Villanova Post Game Thread

[B1GEast]

Didn't care for the play calling in the last 16 seconds. Two consecutive drives to the hoop. Would have preferred a kick out to anyone on the edge.

AK misses two in a row, unfortunate.

They kept it close on the road in the Big East.

I ain't mad. On to Georgetown

 

[rcarj]

Everybody loves Alex but he's got to give us more for us to win in this league

Dixon really has changed up his game over his 11 years at Villanova

Need more Stewart from now on

It’s Liam’s team w Stewart and diarra as the next best players. Just has to be the reality at this point…and ball is the first shooting option w Karaban as second w Liam out.

 

[Deleted at users request]

he’s not that guy to create. He s pick and pop, slip to rim player. Can’t believe we went to him both times.

Yeah… he’s the best 3 and D guy in the country. He’s great if you have those expectations for him. If you expect him to be the best player and All-American though you’ll be disappointed. And it’ll be nobody’s fault but your own.

 

[3rdbass]

We lost to a Kyle Neptune coached team

We almost lost to them last year @Nova. Things happen. Diarra should of taken that wide open 3 point shot instead of bringing back out and driving for a wild 2. AK just a horrible game but he will bounce back. Shouts out to Stew for an all around great game. His D on Dixon was great. Solo had a great 2nd half mixing in drives with mid range and 3s was sweet. I was hoping he would take the last shot.

 

[Icehawk]

I'm bummed, that was totally winnable with just a bit more concentration IMO. Too many sloppy turnovers combined with going to a player having an off night at the end totals up to a loss. Would have preferred to see Diarra or secondarily Ball in the paint trying for that last bucket, I didn't like how they pushed it out to the 3pt line - eats up time and a layup at the hoop is all you need.

I love Alex but I'm disappointed by him just standing there watching that 2nd miss. Not gonna beat him up over it and looking for a strong bounce back.

Solo and Stewart had good nights and I think in general there was some better defense played by Solo and Mahaney too. Reffing was pretty relaxed most of the night, a few times I thought the guys were trying to see who could hug the other more

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

If you watching UConn last two games it’s a cause for concern. That team was 178 in Kenpom D and we struggled.

They shot 55% from the field. The offense was fine. It's the other end.

That was my first time watching Villanova for extended minutes. They're . . . fine. Dixon is a load and they've got guys who can knock down shots but they do enough goofy things to keep teams around. This was a pretty winnable game but you can't make that many unforced errors and expect to win.

I would hope that the Ross experiment is over. Give his minutes and then some to Jaylin (who did better than anyone else in a really tough matchup with the old guy). And he seems to have some offensive creativity that this team needs. Give him the ball at the end of the shot clock and let him create something. Great second half for Solo.

Just a kick in the dilz way to lose. Absolutely brutal night from Karaban. Your preseason All-American just cannot be that non-existent. Very disappointing from him on more than a few occasions this year. Bricking the two free throws was just the icing on the cake.

All things considered, what blows the most is that that was a very winnable game despite all the aforementioned struggles. The wheels did not, in fact, fall off. It's gonna be a slog with Liam out but the chicken littles do this team and their collective balls a disservice.

 

[Horatio]

Meh, I cut slack. Dude came through for two years straight, 2 championships, pretty good this year. Gotta cut him some slack.

 

[Candyman]

Tough loss. Winnable game.

I saw a lot of encouraging stuff. Stewart, Ross progressed. Samson with some fight for rebounds and moves in the paint. Solo flamethrowers. This team doesn’t quit.

Frustrating stuff too. Alex needs to be better. Aidan needed to build off last game & not regress.

Just too sloppy with unforced errors probably the biggest reason for the loss.

Regroup

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.

 

[TheHorde]

Didn't care for the play calling in the last 16 seconds. Two consecutive drives to the hoop. Would have preferred a kick out to anyone on the edge.

AK misses two in a row, unfortunate.

They kept it close on the road in the Big East.

I ain't mad. On the Georgetown

I think the thought process there was that Villanova had a foul to give, so the staff figured action going toward the rim would produce either a good shot or get fouled in the act of shooting. I wouldn’t have minded a drive and kick out to a shooter though.

 

[WlfdHusky]

Nice to see Jaylin have a breakout game and nice to see Nowell get a little time in. But Donyell Karaban was rough tonight.

