NJIT thoughts

[real chili 83]

We gave up so many easy baskets in the last three games.

If we dial that in, we will be a decent team.  Until then.....

[CTWarrior]

There were flashes of defense in the second half, particularly when the run was made to get our huge 4 point lead and then...they let up again. Picked it up again with the game on the line at the end. It's a mindset that is just not there yet. This is gonna take a while....

I disagree about the flashes of defense.  If NJIT could make a layup we'd have lost by a dozen.  It's finally beginning to dawn on me that maybe Buzz didn't do such a poor job of coaching last year after all.  As frustrating as it is to watch Derrick Wilson play offense, it's even more frustrating watching some of the other guys play defense.  How many wide open back cuts can one team allow while still not guarding the three point line?

[tower912]

  It's finally beginning to dawn on me that maybe Buzz didn't do such a poor job of coaching last year after all. 

Disinterested seniors, freshmen who really didn't play defense, a substandard point guard who couldn't shoot, a shooting guard who couldn't drive, a head case scorer who destroyed what little team chemistry there was.....just a bad, unhealthy combination.   

[Loose Cannon]

It was very revealing reading the posts as the game was in progress.  I thought most posters were Passionate and completely frustrated.

Apparently they didn’t get the memo about what most basketball gurus predicted. This is a work in process team with many shortcomings which were on full display during this game.  It’s pretty easy to point out our many deficiencies and then rush to conclude impending Doom.   Bur it might help to survive the season if we switch our focus from wins and losses to the development of a) Individual Players b) Defining roles and c) Team cohesiveness.  Let’s see if there is any improvement in the development (Not the wins & Losses) after 14 games.  Oh, and those that have coaching suggestions might consider sending them to Wojo together with their coaching Resume.


But with 4 games being played and reading posts like:
1) we’ll not win another game this season.
2) That guy has no heart.
3) This guy can’t coach
4) Blah, Blah, and Blah

Easy to understand comments like these in the heat of the game, but if after the game reflection and you still feel the same then the phase that I think of is:
“Still wet behind the ears”

[GGGG]

I disagree about the flashes of defense.  If NJIT could make a layup we'd have lost by a dozen.  It's finally beginning to dawn on me that maybe Buzz didn't do such a poor job of coaching last year after all.  As frustrating as it is to watch Derrick Wilson play offense, it's even more frustrating watching some of the other guys play defense.  How many wide open back cuts can one team allow while still not guarding the three point line?

Buzz made the best of the poor hand he dealt himself.

[MU82]

If NJIT could make a layup we'd have lost by a dozen. 

This might be true. But didn't we also miss numerous bunnies?

If Vander didn't make that layup, we lose to Davidson. But Vander DID make that layup, you know what I'm sayin'?

[Galway Eagle]

Disinterested seniors, freshmen who really didn't play defense, a substandard point guard who couldn't shoot, a shooting guard who couldn't drive, a head case scorer who destroyed what little team chemistry there was.....just a bad, unhealthy combination.   

You forgot power forward who didn't lead, defensive master with no depth perception and offensive master with endurance problems.

[MU82]

I wish Jamil Wilson played with Juan Anderson's heart last season and we might have been looking at a vastly different year last year.

Sorry for being negative but this team is vastly underperforming to already extremely low expectations.  This team has the personnel to win 14-17 but will be lucky to win 10.  Wojo makes Mike McCarthy look like a fabulous x's and o's coach and that's saying something.

Your first point here is excellent. Anderson is playing EXACTLY as I hoped Jamil would play last year. Those who say Jamil couldn't play with passion, aggressiveness and heart because Derrick was on the floor ... well, Anderson did all those things -- and scored 20 -- with Derrick on the floor almost the entire time. Jamil simply didn't have the drive to excel, and that's too bad. It hurt our team and it might have kept him from making a decent buck as a pro. Juan doesn't have Jamil's skill level, but I'll take the senior Juan over the senior Jamil a bazillion times.

