Xavier Post Game Thread | Page 4 | The Boneyard

Xavier Post Game Thread

Choosing to focus only on the second half. Newton is the answer at PG playing like that. Keep Hawk constantly moving. Press all game long. I left that game more confident in the team than before, loss be damnwd
 
FfldCntyFan said:
This may be an unpopular opinion but I believe that this game will pay dividends down the road.

I remember the 2008-2009 team seemed to be missing something, up through the BET. That squad was immensely talented and when things went well (which for that team was most of the time) they would roll the opponent. Where they had trouble was when games were tight, when grit, desire and basically will to fight as much as necessary in order to win was needed and in those games they would fall short. The six OT loss to Cuse toughened them up and showed them how hard they needed to play and how deep they needed to dig in order to win those games. If we won that game in regulation, I don't think we get to the final four that year.

The team could have easily mailed in the second half. Yes, we threw away a number of big offensive possessions over the last few minutes of this game but the team should now be far better for what they did tonight. I doubt they'll wilt the next time they get punched in the mouth.
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Compare our team right now to the other teams in the NCAA Top 25. Our starters and bench aren't even close to depth and skill such as Ohio State, TCU, Alabama (how did we beat Alabama by almost 20?)
 
I don't really have anything to say. On to the next one I guess.
 
Here is what I have learned. The team is good. When they were winning they were winning big. No pressure. Tonight whe they could come back seemed like no one wathed the shot to tie or pull them ahead. Just my observation.
 
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Palatine said:
That didn't matter at the end. Our inability to play well when the game is one the line mattered.

How many times do we have to cut the lead to one only to freeze up?
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If he is 1/7 we are up not down At the end. Having to erase a 15 pt deficit is a bit much to ask. If Hurley makes the second half adjustments at the first TO maybe we have a chance
 
HuskyFich said:
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
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He buries us ever game and we have to fight our way back, and then people like you are content with it. It’s why UCONN hasn’t won any big games in over 5 years. The losing is exciting
 
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
 
SYF75 said:
Maybe get 20 reg season wins...overrated and rightfully so bc early wins vs early ranked teams, from fanbase that has been hoping to get back to the land, Reality not great former teams that these guys are compared to would beat by whatever they want. Right path I hope but get to tourney not going anymore than 2nd round. No one on this team is going to NBA , I mean maybe Hawkins but softest team Ive seen in a long time.
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Jackson and Sanogo need one more year, the both of them. Even Hawkins isn't quite ready yet either.
 
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LOL - This Team...
Losing all game and lost.
Two games ago lead for 39:57 and still lost.
K. Ollie Offense the past month....
At this point, I expect another 1st round loss.
Woot, we have one player show up each game.
Guards ignore our inside guys for low percentage shots.
Newton played well.
Hawkins decided to play 2nd half
I'm calling him Half Game Hawkins at this point. HGH.
Sigh, there's always 2796....
 
Palatine said:
That didn't matter at the end. Our inability to play well when the game is one the line mattered.

How many times do we have to cut the lead to one only to freeze up?
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I think that terrible start did matter as it gave Xavier a big boost of confidence that they played with the whole game.
 
Palatine said:
That didn't matter at the end. Our inability to play well when the game is one the line mattered.

How many times do we have to cut the lead to one only to freeze up?
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What are you talking about? If he had been 2 for 7, UConn woulda won!
 
UConnSwag11 said:
He buries us ever game and we have to fight our way back, and then people like you are content with it. It’s why UCONN hasn’t won any big games in over 5 years. The losing is exciting
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No one said content.

I see progress. Especially with Hurleys coaching adjustments.

But I understand how people feel it’s either jubilee or exorcism.
 
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auror said:
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 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
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There’s a crowd here that attributes everything that happens in the game to “coaching”. They aren’t right or wrong I just don’t think others like myself see the game the same way. I’ve come to the conclusion that we’ll never agree. We do this same “coaching” dance after every loss.
 
HuskyFich said:
No one said content.

I see progress. Especially with Hurleys coaching adjustments.

But I understand how people feel it’s either jubilee or exorcism.
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At what point, does Hurley start getting blame? He’s been here for 5 years and coaching much longer than that
 
Palatine said:
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.
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This is spot on. They never seem to be able to take advantage of the moments in the game when making the play, the shot and scoring changes the momentum. The game changing moments have been to big for them. Although had they had a chance to get Hawkins a look at a three he may have made it tonight. But in general you make the relevant point the moment us too big for them.
 
Positives:
Hawk continues to soar
Newton came alive and hope he stays that way.

Negatives:

Ajax shot so damn much, when someone can tell him to do anything but shooting.

Our bench did not show up other than Alleyne.


Coaching is subpar… I want some adjustments in first half. We buried ourselves too big a hole to dig out.
 
First game in a while. Gample was LOUD! Those 4 consecutive missed FT hurt, one was front end of 1x1. Hawkins was awesome in 2nd half but turned down the most open 3 late then Kunckle drew the charge.
 
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UConn990411 said:
What good habits? They don’t put any effort on defense.
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UConnSwag11 said:
Have you seen anything that makes you believe we will? What in game coaching has improved?
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Heads up, I didn’t see the first half. Lol. Should’ve said that in the original post.

In the 2nd half Hurley seemed to make some great adjustments with the press and the zone.

We aren’t running Sanogo offense anymore at all and we attack the rim so much better currently.

Newton is coming on and we’re going to need him if we want to make any noise in March.

Hawkins continues to get better and better.

Sanogo is moving the ball so much better than he did previously.

Those are good habits we weren’t doing in our slump. I’m not sure what we did in the first half.
 
husky429 said:
I'm saying this before the game even ends: Credit where it's due. That was a very well-coached second half of basketball by Hurley.
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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. Does he get credit for all of Hawkins and Newtons points? What about when we cut it to 1 and he subbed 3 guys out only to watch Xavier go up 11 almost instantly.

It's a hard sell also when in the waning moments of the game you ice your best player coming off a screen wide open by calling a time out with 20 seconds left and you don't get a quality look up after that.

Give the credit to the players. They made shots and played well in the 2nd half. We cannot act like playing a 1-3-1 is a good defense for this team or we somehow should let the coaching off the hook for the players efforts in the 2nd half. It's not good enough if uconn is a blue blood college basketball program.
 
freshler40 said:
Could a 3 / 2 zone with both bigs in the game prevented Nune from his easy scores?
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I think the way the X offense is based on cutting and being in position it still would still have left open players. We had a lot of trouble contesting shots.

I guess we can say Hurley finally played both bigs…albeit on Newtons last foul shot.
 
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