Not Chris Otule's shining moment

[karavotsos]

O'Toule has improved a ton but he is not a big program guy.

stupid comment.

[MUMac]

Guess the bounce pass for post entry is a lost art on our guys.   Somebody (Blue, Cadougan, etc.) please develop an up top fake then step over to deliver a low hard bounce pass to the post.

Crowder, Buycks, DJO ... all tried the bounce pass.  Unfortunately, they threw it soft and UNC was able to get around Chris to poke it away.  Passing was a weakness of this team all season.

[ATL MU Warrior]

The passes to Otule are awful because he can't catch a hard bounce pass or chest pass.  The lob is the only pass he can catch.  UNC had that figured out before the game started so they overplayed the lob but we kept doing it again and again.  Even when he did manage to receive the pass he was totally ineffective.  I like the kid as a defensive stopper, but we need him out of the low post and not clogging the lane with extra defenders when he is in there.

Not to belabor the point, but I think this is way off base.  It's 80-90% the passer's fault.  On several plays, Chris had his defender sealed, but the pass was thrown so poorly that it allowed the defender to recover.  A proper pass (yes...a lob would be the proper pass) in those instances would have resulted in Chris completely sealing his guy off and a dropstep to the rim for a dunk.  Instead, the passes were slow, telegraphed and to the wrong side of Chris's body (the side where the defender was sealed off). 

Of course, this didn't occur every time, but on 3-4 occasions it was very obvious. 

[rocky_warrior]

OT...but some bold predictions here

North Carolina is going to win it all, by the way.

They're going to have to pick it up to even have a chance against Kentucky...

Losing to Kansas in the Finals.  Called it from day 1.

Go Jayhawks

Whoops!  Go VCU!  I haven't been predicting them to win anything (even their first game), but really proud of them.  Who wouldn't like to root for them (and who wants to play them at this point)?!

[bilsu]

Otule's strenght is defense. He should not have been the focus of the offense against North Carolina. The only way we could have beat North Carolina was to be making threes. Buzz's game plan was wrong. He was to worried about fast breaks off of missed threes and decided we needed to go inside as much as possible. That game plan took away any chance we had of winning. I love Buzz, but the way I see it his game plan led directly to us being routed.

[brewcity77]

Otule's strenght is defense. He should not have been the focus of the offense against North Carolina. The only way we could have beat North Carolina was to be making threes. Buzz's game plan was wrong. He was to worried about fast breaks off of missed threes and decided we needed to go inside as much as possible. That game plan took away any chance we had of winning. I love Buzz, but the way I see it his game plan led directly to us being routed.

I think he fell into the trap of wanting to slow down UNC and their transition points. Slow down isn't our game, and it actually suits UNC just fine because it gives them more opportunities to create turnovers. I definitely feel that our focus on slowing them directly contributed to the loss. That's okay, Buzz is young. Live and learn.

[CTWarrior]

Not to belabor the point, but I think this is way off base.  It's 80-90% the passer's fault.  On several plays, Chris had his defender sealed, but the pass was thrown so poorly that it allowed the defender to recover.  A proper pass (yes...a lob would be the proper pass) in those instances would have resulted in Chris completely sealing his guy off and a dropstep to the rim for a dunk.  Instead, the passes were slow, telegraphed and to the wrong side of Chris's body (the side where the defender was sealed off). 

Of course, this didn't occur every time, but on 3-4 occasions it was very obvious. 

I agree the passes stunk.  My main point is that it is very hard to throw passes to Otule in the low post because the only pass he can catch with any consistency is a telegraphed lob.  Against a good team with a big, mobile defender, the odds of us making that near perfect lob pass, Otule catching it, and then Otule making an offensive move that results in 2 points is so unlikely as to not be worth the effort.  We wasted far too much time on this doomed strategy in the first half and paid dearly for it.

[MUBurrow]

Whoops!  Go VCU!  I haven't been predicting them to win anything (even their first game), but really proud of them.  Who wouldn't like to root for them (and who wants to play them at this point)?!

Me neither - I actually had the winner of VCU-USC in the Sweet 16... until VCU actually won that game. Then I went back and changed it because I thought VCU was that bad. Shows what I know.

[mileskishnish72]

Agree, Brew. Slowdown play is lousy - remember last 6 min. vs. LVille.

[Brewtown Andy]

stupid comment.

Couldn't even get through the first word before proving that, too.

[jaygall31]

Learn how to throw him the ball inside, none of Zeller's steals were Chris's fault.

lazy stinkin passes.

[wojosdojo]

Couldn't even get through the first word before proving that, too.

+1.. look around

[Stuckin1977]

Agree, Brew. Slowdown play is lousy - remember last 6 min. vs. LVille.

Part of the problem too was that our transition defense was lousy.  No matter how many guys we had to defend them, it seemed like every play UNC made in transition ended in a backboard-shattering dunk.

[lurch91]

Reminded me of Merritt vs. Brendan Haywood in 2001, OTule played better then Merritt did in that game versus UNC, but was still eaten alive.

[muchamps]

Crowder and Buycks can both be lazy passers.  Today, it was exposed.  The lazy entry pass allowed Zeller to poke it away.

Not really, Note you have to telegraph everything to help Otule even catch the ball, sometimes this carrys over to their passes to Gardner as well..