So who is going to guard McBuckets on Wednesday?

[Class71]

D up and turn 'em over.

Then again, slow the tempo and turn it into a possession game.

If you can somehow find a way to do both, you'll win the game.

A gold star.

We will not out shoot them but we can press, turn them over, control the tempo and turn it into a dog fight for the ball frustrating Dougie every inch of the way. The team with more heart wins. We will need to see our Xavier  D game on steroids.

[murara1994]

Awesome.

I know, right?

[ChicosBailBonds]

I know, right?

Oh definitely.

[Jet915]

San Diego State and GW beat them....maybe play them in Anaheim...the don't like Mickey Mouse.


In the four games they lost, three of them McDermott scored 21 or more....only against GW did he have a bad game (7 points).  In those other 3 losses, the other guys struggled.  Let McDermott get his points, don't let anyone else beat you.

I was at those games.  San Diego State was a quasi home game for them.  There were probably 400 Creighton fans and a few thousand San Diego State fans.  As for GW, that was the worst shooting Creighton has done all year.  Was not impressed with GW, we just sucked.  We struggle with our shooting, you guys definitely can win.  Happened against Providence and St. John's.

[ChicosBailBonds]

I was at those games.  San Diego State was a quasi home game for them.  There were probably 400 Creighton fans and a few thousand San Diego State fans.  As for GW, that was the worst shooting Creighton has done all year.  Was not impressed with GW, we just sucked.  We struggle with our shooting, you guys definitely can win.  Happened against Providence and St. John's.

I was at the end of the GW game, Creighton looked awful.  I was a little surprised, but I got to the game for the second half and McDermott couldn't score at all. 

[WarriorFan]

Play a Box & 1 with Juan inside his jersey.  They rely on screens to open him up so a quasi-zone will slow them down.
Then, switch to a 1-3-1 half court trap for a while.
Then, put Burton on him and tell him to block a few shots.
Then, finish the 2nd half with Jamil on him because he'll still have a few fouls left.

Oh, and detain Jim Burr at the airport so we have a chance.

[keefe]

Wow, you guys make it seem like we shouldn't even bother showing up...

I smell fear...

[karavotsos]

Love watching Creighton play.  Have to hope they are off on their 3's, but it is fun to watch a team with good shooters beat a bunch of guys that are good athletes but don't understand the game.

I prefer watching a good, aggressive defensive team denying success to a quality offensive team.  I thought the St. John's-Creighton game was great.  Creighton was fun to watch today as well, but I'm not quite sure that Villanova 'doesn't understand the game.'  They simply conceded too much space and didn't play with any force on defense.  They started by 'letting McDermott get his' and he took them for 39 on 17 shots. 

Creighton is an explosive offensive team, but the height of the game is having two-way players who get stops on a Creighton-like offense and score on the other end.  As other people have said, Creighton is not a great defensive team.  They put pressure on teams to keep up with them. Take that away and you can win.  McDermott had 25 against St. Johns on 18 shots, and he didn't have any points in the last 5 minutes, barely touching the ball.  Wragge took 2 shots. 

It's not like Creighton is a bunch of basketball geniuses who MU can only beat if we have the good fortune of Creighton missing shots.  Play good aggressive defense.  Make them miss.

[Windyplayer]

Wow, you guys make it seem like we shouldn't even bother showing up...

I smell fear...

Hmm, I actually got the exact opposite vibe. 

[Windyplayer]

I prefer watching a good, aggressive defensive team denying success to a quality offensive team.

Pete?

[MU82]

I prefer watching a good, aggressive defensive team denying success to a quality offensive team.  I thought the St. John's-Creighton game was great.  Creighton was fun to watch today as well, but I'm not quite sure that Villanova 'doesn't understand the game.'  They simply conceded too much space and didn't play with any force on defense.  They started by 'letting McDermott get his' and he took them for 39 on 17 shots. 

Creighton is an explosive offensive team, but the height of the game is having two-way players who get stops on a Creighton-like offense and score on the other end.  As other people have said, Creighton is not a great defensive team.  They put pressure on teams to keep up with them. Take that away and you can win.  McDermott had 25 against St. Johns on 18 shots, and he didn't have any points in the last 5 minutes, barely touching the ball.  Wragge took 2 shots. 

It's not like Creighton is a bunch of basketball geniuses who MU can only beat if we have the good fortune of Creighton missing shots.  Play good aggressive defense.  Make them miss.

I like all of this. Makes a lot of sense.

