UConn job

[MU82]

++ UConn is a good, very experienced team with 2 go-to guys. We are a hard-working but inexperienced team with zero go-to guys.

++ Every time UConn needed a play, they could go to Martin or Cole -- seniors who have combined for more than 3,000 career points. Meanwhile, when we desperately needed plays, our defense-first center missed a dunk, our true frosh guard missed a 10-footer, and our exhausted PG missed a layup.

++ JL was a stud. Just played bully-ball against a good defender in Whaley. Fun to watch. Unfortunately for MU, Hurley made a good adjustment down the stretch and started running a second player at JL on the catch, and he couldn't get down to the block. That's when having a scoring PG and/or a couple of 3-point shooters can make the opponent pay.

++ UConn did a good job staying home on our one good 3-point shooter. Elliott only had two open 3s in the half-court game, and he made one.

++ Encouraged by O-Max's game. Reading this board the last week or two, you'd have thought he was the worst player in the country. Tonight, he was active, went to the basket hard, hit a 3, defended. He's still a work in progress, like the team itself.

++ Kolek had an outstanding offensive first half. Really moved well with the ball, found teammates left and right for easy buckets. He even made a 3. UConn went right back at him, usually with Martin, but he hung in there. He seemed worn down in the second half, though, probably from having to work so hard on D. Didn't have the same burst with the ball. And when he finally was able to make one great pass, Kuath missed a wide-open dunk that would have tied it with 3 1/2 minutes to go.

++ We missed Morsell, especially on defense. It's hard to say he'd have done better on offense than O-Max did, though. Meanwhile, UConn basically was without Sanogo; he was obviously very rusty and out of shape. The guy we needed to still be out was Martin!

++ Eventually, Kam Jones just might be our go-to guy. He is willing to take big shots, he makes a few of them, and he seems really tough mentally. He's a kid, and he'll just get better.

++ It was fun to see a side of Joplin we hadn't seen. He looked like a mini (and not really all that mini) Lewis out there.

++ Loved the fight in the team. We were down 11 and it was "uh-oh" time. Immediately clawed back to make it a game, even had a chance to take the lead twice with under 6 minutes to go.

++ We'll have many, many more games like this. We work hard, we're well-coached, we have a guy in Lewis who is a tough matchup for anybody 1-on-1, we have a few role players who can have good nights ... BUT we aren't good enough to win comfortably, especially against quality teams. So we'll keep having games that come down to executing a few key plays at the end. We won a few close ones early against decent teams; we're not winning them now against better opponents.

++ I'm still high on this program's future, and I really can't understand the level of vitriol being slung in other threads. Did people actually expect this to be a 20-win team?

[JakeBarnes]

Honestly, Morsell out could be good for the long run. Hope he's back healthy for the next one and plays much like his early season games

[tower912]

UConn't always get what you want......

[CTWarrior]

Good takeaways:

Best game of the season for O-Max.  He played very well.  His body is a little faster than his mind at the moment, but his mind is catching up.

Lewis was excellent pounding the ball down low.

Defensive rebounding was very good. 

Not so good:

Defense in general was not too good.  We could not get near enough crucial stops.

I know Kuath missed the dunk, but I though Oso was a little overmatched.  I would like to have seen more Kuath.  Oso has to be more aggressive with the ball.  In the game against Xavier, when we were down 70-69, he passed up a pretty easy 5 foot bank shot to kick it out to Elliott.  Several times last night he could have taken a shot and instead forced bad or backward passes.

Shot selection in big moments is still very suspect.  Agree with MU82 that there isn't a guy where you say, "now we need to get the ball into his hands and he'll get us some points or at least get a good shot."  I think in crunch time, I want the ball in Kolek's hands to distribute.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

They fight hard.  They just can't get over the hump.  It will happen eventually.

[MU82]

Honestly, Morsell out could be good for the long run. Hope he's back healthy for the next one and plays much like his early season games

I was thinking the same. I want him to play whenever he can play; even though he's not the go-to guy he seemed to be in the first 4 games, we still need his D, his occasional offense and his steady hand.

