Villanova post game thread

[nelsonmuntz]

Why are 90% of the post game posts about which player played how many minutes, and not how the team did? There is a lot more to coaching than playing some players 13 minutes and other players 34.

 

[ColchVEGAS]

I have serious questions on Adams playing PG for us. This staff does not have a great track record with developing guard skills for players who don’t already have those skills coming in.

I’d be a lot more comfortable if we had a true PG recruit. But I’m in ill believe it when I see it as far as a guy coming in and the staff teaching him the necessary skills to play the position.

Year 8 and the current chance to develop our own PG in Nowell is not going well after board experts spent the recruiting process praising how ready he was.

I do not think Nowell is a great example. He has been injured for practically the entire season. They did a good job with Tristen Newton. As it stands we are +1 on scholarships for next year. There will be changes.

 

[djct1999]

I was responding to the specific game you mentioned, now you're just combining every other posters' response about Reed not getting playing time over Samson with mine, which I haven't even commented on. Don't quote me crying about a bunch of stuff I haven't even said. You're the one being insufferable here and now you're annoying me so I'm gonna leave it alone.

Agreed. Have a nice day.

 

[Deleted at users request]

I do not think Nowell is a great example. He has been injured for practically the entire season. They did a good job with Tristen Newton. As it stands we are +1 on scholarships for next year. There will be changes.

I’ve voice my opinion on Newton already. It’s one guard in 8 years who already was highly touted before he got here.

I’m waiting for Hurley to build a guy from the ground up at that position.

 

[Dutch Boyd]

I’ve voice my opinion on Newton already. It’s one guard in 8 years who already was highly touted before he got here.

I’m waiting for Hurley to build a guy from the ground up at that position.

Newton was highly touted before he got here? He played at East Carolina and wasn’t heavily recruited lol. What the heck are you talking about? We’re having a (down) season after winning two championships and sending several to the league and all of a sudden our coach can’t coach? This place is insufferable. Thankful not a single one of you arm chair coaches are not on the staff.

 

[freescooter]

I thought this was a win that has become almost typical of this team. 10 minutes of good to excellent basketball. 30 minutes of mediocre to bad basketball. This time the good came at the end.

I have to say I don’t get Reed not playing. He is a really nice powerful scorer. And he cover Dixon a lot and pretty much shut him down inside and forced him to take 3s. That was critical. The other thing, that I thought changed the game was his low post scoring. Villanova had to defend there once he got on a roll which suddenly opened things up for Ball to shoot and McNeeley to drive. One other thing is once again he handled a bad pass at a critical moment and turned it into a score. He isn’t Sanogo. But he brings something we need and it opens up the outside for others.

Karaban hasn’t been shooting well but the guy does stuff. Blocks, assists, put backs, rebounds. Not sure what’s wrong with his shooting from deep but he is still an important piece.

And I have to assume that the knee is impacting Diarra’s shot. At least 2-3 times he was wide open but didn’t take the shot. He was a solid shooter in the past.

Norwell has been unimpressive I thought. Same guy he was agains t Georgetown. Did the minimum but his defense is going to be an issue. Once his man just shot over him. Another time he was about to but help arrive, I think Karaban but might have been McNeeley. On offense he didn’t do anything bad other than pick up his dribble earlier than ideal but got out of it. But he didn’t do anything to make me think he will be more than a sub next year.

In any case this was an important win. After Seton Hall losing to Villanova would have been devestating. I’m seeing us projected as an 8-9 team now but losses to Villanova AND Seton Hall would have given us no margin for error. 2 time defending champ probably gets a small benefit of the doubt from the committee but I would want to rely on it. And of the remaining games I’m not sure you can say any are guaranteed wins at this point.

 

[RuffRuff]

I’ve voice my opinion on Newton already. It’s one guard in 8 years who already was highly touted before he got here.

I’m waiting for Hurley to build a guy from the ground up at that position.

Who are the top PG in the BE this year?

Steven Ashworth - Transfer
Kadari Richmond - Transfer
Malik Mack - Transfer

He really doesn't have to develop from ground up, not sure why you're so focused on that. Purdue & Marquette are very welcoming fans.

