Yes...I'm going to talk about fundamentals

[Wade for President]

With Otule lost for the year (soooo hard not to play the "what if" game) and Devante hurting, the emphasis on the fundamentals of boxing out, are a critical component to the success this team will experience in March.

I wore out the rewind button in anger last night on my DVR.  The first 10-15 min of that game were BRUTAL.  DePaul was getting offensive rebounds at will...and to make matters worst, they were doing so with Marquette players standing around.  How has the coaching staff not stressed the importance of boxing out to this team?  Find a guy (preferably the man you're covering) and stick your back side into him.  Simple.  That's basketball 101...and we're failing at it.

Not only was the lack of boxing out a glaring weakness, but the hustle effort during that first 10 minutes was equally infuriating.  There were multiple situations where players failed to get back on D, or help defend.  DePaul had a few steals/possessions with 3-4 MU players not even making an effort to cross half-court.  DJO was definitely a catalyst behind our comeback, but he was one of the main people showing little to no hustle on defense or boxing out.

I had brought this up in a previous post, but there was one play in particular that Jamil was the ONLY Golden Eagle to get back and play defense.  As soon as DePaul scored, you could see Jamil turn around in anger at his teammates, as if to say "WTF?!?  I can't do it all by myself."

With an undersized team, the importance of boxing out is paramount.  If this team doesn't get back to the fundamentals, we could have a very short tourney run.

[CTWarrior]

I imagine Buzz stressed this at the half, as we ended even in rebounds after being thoroughly dominated the first 15 minutes or so.  Agree that our fundamenals are a bit lacking, but a lot of the problem is due to our constant switching.  It seems that our "big people" are often flying out to challenge shots and are therefore not available for rebounding.

[RJax55]

For the most part this year, MU has at least held their own in terms of rebounding, but I agree, the 1st half was brutal. In my mind, the worst effort all year on the glass.

Not to go all Tim McCarver on you, but as bad as MU was in the 1st half on the glass, they were as good in the 2nd half. On both ends, I thought MU's rebounding is what changed the game.

As for DJO, he's never been a guy to really box out. It's definitely frustrating to watch at times.

[Wade for President]

Honestly...that ND game could've been much worst (I know, hard to imagine).  During the first half, I was shocked that the Irish weren't crashing the offensive glass.  There were countless times where the ball would just bounce to an MU defender, through no effort of our own...simply because ND didn't attack the boards.

We all know there weren't many opportunities for rebounds in the 2nd half.   

Box out, box out, box out.

[GGGG]

Yeah, I saw the rebounding effort too...they seemed to correct it later on in the game.  DePaul had one offensive rebound in the second half.  MU had seven.

The game is 40 minutes long and they corrected their issues.

[Canadian Dimes]

I am not going to argue that we could not box out better.  Guys like DJO, Crowder, and Junior can have lapses where they forget proper technique and give up weak, ugly rebounds.

However, Depaul was sending 3-4 guys to the glass on every shot and in some cases had a man advantage. 

And unlike ND who sent 3-4 guys back to stop transition Deapul chose to hit the glass.  While Deapaul did get too many offensive rebounds they also surrendered layups in about 2 seconds when they did not get the rebound. 

It can be a pick your poison thing.  Mu shored up the rebounding issues and literally blew them out of the gym the last 30 minutes.

[MUMac]

A couple of thoughts.

1. Fundamentals are learned early on and at different times of the season.  Do they work on boxing out in practice?  I would highly doubt it, not enough to to work on individual skills.  That said, I suspect they do emphasize when someone does not use technique or fundamentals.  But, if you think you will be able to get Jae, Jamil or Jamail to start boxing out now if they do not have the baseline in place from their developmental years, well, that's highly unlikely.

2. MU is really playing with bigs out of position.  Jamil is a 3, playing the 5.  Crowder is a 3/4 playing the 4/5.  Jamail is a 2/3 playing the 4.  Some of these guys may not have learned to box out from that position. 

3. Crowder, for one, is slow to react to the ball at times.  He may have position, but loses it with late reaction to where the ball will come off the rim.  In addition, he is also a slow leaper (if you can call it leaping).  That hurts him when rebounding, especially against someone with size.

