Friar's club roast MU

[Shooter McGavin]

I thought Shaka kept too many timeouts in his pocket at the end of regulation. Could have used a couple to do something different on offense.

Yep. We were saying this in real time before Providence fully made their comeback. 

Is this a long play?   Is Shaka thinking the sooner they figure it out on their own the better?  Will saving timeouts during horrendous scoring droughts help win tournament games?  Would like to know Shaka’s perspective.

[PointWarrior]

Baylor win may start looking like wojo’s Villanova win. 

[Vander Blue Man Group]

Why can’t people criticize a team they root for without you jumping in and acting like they just kicked your dog? We shouldn’t be negative about losing a game we were up 8 with 6:30 left and scored 2 points the rest of regulation? Giving up a 20-4 run between the end of regulation and overtime?

We’ve shown an inability to close out teams in close games. We’re bound to be a bubble team. Closing out games is very, very concerning.

It’s okay to have some negativity.

Being critical and being inherently negative are very different.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

I'm of the opinion that refs very, very seldom determine the outcome of games...but there are the occasional clear exceptions.

Sure, MU should have put it away in regulation, but the refs willed Providence to the victory.

[NCMUFan]

If we were a better team with a better coach we would have won.
Just need to hope we play better and are coached better next time.

[lostpassword]

This shot by Breed was crushing.  3 was our largest lead in the last 10 minutes and it lasted 25 seconds.  We never had the ball up more than 1 in OT1 or OT2.

2:29 David Joplin made Three Point Jumper.  96   93
2:04 Alyn Breed made Three Point Jumper.    96   96

[Goose]

Point

I think you bumped your head during your time the great Northwest.

[DoctorV]

I thought officiating was fine until 2 minutes left in regulation.  It was awful from that point on.  Huge factor in deciding the outcome.  Also big factors-
- in ability to block out free throws.  This includes Sean jones who did not block out the shooter
- Omax falling on his layups and taking himself out of the defensive possession leading to easy baskets on other end.  Happens at least once every game.  At least 4 times tonight.
-Joplin losing defensive focus
- giving up layups off jump balls
-Kam was just off on anything more than a few feet out.  It happens

Good points.

One commonality from all 4 losses this season has been a poor performance from OMax

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Getting calls from friends that say Marquette vs Purdue, Miss St, Wisconsin, and now Providence look like Wojo teams.

Sure you are.

[Newsdreams]

I'm of the opinion that refs very, very seldom determine the outcome of games...but there are the occasion clear exceptions.

Sure, MU should have put it away in regulation, but the refs willed Providence to the victory.

We had control of game in 2nd half, in reality it wasn't the refs. Call a timeout and regroup, but....

[TSmith34, Inc.]

It was interesting they put in Stevie Mitchell vs Sean Jones when Kolek fouled out.
I guess Shaka was thinking defense versus point guard.

Jones brought nothing tonight

[Its DJOver]

Hard to look past the FT discrepancy, but the game was also there to win. The last 5 minutes and both OTs were very ugly for both teams.  PC was clearly only looking to get fouled, and we weren't really running anything at all.  Have to hold serve on Tuesday at home.

[Ellenson Guerrero]

Jones brought nothing tonight

Jones is in a bit of a tough spot. He’s playing two minute increments if he’s lucky. I think he’ll be better in time with more extended run.

[DoctorV]

Jones brought nothing tonight

Perhaps true.

This is the type of game that you have to get creative late to win though.

Shaka tried with getting Sean the ball at the end of regulation, imo a good move since he’s the fastest dude on the court no matter what the announcers or anyone else says.

He should have given him minutes in the extra frames for the same reason- that speed and athleticism could have opened up the game when going up against tired legs late. Shaka didn’t.
Would have really made sense after Tyler fouled out.

One more thing that is seemingly off the wall but would’ve made a lot of sense-
Oso lost all 3 tips and both of the overtime frames led to quick Providence buckets.
Possessions at that point in the game are so important that I would have sent Keeyan out for the tip for both OTs, don’t care if he hasn’t played a single minute. Utilize your strength and call a timeout if you have to, you've kept extras for a reason

[muwarrior69]

Curious question. Why does the OT period begin with a tip off rather than honoring the possession arrow?

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Curious question. Why does the OT period begin with a tip off rather than honoring the possession arrow?

Good question. Thought the same thing.

[PointWarrior]

Possibly Goose - got a lot going on now.  Just wish a Shaka team could hold a lead down the stretch or beat a disciplined team like Wisconsin.

Point

I think you bumped your head during your time the great Northwest.

[DegenerateDish]

Also big factors-
- in ability to block out free throws.  This includes Sean jones who did not block out the shooter

This is an excellent point, definitely deserved mentioning. I think at least twice (maybe more?) in the OT’s, MU gave up offensive rebounds on Friar misses.

