the Blades said:

Now if DH will just give way to some zone D to stop the EZ pass drives to the hoop his man to man... keeps giving up ....

Click to expand...

After they went down by 14, UConn's defense was not bad, and they played no zone nor should they have against this team- despite massive foul trouble again. Creighton actually looked gassed and out of synch with one another in the second half, and zoning gassed teams just enable them to catch much needed wind. Both teams shot around 40% FGs (and UConn was 6-26/23% on 3s). The only stat UConn won was rebounding, and only by 39-36. UConn took 20 more FGs, which was the main reason they won the game.

As far as a PG by Committee starting with McNeeley and also involving Ball, Mahaney and Nowell, I like the idea. I actually thought we would see more of Nowell but he is apparently hurt. I think ultimately he could be the guy they use to relieve McNeeley the most.

St. John's went down at Villanova tonight, which was not a surprise. If they go down Sunday to Creighton, UConn will be in a position to tie them the following Sunday at Storrs South. There is also the possible but unlikely chance that SJU goes down at DePaul.

Villanova shot 53% and made 11 3s, which overcame -6 on the boards. SJU also made 11 3s, but on 37 shots- 29%, and they should not be shooting that many shooting them at 29%.

That was the greatest individual performance by a UConn player in lifting his team up to a difficult victory since Kemba Walker did it multiple times in 2010-2011. Liam's performance was Kembaesque in that you believed he would score or get fouled or get a rebound and get fouled and UConn would get a bucket when they needed it. To be doing all of what he did as a freshman, and on the road at Creighton, which blew out our national champion team last year, was remarkable! UConn needed every one of Liam's 38 points and 10 boards to win this game.

the Blades said:

Speaking of....not good for the ball handling dept.
Login to view embedded media

Click to expand...

In the last 8 minutes of the Marquette game there were heavy doses of Ball and Ross as primary ball-handlers. Which is not what you want. But you can't always get what you want.
Login to view embedded media

Plus UConn has to deal with this UConn-Killer who has gotten hot lately:

We will see what happens. I do think that it's pretty remarkable what Ricky P has done with that team in 2 years. Let's not forget they only lost to UConn by 5 in the Big East Tourney last year. That was the last game of the season any opponent was within sniffing distance of UConn. Also think it's amazing he is in 1st place with the worst 3 point shooting team in the Big East. It's older school basketball, and all of their defensive and rebounding stats are on point. In the games I have watched them in this year, they have looked very tough and resilient to me. I am expecting a great game, way better ballhandling is needed by UConn than the last game at Marquette.

A win against St. John's now looms much larger because SJ is threatening to run away with the regular season title, although their remaining schedule is very very tough. In 1st place for the first time since 1984-1985 team with the legendary starting 5 of Mark Jackson, Chris Mullin, Walter Berry, Willie Glass and Bill Wennington. What a great team that was. However they still have 2 games with UConn, 1 in Storrs, the other in Storrs South.

Excellent first half between Marquette and St. John's ends with Marquette up by 1. Very interesting matchup because Marquette doesn't take transfer portal guys and develops their own recruits, whereas St. John's is a team of transfer portal acquisitions, although partly out of necessity because of what Pitino inherited.

Marquette showed zone a few times in the first half, but teams that don't play a lot of zone don't do it well, and St. John's found gaps in their zone. They are not really using it as a main line strategy as opposed to showing it.

Marquette getting a lot out of their young players Lowery and Parham.

It's a big week - Marquette at St. John's tonight. Very interesting matchup. Then UConn hosts St. John's Friday in Ben Gordon Night. Big week for all of these teams!

Leonard Hamilton announced he is retiring. He will still have to deal with the NIL lawsuit and possibly pay the players the money they were promised:

To me the most impressive thing about the win was UConn getting away with using Solo Ball and Jayden Ross as their point guards for most of the last 8 minutes, this after Mahaney was yanked for TOs on back to back possessions in which he just got stripped by Steve Mitchell. That was definitely the best game Ball has played at UConn and he has noticeably and steadily improved as a player on both sides of the ball. Once the hobbled Diarra and Mahaney were out of the game UConn's defense noticeably improved and Ball and Ross held their own against the press. Marquette is a team that has many times erased opponent's leads and I didn't feel the game was over until it was over. I do think Marquette FT shooting hurt them and also they are a smallish team that can be bullied by anyone with size. Reed could have had a big game had they gone to him more and I suspect they might in the game at UConn.

Per Hurley, it's now more likely that Liam will not play tonight:

Hopefully these 3 turn out as good as Castle and McNeely did. Hazelton didn't turn out so good. Calhoun had a few highly rated busts, among them were Hazelton, Justin Brown, Marcus Johnson, Darius Smith, and Jonathan Mandeldove. I have no reason to believe any of these 3 will be busts, but not every guy who is a McD's All American ends up a top 10 pick.

The teams both shot 26-55 (47.3%) and UConn was +7 on the boards (including an impressive 11 rebounds by Ball, and 5 by Diarra, so guards getting their board work done). So you have to look at -7 on FTs as the reason why UConn lost. Allowing for the "usual home whistle", I was curious to see whether -7 was normal for the road team in a power conference road game, so I looked at FT disparities in other power conference matchups yesterday.

Houston at Kansas- Houston was -5, but overcame that to win in 2OT.

Tennessee at Auburn- Tennessee, a team known for its rebounding prowess, was -3 but lost the game by 2.

Duke at Wake Forest- Duke was -6, but won by 7, primarily due to crushing Wake on the boards by 17.

LSU at Alabama- LSU was -5, and lost by 7 after shooting 3-23 on 3s.

Kentucky at Vanderbilt- Kentucky was actually +2- first game with no home whistle- but lost the game by 5, this despite also outrebounding Vandy by 13. UK allowed 12 3s.

Georgetown at Providence- Georgetown -7, same as UConn at Xavier, and lost the game by 10, this despite slightly outshooting Providence.

The biggest FT disparity last night:

Ole Miss at Missouri- Ole Miss -21, and lost the game by 8 despite shooting 48.3%. Unfortunately Ole Miss also got outrebounded by 11, and double digit poundings at the FT line and on the boards just too much to overcome.