Your second point ... ugh. Wojo is a kid. He's learning, too. Anybody who thought we were getting Coach K right out of the box, please. Coach K wasn't Coach K right out of the box. Look what he did at Army and his first few years at Duke. It takes time for coaches, too, and this season will be a very good laboratory for Wojo because we weren't going to win anything anyway. By this time next year, he'll be a better coach and he'll have better talent at every single position.

I'm not a Packers fan, but I do know McCarthy is on his way to a seventh postseason appearance in 9 years as Packers coach. He has won six playoff games and a championship. I think most of us would be fairly satisfied if Wojo duplicates those kinds of results. (OK, I'd like a few more tourney wins than that, but you get the idea.)

[mu03eng]

This team will likely finish no better than 0.500, but I'm still excited about this team.  Maybe it's the optimist in me, but I saw improvement in the team from Saturday to Monday, even within the game on Monday.  It's hard to see it through all the crap on the court most of the time, but it's there.  The team had a couple of trips where they executed their defensive plan very well.  The out of bounds play after the last media timeout was good.  The offense in the hands of Du Wilson and Juan late in the game was solid.

I think your level of vitriol is based entirely around your expectation for this team.  I think they are a little worse than I anticipated but for a lot it seems they are a lot worse than expected.  I think everyone needs to adjust their expectation and start watching for improvements and almost ignore the score because more than likely it's not going to be good.

#respecttheprocess

[LAMUfan]

Duke defense isn't going to work here. Right now at least.

We need to play more of a condensed, pack line defense.    

Wojo needs to learn.   The good thing about Buzz was he had been around seen a lot of different ball.  Self made coach.

Wojo has seen McD's execute his high pressure d.   It does not work for all talent levels, especially when you haven't taught them/they haven't executed basic tenets of help defense.

+1 they need to stop giving up uncontested layups and back cuts, I would rather take my chances giving college kids some space for jumpers and 3's and cut down on the easy stuff. 

[mu03eng]

+1 they need to stop giving up uncontested layups and back cuts, I would rather take my chances giving college kids some space for jumpers and 3's and cut down on the easy stuff. 

Some of that is the maturation process of young players.  They are having to think too fast and recognition isn't there yet.  Give it a couple of months and this defense looks different, not because we change it but because the players can execute without thinking.

Except for Carlino....I think he is a lost cause on defense.

[warriorchick]

This might be naiveté on my part, but what about this theory:

Coach Wojo is a defensive expert.  Obviously Marquette's defense blows right now (at least near the basket; I actually think they have been pretty good at forcing turnovers).

Perhaps Wojo is creating a new defensive strategy completely from scratch this season, and it just hasn't come together as quickly as he would have hoped.  Just like rearranging a closet, things are its messiest when you pull everything out, and but aren't done putting it back together.  


Just my two cents.

[LAMUfan]

Some guys are just getting beat off the dribble in one on one situations though, Carlino, JJJ etc, they might need to back off a little unless they are on a 3 point specialist or something.  Trust me I'm a tall slow guy, I know what I'm talking about

[MUfan12]

They'd solve a lot of their issues by not switching every GD screen.

[MerrittsMustache]

This might be naiveté on my part, but what about this theory:

Coach Wojo is a defensive expert.  Obviously Marquette's defense blows right now (at least near the basket; I actually think they have been pretty good at forcing turnovers).

Perhaps Wojo is creating a new defensive strategy completely from scratch this season, and it just hasn't come together as quickly as he would have hoped.  Just like rearranging a closet, things are its messiest when you pull everything out, and but aren't done putting it back together.  

Just my two cents.

Good points. Sometimes you have to make a mess before you can clean.

[mu03eng]

They'd solve a lot of their issues by not switching every GD screen.

The switching is fine, as long as Teve is not involved

[dgies9156]

1.  This is not a good team, or at least the whole is playing worse than the collection of parts.  There is talent on the roster but little semblance of a team.

Bingo!

Best analysis yet. Players are good but they have to learn to be a team.

They aren't right now.

Maybe that's one of the reasons why we hear Coach Wojo talk about "talking to each other." About picking up for and after each other.

Until we begin to act as a unit, we're going to struggle mightily.

