finally We Pull One out and Did Not Totally Melt down

[CTWarrior]

Is anyone else having a hard time shaking the feeling that if we didn't go 3-4 from three as the shot clock expired we would have lost this game. 

+1.  That's what I posted immediately after the game.  We have got to stop being so tentative with the lead in the second half.  We stopped pushing the ball up the floor and attacking the defense in the second half, but those 3s bailed us out.  I do think our D was a little better than it's been down the stretch, whether that was because Syracuse is not a dynamic offensive team or that Otule's presence helped I am not sure.  (After the game I chose to credit Otule and I stand by it).

[Pakuni]

Is anyone else having a hard time shaking the feeling that if we didn't go 3-4 from three as the shot clock expired we would have lost this game. 
Butler's shot fading right and DJO's (i think) with two guys on him were not things we want to rely on to win games.  If we do we'll end up being the unluckiest team in basketball again and again.  This seems to be a common problem for the team late in games.

I really hate to be the guy complaining after a loss, but willie bitching about our center (who allowed us to win the rebounding battle against cuse) and our pg (after a 8 dime night) really opened things up for me.

Fair enough, but you can make that argument the other way.
Does anyone else have a hard time shaking the feeling that if a 39 percent three-point shooter doesn't go four-for-four in a 3:47 stretch, we would have beat Louisville?
Does anyone else have a hard time shaking the feeling that if Notre Dame wasn't awarded 22 second-half free throws - they average 25 per game - at South Bend, we would have won that game.
Does anyone else have a hard time shaking the feeling that if a foul were called on a very close trip/slip at the end of the Vandy game, MU would have beaten a ranked opponent on the road?

Fact is, Knowles did hit those shots, Notre Dame did get those free throws, Vandy wasn't called for a foul and Butler and DJO did knock down huge threes. Do we want to rely on that? No, not any more than Pitino is relying on 12 points from Preston Knowles in less than four minutes play, or Mike Brey is counting on getting to the line 22 times every half.
But, for me at least, I try not to look at our guys hitting big shots in big situations as something we should be griping about. Isn't that exactly what we've been calling for all year? Isn't that how good teams win tough games against good opponents?

[Henry Sugar]

Fair enough, but you can make that argument the other way.
Does anyone else have a hard time shaking the feeling that if a 39 percent three-point shooter doesn't go four-for-four in a 3:47 stretch, we would have beat Louisville?
Does anyone else have a hard time shaking the feeling that if Notre Dame wasn't awarded 22 second-half free throws - they average 25 per game - at South Bend, we would have won that game.
Does anyone else have a hard time shaking the feeling that if a foul were called on a very close trip/slip at the end of the Vandy game, MU would have beaten a ranked opponent on the road?

Marquette lost those games because they are poor defensively and cannot make stops when it counts.  UL converted on, what, 11 of 12 possessions down the stretch?  ND shot an eFG% of 60.5% against us and didn't turn the ball over at all.  Vandy scored 1.12 ppp and yet again MU couldn't make the stop at the end.

The feeling I can't shake is that MU does not make stops when it matters.  The pattern was repeating itself against Syracuse.  Marquette just outgunned them with three shot-clock beating three pointers.

I'm not griping about the win.  But I am taking a step back and saying, "Maybe we still have the same fundamental problem and just got a little lucky".  Nothing wrong with being lucky every now and then.

In the final five minutes of the game, Syracuse went 6-8 and also went to the line once.  One of those missed shots was with 0:16 left and MU up by six.  The other was Otule's block.  'Cuse also had one turnover.

[RawdogDX]

Pakuni,

I understand what you are saying but it seemed like those threes by louisville were shot in rhythm and open.   The point of running an offense should be to get high percentage shots.  We take a lot of high % shots till the last 6 minutes.  Then we start taking low % shots and give up our lead. This game we hit the low percentage shots.  

I'm not smart enough to know if the above is factual or perceived.  And I'm not even close to figuring out why it happens.  I've met too people who think they are more likely to hit a set with 3's than 9's to think humans are good at recognizing patterns by watching events, so I could be completely wrong.  I think Buzz changes something on offence late and the D (as sugar mentioned) isn't great all game long and that doesn't change in crunch time.

[Lennys Tap]

It seemed to me that we had trouble getting good shots against Syracuse for pretty much the entire second half. They doubled the ball on the perimeter a lot in the first half and the result was easy opportunities for us. In the second half they packed it in some and played their zone straight up, making the seams harder to find and exploit.

On the other side of the ball,I don't know why our below average defense slips to being almost statistically non existant down the stretch in some games. Are we more fatigued because we try to play like our hair's on fire for the entire game? Do bigger and more athletic teams simply wear us down? Does the emphasis on not fouling backfire down the stretch when officials tend to allow/reward more contact and physical play? Do other teams just have players (Knowles, Hansbrough, Joseph, etc.) capable (mentally and physically) of chucking the game plan and simply taking over at crunch time? Certainly there's been an element of bad luck involved (especially vs Louisville), but it's more than that. Thoughts?

[RawdogDX]

Good point on the fatigue.  Hadn't thought about that.

[Danny Noonan]

Unrelated trivia that I can't help to think about whenever fatigue is mentioned in sports.

(Not Verbatim)

Question asked by Reporter: What factor did fatigue play in the game?

Player's Response: Who? What number was Fatigue?

Name that player.

Edit: answer Neil Smith DE (Nebraska, Chiefs, Broncos, Chargers)