4. I think this showed some of the need to have Vander on the floor.  He sat with foul trouble in the first half.  You can see him being active on the glass.  Others can feed off of it and other times, he can keep the ball in play for someone else to get to it.

[tower912]

It appeared to me that the rebounding problem in the first half stemmed from all of the switching on the perimeter.    Because all 5 guys we had out there can guard on the perimeter, we were switching everything.    A shot would go up and suddenly we have Junior/DJO/Todd/Vander under the basket while Jae and JWilson are contesting the jump shot.    DePaul sent their bigs to the boards and the inevitable mismatches/offensive rebounds occurred.    In the second half, it appeared we did a better job of making sure either at least one of our bigs was underneath when the shot went up.    And we ended up even for the game on rebounds.

[Dawson Rental]

Honestly...that ND game could've been much worst (I know, hard to imagine).  During the first half, I was shocked that the Irish weren't crashing the offensive glass.  There were countless times where the ball would just bounce to an MU defender, through no effort of our own...simply because ND didn't attack the boards.

We all know there weren't many opportunities for rebounds in the 2nd half.   

Box out, box out, box out.

To that you could add "when you get to a rebound, don't let the ball go through your hands."  I saw way too much of that.  I don't think that any of this is a due to a lack of emphasis by the coaching staff on boxing out or rebounding.  In fact, I recall that that was a primary emphasis by Buzz early in the season.  If I were on the coaching staff, I'd spend time trying to figure out why the entire team seems not ready to play early in games until the adrenaline kicks in or whatever.

[DienerTime34]

The best part about fundementals is that they're FUNdemental. Just like reading!

Fun-da-men-tals clapclap, clapclapclap.

[muwarrior69]

Juan appears to be a natural at rebounding. Too bad that other deficiencies that Buzz sees in his game prevent him from getting more playing time.

[Dawson Rental]

The best part about fundementals is that they're FUNdemental. Just like reading!

Fun-da-men-tals clapclap, clapclapclap.

Wow!  They let you drink at work?

[MUMac]

Juan appears to be a natural at rebounding. Too bad that other deficiencies that Buzz sees in his game prevent him from getting more playing time.

The missed time due to injury has stunted his play for this year.  That, and he really needs to get stronger.  I agree he seems to be a natural, but, he gets pushed around far too much.   Nothing Todd Smith can't help!

[Wade for President]

It appeared to me that the rebounding problem in the first half stemmed from all of the switching on the perimeter.    Because all 5 guys we had out there can guard on the perimeter, we were switching everything.    A shot would go up and suddenly we have Junior/DJO/Todd/Vander under the basket while Jae and JWilson are contesting the jump shot.    DePaul sent their bigs to the boards and the inevitable mismatches/offensive rebounds occurred.    

This maybe true to a point, but I busted out the rewind on a minimum of 3-4 possessions, where DJO and Co. were just looking at the rim.  It doesn't matter if you're guarding a guy on the perimeter, or switching up your defensive assignments...fundamentals tell you to find a body (and in the case of last night's 1st half, ANY body), and put a body on them. 

[GGGG]

This maybe true to a point, but I busted out the rewind on a minimum of 3-4 possessions, where DJO and Co. were just looking at the rim.  It doesn't matter if you're guarding a guy on the perimeter, or switching up your defensive assignments...fundamentals tell you to find a body (and in the case of last night's 1st half, ANY body), and put a body on them. 

3-4 possessions is a small fraction of a game.

And I don't Marquette is that fundamentally a flawed team overall.  The problem seemed to be solved later in the game.  They just seem to take awhile to get going some games.

However, I do agree that DJO isn't a terribly good rebounder or defender.  But that's hardly news.

And yeah

[tower912]

I'm not saying that we did a good job of boxing out.   Far from it.   But there is a difference  having a small trying to body a big under the basket.   Some, not all, but some, of the rebounding issues came from the scenarios I described.   I agree that there were also times where it simply was poor effort.  

[lab_warrior]

I think what made me angry watching that stretch in the first half was not only were they not blocking anyone out, there wasn't a lot of effort to go after rebounds, like they expected the ball to magically fall to them or something.  The second half was a completely different story.