Confirmation bias night

[jsglow]

While I understand what you are saying, I think the sequence at the end of the first half was huge.  STJ had the ball down one with less than a second difference between the shot and game clock.  They took a shot that missed with 10 seconds to go.  We grabbed the rebound and Cain hit a three with the clock running out.

A four point lead was much better than a one point deficit.

It was ugggee.  Truthfully Sultan, i think the difference was something in the range of 3-5 seconds but your point still stands.  I remember thinking when we missed that free throw that it was going to really suck if we went into the locker room down by 1 or 2.  The timing of the SJU shot wasn't bad and credit to Andrew for his calm run up court and rhythm feed to Cain.

[dw3dw3dw3]

Love the back-down from the wing, fancy footwork, aggressive Sam we saw. Becomes much more of a chess match when he has that game going. Had had mostly been exclusively going to the turn around jumper without much elevation, 6'7' defenders seemed to not really have an issue with that.  Showed a lot with the step-throughs, and creating space for his turnaround with all of his pivoting.  Having an option where the defense has to decide if they want to double team or give up an almost automatic 2 is huge. Found GE for a wide open 3 once on the double.  Running the offense through him also seemed to slow the pace a bit since he is so patient with everything.

I was hoping for the successful GE PG role, but that didn't work, and Wojo couldn't even wait till the TV timeout to put AR back in.  Maybe a summer of work and a healthy thumb will help, not going to be the answer this year though.

[jesmu84]

In the past, I had noticed some of our players - in particular, rowsey - demonstrating hesitancy in making a pass to a player who wasn't Howard or Hauser. Or avoiding the pass if it was a different player and resetting or taking it himself.

Last night, I saw none of that and it was fantastic. Much better for the team

[Spotcheck Billy]

NM

TRADING POST!!!   

[Daniel]

I love our freshmen!  Omg they are good now and will be fabulous players for MU!  They are energetic on both ends and Elliott and Cain cool as dukes shooting in resource spots.  Theo is going to be special.

And always gotta love Matt.  What a worker and he’s a darn good post defender and 10 rebounds last night.  Sweet.

Hauser - this is the way Hauser should play every game.  Take the lead, dominate, score, draw fouls.  He has improved so much over a great freshman year. 

Sacar - wow - so fun to watch now.  You never know what he is going to do with the ball - nightmare for defender. 

When Rowsey distributes the ball - look out. Great things happen.

Fun game t be at last night.    Let’s get a win in Chicago.  Will head to game on Saturday.  Section 112

Go Marquette!

[NickelDimer]

I keep saying it.

We will be really good next year. So much talent will have more experience.

And we will play with size and defense.

This year...still alive. DePaul isn’t a gimme and Gtown really scares me. But let’s see what happens

Aside from the obvious question mark of who will be our reliable PG I completely agree. Next year will be hands down Wojo’s best team and a big part of that is this years freshman class. So impressed with their development

[barfolomew]

Maybe Wojo's best home home victory in four years in terms of coaching (Nova for overall but that was because we got hot). 

• Students? AWOL

Yeah, a few of those TV shots of the student section were cringe-worthy.
They gave Qdoba to first 200 students and I was wondering what they were going to do with all that leftover Qdoba.

[muwarrior69]

Yeah, a few of those TV shots of the student section were cringe-worthy.
They gave Qdoba to first 200 students and I was wondering what they were going to do with all that leftover Qdoba.

Well, none of them have really experienced the excitement of a team that could make a deep run in the NCAA.

[AZWarrior]

Love the back-down from the wing, fancy footwork, aggressive Sam we saw. Becomes much more of a chess match when he has that game going. Had had mostly been exclusively going to the turn around jumper without much elevation, 6'7' defenders seemed to not really have an issue with that.  Showed a lot with the step-throughs, and creating space for his turnaround with all of his pivoting.  Having an option where the defense has to decide if they want to double team or give up an almost automatic 2 is huge. Found GE for a wide open 3 once on the double.  Running the offense through him also seemed to slow the pace a bit since he is so patient with everything.

Agree with all your points on Sam's post game.  I think running plays designed to get the ball to Sam in the low post are just as important as plays to free up Rowsey and Markus for 3s.

[MU82]

Agree with several about the sequence at the end of the first half. I was happy Rowsey went for the 2-for-1, thrilled we stopped the Johnnies and downright giddy when Cain hit that 3. Big difference mentally being up 4 as opposed to down a point or 2.

I love reading all the posts about all of our young players (and even gray-beards like Rowsey) developing after years-past charges of our coaching staff only being capable of "de-movitating" players.

