Villanova Post Game Thread

[RuffRuff]

I thought you just implied somewhere that we’re heading towards a 4/5 seed and probable L against Duke or Auburn in the sweet 16? Maybe if we had an AA stepping up while Liam is out we’d get that 2/3? We can still go 6-1 with Liam out but Alex has to be better

Alex was bad last night, so that can’t happen again and is unlikely to, but not sure we need him at AA level to be very good. He’s a fixed piece, is what he is, been in the system, further upside limited. All the others around him are still developing and learning, and in many respects more naturally talented. That’s where the upside is.

 

[uconnfan68]

I'm not disagreeing. But the +/- again has him in the negatives as he's been all year. It's perplexing. I thought his defense was miles better than previous games and he obviously shot the ball quite well. At a certain point, though, statistics aren't just random or anomaly. As a whole we fall behind when Stew is on the court. I have no idea why that is.

The +/- is a TEAM thing. He just happened to be on the floor then. Could have been worse without him.

 

[uconnfan68]

Alex was bad last night, so that can’t happen again and is unlikely to, but not sure we need him at AA level to be very good. He’s a fixed piece, is what he is, been in the system, further upside limited. All the others around him are still developing and learning, and in many respects more naturally talented. That’s where the upside is.

Alex knows what to do and how. Some of the others don't seem to have a clue yet. When someone sets a screen fr you, you don't go around it wide enough to let the defender stay with you. We are definitely not moving the same way we have the past few years.

 

[bendm]

Alex was bad last night, so that can’t happen again and is unlikely to, but not sure we need him at AA level to be very good. He’s a fixed piece, is what he is, been in the system, further upside limited. All the others around him are still developing and learning, and in many respects more naturally talented. That’s where the upside is.

We’re running out of options with upside. Diarra and Reed are already playing better than anyone could have reasonably expected. Samson is who he is. So if Alex cant go to another level than who are we pinning our hopes on? Certainly not Mahaney or Ross. Nowell doesn’t play. So that leaves Ball and/or Stew.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Alex was bad last night, so that can’t happen again and is unlikely to, but not sure we need him at AA level to be very good. He’s a fixed piece, is what he is, been in the system, further upside limited. All the others around him are still developing and learning, and in many respects more naturally talented. That’s where the upside is.

Yup, season was always going to come down to how good the sophomores and Liam can be.

It’s starting to round into that more and more. But last night drawing up the last two plays for Diarra and Karaban kind of shows we are still working on coming to grips with that.

Diarra and Karaban are elite level role players for this team. But we have to let these young guys take over (Liam already has done so).

 

[kobebeanbryant]

Huh? There are multiple 3s off movement in this clip alone, not all of his 3s come from spot ups/kick outs.

What I meant was if he was moving (fading back or to side) while shooting, like he did on that out of timeout play.

All of the shots in your clip he gets set before shooting.

 

[RuffRuff]

Yup, season was always going to come down to how good the sophomores and Liam can be.

It’s starting to round into that more and more. But last night drawing up the last two plays for Diarra and Karaban kind of shows we are still working on coming to grips with that.

Diarra and Karaban are elite level role players for this team. But we have to let these young guys take over (Liam already has done so).

IDK, part of this just may be Hurley wanting his vets/leaders to be the guy in that spot as part of his honor system and where his confidence level is.

As we saw, refs tend to have a favorable whistle for those kinda guys too. If AK made those free throws this would be a different conversation.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

I apologize to the board.

At some point when I was touting him years ago I made a prediction that he could go his career without missing 2 foul shots in a row. Ouch, In a clutch situation. My comment was a jinx and I own it. Bad Ricker. Bad Ricker.

I have a sneaky feeling that come March Alex will be in a similar situation and will nail his FTs. Feels fitting.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

IDK, part of this just may be Hurley wanting his vets/leaders to be the guy in that spot as part of his honor system and where his confidence level is.

As we saw, refs tend to have a favorable whistle for those kinda guys too. If AK made those free throws this would be a different conversation.

Possibly. But in three straight possessions those guys struggled to get great looks. Karaban got blocked twice and the call was a total bailout call if we’re being honest.

It would’ve been lucky in the first place. That just shouldn’t be their game and it’s setting them up for failure to ask that of them.

 

[RuffRuff]

Look at those feet move! That is d my friends, that’s how you do it.

 

[PAHusky]

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.

Neither his shot this year nor his defense especially warrants calling him the best 3 and D guy in the country this year

 

[PAHusky]

I blame Diarra for the ending. He was open for 3 off the inbound with about 12-15 seconds left and he passed it. Should've taken the shot- he probably would have made it.

Way too much time on the clock and Diarra is an ok to not great shooter - I don't blame him running some offense. With hindsight it seems questionable but at the time was intelligent

 

[Mike Honcho]

Stewart’s minutes are reduced because he’s playing behind Liam, Alex and our two centers. Ross is not taking his positional minutes.

We are struggling to come up with good options for the 1 and 2.

If Ball or Aidan can demonstrate they can play defense at the level Cam did last season Ross’s minutes will come down significantly. If not we have to hope Ross figures things out.

As to why Hurley talks up Ross more you’ll have to ask him. My guess is he recognizes that Ross needs more encouragement than Stewart. But that treatment is no reason for this forum to dump on Ross.

Based on what we saw last season, there was no indication Ross was going to be a contributor in year 2. Obviously Hurley feels differently given what Ross is producing in practice and thinks a light bulb is going to go off this season, but right now I think people are feeling fairly vindicated in their assessment and are waiting to be proven wrong.

