Villanova Post Game Thread

[prankster]

There’s a larger number of boneyarders that would rather believe a conspiracy theory then let a cigar sometimes be just a cigar. Nova guy wasn’t headhunting, it was an accident.

Well, as a ball fan, I have witnessed several "incidental" situations where the Flagrant" call relied, not at all, upon "intent".

It was straight up "if/then". Seemed unduly harsh of a penalty, especially in the situations where the contact was accidental.

Still, the application of the rule was by "the letter of the law".

Intention may bring a gradation into the decision process, "Flagrant 1 v Flagrant 2". But if the hit was in that described area, above the shoulders, the review was pretty automatic.

 

[ctchamps]

He played some excellent D and almost knocked down a 3 that was halfway down.

He bit badly on one fake and missed a couple FTs, granted at a critical time.

Do people realize he was starting to play really well before he got injured and is trying to work his way back. Also it's very hard to knock down shots when you only get a few minutes here and there.

I think he's a talented player and will be a solid contributor by season's end if he can stay healthy.

Similar situation for Stewart. They'd both show more if they were getting starter's minutes, but are simply player behind more experienced and/or talented teammates.

Look how poorly, Karaban looked in the first half? If he was a bench player, after a couple poor opportunities, he'd find himself on the bench. But because he's a starter and proven player, he continued to get PT and had an outstanding 2nd half and overtime.

With this said, I hope Ross and Stewart provide more offense with the time they're getting.

Check out microfich's video in post 37 of the thread "When Ross plays were bette". It clearly demonstrates the refs and not Ross got faked completely out of their jocks. Player picked up the ball with two hands and double dribbled because of the attempted block. Ross's jump at that point was because the clock was winding down and his player had no choice but to take the shot at that point or get called for shot clock violation. Refs missed the double dribble.

 

[HooperScooper]

Uh oh… @HooperScooper , we’ve got a code “Brandon” here!

Fwiw, I think a lot of these “typos” might actually come from voice-to-text misunderstandings. I’m constantly deciphering those from my mom.

I saw that yesterday and just thought he was making a political statement. 🤣

 

[DogMania]

Everyone complains about Smith dribbling too much and he does. But I think what happens is that either him or his teammates are not making a read which starts our offensive action. The players on the court are standing around waiting for the action to start. Whose fault is that I am not sure.

I've noticed that when the action starts, Demary usually gets a pass out to the first, second or third player action, while Smith seems to miss some of the open players and just continues to dribble where he's standing or in one direction or the other. Granted often a handful of starters are in there when Smith comes in, and aren't always setting or hitting the screens effectively.

My take is 75% of the problem is with Smith's vision and execution, and 25% his teammates. Improvement is clearly needed.

 

[microfich]

Check out microfich's video in post 37 of the thread "When Ross plays were bette". It clearly demonstrates the refs and not Ross got faked completely out of their jocks. Player picked up the ball with two hands and double dribbled because of the attempted block. Ross's jump at that point was because the clock was winding down and his player had no choice but to take the shot at that point or get called for shot clock violation. Refs missed the double dribble.

Here it is:

cRoss-over

 

[HW611]

Check out microfich's video in post 37 of the thread "When Ross plays were bette". It clearly demonstrates the refs and not Ross got faked completely out of their jocks. Player picked up the ball with two hands and double dribbled because of the attempted block.

People have PTSD from when Ross would bite on pump fakes from the first half of his sophomore year.

 

[DogMania]

His last post was April 2014. He came back in 2024.

Maybe he rose from the dead or came out of a coma.

There are some posters who are generally negative with headscratching observations, some who are just about always positive and don't like any or much criticism, and there are many who try to be objective that love and support the team, share positive things but also negative things that they hope will get better.

As for this poster, he seems all over the place. I'll even read a post where I'm thinking, yeah, I see that too, but then in the same post I'm like, "Oh, that was harsh". Maybe we have a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation here.

 

[Vancat]

I never remember him until this past year.

I wondered why a guy who I never heard of suddenly was posting constantly on every thread last year.

I’ve been here since 2011 I believe and he was never in the regular stable of posters from my recollection. Someone showed the other day he hadn’t posted between ‘14-‘24, so that checks out.

I thought the same.

 

[thekollieman]

Check out microfich's video in post 37 of the thread "When Ross plays were bette". It clearly demonstrates the refs and not Ross got faked completely out of their jocks. Player picked up the ball with two hands and double dribbled because of the attempted block.

That was a great look at it and I appreciate both the video link by microfich and your post leading me to it. That being said, dragging the video frame-by-frame, it actually looks to me like just a really, really high level fake out - to a point I still don’t exactly fault Ross for biting. I suppose perfect defense would’ve assumed a pull-up was coming but raised a hand without jumping so you could still move with him after the fake.

 

[ctchamps]

That was a great look at it and I appreciate both the video link by microfich and your post leading me to it. That being said, dragging the video frame-by-frame, it actually looks to me like just a really, really high level fake out - to a point I still don’t exactly fault Ross for biting. I suppose perfect defense would’ve assumed a pull-up was coming but raised a hand without jumping so you could still move with him after the fake.

We'll have to disagree on this one because to me he clearly brings the ball to his second hand to begin a shooting position and then quickly starts to dribble after recognizing he was going to be blocked. Good defense by Ross. Better offense by Lindsay because he got away with it.

I would love @microfich to start a poll and see how Boneyarders review the film and determine if it was a double dribble or not. Would show how different our powers of observation are.

 

[aceboon]

it's a hesi that's very close to a double dribble(it is imo), not surprising that Ross would bite on it, it's designed for that type of reaction

 

[thekollieman]

We'll have to disagree on this one because to me he clearly brings the ball to his second hand to begin a shooting position and then quickly starts to dribble after recognizing he was going to be blocked. Good defense by Ross. Better offense by Lindsay because he got away with it.

