Coaching error?

[MUCam]

Let me preface my question by saying, I think Buzz is doing a admirable job from the bench so far. That said, what do you think about:

The decision to put McNeal back in the game after he picked up his second foul in the first half.

Personally, when I saw him put McNeal back in, I yelled louder than when James got the technical (after a non-call on the put back), louder than when James fouled on the three, and louder than when Hayward missed his 450th three pointer (admittedly, he made two big ones later).

That 3rd foul was not only not necessary, but it was a game changer. I understand that Cubillan is no 3 amigo and I understand that he got absolutely abused defensively on the brief moment he was on the court, but we have to play with who we have, and who we have is Cubillan. We are not 11 or 12 deep and cannot afford to simply not play one of our players (who for better or worse has played bigger minutes in bigger games in the past), ESPECIALLY if the alternative is leaving one of our big three (McNeal in this instance) prone to foul issues. Thoughts?

I thought that was probably the defining mistake in the game. Great effort by Buzz and the guys otherwise. We were just a dollar short, a day late tonight.

[CTWarrior]

I agree that we have to find a way to get McNeal, Matthews and James time on the bench.  Tonight Buzz thought Butler was a better option than Cubillan to spell McNeal and Matthews, and given Tennessee's size I can live with that. 

I was with you that I thought McNeal should not have been brought back adn it ended up hurting when he picked up that 3rd foul, but in the end if you foul out you played as many minutes as you possibly could have.  He didn't have to get that third foul.  Was not a smart foul.  A senior should know better.

[mwbauer7]

I mean, you can go either way. If TN scores 6-8 unanswered points before the break one could argue the game is over then too, right?

Buzz did a fine job.

[MUCam]

That's a good point mwbauer. Thought process generally though is you'd rather go down 6-8 points without your best player at the end of the first half rather than the end of the game. At least in the first option, you can make up the deficit in the second half. Option 2 kind of leaves you stuck. Either way, I didn't like decision and it obviously didn't pan out for us.

I suppose, if McNeal doesn't pick up the third and ends up taking over the game, then Buzz is brilliant for the calculated risk. I just didn't like the call.

One strange fact that sort of negates my position is that McNeal still ended up with 32 minutes. That is a lot of minutes....way more than I would have estimated just watching the game and not paying attention to minutes played.

[Norm]

"Tonight Buzz thought Butler was a better option than Cubillan to spell McNeal and Matthews, and given Tennessee's size I can live with that."

I have only been able to watch 2 Marquette games this year, including tonight. Does Butler always play so tentatively? He seemed uncomfortable in his own skin out there. He seemed to play with no confidence tonight. Did anyone see him play in junior college? Was he like this last year or is he just going through a bad adjustment period?

[bma725]

"Tonight Buzz thought Butler was a better option than Cubillan to spell McNeal and Matthews, and given Tennessee's size I can live with that."

I have only been able to watch 2 Marquette games this year, including tonight. Does Butler always play so tentatively? He seemed uncomfortable in his own skin out there. He seemed to play with no confidence tonight. Did anyone see him play in junior college? Was he like this last year or is he just going through a bad adjustment period?

He was not like that in JUCO.  He was a very confident player that attacked the basket and showed a nice mid range game.  Difference is, he was playing the 2 in JUCO and for brief periods playing the 1.  Right now he's playing the 4 or the 5.

[mwbauer7]

That's a good point mwbauer. Thought process generally though is you'd rather go down 6-8 points without your best player at the end of the first half rather than the end of the game. At least in the first option, you can make up the deficit in the second half. Option 2 kind of leaves you stuck. Either way, I didn't like decision and it obviously didn't pan out for us.

Agreed. I guess I'm also trying to come up with reasons why Jerel went back in...

[IAmMarquette]

Great effort by Buzz and the guys otherwise. We were just a dollar short, a day late tonight.

Agreed. This loss isn't terribly difficult to take. Tabb's 3 to make it a 5 point game basically iced it. Not losing much sleep over this one. Nice effort, guys.

[rocky_warrior]

Agreed. This loss isn't terribly difficult to take.

I can agree with that - I mostly expected a loss tonight. 

The harder part for me to swallow, is what tonight revealed about the lack of depth on our team.  In order to win a game like this you need a bench player to step up.  Unfortunately I'm not convinced we have a guy like that on our bench. Cubie or Fulce would have been my pick pre-season.  Once they were out I wanted to jump on the Butler bandwagon.  Now...I guess I'll just have to wait and hope that someone does step up for a big game.**

But back on topic - I yelled too when Jerel got back in the game at the end of the half.  Perhaps it wasn't a game changing moment, but I know it didn't help.   Related to that - Hayward seemed to get a lot more tentative after his 3rd foul too.  That seemed to happen a lot last year - luckily he's been less foul prone this year.

** - Yes, WM stepped up tonight.  Don't want to knock that performance.  But I'm looking for that 6th man....

[Pardner]

Here was the problem with staying in the 1-3-1 vs. the much taller Tenn team.  Their F/C's were a combined 17-26 or 65% after they broke down the press or after a put back.  Game, set, match.

It wasn't the refs, our FT shooting or our horrible fg% again (but that would have helped on the road--although our legs are very tired with all the minutes the starters are playing).  Getting taller with Fulce and Otule can only help us as it gives us depth, different looks and some athleticism on the backline.  They won't be miracle workers when they get back, I know,  But, our bench and starter at the 5 are just overmatched and out of their element.  UT is, on average, 3.5 inches taller than us per player.

[Markusquette]

Every coach is going to have to make some tough calls, and I thought Buzz made good choices and kept the team in it.  Sure we lost, but I'm sure some were expecting us to get blown out.  Heck, some thought Wisconsin would destroy us.  Once we have some more size and bench depth we will be able to get our best players a rest and get some help from Otule.

[Daniel]

I'm not going to second-guess Coach.  If we would have won, his moves were brilliant.  Lose, we think hmmmm.  What if . . . I think we can say that about any coach who loses a game - but the reality is, we need to shoot free throws, we need to drive to the basket and score/draw fouls, we need some height.  I thought Buzz, as stated above, kept us in the game, and I think he coached us to victory against UW.  So, it appears to me that he can coach. 

[lab_warrior]

I agree with mwbauer7--I think he decided to roll the dice with McNeal and Hayward coming back, and possibly picking up that 3rd foul; you don't want to lose the game in the first half. 

[ecompt]

He probably should not have put Jerel back in, but I'd rather lose with Jerel than try to win with Cubillan, and apparently Buzz would too.

[AlumKCof93]

This was the first time I've seen MU play this year and my first time to assess Buzz.

Overall I was pleased with how Buzz managed the game. I disagreed with him putting McNeal back in the game, but its up to McNeal to realize that he can't pick up a foul there.  Of his 5th one with 6 minutes left.

I thought the kids played very hard and it was the best I've ever seen Matthews play.  I feel bad for the big 3, they came to MU and have played hard and well for Marquette for 3+ years.  In that time, Marquette's only recruited one additional player for them.  Crean let them down.