My game thoughts...

[LastWarrior]

Big Props to David & Trend.  Both players really surprised me with their play.  I think Trend is going to be a good one.  Everybody talks about his athleticism and in watching the game, you can really see it.  David looks confident on the court.

Kinsella only played 11 minutes?  Is Crean trying to keep his minutes down to keep him healthy?

Lazar fouled out of the game with 0 points.  He's going to need more time before he can contribute.  The time off really hurt him, hopefully he'll be ready by the start of conference play.

Lott looked be pretty active and he moved well.  Hopefully he'll be able to lock down the 4 spot and provide some quality minutes.  Seeing Trend's play though I wouldn't be surprised if he pushes him for more PT.

We didn't go inside to our bigs much at all.  DJ, Wes, & Jerel accounted for 40 of our 75 shots which is a smaller % of our total than I thought.  On threes, Jerel was 1-6 and DJ was 1-8.  Ugly!!  Big Wes was on fire and hit 5-6 from three.

[TVDirector]

lazar not very impressive.
on the other hand, daveeed showed us that he got some skills.
kinda hard to really make a good comparison... streeetch good for naia div 2, but what does that mean?

our d was in very early season form.  in other words, bleech.

[Big Papi]

We threw up 28 three point shots and scored 27 fast break points. 

Looks like a team effort on boards. 

I was disappointed with our defense even though we forced 24 turnovers.  I think a good team would have eaten us up.

Very impressed with Trend and Cubillian.  Very disappointed in Hayward, Burke and Kinsella.  The time off for Hayward really hurt.

[CWSKeith]

-Wes was, IMO, the best player on the floor.  Looked good in all aspects.

-James and McNeal looked a little rusty.  Not that that's a problem, as I don't think anyone expected either of the two to come out firing on all cylinders.  McNeal specifically had some mental "lapses" with the ball a couple of times (ie his one crosscourt pass off the rebound trying to hit DJ as the outlet at half-court).

-Hayward's physical "tools" were impressive, but you could tell that he still needs some time to get back in the swing of things.

-The free throw shooting was extremely ugly early, but Marquette seemed to settle in after the first ten minutes or so.

-The press didn't seem extremely effective, but the on-the-ball pressure shown by guys like Cubillan and McNeal was impressive.  Cubillan got a little too aggressive at certain points in the game, but overall, I'm lovin' his ball pressure. 

None of our bigs really stood out to me as being dominant on the boards, which is fairly dissappointing, but I could be wrong (haven't checked the box score yet).  That said, I thought Barro did a pretty good job of post-D.

BTW, I'm a newbie here (and a freshman, for that matter).  Who is Trend?

[Big Papi]

Blackledge.

[TallTitan34]

At the previous scrimages and in the game tonight the team missed alot of free throws.  In this game it didn't matter but in a close game that can be the difference.

[mu_hilltopper]

I was primarily watching the new guys .. Cubillan was a great relief to watch.  He'll be able to spell DJ without much of a drop off at PG, plus he's energetic, and I could see him hitting 2-3 quick shots just when Marquette will need them.

Lazar .. not very impressive .. zero points and 5 PFs, not sure I can blame that on "time off".  Truth is, he started practicing with the team on the official MM date, so other than not using the Al Center, I'm not sure what he really missed.  Can anyone add to that thought?

Trend was a nice sight to see, as well.  Always afraid our late term pickups like him won't pan out .. Trend will contribute, no doubt.

(Trend is Blackledge's nickname, CWS).

[warriors_mu]

Wes was definitely the best player out there, he was the only one that had a consistent jump shot. DJ and Jerel had their moments and got their points, but struggled at times also. Both of them need to work on their free throws. The time off for Lazar definitely hurt him, but I think he will absolutely do better as he settles in. The rebounding really was not that bad. Barro and Jerel had 7 each and Fitz had 6. The one thing I was really worried about was all the fouls. Of course, most of them were calls that would not have been made in a Big East game, but still. Cubillan and Trend Blackledge both looked very promising. I thought the same thing about them after the scrimmages, but it was good to see it translate to a game as well.

[LastWarrior]

One more thing I wanted to add... the disparity of the free throws.  Cardinal Stritch went to the line 40 times vs. only 26 for MU.  MU did shoot 73% vs. 58% for Stritch.

[mu_hilltopper]

Couple other comments:  The crowd was "good" for an exhibition game.  The students really came out, way more than any exhib game before.  .. I'm guessing 6k butts in seats, and a good 1k of them were Wolves' fans.  And they were *good* fans, cheering loud.  Truth is, if 1/6th of the BC were opposing fans, that's probably a record fraction.

Also .. just a note on CS.  They are a pretty decent team.  We've played some dogs before in pre-season, and OOC, and these guys played OK.  Just didn't have enough juice to stay with MU after 15-20 minutes.  Hell, they had to have been exhausted after playing last night too. -- If that CS team played us any of the last 3 seasons, I think this might have been a nail biter for game #1 of the season.

[Desert_Eagle]

The student section wasn't good, it was great for an exhibition game. Last year's turn out for our exhibitions were nothing like that. I'm definitely going to have some competition this year for those front row seats in Section 106. Can you say 4am out in front of the BC for the Wisconsin game? And the Cardinal Stritch fans? Horrible. Most of their cheers were soccer cheers, incredibly annoying.

In defense of Lazar, most of his fouls were horrible calls. Yes, he did have zero points, but he got called on like 3 offensive fouls that were just terrible calls.

[TVDirector]

crean stated in his post game that trend will most likely play this year...
and perhaps redshirt next.

does this change the scholarship scene in recruiting saunders?