 

[superjohn]

Very good player, and we will be a better team with him returning... that's for sure. When he's treated like a 3rd or 4th option on offense and paired with some good defensive players, he looks absolutely brilliant. His IQ and connectedness shines. If he's asked to create for himself and others, and is drawing the opponents best wing defense, he struggles.

Get some talent back on the roster so AK can settle into a 3rd option role, and He'll be the guy we know and love.

I get what you're saying but isn't AK in the 3rd option role now after Liam and Solo?

He was our 5th best player as a sophomore and our 5th or 6th best player as a freshman.

He just gets so much hype for a great connector. We had some people on the board saying he was our best player on the two previous championship teams, people were talking him up as a Husky of honor, and he's been praised as one of the best players in the country.

 

[Scottobot]

I have serious questions on Adams playing PG for us. This staff does not have a great track record with developing guard skills for players who don’t already have those skills coming in.

I’d be a lot more comfortable if we had a true PG recruit. But I’m in ill believe it when I see it as far as a guy coming in and the staff teaching him the necessary skills to play the position.

Year 8 and the current chance to develop our own PG in Nowell is not going well after board experts spent the recruiting process praising how ready he was.

They have had some success and some fails. Bouknight and Hawkins were not projected to be NBA players and both turned into lottery picks. Ball might make NBA if he improves next year. Newton improved significantly during his time at UConn. Staff did a good job with Castle as well.
I think the scouts projections of who will be a good PG is often a crapshoot outside of McDonals all Americans. Guards who have left the program haven’t done any better at their next destination. Rashoul Diggins has yet to average more than 2.7 assists. He is scoring some points but doing it on high volume sub 40% FG.

I hope Nowell will become a good player, but his ball handle is not currently good enough to be a PG. I think he was overrated coming out of high school. A lot of high school PGs can dominate because opponents don’t have anyone who can defend them. He hasn’t been able to handle ball pressure or run the offense in the limited minutes he has played. I haven’t checked, but I suspect that if you looked at all the PGs ranked top 100 prospect that atleast half are struggling.

 

[Dutch Boyd]

Got my seats upgraded last night from my normal season ticket seats and ended sitting next to Calvin Booth in section 103. He’s the general manager of the Nuggets. He wouldn’t say who he was there scouting, but I kept being nosy looking at his iPad and keeping a lot of stats on Liam and Eric Dixon. As for AK he wasn’t even paying attention. Not that means anything for other teams, but found it interesting.

 

[bendm]

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.

What in the world? He’s 6’10 260 he’s one of the biggest guys in college ball. Amari Williams is the only guy I can think of that has both a height and weight advantage

 

[GHSWolverines]

My summation for what its worth
1. TR is a beast when he wants to be. Can't figure out what makes him tick.
2. AN should be the backup PG. AM is not the answer. Cmon Dan Hurley, you need for him to grow.
3. Can't play with a sense of urgency when down by double digits. Dan Hurley needs to have his players watch the last 10 min. Of the game at least 100 times!

 

[Gurleyman]

Who are the top PG in the BE this year?

Steven Ashworth - Transfer
Kadari Richmond - Transfer
Malik Mack - Transfer

He really doesn't have to develop from ground up, not sure why you're so focused on that. Purdue & Marquette are very welcoming fans.

He also had RJ Cole before Newton. So even trying to “build from the ground up” for a PG hasn’t been in play in his entire career here.

Nowell remains to be seen. I wasn’t sure about him coming in. His game didn’t look like it translated well as a physical 6-0 power guard, but always the chance he has more to show. Kyle Lowry doesn’t look to the naked eye like he should have been as good as he was.

 

[RuffRuff]

They have had some success and some fails. Bouknight and Hawkins were not projected to be NBA players and both turned into lottery picks. Ball might make NBA if he improves next year. Newton improved significantly during his time at UConn. Staff did a good job with Castle as well.
I think the scouts projections of who will be a good PG is often a crapshoot outside of McDonals all Americans. Guards who have left the program haven’t done any better at their next destination. Rashoul Diggins has yet to average more than 2.7 assists. He is scoring some points but doing it on high volume sub 40% FG.

