Villanova Post Game Thread

[Scottobot]

Villa

nova has no top 25 wins. How good are they really? I wasn’t that impressed myself.

Nova has played better has the season has progressed and been playing well lately. If they replayed a bunch of those games I bet they win someof them now. They pretty much nailed every open 3 today, and the center who is shooting 55% from line all season, made 8-9 FTs in high pressure moments.

Teams are very different depending on when you play them. In the 2023 UConn title team they were unbeatable at the start and end of season, dominating everyone, but in January they couldn’t even beat a crappy St johns game at home and lost many games in a row.

ST johns stunk earlier in the season, but they are going to be hard to beat now.

 

[Scottobot]

Except that it missed. And he got faked completely out of his jock and gave up an important blow by. And bricked two critical free throws.

He simply should NEVER be on the floor in critical moments. Give him some first half minutes and low leverage 2nd half minutes. Nothing more.

Cannot trust him whatsoever

The missed FTs were bad. Both he and Stewart need to get their act together at the line. When he bit on that pump fake there was only 3-4 seconds left on the shot clock and the guy didn’t have time to get a good shot. He ended up with a runner / floater drom about 8-10 feet out and missed. In my opinion Stewart and Ross are pretty solid in their roles. They do need to get more defensive rebounds.

Players get hurt, foul trouble etc. You need a bench and the bench needs to be allowed to play through. mistakes

 

[Donyell 360]

CTE isn't caused by the big hit, it's the smaller repeated blunt trauma hits over time. Offensive lineman get it way more than the wide receiver that got knocked out because they're just butting heads every day, every play, over and over and over. Same with boxers. It's just repeated boom boom boom trauma to the head.

But the point of keeping them out is to avoid repeated trauma. The risk is much higher if the next hit comes before recovering from the previous hit. That was the context of this discussion: Is it this generation softer than past generations for sitting out after a hit? I say, not softer but smarter, more informed.

 

[Greathusky]

I been on the boneyard many years but this year is the worst if you measure the record of our team divided by the pessimistic view of many on this board.

 

[Donyell 360]

No, if you watch the play again youll see when they were backpeddling Reed hwas holding Brennans shoulder / upper arm down as the ball was coming towards them. It was dumb and a foul and if Reed just used both hands to jump and grab the ball it would have been a simple rebound.

You said no, but then you seemed to agree with my comment. It was Reed's fault. Refs made the correct call. Had Reed made a play on the ball it would have been different. But he was off balance and couldn't find the ball.

 

[uconn_jack]

Ah he's great.

I said he wasn't AS great as we want or think. He is one of the top centers in the country, but of the centers we've has the last few years, he in 3rd place behind Sanogo and Clingan, and will likely be in 4th place before Reibe is done here.

I love the kid and wouldn't trade him for any other center in college basketball right now, but I don't think he is as good as what we've recently had, and that's alright. We've just been incredibly blessed and spoiled with the center position the last few years.

 

[dalydosehoops]

Karaban shakes off slow start, finishes strong again as UConn beats Villanova

Alex Karaban scored all 17 of his points after halftime as UConn rallied to defeat Villanova. (Photo by Ian Bethune/The UConn Blog) HARTFORD...

dalydoseofhoops.blogspot.com

 

[Donyell 360]

Wow tiger! of course they should be cautious. I am going to drop it because unless you are my age, you will not get my point. I was not trying to be callous or indifferent, because Mullins is our guy. I was making a generational comparison. The things that trigger head trauma nowadays is different. And by the way not every person who played in the 70;s and 80;s has CTE.

I didn't mean to attack you like a tiger. I'm only 55 so maybe I'm too young to get your point but it seemed like you were criticizing the current practice of concussion protocols as overly cautious. The old "back in my day, men were real men!" trope. Sorry if I misunderstood you. Just offering my perspective and you are of course entitled to yours.

 

[AllHusky]

Hurley had him in in overtime. So your opinion is not shared by Hurley. It's easy for fans to judge players by what they can't do but coaches don't have that luxury.

Derek Jeter didn't him a lot of home runs. Tim Wakefield had a very bad fastball.

Nice coaching zen there Pal! Very Phil Jackson

 

[Donyell 360]

If my post complaining about the refs makes it's way into the locker room and the team stops working hard as a result just let me know. Then I'll feel bad

You never know. 😂

 

[Donyell 360]

The big east refs are pretty bad. There is much less complaining when a non big east crew refs a non conference game. The officiating in the ncaa tournament is always way better than big east.

They are incredibly inconsistent. They allow crazy contact all game and then they call ticky tack fouls at critical moments. They frequently have two different sets of allowed physicality for each team. They are unprofessional and hyper sensitive to criticism, and Hurley can’t resist calling out their mistakes.

Many times each game something obvious right in front of an official isn’t called the referee on the other side of the court calls it. It seems like they are motivated to keep games close, and allow big underdogs to try to win by fouling all the time.

Maybe that's true but I doubt it. I think it is more likely that human nature causes us to notice when calls go against us and forget when they are in our favor. But I could be wrong.

 

[uconn_jack]

Well, he was being fouled pretty consistently by the one guy for the whole time he was dribbling in. Just couldn't squeeze the shot off before the other guy fouled him going for the ball.

6 or so fouls. None called. Then OT.

UConn won. Nova beat the spread.

