Villanova Post Game Thread

[SwingDog]

That was, I think, the UConn team we all thought we’d see all season after Florida. And Illinois. And BYU. And even Arizona. The bench showed the kind of depth we thought we would have. AK played great on both ends. And Reibe and Reed are a two headed monster.

Yes, bench production may have made the difference tonight with a combined 22 points and 9 rebounds. Also, a less than healthy AK helped and did not hurt us tonight.

 

[Edward Sargent]

Boys I needed that!! How does Hurley get that D switch turned on that quickly?

 

[Deepster]

Hurley says he thinks he's mismanaged the bench the past couple of weeks. Love hearing that, we need them to be confident and reliable. Makes us a totally different team.

That’s what I love about him. He knows he has faults and learns from them.

 

[slepers]

To get a big road win vs a good team despite Silas having a rough game is absolutely huge. Really balanced night offensively, bench stepped up. Reibe, Ross, Stewart and Malachi all gave us quality minutes at important moments in the game

There’s a lot on Silas, I think he played well after a couple careless turnovers in the first half’s

 

[Palatine]

Nice to see Steward make an impact. We are going to need him.

We played at our pace to night and didn't get sped up by the press. That made a large difference.

 

[navery12]

If we and St John’s tie how do they determine who wins the conference?

Assuming we win out it'll be the higher NET ranking, although that is far down the list

 

[RuffRuff]

He was great on D. He bit hard on that one pump fake where the guy made the jumper at the end of the shot clock and that was it, just great defense and timely defensive plays which ignited us.

He was +16, easily the best on the team. Yes please.

Silas was in the red - turnovers an issue.

Helluva win. Holding out Hurley has tricks up the sleeve. We’ll know more Wednesday.

 

[Vowelguy]

How does the starting PG have 7 TOs?

 

[Donyell 360]

Great game for the bench. All 4 contributed. Stewart hits 2 threes. Ross had some blocks and went 4-5 from the line. Reibe made his FT's too. He had Reed are both good at finishing around the rim. I've been really down on Smith all year and the offense never looks good when he is running it but he made several positive plays including 2 layups which is huge. The fact that our backup PG can't drive to the basket is one reason the offense looks so stagnant when he runs it. But if Smith can keep them honest the a legitimate drive game, that will open up passing lanes for him.

 

[Jaydumo20]

The best part about stew and ross, and the reason the staff loves them so much- they are very talented- top program- players and great kids. With the increasing minutes sure to come we will start to get closer to their ceiling. Love those 2 dudes
We win #7 on their backs

 

[Drfla]

And totally redeemed themselves! Garbage ending made this game look a lot closer than it was. The offense should have had ten more than what they put up. Ross WTF pass to Reed under the basket showed his skittishness, but he had some straight up lock down posessions mixed with some completely blown assignments. Just keep feeding him minutes and hopefully he evens out.
Silas needs to understand that this is a completely different offense when Riebe is in. We missed Eric on so many rolls. Completely underutilized him in general. He was excellent, and showed really good hands.
Normally I would give a 40+ % 3pt shooter the green light, but heck if AK misses over the last two games really killed momentum.
Overall it's a game that Villanova had nothing going and shot most of their 3s at the end of the clock. I am sure they watched our tape, and were told to attack the rim with everyone. Glad they waited until 3 mins left to start doing that. Nothing glaringly bad, we still make too many self inflicted mistakes but good one to right the ship.

Ross played great D. I didn’t see the completely blown assignments.

 

[Donyell 360]

How does the starting PG have 7 TOs?

They were harassing him all game. Credit Nova for making it tough on him. Thankfully this wasn't a game we needed Silas to save us. He is still our best player to get downhill. Actually he is our only player lately.

 

[DCHuskyFan]

Smith like a bull at top speed in a china shop when he gets the ball. Demary has a quite a bit more finesse, but that’s not as effective at deflecting the heavy pressure.

 

[Lefty2one]

First half looked like more of the same, second half was our Nov/Dec team.

 

[BFieldHusky]

Another thing that helped us. That was only the 3rd time Nova has played in that building this season. Willard even mentioned this to Katz.

 

[Donyell 360]

The best part about stew and ross, and the reason the staff loves them so much- they are very talented- top program- players and great kids. With the increasing minutes sure to come we will start to get closer to their ceiling. Love those 2 dudes
We win #7 on their backs

They are both low ceiling guys I'm afraid. At this point, getting D and a little offense each game is all I can hope for. Hurley blamed himself for Stewarts recent regression, not instilling confidence in him during his struggles. I agree they are great kids.

 

[navery12]

Winning percentage against next highest seed
after we beat them we lose that tiebreaker
Our loss is Creighton their’s is Providence

The caveat here is that assuming the favorites win (a big assumption) Providence and Creighton are tied so we would both be 3-1 against that group

 

[SwingDog]

How does the starting PG have 7 TOs?

As someone already pointed out, at least 3-4 of them were the result of uncalled fouls.

 

[upstater]

Boys I needed that!! How does Hurley get that D switch turned on that quickly?

We stopped pressuring in the backcourt, so everyone was set.

We also made shots so no breaks.

 

[Umami Zen]

Blown away by the W. Expected a one or two point victory-But not that display. Boards/Bench/Defense did the job. Willard and Nova media are gonna say they didn't hit their three pointers. Why? UConn D was in their grill.

Hurley saying they need to win out the rest of their games was genius. Let's start stacking wins heading into BET.

Bench guys woke up and delivered. Ross is gaining confidence at crunch time. Huge W.BTW-Nova is a Tournament team.

 

[superjohn]

Hurley and staff are going to have to figure out a way to alleviate some of the pressure on Silas. We simply can't have another game against St. John's from him where he's turning it over like crazy.

 

[connVA]

Much, much better. Solid game from AK. 7 TOs from Silas ain't gonna cut it.

 

[Gutter King]

Blown away by the W. Expected a one or two point victory-But not that display. Boards/Bench/Defense did the job. Willard and Nova media are gonna say they didn't hit their three pointers. Why? UConn D was in their grill.

Hurley saying they need to win out the rest of their games was genius. Let's start stacking wins heading into BET.

Bench guys woke up and delivered. Ross is gaining confidence at crunch time. Huge W

Yeah this wasn't a game where they missed a bunch of open threes. Our perimeter defense was excellent and forced end of shot clock low % shots. The caveat here is the last three minutes showed we are still a ways away on the penetration side of things. We can't pretend that it's solved just because Villanova missed/didn't execute the scout.

 

[bendm]

Assuming we win out it'll be the higher NET ranking, although that is far down the list

View attachment 117295

Wouldn’t we both get a share of the regular season title? I thought the tiebreakers were for BET seeding. Could swear we’ve shared a regular season title before.

 

[How Sway?!]

22 points from the bench. Last time we got over 20 points from the bench was when we beat Creighton by 27.

If the bench gives us 15 pts consistently, we will be a F4 team.