Oso planning to go pro
Studio guy said it: still waiting for Markus to make his teammates better. Not gonna happen, Markus isn’t that kind of player. And it’s going to be a problem come March.
MU way more potent when MH is distributing and more fun to watch.
Hey, we agree on something.
I did take note when Lavin said MU was one trick pony. Howard has to make better decisions and make other guys better. I had turned the corner a tad after St. John game, but I find him to be frustrating to watch at times.
Announcers were then talking about all the things he does to make his teammates better. 6 assists in the first half. Taking away help and creating space for others.
hairyI have read about the greatness of Howard for two year years on here and cannot completely disagree, but I have never seen a great player at MU being more polarizing to fanbase. He is a great scorer with a very long leash and that is it to me. After last season I noted a lack of system in the Wojo era and I still think only system is having a chucker. Starter with Carlino and the trend has continued. Hard to be consistent team when that is your game plan.
1. Howard insisting on being the reason we win or lose instead of it being a team win or loss. I put the blame on him & Wojo. He does not know when to stop chucking on games he doesn't have it. That's on him during the game, and on Wojo for not correcting it AT ALL in 3.5 years. For anyone who watched it, I thought the postgame comments about this from FS1 were fair and spot on. If I'm the guy who was WIDE OPEN in the corner while Markus is hoisting a contested 3 in front of two defenders several feet behind the line with 10 seconds left and us down one, I'm getting on the bus annoyed after this game.
I can still see an open Sam Hauser waving his hands vs SH as Markus throws up another missed shot at the end. You can almost trace his decision to transfer back to that sequence. For as great as Howard is, and his greatness is undeniable, he’s not clutch. The shot he took considering score and time was inexcusable. Wojo still hasn’t figured out how to effectively coach offense in end of game situations
It was weird, the studio crew had Markus selfishness as their announcing game plan from the start. Before the game when talking about Anim they said Howard does not make his teammates better and Donny Marshall basically said the Hausers left because of his ball dominance. Then they backtracked a touch daying it was a fine line when you are such a good scorer etc. They mentioned it again at halftime and said they should take him off the ball and though I did not watch the post game, from the comments here they were on the topic again.
hairyI have read about the greatness of Howard for two year years on here and cannot completely disagree, but I have never seensym a great player at MU being more polarizing to fanbase. He is a great scorer with a very long leash and that is it to me. After last season I noted a lack of system in the Wojo era and I still think only system is having a chucker. Starter with Carlino and the trend has continued. Hard to be consistent team when that is your game plan.
Some things. 1. I was wrong about the time of the shot to the head. 15:44... The next 20 minutes of game play saw Markus make one shot. I am sure it is just a coincidence.
And that's exactly what Lavin was saying in the postgame show. I get that coaches want good shooters to keep shooting, but I'd like to see a few more "plan B" possessions from Markus when he's not feeling it. Passing up just a few more shots per game could have some big results. There was a point late(ish?) in the second half when the announcers mentioned that Markus was x for 18, and I was thinking that seemed like a good pace. Something in the neighborhood of 20-24 shots is still a heavy workload but leaves something like 40 shots for the rest of the team. That seems like a reasonable balance. At the end of the day, though, this all comes back to Wojo's inexperience and not being totally sure how to get the most out of his All American while still giving the supporting cast the opportunity to have important roles on a regular basis. He's put together some gameplans that do this really well, but too many late game scenarios rely solely on everyone else getting out of Markus' way.I'd be curious to see usage rates for recent POY candidates, either conference or national, and compare to Markus this year. Is 40% noticeable higher than other stars?