Do they have a special portal on betting sites for the corrupt BE officials?

I don't give a FF about the spread.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

"The one thing that always looks beautiful is Solo's threes. I'm not sure there is a prettier looking jumper out there"

Even when he misses.

 

[Donyell 360]

Absolutely 100% agree.

For the life of me, I don't know why we still play the Chicken Little "sky is falling" game. We have arguably been the king of the hill for the better part of three decades now. If the fans showed the confidence it would definitely bleed over into the team. Trust me, I'm a Jets fan too.

Do you think other blue blood fanbases are more chill about their team's imperfections? I don't follow other teams closely but my guess is it is pretty universal. Maybe some brands that never win and never expect to win are actually more chill. You may be right that a more positive fanbase results in a more confident team but do you have a positive example we should model ourselves after?

 

[Donyell 360]

I thought Ross played some good defense down the stretch, including that block in the final minute of regulation. He has been playing defense without fouling which is improvement over last year. The wing three he took looked good.

He looked pretty foolish when he jumped out of the building on that slight head fake. Even though the Nova player missed the layup, they retained possession on the scramble and hit a 3 to take a late lead. But, then Ross blocked that shot....and TOTALLY REDEEMED HIMSELF" Way to not get down on yourself Jayden. Hang in there!

 

[housekeys]

I hope that a better talented team doesn’t steal Nova’s defensive plan.

A better more talented team does not need to steal Nova's defensive plan. In that case it would probably be UConn stealing Nova's "defensive plan".

 

[Excalibur]

Hurley runs a beautiful offense. Our players need to start executing it. They did when it counted.

An ugly game always looks pretty in the W/L column.

Jayden Ross was huge on the defense end. That's why Hurley had him in at the end.

The screening and cutting action is still there, but the ball does not move in the hands of the ball handler. There has to be some effort to be a threat off the dribble.

 

[Donyell 360]

Compelling, but who do we trust? Stewart Ross Reibe and a PG absolutely have to get meaningful minutes in tight games, otherwise we just got 5 iron men(assume Braylon going to be fine.

I don't think Stew, Ross or Eric are the problem. Would it be nice if they scored a bit more? Sure. But not having a legit backup PG is a problem. If only we had Hass for one more year. He was a great backup. The problem was we asked him to be our starting PG last year. Yikes!

 

[thekollieman]

You clearly weren't around for UConn's 2004 championship team. That team shot 62% from the ft line for the season, our point guard Taliek Brown shot 55% from the line for the season.

Also, we shot 77% from the line today…

 

[housekeys]

no - purely a basketball play

Could be right, but why the no review. We have seen opinions influenced by reviews many times, some often against us. Not doing a review was the failure in this case.

 

[Deepster]

Do you think other blue blood fanbases are more chill about their team's imperfections? I don't follow other teams closely but my guess is it is pretty universal. Maybe some brands that never win and never expect to win are actually more chill. You may be right that a more positive fanbase results in a more confident team but do you have a positive example we should model ourselves after?

I have no data to go on this belief but i don’t think the Dukes and Kentuckys of the world have this “doooomed” mindset.

25 years ago it might have been cute. Now it’s weak sauce.

 

[thekollieman]

UConn’s latest battle with Villanova produces another Big East classic as Huskies top Wildcats in overtime

Solo Ball (1) goes up for layup against Villanova. Ball led all scorers with 24 points as Huskies defeated Wildcats in overtime. (Photo by J...

dalydoseofhoops.blogspot.com

Shout out to @dalydosehoops :

I just started reading these a few weeks ago and they are the best pieces of bball writing out there!

 

[thekollieman]

These kind of posts, while totally realistic, are not allowed around here! I hear what you're saying, but not there yet. There is no doubt the product we are seeing now is not inspiring, at all. What I'm watching against some of the title contenders doesn't feel like it could win 6. Tarris is a talented, yet sluggish 5. I don't know what it is about him - I think we all expect more than he can deliver based on his physical skills. He's good, but he's not that much of a difference maker. There is no way we should be this poor a rebounding team with him in the middle. I'm actually somewhat surprised we've drifted off using Eric. AK is what he is. Solo is what he is. I've felt throughout this process, seeing Silas and Braylon pop in a more integrated offense is what would flash our ceiling, that's been in drips and inconsistent. I still feel like there is another gear in there that we haven't seen, but now with Braylon potentially missing time, less confident. Most of what I've see out there has put us in a "Tier 2" contender bucket.

Not the point - winning is nice, but seeing a product that you can see advancing deep is what we're looking for.

That BE was so much better than this one. We played really good teams in that slump, between Xavier (2X), Creighton and Marquette. Xavier was a S16 team, Creighton Elite 8 and Marquette was a 2 seed. We lost our WTF game to SHU and StJ.

I think where you rub some the wrong way is that we CAN see this “product” going all the way…

 

[ucp990411]

Hurley went off on the rebounding in his presser. He called out the lack of rebounding from the perimeter players and Tarris’ poor defensive rebounding effort.

Tarris is not a good rebounder. He gets his numbers but so does his opponent. I watch him and he does not box his man out. Hurley had a quick hook with him today. I actually think Reibe is more effective.

 

[ucp990411]

I think where you rub some the wrong way is that we CAN see this “product” going all the way…

We are not going to win the championship playing the way we have been and rebounding is the biggest reason