 

[QDOG5]

Tough loss last night. Most of the chat has been about our offense which is actually very good (Evan Miya ranks us 4th in the country). It's our D that is bad (Miya 84th). We should discuss this more. Diarra is an excellent defender. JStew had his best D game last night. But, as someone posted above, Solo may give up more points on D than he scores on O. He consistently gets beat off the dribble and when he is off ball he ball watches and misses his box out assignments. You could be sitting on the bench and give an upfake and JRoss will leave his feet. Samson, excellent shot blocker and high hedger but takes himself out of games with silly fouls. Mahaney always seems like he's the mouse in the house. I'm sure DH is aware and coaching them up but until the D improves we are susceptible to losses like Nova happening again.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Neither his shot this year nor his defense especially warrants calling him the best 3 and D guy in the country this year

We aren’t asking him to be that this year. He’s asked to do a lot more.

If there was one thing he could’ve improved on to be the guy we wanted him to be it would’ve been his post game. It’s a place on the floor where his IQ could excel without him having to be a great athlete.

 

[superjohn]

We’re running out of options with upside. Diarra and Reed are already playing better than anyone could have reasonably expected. Samson is who he is. So if Alex cant go to another level than who are we pinning our hopes on? Certainly not Mahaney or Ross. Nowell doesn’t play. So that leaves Ball and/or Stew.

We haven't even scratched the surface with how good Reed can be. We're badly underutilizing him. Solo is getting better each game. Stewart hasn't gotten much of a chance but he clearly has game and upside. Nowell had a shoulder injury, we don't know if that's why he hasn't played in a while up until last night. Top 35 recruit, he clearly has more upside than we've seen. Hurley admitted to using Mahaney wrong up until the game against Providence. He had 15 against Providence and zip last night. I think there's upside there now that I expect Hurley to use him in his proper roll.

The biggest problem is we aren't using Tarris nearly enough. He's an unstoppable force down low.

 

[PAHusky]

We aren’t asking him to be that this year. He’s asked to do a lot more.

If there was one thing he could’ve improved on to be the guy we wanted him to be it would’ve been his post game. It’s a place on the floor where his IQ could excel without him having to be a great athlete.

Right but you just called him the best 3 and D guy in the country. He's not this year, by a long shot. I think you mean he's the best glue guy in the country, which is true, and we're asking a Robin to be a Batman

 

[Mike Honcho]

I wish our guys would stop trying to draw offensive fouls at away games during crunch time. Refs are going to call a blocking foul or swallow the whistle.

This is an interesting take after we did exactly that -- drew an offensive foul with 3 seconds left on the clock and our best FT shooter on the line with a chance to win the game.

 

[Mike Honcho]

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.

Not only this, but it's a mentality. A lot of NBA guys are forced into being glue guys after being the man every step of their development. It's unnatural and forces a level of humility they're unaccustomed to. Kids like Andre and Alex don't have that problem... they're team-first low-ego guys who will do all of the little things to win.

 

[Umami Zen]

This is an interesting take after we did exactly that -- drew an offensive foul with 3 seconds left on the clock and our best FT shooter on the line with a chance to win the game.

How many FTs did we have for the game?

 

[PAHusky]

• the problem with AK on the offensive end is that he can't beat anyone with decent footspeed off the dribble and has no midrange game, so he's reduced to straight line drives at the rim or increasingly deep 3's when he's asked to create. He needs to recognize he's best as a complimentary option again this year. Offense needs to be built around others
• who are those others? I guess Solo, Diarra and Stewart until Liam comes back, though I'm not sure why we don't use Reed more frequently. He had some impressive finishes in the first half and then....nothing ran through him
• encouraged by Solo's drives/passing in the second half. His on ball defense is getting....a little better? Still gets lost off ball
• I'm actually impressed Diarra didn't shoot that. I really feel like the most underrated thing about Diarra is that he's figured out exactly who he is as a player and has played within himself much more because of it
• Stewart needs to start. I think the kid needs pressure/spotlight/starting spot to get it going, give it to him
• the Ross experiment needs to end. He's a defense first guy who can't play defense. He has some strong defenders on this board who insist we keep giving him time to develop but this isn't the year for that. Hope he puts it together next year
• Nowell looked appropriately timid but think he'll be fine
• we should probably as a board collectively can the neptune jokes when we, you know, lose games to neptune's team
• this team just seems like it has a hard ceiling, which isn't something we were used to the last few years

 

[Mike Honcho]

How many FTs did we have for the game?

4.

Listen, you can argue with the end result all you want, but pretty sure this game isn't the right datapoint to build your argument around. Lol

 

[Umami Zen]

4.

Listen, you can argue with the end result all you want, but pretty sure this game isn't the right datapoint to build your argument around. Lol

It's the game I was referring to in my post LOL

Edit: For clarification my comment in OP was re: us on defense-Not on offense.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Right but you just called him the best 3 and D guy in the country. He's not this year, by a long shot. I think you mean he's the best glue guy in the country, which is true, and we're asking a Robin to be a Batman

Yeah I mean typically and ideally. You’re right he’s not that right now. And we’re on the same page with the general assessment.

 

[boog204]

The +/- is a TEAM thing. He just happened to be on the floor then. Could have been worse without him.

I get that +/- can be a strange stat, and yes it is team based, but it is consistent. Stew has legit been a minus in every game against a high D1 opponent. He's -52 in the 11 games against real opponents.

A game like last night, where he scored 14 and played 30 minutes, and he still was -6. The TEAM aspect starts to go out the window a bit when other members of the team have consistently better +/-. When I brought this up last week someone immediately said that it was because Stew tends to be on the court w/ Aidan. Aidan is a positive +/- for the year. I honestly don't get it and don't know what to do with it. I think if we brought out a stat that Jayden or Aidan were crazy negative for the year (Ross is) people would immediately say that that is a clear indication. But with Stew, it's not. And he has far and away the worst +/- on the team.