Xavier Post Game Thread

[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."

 

[NickDanger]

Metrics crack me up. I remember watching a baseball game a few years ago where they had this ticker by the scorebox showing the % chance each team had to win the game.
It was Rays vs Orioles.
The Rays were up 8-1 in the 7th and the tracker said that the O's now had a 0% chance to win the game. They ended up scoring 4 runs in the 8th and the analytics updated to the O's now having a 30% chance to win

If you have ZERO chance to win.....ummm...

A 0% chance of something happening does not mean it is impossible.

 

[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.

 

[HuskiesFourLife]

That's sad. I was at games in Gampel, Hartford, and Maui in 2023-2025 where he and Alex were asking the crowd to get into. Me and my wife would implore the fans around us to get into it more and some of them did and some didn't. I wish the fans were louder and more raucous like they were in the 90s and early 2000s or hell like in the Villanova game in 2022 when Hurley got kicked out of the game in the first half.

I feel like this year other than the Arizona game at Gampel which was electric, the crowd energy has taken a step back from even last year.
However the games at MSG and Boston had great UConn support. Some of it is definitely based on the big name opponents. That’s seems to make a big difference

 

[temery]

No, it was an awful call

It was an incredibly clumsy foul. Not in any way a flagrant foul.

 

[Spaceman213J]

Ball barely played in the first half. Mullins didn't score in 2nd. Alex didn't hit a 3 or double digits for the game... and team still put up 92 and played very good defense.
He wasn't perfect, but Reed looked a lot more capable passing out of the double team. It also seemed the most 'bouncy' he's been since the ankle injury. I think Hurley is using the option of giving him a little more of a rest with Reibe providing some valuable minutes of the bench again.

 

[Inyatkin]

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

Last year happened too

 

[DRBackup]

A 0% chance of something happening does not mean it is impossible.

Indeed. That's just a fundamental lack of understanding of how these things work. Those "0% chance" predictions on the likes of FanGraphs, for instance, just means that hundreds of teams had faced that exact score situation and so few of them actually ended up winning that prediction is 0%. I bet after they scored the first run it went up above 0%.

And it isn't meant as any kind of prediction, but a means for measuring the impact of players in the game. Win percentage added.

 

[Husky Alien]

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

What is problematic here is why would he even mention it? Is it to motivate, or to assure family through media to be patient? You say "nothing to see here" as if you know for fact. Video suggests otherwise. Just a strange segment for the post game for Xavier. Moving on......

 

[DRBackup]

Last year happened too

Again, indeed. Last season he was top 100 in three pointers attempted, but top 30 in percentage. That is exceptional. You can't ignore that like it was some kind of fluke.

 

[RuffRuff]

Again, indeed. Last season he was top 100 in three pointers attempted, but top 30 in percentage. That is exceptional. You can't ignore that like it was some kind of fluke.

Try not to - love the kids stroke. But last night he had a lot of open looks and missed pretty badly on them. He's shooting 28% - that is a really bad number.

 

[aceboon]

At this point we need to treat last season as Solo's fluke 3pt shooting year. He's had 20+ games to get it going, shot allocation needs to be dialed back.