1, This was not Xavier. The Pirates were ready to play and got beat by IMO the second best team in the league.
2. Staying with Creighton....I compared them to Nova in our preparation, but I was wrong. Watching the two games back to back it's so obvious that the difference is speed of play. In short pace. Nova walks the ball up and takes time off the clock on offense. The Bluejays are in attack mode the moment they get the ball. Especially on live turnovers as the fast break points (17-10 Creighton) would attest.
3. Unknown to all was the flu virus that spread throughout the locker room. Last week in the post game I saw that Willard wasn't feeling well before he took the podium. I asked him how he felt and he said terrible. I have the flu. My quiet reaction was... I pray this doesn't travel through the locker room. It did as Samuel, Mamu, Thompson and Rhoden all caught the flu.
4. Thought Willard made a mistake early. I would have started Rhoden but Cale had a great beginning to the game scoring 5 quick points on 2-2 shooting. So the reward? Take him out at the first timeout break.
You just don't do that with a player like Cale. Especially when he's hot. Ride him a bit longer until he slows down because it's no secret to any Pirate fan that as the game wears on Myles disappears in the offense. It happened again last night as Cale only scored one more basket, a dunk. the rest of the game.
5. Settled, settled, settled. You have a size advantage. You are not a good shooting team from distance and you continue to launch, unsuccessfully, one bomb after another. All the while watching Creighton break down our defense by moving the ball quickly making sure that every player is involved.
6. Speaking of settling. What in the world was Myles Powell thinking? He couldn't buy a basket as I believe the pressure he is putting on himself at the Rock is enormous.
That said you cannot continue to launch one long range missile after another, many with plenty of time on the clock when you are having a bad shooting night. Made all the worse by the difficulty of the attempts.
Too much one on one ball last night from the Pirates, especially Powell and they paid the ultimate price.
7. No player I have ever seen in Blue takes losses as hard as Q. He was one of two players interviewed last night after the game and if body language was an indicator the last place in the world he wanted to be was there, yet he answered every single question with patience and intelligence.
The kid is a warrior that just doesn't accept losses and last night was no different. Q is the leader of this team. No questions asked.
8. Sometimes the +/- lies.
Powell
3-16 FG
1-11 Arc
4 turnovers
Plus/Minus 0
McKnight
7-14 FG
2-3 Arc
6 assists/1 turnover
Plus/Minus -5
9. Small lineup killed us. This season with Gill in the middle few teams attack the Hall's defensive basket with success. But yesterday when Gill sat and with Obiagu hardly getting off the bench any penetration resulted in a stream of easy uncontested made baskets.
Shows just how important the big man is and why once we go Dancing match-ups will be so important to advancing.
10. Saw Raf after the game. Asked him what it meant to have a bobblehead in his likeness and he said it was an incredible honor, but he was never as good looking as the bobblehead I had in my box.
11. Back and forth all night. 20 lead changes and 15 ties. Not good for the stomach.
12. Thought the biggest play in the game was mid second half with the Hall having the lead and all the momentum and Powell inexplicably came down the court and with 25 seconds left on the shot clock and throws up a 28 foot bomb. It missed and Creighton gets a run out, scores and the Hall lost all their momentum from that point on.
13. It's clear that Reynolds has replaced Nelson as the first reliable guard off the bench. Played a strong 26+ minutes hitting 2 shots from the arc, assisting on 3 plays with no turnovers while scoring 8 points,
14. Zegarowski is a better version of Colin Gillespie and last night he proved it. Sat out 1 minutes of action and IMO was the reason the Hall left the arena with an L.
15. How good would Creighton be if Martin Krampelj didn't leave early to play in Europe?
16. Had good stats but this is how important match-ups are. Gill was by far a team worse -13 last night. As Willard said in the post game Ro is just a bad match-up against Creighton.
Even when the stats say differently.
17. Eventually all gamblers lose. Willard was on a run rolling the dice inserting players with foul trouble, Last night that roll came to an abrupt halt. He put Mamu in the game with 2 fouls in the first half and he instantly picked up his 3rd. Did the same around the 6 minute mark of the second half with Sandro having 4 fouls and the 5th soon followed.
Law of averages.
18. When you are Seton Hall 2020 edition and you score 82 points at home you never lose. That's how poorly the defense played last night.
19. Important question. Would the Custer streak have ended last night? Would have been nice to find out given the results.
