NM
Like Oliver Purnell at Clemson. I think he is 0 for 6 now.
Quote from: DamonKeysContactLens on March 20, 2009, 02:03:57 PM
NM
Really....really? He just took a team with 1/5th the talent of MU and pushed us to a one point game. They did the same thing to Kansas a few years ago and beat OSU. He coached a WAY better game than Buzz did today and you know it.
We got damn lucky. I can't remember..... who said this was going to be a brutally close game and not a blow out. Hmmmm.
Incidentally, Merrill will be in the Hall of Fame most likely. He'll get his 500th win next year. Let's hope Buzz gets there.
Blah, blah, blah
I can't really point to any big mistakes buzz made but I don't think your boy stew should have went away from the post in the last few minutes.
If this guy is such a legend he would a) have a few more postseason wins instead of close calls or b) coach at a bigger program.
Everyone on this board has way more basketball knowledge than I do... I am interested in what you guys thought of Morrill's playbook(s). It looked really old school, although clearly works pretty well for his team.
Why take a shot at Morrill? He wasn't bad-mouthing the Marquette program or anything. His team played a fantastic game against us, which, as everyone likes to say, should be blowing out teams like this because of our superior Big East schedule.
I'm relieved we won. I'm not sure how trashing Morrill enters into the thought-process immediately following the game.
Quote from: jmayer1 on March 20, 2009, 02:12:09 PM
Blah, blah, blah
I can't really point to any big mistakes buzz made but I don't think your boy stew should have went away from the post in the last few minutes.
If this guy is such a legend he would a) have a few more postseason wins instead of close calls or b) coach at a bigger program.
I'm not the only one calling him a legend mind you.....almost 500 wins gets you that designation. Look through the basketball publications and journals.
And many coaches don't want to change programs. You do realize this, right? Plenty of coaches that have stayed at smaller programs for many years, including Davidson's coach. Please don't judge a coach just on whether they move up in the job ranks. Is Phelan not a legendary coach because he stayed where he was all those years?
Incidentally, Morrill is a finalist this year for the Henry Iba and Skip Prosser awards. Only one of 12 finalists.
Quote from: jmayer1 on March 20, 2009, 02:12:09 PM
Blah, blah, blah
I can't really point to any big mistakes buzz made but I don't think your boy stew should have went away from the post in the last few minutes.
If this guy is such a legend he would a) have a few more postseason wins instead of close calls or b) coach at a bigger program.
I agree. I was amused by all the angst over going against this "legendary coach" when the bracket was announced. I follow hoops pretty closely and never heard of the guy.
You are absolutely right about them stopping going inside. The game turned when we stopped shooting threes (thanks, Wes) and went inside. They did the exact opposite and bailed us out.
I thought our guys were strong enough mentally not to lose confidence, and that's been a great strength of the team. Today, the way Wes and Jerel shot there is no way they aren't fighting themselves mentally. Gonna have to get over that in a hurry or we're done. If they can get hot though they're due to light it up big time.
East Coast Bias ;) You need to get out of Cleveland more often.
You're not following hoops very closely if you don't know who Merrill is, at least on this side of the country. THey win like 92% of their games at home and he's averaging something like 26 wins a year the last decade.
Two things:
Blasting Morrill is uncalled for.
So is Chicos tooting his own horn when he got something right for once. I don't know how someone goes from Utah State having 1/5 the talent of ours and than saying its going to be a close game.
As I recall USU fans labled Morill as a genius, not so much so.
Quote from: ChicosBailBonds on March 20, 2009, 02:30:40 PM
East Coast Bias ;) You need to get out of Cleveland more often.
You're not following hoops very closely if you don't know who Merrill is, at least on this side of the country. THey win like 92% of their games at home and he's averaging something like 26 wins a year the last decade.
...and they play nobody. Does he have a nice program? Yes-clearly he's had great regular season success, but let's not pretend it's anywhere near the same level as the upper echelon teams and leagues. They almost beat us today (and I don't think they played as well as they could), but they'd be a .500 or worse team in the Big East, ACC and possibly even the Big 10.
Quote from: OregonWarrior on March 20, 2009, 02:22:43 PM
Why take a shot at Morrill? He wasn't bad-mouthing the Marquette program or anything. His team played a fantastic game against us, which, as everyone likes to say, should be blowing out teams like this because of our superior Big East schedule.
I'm relieved we won. I'm not sure how trashing Morrill enters into the thought-process immediately following the game.
They're not, they are taking a shot at me because I dared to say this would be a tough game this week and that Merrill is a coaching legend in these parts (I'm on the west coast). It is what it is. Some people like to just look at a few games and not the body of work or the talent level the coach has. If they aren't at a BCS school they must not be a great coach, etc. Again, it is what it is. We got lucky as hell today, Utah State was well prepared.
