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Yesterday's Underperformances


Swan88

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Missouri of the SEC lost 61-69 to UMKC of the Western Athletic Conference. Ouch.

But perhaps the biggest underperformance came from UNLV's 60-59 squeaker last night over Morehead State of the Ohio Valley Conference. It appears that Morehead may not have a single player on its team sporting a Rivals star ranking--ok, maybe one three-star.

Each of the UNLV players, on the other hand, who played at least a dozen minutes last night had the following star rankings: two five-stars, three four-stars and two three-stars (our good buddy Jordan Cornish apparently did not see the floor). Granted, nearly every single one of those players is a newby to the UNLV team--four are freshmen, two are transfers, and one is in his second year. But still . . . .

Granted, they'll probably get it together soon--but that is not a good star spangled start.

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So, UNLV is now intriguing, with their star spangled newbie team--just to see how they progress to let the talent show through. Their second installment is a rip-roaring 59-57 victory over . . . [drumroll] . . . Sam Houston State of the Southland Conference. Sam Houston appears to have a total of one Rivals two-star player (and not a single additional star) on its team. 44.4% from the charity stripe (12 of 27) didn't help UNLV much. Jordan Cornish saw 11 minutes in an 8-man rotation (a 9th player played 3 minutes)--Cornish scored five points with 1 assist, 1 rebound and no turnovers.

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I'm totally blind...or no one has asked this question. Did Oklahoma really drop the ball or is Creighton a lot better than people have given them credit for? I didn't see the game...just followed on my espn app on my phone.

 

Hard to know for sure, but after their initial 7-0 run to start the second half, it looked like OU just totally let off the gas.  They got really lazy on defense, didn't bother to guard the perimeter at all (which is suicide against a team like Creighton) and was not able to turn the intensity back on in time to salvage the win.

 

I guess you gotta credit Creighton some too for taking advantage of the opportunity - and the boost they got from the home crowd certainly helped, but I'd say from what I saw, Oklahoma was by far and away the most talented team on the court and probably should have won by 20 or 30.  They just got lazy and thought they could cruise to a win.

 

Some Oklahoma fans were also blaming Kruger for not subbing or calling timeout or something while Creighton was making their run, and there might be something to that, too...

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I'm totally blind...or no one has asked this question. Did Oklahoma really drop the ball or is Creighton a lot better than people have given them credit for? I didn't see the game...just followed on my espn app on my phone.

 

It's a bit of both.  Creighton reached an intensity level on the defensive end that I don't think they even thought they had.  Chatman is a really good player and an equally good leader.  With that said, I think Benny can shut him down when we play.

 

My main concern for NU is handling their bigs.  They have three, none great, but all very active and serviceable that I would take on our team in a heartbeat.  I hope we don't get dominated on the glass as Creighton will shoot and miss a lot of perimeter shots.  

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I'm totally blind...or no one has asked this question. Did Oklahoma really drop the ball or is Creighton a lot better than people have given them credit for? I didn't see the game...just followed on my espn app on my phone.

 

It's a bit of both.  Creighton reached an intensity level on the defensive end that I don't think they even thought they had.  Chatman is a really good player and an equally good leader.  With that said, I think Benny can shut him down when we play.

 

My main concern for NU is handling their bigs.  They have three, none great, but all very active and serviceable that I would take on our team in a heartbeat.  I hope we don't get dominated on the glass as Creighton will shoot and miss a lot of perimeter shots.  

 

Such as whom?

 

I would have taken Echinique from a couple of years ago.  This year, though?

 

Hegner is kind of a Walt Pitchford player.  Nearly 75% of his shots come from beyond the arc.

Groselle and Hansen combine for 20 minutes/game and 8 1/2 points.

Artino might be averaging 12 ppg but he's only playing 19 minutes and he was only 1-4 from the field against OU.

 

If I could poach a big from some other team, it wouldn't be Creighton.

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I'm totally blind...or no one has asked this question. Did Oklahoma really drop the ball or is Creighton a lot better than people have given them credit for? I didn't see the game...just followed on my espn app on my phone.

 

It's a bit of both.  Creighton reached an intensity level on the defensive end that I don't think they even thought they had.  Chatman is a really good player and an equally good leader.  With that said, I think Benny can shut him down when we play.

 

My main concern for NU is handling their bigs.  They have three, none great, but all very active and serviceable that I would take on our team in a heartbeat.  I hope we don't get dominated on the glass as Creighton will shoot and miss a lot of perimeter shots.  

 

Such as whom?

 

I would have taken Echinique from a couple of years ago.  This year, though?

 

Hegner is kind of a Walt Pitchford player.  Nearly 75% of his shots come from beyond the arc.

Groselle and Hansen combine for 20 minutes/game and 8 1/2 points.

Artino might be averaging 12 ppg but he's only playing 19 minutes and he was only 1-4 from the field against OU.

 

If I could poach a big from some other team, it wouldn't be Creighton.

 

 

I think it is more of an indictment on our post game than it is saying those guys on CU are very talented.

 

Thus far, they have offered much more in rebounding and scoring than our guys.  

 

I know the sample size is small, but here is what you got:

 

Pitchford/Abraham/Hammond - 7.5 ppg/9.5 rpg/7 blocks

Artino/Hanson/Groselle - 20.9 ppg/12.7 rpg/4 blocks

 

Your telling me you wouldn't trade Artino and Hanson for Abraham and Hammond?  I would in a heartbeat.  

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UL Monroe lost to Florida in overtime tonight. Maybe we should wonder about trading players with Monroe--they have a Deng on their team.

And, back to the original post, UNLV lost by the narrowest of margins tonight (29 points) to Stanford--89-60. Wonder if UNLV should trade away some of those four and five star players? They might have better luck with some of the Bluejays, like Artino and Hanson. Kreklow would certainly be an improvement for them.

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My goodness, I make a comment that we need to control Creighton's big men and people get awfully sensitive around here.  Everyone knows we have some deficiencies down low, so not sure why we should get bent out of shape for saying Creighton may have better players at the 5 position than we do.  I think that is a fair statement.  

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My goodness, I make a comment that we need to control Creighton's big men and people get awfully sensitive around here.  Everyone knows we have some deficiencies down low, so not sure why we should get bent out of shape for saying Creighton may have better players at the 5 position than we do.  I think that is a fair statement.  

Yep.. Anything Creighton mentioned on here is derogatory... They beat a top 25 team.. We lost to Rhode Island.. I just wish some on this board would focus more on ourselves more so than them sometimes.. Just sayin..

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