[Big Papi]

Lazar .. not very impressive .. zero points and 5 PFs, not sure I can blame that on "time off".  Truth is, he started practicing with the team on the official MM date, so other than not using the Al Center, I'm not sure what he really missed.  Can anyone add to that thought?

I believe that even though the official team practice starts on the MM date that the players do get limited individual practice time.  Furthermore I believe the players can get together to play pickup games, etc as long as a coach is not present.  Hayward was not allowed to participate in any of these events nor was he allowed to use the AL for weight lifting, cardio etc.  I am not 100 percent sure on the specifics of what can and can't be done during specific time frames but Hayward didn't get any of it. 

[Big Papi]

crean stated in his post game that trend will most likely play this year...
and perhaps redshirt next.

does this change the scholarship scene in recruiting saunders?

No.  He still takes up a scholarship.

[mu_hilltopper]

But I got to figure, he  (Lazar) was using the Rec Center pretty heavily.  I also gotta figure that other players were over there, playing games with him.  No coaches around.   Probably got a little instruction on weight lifting, did that at the Rec Center.

So, I'd say the only thing he really missed out on was the limited 1-on-1 coaching they can do before the kickoff.  

(Someone correct me, if wrong!)

[TheGym]

But I got to figure, he  (Lazar) was using the Rec Center pretty heavily.  I also gotta figure that other players were over there, playing games with him.  No coaches around.   Probably got a little instruction on weight lifting, did that at the Rec Center.

So, I'd say the only thing he really missed out on was the limited 1-on-1 coaching they can do before the kickoff.  

(Someone correct me, if wrong!)

The team played together alot via pickup games at the AL.  He was not able to do that and it hurt his development.  He is going to get there eventually, but tonight he was not good at all.  I'm not sure where some people are seeing the physical tools.  He did not show much tonight.

[dwaderoy2004]

a redshirt still takes up a scholarship...

about the game, the most glaring problems were that we had too many turnovers (18), and took too many threes (10-28).  

our passing on offense was non-existent at times, and sloppy otherwise.  a lot of "one-on-one" play, and not a lot of movement off the ball.  i saw only a couple plays where we actually fed a guy who was posting up.  

cardinal stritch was packing it in on us all game, and we better get used to that.  if we shoot threes like we shoot tonight, it will be a frustrating season.  good news was that we were very active on the boards, especially the guards.  

On defense, we were overextending, giving up a lot of backdoor cuts and easy buckets.  we don;t have to do that with our quickness.  we did have a lot of deflections and force a lot of turnovers, and i think our defense will be fine.  they were prolly just a little too pumped up about the first game on the home floor.  

our FT shooting will be something to watch all year.  very shaky early, but we seemed to calm down.  

matthews played so smooth, i'm very excited about his year.  i'm thinking first team all big east and he will lead this team in scoring.  lazar reminds me a lot of matthews, both physically as well as stage of development at this time last year.  if you'll remember, matthews started off pretty slow last year before hitting his stride right before he got hurt.  lazar will be fine...

cubillan has the physical tools and the attitude to be a great player for us.  excellent find by crean for an under the radar guy.

this will be an entertaining team to watch to say the least...

[WashDCWarrior]

I loved what I saw from Trend last night.  He brings athletisism that isn't there with any of our other bigs.  I think there may be points in the season where TC plays him with 4 guards (big 3 + Daveeed) and we can out run any team in the country.  The fact that our guards are solid rebounders makes this a possibility.

Another note - I haven't been thrilled with the alley-oop plays we run for DJames.  All of last year (and so far this year) he's had a lot of trouble finishing them and the best we seem to do is get a foul call and even that doesn't happen a lot.  Plus landing from so high in traffic runs you the risk of an injury.  Running alley-oops for Matthews seems to work better as he doesn't need as big of a running start, and has a bigger margin for error if he gets bumped a little.

[bheitz]

At the previous scrimages and in the game tonight the team missed alot of free throws.  In this game it didn't matter but in a close game that can be the difference.

I think that one thing that hasn't been mentioned when the topic of missing Novak is brought up and that is free throw shooting -- specifically at the end of a close game.  When the opponent had to foul Novak was "Money" and would close out the game.  You are right about this year with free throws possibly being a difference between a W and a L.

[larrym]

Great point about the end of the game free throws.  This year it will probably be Matthews.  Last year it was nice to know that you could just get it into Novak and he's going to hit 97%. 

Watching the Rockets game the other night, they didn't have Steve shoot the technicals when he was on the floor.  Yao took them.  Surprised me a little, but I guess you have to keep the big guy happy. 

[Big Papi]

At the previous scrimages and in the game tonight the team missed alot of free throws.  In this game it didn't matter but in a close game that can be the difference.

I think that one thing that hasn't been mentioned when the topic of missing Novak is brought up and that is free throw shooting -- specifically at the end of a close game.  When the opponent had to foul Novak was "Money" and would close out the game.  You are right about this year with free throws possibly being a difference between a W and a L.

Excellent point but we never really fully utilized that weapon last year.  Novak only had 76 free throw attempts last year compared to Dom's 131 and Mathew's 80 attempts in less games.  Maybe I am losing my mind but I only recall a couple of games where he actually stepped to line at the end of the game when it mattered.

Free throws are concern this year.  Dom is the one who needs to improve the most with his free throw shooting from last year as he missed way too many for a point guard.

[WashDCWarrior]

I thought Diener was a great "closer" because not only could he make a high percentage of FTs, but he knew how to get to the line.  I remember a number of games where he had 10 or 12 points with 3 minutes left in the game and finished with 18 or 20.

[rocky_warrior]

Scout has a new recap of the game today.  Nothing terribly intriguing, but thought I'd share:
http://marquette.scout.com/2/588210.html