I hope Nowell will become a good player, but his ball handle is not currently good enough to be a PG. I think he was overrated coming out of high school. A lot of high school PGs can dominate because opponents don’t have anyone who can defend them. He hasn’t been able to handle ball pressure or run the offense in the limited minutes he has played. I haven’t checked, but I suspect that if you looked at all the PGs ranked top 100 prospect that atleast half are struggling.

Good question.

Freshman PG's

Boogie Fland - was playing well, but Arkansas got better when he went down.
Rob Wright - 12/5 for Baylor, great numbers
Pettiford - playing really well off the bench, but primarily as a scorer for Auburn
Philon - playing meaningful minutes for Bama, 10.5/3.5, in that up and down offense.

Nowell isn't doing great against his peers.

 

[superjohn]

He also had RJ Cole before Newton. So even trying to “build from the ground up” for a PG hasn’t been in play in his entire career here.

Nowell remains to be seen. I wasn’t sure about him coming in. His game didn’t look like it translated well as a physical 6-0 power guard, but always the chance he has more to show. Kyle Lowry doesn’t look to the naked eye like he should have been as good as he was.

I wasn't sold on Nowell coming in either and didn't think he would be in the rotation this season.

He's just a freshman who has had some injuries so we need to let it play out but I'm not banking on him for next season.

 

[Deleted at users request]

They have had some success and some fails. Bouknight and Hawkins were not projected to be NBA players and both turned into lottery picks. Ball might make NBA if he improves next year. Newton improved significantly during his time at UConn. Staff did a good job with Castle as well.
I think the scouts projections of who will be a good PG is often a crapshoot outside of McDonals all Americans. Guards who have left the program haven’t done any better at their next destination. Rashoul Diggins has yet to average more than 2.7 assists. He is scoring some points but doing it on high volume sub 40% FG.

I hope Nowell will become a good player, but his ball handle is not currently good enough to be a PG. I think he was overrated coming out of high school. A lot of high school PGs can dominate because opponents don’t have anyone who can defend them. He hasn’t been able to handle ball pressure or run the offense in the limited minutes he has played. I haven’t checked, but I suspect that if you looked at all the PGs ranked top 100 prospect that atleast half are struggling.

Man every single person on this board who watched Nowell in person absolutely raved about him before he got here and so did Hurley.

Now all of a sudden he isn’t good enough. It’s the same story every time outside of lottery picks Hurley can’t find excuses not to play because they’re NBA ready.

Also I’m happy you asked about other players. Every single top 50 PG and combo guard (which is what Nowell was) is playing in some capacity for their team.

Some standouts are

John Mobley Jr. who is 6’1 and the 3rd leading scorer at 13.5 per game for OSU ranked 49th on 247.

Labaron is averaging 10 a game for top ranked Alabama ranked 34

Zoom Diallo is averaging 11 a game as the 3rd leading scorer for Washington and he was ranked 55.

There’s actually only one guy receiving limited minutes out of this top 50 group and that’s Trent Perry at UCLA but he still plays more than Nowell.

Nowell is actually having the most struggles out of the whole group and I don’t even need to talk about the players ranked higher than him.

https://247sports.com/season/2024-basketball/RecruitRankings/?InstitutionGroup=HighSchool&Position=CG

https://247sports.com/season/2024-basketball/RecruitRankings/?InstitutionGroup=HighSchool&Position=PG

 

[Mooch82]

Hurley thinks the exact opposite. How do I know that, actually I can't read Hurley's mind. But if you go by his actions. He prefers to start Samson. This does two things. Samson is very active and he brings energy to the team. Nice to have at the start of a game. He also prevents Reed from getting in early foul trouble.

Don’t you know that I’m a more advanced basketball mind than Hurley?

 

[Deleted at users request]

Newton was highly touted before he got here? He played at East Carolina and wasn’t heavily recruited lol. What the heck are you talking about? We’re having a (down) season after winning two championships and sending several to the league and all of a sudden our coach can’t coach? This place is insufferable. Thankful not a single one of you arm chair coaches are not on the staff.

