tOSU thoughts

[TSmith34, Inc.]

I'll stop expressing my feelings on Derrick when you and others stop expressing yours with regard to Derrick.  Deal?

I made the obsrevation that he struggled with entry passes during the game.  You have a 13 month history of endlessly pissing on the young man, in every thread possible, culminating in expressing happiness at the prospect of him being injured and unable to play.  WTF is wrong with you?

[Bricky]

Wojo had Juan bringing up the ball all night, interesting concept.  

For some reason, he was the only one taking care of the ball when breaking the press. When Carlino had the ball in his hands, I was really worried about the 10 seconds.

[BallBoy]

I thought the game went as expected. MU showed good spurts but tOSU was better. We needed to shut down Scott and we couldn't. He ended up with 14 assists which was more then everyone else on tOSU.

We did a good job on Russell which helped frustrate him early and got him out of the game but Williams, Loving, and Thompson hit shots.

We need to take better shots and learn to make that extra pass consistently.

I think against better teams tOSU will struggle.

[willie warrior]

Duane played garbage time hero. Before that he did nothing for MU. 0 points, 0 rebounds, 0 assists, 2 turnovers 0-2 from 3 and was out of place on defense. The time at the end made me hopeful but he's not ready.

He is a hell of a lot readier than Derrick: better at FT's, better shooter, better passer, better penetrator, better creator, and much quicker. Sorry Sir, you missed the train on that one.

[madtownwarrior]

Doing it garbage time at least he shows he is capable of scoring versus playing 4 on 5...

Duane played garbage time hero. Before that he did nothing for MU. 0 points, 0 rebounds, 0 assists, 2 turnovers 0-2 from 3 and was out of place on defense. The time at the end made me hopeful but he's not ready.

[MU82]

Tonight we saw the weakness of the extended pressure against a team that had quality guards, were bigger, and could shoot the 3.    MU wasn't able to turn them over enough and, in the second half when they decided to pound it inside, MU was basically powerless to stop them.   But IMO, it is the best defensive option for this team.

I thought MU did a decent job of attacking the zone, considering how good the zone was and how little experience MU has.   Good ball movement, got it to the foul line and down low fairly regularly, just not able to finish consistently enough or knock down enough jumpers.     I have been trying to remember the last team I saw pressure full court man and fall back into that kind of zone.   They slow you down and force you to finally get into your zone offense having already run 12-15 seconds off of the clock.   Really impressive.  

Wojo has done a nice job of getting MU to guard without fouling   Of course, IMO, it is going to take a long, quick, physical team to beat OSU, and the only thing MU has is quick.   My fears were apparently groundless.

MU was never going to win this game.   tOSU is better.   MU competed and didn't quit and didn't get rolled.   I am more hopeful after tonight's game than I was after the UTM game.  

Excellent assessment.

There will be many times this season when we are simply not as good as our opponent. I still think we'll pull off an upset or two, but we'll also probably lose a couple of games we shouldn't.

Regardless, the team already is more entertaining than last season's version, and better days are less than a year away.

[Galway Eagle]

That was Duane who was 2-4 and 2-2. Derrick was 1-2 (both 3s) and 0-0

Hah stupid box score only showing "D Wilson" on there.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Doing it garbage time at least he shows he is capable of scoring versus playing 4 on 5...

He is a hell of a lot readier than Derrick: better at FT's, better shooter, better passer, better penetrator, better creator, and much quicker. Sorry Sir, you missed the train on that one.

If the choice was between Duane and Derrick for the starting PG, I would bite the bullet and pick Duane. But since it is for the backup PG position, I would much rather have experience, strong defense, and someone who won't make mistakes. Derrick is a bad starting PG but is a decent backup PG.

[JakeBarnes]

There were a lot of growing pains that showed last night. That was to be expected. A lot of things need to be shored up including transition defense and just not making the "rookie" mistakes.

The only real issue I still have this morning is this: the team failed to adjust when they got in the double bonus early in the 2nd half (about 8 minutes left). When you are in a deficit and have the other team in foul trouble, you push it inside and try to draw contact and score with the clock stopped. The only fouls I remember Marquette drawing came way outside the paint and with < 2 minutes left. Seemed a bit of an odd decision to not push it further once the team got in the double bonus.

[willie warrior]

If the choice was between Duane and Derrick for the starting PG, I would bite the bullet and pick Duane. But since it is for the backup PG position, I would much rather have experience, strong defense, and someone who won't make mistakes. Derrick is a bad starting PG but is a decent backup PG.

Wrongo---time to ring out the old and ring in the new.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Was anyone else annoyed by Russell? The constant clapping on defense in our players faces and when he posed after the made 3 early in the game. Was hoping someone would foul him hard.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Was anyone else annoyed by Russell? The constant clapping on defense in our players faces and when he posed after the made 3 early in the game. Was hoping someone would foul him hard.

A bit, but the seven turnovers he coughed up were embarrassment enough for me