Xavier Post Game Thread

[upstater]

I wish Newton would stop with the jump passing. Gaffney did the same thing.

That was the type of clear foul though that Karaban committed. Offensive player goes into his body as he jumps and drifts sideways. Nunge did the exact same thing to Newton that Karaban did to multiple people

 

[Seamus84]

DH was totally hosed on this one.

One free throw in the first 29 minutes of a BIg East game involving UConn…and that only came because of a flop?! Xavier may have indeed played John Wooden-like defense for a 3/4 of the game (debatable) but I’m pretty sure I’ve ever seen that before.

Setting that back-drop aside, the sequence leading up to the T…
1). With about 3mins left, Hawkins gets called for an offensive foul…..ok, it happens. They never show a replay, so who knows but if you review it you see that Boum is clearly not set. Admittedly, you can’t see if Hawk extends his arm but since he’s driving right with the ball, it’s hard to dribble and extend with the same arm so at the very least it’s a 50/50 call.
2). Next, UConn get its back and Karaban misses a three….in the scramble Jones gets the rebound and clearly travels (hop skip), which is not called.
3). They advance the ball quickly to Fremantle, Newton pokes it away - foul not called. But a foul is called on the ensuing 50/50 scramble.

The point is that from a Coach’s perspective (any Coach) you’ve got to have consistency if you’re going to call a game that precisely. If you can see a 50/50 foul from half-way across the court then you should also be able to see the travel.

Lastly, any Ref that walks on the court with an agenda against any Coach should not be a Ref.

 

[80shusky]

UConn lost a game today. Aside from the coach mentally falling apart at the end and the team following his lead there isn't much more to look into it than that. UConn will lose more games. It would be nice to pick up a road win against PC next week to make this look like an an outlier. The stripes were bad but not the problem. The team needs drive the lane more and pick up fouls. Especially Newton who can do that and shoots great from the FT line. Blaming the refs for the loss, even though they were bad, is weak. The team lost because they lost. They were outplayed.

 

[Scrutineer]

He absolutely was not. Don't be ridiculous.

Your general point is true though. I said before the game that this feels like a first loss to me. Xavier away is a damn tough game. We were bound to lose at some point, and this might be an important spark.

I feel bad for Providence. This team is going to be hungry.

No way I could ever feel bad for Providence. But, I'd like our team to make Providence feel reallllllly bad this week!

 

[Coach J]

It is a good loss in the sense that it was on the road against a Quad 1 opponent and there is multiple lessons to be learned from it that will help down the road - particularly for DH. Obviously he can't get a tech there, but when he checks the tape he should recognize we played better with certain players off the floor, primarily because of match-up issues - he needs to recognize that in game and stop trying to force matchups that aren't working.

 

[Scrutineer]

I I am not l aiming this loss on that technical.

I am sure that all of us who follow UCONN an come up with what Hurley should have done. I expect Hurley, coaching staff, and team will learn from this loss. Did anyone really expect a no loss perfect season?

Isn't it reasonable to expect a perfect season when you're UConn? I mean let's be honest here. Just because it's the men doesn't mean we can't attain that goal.

 

[Scrutineer]

At least Dan can change his underwear now

Andrea told me he stopped wearing them until they win the Big East regular season or tournament. Either one is OK.

 

[uconngb]

UConn lost a game today. Aside from the coach mentally falling apart at the end and the team following his lead there isn't much more to look into it than that. UConn will lose more games. It would be nice to pick up a road win against PC next week to make this look like an an outlier. The stripes were bad but not the problem. The team needs drive the lane more and pick up fouls. Especially Newton who can do that and shoots great from the FT line. Blaming the refs for the loss, even though they were bad, is weak. The team lost because they lost. They were outplayed.

The coach mentally falling apart and the team following his lead is kind of a big deal. If you don’t think so, check tape of the last four years.

I can take a loss and had no delusions of this team going unbeaten. But old bad habits coming up is not comforting. DH took a big step back today.

 

[Scrutineer]

I’m Cincy born & raised (undergrad @ UC; MBA @ Xavier), however also a transplant (i.e. parents weren’t born in Cincy). Been to a lot of “away games”, but man I’ve never been around so many privileged little children in my life. Really I dislike Xavier fans - they’re awful.

It's called entitlement and it's a plague among too many today.

 

[M.S.G.]

Disappointing loss, but this was one I had circled on the calendar for a while - tough place to play and Miller has them cooking. This 5 game stretch was going to be a bear regardless of how these teams were playing and the gauntlet continues..