He was All-AAC and averaged 17 5 and 5 before Hurley started coaching him. His development is way overblown

 

[djct1999]

What in the world? He’s 6’10 260 he’s one of the biggest guys in college ball. Amari Williams is the only guy I can think of that has both a height and weight advantage

Think what you want. He is a natural 4 and plays like it.

 

[housekeys]

I get what you're saying but isn't AK in the 3rd option role now after Liam and Solo?

He was our 5th best player as a sophomore and our 5th or 6th best player as a freshman.

He just gets so much hype for a great connector. We had some people on the board saying he was our best player on the two previous championship teams, people were talking him up as a Husky of honor, and he's been praised as one of the best players in the country.

I get what you are saying, but the guy is going through a very uncharacteristic episode in his career. Put another way, the best time to evaluate the beauty of the state of Florida is not after a cat 5 hurricane passes through.

 

[boog204]

Newton was highly touted before he got here? He played at East Carolina and wasn’t heavily recruited lol. What the heck are you talking about? We’re having a (down) season after winning two championships and sending several to the league and all of a sudden our coach can’t coach? This place is insufferable. Thankful not a single one of you arm chair coaches are not on the staff.

To be fair, this place went nuts (in a positive way) when he committed so he was clearly "known" by UConn fans was ranked one of the top guards in the portal. The irony, that people tend to gloss over, is he was pretty disliked by the fan base most of his first year here and was scouted as the "weak link" on our team going into the tourney.

This board has a history of killing our point guards and then conveniently deifying them after the fact. Rickety Moore, Taliek, Bazz ("the worst starting PG in JC's tenure"), freshmen AJ Price, sophomore Kemba, Newton. Boneyard pastime. I think Khalid was the only guy to escape the BYs wrath.

I think it is more than fair to question some of DHs work this year especially when he's intimated that the staff has not done a good job. I don't think anyone is saying he can't coach, but maybe a bit frustrated with the product and the lack of much change. Dan Hurley even said the film sessions show the same issues pretty much every game. Isn't it the staff's job to devise something/anything to change that? We've watch 26 games of inbound struggles and not one thing has been different except "wanting it more." C'mon.

 

[3rdbass]

I thought this was a win that has become almost typical of this team. 10 minutes of good to excellent basketball. 30 minutes of mediocre to bad basketball. This time the good came at the end.

I have to say I don’t get Reed not playing. He is a really nice powerful scorer. And he cover Dixon a lot and pretty much shut him down inside and forced him to take 3s. That was critical. The other thing, that I thought changed the game was his low post scoring. Villanova had to defend there once he got on a roll which suddenly opened things up for Ball to shoot and McNeeley to drive. One other thing is once again he handled a bad pass at a critical moment and turned it into a score. He isn’t Sanogo. But he brings something we need and it opens up the outside for others.

Karaban hasn’t been shooting well but the guy does stuff. Blocks, assists, put backs, rebounds. Not sure what’s wrong with his shooting from deep but he is still an important piece.

And I have to assume that the knee is impacting Diarra’s shot. At least 2-3 times he was wide open but didn’t take the shot. He was a solid shooter in the past.

Norwell has been unimpressive I thought. Same guy he was agains t Georgetown. Did the minimum but his defense is going to be an issue. Once his man just shot over him. Another time he was about to but help arrive, I think Karaban but might have been McNeeley. On offense he didn’t do anything bad other than pick up his dribble earlier than ideal but got out of it. But he didn’t do anything to make me think he will be more than a sub next year.

In any case this was an important win. After Seton Hall losing to Villanova would have been devestating. I’m seeing us projected as an 8-9 team now but losses to Villanova AND Seton Hall would have given us no margin for error. 2 time defending champ probably gets a small benefit of the doubt from the committee but I would want to rely on it. And of the remaining games I’m not sure you can say any are guaranteed wins at this point.

I don't think the knee was a problem last night as he has lost confidence in his shot. It has been really bad this year and he seem to make a concetratd effort to drive more last night.

