Lipstick on a pig

[goldeneagle91114]

I'll admit, i was on the the whole "what will be be ranked" after the nova game. At that point I thought we would win the next 3 for sure. Hindsight it 20/20 but the more i look at the Crieghton and nova game the more i ask myself if it was just fools gold. This team does not appear to have anything but streaky shooters. And now that teams know to extend the defense and guard the 3point line we're in trouble.

Tonight showed a lot of deficiencies and i'm not sure they can be fixed this year. I'll respect the process, and assume that wojo will work to plug the giant holes. But until then, people of the board need temper expectations... this team, IS NOT, a tournament team. Winning 4 of 6 it too large of an order for a team this weak.

Just the way it is. I still think we're 2 years out from the tourney assuming wojo continues to recruit as well as he has.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

I wouldn't call it lipstick on a pig. I would call it a team with a high ceiling and low floor. Some nights you are going to get gold, other nights you're going to get crap.

I actually didn't think tonight was a crap performance. Butler had a good defensive strategy and employed it well. One or two more breaks go our way and we win.

[GoldenDieners32]

I wouldn't call it lipstick on a pig. I would call it a team with a high ceiling and low floor. Some nights you are going to get gold, other nights you're going to get crap.

I actually didn't think tonight was a crap performance. Butler had a good defensive strategy and employed it well. One or two more breaks go our way and we win.

We need to realize are shots aren't going to fall every night so we will have to play hard defense and take it to the hoop on the offensive end. Also some guys took dumb shots really early in the shot clock, i was getting very frustrated

[wadesworld]

It was lipstick on a pig and I bought in as well. We caught Creighton in their first game without their All American point guard and we caught the defending national champion on a night where they shot 6 for 34 from 3 and still only won by 2. Other than that? Not much to get overly excited about. Wins at home against not great Seton Hall and Georgetown teams, on a neutral court against a not great Vandy team, solid win at a not great Georgia team, losses to bad teams in Providence and St. John's, and home losses to 2 good teams whose best players were out for literally half the game (Butler and Wisconsin). Fact of the matter is this team just isn't great.

[79Warrior]

It was lipstick on a pig and I bought in as well. We caught Creighton in their first game without their All American point guard and we caught the defending national champion on a night where they shot 6 for 34 from 3 and still only won by 2. Other than that? Not much to get overly excited about. Wins at home against not great Seton Hall and Georgetown teams, on a neutral court against a not great Vandy team, solid win at a not great Georgia team, losses to bad teams in Providence and St. John's, and home losses to 2 good teams whose best players were out for literally half the game (Butler and Wisconsin). Fact of the matter is this team just isn't great.

We have lost three of our last 4 games. Who is calling Providence and SJU bad? Glass houses.

[muguru]

I wouldn't call it lipstick on a pig. I would call it a team with a high ceiling and low floor. Some nights you are going to get gold, other nights you're going to get crap.

I actually didn't think tonight was a crap performance. Butler had a good defensive strategy and employed it well. One or two more breaks go our way and we win.

Hey, the kids played hard, and gave it their best, right?? Come on, it's about winning basketball games. I feared it then, and it's coming to fruition now, beating Nova was the worst thing to happen to this team..lost 3-4 since then. they were content with that win being their season highlight. they acted like they had just won the National championship. Wish they would have just acted like they had been there before.

[GE911]

We have lost three of our last 4 games. Who is calling Providence and SJU bad? Glass houses.

A bad team can lose to another bad team. Us vs prov. And us vs SJU are perfect examples.

[buckchuckler]

It was lipstick on a pig and I bought in as well. We caught Creighton in their first game without their All American point guard and we caught the defending national champion on a night where they shot 6 for 34 from 3 and still only won by 2. Other than that? Not much to get overly excited about. Wins at home against not great Seton Hall and Georgetown teams, on a neutral court against a not great Vandy team, solid win at a not great Georgia team, losses to bad teams in Providence and St. John's, and home losses to 2 good teams whose best players were out for literally half the game (Butler and Wisconsin). Fact of the matter is this team just isn't great.

Yup.  Agree completely.  Pretty average team that happened to have a great week.

[ecompt]

We need to realize are shots aren't going to fall every night so we will have to play hard defense and take it to the hoop on the offensive end. Also some guys took dumb shots really early in the shot clock, i was getting very frustrated

Thing is, when our shots don't fall we have no one on this team who can create his own shot. Howard is too small to do it and I fear Hauser will never do it in this league. Great 3-point shooter but simply cannot do anything else.

