Villanova post game thread

[Huskies990411]

I suppose - he picked up his dribble once that lead to freneticism. The rest was nice but didn’t see much that said, now that guy is our PG of the future.

I didn’t either but like him and think we need a larger sample size to judge what his role longer term looks like. That time he picked up his dribble at halfcourt was bc he was bumped twice by the defender in literally his first minute handling the ball in over a month. He proceeded to pass out of the double team, something I’m not sure how often we get elsewhere. Just feels like our best shot at successfully getting Diarra some backup minutes, if only a couple each half.

 

[storrsroars]

Well that 2nd round possiblity is becoming increasingly unlikely by the day. Which is why I think he'll be back, something I didn't think was a possibility a few weeks ago. Not to mention it's a huge hole on the roster

These are the first half dozen mocks I looked at that were updated w/I last 10 days. AK was in all of them, 4 had him late in 1st.

SI 28
ESPN 29
Tankathon 30
NBA Draft Room 31
BleacherReport 34
NBADraftNet 49

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

I saw the last 10 minutes originally and just got done with the rewatch.

Like others have said, it’s bizarre that we haven’t been pushing Reed this season. Easily one of our best players.

McNeeley would easily be All-Big East 1st team if he was healthy

Don’t care about Karaban’s 3 point slump because he still does little things great and gets easy buckets at the rim

Solo with 6 assists and no turnovers is AMAZING. Want him to keep tapping into his playmaker abilities.

Diarra continues to be a warrior.

Mahaney continues to be bad.

Nowell should get more minutes and was not bad. It’s hard for him to show much of anything in one 3 minute stint. Hurley pointed to the bench as soon as he missed one 3.

I’m not sure what Ross did that was so bad to not go back in the game. He missed one contested layup trying to be aggressive and got pulled. That’s the kind of thing that makes a player timid and not want to try and make plays.

 

[Huskies990411]

He does foul too much and he's had some brutal calls go against him recently, he also gets lost too much on defense but the good and the things he provides that nobody else on the roster provides far outweighs the bad. Last game was inexplicable. Seton Hall has no bigs and Reed had no fouls, Hurley just decided I'm not playing him today unless I'm forced to. And when Hurley does play him there has been very little emphasis on getting him the ball.

Yes. His rebounding alone far outweighs the bad and at times he’s unstoppable on the block. He needs touches.

 

[uconnfan68]

When teams are switching heavily, Reed becomes the much better option (see tonight, Memphis game, St. John's, I believe DePaul as well). He can punish a switch/mismatch much better than Samson. And in switching games, our flowing offense grinds down. When our offense is allowed to work without switching, Samson has the edge.

Mismatches work both ways. It was painful watching Solo try to keep Dixon from posterizing him, when he and Tarris could have switched if either had a clue. Just very little coordination out there.

 

[Huskyforlife]

These are the first half dozen mocks I looked at that were updated w/I last 10 days. AK was in all of them, 4 had him late in 1st.

SI 28
ESPN 29
Tankathon 30
NBA Draft Room 31
BleacherReport 34
NBADraftNet 49

He’s probably still somewhere in the second round if he goes, I doubt he finishes the season shooting 34%.

But no team is drafting Alex Karaban shooting that poorly, his entire role depends on his shot. He’d be undrafted if the draft was held today. So I’m with the people projecting him to be back, he needs to start hitting shots if he wants to go pro.

The huge NIL bag, a chance at redemption, and his bond with Hurley will make it hard to leave for a non first round guarantee. The team is gonna be loaded on paper again if he comes back too.

 

[Travelman6]

I don't want to sound over dramatic, but losing a game like that tends to be part of a bigger spiral, maybe that 27-6 game ending run saved the season

Can we take those past 10 minutes and bottle it?

Gross 30 minutes.
Promising 10 minutes.

 

[3rdbass]

Transfer / Adams
Ball / Furphy
Mullins / Ross
Karaban / Stew
Reed / Reibe

if Alex isn’t the starting PF next year then we need to get 2 starters out of the portal. Alex can go back to being the fifth leading scorer and glue guy.

I think the hope is Stew can handle the PF position next year with Abrahams backing him up.

