Villanova Post Game Thread

[RuffRuff]

My first thought was dump it in to Reed at the end, I hope Alex doesn’t lose confidence over this.

It didn’t seem like they even considered Reed. Twas my argument that they should have had Samson in there because if they were going ISO drives he would have been an option on the lob.

Issue with Tarris is he does do some boneheaded things, today we saw it as he passed the ball to no where. Those spaced out moments make it hard to rely on in live die possessions. I’m noticing that on occasion he’s bodying up his defender to the outside of the rim when the advantage is to get open towards the rim. It’s like he’s looking for physical contact for the hell of it, very weird.

His underutilization offensively is perplexing. He’s shooting 68% from the floor and creating a lot of those shots himself. In a game like this could have also tried to draw a few fouls in Dixon.

 

[Deleted at users request]

Fwiw, Hass had the clutch gene at A&M.

New UConn men’s basketball guard Hassan Diarra has knack for clutch shots: ‘You need that in March’

The Huskies basketball transfer from Texas A&M bring New York confidence to Coach Dan Hurley's squad.

www.ctinsider.com

That’s fair. I’m just not confident in him being the guy with deep tournament expectations.

He’s been great running the offense, but if he was going to be the guy this year Hurley would’ve started him at the beginning of the year.

I don’t mind the loss today because we’re continuing to see other guys develop on things they need to for the end of the year.

 

[uconngb]

Tarris was 3/3 fg's. How the hell does he only get 3 shots tonight and why weren't we getting the ball into him? The guy is an automatic bucket when we get it to him on the block, the problem is we don't get it into him nearly enough. Guy is shooting 69% this season.

I’ll say it again: Dan Hurley got out coached by a potato tonight. Not his best effort.

 

[TyroneShoo]

The year of “playing to the level of our opponents.”

Karaban better flush that mentally, he’s gonna be sick for a we

Shot 4 free throws the entire game, 2 were Alex's at the end. Road reffing continues to be a problem for us.

he kinda didn’t deserve those. That isn’t the refs. That is the style you play.

 

[Gurleyman]

sigh

This is when I miss times when players were taught how to play basketball and not how to run plays.

A Kemba, Bazz, Boatright, Price had the right to change plays and improvise as they saw fit because Calhoun trusted how well he coached them to make plays themselves.

We have some great great plays, but we should also keep developing guys to rise above the Xs and Os when necessary.

Well. It’s an open 3. But Hass is shooting 27 percent this season and 30 percent in his career, and he forced a 3 to try to win a game that was a poor shot. So that’s still in his mind I’m sure. And maybe he just said “nah” on his own even if Dan Hurley would have approved.

Like I said, I’d have been ok with it. It would have been an on balance clean look and he can make them. And my thought would have been if he missed that you can’t ask for a better look, and we don’t have a bucket getter who can make something out of nothing who Hass would be denying the chance to win the game for us. But we also don’t know what happened in the huddle. It might not have even been a play so much as Hurley might have implored them to get into a set and attack the basket and then work inside out or get on the glass, not knowing we’d be that open off the inbounds.

 

[Mike Honcho]

That’s fair. I’m just not confident in him being the guy with deep tournament expectations.

He’s been great running the offense, but if he was going to be the guy this year Hurley would’ve started him at the beginning of the year.

I don’t mind the loss today because we’re continuing to see other guys develop on things they need to for the end of the year.

To be clear, I fully agree with you. Just didn't want to overlook the fact that he does have a positive track record with respect to late game heroics.

 

[storrsroars]

Dixon played like crap and exposed as nba failure he will be.

Dixon got his points. He has the game and smarts to realize that if he's being well defended and having a tough shooting night, he simply needs to be Dixon and get to the line. 9-9. He got 23 tonight, just off his average of 24.7.

Watching his game tonight reminded me of another big time PITA - DeJuan Blair. Same size, pretty much same game.

 

[Mike Honcho]

Agree but so do Solo and Diarra. Alex can’t take anyone off the dribble suddenly so maybe time to start posting him up. People guarding him are too athletic on the move so change it up he’s good around the basket. HD can’t continue to come up empty for the first 20, 2 in a row needs to end fire and leadership needs to be immediate. Was it Adam’s that started real slow in the past? Also shouldn’t have given up that wide open 3 for a weak take to the rim.

Solo once again huge shots the kids clutch on that end. But watch the game got beat on the other end as much as he scored it’s an issue. He also missed a huge box out on weakside when we were up 2 and needed that rebound, can’t happen that end is important too.