 

[SwingDog]

Worst call to me is when Dixon swings into the lane and lunges at Jaylin - whistle Jaylin?
That game was one sided for much of the game but we still had a chance to win it.

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.

 

[Jaydumo20]

This is going to be a good year for us and we should have a good tourney run.

But man I’m excited for this group of sophomores to be juniors and rely on our more talented guys.

There was a lot to like from Solo and Stew today.

I'm with ya

 

[JMick]

Didn't care for the play calling in the last 16 seconds. Two consecutive drives to the hoop. Would have preferred a kick out to anyone on the edge.

AK misses two in a row, unfortunate.

They kept it close on the road in the Big East.

I ain't mad. On the Georgetown

I would have rather been down 2. It seems like a three wasn't even an option because we were only down 1 and we didn't run "our offense"

 

[Chin Diesel]

Tough loss. Winnable game.

I saw a lot of encouraging stuff. Stewart, Ross progressed. Samson with some fight for rebounds and moves in the paint. Solo flamethrowers. This team doesn’t quit.

Frustrating stuff too. Alex needs to be better. Aidan needed to build off last game & not regress.

Just too sloppy with unforced errors probably the biggest reason for the loss.

Regroup

Ross progressed? He was a non-entity.

 

[RuffRuff]

Liam

The one play we shouldn’t run is the AK head down black hole drive. Thats proven low % for awhile.

Watched that play over and the entire team stopped and stared on that one.

On the Hassan drive no one really cut either. Tarris had big bodied Dixon on him and fronting him. He had an easy slip to the rim on that one as Dixon pivoted to look at Diarra, and for some reason he kept hugging the back of Dixon rather than present as an easy lob option for Hassan. This is the difference in our two bigs offensively.

If we weren’t thinking of going directly into Reed on any of those plays, we could have had Samson in there for the lob.

 

[Hunt for 7]

Just going to watch the games and root for our team. I was surprised they came back like they did.

If Liam comes back healthy and we put together a good run I will be satisfied.

Eventually we all have to manage expectations with this team.

I actually think there was a lot of body contact on the foul that put Alex on the line.

I thought we could lose tonight but I never would have thought we would lose like we did.

Turn all the sump pumps on because we are going to be taking on water until Liam comes back.

 

[UConNick]

Going iso a couple of times in a row at the end was a little perplexing. I would expect with our offense we’d have some kind of play to run involving some screens and a slip to create an open shot or lane. It didn’t even look like we were running anything and then Nova blew it up; we were going that way the whole time, each time.

Deep cut, but I often think about the play Texas ran to beat us at Gampel in December 2014. We were up two and they were inbounding with a couple ticks left. Beautiful screen and fade left Jonathan Holmes wide open in the corner and he drilled the triple to break our hearts.

I would think Hurley, Murray, et al. would have something similar for such a situation, but I suppose they felt like relying on the 1 vs. 1 was our best option, for whatever reason.

 

[storrsroars]

Tough loss. Winnable game.

I saw a lot of encouraging stuff. Stewart, Ross progressed. Samson with some fight for rebounds and moves in the paint. Solo flamethrowers. This team doesn’t quit.

Solo, Hass, Samson all with 4 rebounds. Solo also 4 assists. We lost the game, but we got more of what we want from those three. Stew did very well tonight and that's highly encouraging with Liam out.

Dixon was a tough assignment. He wasn't scoring, so did what any smart player with his skills would - get fouled and get to the line. 9-9. Got his 26 pts.

A whole lot of you Marys in the chat gave up in first half. We're not a juggernaut this year, but still very capable of playing UConn basketball in spurts. And we put together enough of those spurts to almost win the game.

I don't have a ton of complaints with Liam out. But I don't want Ross dribbling in the paint. Or really at all.

 

[SubbaBub]

How the '72 US/USSR fame should have ended.

 

[ATLDYKA]

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.

 

[IndyLives]

I didnt like going to AK so many times in the last minute - didnt get off a good shot and was fortunate to get to the line. Diarra had a nice drive, but missed a tough layup. I think we're going to have a LOT of close games the next month, so Danny needs to scheme better.

 

[3rdbass]

Going iso a couple of times in a row at the end was a little perplexing. I would expect with our offense we’d have some kind of play to run involving some screens and a slip to create an open shot or lane. It didn’t even look like we were running anything and then Nova blew it up; we were going that way the whole time, each time.