It will be interesting to see how Markus gets integrated back into the rotation, assuming he is healthy enough to do so. It will be a very pleasant "problem" for Wojo.

Gotta take care of business Saturday - and I'm confident we will!

[NickelDimer]

Agree with several about the sequence at the end of the first half. I was happy Rowsey went for the 2-for-1, thrilled we stopped the Johnnies and downright giddy when Cain hit that 3. Big difference mentally being up 4 as opposed to down a point or 2.

I love reading all the posts about all of our young players (and even gray-beards like Rowsey) developing after years-past charges of our coaching staff only being capable of "de-movitating" players.

It will be interesting to see how Markus gets integrated back into the rotation, assuming he is healthy enough to do so. It will be a very pleasant "problem" for Wojo.

Gotta take care of business Saturday - and I'm confident we will!

Not only very interesting but quite possibly the biggest challenge yet for Wojo as a head coach. I know you used the work problem sarcastically, but this will honestly be interesting terrain for him to navigate.

[Floorslapper]

Not only very interesting but quite possibly the biggest challenge yet for Wojo as a head coach. I know you used the work problem sarcastically, but this will honestly be interesting terrain for him to navigate.

Think the challenge is navigated quite easily if we keep winning while Markus is sidelined.  However, in the event Markus happens to be able to go against DePaul, think Wojo needs to present as follows:

There have been times in history when injury clears the way for a different way of doing things.  Brady for Bledsoe.  Dak Prescott for Romo.  Sticking with the hot hand/formula that is working.

Markus, you know I think the world of you as a person and player, and have given you the ultimate green light.  However, at this point in time, I have to go with our senior, Andrew, as primary PG and minute getter.  Need you to be at the ready and at attention as a sixth man.  The team is 100% yours to lead the next two years.  It is simply too challenging for us to succeed defensively with both you and Andrew on the floor simultaneously.  Are you on board with this?

Coaching is largely managing personnel, egos, relationships.  Every coach is dealt with challenging personnel decisions.  Their task?  To make the right decision for the TEAM, while preserving a relationship with a key player that may not like their conclusion.

[Its DJOver]

If Markus is good to go an Saturday, he will see limited minutes, partly because of how well we've played without him, and partly because you don't want to jump right back to 30 mpg following an injury.  That being said, we should be able to win Saturday regardless of how many minutes he plays, if he plays at all.

[Herman Cain]

Honestly I almost didn't recognize that it was him. Not only was he voice not rough, he was speaking in a very animated and enthusiastic way - not the canned monotone coach speak he normally uses in interviews.

I like this Wojo. I hope we see and hear him a lot more often going forward.

If you talk to him in person one on one the way you described is how he talks.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

I don't buy for a second a theory that says we are a better team without Markus.

What I might buy is that some of the players (the Big 3) may have had felt the need to carry the load and didn't always trust their teammates on offense. And that those players (Jamal, Theo, Greg, Sacar, Matt) may have had some confidence issues because of it.

So far the team has stepped up beautifully. I hope to see this continue.

Markus will be instrumental if/when we make the postseason (NCAA or NIT). While Big East teams have us scouted with Howard pretty good, I'm not sure that teams from other conferences will be quite as well prepared.

[mu03eng]

Hasn't been noted, but I loved Markus on the bench last night....he was a very active assistant coach during the game, saw him multiple times coaching up Cain and Elliot when they came out on a substitution.

I'm betting Markus doesn't play Saturday, especially given the quick turn around on Monday, comes back against Wojo in limited minutes (15-20 depending on game situation) and assuming no set backs is good to go for the Creighton game.

I am really really really hopeful that Wojo has learned that he should split the two gunners improving his defense and limiting the impact on his offense.

[cheese ball chaser]

Well, none of them have really experienced the excitement of a team that could make a deep run in the NCAA.

Also, we were 0-3 in our previous 3 home games including a blowout loss to Butler

[Mr. Sand-Knit]

Agree with all your points on Sam's post game.  I think running plays designed to get the ball to Sam in the low post are just as important as plays to free up Rowsey and Markus for 3s.

Moreso,  look at Sams shooting percentages vs Howards.  Sam also recognizes a good shot from a bad one.  Hopefully this layoff will get Howard to stop reading his headlines n realize he needs to really work on his defense.  his technique and more importantly his effort on defense is truly horrendous.  As bad as i have seen.  His dribbling anf court vision are also very poor.  I hate to say it but he is kind of a no defense poor shooting percentage chucker at this point in his career.

