Buycks Injured

[wheresthecake?]

Out with a sprained ankle according to his Facebook.  Hopefully he heals by Thanksgiving, we're going to need him.

[wyoMUfan]

verified, He thinks its only for one game....
We could use him vs. Xavier!

[77ncaachamps]

damn damn DAMN!!! 

this better be a tactic!

[MarquetteDano]

We have such little depth at guard this makes me nervous.  If somebody goes out for a month (not saying it's Buycks but this reminds us of the possibility) we are screwed.

[Hards Alumni]

we have 5 guards... and yes, I am counting JB as a guard.

[dw3dw3dw3]

He hurt it during the game, but came back... must just be a precaution.

[Boone]

Talent wise, Cooby and Acker= 1 guard.

[BostonBaller]

I agree that JB has guard skills since we have been using his defense on the opponents best guard players and absolutely shutting them down with his length and horizontal quickness.
 Lets quit the hate on Cooby and Acker they seem to have been doing a lot better with their court vision as well as dribble penetration!

[chapman]

The dribble penetration will likely cease when every single player on the other team is 4 inches taller, faster, and more athletic than what they've seen so far.  Not that they've done bad, it's just that scoring 8-10 points and having 3 assists come off dribble penetration against the competition we've faced, with a lot of it coming in super-garbage time will translate to goose eggs in the box score in the Big East. 

With Buycks out at least tomorrow and not at 100% this is DJO's time to shine.  He should go 30 minutes tomorrow.  He's looked pretty one dimensional so far, just taking a lot of three pointers.  For all the over-the-top claims we've seen (the best guard in the class not named John Wall, a potential early entry to the NBA, and to a lesser extent starting over Buycks sooner rather than later), it's time we see a Stud of the Game performance or two this week to make believers out of us.

[bma725]

With Buycks out at least tomorrow and not at 100% this is DJO's time to shine.  He should go 30 minutes tomorrow.  He's looked pretty one dimensional so far, just taking a lot of three pointers. 

The kid is coming off a foot injury that caused him to miss practice for a month and be limited to small amounts of time after that.  Then he got another foot injury.  It's going to take him awhile just to get up to normal speed with all the time he's missed.

[lab_warrior]

Well, I'd rather he sit out this game if he's going to be out.  I'm not sure about upping DJO's minutes, if he's working back from his injury, not really a great idea to go from 20 min to 30 min a game.  We don't want to aggravate/re-injure him.

[chapman]

Well, I'd rather he sit out this game if he's going to be out.  I'm not sure about upping DJO's minutes, if he's working back from his injury, not really a great idea to go from 20 min to 30 min a game.  We don't want to aggravate/re-injure him.

I know what you mean.  But if he went 23 minutes in the opener 10 days ago, unless there's been a setback we haven't heard about you'd hope he could go north from there, both in minutes and performance.  If there's something physical, mental, or just a learning curve that's hiding a game as good inside the three point line as we've seen outside of it there's a lot to be excited about.

[Benny B]

Out with a sprained ankle according to his Facebook.

It seems to me that things like injuries shouldn't be announced to the public via Facebook.  Typically, don't (shouldn't) these reports come from the Athletic Dept?

[Jam Chowder]

Talent wise, Cooby and Acker= 1 guard.

Unnecessary post of the day? I think so. Way to hate on two hard working D1 athletes who have worked their but off at this institution for several years and have done everything that's been asked of them in that time. Very classy.

[MUWeb7]

He hurt it during the game, but came back... must just be a precaution.

I sprained my ankle in a similar way to how he did (while playing ball at the rec though). From seeing the replay of his injury on TV - he rolled it to the side. Probably a lateral ankle sprain. I also was able to tighten my shoe and keep playing. The next day was painful though...Probably the same thing for him. Hopefully it isn't too severe, didn't look too bad though.

[DJO's Pump Fake]

Talent wise, Cooby and Acker= 1 guard.

Unnecessary post of the day? I think so. Way to hate on two hard working D1 athletes who have worked their but off at this institution for several years and have done everything that's been asked of them in that time. Very classy.

Have they done everything ever asked of them, yes. 

Is Boone's post accurate, yes. 

It is not that hard to see that neither Cooby or Acker are Big East starting point guards.  Serviceable back ups, yes.  30 minute starters, no way.

[Jam Chowder]

Have they done everything ever asked of them, yes. 

Is Boone's post accurate, yes. 

It is not that hard to see that neither Cooby or Acker are Big East starting point guards.  Serviceable back ups, yes.  30 minute starters, no way.

That is a pretty subjective classification to make. They both have brought leadership and experience to this team this year, intangibles that this team needs desperately, and have empirically done very well for us. While carrying the bulk of the minutes last year, Acker kept us in some pretty big games against brutal competition, all while posting a 2-1 assist/turnover ratio.

We lost those games because we had been leaning too heavily on DJ and didn't have a balanced enough roster surrounding the big three. He more than held his own as a starting PG. Was he Djames? Of course not, but Djames was a spectacularly above average player. If he is your measuring stick, then of course neither of them is "big east caliber." But if your measuring stick is being a good distributor of the ball, not committing turnovers, and putting your team in a position to win games against the best teams in the country, then Acker, at least, is capable of starting in this league.

Cubillan has yet to prove himself, but certainly looks like a player that can and will be more of a help than a hindrance this year. His assist numbers are up, and his steals are, as well. He looks great on defense and seems to understand his role in the offense. Conference play will tell all this year, but I think criticizing them is a very easy and uninformed position to take.

More than that, however, is the fact that there is no evidence at all to suggest that either one is a liability and/or hurts this team in any way. You and boone make a positive claim in saying that neither is a respectable starter, yet provide no evidence to indicate that this is the case.