 

[3rdbass]

I saw the last 10 minutes originally and just got done with the rewatch.

Like others have said, it’s bizarre that we haven’t been pushing Reed this season. Easily one of our best players.

McNeeley would easily be All-Big East 1st team if he was healthy

Don’t care about Karaban’s 3 point slump because he still does little things great and gets easy buckets at the rim

Solo with 6 assists and no turnovers is AMAZING. Want him to keep tapping into his playmaker abilities.

Diarra continues to be a warrior.

Mahaney continues to be bad.

Nowell should get more minutes and was not bad. It’s hard for him to show much of anything in one 3 minute stint. Hurley pointed to the bench as soon as he missed one 3.

I’m not sure what Ross did that was so bad to not go back in the game. He missed one contested layup trying to be aggressive and got pulled. That’s the kind of thing that makes a player timid and not want to try and make plays.

He wasn't that good on D. Ross really gives us next to nothing when he comes in. It should only be Stewart coming off the bench to play SF/PF/SG.

 

[Devland]

Crowd was late arriving but great. I think the early start was the cause of the late arriving crowd. Traffic was worse than usual. Could be that rush hour hadn't completely thinned out.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Yes - that's actually exactly when the momentum changed. Our energy level picked up. AK isn't naturally emotional, but he was very flat today, like he's letting his shooting woes affect everything else. He had several opportunities to dive on a loose ball or give us a spark.

That play was in the second half where there was a loose ball and Alex bent over to get it and the Nova player dove for the ball and k locked it loose. Eventually was OOB on Stewie but Alex absolutely mailed in that play.
It just required someone whose first instinct is to get possession of the ball at all costs.

 

[homunculus]

We actually played fairly well on D in the first half, Nova just made a bunch of shots.

We actually played well on O in the first half, we got exactly the shots we wanted, most wide open, and simply missed them.

That’s been the story of most of our losses, contrary to popular opinion.

Great comeback. Good on us for not quitting until the law of averages came around. Eventually teams will stop making everything, while we simultaneously pick those stretches to be ice cold (making it look like we’re “playing poorly” because the other team built a lead). And hopefully in the tournament, teams will not get the nightly confidence boost of knowing they can do whatever they want on D.

Hurley’s stubbornness has contributed to some of our struggles. Reed should be getting comfortable with the bulk of the minutes and Samson should be back where he’s more comfortable - energy guy off the bench and change of pace against bigs who have been battling a beast, now having to guard a grasshopper. Precisely what worked to our advantage last year.

And he keeps shoehorning Mahaney into the PG spot and then benching him because he’s not executing. He is better than Joey C, and could be helping the team so much in that same role, but instead he’s become an overthinking shell of his former self that no longer contributes anything. That’s on Hurley. I love him as our coach and he’s great, but he’s not infallible and has clearly made some mistakes this year.

Thank goodness they pulled out the win. Team really needed that boost going into NYC on Sunday, and it also proves this team is not the same as those Ollie-adjacent teams that people keep referencing, who would have lost this game by 20+.

 

[jibsey]

I turned it off, down 14, there’s only so much I can take, but I’m glad we got the W.

The stress is very difficult to take. We know it’s only a basketball game and we shouldn’t let it tear up our insides but there are no casual fans here. For Hurley every game is a life or death struggle. Still searching for a coping strategy.

 

[djct1999]

It's college basketball, body and game wise he's perfectly suited to play the 5

Tarris struggles w guys taller than him. He has slow feet defensively and tends to foul to compensate. Just rewatch the creighton game and tell me he is a five. He was great last night because for some reason they wanted Dixon to play down low in the second half. That’s a great matchup for Tarris and he showed it. That’s not every game.

 

[cp176]

Gutting comeback win for sure. Nowell does look like the only guy who might be able to spell Diarra for a few but he still looked like a deer in the headlights to me. The people asking for more minutes for Stewart and Ross particularly last night - i get it but can you imagine what a loss last night would have done to this team. When you enter a game like this, you cannot turn the ball over immediatly or you are coming right back to the bench. Better players have longer leashes. Reed is a man on the floor. I really would like to see him get some touches at the low post. He just looks like a classic successful back to the basket guy. His strengths don’t get used if a clear majority of his touches come above the foul line. As for Karaban - no criticism from me. He does so many things to help his team even without the 3 point shot.

