Xavier Post Game Thread

[10TOES]

Clingan missed two FTs, Karaban missed front end, jordan with a dumb charge and Jackson missed a dunk… but there was a lot of good.

We finally fought back when things were hard.

Hawkins has had THAT look in his eyes since St John’s, it’s been every game and he’s find ways to get better shots. Newton has the leash off and looks much much more comfortable. Sanogo was not a black hole for a second this game. Danny made very effective second half changes. We hit every timely three in the second half. The team looked more comfortable in the zone (it giveth and it taketh away).


At this point, I don’t care about rankings anymore. The team is beginning to find their roles the need in March. I don’t mind being a 7 seed if we are playing like a top 15 team by the end of the year. Let’s shock the world again.

 

[Palatine]

At what point, does Hurley start getting blame? He’s been here for 5 years and coaching much longer than that

He improves the team every year. And your opinion is that he should be fired? Interesting take.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Hawk brought us back. He's a special, special shooter.

Jackson is the opposite of that. His inability to make a completely wide open 3 (on multiple attempts)... or a floater with a cushion... or a post up over a 6'4" unathletic guard. It puts us in such a bind on offense. It was paralyzing to the team. A completely wide open 3 by a wing/guard is a 1.3-1.5 expected point value shot. That's a legendary offense shot. You have to make at least 1 of 3. It's a practice gym shot.

Hurley's pre-adjustment was Jackson posting up Kunkel. He expected the sag, we had a counter, we've been working on it (it was the first play of the game vs. Butler, too). It's a very good matchup on paper. Jackson just doesn't have the skill to make it happen.

Eventually we just resorted to making Jackson a screener and letting Hawkins shoot off the screen or attack off the curl with no threat of a hedge or switch. That worked. We went at it like the Remember the Titans playbook, only 6 plays, keep running the same ones.

To Jackson's credit, he played well at the top of the zone in the 2nd half.

But everytime we got back into the game, we made a completely boneheaded play. The Jackson goaltend. The Hawkins shooting foul on a baseline midrange 2pt jumper. Newton travel. Hawkins charge. That's not coaching (unless you consider overactive defense/shot challenging mentality). If we make a few more plays, we win, despite them shooting 50% from 3 and Jackson

This off-season Hurley has to let Andre know it’s not okay to be an ineffective scorer. If he cares about winning he has to know it’s hurting the team.

It’s cool to be unselfish and not care to score. It’s not cool to actually be unable to score.

 

[UConnSwag11]

I think that was sarcasm.

No I know. I was t try to to add on

 

[AntG168]

I feel like we have said this for three years now.

Where is this new idea that that the last few years weren’t good coming from? We thoroughly enjoyed last season until we lost in the tournament.

 

[Hunt for 7]

At what point, does Hurley start getting blame? He’s been here for 5 years and coaching much longer than that

Our two captains have to take some of the responsibility. Was AJ playing basketball in the first half or was that some other type of game. At least he was doing better in the 2nd half until the goal tending. That is not coaching. I think tonight Hurley did one of his best jobs of the year. The players just did not make the play. If we ever take the lead in the game and we had at least five chances just in the second comeback we would have won the game IMO

 

[auror]

At what point, does Hurley start getting blame? He’s been here for 5 years and coaching much longer than that

You haven't seen the Hurley blame here on the Boneyard?

 

[UCan3]

It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a coach stop a shot that was going in - with a weird timeout with less than 30 w seconds on the clock only to call a play that had no form. Where Newton was going with the ball BTW with 1.5 seconds was a real mystery. And the made FT - Classic.

What stood out to me as why we lost game it was all those missed FT’s, Jackson starting the game 0-7 ummm against a team like Xavier you simply can’t do this… The disappearance of Sanogo…. And Clingan with his worst night in a Husky uniform. There was a 6 point swing all on him in 2nd half. Those were the primary reasons we lost the game.

And we keep getting weird calls against us at key times. Dan might need to have a heart to with the ref he angered because some calls/non calls could only be made be a ref who has something against our team. Phantom elbows and light bumps on one end and little on the other - hard to know what is behind some of these calls. But either way we have bigger issues which I am starting to think won’t get resolved this season - maybe in FALL 2023.

 

[UConnSwag11]

He improves the team every year. And your opinion is that he should be fired? Interesting take.

Where did I say he should be fired? I don’t think he should be. But he needs to be held accountable for terrible scouting and in game coaching. And then after every loss he blames something or someone else. It happens every year

 

[NJHusky]

Done seeing it happen means You have blinders on. He changed it up, and Xavier had no answer in the second half outside of a 10-0 run in 1:30 of game clock. Which he did take the time out, but needed to get Newton and hawk some rest.

Blame foul shooting, blame Andres shooting, blame Sanogos defense.

Blame 1-13 on threes.

Maybe change up your narrative

Maybe coach can be less stubborn or more insightful and make a change before we r down 17…or do the rules mandate no changes before halftime? Sorry he’s a bad in game coach. A good coach makes those changes early in 1st half not waiting until the game is out of hand

 

[HuskyFich]

At what point, does Hurley start getting blame? He’s been here for 5 years and coaching much longer than that

Do you really just ignore how mediocre our previous teams were?

