MU/Depaul !

[Murffieus]

First the good news:

I think TC is the best coach in the USA in situational situations (at least that I have seen)-----like the execution of out-of-bounds plays under our own basket. All season long he comes up with different renditions that result in easy hoops-----last night we got 9 points directly off these in bound passes.

Also the play of the "poor man's" Novak has been exceptional----during the 8n game win streak he canned treys in overtimes or the waning minutes of close games that were the deciding factor----he damn near did it again last night with a late trey before he fouled out!

Our offensive rebounding is as good as it comes given that we don't have a lot of super talent in the front court-----TC gets the max out of this effort.

Bad news:

We're in too much of a hurry again----reverting back to early in the season (I hope the 20 second clock isn't back in practice)----half to play a better half court game-----I'm not sure that given the type of talent we have that we can do both (run & half court game) well at the same time. Most competitive games come down to half court execution----and ours isn't very good. When you have as many TOs as we have per game----it's time to SLOW IT DOWN----we just can't handle the uptempo-----last night we had more TOs than De Paul.

I said early in the season that we can't rely on steals to win (which is what you have to do if you don't play a good half court game)----as, as the season progresses teams learn how to protect the ball better. Steals also take effort----and as the season wears on mental & physical fatique become a factor.

Our interior defense has been horrible all season long----Barro is slow and plays soft on defense. Also our bigs don't get much help down low because our perimeter guys IMO are too tight on their guys off the ball instead of sagging inside and jamming the middle. We're looking for deflections too much (and therefore out of position to contain)-----we're getting hurt inside game after game-----and therefore IMO we should be playing more off a "containment defense" rather than a "steal the ball" philosophy defense!

Early on at MU (first couple years), TC used a containment defense (jam the middle defense) and considering the talent we had at the time----that was a lot more effective than what we are doing now! As i recall not only did we jam the middle well-----but also we were one of the leaders in the country in defending the trey those first couple years.

[ecompt]

Can't argue with anything you say. Murff.
I don't understand why we sprinted up the court when we had the ball, then did absolutely nothing defensively to pressure the ball on D. Ooze had a terrible game at both ends. It seemed like he couldn't run at all and had trouble catching the ball.

[LastWarrior]

I didn't like how in the second half of the game and us down only 1, that on three consecutive possesions we rushed up one horrible drive and two 3's (Cube and Fitz) very early into the shot clock.  If we took our time and took and made three solid shots, we would have had a 5 point lead.  On the flipside, on key to's late in the game, DePaul would pull it up and get into its offense. 

I guess the argument can be made that we're an up-tempo team but when that speed results in bad shots at crucial times of the game, we'll continue to get beat by teams with a better half-court game.

[Buzz Williams' Spillproof Chiclets Cup]

...for why we lost our last two games.

[DoubleMU0609]

Well at least that means we'll win the ND game.  God wouldn't favor ND's football and  basketball teams.  Just look at all the games last year.