Concerns from St Johns Game

[NotAnAlum]

First of all St Johns is a very poor team.  I believe they are less talented than DePaul.  Our offensive execution against them was very bad.  DJ seemed to lapse back into that funk that he seems to get into where his knack for "drive and dish" seems to be too much work.  He is content to pass the ball out on the perimeter and hope someone else can take there man one on one.  When you consider that St Johns had more assists than MU that just should not happen.  The execution off turn overs was terrible.  In the first half turn over after turn over was squandered by bad passes and missed layups.  MU was also very sloppy with its passes behind the 3 point line as many were stolen or nearly stolen.  Bottomline they just didn't have the same look as the mature scoring machine that they had been earlier.  Offensively they looked much better against Nova than they did last night.  I'm hoping it was just one game or maybe Buzz's over emphasis on defense for the last few practices or maybe this was just a let down against a team they knew they would beat at home with the really tough stretch still looming.  I hope so because if they play like they did last night, down the stretch they won't stand much of a chance.

[Dave Krupinski]

First of all St Johns is a very poor team.  I believe they are less talented than DePaul. 

Ouch! low blow. We're bad but we're not that bad. Then again that isn't saying much.

[Daniel]

It wasn't a great offensive showing, and the passing was not only not sharp, it was dull.  But we know what this team is capable of, and Buzz needs to get both defense and offense back on track before Tuesday - which will not be an easy game.

Go Marquette!!

[Wareagle]

Not sure if St. Johns is worse than DePaul.  DePaul has yet to win a Big East game and their biggest win is over St. Louis.  Unless they beat St. Johns at home, they will probably finish the season the conference season without a win.  St. Johns has beaten ND and has 3 Big East wins total.

[Big Papi]

We are 21-4, 10-2 in conference play and we are second in points scored during conference play, just behind Villanova.  And our offensive execution is very bad.  Wow.  I guess this season is over.  We barely beat the worst team in the conference and now have to finish against the big boys.

[MR.HAYWARD]

Wow not an alum, you mus be really hard to please.  Did youa actually watch the game?  Maybe since you "are not an alum" you can go find a team that plays perfectly every night in every aspect of the game.  Maybe the Celtics and LAkers would suit your requiremnts better. 

I thought MU came out with a nervous apprehension last night and MU fumlbled away numerous layups last night for turnovers that otherwise were 2 points.  These were unforced, eliminate them and MU wins by 20+.  St.Johns is not worse than Depaul and their record shows that.  Pars Horne nad DJ KEnnedy as well as Burrell can play for anyone in the league, we had a poor stretch in the first half but our defense the last 30 mintes of the game was outstanding.  we held them to 59 points, ecxellent job.

Offensively we did not force the ball, did not put up poor shots.  Dj was actually fantastic as was Jerel in getting to the paint.  Zar had a solid game.  We gave up a number of easy buckets with fumbles, other wise we go for 80 points and the people that judge wins by style points are happy.  I saw us play 30 minutes of solid D and play within ourselves on O,  very solid win. 

[ErickJD08]

IF you read the post game comments, Buzz had the starting squad practice no offense between the Nova and St Johns game.  That might explain the (I think) 7 points in the first 7 minutes.  I think its a good move.  With veterans who know how to score on the team, I don't think scoring is the greatest concern for this team.  We need to play sound D on every possession.

MY concern is the last 2 minutes of the game.  Frozena should never be playing in a game.  When we only have about 6 maybe 7 players Buzz can trust to be on the court, those are precious practice minutes Buzz can never recreate.  Have Acker, Cubes, Fulce, Hazel (or Butler), and Otule out there and run some SERIOUS plays.  Buzz should create plays for Otule to run in the post, or plays that let Butler or Fulce be more aggressive.  Buzz wasted some good coaching opportunities if practice time is more precious than free throw drills IMO.  oh well...

[NotAnAlum]

Yes Mr Hayward I did watch the game.  We played very poorly offensively.  We didn't need to play well offensively because St John isn't very good.  Had we played like we did earlier in January we would have won by 30+.  There was nothing wrong with our defensive effort.  The number of turn overs we created allowed us play poorly on offense and still win.
Coming out of a 2 game losing streak playing a team at home that they were nearly a lock to beat I was more interested in HOW the team would play. 

[ErickJD08]

Yes Mr Hayward I did watch the game.  We played very poorly offensively.  We didn't need to play well offensively because St John isn't very good.  Had we played like we did earlier in January we would have won by 30+.  There was nothing wrong with our defensive effort.  The number of turn overs we created allowed us play poorly on offense and still win.
Coming out of a 2 game losing streak playing a team at home that they were nearly a lock to beat I was more interested in HOW the team would play. 