But O-Max doesn't happen last night if Morsell plays 30 minutes, and maybe Joplin doesn't either. Developing guys like that to be good players down the line is more important than winning an individual game this season.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Good recaps on a couple of posts 82. Overall, very positive but I'll offer a few critiques for discussion purposes, mostly situationals.

While this team has a long way to go offensively and MU was statistically average yesterday, I thought it was their most consistent two halves in a game. Yes, there were a few droughts but they played through them.

I thought Shaka and staff were so so on situationals. He didn't use his extra first half time out for one were he could have tried to stop that drought that started at the 12:30 mark. Or he could have used it at :38 seconds after the UCONN turnover to set up a full shot clock play. Instead, MU ran a :14 second play with a back door (good) that left UCONN 20 seconds to set up that corner three at the buzzer (bad).

In the 2nd during that run back by MU with media time outs delayed, I really liked that all underclass (technically freshmen) line up if mostly fresh legs that got MU back in the game. UCONN was gassed.

But as the media time outs started to occur, Hurley got his team off the ropes and started switching things up. Like doubling down on JLew who had no shooter to kick out to and Shaka was sitting Greg.

At the end out of a time out, the called play was a quick Lewis trey from the corner (not the best shooter there to feature). Or trapping in the corner after a made bucket and not fouling, letting 12 seconds go off the clock before fouling in a two possession game.

[DoctorV]

I was thinking the same. I want him to play whenever he can play; even though he's not the go-to guy he seemed to be in the first 4 games, we still need his D, his occasional offense and his steady hand.

But O-Max doesn't happen last night if Morsell plays 30 minutes, and maybe Joplin doesn't either. Developing guys like that to be good players down the line is more important than winning an individual game this season.

That will be the case when the season is lost, it isn’t quite yet.

Very nice synopsis above.

What stood out to me the most with last nights game is how much MU played through the post and how much more deliberate they were offensively, they seemed to play much slower.

I think that was an improvement and kept MU in the game. The downside was you started to see quite a few more ball handling, dribbling, and passing blunders but that’ll clean up, UConn is a good and long defensive team.

Then it all went bad at the end

[mileskishnish72]

Good work, 82. You could turn Tower into another Wally Pipp.

Tough night for MU. Like all the optimistic posts, we'll have to see how long they stay that way.
Nice minutes from OMP and Joplin. Bad minute from Stevie.

On to St. John's.

[tower912]

Who?

[wadesworld]

Liked that we got into some bully ball.  Another reason I wouldn't hate seeing a big lineup, although I didn't think Oso or Kur (after the first 6 or so minutes of the game) were very good last night.  If you get Lewis (or, apparently, Joplin) matched up with a typical college 3?  Mouse in the house.

Lewis didn't settle for jumpers.  He showed some guys the weight room.  As did Joplin and even OMax.

That also resulted in MU going to the line a decent amount, especially in the second half.  That's how Marquette is going to win.  Some bully ball and a lot of free throws.

[MU82]

Lots of good points folks are making.

BLM ... Shaka did a little more "taking what the defense gives us" last night. JL, and occasionally Joplin and even O-Max, were able to take advantage of matchups and play bully-ball, something we hadn't seen a lot of this season. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out going forward.

Dr. B ... Shaka did a good job last night IMHO but I also think you're right about those situations. As soon as they went to the hard double on JL, we needed to have Greg on the floor. And that 3 at the end of the half sucked.

Dr. V ... The season doesn't have to be "lost" for Shaka to build for the future. I remain convinced that fans are far more worried about this season's W/L results than our coach is; he was hired to fix the program, not sneak into the NCAAs in Year 1. If he can accomplish both, bravo!

miles ... For now anyway, it looks like Stevie has joined Ellis outside the rotation. We won't face many backcourts as good as UConn's, but we'll still face plenty of good ones, and those are tough matchups for freshmen. Kam's shooting and confidence have moved him well ahead, and deservedly so.

I also thought our press was quite effective last night. Made UConn work, tuckered 'em out, sped 'em up a couple times when they ended up taking bad shots, and we gave up very few scoring opportunities off of it. That's the whole idea. We need more great athletes to play it better, create more TOs off of it, but it mostly did its job.

