Jerel McNeal

[mviale]

The funny thing about our "lousy" defense and "poor" offense schemes, we had a chance to beat both syracuse and louisville without DJ.

[Murffieus]

Murf--
Maybe our offensive performance had to do with playing the top defenses in the nation as I stated vs. Buzz's system.  With DJ out and our small PG replacement, they are jumping our perimeter.  Simply, we don't have the personnel to play the offense you want--see next year.  We are 1-6 with DJ out...and could have won three of those games with DJ's game management.  To state DJ didn't have an impact on offense is foolish.  DJ's assist percentage was 31%--Mo can't touch that.  DJ absolutely controlled Buzz's offense that you loved.  Yes, Buzz had to make changes in MU's offense in favor of his senior AA once DJ went down.  It is obvious MU isn't as efficient with Jerel running the offense...but it is due to his poor decisions vs. Buzz's system. 

Nothing wrong with Buzz's system or changes...it is putting the same amount of points on the board with the limited talent he has.  Worry about his defense.

Pardner------ I have to disagree that we didn't have the personnel to run Buzz offense #1----as I have atated the wide post was a big part of it on the weakside-----and that JM, WM, & LH are great at postingup wide and all that goes with that like kicking the ball out for treys off that and other things. JM would never have the leeway to run amuk off Buzz offense #1 as that offense was structured as passing offense with very little east/west dribbling/activity on the perimeter. In that offense each person is more accountable-----not a free lance offense like Buzz #2.

Also have to disagree with you on DJ's function in Buzz #1------you say he "ran the offense"-----actually he had very few options as all he did was bring the ball up then pass to the wing and then follow the ball to the corner----he seldom got the ball back after that unless there was a reload or he picked up a rebound-----although there was the possibility of his getting the ball back coming up off a double screen from the corner to the top of the circle where he could get the ball back from the weakside wing.

Here's why we don't miss DJ on offense-----in the 5 games prior to UCONN, which included two losses-----DJ averaged only 39% on FGs-----19% on threes-----44% on FTs----and assist to TO were 27 assists to 14 TOs------these aren't even decent numbers. Now these stats were against low level BE teams except for Nova----logical to expect even worse against the heavyweights that followed starting with UCONN. Nice kid and great character----but overrated BBwise-----got lots of hype after his frosh year that followed him throughout his career at MU----but unfortunatly he regressed in many respects.

DJ should have gone to the NBA after his frosh year-----he would have signed a decent contract!