Where would we be without Jae?

[GGGG]

For those who question our coach's philosophy regarding JUCOs, think about this...where would we be without Jae?  Yeah, I know JFB got the SOTG, but I disagree with this.  Jae hit the points inside.  Jae got tons of rebounds.  He shoots like a small forward...rebounds like a power forward...and is simply a Bad Ass.

I would be plenty pleased if we get the JUCO player of the year every year.

[brewcity77]

Only one word I need to describe him: Warrior.

Don't know where we'd be, but my guess is no better than 3-6 in the Big East, probably 2-7. He's swiftly taking over my personal favorite spot from DJO.

[NotAnAlum]

We talked about the same thing after the game.  Substitute Jae for another promising freshman, say Jamil Jones or even Vander and this team is at the level of Seton Hall or Rutgers.  In the BE it takes upperclassmen to win and Buzz knows it.  Besides I'll take 2 years of Jae over 4 years of many freshmen.

[Rollout-the-Barrel]

He really seems to know when a big shot is needed and when to drive and at least get a foul. He has that "it" quality that you can't always quantify.

[nyg]

In big trouble.

[willie warrior]

Funny thing though, isn't it that Buzz did not even start him for about the first about 10 games.

[GGGG]

Who cares willie?  He still played many minutes...and frankly it took him awhile to look comfortable with the pace of the game.

[Rubie Q]

For those who question our coach's philosophy regarding JUCOs, think about this...where would we be without

... Jimmy?

Those two triples were ONIONS shots if I've ever seen 'em.

Listen, I love Jae, too, but this is Jimmy's team.  He's been a man possessed since Notre Dame Redux.

[tower912]

Funny thing though, isn't it that Buzz did not even start him for about the first about 10 games.

Buzz can't learn about his team, adapt his rotations and starters?   He can't experiment?    Wow.   Dude. 
Buzz had lots of new pieces that he had to figure out.    He started Reggie a few times.   He started Ewill once.  He started 3 guards early.   He tried some things.    Jeeez. 

[Sharpie]

It's pretty exhausting reading any of willies posts. He gets his rocks off by bashing our players, coaches, and any other fragment regarding this team. His whole mind set is off kilter and really annoying. To spend so much time beig negative towards this team is a real showing of how he must be in real life. I can't even imagine having to be around him on a daily basis.

Sincerely,

Fed up and annoyed.

[Sharpie]

Oh and btw, jae is an absolute beast. Buzz, keep recruiting jucos especially if they are anything like jae, Jimmy, djo, or buycks, and without any added off court issues.

[chren21]

He really seems to know when a big shot is needed and when to drive and at least get a foul. He has that "it" quality that you can't always quantify.

This is right on. Jae is taking over the leadership of the team in my eyes. Anyone notice who called the last 2 team huddles prior to the free throws at the end of the game?  It was not JB.

In Jae we trust.

[warriors1991]

JFB played great down the stretch (ok the whole game) but there is no question this would have been in the L column without Jae. He really is a Warrior. I am absolutely loving watching him develop. Quickly.

Who ends up deciding SOTG anyway? The moderators? Driving home from the game I actually thought "Jae was the best player out there today but muscoop is going to make it JFB because of the stretch run."

Maybe we've banned co-SOTG's since Frozena-Gate but if there was ever a game that two guys should have gotten it together, this was the one.

[chren21]

This is right on. Jae is taking over the leadership of the team in my eyes. Anyone notice who called the last 2 team huddles prior to the free throws at the end of the game?  It was not JB.

In Jae we trust.

To add to this.  Some of the guys looked at buzz after one of the last fouls was committed. Buzz saw Jae calling the huddle so buzz just pointed at Jae to the guys looking at buzz and then everyone went to Jae and huddled.

[denverMU]

I still think JFB is the heart of our team but without Jae we lose games.  In our last 3 losses UL,ND, and UCONN he scored 8, 10, 15 points respectively.  We need him scoring 18+ points a night.

[El Duderino]

We talked about the same thing after the game.  Substitute Jae for another promising freshman, say Jamil Jones or even Vander and this team is at the level of Seton Hall or Rutgers.  In the BE it takes upperclassmen to win and Buzz knows it.  Besides I'll take 2 years of Jae over 4 years of many freshmen.

Yep

So many here bemoan the amount of JUCO players that Buzz has brought in, but given how highly productive all of these JUCO kids have proven to be except Fulce, i find the criticism to be truly baffling. 

Out side of the exceptions of freshman who are really good right away from the day they step on a college campus, a significantly higher percentage of high school recruits need a year and sometimes two before they can become one of the best/most productive players on a good college basketball team.

Yet, many here bitch about the number of JUCO kids on the roster even though

Butler/DJO have been very effective right from the get go after arriving at Marquette. Besides that instant effectiveness, both were three year JUCO kids. All college coaches in the country would be very happy to get three years of Butler/DJO level of production from any college recruit.

Buycks is by no means a great college basketball player and has his flaws, but he's been good enough that he'd at least be able to some part of the playing rotation on the vast majority of teams in the country. Given that a sizable number of high school recruits never even end up producing what Buycks has done, even among some pretty highly rated recruits, it would be hard for me to buy any argument that Buzz signing Buycks was a poor decision in retrospect.

Crowder like Buycks is only a two year JUCO recruit. Regardless of that, how many college coaches out there wouldn't gladly take Jae right now even though they'd only have him for two seasons? Maybe a few out there wouldn't, but it would be a very short list.

Bottom line for me with recruiting JUCO kids is mainly just, were the kids productive players and were they so at least fairly quickly, especially for the two year guys? If the answer is yes, then it's almost always a good signing, assuming the kids also behaves off the court and attends class. The whole point in recruiting is to bring in kids who can be productive college players.

