Is MU better with only 1 big?

[jesmu84]

I don't think Henry should be standing on the 3 pt line when we have the ball.

So, are we better with only Fish or Henry in the game?

I tend to think our offense looks a lot better - better spacing, better ball movement, better driving lanes...

[WarriorPride68]

We will find out next year

[NCMUFan]

Play your 5 best players.  Henry and Luke are two of those five.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Providence has no height.   Georgetown OTOH...

[muhoops1]

MU is better w/HE on the floor.  Luke can't finish through contact so And 1's become 2 FT's and he shoots 68% from the line.  Henry can score from all over.  His mid range jumper is cash money, can go to the hole.  Luke is OK, but rarely available due to foul trouble.  It's plagued him since he's been here.  Heldt is a huge project.  Yikes.  Seems like a great kid with a nice upside but right now it's not pretty.

[MattyWarrior]

They both had double-doubles tonite, we left 10 points at the line, the small group played well
but for some defense.

[nyg]

MU is better w/HE on the floor.  Luke can't finish through contact so And 1's become 2 FT's and he shoots 68% from the line.  Henry can score from all over.  His mid range jumper is cash money, can go to the hole.  Luke is OK, but rarely available due to foul trouble.  It's plagued him since he's been here.  Heldt is a huge project.  Yikes.  Seems like a great kid with a nice upside but right now it's not pretty.

Exactly, it was Henry as the bigman tonight with the four other smalls.  Next year it will only be Luke.  He gets in foul trouble (almost every game), its Heldt.  With no PF or other physical kid, it will be very ugly. 

[tower912]

Sometimes.    But Providence wasn't very big or very deep.    One of the first times all year that the 1big-4 small lineup didn't result in horrible size matchups.     

[brewcity77]

The person sitting next to me said late in the game "we're in trouble if this goes to overtime" once Luke fouled out. I responded "maybe, but we made our big run with Luke on the bench in foul trouble." Right now, I think we are at our best when we have both of them on the floor functioning, but that doesn't always work. Often, even when we have both Luke and Henry in there, at least on offense, we play like we only have one big as Henry hangs out near the perimeter like a wing. It seems the guys know better where to be when there's only one big, and the guards seem to crash the boards harder. Not sure if that's true, but JJ and Cheat really got on the glass last night when Hank was the only big man out there. It won't necessarily work against teams with similar size and strength (Seton Hall) but it certainly worked last night. Of course, also remember that Bullock dealt with foul trouble and he's their second big.

[jsglow]

Brew, I think last night was a bit of special circumstance because of the opponent.  I agree that we were most effective with the 4-1 but that was in part because of the matchups.  Funny, I too said at the end of regulation that we 'might' be okay w/o Luke because I agree with you that the 4-1 in the second half allowed us to build a lead.  I did say as we neared the end of OT#2 that this couldn't go on any further as both HE and Duane had 4 fouls.  Losing HE would have rendered us incapable of covering Big Ben at all.

[bilsu]

You have to remember Providence does not have a lot of size or depth. Bullock had already fouled out and Dunn was gone after the first overtime.We have trouble with physical teams that can body fischer and Ellenson. Providence is not phyiscal. Their strength is that they two super players, but they cannot body MU big guys.

[jesmu84]

FWIW, this thought didn't just come to me last night. I've believed it for the better part of conference season. The situation has shown itself multiple times when only 1 of Henry or Luke is in the game.

Last night merely confirmed my belief.

[Herman Cain]

Steve Lappas the CBS announcer kept saying all game long that Marquette was better off with both bigs in the game.

The two combined are averaging 29 points and 17 boards . That is a ton of production.

There are teams and situations the 4 and 1 works. But night after night in this league we need the bigs.

The big issue is Lukes fouls.

[Jay Bee]

Nope

[MU82]

The answer to the question is: It depends upon the opponents and the matchups. Against some, they are better with only one big. Against most, they are better with both in there. In many games, they are our two best players.

[JakeBarnes]

MU is better w/HE on the floor.  Luke can't finish through contact so And 1's become 2 FT's and he shoots 68% from the line.  Henry can score from all over.  His mid range jumper is cash money, can go to the hole.  Luke is OK, but rarely available due to foul trouble.  It's plagued him since he's been here.  Heldt is a huge project.  Yikes.  Seems like a great kid with a nice upside but right now it's not pretty.

Luke played pretty damn tough against Providence. I was hoping others were watching this too. He got a bad rap from the announcer saying he should have dunked a ball when the defender literally grabbed his wrist and pulled it away. That's the only "weak" move I saw last game. He's been a lot more assertive on the boards and shooting.