We Must Clean the Glass

[tower912]

One of the challenges for MU is the switching on defense.   Because MU's forwards are quick enough to defend on the perimeter, frequently one of them is either contesting the 3 or  defending against the next pass on the perimeter.  If contesting the shot, they come down 20 feet from the basket as the ball is hitting the rim.   Leaving one forward and a collection of guards underneath.  Leaving a team like Xavier sending Nunge, Freemantle, and a third player to the boards.   Physics.

Oso yelled at Omax once for leaking out early.   The shot went up, Omax was at the. foul line and was starting up court.   Oso got out muscled for the ball, turned and yelled at OMax.   That is a mistake by OMax that can be corrected.

The other is a scheme issue that parallels a problem Wojo had.   If Luke/Theo/Oso/Omax are contesting 3's, who rebounds if the other team sends multiple players to the boards?    Teams made that adjustment in February last year.

  We will have to see what happens now. 

[Jockey]

And it's been a weakness of Shaka teams for awhile.

It will continue to be for a while.

Playing three guards almost constantly means rebounding issues - especially when O-Max plays like a big guard rather than a PF.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Scheme and lineup get more stressed when Oso gets into foul trouble early which is what BE coaches are first trying to accomplish. MSU, The Dence, UCONN, X.

Stevie is an awesome PG defender but he is essentially playing a forward spot. If teams are crashing three, OMax, Gold, and Joplin need to step up on the boards. That was Zach's role and why Shaka grabbed him.

[mugrad_89]

One of the challenges for MU is the switching on defense.   Because MU's forwards are quick enough to defend on the perimeter, frequently one of them is either contesting the 3 or  defending against the next pass on the perimeter.  If contesting the shot, they come down 20 feet from the basket as the ball is hitting the rim.   Leaving one forward and a collection of guards underneath.  Leaving a team like Xavier sending Nunge, Freemantle, and a third player to the boards.   Physics.

Oso yelled at Omax once for leaking out early.   The shot went up, Omax was at the. foul line and was starting up court.   Oso got out muscled for the ball, turned and yelled at OMax.   That is a mistake by OMax that can be corrected.

The other is a scheme issue that parallels a problem Wojo had.   If Luke/Theo/Oso/Omax are contesting 3's, who rebounds if the other team sends multiple players to the boards?    Teams made that adjustment in February last year.

  We will have to see what happens now.

We need more guys crashing the defensive glass even if it slows down the breakout - we are more than quick enough to still put stress on the opponent’s transition defense.

[MU82]

Oso yelled at Omax

We will have to see what happens now.

Hopefully not a letter.

[MuggsyB]

We need more guys crashing the defensive glass even if it slows down the breakout - we are more than quick enough to still put stress on the opponent’s transition defense.

XU's guards were +10 on the glass vs our guys. We must grab those long and in between rebs and forcefully hold on with two hands while boxing out other bigs.

[DoctorV]

The 14th best rebounding team in the country is coming to town, with a 6’7 and 6’8 guy that eat glass better than most guys in the conference.

A team that is well coached, as most are in the conference these days, and lost on this same court a year ago by 100 in a season when they won a conference title.
MU and Coach Shaka have the foul discrepancy gripe from weeks ago, but Providence and Coach Cooley have the memory of being embarrassed motivation, even though this years squad is much different than last years.

This is following a difficult, emotional loss with only two days to prepare.

The home crowd will help, the 2003FF team energy will help, but this one won’t be easy.

It’s also the most important game of this years conference slate imo, coming off of a loss with a trip to a separate challenge @SH looming.

[StillAWarrior]

We must grab those long and in between rebs and forcefully hold on with two hands while boxing out other bigs.

MU's failure to aggressively grab the ball -- whether rebounding or loose balls -- has caused me to yell at the TV more than any other tendency. It drives me crazy to see one of our guys standing flat footed waiting for a ball to reach him, while an opponent lunges for the ball and secures it. Also, when one of our guys is watching a ball go out of bounds knowing that the opponent touched it last, and then one of their guys flies in and saves the ball to their team.

Just. Grab. The. Damn. Ball.

[MuggsyB]

MU's failure to aggressively grab the ball -- whether rebounding or loose balls -- has caused me to yell at the TV more than any other tendency. It drives me crazy to see one of our guys standing flat footed waiting for a ball to reach him, while an opponent lunges for the ball and secures it. Also, when one of our guys is watching a ball go out of bounds knowing that the opponent touched it last, and then one of their guys flies in and saves the ball to their team.

Just. Grab. The. Damn. Ball.

Spot-on StillAWarrior.  I understand that some Scoopers think we're nitpicking but these are the little things that can make an enormous difference come March.  I and my pup have also yelled/barked at the TV quite a few times over this issue. 

[Shooter McGavin]

MU's failure to aggressively grab the ball -- whether rebounding or loose balls -- has caused me to yell at the TV more than any other tendency. It drives me crazy to see one of our guys standing flat footed waiting for a ball to reach him, while an opponent lunges for the ball and secures it. Also, when one of our guys is watching a ball go out of bounds knowing that the opponent touched it last, and then one of their guys flies in and saves the ball to their team.