Plus, the only 2 or 3 years aspect of a JUCO recruit can sometimes be a positive. If a college coach makes a recruiting mistake on a high school kid who ends up being only very mediocre or worse, that coach can be stuck having to carry that player for a full four years, while a not very productive JUCO kid will only waste a scholarship for 2-3 years instead of four.

[bamamarquettefan]

I said in my preview this year that I'd be stunned if Jae wasn't the best newcomer on the team.  I don't want to get in an argument over whether Jimmy or Jae is better, we need them both.  But I believe Jimmy needs guys like Lazar, Jae and Chris to bang with opposing strong guys so he can work his magic without getting banged up by guys that outweigh him.

As I've posted before, even 5-star freshman rarely have a huge impact in Big East play.  The almost always explode their sophomore year.

You have to reload with JUCOs, no question.

Vander's defense really has been superb, and statistically he steals the ball almost three times as often as DJO does when in the game.  I just hate to see him losing his confidence on offense.  Every team in the league has to have the scouting report on him driving baseline and leaving his feed under the basket with his only option being to whip the ball to the opposite corner, which Syracuse easily picked off today.  Just forget the jumper and focus on driving to the basket and either drawing contact or having a path to throw it back out for a 3, then settle back and play defense.

Unless they change the rules so we can have DJO play the offensive half and Vander play the defensive half, I just hope Vander can get some little nitch on offense when he is on the court.

[brewcity77]

Just look at Jae like an automatic early-entry player. He comes in, posts monster numbers his first year, hopefully improves on them, then puts his name in the hat for the NBA draft. If his production continues at the level it's been through BEast play, or if it manages to improve, I think it's safe to say he'd have NBA-type numbers anyway.

[rocky_warrior]

Who ends up deciding SOTG anyway? The moderators? Driving home from the game I actually thought "Jae was the best player out there today but muscoop is going to make it JFB because of the stretch run."

You see now, your subconscious knew the that JFB deserves a "thank you" note from all MU fans, but you still wanted Jae to get the award.  That sounds like irrational man-love to me.  But if you watched the game today, you know that Jae did all that he could, and JFB did even more when it was needed.

Oh, and BTW, I don't choose the SOTG.

[willie warrior]

Who cares willie?  He still played many minutes...and frankly it took him awhile to look comfortable with the pace of the game.

I care. It is another telltale sign of Mr. Buzz's decisions--like starting Smith, etc. You keep defending those decisions and I will keep pointing out the flaws. That is your opinion about Crowder looking uncomfortable--I never saw that!

Oh wait, I forgot, you coach, so you know better. I will now behave more to your expectations.

[GGGG]

I care. It is another telltale sign of Mr. Buzz's decisions--like starting Smith, etc. You keep defending those decisions and I will keep pointing out the flaws. That is your opinion about Crowder looking uncomfortable--I never saw that!

At the time, Buzz said that he would be experimenting at the beginning of the year.  I said that the rotation would be settled at the beginning of BE play and Crowder would be starting.  (Which is exactly what happened.)  Not starting Crowder did not cost us one single game...yet you grasp at this to bash Buzz?  Amazing.

Oh wait, I forgot, you coach, so you know better. I will now behave more to your expectations.

This is funny since you claim to know more than the guy who is actually coaching this team.

[warriors1991]

You see now, your subconscious knew the that JFB deserves a "thank you" note from all MU fans, but you still wanted Jae to get the award.  That sounds like irrational man-love to me.  But if you watched the game today, you know that Jae did all that he could, and JFB did even more when it was needed.

Oh, and BTW, I don't choose the SOTG.

Nooo, no man-crush here. I thought Jae was the SOTG of the first 36 1/2 min of the game and JFB was of the last 3 1/2. Overall if I had to choose I'd say JC had the better game.

And the question still wasn't answered; who here ends up deciding SOTG??

[warthog-driver]

Yep

So many here bemoan the amount of JUCO players that Buzz has brought in, but given how highly productive all of these JUCO kids have proven to be except Fulce, i find the criticism to be truly baffling. 

I would not underestimate the contributions of Joe Fulce to making this a team. Not everything about leadership can be quantified empirically. JFB or Jae may the soul of this team but Joe Fulce is its heart

[NavinRJohnson]

That is your opinion about Crowder looking uncomfortable--I never saw that!

I'm not surprised, given some of the opinions you share on these boards. I also found him to be a bit up and down the first month of the season or so. How many games during or since, has MU lose because Crowder came off the bench in those 10 games?

[brewcity77]

You see now, your subconscious knew the that JFB deserves a "thank you" note from all MU fans, but you still wanted Jae to get the award.  That sounds like irrational man-love to me.  But if you watched the game today, you know that Jae did all that he could, and JFB did even more when it was needed.

Oh, and BTW, I don't choose the SOTG.

I present to the defense exhibit A...

One last thought...How is Jae Crowder not SOTG? Butler was good, but Jae was absolutely the reason we won this game. When Syracuse tied it at 56, Jae scored to put us back in the lead. When Syracuse got back within one, Jae made the steal, got the foul on Jardine, and made both free throws to make it 60-57. When Syracuse got back within one at 62-63, he got Keita fouled out and converted 1-2 from the line to put us back up 2. And when they tied it at 64, it was again Crowder who scored a deuce to put us back in the lead. Jimmy hit two threes late in the clock, both huge, but those were more desperation shots. Meanwhile, as a team, we were pretty much saddled on Crowder's back, riding him to victory.

Granted, we don't win without both of them, but of the two, Crowder was the one stepping to the forefront again and again.