deleted at users request]

Draymond Green is a borderline Hall-of-Famer as a glue guy.

I don't expect Karaban to be that good, but it's not like NBA teams poo-poo that skillset.

And in college he was a 16 and 10 consensus All-American and Big Ten POY.

He toned himself down to be a glue guy to find his fit in the league.

 

[Hunt for 7]

Nowell got 8 minutes. He’s a freshman, been injured and has played very few minutes so I don’t hold it against him but I saw nothing in those minutes to say he had more of an impact.

Hopefully he gets more time and can be Hass’s backup.

What you can see is that he is the quickest and fastest player on the team. If he combines that with a basketball skill set then he can be a factor. Maybe not this year but in the future.

 

[RuffRuff]

And in college he was a 16 and 10 consensus All-American and Big Ten POY.

He toned himself down to be a glue guy to find his fit in the league.

And reinvented the position entirely in an iconic sense on a decorated multi NBA champion. It gets funny here.

 

[Deleted at users request]

What you can see is that he is the quickest and fastest player on the team. If he combines that with a basketball skill set then he can be a factor. Maybe not this year but in the future.

All we need from Nowell is to be a Shabazz like ballhandler that gives Diarra rest and gets experience running the show and setting guys up.

We don’t need him to be Joey C or anything. He did perfectly fine yesterday for his first game in awhile.

 

[RuffRuff]

All we need from Nowell is to be a Shabazz like ballhandler that gives Diarra rest and gets experience running the show and setting guys up.

We don’t need him to be Joey C or anything. He did perfectly fine yesterday for his first game in awhile.

What we need from Nowell is a guy that can get in the lane, draw and distribute, because we are few on those. Take last nights game for example - we were forcing our 4 to put it on the floor in key possessions. At some points we had Ross bringing the ball up the floor, which incites panic in all.

We don’t need Shabazz or Joey C, we need a tough kid that can penetrate and play some stones defense, stay in front of his man with quick feet.

Last night was a tough game to baptize him in off injury. Would have preferred getting him some run against the Depauls of the world, but we need to get him there sooner rather than later. Now that he’s officially back, I’d expect him to get some decent time against upcoming games with DePaul and Butler at home.

 

[Hunt for 7]

All we need from Nowell is to be a Shabazz like ballhandler that gives Diarra rest and gets experience running the show and setting guys up.

We don’t need him to be Joey C or anything. He did perfectly fine yesterday for his first game in awhile.

I agree but most want to see these kids step on the floor and be stars. Man that is so hard knowing the coach is watching closely and their time on the floor will stop if they make any mistakes. These kids develop if they are allowed to play through some of their mistakes.

Hurley is actually better at it than JC was but that may be more related to how easy it is to transfer now than it was then. I would imagine under today’s transfer portal rules there would have been many more transfers out of the UConn program than we had under JC.

 

[Deleted at users request]

Fair. I don’t have the time to revisit all your posts and will give you the benefit of the doubt. But if this is how you feel, don’t ever complain about a result because his +/- alone hurts us almost always, including last night.

Yeah I’m not even mad at the loss last night. I’m usually for guys getting comfortable and developing one way or another. Having the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them is a way of doing that.

If we’re in mid-February/March and Ross is doing the same ish then yeah it’s time for the bench. But we gave Alleyne all the way until the tournament to turn it on.

 

[ctchamps]

Ross cannot guard quicker twos and threes. The defensive specialist label is far from appropriate. He falls for every pump fake, he baits for every steal attempt. His defensive efficiency isn’t good, so how is Hurley using him well?

Solo had a miserable first half and was the primary reason Villanova was playing even with us in spite of Stewart’s excellent defense on Dixon. So what were Hurley’s options?

It was good to see Nowell get minutes but he was replacing Hass. So that left Hurley with the choice of Mahaney or Ross.

It’s not like Mahaney played a lot better than Ross in that first half. He had zero points to Ross’s 3, zero rebounds to Ross’s 3. He did have two assists and 0 turnovers to Ross’s 0 assists and 1 turnover. His defense was slightly better than Ross although that’s debatable. He’s learned to keep his player from getting by him but fouls to stop him from scoring.