 

[3rdbass]

To be fair, this place went nuts (in a positive way) when he committed so he was clearly "known" by UConn fans was ranked one of the top guards in the portal. The irony, that people tend to gloss over, is he was pretty disliked by the fan base most of his first year here and was scouted as the "weak link" on our team going into the tourney.

This board has a history of killing our point guards and then conveniently deifying them after the fact. Rickety Moore, Taliek, Bazz ("the worst starting PG in JC's tenure"), freshmen AJ Price, sophomore Kemba, Newton. Boneyard pastime. I think Khalid was the only guy to escape the BYs wrath.

I think it is more than fair to question some of DHs work this year especially when he's intimated that the staff has not done a good job. I don't think anyone is saying he can't coach, but maybe a bit frustrated with the product and the lack of much change. Dan Hurley even said the film sessions show the same issues pretty much every game. Isn't it the staff's job to devise something/anything to change that? We've watch 26 games of inbound struggles and not one thing has been different except "wanting it more." C'mon.

I never saw people crucifying Bazz for being the worst PG in Calhoun's era. I think most in the BY loved what he brought to the game and his killer instinct.

 

[boog204]

I never saw people crucifying Bazz for being the worst PG in Calhoun's era. I think most in the BY loved what he brought to the game and his killer instinct.

Enjoy one of the dumbest threads in BY history. People here killed Bazz his sophomore year.

The Worst Trait Belonging To UConn's Worst Point Guard Under Calhoun

When Napier ends up in the lane defensively, sees his guy on the wing, runs at him half-speed...and doesn't put his hand up. I mean, you're out there, you can't even be bothered to raise your arm in the air? Really? That would be asking too much? Speaking of bad positioning, note to Alex...

the-boneyard.com

 

[Gurleyman]

Man every single person on this board who watched Nowell in person absolutely raved about him before he got here and so did Hurley.

Now all of a sudden he isn’t good enough. It’s the same story every time outside of lottery picks Hurley can’t find excuses not to play because they’re NBA ready.

Also I’m happy you asked about other players. Every single top 50 PG and combo guard (which is what Nowell was) is playing in some capacity for their team.

Some standouts are

John Mobley Jr. who is 6’1 and the 3rd leading scorer at 13.5 per game for OSU ranked 49th on 247.

Labaron is averaging 10 a game for top ranked Alabama ranked 34

Zoom Diallo is averaging 11 a game as the 3rd leading scorer for Washington and he was ranked 55.

There’s actually only one guy receiving limited minutes out of this top 50 group and that’s Trent Perry at UCLA but he still plays more than Nowell.

Nowell is actually having the most struggles out of the whole group and I don’t even need to talk about the players ranked higher than him.

https://247sports.com/season/2024-basketball/RecruitRankings/?InstitutionGroup=HighSchool&Position=CG

https://247sports.com/season/2024-basketball/RecruitRankings/?InstitutionGroup=HighSchool&Position=PG

It’s a longstanding rule of thumb - coaches love their recruits and their former players. It’s just the current guys who stink. That filters to fans too. They love the minor league prospect or the fourth outfielder. Or the backup center or point guard.

I don’t claim to be a recruiting expert. But I can just tell you what I observed from Nowell’s highlight reels and things. A lot of strong drives through the paint where he absorbed contact and finished - but the sort of shots that are tough to finish against college bigs at his size. He did show a better 3 ball than he’s shown here (in very limited run) … but his HS stats were 22 points and 3.5 assists - which doesn’t scream pure point guard to me. He looked like maybe he could be a small scoring spark plug off the bench - a la Kemba as a freshman - just as more of a bulldog than someone who used speed and quickness. But injuries (and maybe putting too much stock in the Mahaney card) have prevented that.

So far - again in very limited run - his weakness have shone through and his strengths haven’t. Opportunity will be there for him next year - barring a huge portal signing or two - but it’s not like I watch him play and see the solution to our problems. We’ll see what the rest of this year brings, though. Maybe he has a game where he’s left open and buries a couple threes and becomes 2009 Kemba. (Or Castle against Alabama).