First Game I saw today against Chaminade

[Mayor McCheese]

And from last year, impressed with Lazar's presence down low, best scorer down low by far.  Impressed with Cube's D, very in your face, creates TO's for McNeal.  James, ugh, looked ugly, Matthews looked rusty.  McNeal looks like the leader, although has to watch the garbage fouls.  Barro looks like he understands the game more, excited to see him hit the deck for the ball and quickly call timeout (did that twice).  Fitz just looks like a body, Burke played decent.  Acker doesn't get in much does he?

Thats my wrapup of the first game I have seen, and yes its just one game, but man, James just looks like a mess... waiting for him to take over, never did, wheres the James when he played Duke last year.... hopefully it comes out, love the guy, he just needs to make better decisions

[MUCam]

You have to describe James' performances in relative terms. Relative to the James we have seen (as in freshman year, or last year versus Duke), James underperformed last night. However, compared to most point guards, I thought James played a solid, if not exceptional, game. His on-ball defense might actually be consistently better than McNeal's. He made good decisions last night and didn't force to many shots. In fact, it looks like he might be a little too reserved in his shot selections. What is missing is the "flash" that made him so well appreciated his freshman year. Why? Well, James is a penetrate and decide point guard. Two years ago, with Novak, defenses could not collapse on James' drives. If they did, Novak or Chapman or even Fitz (at times) would make the defense pay with the open three. This year (and last year) we have no outside shooters to keep the defense honest, so defenses can "pack it in," thereby vastly reducing the working space James has to do his magic. When we hit 2-18 from three, or whatever abysmal number it was, we are going to struggle with our penetration. You have seen this affect Matthew's game, and to a certain extent, even McNeal's game - despite his strong performance last night. Additionally, even if James does drive to the hoop, he suffers from a lack of options. Right now, there can't be much faith in the ability of our big men to catch and score. That means the defense can "pack it in" even further, and allow the "trees" to help on the penetration. James can jump, but he can't shoot over a 6'10" guy with consistency. Nor should he have to.

Again, remember what James' strengths are and how our team right now is playing against them and you might better understand why his performances seem somewhat lackluster.

[muwarrior87]

The only thing is James is not most point guards.  He is touted as one of the top ten point guards in the nation.  That's part of the reason I'm expecting more out of him.  He's experienced with this being his 3rd year, and starting almost every game, and also because he's supposed to be one of the leaders of the team, and as a point guard leader, you make the passes you need to and move the ball first and if you have an open look at the basket, that is your second priority.  Granted, with James' athleticism he has a little more room to work with when it comes to an "open look" but he still needs to move the ball.  There was too much stagnant play yesterday imo.

[AlumKCof93]

Our offense was hard to watch yesterday.  There was so much aggressive dribbling and passing around the perimeter and yet no one went anywhere.  Its not difficult to see why - with no inside game and no shooters  its hard to open things up.  Fitz is a key - he needs to keep his confidence even when he misses a few shots.  If he's not going to take any shots, I'm not sure what the benefit of having him out there is.
The game against Chaminade was the first I had seen this year.  I wasn't too impressed with Acker - can he shoot the 3?  He looked bad on a couple of open looks yesterday.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

Our offense was hard to watch yesterday.  There was so much aggressive dribbling and passing around the perimeter and yet no one went anywhere.  Its not difficult to see why - with no inside game and no shooters  its hard to open things up.  Fitz is a key - he needs to keep his confidence even when he misses a few shots.  If he's not going to take any shots, I'm not sure what the benefit of having him out there is.
The game against Chaminade was the first I had seen this year.  I wasn't too impressed with Acker - can he shoot the 3?  He looked bad on a couple of open looks yesterday.

I agree with you, we dribble a TON, but that is how Crean likes to create offense (for better or worse).

What I didn't like is that MU has been getting open looks and taking them (decent game plan, decent execution, good shot selection), but just missed the shot(s). That worries me.

Hopefully this is just temporary (only 3 games), but if MU doesn't hit the open looks that it gets, MU will struggle to beat really good teams.

It's only been 3 games though, so I can't draw any major conclusions... but missing open looks at home isn't a good sign.

[augoman]

the fact that we've been 'escaping' w/ wins over DII and other inferior teams would be attributed to "early in the season, team finding themselves, getting used to each other, looking for chemistry, etc", except this is the same team as last year, and we have the same problems as last year.