There were a couple of times where we needed either Kuath or Oso to get tougher on drives by Cole and Martin. One time Oso stepped aside and did the matador olé move; another time, he got a weak reach-in foul while letting the basket score anyway. We've got 10 fouls at the 5 -- knock those guys on their effen arses! Probably was Oso's worst game -- better days ahead.

Will happily turn this back to tower for the Johnnies game; the title of this was an homage to his line in a thread the other day.

We Are Marquette!

[tower912]

Steve is down right now.  OMP and Joplin contributed.   The ebb and flow of a young team.   Plus, UConn is large.

[MU82]

Steve is down right now.  OMP and Joplin contributed.   The ebb and flow of a young team.   Plus, UConn is large.

With Martin back and playing like that, and assuming Sanogo gets into game condition, UConn looks like at least a Sweet 16 team. Not a great 3-point-shooting team, and that could hurt them some, but otherwise they have everything you need to win: talent, experience, size, coaching.

[Lennys Tap]

++ UConn is a good, very experienced team with 2 go-to guys. We are a hard-working but inexperienced team with zero go-to guys.

++ Every time UConn needed a play, they could go to Martin or Cole -- seniors who have combined for more than 3,000 career points. Meanwhile, when we desperately needed plays, our defense-first center missed a dunk, our true frosh guard missed a 10-footer, and our exhausted PG missed a layup.

++ JL was a stud. Just played bully-ball against a good defender in Whaley. Fun to watch. Unfortunately for MU, Hurley made a good adjustment down the stretch and started running a second player at JL on the catch, and he couldn't get down to the block. That's when having a scoring PG and/or a couple of 3-point shooters can make the opponent pay.

++ UConn did a good job staying home on our one good 3-point shooter. Elliott only had two open 3s in the half-court game, and he made one.

++ Encouraged by O-Max's game. Reading this board the last week or two, you'd have thought he was the worst player in the country. Tonight, he was active, went to the basket hard, hit a 3, defended. He's still a work in progress, like the team itself.

++ Kolek had an outstanding offensive first half. Really moved well with the ball, found teammates left and right for easy buckets. He even made a 3. UConn went right back at him, usually with Martin, but he hung in there. He seemed worn down in the second half, though, probably from having to work so hard on D. Didn't have the same burst with the ball. And when he finally was able to make one great pass, Kuath missed a wide-open dunk that would have tied it with 3 1/2 minutes to go.

++ We missed Morsell, especially on defense. It's hard to say he'd have done better on offense than O-Max did, though. Meanwhile, UConn basically was without Sanogo; he was obviously very rusty and out of shape. The guy we needed to still be out was Martin!

++ Eventually, Kam Jones just might be our go-to guy. He is willing to take big shots, he makes a few of them, and he seems really tough mentally. He's a kid, and he'll just get better.

++ It was fun to see a side of Joplin we hadn't seen. He looked like a mini (and not really all that mini) Lewis out there.

++ Loved the fight in the team. We were down 11 and it was "uh-oh" time. Immediately clawed back to make it a game, even had a chance to take the lead twice with under 6 minutes to go.

++ We'll have many, many more games like this. We work hard, we're well-coached, we have a guy in Lewis who is a tough matchup for anybody 1-on-1, we have a few role players who can have good nights ... BUT we aren't good enough to win comfortably, especially against quality teams. So we'll keep having games that come down to executing a few key plays at the end. We won a few close ones early against decent teams; we're not winning them now against better opponents.

++ I'm still high on this program's future, and I really can't understand the level of vitriol being slung in other threads. Did people actually expect this to be a 20-win team?

Very solid recap, Mike.

My only disagreement? No need (other than a personal compulsion) to go all hyperbole in putting down Scoopers who have been critical of O-Max’s play. Every criticism I’ve read here has been accurate/justified. I loved that he played well last night - I’m sure that’s the guy Shaka sees every day in practice and why he was starting for a long time even as he continued to struggle. I hope this was a corner turned. But until last night he was pretty much out of control wasted effort with little to nothing to show for it.

[Goose]

IMO OMax is going end up being a big part of the program's future success. He is a very big man and extremely athletic. If I were the coach, I would be giving him a ton of minutes the rest of the way.

