Kolek planning to go pro
I was actually a lot higher on the team going into last season than most people around here were. I thought we would be a bubble team and liked that we had an elite defender at the point of attack in Morsell and elite rim protector in Kuath. I thought that was a solid starting point. The team outperformed my (modestly more optimistic) expectations going into last year, so hopefully they outperform my expectations this year. I like Shaka a lot, and was thrilled when we thought we were getting him the first time around.The pessimism this year comes from us losing our (by far) two best players from a team that had one really hot month and otherwise was just meh, and replaced them with two three stars, an NAIA transfer, and an international recruit. I saw (and still see) guys who can play one side of the ball but struggle on the other side. Stevie and OMax are hounds defensively. Kolek can control the pace of the game and manipulate the defense. Oso is performing much better than expected and is one guy who performs well both offensively and defensively. But I have 0 confidence at all in any of those guys' perimeter shooting. And basketball at all levels now is about shooting. When 4 of your 5 starters are not threats to shoot at all, that's a problem. And off the bench we have one guy who is a threat. Maybe Ben Gold or Sean Jones can be a second guy off the bench, but I'm not counting on it this year.I don't see the talent. You need All Conference level talent to compete with the top of a conference. Jop and Kam could have the offensive numbers, but they're as bad on defense as they are good on offense. Kolek and Oso could maybe get there, but when you can't score from more than 5 feet from the rim it'll be difficult to get the scoring numbers.We'll see. I'd love to be wrong, but the only guy playing better than what I expected so far this year is Oso.
A look back:22-23: 5 point loss @ #23 Purdue21-22: N/A20-21: N/A19-20: 16 point loss @ #22 Wisconsin18-19: 23 point loss @ #52 Indiana17-18: N/A16-17: N/A15-16: N/A14-15: 11 point loss @ #19 Ohio State13-14: 2 point loss @ #39 Arizona State12-13: 33 point loss @ #2 Florida11-12: N/A10-11: 3 point win @#138 UW-Milwaukee09-10: N/A08-09: N/A07-08: 11 point win vs. non-D1 Chaminade06-07: 3 point win vs. #148 Valparaiso05-06: 10 point loss vs. #111 Nebraska04-05: 8 point win vs. #178 Oakland03-04: 7 point win vs. #200 St. John's02-03: N/A (season started a week later than it does now, 21 point loss @ #21 Notre Dame on December 2nd)01-02: N/A00-01: N/A99-00: 9 point loss @ MinnesotaWe have literally only beaten a high major on the road in November once in the past 4 coaches and that was a crappy St. John's team that went 6-21. Even in that win and the wins against non-high majors, we've put up terrible performances and only won by single digits (or 11 against a non-D1 team).I'd venture to say that last night was the best we looked in a November true road game during this near quarter-century stretch. Doesn't mean that this season will go well, but it's another reason I'm not pessimistic about yesterday's performance.
That's high on morsell honestly. "By far" is a little extreme. It implies he was within 2 tiers of the player Justin Lewis was, when he really wasn't. He was in the same tier of player as Kolek, Omax, Oso, and Kur. You could probably have him second, but that gap was small.
Morsell was our second leading scorer (by almost double our 3rd leading scorer), 4th leading rebounder (0.2 rebounds shy of 2nd leading rebounder), 2nd leading assist man, 2nd leading steals man, 4th leading blocks man, 3rd leading 3 point shooter (didn't include Ellis or Mitchell because they both shot less than 1 three pointer per game). I could hear a case for Kolek being close to Morsell, but I don't think OMax, Oso, or Kur were even close.
I tend to agree Morsell was our second-best player but not all that much better than Kolek. Morsell was the best player on the court for us the first 4 games -- a true revelation as he averaged 22.5 ppg on 57% shooting. But then, the rest of the way, he was much closer to the guy he was for 4 years at Maryland, averaging 12 ppg on 43% shooting. Still played fine D and did other things well, though Shaka did bench him a couple times.
Shaka mentioned during his presser that the guys on the floor down the stretch last night were on the bench last year.Last year, Kur, Darryl, Justin, and probably Greg would have been on the floor down the stretch. Young guys have to figure it out.
There is one person, and one person only to blame (or credit) with the lineup we had available down the stretch last night or any night this season.I like Shaka, and I think he'll do a good job, but he gets no sympathy from me regarding the players he has. He is the Marquette men's basketball GM.
He wasn't asking for sympathy. He's explaining why things didn't go smoothly.
Fair. "Sympathy" was a poor word choice on my part.But it does sound like Shaka is making an excuse (as well as stating a fact). The way his roster is constructed is 100% up to him. If roster construction contributed to the loss, there's only one person responsible for that.
