Hazel???

[denverMU]

Why didn't he play tonight?

[Blackhat]

Buzz doesn't like Hazel as a player. 

[nola03]

Even if he's not in the future plans, it's interesting to bench a guy when you only have nine available players.

[Wareagle]

Hazel is going to have to get some time if Leuer and Landry are in the game at the same time.  Burke can't check either one of them.

[Blackhat]

How bad we look now compared to how Crean had us as a top dog in the BE with no good post player just further highlights that Crean is a top 10 coach in the college game today.   

Back to Hazel topic: We've got bigger problems. 

[muwarrior87]

injured.

[WarriorHal]

On post-game radio, Buzz said Hazel didn't practice well, so he didn't play. Added that Hazel got the message and expects him back in action Saturday.

[ecompt]

Not a good sign that with nine players Buzz was so P-O'd  that he's bench one of them. I would not be surprised to see Hazel do nothing but pick splinters out of his butt once Fulce and Otule are walking.

[yellow chickens]

speaking of fulce and otule they are no longer limping or anything. are they doing any running or practicing at all yet? what is the current time table

[wadesworld]

How bad we look now compared to how Crean had us as a top dog in the BE with no good post player just further highlights that Crean is a top 10 coach in the college game today.   

Back to Hazel topic: We've got bigger problems.

People on this board are ridiculous.  We routinely won cupcake games by about 10-12 points with Crean as our coach and looked bad doing so.  We lose a bad game every year.  Don't act like the Dayton loss was the first time in the last 9 years that Marquette has lost an ugly, bad game, not to mention that Dayton actually IS  respectable opponent.  After the Wisconsin, Tennessee, and NC State games we will know how different this team is from the past 3 years.  My bet: not much different.

If Crean is one of the top 10 coaches in the college game today why did he leave gaping holes in the program that Buzz is now filling with our recruits?  Buzz didn't recruit 8 guards and 2 horrible post players, it was Crean who did that.  You have to play with the cards you are dealt, and Buzz was dealt these cards.  We're 6-1 right now.  We have a huge game coming up on Saturday.

[LovinCrowder]

People on this board are ridiculous.  We routinely won cupcake games by about 10-12 points with Crean as our coach and looked bad doing so.  We lose a bad game every year.  Don't act like the Dayton loss was the first time in the last 9 years that Marquette has lost an ugly, bad game, not to mention that Dayton actually IS  respectable opponent.  After the Wisconsin, Tennessee, and NC State games we will know how different this team is from the past 3 years.  My bet: not much different.

If Crean is one of the top 10 coaches in the college game today why did he leave gaping holes in the program that Buzz is now filling with our recruits?  Buzz didn't recruit 8 guards and 2 horrible post players, it was Crean who did that.  You have to play with the cards you are dealt, and Buzz was dealt these cards.  We're 6-1 right now.  We have a huge game coming up on Saturday.

+1          A post that makes perfect sense.........

[TallTitan34]

+2 wadesworld.

It's not Buzz's fault Crean didn't leave a big-man. And I remember looking bad in early games under Crean.  Chaminade kept us close until the end the last year.  Cardinal Stritch did 2 years ago as well.

[Pakuni]

speaking of fulce and otule they are no longer limping or anything. are they doing any running or practicing at all yet? what is the current time table

Both were wearing sweats and on the court during warmups over the weekend, but didn't actually do anything but stand around. Otule was still wearing the boot. Neither seems to be moving gingerly, but, like I said, neither did much but stand under the basket and rebound shots.

[LON]

+3 wadesworld

More often than not (to the best of my recollection), we have always played to the level of our competition during the early NC games

[Pakuni]

People on this board are ridiculous.  We routinely won cupcake games by about 10-12 points with Crean as our coach and looked bad doing so.  

How soon they forget:

Marquette 66, Utah Valley State 55 (11/12/07)
Marquette 74, Chaminade 63 (11/19/07)
Marquette 59, Idaho State 56 (OT) (11/13/06)
North Dakota State 64, Marquette 60 (12/02/06)

[MisterJaylenBrownMU]

I still remember losing to ND State at HOME in 2006 -- we went on to win 23 regular season games that year.  I can't imagine that this year's Dayton team is worse than the ND State team in 2006, especially given the high praise ESPN has been giving Dayton lately.

