Uconn @ Xavier - SAT - Dec 31....
- Thread starter the Blades
- Start date
Nobody in Xavier's starting lineup is shooting less than 39.3% from 3. 41% from 3 as a team is pretty deadly. Their 3 losses were to top 12 teams when they played them - to Indiana by 2, Gonzaga by 4 and Duke by 7. Very respectable- quality losses. The only home loss was to Indiana.
Last edited:
It occurred to me that if Xavier does win this game, there could be a Court storming. I cannot even remember the last time someone stormed the Court after beating UConn. It's been a very long time since we have seen that.
Was looking at UConn's upcoming 4 game stretch which is at Xavier, at Providence, Creighton and then at Marquette. What a brutal 4 game stretch!. That's the toughest 4 game stretch since Phil Knight Tourney and then OSU.
I want you guys to tell me what you think on my Souley Boum/Ben Gordon comparison. I am not sure if he has the same level of athletic ability as Gordon did, but he certainly can shoot like Gordon did. He is Xavier's main man player although all 5 of their starters are pretty good players and double figure scoring threats.
Speaking of Souley Boum I am reading the novel "Sooley" by John Grisham. It is about a South Sudanese kid who is 17 years old and is offered a scholarship by the coach at North Carolina Central after seeing him play on the team from Sudan in an Orlando summer tournament. Although the plan is to redshirt and develop the kid, who is talented and athletic but raw, injuries, suspensions and midseason transfers force the redshirt to come off of Sooley and he develops quickly into a national freshman phenom. The book has some fictional characters that are clearly modeled after or inspired by real life college basketball personalities. Just for example, there can be little doubt to the reader that the NC Central coach is a thinly veiled version of Shaka Smart, and the NBA superstar "Niollo" appears to be a composite of Luol Deng and Carmelo Anthony as there are biographical facts of both players in the fictional Niollo's bio. The book is a great read for any basketball fan, as it does contain some thinly veiled commentary by Grisham on such topics as one and dones, transfer portal and NBA agents approaching college players. For those who do not know, Grisham's son played at U of Virginia and he is a season ticket holder of UVA and a close personal friend of UVA Coach Tony Bennett and his wife. He probably attended the "closed" scrimmage between Virginia and UConn, which is likely not "closed" to VIPs like Grisham who is also a huge donor to Virginia.
Speaking of Souley Boum I am reading the novel "Sooley" by John Grisham. It is about a South Sudanese kid who is 17 years old and is offered a scholarship by the coach at North Carolina Central after seeing him play on the team from Sudan in an Orlando summer tournament. Although the plan is to redshirt and develop the kid, who is talented and athletic but raw, injuries, suspensions and midseason transfers force the redshirt to come off of Sooley and he develops quickly into a national freshman phenom. The book has some fictional characters that are clearly modeled after or inspired by real life college basketball personalities. Just for example, there can be little doubt to the reader that the NC Central coach is a thinly veiled version of Shaka Smart, and the NBA superstar "Niollo" appears to be a composite of Luol Deng and Carmelo Anthony as there are biographical facts of both players in the fictional Niollo's bio. The book is a great read for any basketball fan, as it does contain some thinly veiled commentary by Grisham on such topics as one and dones, transfer portal and NBA agents approaching college players. For those who do not know, Grisham's son played at U of Virginia and he is a season ticket holder of UVA and a close personal friend of UVA Coach Tony Bennett and his wife. He probably attended the "closed" scrimmage between Virginia and UConn, which is likely not "closed" to VIPs like Grisham who is also a huge donor to Virginia.
Worse thing that happened in this game, kid now thinks he's Klay Thompson under pressure !
Uconn lost for 3 reason. ......Jackson throwing up shot after shot that he won't make (5-14 are you serious AJ, just stop shooting...SMH !) ....... Hurley getting out coached....... and a suspect whistle or lack of by the Zebra's, which can be expected on the road. (4-9 on FT's didn't help either)
Xavier had 2 of Freemantle 6-9, Nunge 7-0 and Hunter 6-8 owning the paint in tandem for most of the game, but Hurley refused to use Clingan (7 minutes, WTF! )who was actually giving them problems defensively, along with Sanago to counter them. (hell he had Hawkins and Alleyne trying to match them in the post..ain't gonna happen !) Then instead he went to a useless zone. That all it did was made it easier for Xavier. With Uconn out of position on D and for rebounding.
Well I guess the undefeated pressure is gone...
Last edited:
He should have played Clingan with Sanogo as Karaban was having major problems on D and fouled out. If Johnson had been available and healthy he would have played a lot of minutes and provided some better D. Totally agree that Clingan didn't get enough minutes in this game.
You learn from losses as well. UConn will need to reassess its strategy for the return game when Xavier comes to CT. 14-1 is not terrible, UConn will rebound from this.Well I guess the undefeated pressure is gone...
Exactly ...DH's line-ups were getting owned in the paint (15, 15, 16 pts by those 3 from Xavier), but Dan is to stubborn or unaware that he had a 7-2 defender to stop them, sitting on the bench all 2nd half. Probably because of him being mesmerized with his 4 guard/ wing mentality on the offensive side.
.... then as usually he gets T'd by the refs (probably warranted with their terrible home job, but nothing you can control )because he got outcoached on something he actually did have control of. (his lack of low post line-ups on the D end)
But again Clingan ? MVP at the NIKE tourney, your getting killed by Xavier's twin tower offense, but you leave your best weapon on the bench for all but 7 minutes...in favor of a bunch off smaller guards and wings who were gettin' eaten alive down low. And as Sean Miller's offense is not even takin' 3's. ( 13 attempts total) SMH ! Terrible adjustment Dan.
Last edited:
we Haven't played well in weeks. Our D was not championship level. And our offensive efficiency was meh.
besides that the road whistle was turrible. 28-9 on FT’s and 6 of those were on Hawkins 3’s.
my buddy Justin ran a piece on news 12 today about how great we are. We needed to be humbled and hopefully learn from this. As well as our coach. There is no bigger Danny fan, but a T in a one score game with 3 min to play is criminal.
I could live with it in the first half or early second.
besides that the road whistle was turrible. 28-9 on FT’s and 6 of those were on Hawkins 3’s.
my buddy Justin ran a piece on news 12 today about how great we are. We needed to be humbled and hopefully learn from this. As well as our coach. There is no bigger Danny fan, but a T in a one score game with 3 min to play is criminal.
I could live with it in the first half or early second.