Xavier post game thread.

[REB1094]

Laphonso Ellis covering our game again is a delight. Upbeat but also great analytics.

Castle played 36 minutes. Kind of unstoppable on the drive. He's learning on the fly. 5 turnovers.
He's a tough kid and we need some of that. He is gaining confidence. Just needs to think a little out there. Confident that he will continue to grow as the season progresses.

Diarra is really becoming a force and is really an exciting player when he comes in. Playing exceptionally well at both ends. Wow.

Would like to see Singare in there in the second half; especially when we built a lead. Karaban getting killed in there all alone. We need more help and without DC especially. We are fortunate that small ball worked against Xavier.

It was a 5 point game with less than a minute and Castle got the ball around the free throw line after a press break. Immediately went to the hoop and hit a contested layup to go up 7, which was super impactful since our offense had completely stalled and Xavier got it down to 3 around 20 seconds later

Major confidence from a freshman, super short adjustment period to the college game around the rim. Very good all around game, 12 points 8 assists 6 rebounds 2 blocks 1 steal in his second college true road game. Love this kid

 

[freshler40]

Game was not as close as final score/ We went into a prevent defense +14 and a lot went foul. A win is a win no matter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Games are often lost when a team goes into a stall offense to soon as we did but it worked out. We do have a lot of ball handlers to stall so that helps. Just another tool in the great Huskie box.

 

[Chin Diesel]

It's frustrating, but it's also effective when the lead is that big because the biggest obstacle to Xavier coming back is time. Wasting 25-30 seconds every possession is more important than scoring because it limits the number of possessions Xavier will have. Despite that huge scoring drought, the win probability never dropped below 94%

It's infuriating and you're correct.
The 20th century sports philosopher AL Davis Jr observed and mused "Just win baby".
Huskies won a conference road game and covered the spread. The sausage making process of how they got there wasn't pretty.
Time was Xavier's opponent over last four minutes and UConn effectively limited X's possessions until last :45 seconds. Then UConn got the turnovers going with 5 guards and ball handlers on the court.
I was somewhere between surprised and shocked Miller didn't have his players start fouling UConn with about 90 seconds remaining. Every UConn player was missing FT's.

 

[freshler40]

Big East road wins against any team that isn’t at the bottom are very hard to get. We spotted Xavier 6 points on missed free throws and the refs spotted another 6 on BS calls like Castle T and Karaban’s head getting split open, but we still won. Impressive effort by Diarra. Spencer, Karaban and Newton solid too. Solid minutes by Castle and Stewart too.

We took their best shot, great foul shooting, many offensive rebounds, fast bully ball, a hostile crowd without our center and we still won. WOW! What's not to like?

 

[Chin Diesel]

It's also about instincts and a nose for the ball, something which Johnson has lacked (and partially why he hasn't played until this year).

Johnson also has terrible balance and lower body strength so when he is banging and his opponent moves he stumbles and falls and is beaten to the ball for the rebound.

 

[ucp990411]

Laphonso Ellis covering our game again is a delight. Upbeat but also great analytics.

Castle played 36 minutes. Kind of unstoppable on the drive. He's learning on the fly. 5 turnovers.
He's a tough kid and we need some of that. He is gaining confidence. Just needs to think a little out there. Confident that he will continue to grow as the season progresses.

Diarra is really becoming a force and is really an exciting player when he comes in. Playing exceptionally well at both ends. Wow.

Would like to see Singare in there in the second half; especially when we built a lead. Karaban getting killed in there all alone. We need more help and without DC especially. We are fortunate that small ball worked against Xavier.

Wish Laphonso Ellis would do all of our games. Terrific analysis of nearly every play with no partiality.

 

[ucp990411]

It's frustrating, but it's also effective when the lead is that big because the biggest obstacle to Xavier coming back is time. Wasting 25-30 seconds every possession is more important than scoring because it limits the number of possessions Xavier will have. Despite that huge scoring drought, the win probability never dropped below 94%

Have we ever lost a game by slowing it down? JC would do the same thing and get heavily criticized by some fans. It's called trying to win the game and not worrying about by how much.

 

[ucp990411]

Games are often lost when a team goes into a stall offense to soon as we did but it worked out. We do have a lot of ball handlers to stall so that helps. Just another tool in the great Husky box.

Can you give me an example?

 

[TheShot1990]

Praising our staff at 2:17

 

[Leebo]

The Midwest announcing team was terrible, Jarra?

Laphonso Ellis covering our game again is a delight.

I see the standard love/hate for the announcing is still going strong.

 

[Palatine]

Yeah
Don’t take your foot off the gas, stay aggressive, just be smart

Win the game. Any coach that speeds up play ahead 14 points with three minutes left is guilty of malpractice.

 

[elmcityboy]

With Clingan we win this game by 25.
The Midwest announcing team was terrible, Jarra?
ISO Castle down low, pretty much unstoppable.
To a man, they are all stepping up.

i am guessing that laphonso ellis has some west african friends or family, because i believe that the traditional west african way of pronouncing the name is with a "j" sound:

"Pronunciation guides say it is a French pronunciation of an African name and list the “j” sound with “dj.” They liken the “j” sound to the sound in “Djakarta” and “budget.”"

source

 

[uconngb]

Win the game. Any coach that speeds up play ahead 14 points with three minutes left is guilty of malpractice.