Not pleased with Danny's actions down the stretch, I didn't love his substitutions and the T is just unacceptable at that juncture of a HUGE game. I'm certainly not one to talk, because I've gotten MANY terrible T's in games I shouldn't have got them, but I'm a semi-retired HS coach and Danny is coaching on the biggest stage in a America. He has to know better, he just has to know better. All that being said, he's doing a fine job with this group. We are getting contributions from Diarra and Alleyne that we weren't getting a month ago but the guard position is just a bit inconsistent. I don't put the blame solely on Newton, because he's been strong, I just think we have and should have a high bar set for our guards at the University of Connecticut.

This upcoming stretch is going to either solidify us as a top 5 team or shake us back to reality a bit. I think we are a top 5 team as opposed to a top 15 team, that's the reality of it. Just need to tighten things back up and make winning plays.

 

[mauconnfan]

My 2 cents on this loss.

Didn’t like this match up going in especially knowing we wouldn’t counter with our bigs at the same time. If you’ve been watching minus a few spurts they haven’t played well or had complete halves for 3-4 in a row.

They gave AJ all the space in the world never concerned about him so his 4-12 wasn’t special like some would think and they didn’t worry about it either. AJ did some great things nonetheless but we still need him to get to the hole, no reason to keep firing from deep just because they’re giving it to you.

Jordan wasn’t good at all. We hammer so many others in this game but where was he? Minus one solid move to the hole and a couple Punkel touch fouls he did nothing, either end. He falls to much looking for crap and needs to play more like a man, especially when needed. Time to step up, go get the ball make a play when they need you. No one has talked about Hawk we all just hammer on Karabans defensive inabilities and Newtons turnovers, where was he?

Karaban plays good basketball, smart player who’s trustworthy with the ball. He gets beat on D due to physical players he’s beginning to see no doubt, but he’s certainly not as bad as many here believe. He will get better especially when he gets stronger. Definitely needs to play less minutes and get rest. Fremantle and Hunter made he and others look bad yesterday, wasn’t just Alex.

I spoke about Tristan in another thread. Needs to get more selfish and look to score more or at least know what the next pass will be when he gets to the lane. His defense and toughness has been underrated. He was good on Boum yesterday don’t take that away.

Sanogo bad start then finished the half solid. 2nd half he was not very good actually looked lost on D quite often. Has 6 rebounds in 58 minutes or so the last 2 games they need more out of this guy. He was our worst defender yesterday.

The bench, oh well not much to say without going into boring detail. Here goes:

Clingan 7 minutes - inexcusable. They had trouble with him you could see it. The blocked shot on Fremantle would’ve made him leery of shooting around him again that’s how it goes. But we didn’t see him again? Amazingly stubborn thinking.

Diarra, played well first half but I’m not worried as much about his time. He is not a PG and too much half court O will show that. But he should’ve seen the court to give Newton a blow.

Joey C need to get him open when he’s in. AJ firing up shots at the end with Joey in the game makes very little sense.

Alleyne I’m not sure how he gets buried especially when he’s making some shots. He also plays good D and didn’t turn it over but was buried for some reason. Needed more minutes from him as well.

I’m not going to get into coaching a bad game for DH, the technical was pitiful. Needs to get better and smarter! Stubbornness both with his in game thoughts and with the refs hasn’t changed much, that’s an issue.

 

[Excalibur]

My 2 cents on this loss.

Didn’t like this match up going in especially knowing we wouldn’t counter with our bigs at the same time. If you’ve been watching minus a few spurts they haven’t played well or had complete halves for 3-4 in a row.

They gave AJ all the space in the world never concerned about him so his 4-12 wasn’t special like some would think and they didn’t worry about it either. AJ did some great things nonetheless but we still need him to get to the hole, no reason to keep firing from deep just because they’re giving it to you.

Jordan wasn’t good at all. We hammer so many others in this game but where was he? Minus one solid move to the hole and a couple Punkel touch fouls he did nothing, either end. He falls to much looking for crap and needs to play more like a man, especially when needed. Time to step up, go get the ball make a play when they need you. No one has talked about Hawk we all just hammer on Karabans defensive inabilities and Newtons turnovers, where was he?

Karaban plays good basketball, smart player who’s trustworthy with the ball. He gets beat on D due to physical players he’s beginning to see no doubt, but he’s certainly not as bad as many here believe. He will get better especially when he gets stronger. Definitely needs to play less minutes and get rest. Fremantle and Hunter made he and others look bad yesterday, wasn’t just Alex.

I spoke about Tristan in another thread. Needs to get more selfish and look to score more or at least know what the next pass will be when he gets to the lane. His defense and toughness has been underrated. He was good on Boum yesterday don’t take that away.

Sanogo bad start then finished the half solid. 2nd half he was not very good actually looked lost on D quite often. Has 6 rebounds in 58 minutes or so the last 2 games they need more out of this guy. He was our worst defender yesterday.

