vs. Creighton - SAT JAN 7 @ Gampel

[the Blades]

......12 noon.....TV: FOX

Another team who's turned it around recently with the 7-1 Kalbrenner back for wins in the last 3 games. (all at home vs. lower NET ranked BE teams - Butler, Seton Hall, Depaul) The Big East pre-season #1 started 6-0 then dropped 6 in a row (3 by 3 points or less). And half with their bigman out for a couple of weeks.

We'll see if DH tries to go with his own twin towers, but Creighton is another team with a 4 man (Kalumu ) who plays away from the hoop (61 - 3pt attempts.) and could force Sanogo outside if that is DH's line-up. Need the Huskies to get their 3 point shooting stroke back in Gampel for a true must win, to turn things around and defend their home serve.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

In the pregame interview with Donny Marshall, Greg McDermott said Andre Jackson is "good at basketball." Hopefully someone reminded him he is not good at the shooting aspect of basketball.

 

[CaNOLEE]

Agree with you guys on Donny Marshall. He’s Benedict Arnold In high tops.

the only thing worse is the officiating. These guys are just guessing most of the time. Just let the kids call their own fouls.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

This was a real ugly game- UConn outrebounded by 15 and shot only 35%, but Creighton was 2-16 on 3s and shot 33%. Just win baby!

 

[CaNOLEE]

All the sudden our bench can’t score. And we have to win the board battle most games.

But the key stat was only 5 turnovers. Good games from Sanogo and Hawkins, but I still think they’ll need to be more efficient if we are going to go far.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

The ball security will be key the next game against Marquette. They would like to have single digit TOs against that team, but it will be hard, because causing high TOs is what Marquette has been doing to teams that come in there. I suspect Diarra will get more minutes than usual against Marquette.

The Hoyas had 20 TOs today in a 22 point loss at Marquette. Their 26th straight Big East loss- a Big East record. And their team doesn't seem terrible to me.

 

[CaNOLEE]

KS, I told a buddy of mine that is a casual GTown fan that they have a good starting 5, especially that scoring guard who is a poor man’s Kemba. But he immediately replied that they have no bench. Which makes sense because when I went to the game late, they were on the wrong end of a 21-4 run. And they wilted against us as well.

the Ewing hire was worse than Ollie.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

GTown ...... they have no bench.

They have consistently been competitive for a half or 30 minutes and have equally consistently been blown out late, as they were against Marquette today. Marquette is not the kind of team you can hang with for 40 minutes with no bench. So I would say he is probably right. Another problem is they lack shooters.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

By the way, not to rain too much on the Karaban Caravan, but his defense has been terrible the last 2 games. First he was lit up by Hopkins, and today Kaluma, who went by him a few times for scores and rebounds. It might have been wiser to put AJ on Kaluma and Karaban on Scheierman. Kaluma is a very athletic kid and was too much for Karaban.

 

[the Blades]

In the pregame interview with Donny Marshall, Greg McDermott said Andre Jackson is "good at basketball." Hopefully someone reminded him he is not good at the shooting aspect of basketball.

Looks like he was informed. I'd say it was close to a perfect stat line for Andre. He reached his limit of 5 FGA and one to many 3's that DH pulled him out, right after he took & missed the last one. Missed a mid lane shot but then got an OR for the score.

But you can tell Creighton and McDermott where leaving him wide open outside, begging him to shoot, but for the most part AJ didn't take the bait. So the less is more theory of 7 points on 2-5 FG's/ 2-2 FT's/ 9 rebs and 2 assist and 2 TO's of, the great, only 5 TO's for Uconn in the game.....seemed to work well for AJ and the Huskies.

Men's Basketball vs Creighton University on 1/7/2023 - Box Score - University of Connecticut Athletics

The official box score of Men's Basketball vs Creighton University on 1/7/2023

uconnhuskies.com

 

[the Blades]

This was a real ugly game- UConn outrebounded by 15 and shot only 35%, but Creighton was 2-16 on 3s and shot 33%. Just win baby!

I noticed that about Creighton in some of their losses I've watched.... they can go real cold from 3 despite decent numbers. Uconn on the other hand with the 8-24 on 3's and alot of Sanogo helped with the ugly win. And he owned Kalkbrenner (9pts/4 rebs) in round one with the 26 pts/9 rebs. Also shout out to Newton with a solid game (13pts/ 2-3 on 3's/ zero TO's/ 4 rebs) and very dependable FT shooting when the game is on the line.

Were they wrong ?

 

[the Blades]

Starts at 4:08....DH also touches how the BE refs are allowing fouling and bumping on Uconn's motion offense, hurts the way they play......and that you don't see that type of ref-ing OOC and in the NCAA's. (Around 7:00)

 

[CaNOLEE]

Blades, I always felt like we never got much of a whistle for an elite program. Unlike the girls, who get the lion share of calls.

But that has helped us in the tourney historically imo. We were prepared to grind out games when they got mucked up by physical play and/or the officials.

Conversely, Duke who has been known as a 3 ball team. But also doubles up their opponent on the FT line in the ACC, were in for an awakening Come March.

I dont worry about regular season titles. Grow/evolve during the year, Win tourneys And collect banners.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

I do think that since Big East play has started significantly more physical play is being allowed, especially the hacking and bumping in the ball screen offense as Blades mentioned. Newton has been a recipient of much of it and he leads UConn with 79 FTs attempted. I note that Diarra is only shooting 50% on FTs so if he is needed against Marquette as a secondary ball handler, you worry about him. Newton is shooting 82% and in his 2 prior seasons he shot 89% and 88%, so you want the ball in his hands. He needs to get downhill and go to the rim more and take the contact. Newton not surprisingly also leads the team with 40 TOs against 75 assists. Which isn't bad but you like to see 2-1 assists to TOs or better.

Looking at yesterdays stats both teams shot 23 FTs but UConn hoisted 8 more 3 pointers, so it was roughly even, although there were some really bad calls and non calls throughout the game. You just hope it evens out. I don't think Marquette is quite as physical as the last 2 opponents have been, but we will see what happens on that front. UConn's biggest concern will be taking care of the ball and not getting too crazy with the dribble drives. Marquette's style of play is designed to turn teams over and wear them down in a chaotic full court game, and UConn should be able to handle it better than Georgetown did.