Buzz has done a remarkable job turning our players into one of the toughest group of athletes in NCAA basketball. We have well above average recruits and a team that plays well together. Yet time and again this team comes up losing games that are winnable. I see a team well prepared for victory. The game plans are good but there are too many games that seem to fall away. Obviously the Louisville game is fresh and I feel the pain like most of us. So where are we lacking. I'll avoid things like rebounding disadvantages which is a problem due to size but here are some of my frustrations.
In bound plays. We never attack the basket. Take a look at our games and you'll typically see us inbound on a lob well away from the paint. While I'm neither pro or con Crean, his teams scored on the inbounds on a regular basket.
Delay game. Again, we don't attack the basket and we are forced to put up too many poor shots to avoid the shot clock violation. There is a big difference between a stall and spreading the court and looking for high percentage shots. We pass up too many opportunities to penetrate when we're running clock.
Plays called after a timeout. I'm frustrated that we very seldom score after a TO. In fact, it seems the players don't understand what the play is and how to make adjustments out of it.
Adjustments during the game. How many times have we seen an opposing player go off on us without making an adjustment until halftime? Why are still having problems with switches at critical times? Both Vandy and Louisville got wide open layups to beat us. When have we had an opportunity for an easy winning shot? Instead we have turnovers, long contested threes or even charges.
Toughness is great but until we improve in some fixable areas, this team will continue to break our hearts in more Groundhog Day games.
In Buzz we trust: Louisville Meltdown
Quote from: willie warrior on January 17, 2011, 06:02:17 AM
In Buzz we trust: Louisville Meltdown
You are such a productive member of this MU Scoop family. And you wonder why no one gives you any credibility whatsoever? I may not be the brightest bulb, but maybe the same old schtick repeated ad naseum signals a slight bit of irrationality on your part that tends to put people off.
Here is a great critical post written by "Da Coach," which invites all sorts of great discourse. And the best we can get in return is "willie warrior" and his 3:00 am repeat programming. Fantastic. Bravo. Job well done, again.
Quality post, the only thing I would mention that many people are forgeting is that we did get a great shot at the end of the game. If Butler dosen't short arm the shot it's really the best look you can ask for when getting the ball out under your own basket with 4 sec left...
Quote from: MUCam on January 17, 2011, 07:40:15 AM
You are such a productive member of this MU Scoop family. And you wonder why no one gives you any credibility whatsoever? I may not be the brightest bulb, but maybe the same old schtick repeated ad naseum signals a slight bit of irrationality on your part that tends to put people off.
Here is a great critical post written by "Da Coach," which invites all sorts of great discourse. And the best we can get in return is "willie warrior" and his 3:00 am repeat programming. Fantastic. Bravo. Job well done, again.
You are certainly entitled to your opinion and if you so desire to forget the Meltdown, then forget it. Don't read my post. I choose not to. To me it was catastrophic. I am not asking for your discourse or your psychobabble. And just as you may be tired of my alleged "irrationality", I am tired of In Buzz We Trust. So you have your opinions and I have mine and may some of them intertwine. But just for you, I promise not to remind others of the meltdown, except when I feel that a particular post veers too far from that reality of a Meltdown.
Quote from: willie warrior on January 17, 2011, 08:13:32 AM
You are certainly entitled to your opinion and if you so desire to forget the Meltdown, then forget it. Don't read my post. I choose not to. To me it was catastrophic. I am not asking for your discourse or your psychobabble. And just as you may be tired of my alleged "irrationality", I am tired of In Buzz We Trust. So you have your opinions and I have mine and may some of them intertwine. But just for you, I promise not to remind others of the meltdown, except when I feel that a particular post veers too far from that reality of a Meltdown.
Who was trying to forget the Meltdown? Only complaint I see is that your troll post is troll.
OP: Good analysis all around. I think the major flaw has to be the delay game. I understand trying to limit the possessions the other team gets. Look at Duke: it's like they know the math behind it all and say "Because we are up x points, we can kill shot clock starting at y minutes left and virtually end this game now" Only problem is, quite frankly, we aren't Duke. We aren't a team that thrives in a half court set. Trying to slow the game down directly impacts our greatest talents of hustle and toughness.
Quote from: chren21 on January 17, 2011, 07:49:42 AM
Quality post, the only thing I would mention that many people are forgeting is that we did get a great shot at the end of the game. If Butler dosen't short arm the shot it's really the best look you can ask for when getting the ball out under your own basket with 4 sec left...
This is interesting in two facets and in that it correlates directly to the original post. First, I agree that Butler got a shot that he should've made. I'd take that shot with four seconds to go and in Jimmy's hands, most every time we are in that situation.
That said, and as was addressed earlier, while the shot ended up being decent, it was a minor variation on the same "length of the court" set we run just about every time we are in a similar situation (whether at half or not). So, secondly, it doesn't seem like we have much variety to our set plays, which in turn, makes us easier to defend. That directly effects our in bound play success rate. Personally, I don't think that Buzz is really stressing in practice our set plays, and it shows. We are pretty predictable and therefore not that effective. So, while the play did get us a decent-to-good look, it highlights the issue originally raised, which is that we don't seem to be very strong in the set play category - something Crean was very good at.