Ross was a net positive ( although the bar was extremely low with how bad Solo was playing) until that horrible turnover. But Hurley took Ross out immediately after that and only put him in for a few minutes the second half to give Solo a breather.

Thus I maintain Hurley utilized him well. The difference between my position and most of this forum is predicting what might happen to Ross’s game if he keeps getting 10-15 minutes. I’m hoping he can improve to the point his minutes will be important in the future. Most don’t think that’s possible and I understand that. But it’s not like there is a better option for Hurley.

 

[Deleted at users request]

I agree but most want to see these kids step on the floor and be stars. Man that is so hard knowing the coach is watching closely and their time on the floor will stop if they make any mistakes. These kids develop if they are allowed to play through some of their mistakes.

Hurley is actually better at it than JC was but that may be more related to how easy it is to transfer now than it was then. I would imagine under today’s transfer portal rules there would have been many more transfers out of the UConn program than we had under JC.

I actually think Calhoun did a much better job trusting freshman and letting them play through mistakes (it didn’t go without a crazy curse out but they played).

It’s rare for any freshman to be immediate stars and impact guys. Let alone for a guy who hasn’t played competitive basketball in a few months.

That’s just not realistic expectations.

What we need from Nowell is a guy that can get in the lane, draw and distribute, because we are few on those. Take last nights game for example - we were forcing our 4 to put it on the floor in key possessions. At some points we had Ross bringing the ball up the floor, which incites panic in all.

We don’t need Shabazz or Joey C, we need a tough kid that can penetrate and play some stones defense, stay in front of his man with quick feet.

Last night was a tough game to baptize him in off injury. Would have preferred getting him some run against the Depauls of the world, but we need to get him there sooner rather than later. Now that he’s officially back, I’d expect him to get some decent time against upcoming games with DePaul and Butler at home.

Agreed and what Nowell can do. With his time off that will come with mistakes most likely, and we’ll just have to see how tolerant of those mistakes we’ll be to try and make it to the other side.

Shabazz wasn’t all that great his freshman year for most of it. We just remember the highlights where he showed promise. But his main job was just try and play good defense and get the ball to Kemba. Then knock down open shots that Kemba got him lol

 

[Deleted at users request]

Solo had a miserable first half and was the primary reason Villanova was playing even with us in spite of Stewart’s excellent defense on Dixon. So what were Hurley’s options?

It was good to see Nowell get minutes but he was replacing Hass. So that left Hurley with the choice of Mahaney or Ross.

It’s not like Mahaney played a lot better than Ross in that first half. He had zero points to Ross’s 3, zero rebounds to Ross’s 3. He did have two assists and 0 turnovers to Ross’s 0 assists and 1 turnover. His defense was slightly better than Ross although that’s debatable. He’s learned to keep his player from getting by him but fouls to stop him from scoring.

Ross was a net positive ( although the bar was extremely low with how bad Solo was playing) until that horrible turnover. But Hurley took Ross out immediately after that and only put him in for a few minutes the second half to give Solo a breather.

Thus I maintain Hurley utilized him well. The difference between my position and most of this forum is predicting what might happen to Ross’s game if he keeps getting 10-15 minutes. I’m hoping he can improve to the point his minutes will be important in the future. Most don’t think that’s possible and I understand that. But it’s not like there is a better option for Hurley.

This forum also wanted to bench Andre during his slump. This place can be very shortsighted sometimes.

 

[3rdbass]

Solo had a miserable first half and was the primary reason Villanova was playing even with us in spite of Stewart’s excellent defense on Dixon. So what were Hurley’s options?

It was good to see Nowell get minutes but he was replacing Hass. So that left Hurley with the choice of Mahaney or Ross.

It’s not like Mahaney played a lot better than Ross in that first half. He had zero points to Ross’s 3, zero rebounds to Ross’s 3. He did have two assists and 0 turnovers to Ross’s 0 assists and 1 turnover. His defense was slightly better than Ross although that’s debatable. He’s learned to keep his player from getting by him but fouls to stop him from scoring.