[wadesworld]

We have lost three of our last 4 games. Who is calling Providence and SJU bad? Glass houses.

I call St. John's and Providence bad.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Hey, the kids played hard, and gave it their best, right?? Come on, it's about winning basketball games. I feared it then, and it's coming to fruition now, beating Nova was the worst thing to happen to this team..lost 3-4 since then. they were content with that win being their season highlight. they acted like they had just won the National championship. Wish they would have just acted like they had been there before.

Yes. Too much celebrating is why we lost 3 of the last 4. 

Can't act like you've been there before if you've never been there before. Upset wins against #1 teams don't happen often. Even more rarely in that dramatic of a fashion. Its ok to enjoy it.

[4everwarriors]

Go to da state fair and you'll see great lookin' pigs. Go to da BC and the pig is pedestrian, ai na?

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

It was lipstick on a pig and I bought in as well. We caught Creighton in their first game without their All American point guard and we caught the defending national champion on a night where they shot 6 for 34 from 3 and still only won by 2. Other than that? Not much to get overly excited about. Wins at home against not great Seton Hall and Georgetown teams, on a neutral court against a not great Vandy team, solid win at a not great Georgia team, losses to bad teams in Providence and St. John's, and home losses to 2 good teams whose best players were out for literally half the game (Butler and Wisconsin). Fact of the matter is this team just isn't great.

True, but the last 10-12 at large NCAA teams aren't great either.  They will all have warts.  Especially this year. It is still there for the taking.

[wadesworld]

True, but neither is the last 10-12 at large NCAA teams.  Especially this year.

Agreed.  We still have a chance.  But we aren't good enough to just roll out the ball and play.  Need to move the ball (this is where our problem was on offense, it wasn't Butler running us off the 3 point line, it was that we made it easy on Butler to do so...every time we felt we needed a basket it was "Get the ball to Rowsey/Reinhardt/Howard, set a high ball screen, and watch them try to take on both the on ball defender and the screen defender by himself") and fine the open shooter and limit the open looks we give our opponents.  If we play hero ball we aren't an NCAA Tournament team because we won't be getting to 9 or 10 BE wins.  If we play within ourselves there are no games we can't win left.  But with how inconsistent this team has been, I struggle to see us stringing together wins.

[Lennys Tap]

It was lipstick on a pig and I bought in as well. We caught Creighton in their first game without their All American point guard and we caught the defending national champion on a night where they shot 6 for 34 from 3 and still only won by 2. Other than that? Not much to get overly excited about. Wins at home against not great Seton Hall and Georgetown teams, on a neutral court against a not great Vandy team, solid win at a not great Georgia team, losses to bad teams in Providence and St. John's, and home losses to 2 good teams whose best players were out for literally half the game (Butler and Wisconsin). Fact of the matter is this team just isn't great.

This is (sadly) an accurate appraisal of this year's team. We're very good offensively when our shots fall (which is usually) and awful defensively unless the other team has a really bad shooting night (see Villanova).

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

Agreed.  We still have a chance.  But we aren't good enough to just roll out the ball and play.  Need to move the ball (this is where our problem was on offense, it wasn't Butler running us off the 3 point line, it was that we made it easy on Butler to do so...every time we felt we needed a basket it was "Get the ball to Rowsey/Reinhardt/Howard, set a high ball screen, and watch them try to take on both the on ball defender and the screen defender by himself") and fine the open shooter and limit the open looks we give our opponents.  If we play hero ball we aren't an NCAA Tournament team because we won't be getting to 9 or 10 BE wins.  If we play within ourselves there are no games we can't win left.  But with how inconsistent this team has been, I struggle to see us stringing together wins.

Completely agreed.  Our ball movement last night was piss poor. Butler, coming off two losses, and having a week to prepare, had a great game plan for us.  I dont recall our offense looking that of whack in a couple months.  We didn't react well to them pushing us off the line.  Thank god Luke had a big game or it would have been much uglier.  If we can mix Luke playing like a beast and good outside shooting, we'd be very tough to beat. Unfortunately, we haven't gotten both in many games all year.