Id have to look back, but weren't you one of the guys who continued to give Wojo a pass claiming "bare cupboard". Pretty rough to give a coach in year 2 grief for not having a strong depth. Especially when you consider he lost a very strong piece in Lewis who very few people would have thought would go pro this time last year.[/quoteLewis was a big loss, Morsell as much as both could create there own shot. Two alpha dogs last year. This year, other then Kolek, who can take over or get to the hoop. Joplin and Kam, even Omax, are not drivers of the ball. Oso is to timid, Mitchell not quick enough, so it will be interesting the last 5 minutes of every game. This is called coaching, Shaka failed his first close game. He is building a roster, so he will have seniors and juniors next year, an older team with lots of depth, Tre Norman might be that Alpha Dog, we will see.
Quote from: #Unleash? on November 16, 2022, 10:17:09 PMId have to look back, but weren't you one of the guys who continued to give Wojo a pass claiming "bare cupboard". Pretty rough to give a coach in year 2 grief for not having a strong depth. Especially when you consider he lost a very strong piece in Lewis who very few people would have thought would go pro this time last year.[/quoteLewis was a big loss, Morsell as much as both could create there own shot. Two alpha dogs last year. This year, other then Kolek, who can take over or get to the hoop. Joplin and Kam, even Omax, are not drivers of the ball. Oso is to timid, Mitchell not quick enough, so it will be interesting the last 5 minutes of every game. This is called coaching, Shaka failed his first close game. He is building a roster, so he will have seniors and juniors next year, an older team with lots of depth, Tre Norman might be that Alpha Dog, we will see.I'm confused at how someone can say this team doesn't have depth.This is as balanced and deep of a team as we've seen here in quite some time.10 guys can get minutes and our leading scorer comes off the bench.
Id have to look back, but weren't you one of the guys who continued to give Wojo a pass claiming "bare cupboard". Pretty rough to give a coach in year 2 grief for not having a strong depth. Especially when you consider he lost a very strong piece in Lewis who very few people would have thought would go pro this time last year.
I gave Wojo a pass in Year 1. He was a first-time head coach taking over a roster that I felt had shortcomings. After that, I expected him to build a team that would show progress as Marquette built itself back into a team that would be able to make NCAAT runs. It took longer that I wanted but I felt he had made progress through Year 5.Shaka is an established coach who, again, was brought here to re-build the program. He has done a great job so far. I'm not the one who is using his current roster as an excuse for anything. If Shaka has a problem with the construction of his roster, that is on him, is it not? Who else is to "blame" (for lack of better word) for us not bringing in any ready-to-compete transfers, especially bigs and 3-point shooters?I think Shaka is doing a very good job, and I'm excited about this season. But if the head coach is going to publicly cite a lack of this or that roster-wise, something he's done more than once, it's not the best look IMHO. Anytime Wojo claimed "young team" or "tired legs" or whatever, he was killed for it on Scoop -- and rightly so.
The roster is deep because there’s not much separation between a lot of the guys. Not necessarily a negative, but as we saw at Purdue, we didn’t have anyone we could go to late in the game when we needed a bucket. Last year, we leaned heavily on Lewis and Morsell when points were needed but we don’t have that guy yet.
A pass in Year 1?? You gave Wojo 5 years of rope! Shaka wasn't "making excuses" or looking for "sympathy" for us losing at Purdue due to the young guys playing crunch time minutes - and not having had that experience previously. He stated it as a fact, and as an area for those guys, and the team to grow.And FFS Purdue hasn't lost at home since 2019, has an All-American monster in the middle, and we led the game for roughly 34 of the 40 minutes. Wojo got a shellacking at home in the Gavitt games in Year 2, losing to Iowa 89-61 and being down 48-21 at the half.But, Jay Wright didn't win an NCAA game until Year 7 of his career. So. There's that. Perhaps when Wonder-boy Wojo emerges from his Yoga retreat and takes his next head coaching job, he'll breakthrough in Year 7 and get his NCAA win and go on to a Hall of Fame coaching career like Jay Wright.
Agreed. There is no “go to guy” right now. I think that’s one thing many had hoped would emerge from the transfer market this past off season — another experienced player who could get his like a Morsell.
MU has a deep roster, but young. Need another year to grow together. Expect big improvement when the team is juniors and seniors. Just do not have an alpha dog as of now. Best 2 scorers have ice in there veins, and do not know what a good or bad shot is. As Shaka says Kam is shooting the ball from half court, not winning plays.