Impressions last night

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

That Floriani guy sounded like he had a lukewarm impression of of MU's performance last night and I have to say I somewhat agree. I was thrilled with the ease of the victory but it's very hard to gauge us because St. John's is so abysmal.

And despite some of the positive thoughts on this board -- and I have my share, too -- I did not think James played as well last night as he did against Pitt. I thought he reverted to his "shoot first" mentality. It is my hope that he begin -- as soon as possible -- to begin emulating Jason Kidd. I know he doesn't have his size, but I'm talking about his mindset. I'm not a huge NBA guy, but watching the All Star Game you can see what a difference a guy like Kidd made in that game and the reverence with which the announcers and other players hold him, solely because of his passing. This is despite the fact that he generally adds almost nothing in the scoring column. I much prefer the 12 assist, 11 shot DJ to the 4 assist, 16 shot DJ. Five shots may not sound like a lot, but ask a coach what 5 possessions can mean in a close game.

And again, I know most of his buckets came within the flow of the offense, but I'd prefer Jerel not jack up 16 shots.

McNeal and James -- arguably our worst two shooters -- combined to take 57 percent of our shots. I don't care what anybody says, that is not a winning formula in March. 

[1990Warrior]

I understand your concern however, I think the James and Crean are now on the same page and that James will play the way he did against Pitt in our future games that are predicted to be highly contested.  SJU was so bad that I think that it threw us off of our competitive game, and the same could happen against Rutgers if we jump out to a big lead.

[Boognish_MU]

I'd prefer Jerel not jack up 16 shots.

I completely agree.  Although McNeal usually seems to score 15+ points, I have grown to hate his shot selection.  It seems that whenever he gets an offensive rebound, his #1 plan is to put up a shot immediately.  when he gets a long rebound... why put up a contested 15 foot jumper with 33 seconds on the shot clock?


PRN, I usually don't agree with you, but I liked your insight from the SJU game.  

[AlumKCof93]

I think DJ should be the #1 option by creating both for himself and others.  Meanwhile. I think McNeal should be the 4th option and am frustrated that he seems to have such free reign to take shots whenever he wants to.  For such a poor shooter, he must be averaging 12-15 shots/game.  That said, I think he played a very good first half yesterday and a good game against Pitt.

My problem with last night was when St. Johns made a run all we did is bomb 3-pt shots.  It took a drive from DJ to end our 4-minute scoring drought.  When things are not going well, the last thing we need is a 3 pt shot from McNeal early in the possession.

[Coobeys Oil Depot]

What I took from this game was a team that played down to their competition, only had 2 4-5 good stretches of basketball, and overall looked like they were going through the motions. Through all that, they were up 24 pretty quickly in the second half and never lost control of a road game for the second week in a row.

As for James, I'm not sure we are going to see a better performance out of him like Pittsburgh. He was really good. The thing that amazes me is that he can do whatever he wants against any guard in the league 1 v. 1.

This is a tough stretch of games. Seton Hall, St. John's, Rutgers, and Villanova aren't exactly lighting the conference on fire. The good news is that MU will be tested again with the Hoyas and Orangemen so they won't just slide into the BET.

[mcnealfan1]

sorry guys but i prefer mcneal jacking up more then 16 shots a game because he is our best player, thats why he has so much freedom, no matter what type of shot he takes crean knows he cant take him out

[mosarsour]

I'd prefer Jerel not jack up 16 shots.

PRN, I usually don't agree with you, but I liked your insight from the SJU game.  

I just love how everyone treats PRN. It's like he's a wrestling heel, everybody hates him, but he knows what he's talking about most times.

[Ready2Fly]

sorry guys but i prefer mcneal jacking up more then 16 shots a game because he is our best player, thats why he has so much freedom, no matter what type of shot he takes crean knows he cant take him out

Wow.  I love McNeal too, but you want him to take MORE than 16 shots?  I'd say the 10-12 range is good for him, with 1 or 2 threes coming within the flow of the offense.  Personally, I don't think anyone should take 16+ shots unless they're absolutely on fire, which McNeal has never been this year.  If there was one player I wouldn't mind seeing a lot of plays run for and taking that many shots it's Hayward.  In general though, it's much better when the shots are spread around and everyone's getting in the mix.

[mcnealfan1]

finally someone with some sense is posting, ready2fly i agree with everything you said except the hayward part, hayward has played awful the past three games, i think he should just spot up behind the arc and let mcneal and james feed him for the open 3, he cant create is own shot and every time he goes to the hole he is either out of control or throws up a prayer lol

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

Time for a DNA test.