Those play cards they use are gay.
Quote from: BrewCity on March 20, 2009, 02:50:17 PM
Those play cards they use are gay.
Given that there are two different ones and they could go either way, I would say they are more bi-sexual than gay. :P
Quote from: ChicosBailBonds on March 20, 2009, 02:45:29 PM
We got lucky as hell today, Utah State was well prepared.
They were so well prepared that they were down 14 points with 5:30 left in the first half while shooting almost 25 percentage points below their season average.
Sure hope Buzz doesn't prepare his team that way for Mizzou.
Utah State was a beneficiary of a terrible 15-minute stretch for MU in the second half. They were doing nothing special other than taking advantage of Marquette's atrociousness. Had this game gone the other way, it would have been because MU blew it, not because USU took it from them.
This may be the first time I can recall that a coach was praised for his team scoring 15 points below their season average, shooting almost 9 percentage points below their season average, being outrebounded by a smaller team and losing to an opponent that shoots 36 percent.
Heck of a game, Stew. As an MU fan, I appreciate it.
have another cheesbuger Stu
Quote from: mufanatic on March 20, 2009, 02:31:21 PM
Two things:
Blasting Morrill is uncalled for.
So is Chicos tooting his own horn when he got something right for once. I don't know how someone goes from Utah State having 1/5 the talent of ours and than saying its going to be a close game.
Something right for once? Come on, I called Mr. Hayward a complete #$&#(& and nailed that. Give me some credit. ;)
And you go from saying USU has 1/5 the talent of MU to being a close game because they have a very good coach....coaching can take you a long way and sometimes covers up talent levels.
As Stillwarriors correctly stated, they "don't play anyone" yet for a team that doesn't play anyone, they sure looked damn good against a Big East team today that was supposed to waltz.
Quote from: Pakuni on March 20, 2009, 03:00:23 PM
They were so well prepared that they were down 14 points with 5:30 left in the first half while shooting almost 25 percentage points below their season average.
Sure hope Buzz doesn't prepare his team that way for Mizzou.
And so that would mean we were so well prepared that we managed to be down 6 points with under 5 minutes to play and decided to waste 25 minutes shooting perimeter jump shots during the middle part of the game. I sure hope Buzz doesn't prepare his team to play the way we did against Utah State. Not a good offensive game plan, period!
The good news is that the Missouri game will allow us to play free-for-all basketball where things should go well for us. But today, not a good game plan. We should have been attacking the rim all day long and for 25 minutes we didn't. I don't know why.
Did you think USU looked good today or that MU looked bad? I thought Marquette's inability to put points on the board had more to do with their inability to hit anything than the defense they were playing against. I thought MU got lucky they were matched up against Utah St - almost any other team would have destroyed us today.
Agree with KC thought it was more that we were bad vs USU was good, oh well survive and play agian on Sunday. Happy we won, hope we shoot better on Sunday.
I also hope everyone has different color headbands it seemed like Lazar was everywhere today.
Quote from: ChicosBailBonds on March 20, 2009, 03:31:17 PM
And so that would mean we were so well prepared that we managed to be down 6 points with under 5 minutes to play and decided to waste 25 minutes shooting perimeter jump shots during the middle part of the game. I sure hope Buzz doesn't prepare his team to play the way we did against Utah State. Not a good offensive game plan, period!
Not sure I get your point here. I already said MU was atrocious for 15 minutes of the second half.
But MU being atrocious does not mean Morrill coached a good game, does it?
The facts are these:
1. USU scored well below their season average.
2. USU shot well below their season average.
3. USU got off to a terrible start in which they had trouble defending MU and struggled to score, or even get good looks, themselves.
4. USU was outrebounded by a smaller team.
5. USU lost six-point lead in the closing 4:30 or so and only a couple of lucky threes at the very end kept it close.
How does one consider these facts and claims Morrill coached a good game and/or had his team well prepared? Just because they made it close? Funny, I didn't hear about that about Buzz after the losses to Louisville and Villanova.
I guarantee that had MU blown a six-point lead with that little time left, many here would be calling for the coach's head.
Quote from: sailwi on March 20, 2009, 03:44:46 PM
I also hope everyone has different color headbands it seemed like Lazar was everywhere today.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong. But I thought the NCAA says that if you wear a headband it is considered part of your uniform. Therefore, it must match the color of your jersey (home/away).