[CTWarrior]

This might be true. But didn't we also miss numerous bunnies?

If Vander didn't make that layup, we lose to Davidson. But Vander DID make that layup, you know what I'm sayin'?

True, but my point was that just because NJIT shot a lower pct in the second half doesn't mean our defense was any good.  You can't say we were playing good defense because NJIT kept missing easy shots and mishandling gimme buckets.

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

Wait a minute...people think Mike McCarthy is a bad coach? You Packer fans have gotten SPOILED! Judas Priest...probably 28 teams would be glad to take him off your hands.

[Anti-Dentite]

I disagree about the flashes of defense.  If NJIT could make a layup we'd have lost by a dozen.  It's finally beginning to dawn on me that maybe Buzz didn't do such a poor job of coaching last year after all.  As frustrating as it is to watch Derrick Wilson play offense, it's even more frustrating watching some of the other guys play defense.  How many wide open back cuts can one team allow while still not guarding the three point line?

But their were flashes. Poorly played on defense again but in the second half on a couple occasions we did prevent the back cut and actually got a body in front of someone cutting off the drive, not often but it did happen. The word flash is the key, I did not say they played well and there were no flashes in the Omaha game.

[CTWarrior]

Your first point here is excellent. Anderson is playing EXACTLY as I hoped Jamil would play last year. Those who say Jamil couldn't play with passion, aggressiveness and heart because Derrick was on the floor ... well, Anderson did all those things -- and scored 20 -- with Derrick on the floor almost the entire time.

Lets not go overboard.  20 and 9 against NJIT.  Jamil had 24 and 9 at Cal-State Fullerton last year, too.  Call me when it is against a real team.  

I do not dispute that Juan Anderson plays with great heart, effort and aggression, however.  I just think the knocks against Jamil are overblown.

We are a long way from being a competitive team against real competition, let alone a winning one.  Hopefully the addition of Fischer will improve the team by moving Taylor and Anderson one position over.

[GGGG]

Wait a minute...people think Mike McCarthy is a bad coach? You Packer fans have gotten SPOILED! Judas Priest...probably 28 teams would be glad to take him off your hands.

It is inexplicable to me.  There is absolutely no drama on this team.  He is in charge of the locker room.  He doesn't make rash decisions.  He has no desire to be a general manager and get's a long great with Thompson.  He has no trouble dealing with younger players and "teaching them up" in accordance with Thompson's wishes.  His offense has evolved to fit the strengths of his quarterback - look at the offense he ran the first year with Favre.  Very different.  He completely changed the way he practices, the conditioning, and the nutrition program based on injury problems from years past.  He adopts new ideas.

Now he isn't smooth and can be dismissive with reporters.  He can be stubborn with his play calling.  He can't figure out the challenge flag thing.  

I'm not saying he is the best coach in the league.  But he is better than 95% of them.  And he comes without the drama that the likes of Harbaugh brings.  

[brandx]

Wait a minute...people think Mike McCarthy is a bad coach? You Packer fans have gotten SPOILED! Judas Priest...probably 28 teams would be glad to take him off your hands.

We are not spoiled. One poster is just clueless.

[Galway Eagle]

Bingo!

Best analysis yet. Players are good but they have to learn to be a team.

They aren't right now.

Maybe that's one of the reasons why we hear Coach Wojo talk about "talking to each other." About picking up for and after each other.

Until we begin to act as a unit, we're going to struggle mightily.

They need the basketball of version of the mighty ducks two scene where all the players are tied up and trying to skate together

[Ellisium]

We are not spoiled. One poster is just clueless.

I commend you on speaking the truth about yourself.  McCarthy is deemed one of the best coaches in coaching circles.  Great player development, no team issues that blow up in the media, no one late to practice etc.  Green Bay even takes in players who have had trouble with the law and they end up being staying out of trouble in Green Bay.  He has one of the best records in football among many other accolades. 

Your analysis is flimsy and holds no merit.  Learn how to make a coherent argument rather than rambling on.  Push yourself ........ because if you were on McCarthy's team he'd push you to make you better.