I should note that while I thought we got a decent look at the end, I also think we were a bit lucky to get that look. Butler was out of control and almost lost his handle (ala DJO earlier this year). Again, set-play variation, creativity and execution seem to be lacking.
Quote from: willie warrior on January 17, 2011, 06:02:17 AM
In Buzz we trust: Louisville Meltdown
Willie, we were tired of your rants against Crean because you didn't like him. Now you are starting your rants against Buzz because you don't like him. It sounds like the only person you feel is capable of leading this team is good old Willie. Judging from your posts we can expect to only see one "set" with no adjustments. If you are going to critique a coach or a player provide some actual insight instead of the "we didn't win, I am going to sulk in the corner now" commentary.
Quote from: g0lden3agle on January 17, 2011, 08:44:36 AM
Who was trying to forget the Meltdown? Only complaint I see is that your troll post is troll.
OP: Good analysis all around. I think the major flaw has to be the delay game. I understand trying to limit the possessions the other team gets. Look at Duke: it's like they know the math behind it all and say "Because we are up x points, we can kill shot clock starting at y minutes left and virtually end this game now" Only problem is, quite frankly, we aren't Duke. We aren't a team that thrives in a half court set. Trying to slow the game down directly impacts our greatest talents of hustle and toughness.
I have posted that I don't think the delay game was the major flaw. It is what the coach is supposed to do. Maybe that speaks to the point about creativity. The delay offense should only solidfy in the players mind that they need to play that much harder on defense. It delay game doesn't matter if Knowles doesn't become ridiculously hot. The delay game doesn't matter if MU players execute.
What I take from your post above is don't put the team in the scenario that historically gets you a win because they can't execute. What happens when the team is jacking up threes whenever it is available and we lose because we took early shots in the clock and gave the other team an extra possession. Kind of like Buycks did at the end.
Quote from: DaCoach on January 17, 2011, 02:17:03 AM
Buzz has done a remarkable job turning our players into one of the toughest group of athletes in NCAA basketball. We have well above average recruits and a team that plays well together. Yet time and again this team comes up losing games that are winnable. I see a team well prepared for victory. The game plans are good but there are too many games that seem to fall away. Obviously the Louisville game is fresh and I feel the pain like most of us. So where are we lacking. I'll avoid things like rebounding disadvantages which is a problem due to size but here are some of my frustrations.
In bound plays. We never attack the basket. Take a look at our games and you'll typically see us inbound on a lob well away from the paint. While I'm neither pro or con Crean, his teams scored on the inbounds on a regular basket.
Delay game. Again, we don't attack the basket and we are forced to put up too many poor shots to avoid the shot clock violation. There is a big difference between a stall and spreading the court and looking for high percentage shots. We pass up too many opportunities to penetrate when we're running clock.
Plays called after a timeout. I'm frustrated that we very seldom score after a TO. In fact, it seems the players don't understand what the play is and how to make adjustments out of it.
Adjustments during the game. How many times have we seen an opposing player go off on us without making an adjustment until halftime? Why are still having problems with switches at critical times? Both Vandy and Louisville got wide open layups to beat us. When have we had an opportunity for an easy winning shot? Instead we have turnovers, long contested threes or even charges.
Toughness is great but until we improve in some fixable areas, this team will continue to break our hearts in more Groundhog Day games.
Smarter? Interesting
"Da Coach starts an intentionally inflammatory thread about how smart UW players are and how stupid ours are." - Lenny's Tap
Did we start slowing down such a heavy amount in the ND game? I'd rather tune our play to what our team can and can not do rather than what historically provides a good chance of winning. Until we blow a huge lead playing our game it's going to be hard to convince me we should be doing it any other way.
Quote from: g0lden3agle on January 17, 2011, 11:16:26 AM
Did we start slowing down such a heavy amount in the ND game? I'd rather tune our play to what our team can and can not do rather than what historically provides a good chance of winning. Until we blow a huge lead playing our game it's going to be hard to convince me we should be doing it any other way.
We did. Look at the ESPN link below.
http://espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=310100269
At the 6:24 mark, MU hits a three and the score is 69-46. Marquette doesn't score again for nearly a minute (50 seconds) and that was a free throw. Over the next 2 minutes, MU scores three points on free throws. MU also doesn't score over the last 1:43. The difference is that ND scores only 1 point over 2m40s which was part of a larger 4+ minute dry spell and MU was at home so ND does have the crowd support. They were out of the game.
Now compare this
http://espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=310150097
At the 5:44 mark MU is up 17, over the next 50 seconds, Louisville hits three three-pointers. The possession time lasted 13 seconds, 20 seconds (MU turnover included), 16 seconds (MU turnover included). UL scores 9 points and MU doesn't take anytime off the clock. Doesn't seem like the prevent offense. Looks like careless play.
Thanks for the breakdown BallBoy. You did the research I thought about doing, but decided to just ask the question and hope you would come through. :P
Quote from: g0lden3agle on January 17, 2011, 12:20:04 PM
Thanks for the breakdown BallBoy. You did the research I thought about doing, but decided to just ask the question and hope you would come through. :P
Got to love MLK day.
Interesting stuff. My recollection was we turned the ball over a couple of straight times and then didn't run our offense, choosing to stand around rather than attack.