Deep cut, but I often think about the play Texas ran to beat us at Gampel in December 2014. We were up two and they were inbounding with a couple ticks left. Beautiful screen and fade left Jonathan Holmes wide open in the corner and he drilled the triple to break our hearts.

I would think Hurley, Murray, et al. would have something similar for such a situation, but I suppose they felt like relying on the 1 vs. 1 was our best option, for whatever reason.

Yeah I was hoping more for a drive and pass or if anyone was going to go one on on it would be Ball. Oh well let's win the next one.

 

[Palatine]

If you want to be an All American, you have to make those shots. I sure he feels terrible. And yes, he has made a of of big shots. The good news is there is a long way go. Look forward not backwards.

 

[EnochRoot]

The one play we shouldn’t run is the AK head down black hole drive. Thats proven low % for awhile.

Watched that play over and the entire team stopped and stared on that one.

On the Hassan drive no one really cut either. Tarris had big bodied Dixon on him and fronting him. He had an easy slip to the rim on that one as Dixon pivoted to look at Diarra, and for some reason he kept hugging the back of Dixon rather than present as an easy lob option for Hassan. This is the difference in our two bigs offensively.

If we weren’t thinking of going directly into Reed on any of those plays, we could have had Samson in there for the lob.

I thought about that, but then you have to call timeout to get Johnson out of the game otherwise Dixon would eat his lunch on a game winning shot.

 

[aceboon]

I hope tonight was enough for Dan Hurley to loosen the leash he has on Jaylin, you can't watch him and Jayden play basketball and think their minutes should be split/shared, Jaylin just has way more game and feel. Jayden needs another offseason of seasoning and development.

 

[Gurleyman]

If the light went on for Stewart for good, we could be on to something. (Thought the light went on for Mahaney last game, but that went back out - hopefully it’s just a flicker). We just don’t seem like we have enough weapons and have to have Solo or someone go on a heater to win games. But if Stewart can be a solid scoring option like that, when Liam comes back we are even more versatile.

FTs are what they are. Just a physical shot that didn’t go in. Not going to beat anyone up over that. But I would have liked to have seen AK show a little more conviction on those two drives and/or a little bit of veteran savviness. An up fake and drawing contact, or a clever shuffle pass to Reed, or a kickout. He’s a two time champ and already a legend, but if we want to be a tough out in March, we need him to have an alpha streak in big moments and show more than spot up threes. He’s basically the same player he was last year and we need him to add something. Cant rely on Diarra prayers.

Felt like we didn’t get Reed involved enough.

 

[Bazz2014]

A lot of bad but choosing to focus on the positive…

H2 was Solo’s best half at UConn. Scored at all three levels, defense is still a mystery, but it’s trending better at least.

Stewart seems to thrive when challenged. Whether it’s big games, games where we’re floundering, or a night like tonight - his first start and got the Dixon matchup. He was tremendous on both sides of the ball. He just has to figure out how to bring that level of focus every game.

Reed was hampered by fouls tonight, but again had Kodiak bear moments. Wish we’d found ways to keep him involved when it came down to the wire, he was a difference maker during the run, just seems like we forgot him when things got really dicey.

Maybe this lights a fire for AK. Just not a good game for him and obviously heartbreaker at the end with the FTs. 2x champion, captain of the team, hopefully he can figure out ways to be more involved earlier in games when his shot isn’t falling.

We knew it was going to be hard without Liam. Let’s see how they respond this weekend.

 

[IndyLives]

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.

Yup. AK has decent size, a good shot, but lacks in the critical NBA metrics around speed, quickness, hops, overall athleticism. Tonight he got exposed.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

Ross progressed? He was a non-entity.

Yep, made progress. He had a nice 3 and was one of the only players willing to try to take it into the lane when the offense stagnated on a few occasions in both halves. 3 rebounds. Overplayed on D and got burnt but that’s still gonna happen. Didn’t finish the one drive but yes, progress.

He was discussed and dissed ad nauseum in the other thread.

Positive vibes, my friend. Enjoy the ride.

 

[TheHorde]

Yeah I was hoping more for a drive and pass or if anyone was going to go one on on it would be Ball. Oh well let's win the next one.

For some reason, our guys are too often spectators when we have someone driving toward the rim rather than cutting or getting to an open spot on the floor. Not always and not every guy, certainly. But it happens more frequently than I’d like.