Is it safe to say that Vander's offensive confidence is once again gone? The guy does not have the same drive in his eyes as he did in the UW and UW games. We have not seen him have a good play offensively for quite a bit. Let's hope he breaks out of it.
Not sure he has the tools to be real confident at this time. He can probably get 8 pts a game on layups, but it is apparent defenses are giving him shots from the perimeter, but he won't take them. Definitely too many guys right now the D can lay off to focus on our relatively few scorers.
Part of the problem is that the rest of our team (outside of Mayo) expects Jae and DJO to take over the game and score in piles. When those two go quiet, the team falls apart offensively.
Like the SNL cast, we are not yet ready for prime time.
Teams kniow that when he and Junior are on the floor at the same time they only have to guard three players. It is unbelievable that a Top 25 program has two guards who cannot ever hit an uncontested 15-foot shot. Vander did a good job distributing and controlling the ball against Gtown, and if that's going to be his role, fine. But then Junior loses minutes and DWill becomes bench fodder.
I've been warning of this for over a month. Nothing in the preseason showed that he had improved offensively, he scored a large majority of his points in transition. He does play good defense and rebounds well but his lack of offensive improvement is alarming.
Quote from: Hards_Alumni on January 05, 2012, 07:39:38 AM
Part of the problem is that the rest of our team (outside of Mayo) expects Jae and DJO to take over the game and score in piles. When those two go quiet, the team falls apart offensively.
Probably to be expected with such a young team.
Look who we're relying on in that situation: a frosh 2, an undersized soph 5, a slashing soph 3/1, and a Cadougan.
I'm not his biggest fan, but I like the look of our team with him running the point and DJO and Mayo looking to drive and score. I know Buzz says the offense runs best when Cadougan is in, I just think you can't have two pass-only guys out there together for too long. I think those three, plus Crowder and either Gardner/Wilson depending on match-up give us the best chance to win.
I usually stuck up for Vander, but he lost my backing. The Wilson incident. Thought he worked on his shooting. Yuk!
Quote from: Earl Tatum on January 05, 2012, 04:11:44 PM
The Wilson incident.
I'm guessing by "Wilson incident", you mean a few people getting all tongue clucking, pearl-clutchy, fainting-couch, worked up over HIGH FIVES?!
There is NO "Wilson incident," only in the minds of a few DERPED up trolls here, and ESPN. If you're using it as a basis to not like Blue, stay CLASSY.
Quote from: lab_warrior on January 05, 2012, 04:40:51 PM
I'm guessing by "Wilson incident", you mean a few people getting all tongue clucking, pearl-clutchy, fainting-couch, worked up over HIGH FIVES?!
There is NO "Wilson incident," only in the minds of a few DERPED up trolls here, and ESPN. If you're using it as a basis to not like Blue, stay CLASSY.
I agree that if someone is looking to not like Blue, his off-the-court "activities" are all you need and the lack of the handshake isn't that important.
Blue had some very nice moments at PG -- a few drive-and-dishes to guys on the perimeter and some nice patience at times. I'm encouraged that he can give some good minutes there when we want to play Blue-Mayo-DJO-Crowder-and a big as a lineup. He is not yet really a point guard, though. Maybe he never will be.
And I know folks are getting down on Cadougan but I don't think he's a stiff. He was a stud shooting against UWM, he made some big shots down the stretch last year, he doesn't turn the ball over much, he usually keeps the team fairly organized. Hell, he even made a huge driving hoop late last night when MU's stars were spitting the bit. He just doesn't do enough good things often enough, which makes us understandably impatient.
As usual, it's never all-or-nothing. Some want to say so-and-so is GREAT or so-and-so SUCKS. The truth, usually, is in the middle somewhere.
Blue had a decent game vs. Nova and wasn't all bad against Georgetown. Come on, give him a break
Buzz Williams' teams seem to have a tendency to bounce back after tough losses/stretches.
I wanted the Georgetown and Syracuse games to be flipped on the schedule because I thought MU was through they're difficult stretch and ready to bounce back after 'Nova. I suppose that wasn't the case (despite 30 minutes of great basketball), but now I believe that more than ever after Tuesday.
hey, give him a break, he's not a player ...... he's a fighter. One of the many likeable players on our team.