Xavier Post Game Thread

[BFieldHusky]

I think people are reading way too much into that Eric Reibe comment. There's also no way the official UConn NIL account is posting that clip if the implication is Reibe isn't happy

Correct. But people won't recognize this.

 

[microfich]

 

[FightOnCT]

Bc aside from us in 2014 every champion had certain metrics. Two games ago we didn’t fit. Now we do. Look up the trapezoid of excellence.

We fit within the trapezoid even before these games but I know what you’re saying. The offense has been clicking which was the missing ingredient for a championship caliber roster

 

[Tyler2Rings]

If there has been grumbling from the Reibe camp, the last three games should put it to bed. 21, 19, and 16 minutes in those- with production. Hurley took a victory lap and rightfully so. The system is working

 

[Umami Zen]

Not much to be upset about, other than the ridiculous flagrant call and the even more ridiculous people defending it.

Was at game. Second tier seat at end of arena where foul happened. Saw play develop with X trying to take advantage of size mismatch. After the call-There were not multiple replays of the play/call on Jumbotron scoreboard so you don't have the advantage of a TV viewer who gets the combination of multiple replays and commentary from announcers. What were they saying? Looked to me like Malachi was trying to hold his ground in the paint- Play D- And avoid getting run over by a large dude coming at him at a fast speed. To the naked eye- didn't look flagrant.

 

[Lafayette]

Smith played 15 minutes and I can't recall one positive play. That was a bogus tech but even that didn't go his way. I guess he had 2 rebounds but he seems lost out there. Not sure why Hurley waited until 2 minutes left to put in Millender. Seemed like a good opportunity to give him a look. Of course he air balled a corner 3 but would like to seem him get more opportunities in a game like this.

Millender’s corner 3 was blocked.

 

[Excalibur]

Was at game. Second tier seat at end of arena where foul happened. Saw play develop with X trying to take advantage of size mismatch. After the call-There were not multiple replays of the play/call on Jumbotron scoreboard so you don't have the advantage of a TV viewer who gets the combination of multiple replays and commentary from announcers. What were they saying? Looked to me like Malachi was trying to hold his ground in the paint- Play D- And avoid getting run over by a large dude coming at him at a fast speed. To the naked eye- didn't look flagrant.

The announcers were rightly puzzled by the call. Smith flailed his arms a bit after getting hit in the face. That's it. I've seen 20 replays and still don't get what led to the call. I'm going with they invented something so that Hurley couldn't get on O'Connell for reversing the OOB call from 50 feet away, necessitating the challenge.

 

[Lafayette]

I don’t know about you guys but I liked the uptempo pace of the team tonight. Something I haven’t seen much in a long time. Maybe trend in this direction going forward depending on the opponent. I also sensed our guys enjoyed this type of style.

Xavier likes that but we are better and have better players so it worked.

St. John’s will try to slow us down, foul, be physical and disrupt us fir a dogfight.

 

[Lafayette]

1. It was a flagrant: he shoved the guy with both arms
2. Yes the refs can do that: "Yes, NCAA basketball referees can review a play and call a flagrant foul (Flagrant 1 or Flagrant 2) even if no foul was initially called on the floor."

They didn’t call flagrant on Xavier when a player used both hands when (Solo?) was cruising for a dunk.

If 2 hand push is flagrant let’s call it both ways.

 

[Donyell 360]

Millender’s corner 3 was blocked.

Thanks. That makes me feel a little better though knowing when to shoot and when to head fake is part of the art of the game. I don't recall was it late clock so he really had no choice?

I realize it is unlikely but it would be a cool story for Millender to come out of nowhere and earn some real minutes. He just seems like such a nice guy. Everyone seems to like him. I learned last night that he is the commissioner of the team's video game league. I suspect if he could step up, it would not be hard for his teammates to get behind him and feel inspired. I like to root for the likeable underdog.

 

[Umami Zen]

The announcers were rightly puzzled by the call. Smith flailed his arms a bit after getting hit in the face. That's it. I've seen 20 replays and still don't get what led to the call. I'm going with they invented something so that Hurley couldn't get on O'Connell for reversing the OOB call from 50 feet away, necessitating the challenge.

