MUScoop

I looked back at the box scores from Louisville-St. Johns. I did not include the Depaul game b/c that game wasn't even close...so that gives us a total of 8 games as a sample size.

In these 8 games, we have been outscored (lost) the 2nd half in 6 of them.

The two games that we outscored teams in the 2nd half were Villanova (+4) which we lost by 5, and USF (+8) which we came back to Win.

The other 6...

@ Louisville - outscored by 6 in second half and blow a 17 pts lead - LOSS
@ND - outscored by 14 in second half and blow 9 pt halftime lead - LOSS
Uconn - outscired by 1 in second half and lost by 8 - LOSS
Syr - outscored by 5 in second half but weathered the storm - WIN
@Nova- above - LOSS
@USF- above - WIN
@Gtown - outscored by 13 in second half and blow 4 pt halftime lead - LOSS
STJ - outscored by 12 in second half - LOSS

Does anyone see a trend here? Its starting to become very frustrating watching MU play a good first half, and falling on our face in the 2nd half...You just can't have that at the D1 level...let alone the toughest conference in NCAA.

Something has got to give.

Very frustrated.

Fatigue?
Coaching adjustments by opponents?

Sooner or later, you have to buckle down on defense.  We don't do that.  We have the attitude that we can outscore everyone.  It was a layup drill for SJ last night in the second half.

i dont think St johns coaching or Mu coaching adjustments were the reason Mu completely lost their men for passes to the low block for layups with no one within 10 feet of them time after time. 

Our defense is the worst it's been in many many years.  The teams we play we tough them out in the first half.  Then our opponents make adjustments for the second half, and we generally have not made significant adjustments (or at least ones that work).  We get out manauevered by second half.  Somethings we did well in the first halve (like last night driving to the hoop aand getting St John's in early foul trouble, we could not do the second half very well.

Until we have a team with great defense, we are going to struggle, because when our offense is having an off night, we still can't defend and are in trouble.

Quote from: Daniel on February 16, 2011, 10:48:24 AM
Our defense is the worst it's been in many many years.

You're correct, using KenPom, worst since 2005

                            KenPom Rankings
Year         Offense                 Defense
2011                  16                        78
2010                  22                        51
2009                  9                          51
2008                  24                        10
2007                  49                        51
2006                  31                        54
2005                  73                        129
2004                  42                        159
2003                   1                         101