I would love @microfich to start a poll and see how Boneyarders review the film and determine if it was a double dribble or not. Would show how different our powers of observation are.

I’ll concede I can’t conclusively say his left thumb doesn’t make contact with the ball. Poll would be interesting.

 

[AllHusky]

Here it is:

cRoss-over

Yup, took me 6 tries to digest it, but yeah, the kid grabs the ball briefly with both hands reacting to the human kangaroo in front of him and then changes his mind and drives. Awesome, way to put a long discussion to rest!

 

[thekollieman]

it's a hesi that's very close to a double dribble(it is imo), not surprising that Ross would bite on it, it's designed for that type of reaction

This clip seems like it truly is a straight up double dribble because he brings it up with one hand and then swaps to the other to dribble it back down. The Nova guy maintains his dribble with the same hand and does an “in-and-out” motion.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

This clip seems like it truly is a straight up double dribble because he brings it up with one hand and then swaps to the other to dribble it back down. The Nova guy maintains his dribble with the same hand and does an “in-and-out” motion.

I can’t really tell from the clip. If it’s not, it’s certainly VERY close. Doesn’t really matter to me though. Even if not a double dribble, it happens sometimes, wouldn’t make me think any different of Ross’ defense.

 

[AllHusky]

I can’t really tell from the clip. If it’s not, it’s certainly VERY close. Doesn’t really matter to me though. Even if not a double dribble, it happens sometimes, wouldn’t make me think any different of Ross’ defense.

Yes, Ross reacted very early to a subtle move, needed to stay on the ground....but we won and had all this fun doing video review. Just wish we didn't have Mullins shot in video review also.

 

[MuchoDogYears]

That quote is inaccurate. What Hurley actually said is “Alec this year”. Hurley was referencing when Alec Millender suffered a concussion in practice this year. Not Alex Karaban last year.

 

[Excalibur]

I thought the same.

He was here back in the early 2000's. Same schtick . . .

 

[DogMania]

Check out microfich's video in post 37 of the thread "When Ross plays were bette". It clearly demonstrates the refs and not Ross got faked completely out of their jocks. Player picked up the ball with two hands and double dribbled because of the attempted block. Ross's jump at that point was because the clock was winding down and his player had no choice but to take the shot at that point or get called for shot clock violation. Refs missed the double dribble.

Yeah, I watched video multiple times and even frame by frame. Yes he clearly put two hands on the ball. That's an obvious missed double dribble and explains why Ross reacted the way he did.

With that said, there was 5 seconds on the shot clock and if the Nova player had done a hard up fake, Ross would have landed on him drawing a 3 shot foul.

I can understand him staying planted when his man put both hands on the ball and flew right by him, but Ross left his feet way too early.

Ross has been playing excellent harassing D and deserves to get playing time when they need someone to slow down the other teams hot shooter as well as giving one of the starters some needed rest. It looks like he's moving well now, but due to the small amount of playing time he's received since the injury, he's still trying to get back to where he was before that.

Some are saying he shouldn't get any playing time, but they obviously aren't seeing what many of us are observing. He and Stewart are contributing when given the opportunity. We just need to get a little more scoring and improved execution on the offensive end of the floor. Still a lot of minutes to be earned for both players to improve.

 

[WiseWillie]

Ugly but another one in the win column.

Get well soon, Braylon!!!

Sorry if this may have been covered before but couldn't watch entire game and only saw a few snippets. Was a flagrant 1 or 2 assessed against #55 on Villanova for deliberately and dangerous;y punching Braylon in the head with his left hand while dribbling past? Tried playing that contact back multiple times with the ref no more than 6 feet away and looking directly at it and didn't see result. Can't believe at least a fragrant 1.

 

[JakeTheDog]

I never remember him until this past year.

I wondered why a guy who I never heard of suddenly was posting constantly on every thread last year.

I’ve been here since 2011 I believe and he was never in the regular stable of posters from my recollection. Someone showed the other day he hadn’t posted between ‘14-‘24, so that checks out.

I’m convinced RuffRuff is an AI developed by Tom and trained on 30 years of Boneyard content and hot takes.

 

[SoCalCanine]

Time has a way of making one forget. Three years ago in January this place was a schizophrenic mess. Long-time Posters that should’ve known better were bailing left and right.

I looked it up last night. The '23 team, 20 games in, was 15-5.

 

[SoCalCanine]

I am still waiting for a replay showing Lewis clocking Mullins as we seem split on wether it was intentional or not. The AP article treated it like "who appeared to be struck during a loose ball..." making it milquetoast instead of gutsy journalism.

I thought the rule was that a blow to the head was automatically a flagrant 1 whether intentional or not and that if it was deemed intentional it was a flagrant 2. Maybe I'm mistaken?

 

[WhereistheDove?]

Yes, Ross reacted very early to a subtle move, needed to stay on the ground....but we won and had all this fun doing video review. Just wish we didn't have Mullins shot in video review also.

Ehh, not sure I agree. There were five seconds left on the shot clock and I don’t think Ross really commits to it at a subtle move. It took either a really good hesi or a straight up double dribble for Ross to commit. And there is a rim protector behind. It’s not a ridiculous gamble at all given the circumstances. It happens.

 

[Husky68]

Where do you see Malachi looking for his own shot? His problem offensively is ball pounding aimlessly and not delivering passes on time.

That is a problem, but also when he passes to AK and other wings they give him the ball back, even when clock is winding down; reminds me of what happened with Vitale and Gilbert as they had the ball so often because other players would give it back to them without making any offensive move 1st.