Seriously, this is getting ridiculous. Up on Vandy with under 10 seconds to play. Up 18 on Louisville with 5:40 to play. Up 12 on Notre Dame with 18 minutes to play. Up 5 on UConn at home with 5 minutes to play.
We're now 3-8 in games decided by less than 10 points. Our three wins? We beat UW-M and Rutgers on the road in games that really weren't that close (UW-M's late run to tighten the score, Rutgers was always down by 7-10 in the closing minutes), and beat West Virginia in a game that actually was close.
Okay, granted Duke and Pitt were never really that close, and you could argue the same about Wisconsin. But still, taking away those games that weren't that close, we're 1-5 in tightly decided games. Am I the only one really irritated by this? All we needed against Gonzaga was not to play down to their awful level. All we needed against Vandy was one stop. All we needed against Louisville was not to commit one of the greatest collapses in the history of the sport. Okay, Notre Dame and UConn had time on the clock, but what are the odds of those comebacks? Up 12 with 18 to play? I imagine the team with the lead probably wins that game 90% of the time. Up 5 with 7 to play on homecourt? Gotta be at least 85%. Why do we keep choking these leads away? I can accept a couple as long as there are some comparable wins in there. There is pretty much no good reason we don't have at least three more wins right now. God, watching stuff like this just pisses me off. No excuse.
And for the love of god, Buzz, learn to call a timeout before Louisiville goes on a 7-0 run to get the crowd back in, or before ND slashes the 12-point lead to 5, or before UConn gets the run up to 9-0. Ugh. I'm sickened not just by what I saw tonight, but by the constant repetition of what we are seeing week in and week out. 4 chokes in less than a month. Come on.
I think right now part of it is just mental. I think they expect to lose tight games now. I'm sure doubt starts to creep in their heads because of all the cumulative leads that have slipped away.
And, outside of the mental lapses, the lack of a true inside game really hurts MU. When they can't pound it inside, which helps open up the outside, it makes our offense more stagnant as opponents tighten their defense.
I don't disagree with most of that, but up 5 with 5 minutes to play is almost nothing. It's two possessions with about 15+ possessions left to play. I think UConn actually scored 5 points in about 12 seconds tonight.
But yeah. Sucks.
One word - defense. It's atrocious. We can't stop anybody - we can only outscore.
It's pretty clear that despite reports to the contrary, MU is not a mentally or physically tough basketball team.
Couple that with a very poor late game X's and O's coach in Buzz Williams and you have a bad combination.
I love who Buzz is and what he's about. There's not many coaches, at all, that continue to have their guys ready every night. Persay you put in another coach from the start of the year, what would our record be? I almost want to feel sorry for the players because their ready every day to put them in a position to win the game, and it's almost given that if it's a close game we won't execute. I have a feeling when I watch that I can see what will happen before it does. Yes I feel psychic. I hate to use Lville as an example but I or most of us just knew thier shots would fall, even if it was from half court. Is this more the players or Buzz's fault. I feel we have way too much talent on this team to be where we are now. Frustrating.
Buzz tenses up when the pressure is on. His players in turn do the same.
Quote from: mu_hilltopper on January 25, 2011, 11:02:57 PM
I don't disagree with most of that, but up 5 with 5 minutes to play is almost nothing. It's two possessions with about 15+ possessions left to play. I think UConn actually scored 5 points in about 12 seconds tonight.
But yeah. Sucks.
I'm not saying it's a huge lead. It's not. I'm saying that if a team is up 5 with 7 to play on homecourt like we were tonight, my guess is they win 85-90% of the time. When we're holding the same lead, it feels like you're just waiting for run to put you away (because we know the TO won't be called until after we're trailing).
Yes, only two possessions, but it's a lot more if you are somewhat competent on offense. We don't just go into a shell defensively, we fire shots out of our shell blindly hoping that they'll hit something.
Quote from: VanderBabyBlue on January 25, 2011, 11:04:46 PM
Buzz tenses up when the pressure is on. His players in turn do the same.
Completely agree. In this game the difference in coaching really affected the players. Calhoun was calm on the bench and used his timeout effectively usually stopping MU's little scoring runs. William on the other hand seemed to be stressed and constantly tense and kind of complaining about missed calls. He seems to hoard his timeouts to the end. But when he uses them to stop runs it is usually after a 10+ point run.
Quote from: PE8983 on January 25, 2011, 11:03:13 PM
One word - defense. It's atrocious. We can't stop anybody - we can only outscore.
when Buzz signaled to sit on the ball tonight, I turned to my wife and said "it's over."; as stated-we can't stop anybody, we can only outscore..., and we stopped scoring, lost all momentum, lost our lead- lost the game. again.
I don't know if it's BAD defense, rather we got our asses handed to us by two VERY talented freshman as they capitalized on our TOs and MU settling for jumpers.