Villanova post game thread | Page 6 | The Boneyard

Villanova post game thread

RuffRuff said:
Nice win, ugly game. Nova was 5-32 from the floor outside of Poplar. Nova offense was a bunch of iso and Dixon was absolutely awful forcing up all kinds of low quality shots. They had 5 assists. Our D played well. AK had a really nice game, valuable minutes from Mahaney. Liam looks like he needs a sports therapist. Hass looks broken physically. A nice win but not one that gives you goosebumps around tourney potential. We are going to need Mahaney.

Nova fans can’t wait to find a real coach. Neptune looks like a maitre d on the sideline with the skinny pants, turtle neck and blazer look.
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I got plenty of goosebumps during that 2nd half run.
 
BFieldHusky said:
I got plenty of goosebumps during that 2nd half run.
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I guess you’re easily goose bumped. The run where Dixon went 0-5 from the field taking terrible shots like he’s not even coached? Guy went 2-15 from the floor - he was god awful. He took a couple threes from Hoboken. I was there with a group and we all walked away wondering what we just watched. That was not a high quality basketball game. We had a high quality 5 minutes to an F- level Nova 5 minutes. A win is a win.
 
IllinoisHuskie said:
Somebody needs to put that Popeye look that Samson flashed onto a t-shirt. It was perfect!
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2:54 to go... the look was priceless! Full on Popeye :D There was a moment too when they showed Liam and I swear he was grimacing so hard I thought he'd shatter teeth. He's got a bit of Cam in him I think.

Loved the gameplay, this is what we all hoped we'd see from the beginning of the season.
 
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Nothing for me to say that hasn't already been said. I'll just add that for those that love all things UConn, like myself, you can watch our Hockey East matchup at 7 on NESN as the lead into the basketball game. 4+ hours of UConn goodness!!!
 
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Kerry Kittles should make a nice donation to UConn. I realize Dixon may still break his record, but we certainly did our part to prevent that.
 
UCTitleTown said:
Creighton is beat up. I'd consider pressing them a bit and getting out on the break to wear them out late. Just contain Kalkbrenner and don't let Ashworth go off.
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My two cents-the wildcard for Creighton is Neal. If we can contain him and get out early with a lead- Like our chances. Kalkbrenner and Ashworth will continue to perform. Will refs continue to swallow the whistle for Creighton? Need our fans to be loud in Storrs South tonite.
 
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HooperScooper said:
So do you think Karaban is fully healed from the concussion? /s. He's had a pretty good 5 game run here.

Mahaney played pretty well. If he can give that every game it makes everything better.

Switching Diarra on to Poplar did the trick. I'm not sure how many points Poplar had with Diarra on him but it wasn't much.

On to Creighton.
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That and Alex waking up were the difference-makers second half. Once Poplar started bending over, hanging on to his shorts, I knew we had a shot. They did play on Wednesday and we'll face a 2 OT-played Creighton to get to one of the loudest BE Finals ever with St. John's in The Garden.
 
Personally I feel like Liam should have the song by Chumbawamba playing..."I get knocked Down but I get up again" because watching that game and how many times he was knocked to the ground and of course there was no calls... just irritated me.

So the game ended at 12:30 on 3/14. UCONN has to play again tonight on 3/14 at 9 pm... so two games on 3/14... that seems a little IRRATIONAL to me.... get it.. irrational on PI Day...
 
Chin Diesel said:
Felt like it took the law of averages 30 minutes to work in UConn's favor. UConn was more dominant most of the game but was missing wipe open 3's while Nova was making contested 17' shots.
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Agree.
During one of the networks second half In the Huddle timeouts, Hurley didn’t voice any frustration or urgency but praised the players on how well they were playing, to push Poplar to his left and that they will be fine once they got ‘over the hump’.
The players did just that.
 
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Fairfield_1st said:
Nothing for me to say that hasn't already been said. I'll just add that for those that love all things UConn, like myself, you can watch our Hockey East matchup at 7 on NESN as the lead into the basketball game. 4+ hours of UConn goodness!!!
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Like yourself, I root for all things UConn. I will attempt to listen to the baseball team play Campbell on MIXLR along with the hockey game prior to the MBB game. We have much to be proud of as fans of UConn athletics.
 