 

[Umami Zen]

Tarris said he was going to start bringing the Kodiak vibe. He did.

Great team win. Hass playing hurt (as was Tarris) and still impacted outcome of the game.

Let's make our run(s) early at MSG and control the game on Sunday.

 

[djct1999]

Good game for Reed but let's not forget that this game was not called tight and he still had 3 fouls but he played 27 minutes.

And that is perfect usage for Tarris. Give him 25-28. Johnson gets 12-15. This was a great game for Tarris and I agree he brings more than Samson. But he has been wildly inconsistent. He also plays really hard and needs break. When he gets tired, that’s when he starts receiving silly fouls on the offense side setting picks or defensively w the high hedge. We can’t have that:

 

[djct1999]

Well don't be surprised he stays after this year to redeem himself. He gets a lot of Money from NIL and not sure it is a foregone conclusion he is going to the NBA next year.

He is also graduating in three years.

 

[Vancat]

BIG HOSS

 

[blkknight1]

I know everyone is excited about the way Tarris played last night but we have to look at it the right way. It’s about the matchup more than anything Nova was a good matchup for him and he played well and got the bulk of the minutes. Go back a game and seton hall was a bad matchup he was getting beat on the P&R constantly. This weekend he should see the bulk of the minutes because SJU is a better matchup for him and they are gonna try to bully UConn.

One of the other key things is he avoided silly cheap fouls like the hip checks on screens or reaching on a guy on the 3point line.

I think another key part of this team down the stretch will be finding a way to rest Hass even when he is on the floor. Having McNeeley or solo bring the ball up the floor, Ahmad spelling him even if it is just 5 minutes could make a world of difference.

Finally we have to get into the offense quicker. The book is out make UConn “waste” time just getting the ball up the floor means you have to defend all the movement less on defense. Nova light pressed in the backcourt all night forcing UConn up the floor slower. Getting the ball into the front court at 8 or 9 seconds then taking another 4 or 5 seconds to set up means teams are really only defending the offense for maybe 15 second at most but it’s more like 12 or less. Get the ball up the floor faster and set up make them defend for 18 seconds and you will see more lapses and wide open layup and cutters and better looks.

 

[ARIDE]

wasn't AK sitting for a good portion of our run?

No he did not! He played 35 minutes. He has lost his legs. Too many minutes this season. Works his ass off..period.

 

[RuffRuff]

He’s probably still somewhere in the second round if he goes, I doubt he finishes the season shooting 34%.

But no team is drafting Alex Karaban shooting that poorly, his entire role depends on his shot. He’d be undrafted if the draft was held today. So I’m with the people projecting him to be back, he needs to start hitting shots if he wants to go pro.

The huge NIL bag, a chance at redemption, and his bond with Hurley will make it hard to leave for a non first round guarantee. The team is gonna be loaded on paper again if he comes back too.

Hard to know how current in thinking these mocks are and if just lazy carryover. I still think he goes if he can.

It’s got to be weird for him to come back for a 4th year. First guy to ever start for back to back NCs as a fresh/soph still playing into senior year? He feels so connected to those first two teams coming back probably feels like being a 7 year senior.

 

[AllHusky]

Was at the game tonight. If my math maths I’m 27-0 in games I’ve attended the last 3 seasons. I might have to attend the rest lol

Opposite for me, When I ignore the fact that we are playing, we have our biggest wins of the season. Marquette and Creighton to name 2. Good luck guys, see ya next at the parade.

 

[FreeKlaiber]

Tarris struggles w guys taller than him. He has slow feet defensively and tends to foul to compensate. Just rewatch the creighton game and tell me he is a five.

to say he isnt a 5 is bizarre to me. You think he can defend the perimeter? in case you havent been watching, his trouble with the high hedge has to do with his slow footwork that you mentioned, and the reason he doesnt play as much as Samson at times. But yea, lets have him D up a wing. Barely any teams have back to basket 4's anymore. Why we could never do double bigs, not to mention the 4 out we run continually on offense, that he would muck up.