B.E. Season in the Balance We may go 8 and 10

[muchamps]

When coach lost asst.Dale Layer last year, he lost the perspective he needed to starting and playing an inexperienced team. The first 3 games starting lineups certainly didn't get us ready for anything. And since than the lack of either of the two big men on the floor, thus far, have all spelled trouble against good Div 1 teams. I believe Coach Layer would have persuaded Buzz to start his Best 5. This line up would have to include Gardner, Cadougan, Butler, Buycks/DJO and Crowder/Blue,but almost never without Gardner (25min) or Otule (15min) per game. Gardner is Big East ready, you need to start and play him as many minutes as he can play. He is the key to our offense and takes up the space for both screens and Def rebounds. If coach sits Gardner and plays Otule his customary 6 min.,put a W by Vanderbilt and watch the B.E. losses pile up.

[reinko]

When coach lost asst.Dale Layer last year, he lost the perspective he needed to starting and playing an inexperienced team. The first 3 games starting lineups certainly didn't get us ready for anything. And since than the lack of either of the two big men on the floor, thus far, have all spelled trouble against good Div 1 teams. I believe Coach Layer would have persuaded Buzz to start his Best 5. This line up would have to include Gardner, Cadougan, Butler, Buycks/DJO and Crowder/Blue,but almost never without Gardner (25min) or Otule (15min) per game. Gardner is Big East ready, you need to start and play him as many minutes as he can play. He is the key to our offense and takes up the space for both screens and Def rebounds. If coach sits Gardner and plays Otule his customary 6 min.,put a W by Vanderbilt and watch the B.E. losses pile up.

Epic first post. 

How is the first semester of middle school treating you?  May want to pay a little extra attention in Language Arts.

[chren21]

Epic first post. 

How is the first semester of middle school treating you?  May want to pay a little extra attention in Language Arts.

Now that was funny.

Muchamps, did you know the relationship between Layer and Buzz?  While I certainly question the rotation Buzz uses I do not think he is letting an assistant coach decide the starters.  I guess I could be wrong, but doubt it.

[Tom Crean's Tanning Bed]

When coach lost asst.Dale Layer last year, he lost the perspective he needed to starting and playing an inexperienced team. The first 3 games starting lineups certainly didn't get us ready for anything. And since than the lack of either of the two big men on the floor, thus far, have all spelled trouble against good Div 1 teams. I believe Coach Layer would have persuaded Buzz to start his Best 5. This line up would have to include Gardner, Cadougan, Butler, Buycks/DJO and Crowder/Blue,but almost never without Gardner (25min) or Otule (15min) per game. Gardner is Big East ready, you need to start and play him as many minutes as he can play. He is the key to our offense and takes up the space for both screens and Def rebounds. If coach sits Gardner and plays Otule his customary 6 min.,put a W by Vanderbilt and watch the B.E. losses pile up.

Layer wasn't there last year either.  Welcome to the party 20 months later (he left in April 2009).  

And you might want to invest in a spell check program.  Or a space bar.

[OhioGoldenEagle]

Wow, you guys are rough on the newcomer.  I for one welcome ANY MU fan to the board....regardless of their ability to translate coherent thoughts.

And regarding the subject of the thread, you make it sound as if 8 wins is the basement for this team.  I'm no pessimist, but I could easily see this team struggling to get 6 W's considering how we have played against the other quality opponents.

[TallTitan34]

I could easily see this team struggling to get 6 W's considering how we have played against the other quality opponents.

We played poorly against Duke, Gonzaga, and Wisconsin and only lost by 5, 3, and 5 points. 

[APieperFan3]

We played poorly against Duke, Gonzaga, and Wisconsin and only lost by 5, 3, and 5 points. 

Shot poorly against Dook.

Played poorly against Gonzaga/UW...I would even go as far to say we got outplayed in both of these games.

We are going to need to play like we did against Dook to have a chance in tonights game...same goes for 6-7 of our BE schedule.

LETS GOOOO!!

[OhioGoldenEagle]

We played poorly against Duke, Gonzaga, and Wisconsin and only lost by 5, 3, and 5 points. 

I'll give you Duke, but Gonzaga isn't nearly as good as they have been the past few years and already have some bad losses.  UW was a home game, and while UW is solid, they too aren't as good as they have been in past years.  While we are "bigger" than years past, this is the WORST rebounding team i've seen at MU in a long time.....and that alone is going to cost us a number of games.

[bilsu]

I do not see why people think this team is going to be successful in the Big East, when our best win at this point is a so called road game against UWM. Maybe after tonights game I will change my opinion, but I see this team as a competitive team that will lose at the end of close games because of inexperience.

[96warrior]

Nothing like a post containing the words "season in the balance" in the title when we haven't even gotten to a single conference game yet.

This season might not be as fun to watch as last year, when we exceeded expections with an undersized but experienced team - I think we're in for some rough losses this year - but it will be fun to watch the development of this hugely talented but inexperienced team as they work their way through the season.

[dsfire]

When coach lost asst.Dale Layer last year, he lost the perspective he needed to starting and playing an inexperienced team. The first 3 games starting lineups certainly didn't get us ready for anything. And since than the lack of either of the two big men on the floor, thus far, have all spelled trouble against good Div 1 teams. I believe Coach Layer would have persuaded Buzz to start his Best 5. This line up would have to include Gardner, Cadougan, Butler, Buycks/DJO and Crowder/Blue,but almost never without Gardner (25min) or Otule (15min) per game. Gardner is Big East ready, you need to start and play him as many minutes as he can play. He is the key to our offense and takes up the space for both screens and Def rebounds. If coach sits Gardner and plays Otule his customary 6 min.,put a W by Vanderbilt and watch the B.E. losses pile up.

