louisville's press is going to be brutal w/o james

[dwaderoy2004]

I think people are going to immediately see how much we miss james when we go against louisville this weekend and pitino's constant press.  we could rely on DJ to pretty much be a one man press break. 

[MUfan12]

This will be a true test of Buzz's acumen. If he can develop a press break that minimizes opportunities to trap Acker and keeps the TO's low, we got a shot.

Easy buckets can be had if we break their trap.

[dwaderoy2004]

agreed, if acker gets trapped, he is too small to pass over the top.  lots of diagonal passes and some patience.  we need to try and creat offense out of the press.  a couple quick buckets early could cause them to abandon the idea.

[ecompt]

Pitino will never give up his press and will be out to bury us. Remember what he did when Travis went down? He was pressing with a 30-point lead.

[LON]

Pitino will never give up his press and will be out to bury us. Remember what he did when Travis went down? He was pressing with a 30-point lead.

Man I hate Pitino.

[lab_warrior]

I am confident in McNeal, Matthews, Acker, and Butler all handling the ball.  I DARE them to press us, and make it an up-tempo game.  I thought we looked at our best and got great open shots when we were running against UConn.  The half court game is where we struggled.
Oh yeah, and I ALSO really, REALLY, hate Rick Pitino.

[GO_MU02]

Man I hate Pitino.

+1

I still get mad when I think about him pressing when up 30.  That was a jerk move, plain and simple.

[Chicago_inferiority_complexes]

How about when they were still up by 46?

[mviale]

can we sign caracter for this one game?

[Tom Crean's Tanning Bed]

can we sign caracter for this one game?

Maybe we can entice him with some empty Gatorade bottles.   

[paddyquakes]

Looking beyond the pain, does anyone know what Acker's numbers were at Ball St.  Scoring, turnovers, etc.  Since it seems he is about to be thrust into a larger role, I would like to dream of good results, based upon past performance ?????

[dwaderoy2004]

SEASON      MIN   PTS   REB   AST   TO     A/T    STL    BLK    PF    FG%    FT%    3P%    PPS
2005-2006  31.7   9.2    2.4    4.6    2.9    1.56    1.5     .0    2.5   .326    .796     .298    1.11

not too bad.  we know he can be a better 3 pt. shooter than that based on last year.  I'd be happy with a 2-1 ratio.  he's still gonna get abused on the defensive end.

[Big Daddy Z]

This has the potentail to be real bad...Pitt & Cuse are better back court match ups for...but the Ville is deep and they go end to end....whatever the line is I'll lay the caulk.

[Wade for President]

Yeah...my thoughts exactly when James went down.  Year in and year out, L'ville's teams are always among the most conditioned in the nation.  They have a deep team that will run us to death, and will press us all the way back to Milwaukee.

Had to imagine Pitino licking his chops when he learned of DJ's injury.  An already short bench, just got shorter.

I understand James is missing this game due to his surgery, but having him on the sidelines to help Mo/Cube/whoever, would be invaluable.

I fear us running out of gas.....

[StillWarriors]

The so-called gauntlet was always going to be challenging, but without DJ the timing could be particularly damaging. I think we all fear a Lou blowout, which will only give fuel to the seeding committee to downgrade us in the pairings. Hopefully we can hang in with Lou and Pitt, beat Cuse at home and still get a decent seed. With the heart of this team, who knows maybe they'll surprise us and pull off a shocking victory along the way.

[MR.HAYWARD]

I predict a win,  sorry doom and gloomers but we will not give up a whole lost on offense with Reece.  Luisvilles guards are not particlaurly big and reece is quick enough and strong enough off the dribble to fare fine.  I do not fear the press at all, in fact i do not see much of a drop off from DJ to Reece on the offensive end at all.  Reece is better at some things than DJ, such as shooting, FTs and pasing.  he is not as good offensively in other areas such as driving and finishing at the rim.  Oh by the way we scored 82 points on Unconn with out Dj which is 20 more than they average giving up.

We lost to Uconn becuase we gave up too many second chance points and they had a player go off for a career night. 

We will miss Dj for his leadership and defense we will not miss him for his offense which is what all these posts focused on.  Louisville is offensively much less efficient than Uconn and are not where near as strong on the boards. 

