Very nice job by all in the first half.
We finally looked like the MU basketball team I knew we had.
i'm at work and only able to view the espn gamecast. unfortunate. scoreboard says we're playing well, but how are we actually looking? butler, matthews and hayward seemed to carry us in the half. offense looking better? defense?
I hope this is us playing well or St Johns just playing really really bad...
Lowest amount of points in a half by a team in big east tournament.
Inst resting interview by buzz at half time, about ball screen defense and on the ball defense. He is very very astute coach.
Quote from: socrplar125 on March 11, 2009, 02:31:50 PM
butler, matthews and hayward seemed to carry us in the half.
Definitely true. Wes really looked good as the "primary" source of offense.
Fans in attendance should have started chanting and clapping before the 1st half buzzer...
"This game's over"
"Start the busses"
"This is our house"
all would rule.
we look pretty good, especially towards the end of the half getting whatever we wanted. bench has been playing well too.
St. John's hasn't looked good, but I can't think of even one open look they've had from the floor. Absolutely stifling defense from our guys in the first half.
Well done Marquette! Keep it up for another 20!
Quote from: mwbauer7 on March 11, 2009, 02:35:30 PM
Definitely true. Wes really looked good as the "primary" source of offense.
Since I don't have the game on, and can only watch updates.
how did Wes "look good"? He started 0-6.
Gotta start the second half well...maintain/stretch the lead and then empty the bench early.
The real question is when Hayward, McNeal, and Matthews get pulled in the second half?
I hope Buzz plays Fulce, Otule in the second half.
good experience and could pay off down the road if we need them in some extreme circumstance.
I'm just glad we were able to extend the lead with only Wes out there. Can't remember if that's ever happened before.
Love the bench play too. Butler is getting it done. I wanna see Frozena in by the end of the game.
I was most impressed with the effort on the glass. Dominating. Jimmy does a good job going after the ball on rebounds.
We got nothing from McNeal (sat more than 10 minutes with foul trouble) and only shot it ok, but the ball movement, rebounding and defense were outstanding. Butler again stood out - 2-2 from the field 2-2 from the stripe, 5rebounds and 3 assists. St Johns was awful, but MU had at least something to do with that.
I only saw the first 10 mins before I had to return to work. At that point, MU was winning 13-6.
At the time, MU was playing with a lot of energy but couldn't hit anything. Lazar was caught from behind on a layup, Wes and McNeal missed open shots, a couple of travels. Burke had 2 nice baskets and Butler had an impressive off rebound.
On the defensive end, St. John's didn't get many looks and no offensive boards. MU was often fighting themselves for the rebounds - the whole team was boxing out well. We seemed to go on our run once McNeal left with 2 fouls.
Quote from: muhannan on March 11, 2009, 02:39:34 PM
The real question is when Hayward, McNeal, and Matthews get pulled in the second half?
I hope Buzz plays Fulce, Otule in the second half.
good experience and could pay off down the road if we need them in some extreme circumstance.
I don't think I would be emptying my bench too early. There has been more than 1 occassion where we had a similar lead only to watch it get erased quickly. Buzz should be very liberal with his substitutions this half but he probably needs to keep 2 legit scorers on the floor at all times.
Quote from: Hards_Alumni on March 11, 2009, 02:36:51 PM
Since I don't have the game on, and can only watch updates.
how did Wes "look good"? He started 0-6.
He's getting to the hoop, drawing contact and hitting his FTs.
I think knowing we have to play again tomorrow afternoon it's almost necessary to get Otule, Fulce and Hazel some serious minutes down the stretch. Hopefully the game will be far out of reach at that point.
Hazel's legs should be pretty fresh ;D
We need to start playing a little better in the second half or we are not going to see much of the bench until the very end.
Quote from: muhannan on March 11, 2009, 02:39:34 PM
The real question is when Hayward, McNeal, and Matthews get pulled in the second half?
I hope Buzz plays Fulce, Otule in the second half.
good experience and could pay off down the road if we need them in some extreme circumstance.
The only thing that substitutions are good for now will be to rest the starters. Fulce and Otule will give us nothing of substance this year, and no amount of playing time in a blowout game will change that.