What we learned from LSU Game

[CTWarrior]

MU is clearly a better team than LSU and they'd win 9 of 10 match-ups against them.

Disagree about us beating them 9 of 10.  We are better than them, but they are a terrible matchup for us.  LSU didn't play anything like a perfect game.  They were horrendous from the FT line.  If they made their FTs, we get killed.  They made a several unforced turnovers, too.  We shot poorly because they defended us so well.  Bottom line, we ran into a team, though not as talented as us, that could match our quickness and were longer.  Teams like that will continue to give us trouble.  Force us to play half court offense when you are big and quick, you eliminate Blue and neutralize all of our guards.

[TJ]

We've shown in smaller spurts against worse teams this year that we have some major issues attacking the zone. That leads to our reliance on the three and our inconsistent scoring. Today we played a very very athletic and long team that went into the zone and gave us huge fits.  Even though we lost, its definitely good we played this game before we have to travel to Syracuse, et al.

Sure LSU made some big shots today, but I still think tonight's score stems from our inability to get the offense we wanted more than their hucking up shots.

True about their length and good defense, but they didn't play zone.  They played a packed-in man-to-man, but they never went to zone.

[GGGG]

They had a lot of shots made in the rythm of their offense.  Again, we were late on rotations, or simply overplayed resulting in a break out.  Some stuff that has plagued us the last two years.  You give players at this level open looks within the flow of their offense, and they are going to knock them down.

[CTWarrior]

They had a lot of shots made in the rythm of their offense.  Again, we were late on rotations, or simply overplayed resulting in a break out.  Some stuff that has plagued us the last two years.  You give players at this level open looks within the flow of their offense, and they are going to knock them down.

+1

[GGGG]

True about their length and good defense, but they didn't play zone.  They played a packed-in man-to-man, but they never went to zone.

+1

I said this in another thread, but we started playing a dribble drive offense with little perimeter movement, so it looked like zone.  However once Buzz changed up his offense to more of a motion, it was obvious that they were in man.

[Golden Avalanche]

Totally disagree. When shots don't fall (MU shot 3-21 after the 13-0 start), teams look disceivingly bad.

It's more then shots falling. MU has a habit of going on short bursts and thinking they've got control. They don't play the ebb well with the flow.

Johnson schooled Buzz after the early run and we countered with terribly contested lay-ups, forced deep shots, and lacksaidasical passing. I'm just shocked that lasted 30 minutes.

[karavotsos]

This game reminded me of the Tennessee game when James, Matthews and McNeal were srs.  You drive into the lane and expect to get calls, you don't get calls and its frustrating.  Also, it leads to turnovers and runouts.  Giving out runouts in a game in the 60's is much worse.

So you have to figure out how to score when you're in there.  Crowder's fake, reverse spin fadeaway in the second half was a good example of how you can score in that environment. 

I guess its not surprising that MU struggled on the road against an athletic physical team.  They just have to get better.

I thought they were much better the entire second half than they were the last 16 min of the first half (probably obvious).  Didn't think they lacked effort.  I don't know why people would think Davante wasn't putting forth effort.  Thought he was banging well on defense.  All that athleticism we saw down low in the first half was pretty much negated.  Really thought they battled and just need to be more efficient offensively in a tough game. 

I feel like they battled and will use this to get better.  Not worried.

[MUMac]

Good post karavotsos.  Agree with what you said.

To me, it was a really strange game.  Start out strong - up 13-0 - and then I did not recognize the team that was on the floor.  They did not look, act or play the same.

When Junior takes 1 less shot than DJO, more shots than Todd and Vander combined, well, that is a strange offensive game.  The play that bothered me the most, from Junior, was the fast break.  He had 2 guys to get the ball to.  Both better finishers.  Then he throws up a circus shot. 

Our frosh looked like frosh for the 1st time.  DWilson was bad when he was out there in the 1st half.  So much so that Buzz kept him on the bench in the 2nd half.  Mayo struggled tonight.  Both will learn from this and get better.