The overreation and doom and gloom is sorry we went from a top 6-8 team to a top 15 team losing Dj, it not like when we lost Diener, when we had one legit D1 ball handler on the team. Reece coauld start for about 300 D1 teams

[dwaderoy2004]

this post has nothing to do with offense.  the fact of the matter is, with DJ, we never really had to plan much for press breaks.  we'd give him the ball, and usually wes would hang back as an option, but DJ rarely had to give up the ball.  we have 5 days now to develop a press break.  I'm sorry but acker is NOT as quick and is NOT as strong and is NOT as tall and is NOT the same athlete, as DJ.  if we run the same press break as we have, they will trap acker to death.  and he does not have the quickness or strength to split it, nor the height to pass over the top.  I'm not saying we won't be adequately proficient at breaking the press, but it's sucks that we have to go against one of the better pressing teams in teh country 5 days after losing our starting, one-man-press-breaking point guard.

[NavinRJohnson]

We lost to Uconn becuase we gave up too many second chance points and they had a player go off for a career night. 

We will miss Dj for his leadership and defense we will not miss him for his offense which is what all these posts focused on. 

I agree that much of the analysis and concern has been misdirected onto the impact on the offense, but you are falling into the same trap, and minimizing the overall impact based on the potentially moderate drop off offensively. I think we will survive offensively, but the loss of experience and leadership and his combination of strength quickness and leaping ability that made him an excellent defender and rebounder. It could not have been more pronounced then it was the other night.

When MU does not defend and rebound well, they lose. With their lack of size, perimeter defense, particularly at the point is everything, followed closely by guards ability to rebound. We may well score plenty of points, but someone needs to explain to me how we are going to stop our opponents from doing the same thing.

We lost to Uconn becuase we gave up too many second chance points and they had a player go off for a career night.
[/b]
Someone explain to me how that is not going to happen against the likes of Louisville and Pitt, even Syracuse.

[MR.HAYWARD]

Navin I agree with you 100% what i disagree with is this trap BS.   I love DJ, loved him since his AAU days loved to watch him in HS and you will not find anyone speak more highly of him than me.  However he turned it over 2-3 times against the trap against STeon hall, he is aliability if he gets fouled on the press, Acker is quicker off the dribble in the opne court.  The trap is a white elephant in repsct to DJ versus Acker.  Passing over the trap is another white elepahnt by basketball neophytes.  first of all the way to beat atrap is not to pass over it, secondly, acker verssu dj is there really a temendous height disparity, secondly sosa, smith , knwles etc...not exactly memphis.   the whole argument is a reatrded white elephant beer hall discussion. 

defensive half court game is where Acker and Mu collectively need to step up, can we stop dribble penetartion off the point and stop second chance points if we can we will win, we odnt need more points we need to keep our opponts from scoring more. 

[lab_warrior]

I am much more worried about the loss of DJ on the defensive  end of the floor.  We've got 3-4 guys who can handle the ball.  Butler looked pretty good going to the hoop, and it's not like McNeal and Wes have NO dribbling ability.

[NavinRJohnson]

Hayward, we are in agreement..except I think you mean red herring, not white elephant.

[Nukem2]

Acker's main problem in a pressing situation with the 'Ville is if a taller wing traps him to a sideline and he can't pass over.  Otherwise, with help from Rel/Wes/LH, I think he'll be fine.  On defense, I think he'll match up ok against 'Ville as their guards are not All-BE.

[MR.HAYWARD]

When trapped on the sideline  few teams ever teach their players to pass over they are taught to bass back...think of a v bringing the ball up witht he three players, wing passes back who brings it up via the dribble or the pass or kicks it up the other wing.  My guess is reece is nover on the wing anyway he is in the middle where he does not need to worry about the sideline as a nother defnder and can use his quickness to beat the double team with potential help from a scrren....the trap is not a worry. 

[dwaderoy2004]

i'm with you guys on this not affecting our offense.  to be honest, the first 3 minutes or so acker was in for DJ i didn;t even really notice DJ was out.  all i'm trying to say is that this is not the best scenario for introducing acker to a full time big east PG job.  and my pass over the top comments were for when acker is already trapped.  in that instance, with his size, we are doomed.  DJ could at least muscle through and split them to get a pass off, or jump and pass over the top.  acker can;t do that.  the biggest liability will be the loss of Dj's 4-5 rebounds a game.  with no bigs, we need all the rebounds we can get.

[MR.HAYWARD]

Hayward, we are in agreement..except I think you mean red herring, not white elephant.

ahhhh, duh,     brain is elsewhere i kne it was acolored animal...our white elepahnat now resides in Bloomington.

Purple nurple?