Thoughts on today's game.

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

OK -- let me point out some positives.

1. Barro - played another solid game. If you ask me, given one more year and the way he runs the floor, he may be the best NBA prospect on the team.
2. Hayward - He continues to improve. I believe he should be given a more prominent role in our offense.
3. Burke - His defense still needs some work, but you can see him progressing.
4. Offensive rebounding - we had plenty of second chance opportunities.

I'm sure others will have some things to say about the so-called "Big Three," so I'll be brief. James is hurting the team right now with his shot selection. McNeal was erratic, but didn't play horribly in the second half. And where the hell was Matthews in the second half??

That was a tough assignment today. We cannot win them all.

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

One more thing -- I feel bad for Crean. He definitely looks like he could use a few days to get well!

[SoCalwarrior]

Agreed with all of your points.  We're built around the big three and they played sub-par if not worse.  Our bigs played well.  Points in the paint were enough, so it wasn't a lack of big men that decided this game.  Just couldn't shoot.  Even more, bad decision making.

[ozmetal71]

Barro and Hayward were great today.  McNeal had a good second half, but James and Matthews shouldn't have bothered getting off the bus.

[TJ]

18?  I can't believe we let it get to 18.  That was terrible.  They played as bad over the last 6 minutes as I've seen them play all year.  The first 34 I thought was not their absolute best effort, but a decent performance.  They completely lost it after they cut it to 1.  Terrible.  James was forcing everything - he cannot do that just because we get in a tight spot.  Especially when he's not even having a good day.  Everyone was just throwing up bad 3's.  The 3 is not our strong suit - we're not going to win games if we try to rely on it.  It must be a compliment to our inside game.  I know we were down and time was running out, but we have to stay within our game and not try to do things we can't.

[TJ]

Also, I thought that Kinsella played very well in his time on the floor.  I thought he should have been out there more - he was definitely the most effective defender of Hibbert.

Hibbert has improved tremendously over last year when I saw him last.  I only saw 1 game, so I don't have a good sample size, but I didn't think he was as good as the announcers wanted me to think.  They were positively gushing over him.  Get a comparable body on him (Kinsella - as close as we have) and I thought we were able to change his game enough to throw him off a little and cause some misses and bad decisions.

[zener_diode]

At the beginning of the year I never would have thought that guard play would be our problem.  Ooze has progressed tremendously.  Haward too.  Even Kinsella did a few good things today.

[CTWarrior]

18?  I can't believe we let it get to 18.  That was terrible.  They played as bad over the last 6 minutes as I've seen them play all year. 

Crean's biggest weakness as a tactician is end game situations in either direction.  We've seen this end game collapse many times before (this year, for instance, we were down 1 to Syracuse with 1:30 left and lost by 12).  I don't care whether we lose by 6 or 18, though. 

I'm not sure I blame Crean, but this is a consistent problem we have.  Just one game, though, and against a good team on the road who we match up terribly against.  We'll be alright.

[ozmetal71]

Agree on Crean's end-of-half coaching...it is bad.  Teams always seem to make a run on us late in the halves.

Still, this loss is mainly on the players.  Great coaching isn't going to overcome 2-17 shooting from your "star", and your other best player missing an entire half because of foul trouble.

[TJ]

I am still miffed by the 18 points and by the play over the last 5 minutes, but...

I am encouraged that I see so many positives in this game.

1) Barro - very good game in a tough, tough situation for him.
2) Hayward - great 1st half - hopefully going to have a "break-out" game for us soon and be a real solid player for us for the next 3 years.
3) Kinsella - played very good defense when we needed him most.  I think he earned some more PT today.  We could have used him against UW. (Damn stress fracture!)
4) McNeal - in a horrible position, sitting for a long time and cold off the bench, still finds a way to spark the team in the 2nd half.  I know this is to a lesser extent because he kinda got himself into the position, but I like how he showed determination coming out in the 2nd half and getting things done.

[milkbone]

Wes has the flu I heard.

[TJ]

18?  I can't believe we let it get to 18.  That was terrible.  They played as bad over the last 6 minutes as I've seen them play all year. 

Crean's biggest weakness as a tactician is end game situations in either direction.  We've seen this end game collapse many times before (this year, for instance, we were down 1 to Syracuse with 1:30 left and lost by 12).  I don't care whether we lose by 6 or 18, though. 

I'm not sure I blame Crean, but this is a consistent problem we have.  Just one game, though, and against a good team on the road who we match up terribly against.  We'll be alright.

I agree - I was mostly pissed about the 18 and I've calmed down now.  Certainly a loss won't hurt us very much today.  I hope they take this and learn from it - there certainly is a lot they can learn I think.