One thing I don't ever do is double off of Wragge, though. It's just not a good risk-reward option. Treat Wragge like a lot of teams treat Jake -- if we keep a man attached to him at all times, he can't score because he can't drive past us.

Double McDermott some, play him straight-up some, play some gadget defenses, but don't just concede points to him. Make him earn them. And never leave Wragge open. If 2 or 3 other guys get hot and beat us, well, that's life. You can't take away everything. Hopefully we can score enough to counteract Creighton's offense and we can wear them down with our aggressiveness on D.

I want to win (duh, we all do) and I will be disappointed if we lose. But I will only be big-time disappointed if we let Wragge go wild from 3-point range. Because it's just unnecessary. If you want to stop a guy like Wragge, you can -- and we should want to.

[Lennys Tap]

Love watching Creighton play.  Have to hope they are off on their 3's, but it is fun to watch a team with good shooters beat a bunch of guys that are good athletes but don't understand the game.

If you don't like Nova you must really hate Kansas and Indiana.

[karavotsos]

I like all of this. Makes a lot of sense.

One thing I don't ever do is double off of Wragge, though. It's just not a good risk-reward option. Treat Wragge like a lot of teams treat Jake -- if we keep a man attached to him at all times, he can't score because he can't drive past us.

Double McDermott some, play him straight-up some, play some gadget defenses, but don't just concede points to him. Make him earn them. And never leave Wragge open. If 2 or 3 other guys get hot and beat us, well, that's life. You can't take away everything. Hopefully we can score enough to counteract Creighton's offense and we can wear them down with our aggressiveness on D.

I want to win (duh, we all do) and I will be disappointed if we lose. But I will only be big-time disappointed if we let Wragge go wild from 3-point range. Because it's just unnecessary. If you want to stop a guy like Wragge, you can -- and we should want to.

Agree.  Buzz talked about Wragge in the post-game on Saturday, and said teams pretty much just face-guard him all the time now.  If you look at his last 5 or so games, he basically has not scored.  But that leaves you playing 4-on-4, with one of the 4 being McDermott.  Otule and Gardner got a little practice against Stainbrook faceguarding on Saturday.  Gardner didn't get up on Stainbrook on 1 occasion and he nailed a 15-17 footer.  Obviously, Wragge will be a more difficult assignment, but its clear what MU has to do against Wragge, and if recent history is any indication, if MU executes on Wragge he can be stopped.

Part of the result of this is also all the open driving lanes Creighton got today.  Not saying it doesn't cause problems to faceguard Wragge, but I agree with you, if you don't guard him that way its a sure loss, and you can only blame your own execution.  The gameplan is out there.

[PGsHeroes32]

If we want to be a little bush league we could always make Flood a sacrificial lamb.

Send him in to take Doug out of the game.

[Jaysfan]

Part of the result of this is also all the open driving lanes Creighton got today.  Not saying it doesn't cause problems to faceguard Wragge, but I agree with you, if you don't guard him that way its a sure loss, and you can only blame your own execution.  The gameplan is out there.

I love this quote.  Why?  We, and Wragge, are willing to concede his offense to a large degree.  It's no coincidence that Doug has gone bonkers since Lavin decided that in no way will Wragge beat us.  The funny thing is, I agree: you absolutely cannot leave him open, and have no choice but to play a quasi-4 on 4 basketball game.  And since there's really nothing we can do about it, we will accept the two or three looks Wragge winds up with instead of the 8 or 9 he was getting.

A friend of mine just told me that Wragge had the best +/- of any player in the game today for CU.  So I think CU and their opponents have reached a sort of detente in regards to Ethan - 4 on 4 it has to be, and we will accept the tradeoff.

Naturally, the real question is how to stop Doug.  Truthfully I thought there was a high chance we were in deep doo-doo today and that Nova would find the answer since they're terrific athletes, but that was just a virtuoso performance.  I must say I am curious as to what Buzz will do because a) I have a lot of respect for him, b) you're at home and c) you have some players that are capable of playing similarly to St. John's.

Wednesday should be a fantastic game.  I'm still pinching myself about how my CU rooting efforts are now things like Nova at home followed by Marquette on the road.  That'll never get old.

[ChicosBailBonds]

I prefer watching a good, aggressive defensive team denying success to a quality offensive team.  I thought the St. John's-Creighton game was great.  Creighton was fun to watch today as well, but I'm not quite sure that Villanova 'doesn't understand the game.'  They simply conceded too much space and didn't play with any force on defense.  They started by 'letting McDermott get his' and he took them for 39 on 17 shots. 

