Can't Believe...

[4everwarriors]

Crean really thought this team would be a winner when he put it together. When you don't have an interior presence both offensively and defensively and lack consistent outside shooting, there is no way you can win in big time college hoops.
The obvious recruiting voids aside, I'm not sure what the coaching staff has taught for both their offensive and defensive schemes. The team doesn't seem to have a clue.
If they've believed the press hype or believed Bilas, reality has now arrived. Can honestly see this team not making the BE tournament. And if DJ declares for the draft, I hope he's making progress toward his degree because it'll come in handy.
Lastly, would like to see TC participate in his own rebounding drill. Maybe it will knock some cobwebs loose.

[ONeills Barstool]

Coach Crean just indicated on the post-game that he thought the guys worked "very hard".  Perhaps he did get a knock to the noggin 'cuz I wouldn't characterize the effort I saw that way.

[MarquetteFan94]

Coach Crean just indicated on the post-game that he thought the guys worked "very hard".  Perhaps he did get a knock to the noggin 'cuz I wouldn't characterize the effort I saw that way.

Can someone please tell Coach Crean that it's ok to be pissed off that we lost and criticize the effort...I don't care how hard they practice....they looked like crap tonight and got completely outclassed by a team playing without their leading scorer and playmaker...if we would've played at one of the truly tough places to play in the BE (i.e. Syracuse, Pitt, Nova) we would've lost by 25-30.  Awful.

Honestly, we showed NOTHING tonight....great, our FTs were better.

[Big Papi]

Crean really thought this team would be a winner when he put it together. When you don't have an interior presence both offensively and defensively and lack consistent outside shooting, there is no way you can win in big time college hoops.

Agree 100% but I don't think TC thought we would be as bad an outside shooting team as we have been.  I know I didn't.  Hayward, Fitz and Cubillan all had the rep as good outside shooters and James and Matthews showed potential.  Unfortunately we have been putrid.  Raise the level of our outside shooting by just a little bit and this offense becomes a lot more potent. 

[MikeyT42]

Tonite We looked Flat. Constantly Prov had 3-1 and 2-1. You can argue that we were crashing the boards..... but we weren't we got absolutely spanked on the boards.

Every loose ball went to the Friars tonite. Is it because we couldn't catch a break?

NO. Good teams make their own breaks happen. We couldn't grab a loose ball. Granted Jerel is the guy to pick up the defensive intensity. Not having him really put us behind the 8 ball.

[Big Papi]

Tonite We looked Flat. Constantly Prov had 3-1 and 2-1. You can argue that we were crashing the boards..... but we weren't we got absolutely spanked on the boards.

Every loose ball went to the Friars tonite. Is it because we couldn't catch a break?

NO. Good teams make their own breaks happen. We couldn't grab a loose ball. Granted Jerel is the guy to pick up the defensive intensity. Not having him really put us behind the 8 ball.

This game proved to me that Jerel is the heart and soul of this team.  All the turnovers that he gives up is just a small price to pay for all of the other good things he does for this team.  I don't know if we would have won if he played but it would have been much closer.

[CWSKeith]

I didn't see the game, but I read at Cracked Sidewalks that they ended up 4-for-21 from beyond the arc.  For the most part, were these contested threes?  Open threes? 

IMO, it's quite unacceptable to keep shooting 'em despite the fact that so far, we've proven incapable of hitting a good percentage of them.  Even worse is the fact that James was 1-for-8.  There's no reason why he shouldn't be looking to penetrate on most plays.  He doesn't have to get all the way to the basket; I'd say he outjumps 90% of the guards he'll be matched up against.  Why not pull-up from 15 feet?

I haven't seen the past couple games, but it sure seems like our offensive attack doesn't suit the team we're sending out there.  I'd almost like to see us run more of a spread attack, exploiting matchups that our three guards should be getting.  Clear one side of the court and post up Wes Matthews from 15-20 feet, ala Tucker in the Badger offense.  I dunno...  maybe I'm overrating the guy, but there seems to be so much untapped offensive potential with Wes.

[SoCalwarrior]

I agree completely.  We were 4 for 21.  They were 5-12.  We have a bunch of scorers who want to be shooters.  Crean should limit the threes to around 10 and start getting these guys to attack the basket. 

[What-Would-Wade-Do]

The problem with our team is that without any consistent outside threat, teams just have to run a 2-3 zone to clog up the lanes, keeping our gaurds from getting to the rim. 

Having McNeal out obviously hurts our defense, but it hurts our offense a lot more then he's given credit for.  His turnovers are a problem, but he keeps the pace of the game at a high tempo with his steals and athleticism, helping us get out on the break a lot more often which is where we can effectivley score.  When he's gone, the other team has less turnovers and we are forced into a halfcourt offense, where they can run a zone, and basically stop us from using our guards effectivly.

If Lazar can finally figure out why he can't shoot anymore that would be a huge help.  Also, Cubillan needs to shoot more, he is a great shooter who nails open threes.  The team should run screans for him and look to penitrate than dish to him.  That would cause the other teams defense to have to come out of the zone to D up on David.

[MUfan12]

If Lazar can finally figure out why he can't shoot anymore that would be a huge help.

Hayward's 3-pt. numbers by game:
PC: 0-1
SSU: 0-1
MSU: 0-1
OU: 0-0
UMBC: 0-1
UW: 0-4
DSU: 0-0
NDSU: 0-2
NWSU: 0-1
VU: 0-1
DU: 0-1
TTU: 0-4
EMU: 2-4
DMU: 2-4
ISU: 0-0
HC: 0-0

What I want to know is how people can rag on him when he really hasn't gotten a ton of looks from out there since the UW game. The majority of his attempts came in 4 games, it's tough for a shooter to find his stroke when he's not getting shots. They've been mainly using him in the post, and he's been producing well there. Let's focus more on guys like the 3 guards and Fitz who are getting the looks and not hitting them.

[Murffieus]

Our offense against a zone is inadequate (way too much east/west dribbling)----really slows the whole team down in other areas of the game as well as offense (rebs, defense, steals).

[MUfan12]

Our offense against a zone is inadequate (way too much east/west dribbling)----really slows the whole team down in other areas of the game as well as offense (rebs, defense, steals).

Totally agree Murf... it allows other teams to dictate the tempo completely as it neutralizes any quickness advantage MU may have. If they can move the ball crisply and effectively against the zone, MU's guards are at a huge advantage with a defender already moving to recover. Unfortunately that has not been the case, they are passing and dribbling for the sake of passing and dribbling, not attacking in the least. As a result a lot of long threes are launched, with long rebounds which make it difficult for the frontcourt to do anything on the offensive glass.

[SGWarrior]

I agree also with Murf, especially about the east/west dribbling.  Is this because we don't have the dish option on the drive as we did with Money last year?  I personally think DJ is spending too much time grazing on the perimeter in our half court sets, and would like him especially to increase his attempts to get into the lane and have the defense collapse around him.  This is going to be key against Cuse and their 2-3 zone.  Bottom line is that if we can't improve our half court defense, shooting included against Syracuse you can add another tick mark to the loss column.