[CTWarrior]

What I liked:

Hayward.  Where did that come from?  Matthews got less PT today because Hayward played so well and we needed Fitz in there to be a larger body.
Barro.  This guy improves 6 months worth every week.  
McNeal for about an 8 minute stretch in the second half played very well.
Offense rebounding was outstanding.  We held our own pretty well on the boards overall, especially considering their size.
When we ran and didn't go one on three we did a nice job of converting.

What was OK:
Fitz was solid, did some nice things.  I would've liked to see him a little more aggressive on the offensive end.
Kinsella did OK, though the bar for him is set quite low right now.

What I disliked:
Somehow we neither doubled Hibbert in the post nor guarded the three point shooters.  Poor defensive game plan.
I don't mind DJ missing shots, but I do mind hm taking so many bad shots.  How many times when you were watching the game did you think or say "No!" when you saw him pull up to shoot.  I'd say my number was 10 or 12 times.  Almost every shot he took today was a bad shot.
McNeal in the first hald was pretty bad, too.  Dumb fouls and turnovers.
Matthews had a bad day.
End game comeback attempt was atrocious and could only have resulted in them pulling away further.

[Tulsa Warrior]

First the positive stuff – Ousame Barro continues to show improvement and consistency -- 14 points and 12 boards.  He got a sixth or seven season double, double and played about as well as you can against 7- 2, 290 pound Roy Hibbert. 

Dan Fitzgerald played within himself.  He needed to be given more clean looks outside the three point line. Lazar Hayward had a nice looking three point shot and some other good numbers, 14 points.  Kinsella got some minutes and may be able to help down the stretch.  McNeal came back from an awful start.  Dwight Burke was aggressive underneath.


It was nice to see Trend Blackledge get some minutes.  Can you imagine what he has had to go through to move from the JUCO ranks to where he is now?  The academic challenges just to get eligible and stay eligible.  That tells me something about how much he wants this.  He could become a one season wonder next season with an off season of hitting the weights and eating happy meals.


How healthy is the team?  Matthews didn’t look like he was doing well.  I’m worried about the flu bug. 


Abraham Lincoln would refer to his “humility baths.”  I hope this game was a valuable learning experience, “a humility bath.”  I feel Marquette can beat Georgetown if the players make better decisions.  James in particular needs to let the game come to him.  If the shots are not falling move the ball and find the open man.  What I’m most concerned about is decision making and what I call “athletic arrogance.”  You're one of the best athletes in the country but you still have to make to make good game decisions.   

Most publications had the Hoyas ranked, in the preseason top ten.  It’s no disgrace to lose this road game under the circumstances – a sick team, road game, on the 100th anniversary of GU basketball.


As good as Marquette is and can become this season I find myself thinking about the potential of the 07-08 squad.  Trevor Mbakwe and Maurice Acker will be nice additions.  The returning players will be seasoned and wiser.  The outside firepower will be improved and the inside game will get at least one major new contributor

[SoCalwarrior]

The team shot 33% from the floor.  92% from the charity stripe.  Huh.

[TJ]

Dan Fitzgerald played within himself.  He needed to be given more clean looks outside the three point line.

1) He's not going to be "given" clean looks - he's got to earn them.  He need to find ways to get open besides standing in the corner and hoping his man leaves to double someone.
2) Oh, if he could only learn to shoot quickly.  Maybe I'm spoiled having had Novak to watch for the last 4 years, but he has such a slow shot.  He has to be w-i-d-e open.  I'm not crazy, he's not Novak and won't be, but he needs to take advantage when he does get an opening to shoot.  He passes on too many looks he should be able to use because he's so slow.

[SoCalwarrior]

More telling and weird stats.

Barro and Hayward lead scoring with 14 each. 

McNeal, James and Matthews combine for 19.

Despite looking so sloppy, we only turn the ball over 9 times.

[rocky_warrior]

92% from the charity stripe.

Wow, that's cool.  Guess nobody gets the prediction bonus!

[Big Papi]

Georgetown is a good team and we needed to bring our A game if we wanted to win on the road.  Having said that, McNeal gets in foul trouble, James has a horrible game and Matthews I believe is very ill.  All those negatives and we were only down 4 with 6 minutes left.  As bad as this matchup is for us and as bad as we played, I have come out of this game thinking that we are probably the 2nd best team in this conference as we would beat Georgetown at least 6 times out of 10 on a neutral court.

[maxpower773]

I notice how people were saying the 18 at the end of the game was a huge run..but how many of that was free throws at the end? We started fouling with a good amount of time on the clock, so I'm guessing that at least 10 points came from fts.