I don't see a lot of reason to dwell on the loss.  It wasn't pretty, but there's a lot of upside to this team if they start playing together and you'd have to think that they'll improve as Buzz's system matures.

[Blackhat]

I hope you guys are right and we are just playing down to teams and below Dayton.   My gut says this is a bad trend for our first year coach and not a case of playing down but no sense arguing about it lets play the games and hopefully we start playing up or better.   

[Rocco]

I am very nervous about the game saturday.  With how poor Burke has been against cupcakes it will take a miracle for him to perform as well this year as he did last year against UW.  It is just too bad we dont have anyone behind him.  I also dont understand why we are so much worse so far this season defensively.  All of sudden James McNeal and Matthews cant guard anyone?  I think UW gets a lot of help from the refs sat. and we lose 80-65.  I hope im wrong, but I havent been impressed at all this season, in any game.

[MUSF]

I am very nervous about the game saturday.  With how poor Burke has been against cupcakes it will take a miracle for him to perform as well this year as he did last year against UW.  It is just too bad we dont have anyone behind him.  I also dont understand why we are so much worse so far this season defensively.  All of sudden James McNeal and Matthews cant guard anyone?  I think UW gets a lot of help from the refs sat. and we lose 80-65.  I hope im wrong, but I havent been impressed at all this season, in any game.

I actually think Burke matches up with teams like UW pretty well.  Burke hasn't had as much trouble with less athletic, back to the basket bigs.  He seems to get into foul trouble against more athletic guys because he struggles moving his feet on defense and ends up reaching and holding.  Last year's UW game was one of his best outings.

That said, Burke has not looked comfortable yet this year.  I guess we'll find out soon enough.

[IAmMarquette]

Pat better step up in practice for the rest of the week. We're gonna need everyone against Bucky.

[77ncaachamps]

Hazel must have been the "freshman" that was referred to in the Chicago Tribune article.

[wadesworld]

For the record, my post before sounded like I hated Tom Crean.  I don't.  I hate how he left, but I was sad to see him go because he did good things for us.  He took us to heights we haven't been close to since Al was the coach.  He was exactly what we needed, but quite honestly I think some people reach a certain point where they can't go any higher.  He did everything he could have done for this program, and he couldn't land a great big or the long athletes that people want so badly.  I hate him now, though .  Buzz is now looking to take the program to new heights by doing just that, recruiting COMPLETE teams rather than just guard oriented teams.

I just think that it's ridiculous that people are acting like this after 1 game that we looked bad in and lost.  It's early in the season.  We always look bad early in the season, yet people seem to think that we never lost in non-conference games, and never played poorly.  That's just not true at all.  Quite the opposite.  My guess is that we will get a nice win against Wisconsin this Saturday, beat NC State, play Tennessee tough, and have 2 losses going into the conference schedule.  We'll lose a bad game to someone we shouldn't early in conference play, and people on this board will once again freak out, claiming it's Buzz's fault and Crean never would have let that happen.  Then, we will play well for most of the rest of the year, and end up between 3rd and 6th in the conference, make the BET semifinals, and make the NCAA Tournament as a 4-6 seed.

People are just blowing one loss to a good team that made us look bad way out of proportion.  We'll struggle against long, athletic teams, like Dayton, and people will scream for Buzz's head.  It's not his fault, and now Buzz is doing an awesome job with recruiting of filling the holes Crean left.

[Pardner]

On post-game radio, Buzz said Hazel didn't practice well, so he didn't play. Added that Hazel got the message and expects him back in action Saturday.

Further, Buzz said he won't have a player "disrespect" the team or school by not giving his all.  Said he would rather have used all his time outs to rest players rather than put some one in who wasn't putting forth the effort.  Message was received, as was stated.

[Markusquette]

Whoever asked if Otule and Fulce are doing better, I saw Otule on crutches and in a boot walking to class I believe.  I assume he's doing much better and it's just precautionary as well.

[MUWeb7]

Both were wearing sweats and on the court during warmups over the weekend, but didn't actually do anything but stand around. Otule was still wearing the boot. Neither seems to be moving gingerly, but, like I said, neither did much but stand under the basket and rebound shots.

Tonight(during warm-ups) it looked like Fulce was limping a bit when I saw him on the court early. Otule looked like he was doing fine.