Needed overnight to process this one with less emotion.
Pretty simple summation here. Missed opportunity, showed they could play at a high level for 30 minutes, and you aren’t going to beat a top team when they go 12-20 (60%) from 3.
But make no mistake about it. Creighton has now won 10 of their last 12 (only two losses @UCONN and @Xavier) and are playing to the early season hype they were given. They also lost 3 games without Kalkbrenner, as well as losing close games to Arizona (N) and @ Texas. One could make an argument they are the best team in the BE. So it’s not a bad loss, it’s also not a morale victory, it’s just a “Missed Opportunity.”
70 remains the magic number
The Pirates are now 1-9 when their opponent scores 70+ points for the game. I think it’s clearly obvious at this point. This teams calling card is defense. They have to put you in the meat grinder and beat you 67-62. If this team finds a way to make the dance any team that has a decent offensive night is most likely going to beat them. Just not enough consistent offensive fire power on this team. Missing Dre Davis for this game did not help in that regard as well.
Shot selection
I am going to pick on Dawes a little here. How dare I do that?!?!? He led the team with 19 points and we don’t even hang with them for the first 30 minutes without his offensive production. Yes this is true. He was 5-6 from the floor (4-4 from 3) with 14 points. Then in what I called the turning point in another thread he had another wild out of control fast break drive that could have put the Hall up 8, but instead resulted in two big shots by CU and a tie game.
Including that miss, he went 2-7 down the stretch and most were wild and not high quality looks.
You can be the hot guy for the night, but that shouldn’t give you the freedom to go iso Superman and abandon all the quality set shots you made earlier. Have them run you off the line, attack the paint and find your open teammate.
Down the stretch a lot of guys were looking for “theirs”. Only 7 assists for the game in total.
CU match up problem / or wrong strategy?
You could easily argue both sides of the coin here. And yes I wish we had Yetna and 5 more big body fouls.
But I would rather Kalkbrenner take double the amount of shots and score 25, while staying connected to their shooters and not let them have clean looks from 3. You have to tell Jackson and Samuel, to do the best they can and not put themselves in foul trouble by trying to block shots. Force their shooters to put the ball on the deck. Even if they score a few, 2 points is not as bad a 3 points. Don’t over complicated it.
OUTLOOK
I am in the school of thought, along with bracketologist Brad Watchel, that the Hall needs to get to 12-8 in BE play prior to the BE tournament and not stub their toe against a Gtown on opening night to be in a good spot to secure a bid. And even then I think it’s a trip to Dayton at best. 4 more wins get the Hall to 19-13 overall and the Lincoln game doesn’t count so call it 18-13. 1-1 at the Garden puts you at 19-14.
They currently sit at a NET of 58 and a KEN POM of 56. Two numbers that you want to be sub 50 to typically feel good about your chances. Going 3-3 with a Quad 4 win vs Gtown, Quad 3 win home Vs Nova and one other quality win isn’t going to move the needle enough with those metrics.
Even if you are in the 11-9 bubble belief category, you have other teams that can control their own destiny and leap frog you with a better performance, bid stealers during championship week, and the reality is the bubble is a bit stronger this year than recent years. We were first four out prior to last night and still not even in that category in some others opinion. They need to really boost their resume down the stretch and I just don’t believe 3-3 gets it done. Hence why last night was a big missed opportunity.
Pretty simple summation here. Missed opportunity, showed they could play at a high level for 30 minutes, and you aren’t going to beat a top team when they go 12-20 (60%) from 3.
But make no mistake about it. Creighton has now won 10 of their last 12 (only two losses @UCONN and @Xavier) and are playing to the early season hype they were given. They also lost 3 games without Kalkbrenner, as well as losing close games to Arizona (N) and @ Texas. One could make an argument they are the best team in the BE. So it’s not a bad loss, it’s also not a morale victory, it’s just a “Missed Opportunity.”
70 remains the magic number
The Pirates are now 1-9 when their opponent scores 70+ points for the game. I think it’s clearly obvious at this point. This teams calling card is defense. They have to put you in the meat grinder and beat you 67-62. If this team finds a way to make the dance any team that has a decent offensive night is most likely going to beat them. Just not enough consistent offensive fire power on this team. Missing Dre Davis for this game did not help in that regard as well.
Shot selection
I am going to pick on Dawes a little here. How dare I do that?!?!? He led the team with 19 points and we don’t even hang with them for the first 30 minutes without his offensive production. Yes this is true. He was 5-6 from the floor (4-4 from 3) with 14 points. Then in what I called the turning point in another thread he had another wild out of control fast break drive that could have put the Hall up 8, but instead resulted in two big shots by CU and a tie game.
Including that miss, he went 2-7 down the stretch and most were wild and not high quality looks.
You can be the hot guy for the night, but that shouldn’t give you the freedom to go iso Superman and abandon all the quality set shots you made earlier. Have them run you off the line, attack the paint and find your open teammate.
Down the stretch a lot of guys were looking for “theirs”. Only 7 assists for the game in total.
CU match up problem / or wrong strategy?
You could easily argue both sides of the coin here. And yes I wish we had Yetna and 5 more big body fouls.
But I would rather Kalkbrenner take double the amount of shots and score 25, while staying connected to their shooters and not let them have clean looks from 3. You have to tell Jackson and Samuel, to do the best they can and not put themselves in foul trouble by trying to block shots. Force their shooters to put the ball on the deck. Even if they score a few, 2 points is not as bad a 3 points. Don’t over complicated it.
OUTLOOK
I am in the school of thought, along with bracketologist Brad Watchel, that the Hall needs to get to 12-8 in BE play prior to the BE tournament and not stub their toe against a Gtown on opening night to be in a good spot to secure a bid. And even then I think it’s a trip to Dayton at best. 4 more wins get the Hall to 19-13 overall and the Lincoln game doesn’t count so call it 18-13. 1-1 at the Garden puts you at 19-14.
They currently sit at a NET of 58 and a KEN POM of 56. Two numbers that you want to be sub 50 to typically feel good about your chances. Going 3-3 with a Quad 4 win vs Gtown, Quad 3 win home Vs Nova and one other quality win isn’t going to move the needle enough with those metrics.
Even if you are in the 11-9 bubble belief category, you have other teams that can control their own destiny and leap frog you with a better performance, bid stealers during championship week, and the reality is the bubble is a bit stronger this year than recent years. We were first four out prior to last night and still not even in that category in some others opinion. They need to really boost their resume down the stretch and I just don’t believe 3-3 gets it done. Hence why last night was a big missed opportunity.