Too many turnovers.  Some forced by LSU's D, but most are the blame of MU.

Struggled mightly all night.  But they never quit.  I thought they turned up the heat a tad after the half.  Could not get it going.

I am not bothered by the loss.  Not really bothered by the way they played.  It happens to all teams.  LSU is good, not great, but tonight was their night and not MU's.  No shame in that.

[MUBurrow]

True about their length and good defense, but they didn't play zone.  They played a packed-in man-to-man, but they never went to zone.

I'll have to look back at some replay. From how I was watching it looked like a zone, but a lot of that was admittedly off assumption. Thats a good catch. I'm interested to see how the game looks when I watch a little closer with that in mind.

[wojosdojo]

... That we continuously go on big runs at the beginning of the game and then have long @$$ droughts.

[tower912]

Ugly game.   Junior took a lot more shots than usual because there was a lot more indecision from everybody else.   Early in the second half when DJO passed up a wide open 3 on a break and then turned the ball over, leading to an LSU made 3, was, IMO, the game in microcosm.    Played tight after the start for some reason.   The whole team, other than Jae, played tentative for the first time since Norfolk 2.    It sucked, but its one game.   Every team lays an egg occasionally.    Particularly on the road.

[El Duderino]

They had a lot of shots made in the rythm of their offense.  Again, we were late on rotations, or simply overplayed resulting in a break out.  Some stuff that has plagued us the last two years.  You give players at this level open looks within the flow of their offense, and they are going to knock them down.

That is going to be unavoidable sometimes given the style of defense which Buzz prefers.

A team like Wisconsin under Bo prefers playing a more keep everyone in front of you pack in the paint type of defense, partly because they aren't focused heavily on creating turnovers and then getting out on the break for hopefully easy/easier baskets.

Buzz on the other hand prefers a more in your face, trapping, and trying to force a heavy amount of turnovers so they can turn those turnovers into higher percentage fast break points. That style of defense can be very rewarding sometimes and other times can lead to wide open jump shooters if everyone isn't on point with their rotations and/or the turnovers don't come at a high clip.

Otule being out hurts also because he not only helps protect the lane, we now have to double pretty much any big man that catches the ball anywhere near the rim.

[Wade for President]

Elite Eight had Otule, which in itself is remarkable how far we got.

What the what?!?  So you're telling me that the UNC loss was just a bad dream?  Whew.  This is like a "Sixth Sense...I see dead people" revelation.

[GGGG]

I thought they were much better the entire second half than they were the last 16 min of the first half (probably obvious).  Didn't think they lacked effort.  I don't know why people would think Davante wasn't putting forth effort.  Thought he was banging well on defense.  All that athleticism we saw down low in the first half was pretty much negated.  Really thought they battled and just need to be more efficient offensively in a tough game. 

I thought MU played very well in the second half...until the last couple of minutes.  Again, they gave up too many open looks.  It is just frustrating to me that when this team needs stops, and not turnovers, we still play the over-extended defense.

[Warrior3211]

We've shown in smaller spurts against worse teams this year that we have some major issues attacking the zone. That leads to our reliance on the three and our inconsistent scoring. Today we played a very very athletic and long team that went into the zone and gave us huge fits.  Even though we lost, its definitely good we played this game before we have to travel to Syracuse, et al.

Sure LSU made some big shots today, but I still think tonight's score stems from our inability to get the offense we wanted more than their hucking up shots.

They didn't play much zone, if they even played any at all. A majority of their play was man-to-man.

Other than that, this looked like the MU teams of the past few years, not the one that emerged as a powerhouse at the start of this season. We've been good the past few years, but we had a tendency to play to our opponent's level.

What disappointed me most were the careless turnovers. It seemed to me we were constantly driving to the middle and then leaving our feet with nowhere to go with the ball causing our guys to throw an errant pass.  I would have also liked to see more minutes from Derrick Wilson. He seems like a defensive presence out there, but he never got much of a chance to get going. Also, Juan Anderson's length maybe could have been helpful on the boards. Who knows?

