I Am Going To Make Excuses

[Tugg Speedman]

I agree with you on Numbers 1 and 3, but on Number 2 I think Buycks passed it to Jimmy and it went off Jimmy's hand.

It was deflected which is why Jimmy could not handle it.  Last off Jimmy

[brewcity77]

3 - On the over and back call where Cadougan picked it up in the back court - I missed the replay - I thought they deflected the initial pass causing it to go in the back court - wrong?

Pretty sure that was a legit over-and-back. Tough to tell on the replay, but it looked to me like it was an errant pass that went off Junior's hand. I was more irked with the earlier over-and-back call where the ball clearly never went into the backcourt but was whistled anyway.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

Pretty sure that was a legit over-and-back. Tough to tell on the replay, but it looked to me like it was an errant pass that went off Junior's hand. I was more irked with the earlier over-and-back call where the ball clearly never went into the backcourt but was whistled anyway.

It may or may not have been touched by Junior first, but the official that made the call was our buddy, who was blocked by the georgetown guy (the GT guy was between our buddy and junior.  no way he was in position to make that call.

[ChicosBailBonds]

WTF? We lost because our defense absolutely blows? We just held Georgetown to 69 points (67 not counting the 2 the official literally gave them on that "worst I've EVER seen" technical). We held them below their their normal FG% and were even with them on the boards. They couldn't miss a free throw (16-18) but you can't blame that on bad defense. On the other hand, we shot 38% from the floor and 14% from 3 and missed 9 free throws. We all know where we "rank" in the Big East on defense, but what does that have to do with today? Poor shooting and offensive execution and playing a better team on the road is why we lost. And whether you like it or not, horrible officiating contributed.

Tale of two halves.  We let them shoot 50% in the second half on 12 of 24.  They were 11 of 30 in the first half.

[Henry Sugar]

Blaming the officials is the easy thing to do.  Our defense blows.  Absolutely blows.  According to kenpom, 15th out of 16 teams in the BE.

Defense was pretty good today.

Only allowed 1.02 ppp for the entire game.  Fairly consistent across both halves.  1.00 and 1.04, respectively

Killer was scoring 0.67 ppp in the 2H vs 1.18 ppp in the 1H.  ballgame.  24% turnover rate, 11% OR%, and 34% on eFG%. 

PS - we totally crushed FTR at 77% in the 2H.  Anyone else care to dispute that FTR is insignificant?

[Da 'Lanche]

Buzz certainly has proven to be an average at-best bench coach.  Outside of the whole "we really hustle" jibe, I don't see anything that shows that he is anything special.

I thought he coached a brilliant first half.  That was one of the best halfs of  basketball...with a ton of innovative subsitutions for match up advantages...that MU has put together.

The second half plan was a head-scratcher.

[TJ]

I thought he coached a brilliant first half.  That was one of the best halfs of  basketball...with a ton of innovative subsitutions for match up advantages...that MU has put together.

The second half plan was a head-scratcher.

Was it really surprising though?  It's nothing new with this year's group.  Every new half is a new adventure, and no two are the same.

[TJ]

Oh, and the refs were awful today.  The cherry on top being the worst technical foul call in the history of basketball.

And it did affect our team because one of our best players for today fouled out with 7 1/2 minutes left to play.