The bench, oh well not much to say without going into boring detail. Here goes:

Clingan 7 minutes - inexcusable. They had trouble with him you could see it. The blocked shot on Fremantle would’ve made him leery of shooting around him again that’s how it goes. But we didn’t see him again? Amazingly stubborn thinking.

Diarra, played well first half but I’m not worried as much about his time. He is not a PG and too much half court O will show that. But he should’ve seen the court to give Newton a blow.

Joey C need to get him open when he’s in. AJ firing up shots at the end with Joey in the game makes very little sense.

Alleyne I’m not sure how he gets buried especially when he’s making some shots. He also plays good D and didn’t turn it over but was buried for some reason. Needed more minutes from him as well.

I’m not going to get into coaching a bad game for DH, the technical was pitiful. Needs to get better and smarter! Stubbornness both with his in game thoughts and with the refs hasn’t changed much, that’s an issue.

Before we started chucking wildly at the end he was 4-9 in the flow of the game. Tell me you wouldn’t take that from anyone.

The game was lost in the last 2+ minutes after it was 71-71. If we don’t come apart in the last couple of minutes we’re discussing today how maybe leaving Andre that open isn’t a great strategy.

The comments about old habits rearing their head at the end of the game are spot on. We have historically not fared well at the end of close games under Hurley. The degree to which we completely unraveled has to be concerning given our history.

 

[Storrs South]

 

[mauconnfan]

Before we started chucking wildly at the end he was 4-9 in the flow of the game. Tell me you wouldn’t take that from anyone.

The game was lost in the last 2+ minutes after it was 71-71. If we don’t come apart in the last couple of minutes we’re discussing today how maybe leaving Andre that open isn’t a great strategy.

The comments about old habits rearing their head at the end of the game are spot on. We have historically not fared well at the end of close games under Hurley. The degree to which we completely unraveled has to be concerning given our history.

I will take it why wouldn’t I? But do we want him shooting 9 threes anyway he’s not a good shooter I don’t care what happened. Never mind 12, it’s not a good game plan ever. And leaving him open will be others plans and when he goes 1-9 let’s talk again because it’s coming. Hawkins shot 1-5 he didn’t get enough shots maybe the coach should’ve adjusted.

I do agree we lost it the last 3 minutes. AJ turnover bad back door pass to Hawk then what was honestly a bad attempt by Hawk to take the ball 3 on 1 with it tied got called for a charge whether it was or not doesn’t matter. AJ shouldn’t have passed it to him, should’ve pulled it out and set up offense. And he shouldn’t have taken it into the trees. 2 bad decisions in a row. Maybe a time out was warranted to calm the troops ? Nah he wasn’t calm enough himself.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Before we started chucking wildly at the end he was 4-9 in the flow of the game. Tell me you wouldn’t take that from anyone.

The game was lost in the last 2+ minutes after it was 71-71. If we don’t come apart in the last couple of minutes we’re discussing today how maybe leaving Andre that open isn’t a great strategy.

The comments about old habits rearing their head at the end of the game are spot on. We have historically not fared well at the end of close games under Hurley. The degree to which we completely unraveled has to be concerning given our history.

It’s still kind of crazy the one game we closed out that we shouldn’t have won has been when he got ejected against Nova.

 

[Frank06830]

UConn lost a game today. Aside from the coach mentally falling apart at the end and the team following his lead there isn't much more to look into it than that. UConn will lose more games. It would be nice to pick up a road win against PC next week to make this look like an an outlier. The stripes were bad but not the problem. The team needs drive the lane more and pick up fouls. Especially Newton who can do that and shoots great from the FT line. Blaming the refs for the loss, even though they were bad, is weak. The team lost because they lost. They were outplayed.

One big difference with Calhoun was he was able to get wins against tough teams by getting his players to the fouls line. Miller reminded me of that. Not sure our guards have that capability to drive and pick up fouls. To Hurley’s, credit in the look into the huddle during a break break he was heated about players giving up the edge on Xavier driving to basket. THAT inability to defend against drives to basket may become our Achilles IMHO. We’ll see if Miller exposed this as a inherent failure.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

The coach mentally falling apart and the team following his lead is kind of a big deal. If you don’t think so, check tape of the last four years.

I can take a loss and had no delusions of this team going unbeaten. But old bad habits coming up is not comforting. DH took a big step back today.

You've stayed true to form. Is that a good thing?

 

[uconn_jack]

Did Hurley hold a post-game presser for the Xavier game? I don't remember seeing it linked in any threads and the only one I can find is with Sean Miller.

 

[alphasigko]

The coach mentally falling apart and the team following his lead is kind of a big deal. If you don’t think so, check tape of the last four years.

I can take a loss and had no delusions of this team going unbeaten. But old bad habits coming up is not comforting. DH took a big step back today.

The win against Villanova was the exception.