Need Liam dramatically I’m afraid. Can’t lose to them with Dixon at 6-20 should never happen. Interested in this teams response!

Oh almost forgot thanks Jaylin for showing up to play. Well done!

We sold out on Dixon with double-teams every time he touched the ball. This was like the anti-Purdue scheme. The rest of their team shot 18/35 or 51%. We had a few chances to win this game, so I don't question the gameplan, but I don't agree with your statement about "Can't lose to them with Dixon at 6-20 should never happen." We picked our poison.

 

[uconn_jack]

AK wasn't fouled on either of them. He got bailed out and then bricked them.

On the drive 44 reached in and whacked AK on the arm pretty hard, almost made him lose the dribble.

 

[kobebeanbryant]

Solo putting together a more complete offensive game.

With McNeeley out, we have nobody that can create offense besides Diarra.

We need to run more offense through Reed. We go long stretches where we ignore him.

Nowell deserves minutes as backup pg. He instantly looked better than Mahaney in that role.

Alex needs to reign his game back in. No lumbering drives. No deep or off balance 3s. Just be a solid role player and don’t force things that are outside your capabilities.

Continue to start Stewart and give him consistent minutes to develop. Let him work thru inconsistency/mistakes. This team desperately needs another offensive threat.

Mahaney/Ross minutes may need to be distributed elsewhere.

Late game play calls left a lot to be desired…Diarra has repeatedly shown he cannot execute in those situations and we ask Alex to do things outside of his strengths.

 

[Zissou]

Dixon got his points. He has the game and smarts to realize that if he's being well defended and having a tough shooting night, he simply needs to be Dixon and get to the line. 9-9. He got 23 tonight, just off his average of 24.7.

Watching his game tonight reminded me of another big time PITA - DeJuan Blair. Same size, pretty much same game.

Blair was not a 3pt threat. Completely different game.

 

[alphasigko]

AK's 2 FT wiffs w/the game on the line is quite shocking. Especially after such a great comeback from a 7 point halftime deficit. On to G'town... GO HUSKIES...

 

[Zissou]

On the drive 44 reached in and whacked AK on the arm pretty hard, almost made him lose the dribble. View attachment 106101

Looks like an offensive hook

 

[mauconnfan]

It didn’t seem like they even considered Reed. Twas my argument that they should have had Samson in there because if they were going ISO drives he would have been an option on the lob.

Issue with Tarris is he does do some boneheaded things, today we saw it as he passed the ball to no where. Those spaced out moments make it hard to rely on in live die possessions. I’m noticing that on occasion he’s bodying up his defender to the outside of the rim when the advantage is to get open towards the rim. It’s like he’s looking for physical contact for the hell of it, very weird.

His underutilization offensively is perplexing. He’s shooting 68% from the floor and creating a lot of those shots himself. In a game like this could have also tried to draw a few fouls in Dixon.

Reeds pass was fine Solo hardly ever cuts to the basket hardly a boneheaded play Ball was open but he left nobody’s fault, it happens. And not trying to give Reed more chances to bull his way in like Dixon did to us is on the staff, they needed to try to hammer it in but didn’t run anything for him. Strange to me because Bauyke couldn’t handle him without fouling out ( not sure they would call anything on him though because he was consistently a hack and ended up with 1 foul ).

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

First time Karaban has missed both free throws in his career. Very cool timing.

 

[RuffRuff]

Dixon got his points. He has the game and smarts to realize that if he's being well defended and having a tough shooting night, he simply needs to be Dixon and get to the line. 9-9. He got 23 tonight, just off his average of 24.7.

Watching his game tonight reminded me of another big time PITA - DeJuan Blair. Same size, pretty much same game.

Dejuan didn’t have nearly the outside shot - he was just a beast inside. Their games actually feel quite a bit different. Dixon is a very unique player - especially as a lefty. There haven’t been many players that thick and strong mobile enough to put the ball on the floor like that. He is a tough matchup for anyone at the college level.

If not hoops the guy could be the next Antonio Gates.

 

[mauconnfan]

We sold out on Dixon with double-teams every time he touched the ball. This was like the anti-Purdue scheme. The rest of their team shot 18/35 or 51%. We had a few chances to win this game, so I don't question the gameplan, but I don't agree with your statement about "Can't lose to them with Dixon at 6-20 should never happen." We picked our poison.

You can disagree all you want but we shouldn’t ever lose to Villanova if he shoots crappy. And they stopped doubling him 2nd half in case you missed the few blow bys and 1 that occurred?