[GoldenDieners32]

Agreed.  We still have a chance.  But we aren't good enough to just roll out the ball and play.  Need to move the ball (this is where our problem was on offense, it wasn't Butler running us off the 3 point line, it was that we made it easy on Butler to do so...every time we felt we needed a basket it was "Get the ball to Rowsey/Reinhardt/Howard, set a high ball screen, and watch them try to take on both the on ball defender and the screen defender by himself") and fine the open shooter and limit the open looks we give our opponents.  If we play hero ball we aren't an NCAA Tournament team because we won't be getting to 9 or 10 BE wins.  If we play within ourselves there are no games we can't win left.  But with how inconsistent this team has been, I struggle to see us stringing together wins.

Totally agree with you, we can win if we make the extra pass maybe throw a couple ball fakes in there and take it to the rim. Run our offense and create offense from our defense

[Hubert Davis]

Look, I would LOVE for Marquette to make the tournament. That would be huge. But look at it this way... ya'll keep saying there are "opportunities" and it's still there for the taking. Weak bubble, etc. Yes, yes and yes. I agree. But we've had nothing but opportunities all season!!! Wojo can't win the big games. He lost two games to two bad teams after the enormous upset of Nova. Bad! Then you have a key home game vs. a VERY beatable Butler team and they can't get it done. The guy doesn't have the juice yet and his teams sure as hell don't. It's sad. Absolutely no toughness.

[goldeneagle91114]

Look, I would LOVE for Marquette to make the tournament. That would be huge. But look at it this way... ya'll keep saying there are "opportunities" and it's still there for the taking. Weak bubble, etc. Yes, yes and yes. I agree. But we've had nothing but opportunities all season!!! Wojo can't win the big games. He lost two games to two bad teams after the enormous upset of Nova. Bad! Then you have a key home game vs. a VERY beatable Butler team and they can't get it done. The guy doesn't have the juice yet and his teams sure as hell don't. It's sad. Absolutely no toughness.

Completely agree with this. I think once Same and Howard become upperclassman they will display the toughness it takes to win consistently in the Big East. Until then, let stop talking about the bubble and our slim chances of making the tournament and just watch our young players develop. In addition Wojo will recruit more great talent, we all know hes capable of doing this.. However, he also needs to find a "defensive coordinator" for an assistant and start to preach X's and O's.

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

Completely agree with this. I think once Same and Howard become upperclassman they will display the toughness it takes to win consistently in the Big East. Until then, let stop talking about the bubble and our slim chances of making the tournament and just watch our young players develop. In addition Wojo will recruit more great talent, we all know hes capable of doing this.. However, he also needs to find a "defensive coordinator" for an assistant and start to preach X's and O's.

You can think that all you want, but the bottom line is, its completely inaccurate. 

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Wojo can't win the big games.

Other than this being completely and totally wrong, you are so right.  I mean, beating #1?  Not a big game!  Beating #7 on the road?  Not a big game!  There is no arguing with your logic sir!

[Marcus92]

Fact of the matter is this team just isn't great.

There's a big, big difference between a "pig" and "great." This is a good team — quite likely one of the 5 best teams in the Big East, which is one of the 3 toughest conferences in the country. They are a great offensive team, last night's performance notwithstanding. Defensively, they're very mediocre.

If we can improve from 10th two years ago to 7th last season to 5th this year (along with an NCAA invitation), I like where we're headed.

[goldeneagle91114]

You can think that all you want, but the bottom line is, its completely inaccurate.

the team needs to with 3 or 4 of the next 6 to make the tournament. They are more likely to go 1 and 5 down the stretch.

Xavier is good and i don't see us beating them
We needed 100 points to beat Creighton the game after they lost Watson, they are much better now
Georgetown is not the team we faced at the beginning of Big East Play
We have lost to providence... at home
St. Johns beat us handily because they are more athletic

Please explain where you think 3 or 4 wins will come from.

[RJax55]

There's a big, big difference between a "pig" and "great." This is a good team — quite likely one of the 5 best teams in the Big East, which is one of the 3 toughest conferences in the country. They are a great offensive team, last night's performance notwithstanding. Defensively, they're very mediocre.

If we can improve from 10th two years ago to 7th last season to 5th this year (along with an NCAA invitation), I like where we're headed.

I don't know. Good? Looking like average at best. And, no, this team is not mediocre defensively. They are bad.

The next 6 games are big for Wojo. If he goes 2-4 down the stretch (very possible) and finishes 8-10, is that progress?

[Golden Avalanche]

This place continues to provide me with the good laughs. Watching the mood swing of the last 18 days has been great entertainment. Thank you all for the generosity.