So, I think the team has to wear the same color - if they wear them at all. but I agree, very confusing when watching a TV too far away at a sports bar. Maybe that's why Lazar had great stats...he was credited with everything somebody with a headband did :P
I can't believe some of you are blasting Utah State's coach after that game.
Bunch of damn Devendorf's is what you are. They played fantastic basketball against us, and their Ginger big man took us to town.
What would happen in this game if two of their stars didn't foul out in the closing minutes?
Seems pretty classless to me too to be trashing Morrill after the game(and believe me I'm not the epitome of class). He's put a lot of time and effort into the game and yeah the competition is weak but there are a lot of b-ball coaches in weak conferences that don't get close to 500 wins.
Quote from: tharocket on March 20, 2009, 04:06:48 PM
I can't believe some of you are blasting Utah State's coach after that game.
Bunch of damn Devendorf's is what you are. They played fantastic basketball against us, and their Ginger big man took us to town.
What would happen in this game if two of their stars didn't foul out in the closing minutes?
Did you watch the game?
USU played below their season average in most aspects of play. They scored less, shot worse and were outrebounded. About the only thing they did better was defend and take care of the ball.
Stating these facts is not blasting them or their coach. But it sure countradicts the continued proclamations they "played fantastic basketball" or were "damn well prepared."
I didn't mean to trash their coach, although I can definitely see how it came off that way. To say he is a coaching "legend" is ludicrous. I've followed college basketball extremely close for the last 20 years, and to be honest, I had never heard of this guy. Granted I don't live on the precious west coast, but to be considered a legend, any huge basketball fan should know youe name off the top of his head.
That would be like saying Dick Bennett is a legend. He's a heck of a coach and I was a big fan but I'm not going to say he's legendary. I also wouldn't fault an east coast basketball fan if they didn't know his name because most of his success came at gb with only mild success at uw and wsu.
Quote from: ChicosBailBonds on March 20, 2009, 02:30:40 PM
East Coast Bias ;) You need to get out of Cleveland more often.
Is StillWarriors from Cleveland, too? Or are you confusing the two of us?
Quote from: StillAWarrior on March 20, 2009, 04:35:26 PM
Is StillWarriors from Cleveland, too? Or are you confusing the two of us?
He's confusing us. But Mr. Morrill isn't exactly a legend in Chicago either, so the comment still fits I guess!
Sorry for the "copycat" moniker by the way, but wasn't aware of yours when I first logged in a couple years ago.
Quote from: Pakuni on March 20, 2009, 03:45:24 PM
Not sure I get your point here. I already said MU was atrocious for 15 minutes of the second half.
But MU being atrocious does not mean Morrill coached a good game, does it?
The facts are these:
1. USU scored well below their season average.
2. USU shot well below their season average.
3. USU got off to a terrible start in which they had trouble defending MU and struggled to score, or even get good looks, themselves.
4. USU was outrebounded by a smaller team.
5. USU lost six-point lead in the closing 4:30 or so and only a couple of lucky threes at the very end kept it close.
How does one consider these facts and claims Morrill coached a good game and/or had his team well prepared? Just because they made it close? Funny, I didn't hear about that about Buzz after the losses to Louisville and Villanova.
I guarantee that had MU blown a six-point lead with that little time left, many here would be calling for the coach's head.
Here is what Morrill said in the postgame presser: "You look at this game, it doesn't take a genius to figure out them getting to the free-throw line was huge, and that we were stunned by their athleticism and pressure initially in the game. We had a really hard time execituing because of their quickness and strength and those kinds of things."
Depite that, they came out in the second half and made the adjustments on both sides of the floor that got them back into the game. That's coaching. A coach can't make cherry pie out of cherry pits. But a good coach can adjust. And Morrill's adjustments had MU on the ropes...with a team made up of a bunch of players that will never sniff the NBA.
Now, I wouldn't call him a "legend" either. But his record suggests that he is a very good coach. And I think he showed why that's the case today.
I respect Morrill's career and what he's done in Utah State (and elsewhere), but you really don't get respect if you stay in a mid-major conference like the WAC where half the league finished less than .500 record and only two teams from the conference got post-season bids.
It's kinda like Big House Gaines. He won, stayed in it long enough, but never really was able to take HIMSELF to another level.
But hey, USU was a great matchup for MU.
And legends earn the title by doing extraordinary things, not finishing 1-7 when it really matters.
The highlight of this thread is Chicos responding to his own post.
Morrill is the classic example of a coach who can win a ton of games, but would never succeed at a bigger school. That doesn't mean he isn't a good coach for Utah St., but there is a reason he has never left (and not all of them are because of his loyalty). His use of a high school like means of calling plays is simplistic and rudimentary and 1-7 is not an opinion but a fact.