I suspect Otule and Gardner will see more minutes this game, as Buzz has shown their playtime is sensitive to matchups (Centenary).  That said, I don't know whether Gardner is ready to play 25 minutes per game - he's played over 15 minutes once so far this season.  Also, subbing Gardner in for Crowder actually drops our defensive rebounding capabilities - our current top 5 defensive rebounders are, aside from Fulce who has only played spotty minutes so far (but is probably our best rebounder when healthy), in order:
Crowder
Otule
Gardner
EWill
Jimmy

[muchamps]

Layer wasn't there last year either.  Welcome to the party 20 months later (he left in April 2009).  

Buzz didn't have a freshman team either...Dope. Think before you post.

[mu_hilltopper]

I love the "Duke, Gonzaga, and UW were close losses" argument .. we totally need to hang a banner.

Feel free to be optimistic, but the dozen games we've played so far, point to a very tough year.  

[mu_hilltopper]

Layer wasn't there last year either.  Welcome to the party 20 months later (he left in April 2009).  

Buzz didn't have a freshman team either...Dope. Think before you post.

ZING!  He's got you there.   Oh, wait.   Didn't Freshmen Teams get discontinued in the 70s?

[dsfire]

Feel free to be optimistic, but the dozenthree games we've played so far, point to a very tough year.  

What you actually mean?  I'd say at least eight of the games don't point to a tough year at all, though most of them don't point to much of anything.

[🏀]

I'm pretty confident we're going to lose 7 games and win 7 games.

The other four are up in the air.

[National Champs]

I hate calling the Wisconsin game a close loss. Sure the final score was close but they controlled us the entire game. I think we only lead when the score was something like 9-12 (don't quote me on this, I'm just going off memory and I'm to lazy to look it up).

[NersEllenson]

I do not see why people think this team is going to be successful in the Big East, when our best win at this point is a so called road game against UWM. Maybe after tonights game I will change my opinion, but I see this team as a competitive team that will lose at the end of close games because of inexperience.

This ought to be a good benchmark game tonight -the reality is that other than Gonzaga, we haven't really played solid teams in the 30-60 ranking range.  Duke and Wisconsin (as much as I hate to say it..Pomroy and others think Wisco is a Top 15 team)..are our benchmarks.  We call can agree DJO played poorly in both of those games, and particularily against Wisco..we were REALLY bad on the boards.  Throw in the rivalry..and that game is a tough one to win.

I'm pretty sure we will represent ourselves well tonight, and perform solidy in the Big East - don't see anyway the team finishes any worse than 8-10 in Big East, and by no means will be shocked with an 11-7 season.

[Lennys Tap]

I hate calling the Wisconsin game a close loss. Sure the final score was close but they controlled us the entire game. I think we only lead when the score was something like 9-12 (don't quote me on this, I'm just going off memory and I'm to lazy to look it up).

Duke missed three straight one and ones in the last 30 seconds so to me the game was more like a 10 point loss. Gonzaga and UW were in control for almost the entire second halves and those "close" losses didn't really seem that close to my old eyes.

I'd call the Duke game (other than the final score) encouraging. Gonzaga and Wisconsin? Not so much.

[warthog-driver]

I love the "Duke, Gonzaga, and UW were close losses" argument .. we totally need to hang a banner.

Looks Like A Tanned Tommy Special. I'm surprised the Bronzed Behemoth of Bloomington has yet to put up something like this in Alumni Hall. Something to give hope to the faithful, who still see Indiana as someplace "special"

[TallTitan34]

[mu_hilltopper]

 

What you actually mean?  I'd say at least eight of the games don't point to a tough year at all, though most of them don't point to much of anything.

Our 9 wins .. two wins were versus teams that might sniff the top 100 .. one of them we were down 13 in the 2nd half and managed to win.  The other, we were a shot away from an OT game.   Both of these wins were against teams that would be the doormats of the Big East.

The other 7 cupcake wins .. sorry, I don't get any positive feelings after the Varsity team beats up on the 8th graders.

[79Warrior]

We played poorly against Duke, Gonzaga, and Wisconsin and only lost by 5, 3, and 5 points. 

gotta love it when we refer to our  losses as "only lost by" no matter how you slice it, they are losses

[MerrittsMustache]

gotta love it when we refer to our  losses as "only lost by" no matter how you slice it, they are losses

It's a strange phenomenon but a lot of posters are pleased with MU's "only lost by" games but upset with MU's "only won by" games.

[dsfire]

Our 9 wins .. two wins were versus teams that might sniff the top 100 .. one of them we were down 13 in the 2nd half and managed to win.  The other, we were a shot away from an OT game.   Both of these wins were against teams that would be the doormats of the Big East.

The other 7 cupcake wins .. sorry, I don't get any positive feelings after the Varsity team beats up on the 8th graders.

I'm not saying you should be delighted about the wins, just that the doom and gloom is predicated almost entirely upon our 3 losses.  And, while I would've preferred not to be down to Bucknell (who would be a BE doormat, probably laying on top of DePaul and USF - but hung with Nova for most of their game and played with BC for the whole game last week, at their place) I think gutting out that win probably shows some positives for the team.

On the other hand, neither UWM nor UWGB appear to be borderline top 100 teams right now.  Both teams have fairly unimpressive 6-7 records (though GB did only lose to undefeated SDSU by 9 the week after we crushed them! ....)