[NersEllenson]

That is a pretty subjective classification to make. They both have brought leadership and experience to this team this year, intangibles that this team needs desperately, and have empirically done very well for us. While carrying the bulk of the minutes last year, Acker kept us in some pretty big games against brutal competition, all while posting a 2-1 assist/turnover ratio.

We lost those games because we had been leaning too heavily on DJ and didn't have a balanced enough roster surrounding the big three. He more than held his own as a starting PG. Was he Djames? Of course not, but Djames was a spectacularly above average player. If he is your measuring stick, then of course neither of them is "big east caliber." But if your measuring stick is being a good distributor of the ball, not committing turnovers, and putting your team in a position to win games against the best teams in the country, then Acker, at least, is capable of starting in this league.

Cubillan has yet to prove himself, but certainly looks like a player that can and will be more of a help than a hindrance this year. His assist numbers are up, and his steals are, as well. He looks great on defense and seems to understand his role in the offense. Conference play will tell all this year, but I think criticizing them is a very easy and uninformed position to take.

More than that, however, is the fact that there is no evidence at all to suggest that either one is a liability and/or hurts this team in any way. You and boone make a positive claim in saying that neither is a respectable starter, yet provide no evidence to indicate that this is the case.

+1  Good points in this post, and I too say we should support our players and their efforts, as you mentioned in your prior post.  Cubi and Acker have been hard working, team players during their entire MU career, and have produced decent results.  Cubi could be a big surprise this year in my view.

[Boone]

Did I knock their effort? No. Did I knock them as people? No. I stated the obvious (or at least what should be obvious to anyone who's seen them play). Give me a flippin' break. I knocked their lack of God given talent. Period! Quit being so sensitive. I'll bet you anything Buzz tells them far worse.

[Jam Chowder]

Did I knock their effort? No. Did I knock them as people? No. I stated the obvious (or at least what should be obvious to anyone who's seen them play). Give me a flippin' break. I knocked their lack of God given talent. Period! Quit being so sensitive. I'll bet you anything Buzz tells them far worse.

You're right. You only knocked their talent as well as performance and then completely failed to provide any facts to substantiate your criticism.

[Boone]

You don't really want to go there, do you? OK, you asked for it. How about Acker shooting 29% last season and being unable to defend a stump? How about Cubillan hitting on 27% (coming off a 2nd half of his soph. season when he shot 1-15 on 3s)?

As for this season, they're not exactly putting up their numbers vs. Big East competition (and still Cooby's only hitting on 3 for 12 of his 3s).

In spots, these guys can make plays, but they're not Big East caliber players. Never were.

[chapman]

You're right. You only knocked their talent as well as performance and then completely failed to provide any facts to substantiate your criticism.

Well since this is re-hashed from a week or two ago (see http://www.muscoop.com/index.php?topic=15920.0 for some good points on both fronts), my main point of criticism with our point guards, at least looking at last year's Big East performance, is that a 2:1 assist to turnover ratio is great for a bench player coming in for six minutes, especially if he actually gets 2 assists and has only one turnover.  If you have to have him in the game for 25 minutes and he gets you only two assists and one turnover, forget it.  A non-factor.  Especially when the player also scores only two points in those 25 minutes.  You need to have some play-makers, and against BE competition we probably don't.  If we didn't have enough playmaking from postions 2-5 to top quality teams with a non-factor at the point last year with an All-American and an NBA starter, we're in serious trouble this year.  

If, and it's a very big if, Acker and Cubillan would collectively keep up their combined season average of 19 points, 5 rebounds, and 8.3 assists out of that point guard spot it literally might be the very least of our worries this year, even if they aren't the greatest defensively (though I love Cubilan's defensive game).  However, if real competition and the inability to drain those 3's in garbage minutes cuts our point guard production in half, which it very well could given that talent level Boone brings up, we will suffer even if they don't make mistakes because there's not enough to pick up the slack if our point guard production is 14-16th in the conference.

[ATWizJr]

Did I knock their effort? No. Did I knock them as people? No. I stated the obvious (or at least what should be obvious to anyone who's seen them play). Give me a flippin' break. I knocked their lack of God given talent. Period! Quit being so sensitive. I'll bet you anything Buzz tells them far worse.

Boone- it's still a gratuitous cheap shot.

[Jam Chowder]

You don't really want to go there, do you? OK, you asked for it. How about Acker shooting 29% last season and being unable to defend a stump? How about Cubillan hitting on 27% (coming off a 2nd half of his soph. season when he shot 1-15 on 3s)?

As for this season, they're not exactly putting up their numbers vs. Big East competition (and still Cooby's only hitting on 3 for 12 of his 3s).

In spots, these guys can make plays, but they're not Big East caliber players. Never were.

That's better. My response would probably be that Cooby has been dealing with the effects of surgeries both of the last two seasons (ankle surgery one, and shoulder surgery the next if memory serves me correctly). His attempts are still pretty low to judge this season, and by all indications, he looks more like the player we saw his first year. His assists are up, and he looks tenacious on defense once again.

As far as Acker goes, I'm not sure where you're getting your numbers. According to the wiki, he's shooting 32.5% this year overall, and is at 33% from downtown. For his career, he's shooting 41% overall and 40% from three. Keep in mind that in 2007-2008 he shot significantly better when seeing more PT. If this continues, we might expect to see his percentages go up again this year. I know he's not blowing anyone away, but if he shoots 43% from range this year, I'll be happy as a bat.

Again, I will reiterate that I'm not saying either is going to be an all-bEast talent, but they both are respectable and can do their job in this league. I guess that "big east talent," however, is largely a subjective label when all is said and done.

[Boone]

According to espn.com, Acker shot .297 last season and .288 on 3s.    


In light of another crippling injury to Otule, we're going to need as much as we can from both he and Cooby. Hope they surprise me.