Butler

[GE911]

Going forward, I don't see this team winning either X game, nor at Prov or at GT. I se 9-9, no dance.

Adding to this: GTown is a much different team than the one we faced earlier in the season and creighton has figured out life after Watson I predict a 1-5 finish.

[NotAnAlum]

Butler handed us a golden opportunity by not playing Martin and we wouldn't take.  The best way to describe what happened tonight was MU beat themselves and Butler made sure they made enough plays to accept the gift. 
Way to many poor passes, poor decisions like 5' 11" guards making straight-line drives to the lane.  If you do that against any decent D-1 team you are going to get the ball swatted back in your face.  We made them look like 7' shot blockers.  What ever happened to kicking it out for an open 3.  Eventually everybody got frustrated and starting taking bad 3s.  Katin's from 5 feet behind the 3 point line with a guy in his face what probably the worst.  Missed too many free throws.  In other words Beat Themselves.
Too bad a great game by Luke was wasted.
I'll try not to extrapolate from this but this because the way MU played tonight will not win any of the remaining games.  Looked a lot like the Prov game so the trend is concerning to say the least.

[muwarrior69]

Even if we make the tournament, and that is a big if, it will be a one and done.

[connie]

The players need to learn how to drive to the hoop..can't rely on making every single 3 pointer. Defense was iffy but im feeling confident even after the loss. The players know what they have to do now, just need to finish off strong

[/u]I just wonder what you have seen this year that gives you any confidence that this is likely to happen?  They could hit a few more shots, and sure that makes a victory more likely, but I wouldn't consider that "finishing strong."  Their fundamental weakness remains.

[GGGG]

One of Rowsey's calls was an absolute bullsh*t charge where he passed, jumped to avoid contact, and the Butler player flopped.

I am so absolutely frustrated with college refs and their inability to get this call correct that I am beginning to think that the secondary charge call should simply be eliminated from the game.

[dgies9156]

Even if we make the tournament, and that is a big if, it will be a one and done.

I agree with this point.

[tower912]

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400919712

The mourning after........ I think Butler won this game more than MU lost it.    Butler's six seniors played disciplined defense, played to the scout.    Their focus was to run MU off of the 3 pt line and  not let our shooters get clean looks.   To not double Luke.     They did it nearly to perfection.    I thought in stretches, MU's defense was as solid as it has been all year.    And frequently, the defense would be solid for 15 seconds and then one guy (different every time, but almost everybody took a turn) would lose focus for two seconds and Butler would make them pay.     Which is a credit to Butler as much as it is a criticism of MU.   

[bradley center bat]

Even if we make the tournament, and that is a big if, it will be a one and done.

So what. 283 schools would rather be one and done, that not be part of the show at all.

[SuddenSam]

Butler handed us a golden opportunity by not playing Martin and we wouldn't take.  The best way to describe what happened tonight was MU beat themselves and Butler made sure they made enough plays to accept the gift. 
Way to many poor passes, poor decisions like 5' 11" guards making straight-line drives to the lane.  If you do that against any decent D-1 team you are going to get the ball swatted back in your face.  We made them look like 7' shot blockers.  What ever happened to kicking it out for an open 3.  Eventually everybody got frustrated and starting taking bad 3s.  Katin's from 5 feet behind the 3 point line with a guy in his face what probably the worst.  Missed too many free throws.  In other words Beat Themselves.
Too bad a great game by Luke was wasted.
I'll try not to extrapolate from this but this because the way MU played tonight will not win any of the remaining games.  Looked a lot like the Prov game so the trend is concerning to say the least.

So how many more times does Markus have to do this before he learns...game after game after game.

[NotAnAlum]

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400919712

The mourning after........ I think Butler won this game more than MU lost it.   

I guess its a matter of degree and "the morning after" I can accept that Butler's defense played a role in MU's complete inability to get their 3 point game going.  Butler was doubling the ball whenever it was at the top of the key, totally ignoring the screener on those plays and sending both defenders after the ball.  It worked and we never seemed to do anything to adjust.  That said I'm really tired of the dumb passes that end up being thrown right to a defender.  I thought that was last season and we were past that.  I also hope that its a matter of experience that will teach guys that if you end up a few feet from the hoop with 1,2 or even 3 guys that are 6" taller than you between you and it trying to get to the rim is futile.  You have to either pull up and shoot or pass out.  To me those "blocks" are actually turn overs that we should add to all our bad passes.  Erase 5 of those and instead get shots, make 40% of those shots and you win this game regardless of how many seniors Butler has.
A few weeks ago I guess I thought we were ready to play with the contenders in our league.  Not just because we beat Nova at home but because we beat Nova and Creighton and had a top 20 Butler on the ropes at their place all by playing the same kind of ball.  A friend of mine said "you guys were playing out of your minds at Creighton" to which I replied.  No really that is the way this team plays.  I'm afraid I was wrong.  We played out of our minds for a week and a half.  The way we are playing now is us; a little better than last year but still not quite ready to contend.

[MUfan12]

So how many more times does Markus have to do this before he learns...game after game after game.

I'm old enough to remember Eric Hicks having 10 blocks against MU because freshmen James and McNeal kept driving into him.

Markus is best suited driving off a curl than a straight line drive. He's a smart kid, he'll figure it out.

[GoldenDieners32]

I still think we need to give DW more mins

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400919712

#freethrowsmatta

Make our free throws, and we win that game.

[79Warrior]

So how many more times does Markus have to do this before he learns...game after game after game.

Markus is a Freshman working his tail off. Save the complaints for seniors like JJJ.

[vogue65]

I see an either or mentality.  We were focusing on offense, now we are focusing on defense, the solution is to focus on basketball.

[brewcity77]

#freethrowsmatta

Make our free throws, and we win that game.

If we shoot our average, we make 2-3 more. If Butler shoots their average, they make 1-3 more, especially the two missed front ends late. So not really.

The problem with free throws wasn't not making them, it was not getting to the line enough. We took 9 FTs on 60 FGAs. That's 15%, or about half our season average. Get to the line 17-18 times and we win even with the low percentage. And Butler was over 27% FTA/FGA, far closer to their norm than we were.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

And Butler was over 27% FTA/FGA, far closer to their norm than we were.

Agree, but part of that was artificially inflated because of our intentional fouls.