MUScoop

Some positive play this week in Kansas City, along with some head scratching.

Is O'Tule Irish now? ;D

Over the last couple of years we lost a few but these 2 were less painful for me for 2 reasons; we didn't build a huge lead and then lose it, and we were the underdog.  I'm not saying that the above makes it OK but nothing is worse than watching a big lead slowly and steadily get whittled down and then to lose in the final few minutes.  We, at least, fought back.  Nevertheless, 0-2 so far this week and no-one will remember that we played Duke to the finish and that Gonzaga was a ranked team when we played them.

All of the above.

In order, I would go

Buycks' two straight unforced turnovers to kill all of our momentum against Duke
Buycks' miserable 5-7 possession stretch that culminated in a gator-armed floater on the 3 on 2 fast break last night
Reggie Smith's turnover last night
Ox not boxing out in either game
Gray pulling a Jean Felix in the first half
Otule's 4th foul
DJO going 3-13 from downtown (it was frustrating but they weren't dumb shots... guy's just in a slump)

I can't comment on Vitale, I had the tv muted.

I would vote for our overall inability to get a rebound on the defensive end, and allowing the Zags multiple offensive rebounds, so that they had 3-5 tries at a layup, which they eventually converted or got fouled, or both.

Quote from: indymufan on November 24, 2010, 09:17:12 AM
I would vote for our overall inability to get a rebound on the defensive end, and allowing the Zags multiple offensive rebounds, so that they had 3-5 tries at a layup, which they eventually converted or got fouled, or both.

+1

Quote from: brewcity77 on November 24, 2010, 09:02:10 AM
Is O'Tule Irish now? ;D

Ha.  Shamus O'Tule's 4th foul was a killer.

Though I didn't scream, this made me yell a few times:  Travelling has got to be on top of Buzz's "things to fix."  I enjoy the streetball style, but c'mon.

Quote from: MUFC9295 on November 24, 2010, 09:52:41 AM
Though I didn't scream, this made me yell a few times:  Travelling has got to be on top of Buzz's "things to fix."  I enjoy the streetball style, but c'mon.

+1.  How many times did we travel in two games?

I would like to add Otule's inability to catch a ball. He had a couple of decents moves once he caught it, but I think he turned the ball over 4 or 5 times simply because he dropped the pass or it bounced off him.

Quote from: Brian0230 on November 24, 2010, 12:25:07 PM
I would like to add Otule's inability to catch a ball. He had a couple of decents moves once he caught it, but I think he turned the ball over 4 or 5 times simply because he dropped the pass or it bounced off him.

I feel like I'm becoming the board's self-designated Otule defender but many of the post-entry passes to him are not very good or are coming when he's not set up and expecting them.  If he has established position and is calling for the ball, he seems to be pretty capable of catching it and doing something productive with it.  If he's in traffic and/or the pass isn't great...forget about it. 

His problem, I think, is mediocre hand to eye coordination.  And I believe / fear that you can't really improve it once you're an adult.  Can anyone confirm (or hopefully deny) this?

Let me find the text I sent my friend during the game.... oh yes, and i quote "We [have] no answer for their zone & we apparently forgot all our fundamentals [e.g., it's called dribbling].  Has Gardner heard of boxing out?"

Seriously.  I was literally screaming at the TV at one point for buzz to call a TO, and my friend adjacent to me was like, "no, he'll let them play it out" and not 2 seconds later buzz called a TO.  Not like i pretend that i can coach period, much less at this level, but dang, it was just that obvious we needed to regroup.

The glaring absence of any effective offensive play versus the Zaga zone defense made me cringe.  If DJO, Buycks, & Jae don't start finding their stroke soon, i just don't know.  In the past we have gotten away with not having great offense "plays" against zone because we were carried on the excellent perimeter shooting by some now-departed sharpshooters; however, we may have hit the end of the line for now.

Buzz, please please please work on offense effective against a zone!! that was the nail in the coffin for the Zaga game :/

I had to vote for buycks. If one of the options had been the overall lack of rebounding, that would be my answer.

The Gardner play was very frustrating as well.