[TJ]

I notice how people were saying the 18 at the end of the game was a huge run..but how many of that was free throws at the end? We started fouling with a good amount of time on the clock, so I'm guessing that at least 10 points came from fts.

They're still points.  You have to be able to score on the other end if the fouling strategy is going to work.  Otherwise you're just forcing them to run up the score on you.

[Big Papi]

I notice how people were saying the 18 at the end of the game was a huge run..but how many of that was free throws at the end? We started fouling with a good amount of time on the clock, so I'm guessing that at least 10 points came from fts.

I don't know why anyone would dwell on the margin of defeat.  It was a close game until they made their run over a 3 minute stretch to put us by double digits with 2 to go.  Than we were trying to play catch up by fouling constantly and forcing up shots that we weren't hitting all game.  I guess we could have just dribble out the clock our last 2 possessions and not fouled and lost by 10-12 instead of 18 if that would have made everyone happier.

[Sir Lawrence]

Some more thoughts on the game:

1.  Patrick Ewing hasn't missed many meals.

2.  James was BE player of the week, what, less than a month ago?  Obviously he's having a mid-season slump, but why all the angst about whether he's a first round NBA selection?  Lot's of opportunity left to prove that or not, and either way, it's good for MU basketball:  a.) he goes, and Crean can brag about putting another kid into the Assoc., or b.) he's back and we continue to talk about him next year.

3.  This was not an upset loss--nearly every "prognasticator" had MU losing.  We have a very good team, and considering all the circumstances that have already been pointed out, we did OK. 

4.  How did Doc River's kid not come to Marquette?

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

Some more thoughts on the game:

1.  Patrick Ewing hasn't missed many meals.

2.  James was BE player of the week, what, less than a month ago?  Obviously he's having a mid-season slump, but why all the angst about whether he's a first round NBA selection?  Lot's of opportunity left to prove that or not, and either way, it's good for MU basketball:  a.) he goes, and Crean can brag about putting another kid into the Assoc., or b.) he's back and we continue to talk about him next year.

3.  This was not an upset loss--nearly every "prognasticator" had MU losing.  We have a very good team, and considering all the circumstances that have already been pointed out, we did OK. 

4.  How did Doc River's kid not come to Marquette?

In response to your number 4...good question, especially considering we put Rivers on the Board of Trustees FOR NO REASON!!

[bma725]

4.  How did Doc River's kid not come to Marquette?

Didn't want to play in his fathers shadow. 

[Marquette84]

[They're still points.  You have to be able to score on the other end if the fouling strategy is going to work.  Otherwise you're just forcing them to run up the score on you.

The alternative is you simply let the clock expire, but lose by a more "respectable" margin.

Look when you start the fouling strategy, you'll never know if you're going to be able to score at the other end.

The certainty is that if you don't use it, you won't win the game period.  When you're down with a few minutes to go, this is your only hope.

The downside is that if it doesn't work, the score won't look as close.   Apparently, some people would rather have a close loss than take the chance to win.

[CTWarrior]

I certainly want us to take the chance to win, but we're just so bad at it.  We don't go for a steal, though that is a strong point of ours, and we foul the wrong guy.  Then we hoist up terrible shots with no particular plan.  I know we're in a hurry, but at least try to get an open shot for 5 or 8 seconds, you know?  Same on defense.  Take a shot or two at the steal, and then try to find the low percentage shooter to foul.  You need only watch what teams do to us when we're nursing a 10 point lead late to see what to do.

That said, the margin of defeat doesn't really bother me.  This game will be forgotten come tournament time by the selection committee, other than its effect on our record and computer numbers, which will be some small amount compared to an 8 point loss or something.

[Murffieus]

It wasn't in the game [plan to go for the "steal" aturday------against GT there is the ever present possibility of the reverse  "back door play" if we get caught in the passing lane----this took away one of our major weapons!

[TJ]

[They're still points.  You have to be able to score on the other end if the fouling strategy is going to work.  Otherwise you're just forcing them to run up the score on you.

The alternative is you simply let the clock expire, but lose by a more "respectable" margin.

Look when you start the fouling strategy, you'll never know if you're going to be able to score at the other end.

The certainty is that if you don't use it, you won't win the game period.  When you're down with a few minutes to go, this is your only hope.

The downside is that if it doesn't work, the score won't look as close.   Apparently, some people would rather have a close loss than take the chance to win.

MU didn't even make a strong attempt at scoring in the last 2 minutes.  If that's going to be the case, after the 2nd or 3rd try with the fouling strategy, you really are just asking them to run up the score.  I understand the concept behind fouling and the usefulness of it, but with the way MU played at the end of the game (in this particular game), I would rather have just run out the clock.  At least after a few tries when it was painfully obvious that nothing was going to happen for us.