Whenever I see a white-haired ref at one of our games during warmups- I know one thing. There will be multiple head -scratching calls and rarely will UConn be the beneficiary of those head- scratching calls.

 

[YearoftheHusky]

I still don't get what your objection is. Teams move up and down in efficiency. The only reason we were down is because the analytics thought we could have done better earlier and we weren't meeting those expectations. If it turns around obviously the metrics will turn around too. I don't see what there is to be perplexed about

My objection is that if you only follow the analytics, you would have believed we could not win a national championship two games ago, but now we can. My objection is that analytics are not everything. Anyone who has watched this team knew what we were capable of, despite having analytics that said we couldn’t win a ‘chip.

 

[Lafayette]

 

[Leebo]

My objection is that if you only follow the analytics, you would have believed we could not win a national championship two games ago, but now we can. My objection is that analytics are not everything. Anyone who has watched this team knew what we were capable of, despite having analytics that said we couldn’t win a ‘chip.

Am I missing some mystical thing that says if you're ranked below X on Feb 3, or after 23 games, you can't possibly move up high enough to be a contender?

I think I just don't know who these people you think you're shooting down are. Who are the people who were convinced we couldn't win a championship the other day?

 

[Waquoit]

Their sister Em unfortunately passed in a house fire.

Sad, really. She always had a glow.

 

[Inyatkin]

And I thought Donyell360's take on this game was bad

Earlier in the year he (not donyell) was saying Creighton was pretty clearly point shaving. I don't know what you can take from his posts

 

[RuffRuff]

Our three point shooting being down as a team really does hinge on Solo's volume at 28%. He's taken 40% more threes than the next guy in Alex. He again looked a bit too trigger happy and missed a lot of open looks last night. We are 60% of our way into the BE season - need this kids % to start climbing. We can't have a 28% shooter taking all those shots when the rest of the team is shooting significantly better. For now, let's see if he can figure this out.

 

[uconnblueinky]

Gotta have something to argue about!

I wasn't trying to argue or morph this thread into anything , it just caught my attention during the press conference , seemed a little off and figured this was a place where I could ask people who have better knowledge, a question about it. That's all

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Earlier in the year he (not donyell) was saying Creighton was pretty clearly point shaving. I don't know what you can take from his posts

Post in thread 'Big East December '25 Thread'

Dec 13, 2025

Creighton is getting their ass handed to them on a platter by Kansas State and the Omaha crowd is stunned in silence.

A team getting blown out twice in a row in games with small spreads, and not seeming to care, is a huge red flag for point shaving.

• nelsonmuntz

That is not what I said.

I don’t know what to make of the fact that there are so many of these games where there is virtually no effort. Xavier did not even pretend to try, and got destroyed even though Hurley slowed it way down in the second half. The second half looked like a scrimmage being played at half speed.

It is not just Xavier and Creighton. There have been a lot of strange looking games this season. South Carolina lost by almost 50 at home. Kentucky had two games where it clearly quit on the game. Maryland lost by 43 and 30 in back to back games. How do major programs get annihilated like that unless they quit? It isn't just the scores. Visually they look strange. Karaban's drive to the hoop from the wing in the second half was right by 3 defenders, and it looked like the back defender got out of the way. I get dialing it back when a game is out of hand, but there are a lot of games where the teams basically just stop playing.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

My objection is that if you only follow the analytics, you would have believed we could not win a national championship two games ago, but now we can. My objection is that analytics are not everything. Anyone who has watched this team knew what we were capable of, despite having analytics that said we couldn’t win a ‘chip.

Teams have been playing to the analytics for the last few years, which makes the analytics even less useful. There are so many blowouts this year, which means there is a lot of garbage time this year, like last night. What use is a game like last night's for analytics?

 

[NickDanger]

The thing that surprise me was that you can call a flagrant in a review to determine out of bounds possession.

NCAA rules say you can call flagrant during any review that occurs for any reason

 

[NickDanger]

No, it was an awful call

Much like the refs, I didn't see any flagrant… Until I watch the replay a couple of times, then I saw that Smith clearly pushed him. The exact same thing the refs saw.
When I heard them call the flagrant I said to my wife "what? That's ridiculous!" Then they showed the replay, and I said "oh they're right, that was a shove."

