Thoughts After a Big Win

[wadesworld]

1. Last week was not the last week this team will be ranked this season.  Sorry to burst your bubble everyone who was complaining.

2. Lazar Hayward is my favorite player.  I love his attitude.  I was sitting courtside at the Dayton loss and noticed that although he did not play well at all, fouled out with just 5 points and the last foul was a questionable call, he kept an extremely good attitude on the bench.  He was the first one out to high 5 the teammates at breaks, he's always screaming for the team, waving his towel around, etc.  He is also the best 6'7" rebounder I've seen in quite a while, especially for a guy who SHOULD be on the perimeter.

3. Dwight Burke deserves some credit.  He played awesome defense on Landry.  I was worried when I saw him guarding Landry to start, but he guarded both the low post AND the perimeter very well.  Also, I can't blame him for dropping some of the passes he does.  Sometimes the pass is way above his head, sometimes it's at his feet, and it's always coming like a bullet.  There's no way for him to tell where the ball will be coming, and it's coming fast.  We have to hit him in his hands.

4. Loved the 1-3-1 zone by Buzz.  He outcoached a coach who consistently outcoached our old coach, who somebody said was a "top 10 coach in the nation right now."  He took a huge risk, going to a zone after playing all man all year.  Had it gone wrong we would've been calling for his head.  In fact, somebody may have taken his head.

[TallTitan34]

3. Dwight Burke deserves some credit.  He played awesome defense on Landry. 

In his postgame interview Buzz called Dwight the MVP for that very reason.

[MU B2002]

There was a point in the second half where Burke grabbed a big board on the offensive end an got fouled just before a tv timeout.  I noticed he seemed to have a little swagger heading to the bench.  It is nice to seem him pick up some confidence.  Hopefully it will be something to build on, and now I sound like Herm Edwards.


Oh, where was Cubillan, besides on the bench?

[PJDunn]

There was a point in the second half where Burke grabbed a big board on the offensive end an got fouled just before a tv timeout.  I noticed he seemed to have a little swagger heading to the bench.  It is nice to seem him pick up some confidence.  Hopefully it will be something to build on, and now I sound like Herm Edwards.


Oh, where was Cubillan, besides on the bench?

Cuby is not 100% yet.  I predict that he makes a "game stud" appearance at least a couple of times this season.

[Falkinator]

thats a joke. cubillan is just not a good player

[jficke13]

Burke's performance is almost 100% not going to show up in a box score. Last season he had a phenomenal game against G'town and it was all him forcing Hibbert to the high block or to the elbow. What he does is a lot of the time not in the box score but is always very important to the team's success.

[jce]

Burke's performance is almost 100% not going to show up in a box score. Last season he had a phenomenal game against G'town and it was all him forcing Hibbert to the high block or to the elbow. What he does is a lot of the time not in the box score but is always very important to the team's success.

+1

He is never going to have good hands or be an offensive force.  But he's a great defender and plays very hard.  What else can you ask of the guy?

[MUCam]

RE: Cubillan. I think he is a decent role player. He is the type of guy you want to give you 10 minutes per game. He can (or used to be able) to hit the three. He plays good on-ball defense, even if his team off-ball defense is a little weak.

Last night was strange. I wonder if he is hurt. At one point in the first half, on back to back possessions, Cubillan gave great defensive effort. He single handedly pushed Wisconsin way out of their comfort zone on those plays. I believe one led to a turnover, the other to a bail out foul (not by Cuby) with less than 5 seconds. He was absent from the game from that point forward. Was it injury?

The kid is a team player. He comes off the bench and holds his own on defense. Adds a slight spark and allows the Big Three a breather. We could use another Cuby right about now for depth.

[robmufan]

4. Loved the 1-3-1 zone by Buzz.  He outcoached a coach who consistently outcoached our old coach, who somebody said was a "top 10 coach in the nation right now."  He took a huge risk, going to a zone after playing all man all year.  Had it gone wrong we would've been calling for his head.  In fact, somebody may have taken his head.

I wanted to bring this up yesterday but had one too many beers to type about it 

It is talked about halftime adjustments that Buzz makes in the earlier games and this one might have been his best.  Buzz through a defense out there that I doubt UW had practiced or seen at all this year.  We have very quick guards and a 1-3-1 could be used to our benefit.  I thought it was great to see some new defense in there!!! Great win!!!!

[ecompt]

That 1-3-1 could be huge for us when Otule comes back. He could provide some height for us in the back of the zone.

[jce]

The problem with the 1-3-1 is that you are going to get a lot of open looks from 3...as UW did...but they couldn't knock them down.  It is a change of pace defense.

[77ncaachamps]

1) It sucks not to have a stream. ESPECIALLY after a big win like this. 

2) Jerel IS the man. Love him or hate him, he makes this team go.

[cheebs09]

I think that the 1-3-1 wasn't technically a halftime adjustment coz they used it a little in the first half. I also found it a little odd that Acker was at the bottom when he was in. In a 1-3-1 your most athletic player is usually at the bottom so i'm not surprised James was there when he was in, but they never got it into the post when acker was down there. Although, after the first pass it appeared that there were two guys at the bottom (usually whoever the 5 was) so acker wasnt alone.

As far as the threes go, I don't remember too many open threes (I was in the student section so might not have noticed as much). I do remember threes on man to man break downs and stuff, but i tried to watch and i always remember them having to throw the ball cross court and usually had a hand in the face coz our players recovered nicely. The zone forced the offense to start really far back and long cross court passes. For some reason they didnt look low and the only low baskets i remember were after rebounds or the occasional UW drive. I was happy to see the zone and I think its why we won, slowed down UW after their early big run enough for us to get back into it.

[muarmy81]

It is a change of pace defense.

exactly,
Once we switched up D's UW shot a lot of early shots in their possessions which helped us pick the tempo up a bit more...it was a good move.  i was also pleasantly surprised by some of the designed plays we ran for Wes and Jerel after timeouts...something we never seemed to do very well with our old coach.

Still very sloppy and settling too much for 3's but it was a good win.

[MR.HAYWARD]

cuby played a littel in the first but acker had a big game and played very well.  what helped Mu and led to less time for cuby was foul trouble on UW's Hughes.  Acker could guard #11 and MU is better on O with Acker on the point, while DJ is getting a breather.  Therefore Ackers d did not hurt us and he played while DJ rested.  39 minutes for jerel and wes dont leave much time for CUbi.  one big key to the win was hughes fouls,  UW simply can do nothing when he is not running the o similar to Mu is the past when diener or Dj have been out.  i  think BO made a big mistake taking Hughes out with 3 to go when he picked up his 4th, you lose with him on the bench.  there only shot came when he brought him back, but thankfully it was too late.