For starters, this team is devoid of a leader. Should be Jr., but it ain't. Next, the talent level isn't very special. Gotta get some 5 stars, especially in the middle. Thirdly, Buzz is still learning.
We are a step slow and we are soft. 2 things we are not used to being.
Crowder and DJO were good. Sometimes, role players don't transition to leaders. If and when they do dictates how the rest of the season goes.
Vander will get an all-BE honorable mention, and will win POY next year. He will get drafted by the timberwolves and lead them to an NBA tittle. That's what I learned.
- Blue is on the verge of reaching his potential.
- Florida is a National Championship caliber team.
- Marquette is a bubble team.
- Scoopers will continue to ignorantly cry that MU has no leadership whenever the team loses.
I disagree we are a bubble team. Think we have the makings of a really decent team - definintely as talented as last year but the leadership maybe isn't there.
why did we get this match up? I thought you should play teams that should finish in your spot in these challenges. Not going to get many viewers with this set up
I learned that Buzz was right on the money when he has constantly bad-mouthed this team from day one. I used to think it was kind of dickish to keep saying how bad your team is (the players must love it), but the man obviously knows what he's talking about.
1) Otule will not be back next year. He is not even close to what he was, especially on defense. Time for him to move on in life and not further injure himself.
2) Lockett not the player most of us believed he was. Maybe over-hyped or we thought he was the savior to DJO/Crowder loss. Long way to go, so maybe he turns it around.
3) Miss Mayo and outside threat.
Quote from: JoBo2756 on November 29, 2012, 10:06:54 PM
I disagree we are a bubble team. Think we have the makings of a really decent team - definintely as talented as last year but the leadership maybe isn't there.
What the hell does leadership have to do with it? Jamil might be the best leader in college basketball but if he shoots 1-8 with 5 TOs, all the leadership in the world isn't going to help that.
We need Mayo. Thomas is absolutely not the answer.
We got our butts kicked by a top level team. It doesn't hurt as bad in November as in the Sweet 16, and it may be something that jump-starts this team. Let's face it, with the possible exception of USC Marquette hasn't played a solid 40 minutes thus far this year. After 23 minutes we were trailing a hideous UMBC team by one. We may not be going back to the Sweet 16 this year, but I have confidence this team will be in the tourney.
I'm looking forward to the Duane Wilson era to begin at the point. I'm tired of watching Junior not show up.
Quote from: RJax55 on November 29, 2012, 10:11:03 PM
I'm looking forward to the Duane Wilson era to begin at the point. I'm tired of watching Junior not show up.
Kinda going with this.
Quote from: RJax55 on November 29, 2012, 10:11:03 PM
I'm looking forward to the Duane Wilson era to begin at the point. I'm tired of watching Junior not show up.
There have been games where "not showing up" would have been an upgrade from the way he played.
Quote from: RJax55 on November 29, 2012, 10:11:03 PM
I'm looking forward to the Duane Wilson era to begin at the point. I'm tired of watching Junior not show up.
I do think Derrick will give Duane a run though.
What did I learn today?
That I missed the league and it is not on again till midnight! DAMN IT!
Other than that, they lost a game against a good team, lets move on and use the week of practice we have!
Vander Blue is the best player on this team. Not earthshattering news but what is surprising is it's not even close.
Quote from: RJax55 on November 29, 2012, 10:11:03 PM
I'm looking forward to the Duane Wilson era to begin at the point. I'm tired of watching Junior not show up.
Agree, but not something we just learned tonight.
MU is capable of many possessions without even getting a shot off...
Quote from: madtownwarrior on November 29, 2012, 10:17:04 PM
MU is capable of many possessions without even getting a shot off...
Maybe the A-10 is a league MU belongs in :)
That this board loves to freak out when we lose to SEC teams; LSU and Vandy last year come to mind.
That this was the biggest debacle since Louisville in 05 and Kanas in 03. We should all be extremely excited if this team somehow makes the tourney!
What I learned, per the chat, is that I really, really had a love/hate relationship with China Garden.
Quote from: CaptainAwesome on November 29, 2012, 10:24:18 PM
What I learned, per the chat, is that I really, really had a love/hate relationship with China Garden.
I knew I left the chat too early.
Quote from: PTM on November 29, 2012, 10:26:23 PM
I knew I left the chat too early.
Yeah, you missed the talk about Angelo's and underage drinking experiences there as well.
I've heard of people drawing a smiley face on a napkin there as their "ID" with it saying "I am 21" or something like that. Glory days, indeed!
Quote from: CaptainAwesome on November 29, 2012, 10:29:49 PM
Yeah, you missed the talk about Angelo's and underage drinking experiences there as well.
I've heard of people drawing a smiley face on a napkin there as their "ID" with it saying "I am 21" or something like that. Glory days, indeed!
I walked into Angelos on a Friday night with the worst ID ever and the owner informed me that as long as I was going to spend money, I was welcome.
Love it.
Quote from: JoBo2756 on November 29, 2012, 10:41:33 PM
I walked into Angelos on a Friday night with the worst ID ever and the owner informed me that as long as I was going to spend money, I was welcome.
Love it.
I remember going to get my ID from the bar and drunkenly saying, "I can't remember my name but I have a Minnesota ID and I'm wearing a red polo shirt in the picture." The bartender found it for me. He was good people.
Quote from: MerrittsMustache on November 29, 2012, 10:53:00 PM
I remember going to get my ID from the bar and drunkenly saying, "I can't remember my name but I have a Minnesota ID and I'm wearing a red polo shirt in the picture." The bartender found it for me. He was good people.