[Ready2Fly]

finally someone with some sense is posting, ready2fly i agree with everything you said except the hayward part, hayward has played awful the past three games, i think he should just spot up behind the arc and let mcneal and james feed him for the open 3, he cant create is own shot and every time he goes to the hole he is either out of control or throws up a prayer lol

I appreciate your passion for McNeal, I really do.  However, you couldn't possibly be more wrong about Hayward.  Yes, Hayward hasn't been himself the past TWO games (the Seton Hall game was three games ago, and he was 8/16 from the field and 3/5 from three for 23 points and 9 boards - in what universe is that cosidered "awful"?) but that's mainly due to his missing time with foul trouble.  Have you been in a coma prior to his last three ( really two) "awful" games?  When Hayward has double digit FG attempts in Big East play, he's a combined 42/87, for 48.3%.  Only one of these 7 games was he under 50%.  One. 

Let's look at when McNeal has double digit FG attempts.  He's had 10 such games in Big East play, and he's a cumulative 58/143, for 40.6%.  Prior to the last three games (which I'm convinced are the only games you've seen this year) he was 36/102 when he had double digit attempts, for 35.3% and not a single one of those games did he shoot over 50%.  Mcneal has been great the last three games on offense, but prior to that he was by and large a very inefficient offensive player.

If there is anyone you want taking a high volume of shots between these two, it's definitely Hayward.

[MarquetteVol]

I think this guy is a joker.

[mcnealfan1]

o ok im sorry the past 2 games he's been awful, and as far as feild goal percentage, mcneals taking more shots and he's not far off from haywards percentage, ive seen every game this year, have you, the game comes much easier to a guy when he can easily be set up by great gaurds, and most of all haywards points have come off of setups from mcneal and james, as far as mcneal being ineffecient on offense besides the past three games, why is he your leading scorer and almost averaging as many rebounds as lazar

[mcnealfan1]

also mcneal has had more double digit games then lazar in big east play

[NotAnAlum]

Jerel's decision making drives me nuts as well.  He will do some great things.  His tip in of a miss in the first half where a 6'3" guard just plain out jumped the much taller St John's front line was awesome.  When he drives and pulls up I love it.  It just seems like there are sets where he says to himself "I don't really have the energy to drive this time so I'll just throw up this 3 ball."  I've become so conditioned that I can pretty much guess when he is going to do it and find myself saying NO as soon as he takes aim.  Kind of embrassing when it goes in.  Of course it usually doesn't.  I guess Jerel is just Jerel and you have to take the good with the bad.  Several years ago he would just drive the lane every time he touched the ball and try to get all the way to the rack regardless of who was there.  That resulted in tons of turn overs and blocked shots.  So now I guess he fancies himself a 3 point threat.  Regardless the team is much better off with Jerel in full swagger mode even if it means a few lost possessions.  A couple weeks ago he wasn't doing anything and looked like he lacked confidence.  That was about the same time we were playing our worst.  So we need Jerel thinking he is going to make any shoot he takes.   

[mcnealfan1]

thats a pretty good assement, i agree

[Ready2Fly]

o ok im sorry the past 2 games he's been awful, and as far as feild goal percentage, mcneals taking more shots and he's not far off from haywards percentage, ive seen every game this year, have you, the game comes much easier to a guy when he can easily be set up by great gaurds, and most of all haywards points have come off of setups from mcneal and james, as far as mcneal being ineffecient on offense besides the past three games, why is he your leading scorer and almost averaging as many rebounds as lazar

Hayward: 50.2% from the field, 47.4% from three, 81.8% from the line
McNeal: 44.4% from the field, 27.4% from three, 66.7% from the line

There seems to be a pretty large discrepancy there in percentages.  And as I showed earlier, when McNeal's attempts go up, his percentages go down, but that's not the case with Hayward.  There really is no argument as to who is a more efficient scorer.

When McNeal is on offensively like he has been the past three games (a.k.a. not forcing the issue) the team does very well.  So I hope that trend continues.

McNeal is my favorite player too, but you seem to be absolutely blinded to his warts by some sort of mancrush or something.

[AlumKCof93]

In comparing McNeal and Lazar, its not fair to say that McNeal is better b/c he's scored more often.  He has taken a great deal more shots and too often forces the issue resulting in bad possessions.  What's worse is that when McNeal shoots his 3 early in the possession, it catches the team off-guard and often results in a fast break opportunity for the opposition.  I've been frustrated by McNeal in the past b/c he's been turnover prone, but there are times this year when I think he's put himself ahead of the team.

[sigep80]

I think you should also consider the maturity of both players.  Hayward is still learning and young, not as mature as Jerrel.  Witness the stupid charging calls of the last two games.  I'm sure with time he will understand how to turn those opportunities into positive possesions, but right now he is struggeling in some game situations.

I still love the kid, but realize that he is still learning. 

As for Jerrel, I love his aggressiveness, and I think some of his ill timed 3's are typicall of many of our players.  When they collectively make a bunch of those decisions is when the team gets in trouble.  I'm not sure that's maturity or a team mindset.