Just. Grab. The. Damn. Ball.

Yep.  Watched the game again and this is the reason we lost.  They would have out rebounded us easily anyway but 4-5 more boards that were essentially ours before being poked away and a couple loose balls that were essentially ours that were poked away prevented MU from winning by 6-8 points.

Xavier had the extra kick of energy from being at home.  Let’s hope that same energy transfers to MU when we play Xavier at Fiserv.  I look forward to it.  Should be fun.

Have to beat Providence first though to ultimately have that game mean something.  Get er done MU!

[Its DJOver]

The 14th best rebounding team in the country is coming to town, with a 6’7 and 6’8 guy that eat glass better than most guys in the conference.

A team that is well coached, as most are in the conference these days, and lost on this same court a year ago by 100 in a season when they won a conference title.
MU and Coach Shaka have the foul discrepancy gripe from weeks ago, but Providence and Coach Cooley have the memory of being embarrassed motivation, even though this years squad is much different than last years.

This is following a difficult, emotional loss with only two days to prepare.

The home crowd will help, the 2003FF team energy will help, but this one won’t be easy.

It’s also the most important game of this years conference slate imo, coming off of a loss with a trip to a separate challenge @SH looming.

This.  Honestly think this is our best/worst chance to drop another home game this season.  I know it took us somewhat collapsing late, plus double OT, plus a huge FT discrepancy for PC to get the win in their building, but this one worries me more than any remaining home game. 

[MUDPT]

Scheme and lineup get more stressed when Oso gets into foul trouble early which is what BE coaches are first trying to accomplish. MSU, The Dence, UCONN, X.

Stevie is an awesome PG defender but he is essentially playing a forward spot. If teams are crashing three, OMax, Gold, and Joplin need to step up on the boards. That was Zach's role and why Shaka grabbed him.

This.  If the personnel changes to get more rebounds, it almost has to be someone that gets turnovers goes to the bench.  The number of possessions probably washes out in the end. 

[jfp61]

The 14th best rebounding team in the country is coming to town, with a 6’7 and 6’8 guy that eat glass better than most guys in the conference.

A team that is well coached, as most are in the conference these days, and lost on this same court a year ago by 100 in a season when they won a conference title.
MU and Coach Shaka have the foul discrepancy gripe from weeks ago, but Providence and Coach Cooley have the memory of being embarrassed motivation, even though this years squad is much different than last years.

This is following a difficult, emotional loss with only two days to prepare.

The home crowd will help, the 2003FF team energy will help, but this one won’t be easy.

It’s also the most important game of this years conference slate imo, coming off of a loss with a trip to a separate challenge @SH looming.

We beat them by 32 last year.

Xavier is alot better than PC

[BallBoy]

We always talk about rebounding as our achilles heel but there is more than that.
1. Kolek owned the first half until Xavier figured out they just needed to make him go to his right.  Once that happened he was a non-factor in the 2H.  This is what I expect him to experience the rest of the way.
2. Jones is a run killer.  He was 2-9 from the field and he started 2-2.  As a team we shot 25%. 
3. We had a few bad bounces.  I think every 50/50 ball went their way.  The number of times it caught on the foot after a defection to just roll out of bounds or hit someone as they are laying out of bounds was ungodly.
4.  If Omax hits the layup or we have just a little more time on the clock we wouldn't have needed to foul a 87% free throw shooter
5. In the last 8:30 minutes, MU scored 13 while X scored 14 so as much as we talk about rebounding being a problem we just didn't score.     

[jfp61]

In the first half Marquette was outrebounded by 26-14.. Marquette was up 4.
In the second half Marquette and Xavier had the same amount of rebounds. Marquette was down 8.

Please focus all attention to turnovers and shooting efficiency.

Both of these stats blow rebounding out of the water.

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

I feel like this may be the bane of this squad come March.  Catch a team with athletic and mobile bigs that excel at rebounding, and we'll get killed on the glass.  Can't give really good teams 2nd, 3rd and 4th chances on the offensive end.  We saw that a ton in the 1st half against X, and a couple of the other losses.

[MU82]

We always talk about rebounding as our achilles heel but there is more than that.
1. Kolek owned the first half until Xavier figured out they just needed to make him go to his right.  Once that happened he was a non-factor in the 2H.  This is what I expect him to experience the rest of the way.
2. Jones is a run killer.  He was 2-9 from the field and he started 2-2.  As a team we shot 25%. 
3. We had a few bad bounces.  I think every 50/50 ball went their way.  The number of times it caught on the foot after a defection to just roll out of bounds or hit someone as they are laying out of bounds was ungodly.
4.  If Omax hits the layup or we have just a little more time on the clock we wouldn't have needed to foul a 87% free throw shooter
5. In the last 8:30 minutes, MU scored 13 while X scored 14 so as much as we talk about rebounding being a problem we just didn't score.   