That Joplin front end miss (I think it was with 2 minutes left in the second OT) hurt too.

[We R Final Four]

Perhaps true.

This is the type of game that you have to get creative late to win though.

Shaka tried with getting Sean the ball at the end of regulation, imo a good move since he’s the fastest dude on the court no matter what the announcers or anyone else says.

He should have given him minutes in the extra frames for the same reason- that speed and athleticism could have opened up the game when going up against tired legs late. Shaka didn’t.
Would have really made sense after Tyler fouled out.

One more thing that is seemingly off the wall but would’ve made a lot of sense-
Oso lost all 3 tips and both of the overtime frames led to quick Providence buckets.
Possessions at that point in the game are so important that I would have sent Keeyan out for the tip for both OTs, don’t care if he hasn’t played a single minute. Utilize your strength and call a timeout if you have to, you've kept extras for a reason

Thought it should’ve been Sean at the end of the UW OT game.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Jones is in a bit of a tough spot. He’s playing two minute increments if he’s lucky. I think he’ll be better in time with more extended run.

I get it, he's only a third of the way through his freshman year. Plenty of time for improvement. But so far, yeesh.

[NotAnAlum]

Very disappointing.   When you have a 9 point lead with less than 5 left you should win that game.  I've said before my biggest concern with this team is can they won a close game.  They still have yet to do that.  MU plays good team ball but in crunch time it comes down to who are your go to guys and can they make winning plays.  Kolek and Kam sleep walked through the first 3 minutes of OT then turned it on when it was almost too late.  Kam's wide open 3 simply must go down.
Oh well you can bet we'll have many more opportunities in close games.  Tournament teams win their share of those games.  Right now we're 0 for

[AlumKCof93]

Sean has been good this year.  Tonight was rough, but otherwise solid contributions from the freshman

[panda]

Ref show. But cmon folks. Absolutely putrid offensive performance down the stretch. Several possessions of not even getting shots off all while we sat on a couple time outs. That game was won against an inferior team before that 5 minute or so stretch of zero points. Bad shot selection, poor decision making on the floor and on the sideline at the end of regulation lost that game.

[Elonsmusk]

Don't tell ners.

I sure spend a lot of time in your head Tower.  Pointwarrior is turning into a snowflake.  It's Year 2, game 13 of Shaka's tenure.  We finished 97th in Year 2 of Wojo.  We are ranked 24th.  Sucked that we lost this game and couldn't win this one, or Wisconsin, or Purdue, or MS State.  Nearly impossible to win on the road when the opposition shoots 30 more FTs.

Kolek played like a warrior today, with a few critical turnovers at crucial times.  But, tonight was a big step forward for Tyler.  At least we agree that Tyler isn't going to lose minutes to Sean Jones, whom I love as a prospect.

[MU82]

I'm not one who immediately jumps on the refs, but the officiating was poor tonight. Many of the same kind of bumps Providence got away with were called fouls on Marquette. It's basically impossible that Hopkins didn't get called for a single foul.

However ...

We had SO many chances to win this game and to take it 100% out of the officials' hands.

From the 7:21 mark of regulation, when Kam scored to put us up 75-66, until 40 seconds remained, we were outscored 12-1. There were turnovers by Oso, Joplin and 2 bad ones by Kolek, we were 0-4 from the field, and we missed a FT.

Most of the offense during that stretch was unwatchable. The possession Dish talked about -- 5-point lead with 3 1/2 minutes to go, Kolek holds the ball for 25 seconds before passing to Kam for a little-chance 3 -- awful! That miss led directly to an open 3 that they drained, then Joplin turns it over, and Croswell makes a layup. Just like that, a minute later, it's tied. Can't blame the refs for any of that.

Frankly, we were so deer-in-headlights during that stretch it was amazing we still had a chance to win.

Then, in the OTs, we have FT misses by Joplin (front end of 1-and-1), Kolek and Kam. Providence has FT misses, too ... but they get 3 effen offensive rebounds on them. They had 5 rebounds of missed FTs during the game. It's hard to win a basketball game when you can't block out on an opponent's missed FT.

Watched the game at a bar with 3 fellow Warriors and was on a text chain with two others ... and all of us were begging Shaka to use a timeout down the stretch when we were falling apart. Also, I don't know about putting in a freshman at the end of regulation who had played only 1 bad minute in the second half and none after the 14:54 mark when Shaka benched him. Maybe Shaka just got his Joneses confused -- there was plenty of time for Kam to get the inbounds pass, dribble down and try a 3 that would have at least had a prayer.

So yes, I do think the refs blew. But one has to try really, really hard to ignore all of our alma mater's self-inflicted wounds and say the refs blew the game for us. Make an effen FT in OT. Grab an effen rebound off a missed Providence FT. Don't stand around playing effen clueless, almost motionless offense for 6+ minutes down the stretch. And so on and so on. Ugh.