Also, since Hurley has been coaching much longer that 5 years, maybe look at how his other coaching stints went…?

Hurley absolutely deserves some blame. Don’t get me wrong. on a year by year basis, we’ve improved every year.

But today we missed WIDE open shots. And I’ll keep saying it, but Sanogos defense is atrocious, he’s worse than Karaban at this point.

 

[UConnSwag11]

You haven't seen the Hurley blame here on the Boneyard?

Waiting to see when certain posters will stop bending over backwards to spin every loss into something positive. I know there are tons of posters who just troll and just post to stir the pot so I don’t even care about their posts

 

[Verne]

Press
1-3-1
2-3
1-2-2

Did you even watch the game? Hurley made multiple adjustments in the second half to good effect. Overcame a 17 point deficit.

You don't know basketball if you didn't see adjustments.

The half court zone that allowed xaviers best player to make 3 straight 3s to start the 2nd half and Xavier to shoot the ball better from the field than they did in the first half?

I'm glad DH finally decided to use his freak of nature athlete at the front of a press. It should definitely take a 2nd half adjustment down by nearly 20 points to do this.

The team played better in the 2nd half. No coaching adjustment was going to have us make 9 threes in the 2nd half or get to the line 20 times.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Where is this new idea that that the last few years weren’t good coming from? We thoroughly enjoyed last season until we lost in the tournament.

The tournament is all that matters. It’s UConn. A first round loss is a failure of a season. Especially when it’s an upset.

We didn’t beat anyone worth bragging about either outside of Nova.

 

[auror]

The half court zone that allowed xaviers best player to make 3 straight 3s to start the 2nd half and Xavier to shoot the ball better from the field than they did in the first half?

I'm glad DH finally decided to use his freak of nature athlete at the front of a press. It should definitely take a 2nd half adjustment down by nearly 20 points to do this.

The team played better in the 2nd half. No coaching adjustment was going to have us make 9 threes in the 2nd half or get to the line 20 times.

At one point we were 1/14 from 3 and they were 8/14. We were down 14, and they had +21 from the same number of 3 pointers. The shots were roughly equally open and we were home/they were road (teams on average shoot better from 3).

 

[ValleyGuy]

Hurley ran a perfect play against Seton Hall and Karaban got a wide open three. Nobody near him. He misses.

We cut it to one and then have two successive TOs. The moment has been too big for them.

Hurley watched the Seton Hall game on television. Apparently unlike you did..

 

[10TOES]

Also why was Miller allowed to lobby for like 10 minutes after the Freemantle foul out in the middle of our run? They even let him call Danny over.

 

[husky429]

The half court zone that allowed xaviers best player to make 3 straight 3s to start the 2nd half and Xavier to shoot the ball better from the field than they did in the first half?

I'm glad DH finally decided to use his freak of nature athlete at the front of a press. It should definitely take a 2nd half adjustment down by nearly 20 points to do this.

The team played better in the 2nd half. No coaching adjustment was going to have us make 9 threes in the 2nd half or get to the line 20 times.

I heard Providence is looking for fans!

 

[storrsroars]

I don't understand how this can be the take away. What adjustment was made? We pressed them? Cool we should be doing that every game. We need to speed teams up. We played a 1-3-1 half court? Xavier shot the ball better in the 2nd half.

Please show your work that led you to this conclusion.

 

[AntG168]

Waiting to see when certain posters will stop bending over backwards to spin every loss into something positive. I know there are tons of posters who just troll and just post to stir the pot so I don’t even care about their posts

It’s condescending nonsense like this. It’s not just UConn fans, it’s the whole country. Someone disagreeing with how you view something isn’t “bending over backwards”. It’s a different point of view. You anchor yourself on on one side of an issue that isn’t black and white and then insult those who don’t agree with you. It’s corny. It’s okay to agree to disagree. Hurley knows more than all of us here, I promise

 

[kansashusky]

Miller walked into a Lockerroom with kunkel, jones Fremantle and nunge already in it

Okay and how did that go last year? Who is their best player?

 

[jorge34]

There was alot to like…..about the second half. Hurley finally made some terrific defensive adjustments, which spearheaded a good comeback against a very good team.

That being said…….he needs to do what’s best for this team. Jackson needs to come off the bench. They played some of their best games of the season when he was. Start Alleyne and maybe, eventually, Johnson.

High energy jackson off the bench could give them a spark, and prevent some of these awful starts to games. It’s too bad he’s hasn’t learned to shoot in 3 years, but since he hasn’t, he has to be used differently

 

[JoeyBuckets]

Jackson was 3-12 FG.

 

[homunculus]

At one point we were 1/14 from 3 and they were 8/14. We were down 14, and they had +21 from the same number of 3 pointers. The shots were roughly equally open and we were home/they were road (teams on average shoot better from 3).

wow, real analysis that reflects what actually happened on the court. Who knew it was possible.

 

[alleyoops55]

a loss is a loss is a loss.

here comes everyone to explain why we should feel good about this result…

Because that’s life, baby! It’s just a game. If you’re feeling bad, that’s on you… They played with a lot of grit in the second half and it was a great game to watch. We had a blowout on Sunday but the crowd was asleep the whole time. #makesportsfunagain