MVSU-Good/Bad/Ugly

[tower912]

Good:    Ball movement, especially against the zone.   DG's ability to pass out of a double team in the post.   Blue's stat stuffing and doing a not completely crappy job at the point.   DJO and Crowder finding their 3 pt stroke.   EWill's jump shot and hustle.    Played a lot of two guard, 3 forward sets with JJ and EWill each getting double digit minutes.
Bad:   MVSU.    Giving up too many open 3's.    EWill and JJ are still a step slow on rotations.    DG slow getting down the floor on defense.   Otule's hands.   Buycks has to learn that a step-back 19 footer is rarely his best option.   Need Cadougan to come back healthy so that we can get the all holy rotation set.
Ugly:   Defensive rebounding.   Lots of jumping with no boxing out. 

[willie warrior]

Hopefully the good things above continue and we can eliminate the uglies.
Competition will significantly upgrade.
We need to definitely improve on blocking out-- we have been killed inside in many games and that was our downfall in the losses.
DJO will be the stud we all know he is.
Need to get Gardner in there more--he can do damage inside. He is probably averaging about 15 points per 40 minutes.
Cadougan must get healthy--he is our true point.

[ATL MU Warrior]

Good:    Ball movement, especially against the zone.   DG's ability to pass out of a double team in the post.   Blue's stat stuffing and doing a not completely crappy job at the point.   DJO and Crowder finding their 3 pt stroke.   EWill's jump shot and hustle.    Played a lot of two guard, 3 forward sets with JJ and EWill each getting double digit minutes.
Bad:   MVSU.    Giving up too many open 3's.    EWill and JJ are still a step slow on rotations.    DG slow getting down the floor on defense.   Otule's hands.   Buycks has to learn that a step-back 19 footer is rarely his best option.   Need Cadougan to come back healthy so that we can get the all holy rotation set.
Ugly:   Defensive rebounding.   Lots of jumping with no boxing out. 

More good:  We are quite adept at screaming "AND 1" after most made baskets where there is any contact by the other team.

[Josey Wales]

More good:  We are quite adept at screaming "AND 1" after most made baskets where there is any contact by the other team.

And on the occasional missed basket as well.

[groove]

Difficult to make any evaluation from games against teams this bad. These are glorified summer league games.

[NCMUFan]

Crowder was great.  He is a true 4 and can move to the 3 to spell Jimmy.  Getting E Williams additional playing time was critical.  I am feeling better about him playing at the 4.  E Williams had a nice jump shot and put back.  We need one, Otule or Gardner out there almost always to intimidate.  Without them rebounds are myths.   Buycks talent was really starting to show even though he didn't score much. Needs to know his limits and not try to play beyond his skill set.  Blue is starting to look like the blue chipper he is billed as.   We know what DJO and Jimmy can do.  I am feeling better.  Vandy will be a great final test before the BEAST.  One thing I think last night showed was when we played small ball, MVSU beat us hands down.  It was when we started to play larger we took the game.

[NCMUFan]

Difficult to make any evaluation from games against teams this bad. These are glorified summer league games.

Got to disagree.

[chren21]

Crowder was great.  He is a true 4 and can move to the 3 to spell Jimmy.  Getting E Williams additional playing time was critical.  I am feeling better about him playing at the 4.  E Williams had a nice jump shot and put back.  We need one, Otule or Gardner out there almost always to intimidate.  Without them rebounds are myths.  

Anyone hear the post game interview with Buzz when he expalined the cause and effect of DG / Otule not playing well?  It was really interesting.  Basically saying that it is a huge chain reaction that causes everyone else on the team to play out of position when those two play poorly and have to be yanked.  I thought he hit it right on the head.

[willie warrior]

The problem with Buzz's analysis is that I do not believe that Gardner has played poorly--and perhaps Otule had. Gardner was injured for several games and has produced offensively for us--far more than anybody expected. As far as his defense, it is not as bad as many say--definitely as good as E Williams. And Gardner is a good passer with good footwork. Yes he is slow, but then again, so is Otule.

I still say that Gardner and Otule need to be inthere 30 plus minutes between the two per game, and limit Crowder to only two or three minutes in the post, or give the remaining minutes to Williams.

It appears however, that Buzz will go with the three guard starting line-up, and Crowder in the post. I do not like it for the BEast The best starting line-up IMO should be:
PG Cadougan
2G DJO
Forward Crowder
Forward Butler
Center Gardner
Even then, you will need to get Blue in there somehow, and of course the Bikes supporters want him in there.

[GGGG]

The problem with Buzz's analysis is that I do not believe that Gardner has played poorly--and perhaps Otule had. Gardner was injured for several games and has produced offensively for us--far more than anybody expected. As far as his defense, it is not as bad as many say--definitely as good as E Williams.

Damning with feint praise.

Gardner is clearly the better offensive option, but he has a bit to go defensively.  Furthermore he neither as tall, nor as long, as Otule.  And he can't really jump.