 

[Donyell 360]

I listened to it earlier and didn't jump to some of the conclusions that some did. Nothing to see here, move on.

I don't think it is a jump to suggest that Eric and his family are not handling his first season the way Clingan and his family did. At the very least, Hurley is preemptively presenting Clingan as a positive example for Eric to follow. Hurley seemed to pause and catch himself from saying "Eric and his family..." and just said "Eric...hopefully has that perspective...it worked out pretty well for Clingan."

It doesn't mean there is a culture problem at UConn. This is just the normal things that every team has to deal with year in and year out in the transfer portal era. Any of our presumed returnees could opt to transfer next year. Hurley has had a good track record of keeping his best players. Comments like this are just part of the process to keeping things in check. It would be nice to think that everyone is always happy and never entertains thoughts about what it might be like elsewhere, but that is not reality.

The truth is, Reibe is probably not a one and done. At another school, who knows? Hurley's message is be patient and it will work out. So I wouldn't say it is nothing, but I don't think it is something to be overly concerned about at this point. Worth keeping an eye on though.

 

[Jaydumo20]

I don't think it is a jump to suggest that Eric and his family are not handling his first season the way Clingan and his family did. At the very least, Hurley is preemptively presenting Clingan as a positive example for Eric to follow. Hurley seemed to pause and catch himself from saying "Eric and his family..." and just said "Eric...hopefully has that perspective...it worked out pretty well for Clingan."

It doesn't mean there is a culture problem at UConn. This is just the normal things that every team has to deal with year in and year out in the transfer portal era. Any of our presumed returnees could opt to transfer next year. Hurley has had a good track record of keeping his best players. Comments like this are just part of the process to keeping things in check. It would be nice to think that everyone is always happy and never entertains thoughts about what it might be like elsewhere, but that is not reality.

The truth is, Reibe is probably not a one and done. At another school, who knows? Hurley's message is be patient and it will work out. So I wouldn't say it is nothing, but I don't think it is something to be overly concerned about at this point. Worth keeping an eye on though.

Said it better than I ever could. I agree with this 100%
To say we are making it up and there is no chance Reibe and his parents aren't grumbling to some degree would be wishful thinking,
To say that it's subject to change, its not catastrophic and will not impact this season seems right.

 

[Donyell 360]

And I thought Donyell360's take on this game was bad

Which take? I posted several.

 

[Donyell 360]

For a fanbase that, for better or worse, thinks Dan Hurley is a deity of player evaluation and development, it's strange how often they question why he's not playing a D2 player based entirely off of some confidence and an open 3 in a 60 point win early in the season.

Not so much questioning why he isn't playing but just wishing we could see him get a chance. The guy you haven't seen always has more potential than the guy who has shown you what he is. I realize it is like playing the lottery. Mostly likely you just wasted your money, but one can dream.

 

[Inyatkin]

View attachment 116754Our three point shooting being down as a team really does hinge on Solo's volume at 28%. He's taken 40% more threes than the next guy in Alex. He again looked a bit too trigger happy and missed a lot of open looks last night. We are 60% of our way into the BE season - need this kids % to start climbing. We can't have a 28% shooter taking all those shots when the rest of the team is shooting significantly better. For now, let's see if he can figure this out.

Our best shooter needs to shoot better, hard hitting stuff here

 

[Seamus84]

Dan Hurley presser:

I appreciate that Dan said both JR and JS need to assert themselves when they're in the game (not just take up minutes). Recently it looks like they're taking a page from Alex and finding ways to contribute even if the shot isn't falling, eg setting more picks, finding gaps, coming back for a dribble hand-off from Tarris or Silas, etc. to help the offense flow. Hoping that opens more space for Solo and Braylon to get good looks at the basket.

 

[freescooter]

This was a complete mis-match like watching UConn play an NEC team. But really I was pleased to see them totally dominate a not very good opponent for the 2nd game in a row. It is what they should be doing. I am hopeful they keep this level of play up and do this to the other weak sisters on the schedule. Nobody in this league on their level. Now go out and PROVE it.

 

[RuffRuff]

Our best shooter needs to shoot better, hard hitting stuff here

We're 22 games in and he's at 28%. Not sure that constitutes best shooter.