Ross was a net positive ( although the bar was extremely low with how bad Solo was playing) until that horrible turnover. But Hurley took Ross out immediately after that and only put him in for a few minutes the second half to give Solo a breather.

Thus I maintain Hurley utilized him well. The difference between my position and most of this forum is predicting what might happen to Ross’s game if he keeps getting 10-15 minutes. I’m hoping he can improve to the point his minutes will be important in the future. Most don’t think that’s possible and I understand that. But it’s not like there is a better option for Hurley.

I personally like Stewart to eat all of Ross's minutes when McNeeley is back. I see more upside with Stewart than I do Ross. If we can get Nowell playing more I might even want to see Mahaney taking Ross's minutes that he gets now. I think if Ross is going to play he has to be told to keep his dribbling to a minimum and be a strictly a 3 and D(Which he needs to improve) to even see 5 minutes a game. I never want to see Ross initiating offense again at least this season until he improves his ball handling.

 

[RuffRuff]

Solo had a miserable first half and was the primary reason Villanova was playing even with us in spite of Stewart’s excellent defense on Dixon. So what were Hurley’s options?

It was good to see Nowell get minutes but he was replacing Hass. So that left Hurley with the choice of Mahaney or Ross.

It’s not like Mahaney played a lot better than Ross in that first half. He had zero points to Ross’s 3, zero rebounds to Ross’s 3. He did have two assists and 0 turnovers to Ross’s 0 assists and 1 turnover. His defense was slightly better than Ross although that’s debatable. He’s learned to keep his player from getting by him but fouls to stop him from scoring.

Ross was a net positive ( although the bar was extremely low with how bad Solo was playing) until that horrible turnover. But Hurley took Ross out immediately after that and only put him in for a few minutes the second half to give Solo a breather.

Thus I maintain Hurley utilized him well. The difference between my position and most of this forum is predicting what might happen to Ross’s game if he keeps getting 10-15 minutes. I’m hoping he can improve to the point his minutes will be important in the future. Most don’t think that’s possible and I understand that. But it’s not like there is a better option for Hurley.

So what you’re saying is Hurley is using him out of default defensive desperation. That I’ll agree with.

I think we all hope he improves, he simply hasn’t yet and we’re 17 games in. What’s debatable is what his ceiling to improve actually is. I will always bank on the staff knowing far more than us peons do, up to the point it feels like they are over indexing on practice effort reward in the immediate. What he does well is always offset with a variety of gaffs that trump his positives.

He was actually net -3, although not terrible in a game we lost by 2. Finally hitting a 3 was a nice plus, although feels like a surprise when he makes one. Hopefully something to build off of.

Cue the Andre comparisons.

 

[ctchamps]

Nowell atleast passes the eye test and it feels even in this small sample set, he belongs at this level. Watching Jaylen, I never feel that. He is always in a hurry, scattered, and quite frankly makes mistakes and turnovers consistently.

In before @HooperScooper gets you for Jaylen when it’s Jayden.

I feel Nowell is going to be a good player as well.

The mistakes that Ross makes bother me as much as everyone else. And I understand that he may not be the player I believe he can become. Time will sort this out.

 

[kobebeanbryant]

I'm still a little perplexed at the play drawn up for the corner 3. Not the play itself - they ran it well enough and got a fairly open 3 off the inbound pass. What I don't understand is why it was drawn up for Alex to take that shot. I'm not sure I have ever seen him take an in-motion sideways fallaway corner 3 in his entire career at UConn. That's definitely more of a Solo/Hass shot. Maybe they thought he'd break free of his man enough that he'd have time to set his feet and shoot a normal straight set shot, but it sure didn't look like that was the intention of the play.

I was going full-on Ewing in my living room asking Danny "Has he ever shot that shot? Does he work on that shot? When?"

Yea that was honestly bewildering.

Alex cannot shoot on the move.

I have to imagine they drew it up thinking he would have time to get set.

No idea why Alex would take that shot while falling away. Very poor decision from him.

Maybe acceptable as a late shot clock prayer, but that was an out of timeout play in a critical situation

Just unacceptable all around.