DJO played a rough game and Mayo was a non-factor. What we've seen this season is Mayo step up when DJO isn't playing, or not having an ideal night.  What happened last night was nobody was there to help when both of them struggled. DJO had 16, but I think it's fair to say it wasn't his best outing. He was a bit out of control at times and turned the ball over.  As long as we have someone else Vander, Jamil, or Devante step in as a solid double digit guy, this team will be fine.  

Last night's game was just a good team having a bad day. I don't think there is any reason to worry.

[The Maestro]

I'll never understand why we don't make more of an effort to get the ball inside when our outside shots aren't falling, and then when we do get the ball inside we take bunny lay up attempts (which we miss at a maddeningly high rate) rather go hard to the hoop with some authority. Sometimes I feel like I'm watching a throwback to the late 60's/early 70's when dunking was against the rules.

[MerrittsMustache]

I thought MU played very well in the second half...until the last couple of minutes.  Again, they gave up too many open looks.  It is just frustrating to me that when this team needs stops, and not turnovers, we still play the over-extended defense.

They continue to play that style because that's the style of D that MU plays. When MU gets a big lead, slows it down offensively and plays deliberately, they don't play very well because that's not their style. If they were to play a different style of D, I think we'd see similar results.

Down the stretch, I actually think it was Cadougan's inability to keep Hickey in front of him that hurt and led to the open looks. Hickey had 5 of his 6 assists in the final 6 minutes and 3 of those assists led to 3-pointers.

[GGGG]

I understand what you are saying Merritt's.  It is who they are.  It just offends my conservative, midwestern basketball sensibilities at times!

[KenoshaWarrior]

It's the missed opportunities that are so frustrating.  This was one we should have been able to win, esp with a 13 point lead.  That's not a major disappointment?  C'mon.

No it is a major disapointment for Marquette fans but when it comes to national perception, losing to a BCS team on the road is not a huge deal. 

[AZWarrior]

What the what?!?  So you're telling me that the UNC loss was just a bad dream?  Whew.  This is like a "Sixth Sense...I see dead people" revelation.

Yes - exactly.  A bad dream.  Tell all your friends we went to the elite eight last season!   

[ken8406]

I feel that this game is a foreshadow of UCONN. LSU has great length and defense. UCONN is just like them but with a better offense. I feel that we could get destroyed by UCONN if we were not able to handle LSU that well.

[Seraph]

DWilson was bad when he was out there in the 1st half.  So much so that Buzz kept him on the bench in the 2nd half.

I was at the game and DWilson spent a lot of the second half standing at the end of the bench with a trainer. 

[ATWizJr]

No it is a major disapointment for Marquette fans but when it comes to national perception, losing to a BCS team on the road is not a huge deal. 

Well, I don't care about whether or not the national audience thinks the loss is a big deal.  I care about how the MU fan base feels about it.  And I'd say they are frustrated at the missed opportunity here.  Is it the end of the world? No.  Is it a blown game?  Yup.

[lab_warrior]

What we learned from LSU Game...

How about that we can't play horrible defense, shoot poorly, get completely outrebounded and outhustled, and win? 

Just a crappy, frustrating game (except for DJO and Jae), the guys will just need to regroup and focus, and beat up on UWM and Vanderbilt. 

[MerrittsMustache]

What we learned from LSU Game...

How about that we can't play horrible defense, shoot poorly, get completely outrebounded and outhustled, and win? 

Just a crappy, frustrating game (except for DJO and Jae), the guys will just need to regroup and focus, and beat up on UWM and Vanderbilt. 

MU was outrebounded by 2, which is pretty insignificant when you consider they missed 17 more FGs. MU actually had a 13-8 advantage on the offensive glass, although LSU outscored MU 10-9 on second-chance points. Turning 13 offensive rebounds into only 9 points is pretty pathetic.

The main issues in the game were that MU didn't shoot well and only scored 2 fast break points. Also, Ralston Turner had shot 7-34 from the floor and 2-13 on 3s over his previous 3 games. Last night, he shot 6-10 from the floor and 4-5 on 3s.