Interesting take when slowing things down clearly almost blew the game and more often than not does. Those last 4 minutes were a clinic in how NOT to close out a game.

 

[Palatine]

Interesting take when slowing things down clearly almost blew the game and more often than not does. Those last 4 minutes were a clinic in how NOT to close out a game.

Missing the foul shots nearly lost us the game. Even so, the plan worked perfectly, we ate the clock, we won. We got exactly what we wanted but even Spenser missed from the line.

I expect Hurley to do the exact same thing up 14 with 3 minutes to go. However, he mentioned in the post game he was not pleased our execution at the end.

 

[ucp990411]

Missing the foul shots nearly lost us the game. Even so, the plan worked perfectly, we ate the clock, we won. We got exactly what we wanted but even Spenser missed from the line.

I expect Hurley to do the exact same thing up 14 with 3 minutes to go. However, he mentioned in the post game he was not pleased our execution at the end.

I like the plan to slow it down but we don't start to attack until there are 10 seconds left on the shot clock and that leaves little time. At that point the only option is to go iso. The attack should start at about 14 seconds so we have other options.

 

[StllH8L8ner]

Winning on the road in the Big East is always nice. Everybody contributed and has stepped up in the absence of Cling. It’s going to pay dividends down the road when everyone is (hopefully) healthy. Great team win.

Will we see the Rip Hamilton mask being donned by Karaban for the next few games after he gets stitched up??

 

[willie99]

I'm still shocked they didn't call a flagrant 1 when Karraban was elbowed in the head. I don't buy their statement that they "don't know why he's bleeding". I still remember officials calling a Flagrant 1 on Vital and changing the outcome of a game when he was merely elevating and shooting

I was also surprised they didn't give us the ball after it went out of bounds off of X near the end if the game. The announcers joked they missed a foul and that's an old time call. I guess they didn't see the end of the Kansas game and what they did to Diarra

 

[Bazz2014]

If Hurley is serious that is some utter BS. Don't call it a flagrant if you don't want but come on.

Ya… this is why people can hate on BE refs. You can absolutely say that there was no call/flagrant warranted because the contact was incidental, after the foul Karaban committed and was part of a bball move. People might disagree with you, but that is a defensible assessment of the play. But you can’t tell me you watched it live AND went to the monitor and your review concluded that Alex’s eyebrow just spontaneously combusted.

Make the call, explain it and stick to it. We all know kids are going to get dinged up and it’s not a foul everytime. But saying you saw “nothing” there is weak.

 

[ibleedhuskyblue]

Interesting take when slowing things down clearly almost blew the game and more often than not does. Those last 4 minutes were a clinic in how NOT to close out a game.

Up until just a few minutes ago i agreed with you. I at least thought we should have waited another minute or so to star eating the clock.
But, the truth is, it worked. We won the game. If we had hit the free throws, as expected, we win the game by double digits. The strategy, while not great for our collective hearts, worked out ok.

 

[Bazz2014]

It was a 5 point game with less than a minute and Castle got the ball around the free throw line after a press break. Immediately went to the hoop and hit a contested layup to go up 7, which was super impactful since our offense had completely stalled and Xavier got it down to 3 around 20 seconds later

Major confidence from a freshman, super short adjustment period to the college game around the rim. Very good all around game, 12 points 8 assists 6 rebounds 2 blocks 1 steal in his second college true road game. Love this kid

He also looked off Tristen at the 3 point line and made the right, higher percentage read that taking it to the hoop was the better look to get points via layup or foul.

Two weeks ago Castle kicks that to Tris, which is not a bad look, it’s just not the BEST look in that situation.

Growth.

 

[fatlucy]

Game was not as close as final score/ We went into a prevent defense +14 and a lot went foul. A win is a win no matter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I absolutely HATE late game prevent offense. I hated it with Calhoun and I Hate it with Hurley. Stick with the game plan that put you in the lead. Put your foot on their throat and finish the job.

 

[Stinger92860]

Praising our staff at 2:17

Hey Cooper, did you hear that? Lol

 

[uconnfan68]

It should have been a common foul though

They called the foul on AK’s eye.

 

[fatlucy]

I don’t think Solo is in a funk, Diarra is just a better player right now. Solo was lauded as this three point shooter from the summer but Diarra is like 6-8 over his last couple games, is a better defender and can actually dribble the ball.

Diarra made a HUGE jump from last year and must have really put in the work to get their. Great story!

 

[Hunt for 7]

Well I predicted if we lost we would be complaining about the refs. But I was clearly wrong. We won and are still complaining about the refs. I am not certain on how the whole flagrant thing should have been called but I did not agree. The Diarra situation I really did not have an issue with. I would rather be the team that overcomes this type of issue than the one that needs it to win a game and that would be Kansas or Dook.