[Dr. Blackheart]

No mic slapping last night either...

[tower912]

Amused by the notion Wojo has failed the team by playing the two midgets together.  I have studied the defensive matrices and completely get that the team is better defensively when only one is playing.  I've made long posts explaining the why.    But....

To start the year, Wojo went with experience.  Sam, Matt, Andrew, Markus, and Haanif.  Haanif left and was replaced by Sacar.  Wojo worked the frosh in gradually, managing their minutes, responsibilities, and expectations.  Their roles grew gradually.  They had quality minutes and clunkers, like most freshmen.  Andrew and Markus became two of the leading scorers in the Big East.
   Conference season rolled around.  The freshmen continued to have ups and downs.  Teams started figuring out how to neutralize the scorers.  Defensive liabilities got exposed.   The freshmen got their minutes thanks to foul trouble and played adequate defense, but gave only occasional offense.
     I reject the notion that Wojo has been holding this team back.  As recently as the first SJU game, Greg and Jamal gave nothing.  They stepped up last night, to be sure.  And I hope it continues.  We need them all.   But if they stink up a game, don't throw them or Wojo under the bus.  And to actually advocate for benching either a 19 or 20 point scorer is nuts.   And yet here we are. 

   Wojo isn't blind or stupid.   Figuring out how to juggle the limitations of this team is a challenge.  (9 players,  3centers, 3 frosh, two tiny guards who are the leading scorers) The announce team referenced it last night.  Three winnable games away from a likely tourney berth.   Wojo isn't perfect.  But he can learn.   And looking at it objectively, this may be a better coaching job than last year.

[Its DJOver]

Amused by the notion Wojo has failed the team by playing the two midgets together.  I have studied the defensive matrices and completely get that the team is better defensively when only one is playing.  I've made long posts explaining the why.    But....

To start the year, Wojo went with experience.  Sam, Matt, Andrew, Markus, and Haanif.  Haanif left and was replaced by Sacar.  Wojo worked the frosh in gradually, managing their minutes, responsibilities, and expectations.  Their roles grew gradually.  They had quality minutes and clunkers, like most freshmen.  Andrew and Markus became two of the leading scorers in the Big East.
   Conference season rolled around.  The freshmen continued to have ups and downs.  Teams started figuring out how to take neutralize the scorers.  Defensive liabilities got exposed.   The freshmen got their minutes thanks to foul trouble and played adequate defense, but gave only occasional offense.
     I reject the notion that Wojo has been holding this team back.  As recently as the first SJU game, Greg and Jamal gave nothing.  They stepped up last night, to be sure.  And I hope it continues.  We need them all.   But if they stink up a game, don't throw them or Wojo under the bus.  And to actually advocate for benching either a 19 or 20 point scorer is nuts.   And yet here we are. 

   Wojo isn't blind or stupid.   Figuring out how to juggle the limitations of this team is a challenge.  (9 players,  3centers, 3 frosh, two tiny guards who are the leading scorers) The announce team referenced it last night.  Three winnable games away from a likely tourney berth.   Wojo isn't perfect.  But he can learn.  And looking at it objectively, this may be abetter coaching job than last year.

Agree with everything except the last sentence.  If he gets us there, it should be uniNERSally accepted that he did a better coaching job this year than last year.

[GGGG]

Well said tower.

I also think some of the comments regarding Howard's value are a little over the top as well. 

[BrewCity83]

Listening to Wojo on Homer and Macs post-game show. I believe it is the first time I have heard him speak after a game where he wasn't hoarse.

Wojo was on the TV postgame and only sounded a little hoarse, but as they wrapped up, Dickie told him to "go grab yourself a throat lozenge".

[PGsHeroes32]

Aside from the obvious question mark of who will be our reliable PG I completely agree. Next year will be hands down Wojo’s best team and a big part of that is this years freshman class. So impressed with their development

Yup having a reliable PG would be massive and make us a really, really strong team.

That said, I still really like our chances regardless. Would be really disappointing if next years roster is even close to the bubble a year from now

[brewcity77]

It was ugggee.  Truthfully Sultan, i think the difference was something in the range of 3-5 seconds but your point still stands.  I remember thinking when we missed that free throw that it was going to really suck if we went into the locker room down by 1 or 2.  The timing of the SJU shot wasn't bad and credit to Andrew for his calm run up court and rhythm feed to Cain.

Those last two minutes of the first half were really bad. We looked to have a good shot to go into halftime with a double-digit lead, then squandered almost all of it before the buzzer. Pushing it back to 4 was mammoth and made what was a really good half gone bad look respectable.