[MU82]

Very solid recap, Mike.

My only disagreement? No need (other than a personal compulsion) to go all hyperbole in putting down Scoopers who have been critical of O-Max’s play. Every criticism I’ve read here has been accurate/justified. I loved that he played well last night - I’m sure that’s the guy Shaka sees every day in practice and why he was starting for a long time even as he continued to struggle. I hope this was a corner turned. But until last night he was pretty much out of control wasted effort with little to nothing to show for it.

I've never liked the snap judgments of guys like Lockett and Reinhardt, and I haven't liked them about O-Max, either. Some guys take a little longer to find their roles. And there are ways to criticize a college athlete without saying he's useless or garbage or will never be any good; some of the criticism of O-Max (and Kolek, for that matter) was way over the top.

But you're certainly right that he hadn't played very well, especially on offense, before now. Point taken.

IMO OMax is going end up being a big part of the program's future success. He is a very big man and extremely athletic. If I were the coach, I would be giving him a ton of minutes the rest of the way.

Totally agree. I doubt doing so will cost us any games, but if it happens to, that will be a small price to pay if O-Max turns out to be a stud next season and beyond.

[tower912]

It is a common trait for scoopers to say 'he sucks' whenever a young guy isn't immediately Mary Poppins.  (Practically perfect in every way)    And then some people counsel patience.   And then the young. guy inevitably has a good game, the  next round of debate ensues.     Those who said he sucks get defensive.  Until the next game.   Lather, rinse, repeat.

[tower912]

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore/_/gameId/401373517

Box.

[Shooter McGavin]

IMO OMax is going end up being a big part of the program's future success. He is a very big man and extremely athletic. If I were the coach, I would be giving him a ton of minutes the rest of the way.

Agreed Goose.  He is very promising.  Loved that he bullied his way to the hoop under control and finished a couple last night.  He did it the previous game as well.  Shaka knows what he is doing. 

[MU82]

O-Max is the perfect example of Shaka playing the long game.

Even though Shaka took O-Max out of the starting lineup, he never sidelined the kid ... and Shaka started O-Max last night even though many thought Greg should have gotten the nod. Shaka kept giving him chances to contribute to the team, even as fans were screaming about how O-Max did nothing in Game Y or hurt us in Game Z.

Shaka wanted to win yesterday and he wants to win next week and the week after that, but mostly he wants to build a program that will win big for years. And developing a guy like O-Max -- even through growing pains, even if it doesn't help win a specific game this season -- is one way to get there.

[Spaniel with a Short Tail]

UConn't always get what you want......

Nah. UConn Jacked. Maybe you needed to be in the Gym in the late 1970s. I'm not even sure it's still around. Been replaced by Malort maybe.

[mileskishnish72]

Who?

Showing your youth, Tower. He's the first baseman who didn't play one day and was replaced by a guy named Lou Gehrig.

[JakeBarnes]

IMO OMax is going end up being a big part of the program's future success. He is a very big man and extremely athletic. If I were the coach, I would be giving him a ton of minutes the rest of the way.

I've been a bit too heavily invested in his camp since offseason, but I agree. It's starting to look like the game is slowing down for him. Still a bit twitchy, but getting there. If he can start hitting 3's at a good clip, it'll help stop teams from collapsing in the paint as much too.

[bilsu]

IMO OMax is going end up being a big part of the program's future success. He is a very big man and extremely athletic. If I were the coach, I would be giving him a ton of minutes the rest of the way.

Omax did not start out well this season, but I am not sure why Jones is the better choice. I would start Omax and let him learn to play. He looked good last night.

[tower912]

Showing your youth, Tower. He's the first baseman who didn't play one day and was replaced by a guy named Lou Gehrig.

I know the story very well.  I was being self deprecating.

[MU82]

If he can start hitting 3's at a good clip, it'll help stop teams from collapsing in the paint as much too.

If O-Max can start hitting 3's at a good clip, he'll be no worse than our second-best player.

So far, anyway, there's not much evidence that he'll start doing so, as he's a career .211 shooter (.250 this season). But the sample size is small, and maybe he's got a lot more skill in that department than we've seen. I'm looking forward to watching him improve in that facet, and all others!