Butler Game Thread

[LA]

F@$!

[WarriorDoc]

Man, that hurts a lot.

[Mutaman]

Great opening season test. Get em next time.

[muhoops1]

If Butler makes 60% of their FT MU loses by 5.  Gonna be a long year.

[EnderWiggen]

Are you kidding me??

[nyg]

Junior makes free throw, then MU fouls.  Game over.........

MU knew Clarke was going to shoot it, a bigger player should have been guarding.

Between Thomas's miracle and Clarke miracle, miracle, just unreal.

Least don't have to face UNC. 

[Ellenson Guerrero]

The one consolation in this is that we don't have to get embarrassed by UNC on national tv...

[Jay Bee]

My soul hurts.

Great efforts by Vander, Jake, Juan, etc... let's win two and head home.

[martyconlonontherun]

Our non-conference schedule suddenly starting to look weak.

[mileskishnish72]

Spot on, nyg.

[Warriors10]

The one consolation in this is that we don't have to get embarrassed by UNC on national tv...

Yay! Get to play at 2:30 again...

[WellsstreetWanderer]

Good experience learning to take care of business when you have the chance.  Two stupid moves late: Locket's charge followed immediately  by Wilson's foul at the other end.
Take Away from this game is Vander wants to be the go to guy

[Fred Garvin]

He was the one guy that shouldn't have had the ball in his hands

[GGGG]

MU knew Clarke was going to shoot it, a bigger player should have been guarding.

I find it hard to blame the defense there.  It was what it was.

[StillWarriors]

Our non-conference schedule suddenly starting to look weak.

Agreed. Lost two big RPI opportunities with OSU and UNC. Sucks. That killed, but can't say Butler didn't deserve to win it. They created much easier opportunities down the stretch (before the last shot), and we could not stop them in a half-court situation.

[JakeBarnes]

The Good:
- Vander and Junior stepped up big.  Color me very impressed (blue).
- Juan is a great glue guy.  He is just everywhere.  He lost a few assignments, but his tenacity to never give up on a ball really works well.


The Bad:
- Lockett.  He's a step slower out there on his O and D assignments.  That foul at the end (where he should have been aware of the shot clock) was ridiculous and uncalled for.  I had high expectations, but probably need to taper them after seeing his first 3.
- Jamil.  He's so tentative it's unreal.  He's supposed to be THE guy, yet he's rarely around.

[Warrior2008]

I find it hard to blame the defense there.  It was what it was.

Agreed. That said, Steve Taylor giving up that offensive rebound was inexcusable. He is as lazy a rebounder as I have seen. Hoping it's a freshman thing and not a trend going forward.

Juan should have been in the game there.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

As a team, I think MU can defend and rebound.

They struggle to shoot, which makes teams sag, which limits the driving lanes.

Vander played great, but he was fouled in the mid-range a lot, not when he got all of the way to the hoop. Teams are not going to let MU drive all the way. They will sag and rotate like crazy.

IF (big IF) MU can get some consistent scoring outside, offense will become significantly easier for them.

If not, MU is going to have to win ugly. Scrap, scrape, claw, scratch for every basket.

[muwarrior97]

Early BUT hating that ending and wonder if Jamil got a bit too much sun....awful today, lots of good with VB and some of Juan and JR BUT dang I hate that Rodney, Roddy, Robby, Rott-ney guy

[wheresthecake?]

UNC and OSU both off the schedule now.....not good for the SOS.

[chapman]

The defense was fine on the last play...the best it had been for awhile following 8 minutes of Butler layup drills.

[honkytonk]

Lockett seems passive and I dont know why. He needs to be more assertive or the BE grinder schedule is going to be a major slap in the face for him. The BE is nothing like the PAC12.

Wilson also needs to be more assertive.

In both of their absences, Blue stepped up. Good for him. However, Blue cannot carry this team by himself. We need more out of Lockett and Wilson if we are going to make a run in March.

It's early. Adjustments will happen.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

Lockett seems passive and I dont know why. He needs to be more assertive or the BE grinder schedule is going to be a major slap in the face for him. The BE is nothing like the PAC12.

Wilson also needs to be more assertive.

In both of their absences, Blue stepped up. Good for him. However, Blue cannot carry this team by himself. We need more out of Lockett and Wilson if we are going to make a run in March.

It's early. Adjustments will happen.

Lockett didn't have many places to go. The defense stayed off of him and simply moved their feet when he put it on the floor.

MU is going to have to find ways to spread the floor. SOMEBODY has to hit a baseline 3. Vander got one. Could use a few more of those.

[Norm]

Lockett seems passive and I dont know why. He needs to be more assertive or the BE grinder schedule is going to be a major slap in the face for him. The BE is nothing like the PAC12.

Well, seeing as how Lockett played with broken bones in his face, a slap to it would have really hurt.

[chapman]

We need more out of Lockett and Wilson if we are going to make a run in March.

Agree, though Lockett gets a pass this week because of the broken face.  But both are experienced, capable, mature, highly intelligent and leaders.  They've got to get some fire and get this team going.