The idea that a number 11 seed played a home game is a bigger atrocity than either Chicos tooting his own horn or Morril being a tool.
Quote from: ChicosBailBonds on March 20, 2009, 02:06:45 PM
He coached a WAY better game than Buzz did today and you know it.
No he didn't. He lost despite a late lead, momentum and a defacto home court to boot.
Buzz won the game when Stew's team went up six and it felt like the game could get away from MU. Buzz called a timeout -- after the timeout, MU scored its first bucket in several minutes. After that, a new defensive set created an immediate turnover. Before you knew it, MU scored seven in a row. MU smartly abandoned a traditional zone offense and Buzz had his fellas drive to the hoop in the last 5 minutes, USU had no answer......FTs won the game as a result. Nice adjustments by Buzz when the going got tough.
Ripping USU's coach = classless. We are better than this. Kudos to USU for a tough game, enthusiastic fanbase and well-coached team. Bigger Kudos to our guys for finding a way to win despite trying very hard to lose it.
1. Standing around, passing the ball around the perimeter and hoisting a 3 does not equal a zone offense.
2. Playing at the speed of your opponent is never a good idea.
3. Jerel and Wes really miss DJ getting into the lane, drawing the defense, and dishing to them.
4. J and W have got to start attacking the rack again.
5. Solid defense everywhere but the post today. Either those guys are really well coached in post moves, or they are actually better than Harangody. So tired of watching them spin to hole and getting fouled.
It is just as important to be a gracious winner as it is to be a gracious loser.
Quote from: tower912 on March 20, 2009, 08:21:22 PM
Ripping USU's coach = classless. We are better than this. Kudos to USU for a tough game, enthusiastic fanbase and well-coached team. Bigger Kudos to our guys for finding a way to win despite trying very hard to lose it.
How is it "classless" if you disagree with the way a guy coaches? It is a topic of conversation. It is also not "classless" to cite his tournament record, that is a matter of fact.
He runs a clean program, he graduates his players, he gets a lot out of his talent, he wins lots of games with his system. His team played hard and clean, playing their guts out. Trashing a coach for no other reason than our team beat his is classless. Why should we lower ourselves to the lowest common denominator or act like the tools we complain about on other boards? Stay classy, scoopers.
Quote from: tower912 on March 20, 2009, 08:30:18 PM
He runs a clean program, he graduates his players, he gets a lot out of his talent, he wins lots of games with his system. His team played hard and clean, playing their guts out. Trashing a coach for no other reason than our team beat his is classless. Why should we lower ourselves to the lowest common denominator or act like the tools we complain about on other boards? Stay classy, scoopers.
Just so I'm clear for future reference, at what point does fair criticism become classless trashing?
Quote from: Pakuni on March 20, 2009, 08:33:26 PM
Just so I'm clear for future reference, at what point does fair criticism become classless trashing?
+1
Quote from: tower912 on March 20, 2009, 08:30:18 PM
He runs a clean program, he graduates his players, he gets a lot out of his talent, he wins lots of games with his system. His team played hard and clean, playing their guts out. Trashing a coach for no other reason than our team beat his is classless. Why should we lower ourselves to the lowest common denominator or act like the tools we complain about on other boards? Stay classy, scoopers.
btw, smells a lot like mu's former coach too, anybody who disagrees has an agenda
Quote from: BrewCity on March 20, 2009, 02:50:17 PM
Those play cards they use are gay.
Hahahaha. Awesome. Agreed. And Chicos is right on this thread.
I like Morrill's tempo-----but he wasted Wilkerson by passing to him down low from the sideline where he had a poor angle to the hoop and where he could be doubled to his blind side-----should have been passing to him in the lane from on high where he had better alley to the hoop and couldn't be doubled.
Also playing a man defense against us in th most of the first half was a huge mistake-----he just didn't have the quickness to match up that way------actually USU won the second half going away using a zone!
Quote from: Murffieus on March 21, 2009, 08:40:38 AM
Also playing a man defense against us in th most of the first half was a huge mistake-----he just didn't have the quickness to match up that way------actually USU won the second half going away using a zone!
I have been trying to think of what his reasoning was for the man to man, and I really can't come up with anything.
Quote from: Pakuni on March 20, 2009, 03:45:24 PM
Funny, I didn't hear about that about Buzz after the losses to Louisville and Villanova.
I guarantee that had MU blown a six-point lead with that little time left, many here would be calling for the coach's head.
Really P? You didn't hear that after louisville and villanova and uconn? What board were you posting on? That was part of the reason that buzz has proven himself beyond a shadow of a doubt to be a future hall of famer. People were all very impressed with buzz's ability to keep it close.