[chren21]

The problem with Buzz's analysis is that I do not believe that Gardner has played poorly--and perhaps Otule had. Gardner was injured for several games and has produced offensively for us--far more than anybody expected. As far as his defense, it is not as bad as many say--definitely as good as E Williams. And Gardner is a good passer with good footwork. Yes he is slow, but then again, so is Otule.

I still say that Gardner and Otule need to be inthere 30 plus minutes between the two per game, and limit Crowder to only two or three minutes in the post, or give the remaining minutes to Williams.

It appears however, that Buzz will go with the three guard starting line-up, and Crowder in the post. I do not like it for the BEast The best starting line-up IMO should be:
PG Cadougan
2G DJO
Forward Crowder
Forward Butler
Center Gardner
Even then, you will need to get Blue in there somehow, and of course the Bikes supporters want him in there.

I guess I agree.  If I ask myself if I would rather have a 5 in there playing "average" or would I rather have everyone playing out of position I would want a 5 in there.  I agree with your lineup but would emphasize the fact that Blue needs to be playing close to starters minutes.

[tower912]

DG is already has polished a post player offensively as we have seen in ages.   His hands, footwork, instincts for getting the ball in the basket, ability to pass out of a double team are all remarkable for a freshman and pretty darn good for an upperclassman.   He is still slow getting down the floor to play defense.   He does not yet have the defensive instincts or footwork needed to be a complete big man.   He doesn't use his mass to leverage opposing bigs, he doesn't fight through to play them 3/4 as the ball rotates.    It appears to me that, like EWill, he did not spend a lot of time being taught the correct way to play defense.   In his case, man to man post defense.     When, that comes, along with his conditioning, he is going to be the big we have all been longing for.   Until then, he is a talented freshman with a lot of upside but a ways to go.  

[willie warrior]

I guess I agree.  If I ask myself if I would rather have a 5 in there playing "average" or would I rather have everyone playing out of position I would want a 5 in there.  I agree with your lineup but would emphasize the fact that Blue needs to be playing close to starters minutes.

The real problem is that you basically have three guys, DJO, Blue and Bikes who are best suited for the 2G position, and how do you accomodate that? DJO is the best shooter and likely the best athlete, while Blue can do lots of things well and play good D. Bikes also has strengths when he plays under control. I don't believe any is a PG answer, although right now, of the three I would rate Bikes above Blue.

My way of handling it would be to use both Bikes and Blue off the bench playing 2G, wing, and a bit of Point. Still believe you need DJO in for shooting and Gadougan for ball distribution, especially into the post with Gardner/Otule.

The people that complain about Gardner's defensive weaknesses--who do you play on the BEast post players: Crwoder? No. Butler? No. Blue? No. Williams? Same as Gardner. By default, you need Gardner/Otule in there. Gardner for his offensive abilities and space eating. Otule for Shot blocking. We have no other options for defending the post.

[Mr. Nielsen]

I hope this game is the coming out party for Jae Crowder. I thought DJO and Buycks played well together.

MVSU will be in the big dance soon. Lot's of young good players on that team, that was a top 100 recruiting class. They play in a bad league. Nevermind they are 1-10. With that schedule they have played MU, Wisconsin or whoever would have a losing record.

[GGGG]

http://www.mvsu.edu/athletics/mens_basketball/schedule.php

Look at this schedule.  Talk about brutal.  They don't play their first home game (including exhibitions) until January 8 and their only home games are conference games.

[Mr. Nielsen]

http://www.mvsu.edu/athletics/mens_basketball/schedule.php

Look at this schedule.  Talk about brutal.  They don't play their first home game (including exhibitions) until January 8 and their only home games are conference games.

That is why records don't tell the story on how good or bad a team is.

[TallTitan34]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the team was 26-31 on free throws.  84%

[tower912]

It wasn't mentioned because nobody could complain about it.   

[PGsHeroes32]

Who cares if these are "summer league" games. Last night we finally made some shots. DJO and Crowder were making them fall and hopefully that goes along way for confidence. Sure, it would be better that they fell against Duke etc.. but in those games we had just as many open shots as we did last night, its about getting confidence and hitting them, hopefully its a sign to come now.

[NotAnAlum]

DG is already has polished a post player offensively as we have seen in ages.   His hands, footwork, instincts for getting the ball in the basket, ability to pass out of a double team are all remarkable for a freshman and pretty darn good for an upperclassman.     

I totally agree Tower.  I was having a discussion with an MU alum who was lamenting how much better Wisconsin's post players are than anything MU has.  He kind of laughed when I said that DG has real potential.  DG is weak on defense right now.  As I've said before I think that the 5 spot is the toughest position to play defensively on college BB because of all decisions on giving help, rotations and then still getting into Defensive rebounding position.  I think that all takes time.  That said he has offensive skills at 18 years old that Barro and Burke didn't have as College Seniors.  I really beleive he could be as good as Robert Jackson in a couple of years.

[chren21]

He kind of laughed when I said that DG has real potential.

I would expect nothing less from a Badger fan.

Woops, I mis-read that.  Ignore me please.