UConn still got beat on the perimeter too often for a team that is hoping to win a game or two. They did a good job on Dixon for the most part. I really liked the offense. There were a lot of good looks, and if Ball hits a couple of the wide open catch-and-shoots that he usually hits, UConn pulls away earlier.
 
nelsonmuntz said:
UConn still got beat on the perimeter too often for a team that is hoping to win a game or two. They did a good job on Dixon for the most part. I really liked the offense. There were a lot of good looks, and if Ball hits a couple of the wide open catch-and-shoots that he usually hits, UConn pulls away earlier.
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They did a great job on Dixon for the entire part, not the most part.

We locked down in the 2nd half. I agree we were getting beat too much in the 1st half.
 
RuffRuff said:
I guess you’re easily goose bumped. The run where Dixon went 0-5 from the field taking terrible shots like he’s not even coached? Guy went 2-15 from the floor - he was god awful. He took a couple threes from Hoboken. I was there with a group and we all walked away wondering what we just watched. That was not a high quality basketball game. We had a high quality 5 minutes to an F- level Nova 5 minutes. A win is a win.
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They went down 9 and he launched a brick from the top of the key early in the shot clock (on a night he had shot poorly the entire game). Absolutely terrible and I blame that solely on the coaching.
 
Samson Popeye Johnson.jpg
 
Also, did I see a Nike promo with a UConn sneaker during a segment? It was like a banner on the top third of the screen.
 
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CardiacAndre7 said:
They did a great job on Dixon for the entire part, not the most part.

We locked down in the 2nd half. I agree we were getting beat too much in the 1st half.
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In general, our perimeter defense is keyed at the top of the arc, not the wings or angles. In particular, Reed, Jr. or Sampson rushes to try to help then has to get back to defend the hoop. This is leaving Alex and Liam vulnerable to wing 3s as they are covering for the vacancy in the middle and have to hedge.

Solo is not a big guard, so even at 6'3" he has to fight to get around high screens and can barely manage a hand in the general vicinity of the shooter. He and Mahaney had an interesting night on defense, with Mahaney getting a few more individual (e.g., 1:1) wins (stole the ball and got an easy bucket, played immense 1:1 D on a drive and they missed).

Otherwise I thought the refs were much more even in our game than the DePaul vs Creighton game. We got Tarris Reed, Jr., tossing Dixon and not getting a whistle (and Tarris looked generally surprised), but some clean blocks were called fouls, and some out of bounds went against us. But DePaul got zero calls, and even if a replay showed they got screwed they got no benefits...none. Refs were in Creighton's pocket. I did not like the goaltending against us, as they never showed it again @ MSG and the refs reviewed and just went with the floor whistle against us. Not sure if on TV they showed it.

At least this Hurley Technical didn't cost us the game. We dominated from mid 2nd half on.
 
caw said:
Agreed, I am hopeful he can continue playing like this. He doesn't seem to be in his head as much. This was his most confident game though this season.

Stew I think is almost there, he is in flow of the offense and defense recently. Make that dunk and don't make one silly foul and he'd be exactly what UConn wants from him this year. Even with those two missteps, great game from him.

Reed didn't play great on defense but his strength and rebounding helped a ton early.

As for the starters, not sure anyone but Karaban and Johnson really had great games. They were both fantastic tonight.
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It depends in the type of team UConn is playing which center will have the greater impact. Reid against Creighton may be the guy.
 
Kitaman said:
I saw good/better defense last night, Nova coach thought it was exceptional and intimidating and suffocating.

“They were just intense,” Villanova coach Kyle Neptune said. “They made it hard for us to catch, made it hard for us to get to our sets. They just came after us."
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It's about time!
 
blkknight1 said:
The key tonight was he wasn’t hesitant. He was confident with the ball knew what he wanted to do and did it. He also didn’t pass up shots when he was open.
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He was pretty terrible in the 1st half. Got blown by on two straight drives before committing a dumb pass attempt to Reed for a turnover. He damn near fell over at half court from a simple bump......then.....he hit that corner 3 and the switch flipped. The AM that came out of the locker is someone who could be key for us.
 
RioDog said:
BIG bench contribution form Mahaney, Reed, and Ross!
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Increasingly relevant is until 1 min left, we had a bench of 3 (Reed, Jr., Mahaney, Stewart) so functionally 8 played. Sorry, Ross got 1 min, it was Stewart who got the minutes.

3 in 3, we need to utilize more bench, especially starting extra late (DePaul, can you please win if you go to 2OT?) pushing this game an hour or so.
 
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