 

[bendm]

Alex is being judged against expectations. He's a preseason All-American candidate, and he's not living up to that standard. It's not just this game either...

'23-24 stats:
13.3 pts / 49.5% FG / 37.9% 3P / 88.5% FT / 5.1 rebs / 1.5 asts / .9 stls / .8 blks

'24-25 stats:
16.3 pts / 48.3% FG / 42.5% 3P / 81.4% FT / 5.2 rebs / 2.8 asts / .5 stls / 1.8 blks

yeah his numbers are good across the board just not having the all-american season we were expecting or need if we're going to make a final four run.

 

[uconnfan68]

Is that the same play where Dixon shot airball 12 footer from the left baseline, lost his balance and ended up on his butt? Horrible call.

You breathe hard on that 260# guy, and he just flops.

 

[superjohn]

Dixon got his points. He has the game and smarts to realize that if he's being well defended and having a tough shooting night, he simply needs to be Dixon and get to the line. 9-9. He got 23 tonight, just off his average of 24.7.

Watching his game tonight reminded me of another big time PITA - DeJuan Blair. Same size, pretty much same game.

Both great players but not comparable games. Blair was more of a physical beast down low and he never shot a three in his career, Dixon shoots 7 threes per game at nearly 50%.

 

[mauconnfan]

Dejuan didn’t have nearly the outside shot - he was just a beast inside. Their games actually feel quite a bit different. Dixon is a very unique player - especially as a lefty. There haven’t been many players that thick and strong mobile enough to put the ball on the floor like that. He is a tough matchup for anyone at the college level.

If not hoops the guy could be the next Antonio Gates.

Agree but also he beat us to the left 3 times and that shouldn’t happen. That’s on the defenders.

 

[storrsroars]

Blair was not a 3pt threat. Completely different game.

True, Blair was not a 3 pt threat. He didn't have to be on those squads. That does not make a it a "completely different game". Both used their build and athleticism similarly in the paint to score and defend. That was very apparent in the 2nd half tonight. Difficult matchup for most opposing frontcourts, even with a height advantage.

 

[Gurleyman]

I’ll say it again: Dan Hurley got out coached by a potato tonight. Not his best effort.

Some criticism is deserved. But the game more or less came down to with the score tied:

Solo good look at a 3, miss.
Poplar tough contested look at a 3, make.
AK corner look out of a TO, miss
Dixon contested look at a 3, make.

Down 6 and we only got five of them back. Sometimes it’s just a make or miss thing.

 

[Zissou]

True, Blair was not a 3 pt threat. He didn't have to be on those squads. That does not make a it a "completely different game". Both used their build and athleticism similarly in the paint to score and defend. That was very apparent in the 2nd half tonight. Difficult matchup for most opposing frontcourts, even with a height advantage.

I’m doubling down on this one.

The 3 threat creates space for the offense in addition to the scoring.

Dixon has a very different game than Blair.

 

[uconnfan68]

he kinda didn’t deserve those. That isn’t the refs. That is the style you play.

Like not flopping?

 

[storrsroars]

I’m doubling down on this one.

The 3 threat creates space for the offense in addition to the scoring.

Dixon has a very different game than Blair.

Fair enough. I'm not dying on that hill. It came to mind in the 2nd half when he wasn't shooting 3s and there was simply no way to defend him w/o fouling because he was mismatch for everyone guarding him.

 

[huskyharry]

He got hit on the arm.

Correct, Longino didn’t even touch the ball…all hand and wrist

 

[EnochRoot]

Eric Dixon is a freakin beast. If I'm a 'Nova fan I'm ticked they don't have a good enough team around him. Shades of Danny Fortson with a three point shot.

 

[navery12]

often times in end of game situations if you don't take the first open shot you might not get another one that good again, and unfortunately that was the case tonight. posters have got up in arms over him taking end of clock shots(not me) but that's due to the offense being bogged down and there not being any other options, that wasn't the case with that potential wide open 3.

But the thing is he did get a better shot. I wouldn't have had a problem with him taking the first shot, even if he missed because there was enough time on the clock to foul and still get the ball back down 3. But Diarra got to the rim and still got a tough but good shot off that didn't fall

 

[aceboon]

But the thing is he did get a better shot. I wouldn't have had a problem with him taking the first shot, even if he missed because there was enough time on the clock to foul and still get the ball back down 3. But Diarra got to the rim and still got a tough but good shot off that didn't fall

That shot where he had to release the ball all the way behind his head?? Diarra makes some tough layups but I'd rather the open 3 over that one.