SEE ABOVE... no offensive practice between Nova and St Johns.  That might explain your concern.

[nola03]

Ouch! low blow. We're bad but we're not that bad. Then again that isn't saying much.

I disagree with the original poster entirely.

It's always possible to have things blow up in Jamaica but if that doesn't happen the nucleus of Mason, Horne, Kennedy, and Burrell will get the Redmen near .500 next season in conference. In fact, I wouldn't put it past the Johnnies to beat Marquette's youth squad next season.

SJU will always be placed higher then DePaul this season for one reason: effort. They didn't quit. The Demons do.

[Marquette_g]

I'm not sure whether St. John's is worse than DePaul, but I'm pretty sure that D.J. Kennedy was awful last night.  It seem like he thinks he is a star, but was just brutal.  As a MU fan, I was delighted every time he touched the ball. 

Additionally, while Wainwright might not be a great coach, Norm Roberts has had a really long leash and hasn't done a thing with that program.

[MR.HAYWARD]

The truly sad thing is as "terrible" as we were in our two losses you would think people would be totally delighted we won a Big East game by 14 points to up our record to 10-2.  But no we have Eyore types come on and bitch about the offense despite the fact that we did not practice offense for three straight days and our second leading scorer sat 13 minutes of the fiirst half.  I guess the moral of the story is unless MU wins by 20+ and wins in a visually stylistic manner then one should stay away from this board or listen to people that know absolutelynothing about basketball complain about how poor of a win it was.

[lab_warrior]

Yeah, 3 points:
1.  No way, under any metric, is St. John's worse than DePaul. 
2.  We are not going to look terrific in all phases of the game every game.  Clearly, we won this game going away, but yes, we did have some foolish turnovers, and stretches of poor shooting.  But by all means, let's split hairs here.  A win's a win, and we won convincingly for me.
3.  In ABSOLUTE agreement on Frozena.  He should not be in, and no way we should be running plays for him, either.  I know he's a walk-on, and he probably busts his butt in practice all year, but we need to try to get Fulce, OTule, and either Acker or Cubes to start knocking down shots.  It would be nice to develop just one more guy off the bench besides Butler.

[dwaderoy2004]

the original poster did not say that depaul was better than st. john's.  he said more talented.  i would agree with that statement.  with mason, Jr. out for the year, they do not have three guys who match up talent-wise with Dar Tucker, Mac Koshwal and Will Walker.  St. John's is still a better team though.

[mu-rara]

Yeah, 3 points:
1.  No way, under any metric, is St. John's worse than DePaul. 
2.  We are not going to look terrific in all phases of the game every game.  Clearly, we won this game going away, but yes, we did have some foolish turnovers, and stretches of poor shooting.  But by all means, let's split hairs here.  A win's a win, and we won convincingly for me.
3.  In ABSOLUTE agreement on Frozena.  He should not be in, and no way we should be running plays for him, either.  I know he's a walk-on, and he probably busts his butt in practice all year, but we need to try to get Fulce, OTule, and either Acker or Cubes to start knocking down shots.  It would be nice to develop just one more guy off the bench besides Butler.

Frozena got 2 minutes...2 minutes...he has 17 for the year.....That is all he gets for busting his hump in practice.  You have ot reward him, and there are not many leakers on the schedule...

[bma725]

3.  In ABSOLUTE agreement on Frozena.  He should not be in, and no way we should be running plays for him, either.  I know he's a walk-on, and he probably busts his butt in practice all year, but we need to try to get Fulce, OTule, and either Acker or Cubes to start knocking down shots.  It would be nice to develop just one more guy off the bench besides Butler.

Give me a break.  Frozena played 1:30.  That's it. 

You're not going to develop Fulce, Otule, or any one else in that time.  When you're up that much with that kind of time left, it's no longer an in game situation.  You're simply passing the ball around trying to avoid a shot clock violation.  Any coach who uses the last 1:30 of a game to try to develop his bench when up 14 is a classless jerk.

Sometimes, the people here amaze me.  Crean got ripped for not putting in the walk ons early enough, now Buzz is getting ripped for putting the walk ons in at all.  Can't please anyone I guess.

[MU B2002]

It also seemed like our starters were genuinely happy to see Frozena in the game, especially Lazar.  Unless he was standing and jumping up and down to get Robert to throw him another pass.

[CTWarrior]

Yeah, 3 points:
1.  No way, under any metric, is St. John's worse than DePaul. 

The original poster said DePaul was more talented than St. JOhn's.  I'm not so sure I disagree.  St. John's is the better team , without question, because they still play hard.  DePaul has given up.