Slow Starts, Fitz, Cubillan, Rotation, Press

[MarquetteFan94]

I was definitely concerned after our first 3 conference losses on the road in that we weren't competitive and never really dictated tempo or played our game....but I chalked it up to being on the road and "nobody" wins on the road in the BE...I didn't like conceding to that fact because I thought that if we were truly going to compete for the BE title then we should be able to win on the road....BUT, I was able to live with it.  Then came last night.  I'm officially alarmed.

Slow Starts
We have trailed to start 9 out of our 10 conference games...ND being the one exception.  Here are the leads conference opponents have opened up on us to begin the games (notice the 11-4 deficit):

Providence 7-0
@WVU 11-4
SH 11-4
@UL 11-4
@UConn 11-4
DPU 11-4
SFL 9-4
@UC 11-4
UL 10-2

WTF is going on?  Clearly we proved that all of these deficits were not insurmountable but to be behind by 5-8 points 4 minutes into 9 out of 10 BE games is awful.  What is that?  Like to believe it can't be coaching or preparation.

Fitz
Clearly the wrist injury has impacted his confidence and potentially affected his stroke...he has been a liability in conference play...with the exception of the Seton Hall game when he cemented the win.  I think all of us would have expected more than 7 3PM after 10 conference games....the 3 3PM he had at UConn came when the game was well out of reach.  He hasn't hit a "meaningful" 3 in 7 games....meaningful as defined by in the first half or the game being in reach.

Cubillan
Another case of an injury impacting his play.  He appears to have his full mobility back the last couple games...or at least close to it.  I think a lot of us would've expected more than 10 3PM made from DC after 10 conference games....again, understanding his injury impacted him early in the conference season and still probably bothers him today...but I expected more production.

When Fitz and Cubillan are averaging .85 3PM per BE game combined...over 10 games....we're in trouble.

Rotation
Is it me or did last night feel like a couple years ago when Crean was just throwing people out on the floor hoping something/anything would work?  Where's the game plan?  We just played these guys 2 weeks ago! Yes, Lazar was saddled with fouls and DJ was not 100% but it felt like it was just a revolving door...maybe Fitz will hit a shot (you have to take one to miss one), maybe Christopherson will build on his momentum from Cincy...Trend, get in there...I know you didn't see the floor in Cincy but maybe you can help us tonight....hmmm, we're down 13 with under 12 min to go...let's put Trend and Burke on the floor at the same time giving us not one, but two less options in our half court offense.  What was that?

Press
What's with the late game press BS when the game has already been decided....i.e. being down over 20.  We saw the same thing at UConn and in our fist blow out to UL...again last night. Is this designed to make the score look better in the paper?  OR...maybe we should notice that it's actually effective...at least enough to try for stretches throughout the course of a game.  Isn't our strength speed and depth at the guard position?  You're telling me that we can't try to do that for 2 minute stretches at certain points of a game to disrupt a team's offensive sets/flow?!  I don't frickin get it.

I won't even mention the uncontested 3PA's that we allowed last night...guess I just did....

[CTWarrior]

I totally agree that the horrible starts are getting out of hand.  I think one thing we can do is start Barro.  The common link in all these games is once we get behind, then we put in Barro and things start to get better.  Now, I know Barro isn't anything special, but he is better than Burke, Fitzgerald or whoever else we can trot out there and call a big man.