Haha good stuff. That doesn't happen in most cities. Maybe because I'm 25 it doesn't matter anymore, but you never forget those things.
Quote from: JoBo2756 on November 30, 2012, 12:03:51 AM
Haha good stuff. That doesn't happen in most cities. Maybe because I'm 25 it doesn't matter anymore, but you never forget those things.
Well if you can more than partially remember, you didn't do it right ;)
I learned we can only beat SEC teams from Mississippi and Kentucky
We got wamped! It was a huge thrashing.
The season is young and we will learn from this debacle.
Buzz and coaches need to work out schemes to beat more talented and deep teams.
Not sure what happened to Jamil, but, he needs to step up and be more assertive as a leader and as a scorer.
This game was a wake up call. We will do better. Let's start by winning the next game!
I don't think you can take much other than Florida is better at every position and that Vander was the only MU player who consistently played hard. I thought after they blocked two shots early we were as scared as I have ever seen MU. Total buttkicking that Buzz has to turn into a learning experience.
I learned that everything is better with Mayo. I'm not saying he would have made much difference last night (although he had a great game against UF in the tournament), but we deparately need a scorer and someone with the experience to show leadership in games like that.
Quote from: chapman on November 29, 2012, 10:15:05 PM
Vander Blue is the best player on this team. Not earthshattering news but what is surprising is it's not even close.
Agree, but not something we just learned tonight.
This is reason #1 why people like myself call out those who used to make excuses for Blue's offensive play. They are the homers. I'm sorry, but three games doesn't make him the best player on the team. Keep up this play for 10 or 15 games and then we'll talk and he probably will be the best player on the team this year.
Quote from: statnik on November 30, 2012, 10:10:00 AM
This is reason #1 why people like myself call out those who used to make excuses for Blue's offensive play. They are the homers. I'm sorry, but three games doesn't make him the best player on the team. Keep up this play for 10 or 15 games and then we'll talk and he probably will be the best player on the team this year.
Ok... Who is then?
Quote from: RJax55 on November 30, 2012, 10:14:36 AM
Ok... Who is then?
Exactly +1, i would love to hear this answer..
Biggest lesson learned from this "debacle", and I really do love the word debacle in general, is that this board should be shutdown and off limits to all posters for 24 hours after any loss, let alone after a game where we severely under performed and looked like a junior high team.
We are not awful. We just played one awful game.
We are not devoid of talent. We have a lot of talented players and three of them might eek out a good living playing professionally.
The talent level is good and comparable year over year. This team needs time to gel and mesh that talent together if they can. We lost 2 alpha players last year and players are stilling trying to find their roles.
We do need another offensive weapon and losing Mayo does hurt A LOT. Not because he is some great NBA talent, far from it. It hurts a lot because he provides another offensive player and a key one who has the ability to open up lanes with his perimeter shooting which is something that this team is missing. His ability strengthens are weaknesses. Allows other players to slide into their appropriate roles better. (Juan Anderson and Jake Thomas should not be getting as many minutes as they are)
Gardner and J. Wilson need to become more consistent for this team to achieve what it can achieve. They will get there. When they are clicking, this team performs infinitely better.
Junior is a solid player but he is what he is. D. Wilson is not better than Junior. Having said that, Junior needs to perform up to his ability which he has not done.
I expect huge improvement over the course of the year like Buzz's teams have always done year over year and we will make the big dance come March. Its just hard to see that after last night's "debacle".
Quote from: MerrittsMustache on November 29, 2012, 10:09:45 PM
What the hell does leadership have to do with it? Jamil might be the best leader in college basketball but if he shoots 1-8 with 5 TOs, all the leadership in the world isn't going to help that.
Agreed. How is leadership quantifiable? Are players not putting in the actual work? Watching Film, practicing, spending time in the weight room/work outs? Leadership is worthless if the other team is just better at basketball. It's not complicated. End of story.
Quote from: Blue Horseshoe on November 30, 2012, 03:58:42 PM
Agreed. How is leadership quantifiable? Are players not putting in the actual work? Watching Film, practicing, spending time in the weight room/work outs? Leadership is worthless if the other team is just better at basketball. It's not complicated. End of story.
You don't watch much college basketball or college sports. Leadership is huge in college. And leadership means a bunch of different things. But bottomline, who is going to be the William Wallace. The guy in the huddle or locker room holding teammates accountable and setting the standard for effort and play. I hate to say it and I ain't going to call out names or point to a part of the game, but most observers saw some kids just give up. Honestly, I saw some kids that are getting called out putting some effort in at the end of the game but it was kinda too little too late. And hopefully some of the kids learn from this.
Everyone knows that there isn't a bigger critic than me of Blue. I like to think I give credit where credit is due and the kid is stepping up right now and playing some really good ball. I commented on another thread the the Blue era might be coming because I saw something last night. It was about the 5 minutes mark, we were getting killed and FL PG was just waltzing around the top of the key and Blue got right in his grill defensively and was sticking him. Now he got a couple too many frustration bumps in and the refs called a foul, but I liked it. Blue looked just really pissed off and you need players that are gonna get a little pissed when you get your butt kicked and not just give up. We shall see but Blue is turning some serious corners in November.
Georgetown is using a pretty solid zone tonight against Tennessee. Gulp.
Quote from: frozena pizza on November 30, 2012, 09:34:56 AM
I learned that everything is better with Mayo.
No doubt. I can't imagine tuna fish, egg salad, or smoked turkey on rye without it. With roast beef I like a little mayo along with freshly grated horseradish. My GF likes a healthy squirt of mayo every night.