Creighton is an explosive offensive team, but the height of the game is having two-way players who get stops on a Creighton-like offense and score on the other end.  As other people have said, Creighton is not a great defensive team.  They put pressure on teams to keep up with them. Take that away and you can win.  McDermott had 25 against St. Johns on 18 shots, and he didn't have any points in the last 5 minutes, barely touching the ball.  Wragge took 2 shots. 

It's not like Creighton is a bunch of basketball geniuses who MU can only beat if we have the good fortune of Creighton missing shots.  Play good aggressive defense.  Make them miss.

All kinds of ways to skin the cat.  I like many forms of basketball, including what you just mentioned as an example.  You just don't see Creighton's approach that much anymore, and no I don't think Wisconsin's style is the same.  I appreciate good defense as much as anyone, love a fast break style game, etc, etc.  I miss the days when MU had 4 or 5 guys that could hit the three...that was fun when we had Diener, Novak, Wade, Bradlee all reigning three's while also able to go inside with Jackson, Merritt or watching DWade or someone else driving. 

Wednesday should be a fun game, unfortunately I'm stuck in a conference so I'll have to catch it on DVR.  That's a good thing...last two games have been the same scenario.

[ChicosBailBonds]

If you don't like Nova you must really hate Kansas and Indiana.

I don't think I said I don't like Nova or their style...I just like Creighton's style contrast, especially against a team like that.  I happen to like Nova's style, I just like Creighton's better.  Many ways to skin the cat.  No different than if my football team decides to pass you to death, run you to death, etc.  Lots of ways to win.

Now, there are definitely teams that I think try to out-athlete someone that I don't care for.  St. John's was like that earlier in the year, now they're actually playing with some basketball acumen and are much more fun to watch.  Sometimes it takes a group a little longer to figure it out. 

Do I care for IU's style this year...nope.  KU's...not really.  Style probably isn't the write way to couch it, the execution isn't there and the flow is cumbersome.  The lack of 3 point shooters and the spacing makes for ugly viewing.  Similar to MU at times.  Amazing when a few 3's start to drop how much that makes an offense look better and easier to operate.

[Dawson Rental]

Play Dawson 30 minutes. We need real assists, not basic assists.

You can't get an assist on a possession where you turn the ball over.

[Dreadman24]

We have no chance against creighton. Im calling this a loss early:/

[karavotsos]

c) you have some players that are capable of playing similarly to St. John's.

Wednesday should be a fantastic game.  I'm still pinching myself about how my CU rooting efforts are now things like Nova at home followed by Marquette on the road.  That'll never get old.

I don't know if c) is true.  St. John's murdered us with their aggression and athleticism.  The Creighton-St. John's game was the best conference game I have seen this year.  MU has not played at that level.  Creighton has played at that level consistently with a bunch of vets who know themselves and one of the NCAA's top all-time scorers.  I hope MU is up for the challenge.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

We have no chance against creighton. Im calling this a loss early:/

Do you ever do anything besides call losses?

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Gardner is a huge liability in this game. The Jays can run small lineups where literally every player on the floor shoots 33% or better from 3. Whoever Gardner guards will rotate out to the perimeter where DG is not comfortable. He can be exploited, or is very least taken away from the basket which makes rebounding more difficult. I liked what someone else suggested about Gardner face guarding Wragge. His 3 point shot is his entire game...Gardner should be able to take that away.

As for Dougie McBuckets, he is too good. We cannot stop him once he has the ball. So how do we stop him? Keep him from getting the ball. Rack up the pressure on their backcourt. Deny them any easy passes to Doug. Force turnovers. When he does have the ball, throw as many different defenses at him as possible. Keep him off balance. Also, if he is going up for a layup, foul him hard. Make him think before coming inside again.

Chatman is not the best PG. I think attacking him is the key.

[MarquetteDano]

We have no chance against creighton. Im calling this a loss early:/

Look Creighton is a good team but let's look at their big wins away from Omaha:

St. Joseph's 83-79
Nova 96-68

And their losses outside of Omaha:
George Washington
San Diego State
Providence
Saint John's

They can be beaten away from their home court.  We have a solid shot for an upset in this game.  I still think Nova wins the Big East and Creighton ends up in second.  @Marquette, @Xaiver, and @GTown.  This  will define if Creighton is the best team in the Big East.

[Tugg Speedman]

McDermont went to High a School with Harrison Barnes in Ames IA.  What a team that must have been.

[downtown85]

My bold prediction: if we hold them to 67 points this time, we win.