after 36 hours to reflect...

[ecompt]

on what was the most crushing loss I have ever witnessed in person:
1. TC's coaching in the final minbute was atrocious. First, he takes out Ooze to put in Cubillan, and Sosa is allowed to drive the length of the floor and, seeing we have no defensive presence, puts in a  layup to tie the game. Why is Cubes in the game at this point? He is not a great defender and is short, to boot. Then, the one guy on UL who can beat us is Smith. Why is he allowed to even touch the ball?
2. Our inside play was the equal of a bad Division III team. Ooze couldn't catch the ball and Dwight Burke and Kinsella looked like the Keystone Kops out there. There was one sequence where Kinsella and Fitz were out there and I said to my wife, "Watch how easily Louisville scores here." Boom! Pick and roll, Kinsella gets lost, layup. And, I'm, sorry, the more I watch Burke, I wonder how he ever gets off the bench.
3. I came out of the game thinking, well, we'll go to the NIT. Then I cooled off and realized that the team played its butt off and still lost, and will certainly get an NCAA bid.
4.  It is not a great assembly of talent TC has put together, and this team has to play out of its mind to have a chance against the big boys. Look at UL: Jerry Smith is better than any player we have, Palacios is as good as anyone we have, and Padgett (though he was awful Saturday) is better than any of our inside players. We probably have five or six guys that UL (or Pitt or Gtown) would never have considered offering scholarships to.
5. Dominic must have heard the criticism of his outside shooting and decided he'd do nothing but distribute Saturday. Problem was, he became an absolute non-factor, except in ther first six minutes when he kept UL in the game with 0-for-3 FGs, 0-for-2 FTs, and two turnovers. I truly hopes he realizes that he needs at least one and maybe two more years of college ball before the NBA.
6. Went to Mass at Gesu yesterday and walked around the campus and realized how proud I was to be an alum. Then I went into the Union store and saw the lines of people buying MU apparel and thought about how far we have come from the Dukiet days. There is hope. One Maurice Lucas-type kid would make this team a powerhouse.
OK, I'm done. Time to get ready to go back to the BC for tonight's game.

[Nukem2]

Yes, pulling Oooze was strange and our group commented on that right away.  Actually, Cooby was not at fault on the Sosa layup (and, he is a pretty good defender overall).  As Rosiak reports today, that was on Fitz (as well as the game winner).  The other play that irked me was the unforced Fitz TO at the 2 minute mark with about 23 seconds on the shot clock thus preventing MU from killing more of the clock and helping Louisville.  I love Dan and his contributions, but he had a bad stetch run Saturday nite.   A Lucas or Chones or  Whitehead or McNeill or Marrquardt or Nyenhuis or RJax or McIlvvaine or etc. would be really nice for this team!

[IAmMarquette]

on what was the most crushing loss I have ever witnessed in person:
1. TC's coaching in the final minbute was atrocious. First, he takes out Ooze to put in Cubillan, and Sosa is allowed to drive the length of the floor and, seeing we have no defensive presence, puts in a  layup to tie the game. Why is Cubes in the game at this point? He is not a great defender and is short, to boot. Then, the one guy on UL who can beat us is Smith. Why is he allowed to even touch the ball?
2. Our inside play was the equal of a bad Division III team. Ooze couldn't catch the ball and Dwight Burke and Kinsella looked like the Keystone Kops out there. There was one sequence where Kinsella and Fitz were out there and I said to my wife, "Watch how easily Louisville scores here." Boom! Pick and roll, Kinsella gets lost, layup. And, I'm, sorry, the more I watch Burke, I wonder how he ever gets off the bench.
3. I came out of the game thinking, well, we'll go to the NIT. Then I cooled off and realized that the team played its butt off and still lost, and will certainly get an NCAA bid.
4.  It is not a great assembly of talent TC has put together, and this team has to play out of its mind to have a chance against the big boys. Look at UL: Jerry Smith is better than any player we have, Palacios is as good as anyone we have, and Padgett (though he was awful Saturday) is better than any of our inside players. We probably have five or six guys that UL (or Pitt or Gtown) would never have considered offering scholarships to.
5. Dominic must have heard the criticism of his outside shooting and decided he'd do nothing but distribute Saturday. Problem was, he became an absolute non-factor, except in ther first six minutes when he kept UL in the game with 0-for-3 FGs, 0-for-2 FTs, and two turnovers. I truly hopes he realizes that he needs at least one and maybe two more years of college ball before the NBA.
6. Went to Mass at Gesu yesterday and walked around the campus and realized how proud I was to be an alum. Then I went into the Union store and saw the lines of people buying MU apparel and thought about how far we have come from the Dukiet days. There is hope. One Maurice Lucas-type kid would make this team a powerhouse.
OK, I'm done. Time to get ready to go back to the BC for tonight's game.

1. Gotta disagree here. Cubillan has been one of the top defenders on the team this season, probably behind the 3 sophomores. With Padgett out, UL was forced to go small, making Cube the better matchup than Ooze.
2. Ooze has been our only inside presence all seson, and he's been struggling of late. Our inside game hasn't been a strong suit, but "equal that of a bad D-III team" is a bit of hyperbole. More like a low-middle-of-the-pack D-I team (I don't believe we fall into this category, just that our inside game as a whole has been at about that level).
3. Barring total collapse (i.e. not winning another game) there's no way we're NIT bound.
4. Gotta disagree again. Two weeks ago we featured one of the best backcourts in the country, by any and all accounts. Suddenly Jerry Smith is head & shoulders better than anyone we've got? The kid scored 9 points, all in the last 3 minutes. Got hot at the right time, but didn't play a great game by any means. Talent is not the problem, execution is. As for the "five or six guys that UL (or Pitt or Gtown) would never have considered offering scholarships to," well, I can't comment on that, since I'm not privy to the recruiting ways of UL, PITT or GTown.
5. James certainly didn't take over the game, or even play a great game. But, like you said, he started 0-3FG, 0-2FT with 2TO in the first 6 minutes. That means the rest of the way he went 3-3FG, 3-4FT with 2TO, not to mention the 6TREB and 3AST. Was this DJ's best game? Absolutely not. But the fact that he wasn't forcing shot after shot is a step in the right direction. I agree that he's probably not NBA-ready, but that won't necessarily stop him from declaring for the draft or some NBA GM from taking a shot on DJ in a PG-thin draft.
6. MU has a lot of things going for it right now, not just in terms of basketball. You said it: There is hope.

[muwarrior87]

The group I was sitting with actually agreed with the move to put Cube in for Oouze. Cube is another ball handler and shooter that we needed on the court since they were chasing and fouling. It gave us a better option than Barro in that sense. Also, Louisville went smaller so Oouse again wasn't really needed and Cubillan is a good defender. McNeal makes his free throws late and James hits the front end of his and the debate for this game is minimized dramatically because we would have won.

That said, if we win tonight, we get back on the right track and can maybe finish the season strong. We have 3 good opponents to finish it out and hopefully we can take at least one or two of these games going into the BET. Getting the 4 seed would be nice but I'll settle for some good games and a couple wins down the stretch right now. This team is young and will rebound...our seniors are non-existant when it comes to playing time.