boy was jerel bad last night....

[MR.HAYWARD]

you would think by senior year his decision making would get better.  The only thing keeping jerel mcneal from being an concensus allamerican, a 1st rounder, and the leader on a top 10 team is the fact that he has probably the worst basketball IQ i have ever seen.  When he was a freshman it was frustrting but by know it is infuriating.  The fouls I really have no problem with his 3rd was really stupid but the other 4 happen.  His no pass pull up threes absolutely kill our offense.  everyone else is working to get a better shot but he is just jacking.  His leading of the break early in the second half with the one handed 3/4 court/trunover is his career in a microcosm.  Yes he can be a good player but coaches and myself want consistancy.  he has none.  Also talk about acting like a little B!tc# the whole time.  Refs were fine bad call on the lazar charge the block called against wesley was poor but the refs had little if anything to do with the out come.  Not putting them away if the first half with in and out 3's, missed layups and porr ft shooting we bigger. 

[jficke13]

1st: w/o Rel, who is even half as good that we could use in his place?
2nd: it's pretty simple, Rel skews everything he does on the court to try to take advantage of his quickness and athleticism. He tries to use that to make plays. Sometimes that results in dumb fouls, body control fouls, or missed assignments defensively. Sometimes it results in the highlight reel stuff that kept us playing last March.
3rd: I agree that he should generally shoot fewer threes, but he's capable of hitting open looks, so when he gets one, why shouldn't he take it? Also, the length and athleticism of TN's guards last night were cutting off penetration lanes and angles all game. A couple knocked down threes and those lanes open back up again somewhat.

[dsfire]

No doubt that we settled for some 3s last night, but Jerel is actually our best 3 point shooter at 39% this season.  James and Matthews are about where you'd expect in the low 30s, while Hayward, Acker, and Cubillian are all below 30%, which obviously hurts.

[MR.HAYWARD]

the problem that i have is alot of people say you have to ake the good with the bad.  That is absolutely not the case.  he needs to make better decisions down 2 and you make a 3/4 court one handed pass to someone closely guarded?  terrible decison.  !st half you are frustrated so you shoot early three after early three in the shot clock,  and then act like a complete brat the whole time?  get over it.  Play within your ability and make sound decisions.  The guy simply hijacks games..yes sometimes to the good but many times to the very bad.  it is not a one man game

[RedWebster]

1st: w/o Rel, who is even half as good that we could use in his place?
2nd: it's pretty simple, Rel skews everything he does on the court to try to take advantage of his quickness and athleticism. He tries to use that to make plays. Sometimes that results in dumb fouls, body control fouls, or missed assignments defensively. Sometimes it results in the highlight reel stuff that kept us playing last March.
3rd: I agree that he should generally shoot fewer threes, but he's capable of hitting open looks, so when he gets one, why shouldn't he take it? Also, the length and athleticism of TN's guards last night were cutting off penetration lanes and angles all game. A couple knocked down threes and those lanes open back up again somewhat.

McNeal is a competitor, but he's not a great athlete like James or Matthews. If he's trying to take advantage of his athleticism against superior athletes, that's just another way of saying he's making bad decisions.

[ecompt]

we have to live and die with Jerel; what's the alternative? It is frustrating that he has not learned anything in four years, but he will win us some games (like UW) and he will cost us some.

[reinko]

True ecompt, Jerel has not learned a thing in 4 years.

[mviale]

we have to live and die with Jerel; what's the alternative? It is frustrating that he has not learned anything in four years, but he will win us some games (like UW) and he will cost us some.

+1

[MuMark]

We shot 32% from 3 last night which equals 48% from 2. Not great but not horrible.

On our 2 point shots we only shot 42%. Now thats bad.

I think our shot selection was ok.....we just need to make more of them.

Face it guys when we play against teams like Tenn, UCONN, Louisivllle etc we will be taking alot of 3's.

Bruce Pearl said after the game that the whole game plan going in was to make MU beat them from 3. They packed it in and dared us to shoot it.

MU did a great job of getting to the free throw line but other then Wesley we just didn't shoot good enough to beat them. From 3, from 2, or from the free throw line.

We are so thin on the bench that its impossible to win if we get in foul trouble or shoot badly.

Last night we did both.

[Markusquette]

I'd like to think some are really overanalyzing McNeal's play and what he has learned.  He has made some dumb plays, but a lot of our guys have taken stupid shots, made dumb fouls etc.  McNeal wants to win, and sometimes his aggressiveness hurts him.  Besides last night, foul trouble hasn't been a problem for Jerel.

[rocky_warrior]

True ecompt, Jerel has not learned a thing in 4 years.

Absolutely not true.  I remember when he started at Marquette, nearly half of his drives to the basket ended in a blocked shot.  Matthews and James had the same problem.  Now it rarely happens with those three.

Perhaps he has not learned as much as you would like, but they all have grown their game in one way or another.

[ecompt]

you're right, rocky, and the stats back you up. You just wish that as a senior he would show better basketball sense at times. His aggressiveness can work for him or against him. 

[reinko]

Absolutely not true.  I remember when he started at Marquette, nearly half of his drives to the basket ended in a blocked shot.  Matthews and James had the same problem.  Now it rarely happens with those three.

Perhaps he has not learned as much as you would like, but they all have grown their game in one way or another.

I'm sorry rocky, I couldn't change the the color of the text on my BlackBerry.  I thought the notion that 'Rel has not learned a single thing since his freshman year was laughable at best.

[Dienerfor3]

Last time I checked, Jerel was still an elite defender in the entire conference/nation.

[MR.HAYWARD]

we have to live and die with Jerel; what's the alternative? It is frustrating that he has not learned anything in four years, but he will win us some games (like UW) and he will cost us some.

Wes is one, hayward and Dj are others if the matchup is right.  we have 4 guys that can score the ball we need to feed the mismatch not continuosly force the issue.  Jerel is not going to be the best option every night and he needs to come to understand that.  I always preach to my kids to make the simply pass and value the possesion.  I do no think those thoughts enter jerels  mind

[wheresthecake?]

I think the problem with Jerel was that he wasn't reading the defense.  It seemed like he already had in his head exactly what he was gonna do with the ball before he even received the pass.  If he wanted to shoot a 3, well then nobody was gonna stop him from shooting it.

It was completely different than during the UW game.  That game was as smart as I've ever seen Jerel play, he came off that double screen and always read how Landry and the rest of the defense was playing him and made a decision based on that.  I would love to see the UW-game Jerel show up more often than the UT-game Jerel, he's a much smarter player.