1. The bigger surprise was that X repeatedly let him go left and get all the way to the hoop in the first half. Every team already knows you need to make Kolek as RH as possible. That was more of a coaching fail in the first half as opposed to some kind of genius adjustment in the second half. Most teams already work hard to take away his LH and he hurts them with the other parts of his game.

2. Jones is only a "run killer" when he misses. When he hits -- as in the second half against UConn -- he is a run-maker and/or run-extender. He missed at least 4 wide-open 3s Sunday; I'll take those 4 looks for Kam every single game. Shooters gotta shoot, and nobody was complaining about it in the aftermath of UConn or several of our other wins where Kam made important shots.

3. Agree. But we did also get outhustled a few times or failed to hold onto the ball, as others have pointed out. Sometimes you gotta make your own luck.

4. Yes. Unfortunately human beings sometimes miss layups, dammit. (Unless we're talking about the opposing team's human beings; then take off the "dammit" part.)

5. I wish we rebounded better but I agree with those who say that most of the time it's not what is costing us games.

MU and Coach Shaka have the foul discrepancy gripe from weeks ago, but Providence and Coach Cooley have the memory of being embarrassed motivation.

The home crowd will help, the 2003FF team energy will help, but this one won’t be easy.

Coaches are excellent at finding things to motivate their teams. If it wasn't the foul discrepancy or us beating the snot out of The Provi last season, Shaka and Cooley would find something else. In the end, teams play to win because they play to win because they play to win. That is the motivation.

It's not supposed to be easy.

[MUfan12]

We always talk about rebounding as our achilles heel but there is more than that.
1. Kolek owned the first half until Xavier figured out they just needed to make him go to his right.  Once that happened he was a non-factor in the 2H.  This is what I expect him to experience the rest of the way.

If guys could make a damn shot in the second half we'd be raving about a 25 point, 13 assist game for Tyler in a road win.

[Dr. Blackheart]

In the first half Marquette was outrebounded by 26-14.. Marquette was up 4.
In the second half Marquette and Xavier had the same amount of rebounds. Marquette was down 8.

Please focus all attention to turnovers and shooting efficiency.

Both of these stats blow rebounding out of the water.

MU won both efg% and turnover rate factors. Lost Orb% and FTR.  Just like with The Dence. As you say, an anomaly.  A little bit warmer from trey and MU overcomes that as you say.

[Scoop Snoop]

MU's failure to aggressively grab the ball -- whether rebounding or loose balls -- has caused me to yell at the TV more than any other tendency. It drives me crazy to see one of our guys standing flat footed waiting for a ball to reach him, while an opponent lunges for the ball and secures it. Also, when one of our guys is watching a ball go out of bounds knowing that the opponent touched it last, and then one of their guys flies in and saves the ball to their team.

Just. Grab. The. Damn. Ball.

Your post is significantly different from the posters saying, in effect, that we need to be a much better all-around rebounding team. I have seen too many of the bolded situations. It has happened far too often, and it is infuriating. Thanks for the great post.

[mugrad_89]

Your post is significantly different from the posters saying, in effect, that we need to be a much better all-around rebounding team. I have seen too many of the bolded situations. It has happened far too often, and it is infuriating. Thanks for the great post.

Spot on to the both of you - Nunge was out-hustling our guards to loose balls - that cannot happen.

[jfp61]

MU won both efg% and turnover rate factors. Lost Orb% and FTR.  Just like with The Dence. As you say, an anomaly.  A little bit warmer from trey and MU overcomes that as you say.

In the first half MU won 3/4, losing rebounding. MU +4
In the second half MU 1/4 ( the won rebounding though.) MU -8
That's my point.

Focus on taking good shots and forcing TO's. Be who this team is. Shifting the focus to rebounding isn't a solution for this team (or most teams) winning more games. You win by pressing your advantages, and what is most important.

My theory with this team now is just figuring out the right rotation for postseason play. The Bench needs to put in better performances to maximize this team.

[oilcan]

I have been playing bb my entire life. I am seventy now. I wanted my son to play in high school and get a college scholarship. I worked with him on the fundamentals but I didn't browbeat him.  He could hit three pointers from distance at a high percentage but he didn't get enough shots his freshman year and got discouraged. I told him to get rebounds and shoot the ball. He said dad the rebounds don't come to me and I said, they don't come to you- you go get them. He quit his sophomore year.  My grandson was more athletic, he ran up and down the court like a gazelle. He could get a break away and dunk. After his freshman year of bb he quit to concentrate on football. He got a scholarship, got a girl pregnant and quit school.  Oh well, that's the way it goes. I don't know if this means anything to anyone, just my experience. No regrets.

[Judge Smails]

Spot on to the both of you - Nunge was out-hustling our guards to loose balls - that cannot happen.

Jop had 2 missed 3s where he didn’t follow his shot. Both shots resulted in long rebounds that Jop could’ve gotten if he followed his shot as no X player was on him. Generally, this team’s hustle is great, but there are times when it isn’t.

[MuggsyB]

Does anyone have the 2nd chance points stats for this game?