20. Speaking of streaks, let's get healthy (its been that kind of season) and start a new one.
https://setonhall.rivals.com/
2. Staying with Creighton....I compared them to Nova in our preparation, but I was wrong. Watching the two games back to back it's so obvious that the difference is speed of play. In short pace. Nova walks the ball up and takes time off the clock on offense. The Bluejays are in attack mode the moment they get the ball. Especially on live turnovers as the fast break points (17-10 Creighton) would attest.
3. Unknown to all was the flu virus that spread throughout the locker room. Last week in the post game I saw that Willard wasn't feeling well before he took the podium. I asked him how he felt and he said terrible. I have the flu. My quiet reaction was... I pray this doesn't travel through the locker room. It did as Samuel, Mamu, Thompson and Rhoden all caught the flu.
4. Thought Willard made a mistake early. I would have started Rhoden but Cale had a great beginning to the game scoring 5 quick points on 2-2 shooting. So the reward? Take him out at the first timeout break.
You just don't do that with a player like Cale. Especially when he's hot. Ride him a bit longer until he slows down because it's no secret to any Pirate fan that as the game wears on Myles disappears in the offense. It happened again last night as Cale only scored one more basket, a dunk. the rest of the game.
5. Settled, settled, settled. You have a size advantage. You are not a good shooting team from distance and you continue to launch, unsuccessfully, one bomb after another. All the while watching Creighton break down our defense by moving the ball quickly making sure that every player is involved.
6. Speaking of settling. What in the world was Myles Powell thinking? He couldn't buy a basket as I believe the pressure he is putting on himself at the Rock is enormous.
That said you cannot continue to launch one long range missile after another, many with plenty of time on the clock when you are having a bad shooting night. Made all the worse by the difficulty of the attempts.
Too much one on one ball last night from the Pirates, especially Powell and they paid the ultimate price.
7. No player I have ever seen in Blue takes losses as hard as Q. He was one of two players interviewed last night after the game and if body language was an indicator the last place in the world he wanted to be was there, yet he answered every single question with patience and intelligence.
The kid is a warrior that just doesn't accept losses and last night was no different. Q is the leader of this team. No questions asked.
8. Sometimes the +/- lies.
Powell
3-16 FG
1-11 Arc
4 turnovers
Plus/Minus 0
McKnight
7-14 FG
2-3 Arc
6 assists/1 turnover
Plus/Minus -5
9. Small lineup killed us. This season with Gill in the middle few teams attack the Hall's defensive basket with success. But yesterday when Gill sat and with Obiagu hardly getting off the bench any penetration resulted in a stream of easy uncontested made baskets.
Shows just how important the big man is and why once we go Dancing match-ups will be so important to advancing.
10. Saw Raf after the game. Asked him what it meant to have a bobblehead in his likeness and he said it was an incredible honor, but he was never as good looking as the bobblehead I had in my box.
11. Back and forth all night. 20 lead changes and 15 ties. Not good for the stomach.
12. Thought the biggest play in the game was mid second half with the Hall having the lead and all the momentum and Powell inexplicably came down the court and with 25 seconds left on the shot clock and throws up a 28 foot bomb. It missed and Creighton gets a run out, scores and the Hall lost all their momentum from that point on.
13. It's clear that Reynolds has replaced Nelson as the first reliable guard off the bench. Played a strong 26+ minutes hitting 2 shots from the arc, assisting on 3 plays with no turnovers while scoring 8 points,
14. Zegarowski is a better version of Colin Gillespie and last night he proved it. Sat out 1 minutes of action and IMO was the reason the Hall left the arena with an L.
15. How good would Creighton be if Martin Krampelj didn't leave early to play in Europe?
16. Had good stats but this is how important match-ups are. Gill was by far a team worse -13 last night. As Willard said in the post game Ro is just a bad match-up against Creighton.
Even when the stats say differently.
17. Eventually all gamblers lose. Willard was on a run rolling the dice inserting players with foul trouble, Last night that roll came to an abrupt halt. He put Mamu in the game with 2 fouls in the first half and he instantly picked up his 3rd. Did the same around the 6 minute mark of the second half with Sandro having 4 fouls and the 5th soon followed.
Law of averages.
18. When you are Seton Hall 2020 edition and you score 82 points at home you never lose. That's how poorly the defense played last night.
19. Important question. Would the Custer streak have ended last night? Would have been nice to find out given the results.
20. Speaking of streaks, let's get healthy (its been that kind of season) and start a new one.
https://setonhall.rivals.com/
